From the demise of the Western Roman Empire in 476 AD to the Renaissance in the middle of15th century, Europe's 1,000-year history is customarily called "the Middle Ages". Medieval Europe was characterized by the unity of politics and religion, and Christian theology was dominant. "Science is only the obedient handmaid of the church, and it must not go beyond the boundaries prescribed by religion." (Selected Works of Marx and Engels, Volume 3, page 390) Especially from the fifth century to the tenth century, it was a dark period in European history. At that time, western Europeans didn't even know the theory of Greek scientists, and the idea that the earth was spherical was also classified as heresy, but the biblical myth once again became the basis of the cosmic system. During this period, astronomy is still listed as a compulsory course in higher education, mainly to teach people how to calculate the date of Easter.

Arab science began to spread from Spain to Britain, France, Germany and other countries in the tenth century. However, after Christians conquered Toledo in Spain (1085) and Sicily in southern Italy (109 1), a large number of Arabic scientific works were translated into Latin. The most active period of translation is between 1 125 ~ 1280, and the most famous translator is Gerald of cremona. He translated more than 80 books in his life, including Ptolemy's famous astronomical works and Chakali's Toledo Astronomical Watch.

After the scientific works of ancient Greece and Arabia were translated into Latin, the scholastic philosopher Aquinas immediately combined the theories and theology of Aristotle and Ptolemy. The first reason why Aquinas proved that God exists is that the movement of celestial sphere needs a motive force, that is, God. However, by this time, due to the accumulation of scientific knowledge, some arguments of scholastic philosophers can no longer be accepted unconditionally. R Bacon, a British reformist at the same time as Aquinas, has a distinct materialistic tendency, advocating "understanding natural science, medicine, alchemy and everything in the world through experiments", opposing scholasticism and dogmatic blind belief, and promoting the development of cosmic theory and science.

Hollywood, a Frenchman contemporary with R Bacon, is famous for its Latin name, Sacrobauskau, and he wrote The Celestial Sphere Theory, which expounded spherical astronomy. It is concise and easy to understand, reprinted many times, and has many versions, and it has been popular until the end of the seventeenth century.

/kloc-In the 4th century, Vienna established a university and gradually became the center of astronomy and mathematics. 1450 After Purbach became a professor of astronomy and mathematics in this school, the academic atmosphere became stronger. On the basis of Ptolemy's astronomical masterpiece, Purbach compiled a book "Handbook of Astronomy" as a supplement to Sacro Bao Si's celestial sphere theory. At the same time, he wrote "Planetary Theory", pointing out in detail that Aristotle and Ptolemy have different theories about planets.

J Miller, a student and collaborator in Purbach, once went to Italy with Purbach to learn Ptolemy's astronomy from the original Greek works. Both of them found that the alfons Astronomical Watch had been used for 200 years, and the error was quite large, which needed to be corrected. Later, Reggio Montanus settled in Nuremberg. With the support of the wealthy astronomer Walter, he set up an observatory with a repair shop and a printing house. During the period of 1475 ~ 1505, he published the nautical almanac every year, which provided conditions for Columbus to discover the new continent in 1492.

When Purbach and Reggio Montanus were very active, two famous Italian astronomers appeared: Toscanelli and Nicola of Coussa. They are all studying in Padua University, and they are close classmates and friends. The former studied medicine and encouraged Columbus to sail. Later, he became an excellent astronomical observer and systematically observed six comets (1433, 1449 ~ 1450, 1456,1457 Ⅰ,1457 Ⅱ. During his tenure as Bishop of Brixen (now Bressanone) in northern Italy, the latter put forward the viewpoint of earth movement and infinite universe. He said that the whole universe is made up of the same four elements; There are also creatures living on celestial bodies similar to the earth; No matter on the earth, on the sun or on other planets, from his eyes, his position is always motionless, while everything else is moving.

/kloc-in the 5th century, the work from Purbach to Nicholas created conditions for the birth of modern astronomy in practice and theory, and Copernicus's theory of celestial movement was completed on the basis of their labor.

Yuan dynasty literature

The history of the Yuan Dynasty was not long. It was only 96 years before Kublai Khan changed the Mongolian dynasty to Dayuan in 127 1 (before the final demise of the Southern Song Dynasty) and died in 1367. It has been 133 years since the Mongol dynasty destroyed the gold and unified the north and the Yuan dynasty perished. Compared with the literature of the previous generation, the most outstanding achievement of Yuan Dynasty literature is drama, and later generations often equate Yuan Qu with Tang Poetry and Song Poetry. Poetry, ci, prose and other styles are relatively declining.

In Yuan Qu, Gu collected 340 poems in Yuan Qu Xuan, supplemented by thousands of lost poems in Yuan Qu Xuan. In addition, there are more than 50 collections that Gu has never seen. However, there are still many scattered poems in Yongle Dadian. But the Yuanqu mentioned here includes the Mongolian period.

For a period of time after the Mongolian dynasty unified northern China, Jin Dynasty poets were still active in the poetry circle. Yuan Haowen wrote many good poems during this period, in addition to Marco Polo, Zhang Yu, Chen Geng, Chen Geng, Fang□, Duan Keji, Duan and Cao. It is these writers whose works have been included in Fang Qi's poems. Most of their poems after entering the Yuan Dynasty were attached to the Golden Throne Hall, expressing that they were willing to be poor and not be officials of the new dynasty. Li Junmin, who was almost contemporary with Yuan Haowen, continued his poetry creation after entering Yuan Dynasty.

Mongolian aristocrats value martial arts over literature, respect military talents, and do not attach importance to or even despise literati. Until the ancestor Kublai Khan changed his policy and absorbed some scholars to participate in his regime. However, I still think that "Han people only recite poems in reason" is useless. Some scholars who participated in the new regime, such as Liu, Xu Heng, Liu Yin and Yang Guo, also wrote some poems, but there is nothing new in the poetry circle. Most of the works of these people who participated in the new regime showed a ambivalence of wanting to be an official and retiring. Xu Heng said in the poem Xunzi: "I miss you in an acre." In the poem Even Success, he said, "Old people are willing to share." There are probably two reasons for this idea: first, in the case of attaching importance to arms and ignoring literature, although it is used without relying on it, it has a sense of wasting talents. First, in ethnic conflicts, they are afraid of encountering unexpected disasters. Xu Heng's Accidental Success said: "If you have foresight, you won't get what you want before you die, and ordinary things are often learned after you are trapped." Lu Ye Chu Cai's poem "Farewell to Bang Ruiyun" said: "Scholars do not forget to complain directly, and human feelings will believe in harm and give birth to grace. Now jump into the amazing waves and cherish them. " They are on pins and needles in their careers. These people are not like the people of Hefen Poetry School, who are willing to remain anonymous and write poems without being an official. Therefore, the lack of talents, the feeling of wasting talents and the feeling of seclusion are the keynote of their poems.

In the later period of Mongolia, Kublai Khan was preparing to annex the Southern Song Dynasty while consolidating the northern regime, which caused a complicated reflection in the hearts of the northern Han people. Hao Jing and Xu Shilong disapproved of embezzling the Southern Song Dynasty. They were sent to the south as messengers of peace and were imprisoned in Zhou Zhen by Jia Sidao in 16. Hao Jing has "Night Rain in Suzhou": "When the desert is thriving, the two countries are like kings", hoping that the Song and Yuan Dynasties will live in peace. When Kublai Khan sent troops to crusade against the Song Dynasty, Liu Yin wrote Du Jiang Fu as a gift, which shows his nostalgia for the Song Dynasty. Wang Qing's "Crying for the Prime Minister" and Wang Yun's "Jade Palace" are both mourning for the past and hurting the present, and many people lament.

In the early days of Kublai Khan's unification of the north and the south, the poems of Han writers reflected the sorrow of the collapse of the Han regime and the disaster brought to the people by the war to varying degrees. For example, Fang Hui's Grass on the Roadside, Yin's Homesickness, Wu Cheng's Avoiding Chaos and Building a Mountain, Qiu Yuan's It's useless to send Dong, and Liu Wei's Feeling Old Travel. But after the great virtue, some secluded people began to become active. Amin scholar Wu Ne said: "When Yuan Shizu first conquered the south of the Yangtze River, grotesque hermits went in and out, and most of them entertained the world with poetry and wine. Yuan Zhen and Dade will come out soon. " Fang Hui's Farewell to Wang Daixi said: "The universe has been happily unified in these thirty years. Jiangnan generals are in the same phase, and the north is beyond the reach of the whip. The scholar is also an official, and the food is wrapped and tends to be quiet. " Zhao Mengfu, Jue Yuan and others accepted the wedding invitation at this time. Is Dai's disciple. At this time, Zhao Mengfu and the romantic and elegant Prince Sun of the Song Dynasty became officials and won the championship. Jue Yuan and Zhao Mengfu sang together, "One of the changes in poetics". These southerners, together with Yao Sui, Yuan Mingshan and Ma Zuchang in the north, wrote ancient poems to imitate the Han and Wei Dynasties. Their poetic style flourished in the Tang Dynasty, and they began to form a unified poetic style and style between the north and the south. The content has also changed, from cooperation to cooperation with the new regime. Wu Song's "Song of Gu Yan": "The sky is broken and no one can mend it. A spring rain leaks out of a hole. The old stone mill is hidden in the air, both ancient and modern. When will the sky fill the sky? " Yuan Shiyuan's "Fishing Alone in the Cold River": "It's like laughing at a few fishermen in the Jianghu, calling each other at dusk. Only now, the snow covers your head and you can't see the smoke. " They left the Han River and went to the imperial court to serve the country. The social politics in Yuan Dynasty was basically peaceful and stable, and poetry creation also entered the voice of prosperity. The four masters of Yuan Dynasty, Yang Zai, Fan□ and Jie□, who rose after and after, are the representatives of this period. Generally speaking, their works are not rich or even poor in content, but they have mastered the writing skills, especially Yu Ji. Besides Yu, Yang, Fan and Jie, Ma Zuchang and Sa also have poetic names. They are all poets of ethnic minorities.

Poets Zhu Derun, Xian, Xie and Jie Yuan, who were a little later than Yu Ji and Sa Du, all changed. There are more and more subjects that expose the darkness of social reality. Zhu Derun wrote a poem "Surrounded by Deep Water", saying that people were poor at that time and even "unwilling to be agricultural thieves". /kloc-During the period from Yuan Shundi to Mindfulness in the middle of the 4th century, some peasant uprisings broke out in Shandong and Hebei. Subsequently, Liu Futong, Xu Shouhui, Guo Zixing and Zhu Yuanzhang revolted in the Jianghuai area. Red Scarf Army. Fang Guozhen and Zhang Shicheng also led a huge uprising of salt people. The ruling clique in the Yuan Dynasty was in a state of anxiety, which was difficult to deal with, and the situation was in chaos. This is a period of great political and social changes in history. Faced with this situation, some writers and poets have made different responses in their works because of their different social status and political attitudes. Generally speaking, except for the folk songs in Songjiang, almost no one in other literati's works correctly described this huge peasant war. Zhang Yu's Title of the Hundred Days of 1898 (Eighteen Years of Zheng Zheng): "In the dusk rain, the clouds turn their hands and the fallen flowers fly short pavilions. How can I say that my heroic dream has awakened before it is cooked? " It says Zhang Shicheng. Cheng Ting □ "The Second Cao Xinmin Feeling Injured by Things": "When guests come to talk about Huainan, their bones are like mountains and grasses. Turn it over a few times and board the infinite ancient and modern feelings. " Is also accused of Zhang Shicheng. Chen Youliang's assistant Zhou Suoli said that when Chen Youliang and Zhu Yuanzhang clashed, his friend Zhi Ding was killed. He wrote a song "Crying Zhi Ding" to express his dissatisfaction with Zhu Yuanzhang. In this peasant uprising, there were internal contradictions and some speculative traitors. Things are complicated. At this time, there is a general tendency in the works of many poets, that is, although most people sympathize with the poor peasants, they are afraid of peasant rebellion. Zhang Jian's □ Nong Tan and Feeling Hungry in Two Chapters of Man and Goose, and Wang Mian's "Hurting Pavilion Households", "Women in the South of the Yangtze River" and "Mourning the Past" all reflect the bleak and tragic situation of the people under tax plunder. However, Zhang Jian sent Zhejiang Zhou to participate in politics, then left the army, and Wang Mian walked on the grass and cried bitterly, all of which revealed his fear and hatred for the peasant uprising. Wang Mian's poems are simple in sentence, lofty in spirit and sometimes like Li He's style. People in Yuan Dynasty imitated Li He's poems. It is generally believed that Sadu has started, but Wu Song has learned best. There is an atmosphere in Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces. Xiang Jiong, Li Xu in Dongyang, Li Yu in Yongdong and He Jingfu in Chun 'an all flaunt Li He and have many strange poems. Yang Weizhen, the most famous poet at that time, loved to write Yuefu poems. He himself wants to imitate the ancient Yuefu of Han and Wei Dynasties, but his writing style is still a little Li He's, so some people say that Yang Weizhen's "Elegant Rhyme of Li He's Secrets" is as jade.

At the end of Yuan Dynasty, Zhang Shicheng established political power in the south, which was actually a feudal regime. Under Zhang Shicheng's regime, a new situation emerged among the literati. Yang Weizhen is closely related to this regime. His friends and students, Chen Ji and Zhang Xian, are the assistants of the Zhang Shicheng brothers. Gu Ying, a native of Kunshan, lost everything and became a monk at home. Xu Shuxue, a native of Jiangyin, sells medicine in Hankang to support herself. Ni Zan of Wuxi abandoned Tianlu and ran here and there. They regard rural property as a burden, preferring to wander outside rather than live a rich life at home. Poets in the late Yuan Dynasty, like poets in the early Yuan Dynasty, struggled to survive in ethnic conflicts, and social unrest made some poets in a dilemma. This is reflected in their works to varying degrees.

Compared with Song Ci, Yuan Ci is quite inferior. Metawords can be divided into two periods. Generally speaking, the poets in the first period include three parts: poets in the Jin and Yuan Dynasties, poets from the Southern Song Dynasty to the Yuan Dynasty and northern poets under the rule of the Mongolian Dynasty. At this time, what is more touching in the ci works is the works that express the thoughts of the old country. Poets in the second period were probably born after Kublai Khan changed his yuan. The famous poets in this period are Zhang Jian, Sadu and Yu Ji. The famous ones are Yu Ji's The Wind Into the Pine, Sadu's Manjianghong and Jinling Nostalgia. However, Zhang Jian's poems are beautiful and delicate, especially distinctive.

Drama and Sanqu A new genre in Yuan literature is drama. Traditional dramas in China are generally divided into zaju and Sanqu. Today, there are more than 3,800 Sanqu songs and more than 450 sets. Because Sanqu grew up on the basis of folk songs in the Northern Jin Dynasty, most of them were northern songs. More than 200 writers left their names. Many zaju writers have also made achievements in the creation of Sanqu. The early writers of Sanqu were Guan Hanqing, Ma Zhiyuan, Bai Pu, Lu Zhi and Guan Yunshi, with simple style and many dialects. In the later period, there were Georgie, Sui, Zhang and Liu Shizhong, whose poems were slightly gorgeous. Because Sanqu is the lyrics of banquet geisha, there are more erotic songs. But there are also many poems about scenery, lyricism, nostalgia and sighing; As well as several sets of heroes who satirize the world, criticize the shortcomings of the times and ridicule the troubled times, such as Ma Zhiyuan's Borrowing Horses, Liu Shizhong's Prefectural Mansion, and Sui's The Return of Gaozu, all have the characteristics of the times and high artistic achievements.

There are 737 kinds of Yuan people's zaju, including anonymous works in Yuan and Ming Dynasties, and 2 18 kinds are still preserved. Zaju was first popular in Hebei Province, Shanxi Province, and now Shanxi Province still preserves the murals and stage of Zaju in the Jin and Yuan Dynasties. At the beginning of the Yuan Dynasty, it developed to other areas, and the Southern Song Dynasty was destroyed by the Yuan Dynasty and then flowed into Hangzhou and other places. This kind of drama was established on the basis of previous dramas and quyi, such as Song Zaju, Jin Hediao. The scientific part of the script inherits the institutional system, while the combination of songs and lyrics is mainly inspired by court tunes, and they are basically musicals.

Zaju not only has novel artistic forms, but also has the characteristics of the times in content. First of all, it widely reflects the lives of people from all walks of life in the Yuan Dynasty, and the lives and feelings of the middle and lower classes occupy an important position. Among them, the images of businessmen and prostitutes are more striking. Businessmen and prostitutes are mostly concentrated in cities, prostitutes are deformed products of cities, and cities are places for businessmen to trade. The Mongolian dynasty once crossed Europe and Asia, and the east-west traffic on the mainland was unimpeded. Merchants from the western regions came to the East, and their business operations were stimulated. The pursuit of commercial profits became an important feature of urban life at that time. Kyle polo, an Italian, said in his travel notes that at that time, most goods were transported in an endless stream. Of course, it has also become a place where vendors gather. Minister Liu Wuhan started his business. The businessman in Guan Hanqing's Save the Wind and Dust cheated Song, a prostitute, and was cheated by Zhao, another prostitute. Compared with the images of prostitutes in Tang legends and Song ci, Zhao's character has a unique style. In addition, most of the women described in Yuan Zaju are full of fighting spirit. As long as the flame of love burns in the chest, they will openly confide. Liu Mei-er in Qian Ji and Li Yuying in Yuanyang Bei are both such women. Tangier's anti-rape character in Wangjiangge is also very characteristic. In addition, the official story of solving crimes in Yuan Zaju is also worthy of attention. According to the number of official dramas in Song Dynasty recorded in Old Wulin and the records in Lost Fields, there were no Bao Gong dramas in Jin Dynasty, but there were many Bao Gong dramas in Yuan Dynasty. The Yuan government was dark, and powerful families could kill people without paying for their lives. In December of the seventh year of Dade (1303) alone, there were 18473 dirty officials in Fu Xuanfu, with 45865 ingots of stolen money and 5 176 unjust prisons. There are too many unjust cases, many of which have not been rehabilitated. The emergence of case-solving drama is closely related to this social background, and the image of Bao Gong has become the embodiment of the people's desire to be honest and upright.

In the Yuan Dynasty, there were many dramas with historical stories and some water margin stories as their themes. These two themes are rare in Song Dynasty Zaju and Jin People's Academy, but they are very rich in Song and Yuan scripts. The Scarlet Letter Li Er's four plays, including Li Kui jy and Song Wu, have not been handed down. Gao Wenxiu wrote nine kinds of zaju, including 1 kind. 2 species of Kangbian, handed down from ancient times 1 species. Almost all the zaju they compiled are works by Li Kui jy, and Li Kui jy's Shame is praised by people. Bai Pu's Wu Tongyu, Ma Zhiyuan's Autumn in the Han Palace and Ji's Orphan of Zhao are all famous historical works. There are also many works about the story of the Three Kingdoms. No matter the historical theme or the water margin theme, it has practical significance. The author expresses his accumulated anger and historical lessons through historical stories.

The theme of seclusion in Yuan Zaju is also worthy of attention. In Ma Zhiyuan's Biography of Chen Gao, Sang Chen said, "Why count the gains and losses of chickens and insects? Peng Yao is ready to know himself. Look at the ant array, the dragon enters the customs, the swallow goes to Hongse, and the rabbit flies away. Floating life is like fighting ants, time flies. The world is like a dancing chicken, which will win the first and a half jobs. How can I calculate it? I can't stand it! " Negative and unwilling to be an official. But on the other hand, he said, "Don't care about anonymity, but teach who to save the miserable life in the world." This ambivalence of being unwilling to be an official and wanting to relieve the sufferings of the people is exactly the common anguish of Han scholars in the early days of North-South reunification in Yuan Dynasty.

There were many fairy Taoist dramas in Yuan Zaju, which was related to the prevalence of Taoism at that time to some extent. Some of these dramas are purely religious propaganda, but some of them reflect the same ideas as the reclusive dramas, so we should escape from reality and not be carried away by reality. Bai Pu, Shi Jingxian, Shi, Li, Guan Hanqing, Wang Shifu, Ma Zhiyuan, Li Er, Kang, Gao Wenxiu, Ji, Shang Zhongxian and Li Zhifu in the early Yuan Dynasty. At that time, talented people came forth in large numbers, and their works showed a prosperous situation. Among them, Guan Hanqing has the most works and the greatest achievements. His plays Dou Eyuan, Saving the Wind and Dust, Wangjiang Pavilion, Moon-worshipping Pavilion, Tempering the Wind and Moon, and Single Knife Meeting are all representative works. Guan Hanqing, Bai Pu, Ma Zhiyuan and Zheng Guangzu were called "Four Masters of Yuan Opera" by later generations. Master Wang, separated by four places, actually has a lot to do. His Romance of the West Chamber was praised as "the best in the world" by Jia in the late Yuan Dynasty and early Ming Dynasty. This play had a great influence at that time and later generations, with the highest achievement. After Dade, many zaju writers recruited talents and accepted scholars, but were unsuccessful in the examination room. They were "of humble family background and weak position". Their works all reveal a sense of talent. Zheng Guangzu, George and Gong Tianting all belong to this kind of writers. Zheng Guangzu's "RoyceWong Climbing the Stairs" shows the grievance that a person can't find a ladder but can't find it. Georgie has been in the Jianghu for 40 years, but Gong Tianting is standing and not using it. George writes not only zaju, but also Sanqu. He said: "Looking around Luoyang, flowers are blooming, dazzling, blooming and dying." It shows that he was down and out all his life and his ambition was exhausted.

/kloc-At the beginning of the 4th century, Yuan Renzong continued for two years (13 15), and resumed the examination selection system that had been suspended for 78 years, but made new provisions on the examination contents. That is to say, since the Sui and Tang Dynasties, "it is not necessary to save poetry and righteousness, but only to establish the Deqing Sutra". In other words, the social contradictions deepened at the end of Yuan Dynasty, and the rulers needed the feudal ethics of Zhu Cheng Neo-Confucianism to maintain their rule. They emphasized: "Learn from the scriptures and practice the way of treating others." The implementation of this policy by the Yuan government had a certain impact on the creation of Yuan Zaju. Later dramas have a strong atmosphere of promoting feudal morality, and some simply become gospels of promoting feudal morality. The creation of zaju tends to decline.

In addition to zaju, there are Nanqu, or Southern Opera, in the south. Southern Opera was originally a kind of drama in Wenzhou, Zhejiang Province, also known as Yongjia Zaju. During the reign of Song Duzong Xianchun, Wang Huan was popular in Hangzhou for some time. In the Yuan Dynasty, the Southern Opera continued to be staged. Actors Long and Shan Yingxiu are good at Southern Opera. According to records, at that time, there were more than 60 languages of/kloc-0. Today, there are about 6 languages of/kloc-0. Chai Jing Ji, Yue Ting Ji, White Rabbit Ji and Killing Dogs Ji are collectively called the four famous dramas of Southern Opera. Gao Ming came to Yuan Shundi and wrote The Story of Pipa, which marked the peak of the development of Southern Opera and influenced the prosperity of legendary operas in Ming Dynasty.

The lyrics of Southern Opera in the early stage are a mixture of Song Ci and Li Xiang ballads, with loose structure, scientific materials, less prominent characters and rough art. Later, northern zaju was introduced to Hangzhou, and after mutual exchange, it absorbed the advantages of northern zaju, and adopted the method of combining lyrics, which reduced the number of scripts and facilitated the centralized characterization of characters. Later, multiple combinations of Chu appeared, which was a great development in the history of China opera.

Prose and novels in the Yuan Dynasty basically only inherited the achievements created in the Song Dynasty, and rarely made innovations. In addition, prose and Zhu Cheng's Neo-Confucianism are intertwined, and their thoughts are poor. Most of them are applied words and lack emotion. The articles in the Tang Dynasty imitated Korea and Liu, and the articles in the Song Dynasty imitated Europe and the Soviet Union, but the achievements were not high. Yao Sui and Yu Ji are known as the two masters of ancient prose in Yuan Dynasty. Most of their writings are epitaphs and timely works. Although their writing is elegant, it has no characteristics.

Many novels were revised in the Ming Dynasty, so it is difficult to judge the specific writing age. It can be said that it was written by the Yuan Dynasty. Only Lu Xianzhi's "My Good Son Zhao Zheng" (Song Sigong made a scene to suppress the soul) is an article, and the rest are not fragmentary, that is, speculative works. However, the historical Pinghua, such as the Pinghua of the Three Kingdoms, is basically the works of the Yuan Dynasty, and its historical facts are mostly mixed with truth and falsehood, which is a backup script for storytellers.

Throughout the literature of the Yuan Dynasty, although traditional poetry also produced some excellent or better works, on the whole, the achievements were not high. However, great writers and many excellent or relatively excellent works have appeared in China traditional operas, which have far-reaching influence in the history of literature.