The great scientist Zhang Heng of ancient China’s Western Han Dynasty is the inventor of the world’s earliest seismoscope – the Houfeng Seismograph. Though the original has long been lost, the history of over two thousand years cannot set people’s memory to oblivion. According to the merely 195 words recorded by the history, the later scholars have been ceaselessly trying to restore the seismograph’s real identity. This seismograph means not only the restoration of a seismic-measuring apparatus, but also the progress of our ancestors in search of the great spirit of science as “Seeking Truth and Evading Emptiness”.

 

Zhang Heng, with the alias Pingzi, was a native of Xi’e, Nanyang (Xia Village, Shiqiao Town, Nanyang, Henan Province), and was the great scientist, litterateur, inventor and statesman of the Eastern Han Dynasty. He marks the lofty monument in the world history of science and culture. Guo Moruo, the contemporary man of letter, ever gave his words to Zhang Heng: “It is rare to see such a versatile person in the world history.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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