Dream Pool Essays

The Dream Pool Essays (or Dream Torrent Essays) was an extensive book written by the Chinese polymath and statesman Shen Kuo (1031–1095), published in 1088 during the Song dynasty (960–1279). Shen compiled this encyclopedic work while living in forced retirement from government office, naming the book after his private estate near modern Zhenjiang, Jiangsu province. The Dream Pool Essays was heavily reorganized in reprint editions by later Chinese authors from the late 11th to 17th centuries. In modern times it has been translated from Chinese into several languages. These include English, German, French, and Japanese translations. The Dream Pool Essays covers a range of topics including discoveries and advancements in traditional Chinese medicine, mathematics, astronomy, science and technology, optics, architecture and civil engineering, metallurgy, and early archaeology. Observations of the natural world included those of wildlife, meteorology, hypotheses advancing early ideas in geomorphology and climate change based on findings of petrification and natural erosion, and strange recorded phenomena such as the description of an unidentified flying object. In addition to establishing the theory of true north in magnetic declination towards the North Pole, Shen was also the first to record the use of a compass for navigation, the first to describe the invention of movable type printing by contemporary artisan Bi Sheng, and the first in China to describe a drydock for repairing boats out of water.