Yibanlu 一斑錄

Yibanlu 一斑錄, full title Xingshi yiban lu 醒世一斑錄, is a kind of encyclopaedia on various aspects of the physical world written during the Qing period by Zheng Guangzu 鄭光祖 （1776–1845), actual name (Guangzu is his courtesy name) Meixuan 梅軒, style Qingyu Shanfang Jushi 青玉山房居士, from Changshu 常熟, Jiangsu.

The aim of the book of 5 juan and a voluminous appendix of 8 juan is to rectify wrong or superstitious statements in older texts. In modern terms, Zheng’s book covers aspects of astronomy, geography, biology, physics, medicine and geometry. The book's 565 chapters are particularly interesting because they give insight into Chinese knowledge of Western concepts of natural sciences before the self-strengthening movement, which initiated a massive wave of translations of Western books. The appendix, for example, includes chapters on the salvaging of a cannon from the sea floor (海底撈砲), hydromethods of the West ( 太西水法), and cotton spinning with three spindles (Sanzhan fangsha 三椗紡紗). The chapter on physics explains the phenomena of echo, the long-distance transmission of sounds through the soil, sound absorption by the use of certain bricks, the effects of a megaphone and light refraction at the surface of water.

Figures 1-2. Illustrations from the Yibanlu 一斑錄

Geometrical calculations of triangles, focusing on the centre, and perpendiculars.

Prices of grain and cotton.

In the field of physics, for instance, aspects of the disciplines of acoustics, optics and thermal physics are touched and explained with the help of Chinese concepts, like in the statement that “both sound and shadow have subtle principles” (sheng ying jie you wei li 聲影皆有微理).

The draft of the Yibanlu was finished in 1822. It was revised in 1828 and 1835 and first printed in 1838. The final version which includes the appendix was not published until 1845, as part of the series Zhouche suozhi 舟車所至. The text is also included in the series Haiwang cun guji congkan 海王邨古籍叢刊.