中英雙語話中國歷史名人 第77期:沈括
Shen Kuo (1031~1095) was a Chinese scientist, polymath, general, diplomat, and financial officer who was the inventor of compasses for navigation.
沈括(1031~1095 )，科學家、博學者、將軍、外交家、財務官員，發明了指南針。
In the book Meng Xi Bi Tan (Dream Pool Essays)(1088) he wrote about mineralogy, erosion, sedimentation and uplift, mathematics, astronomy, and meteorology.
在《夢溪筆談》(1088)中，沈括談到了礦物學、腐蝕、沉澱與提取、數學、天文學、氣象學。
The literal translation of Meng Xi Bi Tan (or Meng ch'i pi t'an) is“Brush Talks from Dream Brook" name derives from his property on the outskirts of Jiangsu, a place of great beauty which he named "Dream Brook" and where he lived in isolation for the last seven years of his life.
書名取自沈括在江蘇的住處，一個非常美麗的地方，沈括將它命名爲“夢溪”。沈括生命的最後七年就一個人生活在這裏。
In his biography in The Dictionary of Scientific Biography his word is quoted: Because I had only my writing brush and ink slab to converse with, I call it Brush Talks.
在他的傳記《科學傳記辭典》裏，引用了這句話:所與談者，唯筆硯而已，謂之《筆談》。
Kuo discovered that compasses do not point true north but to the magnetic north pole. This was a decisive step to make them useful for navigation.
沈括發現，指南針並不是真正的指向北方，而是指向地磁的北極，這對指南針用於導航走出了決定性的一步。
He formulated a hypothesis for the process of land formation;based on his observation of fossil shells in a geological stratum in a mountain hundreds of miles from the ocean, he inferred that the land was formed by erosion of the mountains and by deposition of silt.
沈括明確表達了關於陸地形成過程的假設。沈括對一座山裏的地質層的貝殼化石作了觀察，而這座山離大海有幾百英里遠。基於他的觀察，沈括推出：陸地是通過侵蝕山脈、泥沙沉積形成的。
Shen Kuo was not only a geologist; his memoirs list "regularities underlying phenomena" in magnetism, astronomy, and engineering.
沈括不只是地質學家;他的文集揭示了磁學、天文學和工程學學科“現象背後的規律”。
