中国古代“力”的概念及其相关知识

Concept of "Force" and Its Relevant Knowledge in Ancient China

"力"是一个极具抽象意义的概念,它在中国古代最早见于殷商时期的甲骨文。随着历史文化的变迁,由"力"组成的词语成百上千且其内涵日益丰富,用法也十分灵活。尽管古人善用形象化的表述或类比方法如以鸟的奋飞、以重释力、人筋的发力形为等去理解内涵日趋丰富的多种多样的力,但究其本意还是指人力、畜力、风力等较为具体直观的自然力,并终因固守以人为本的思维方式而错失归纳出力与运动的本质关系。本文以古文献为基础,梳理"力"的概念及其内涵演变,并阐述其所反映的中国古代力学经验和知识进化的文化传统。

In ancient China,the character 'li(力,meaning 'force')' appeared as early as in the inscriptions on bones or tortoise shells of the Shang dynasty and became a highly abstract concept.With the evolution of history and culture,hundreds of thousands of words were made up of the character with increasingly rich connotation and flexible usage.Although the ancients were good at understanding the rich connotation of the diverse usage of the character by means of pictorial presentation or analogical methods,such as the flying of the birds and the power of muscle,or they just explained force by weight,their primitive aim in studying force laid in such natural force as labor power,animal traction and wind power.Actually,the ancients failed to generalize the essential relationship between force and movement due to their persistence in over-emphasized humanistic way of thinking.Based on ancient literature,this paper aims to clarify the concept of 'force' and the evolution of its connotation,and then discusses the ancient experience in mechanics and the cultural tradition of knowledge evolution reflected by force.