Talk:Dream Pool Essays

China: History Mid‑importance

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Naming convention[edit]

Maybe to English speakers it sounds like ding-dang-dong but Shen is the surname and Kuo is the first informal name. This article continually refers to him as Kuo. That would be like saying in the Albert Einstein article, "Albert did this and that." And Kuo is rarely (if ever) a Chinese surname. .:DavuMaya:. 18:35, 28 October 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Another quote[edit]

Here is another quote from Mr. Shen's essays, which according to the source is the earliest known reference to pattern welded steel. This quote is from the Needham translation, and was found in the book, "A History of Metallography", by Cyril Smith, (1960). "Ancient people use chi kang, (combined steel), for the edge, and jou thieh (soft iron) for the back, otherwise it would often break. Too strong a weapon will cut and destroy its own edge; that is why it is advisable to use nothing but combined steel. As for the yu-chhang (fish intestines) effect, it is what is now called the 'snake-coiling' steel sword, or alternatively, the 'pine tree design'. If you cook a fish fully and remove its bones, the shape of its guts will be seen to be like the lines on a 'snake-coiling sword'."

This might be interesting to add to the article.Zaereth (talk) 00:04, 6 February 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Sorry for never responding to this! I must have missed it a year ago. Do you have an exact page number which I could utilize from Cyril Smith's source? If so, I would love to add this passage to the article with a proper inline citation. Thanks.--Pericles of Athens^Talk 21:02, 31 March 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, the page number is 45, in the chapter about Japanese sword construction. Since there was no response, I already added it to the "Quotes" section. It's the last one, in a subsection which I've titled "Swords." If you can improve it or the location of it, please do. Zaereth (talk) 21:57, 2 April 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Book chapters[edit]

Are the book chapters in the order in which they are in the book? I don't quite understand the distinction between "Humanities" and "Humanistic Sciences". Who came up with these names? The chapters seem to have very similar topics; e.g. one having "Literary and artistic", and the other one "Music", which I would classify under the former. Are these just ad-hoc names given by a fellow editor, or are these the result of scholarly analysis? — Sebastian 20:18, 31 March 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Those chapters are designated by Needham, although the Chinese wouldn't have such terms or labels as "anthropology" and "meteorology" in the 11th century! (lol) I'm at work right now (shouldn't even be doing this!), so I can't refer to the Needham volume at the moment, as it is located at home. When I return home this evening I can verify the book chapter names and perhaps make clear in that section that these are titles contrived by Needham or some other scholar or source.--Pericles of Athens^Talk 21:06, 31 March 2010 (UTC)[reply]