Li Shanlan: Forerunner of Modern Science in China

Abstract

Haining County, Zhejiang Province, is located at the mouth of the Qiantang River on the northern coast of Hangzhou Bay. It’s beautiful land of plenty, with a mild climate, fertile land, abundant rainfall, and rich production. In Xiashi Township in the northeast of the county along the banks of the river are Shen and Ziwei Mountains which the local people call the Eastern and Western Mountain. Many talented people come from this area. A scholarly aristocratic family named Li lived at the foot of the Eastern Mountain. They traced their ancestry back to Li Boyu from Bianliang (the present Kaifeng, Henan), the capital of the last years of the Northern Song dynasty. He “studied and discussed scholarship with no interest in holding office and declined all recommendations to be the master of a school.”1 In the early Yuan dynasty, his son Li Kan, who was able, virtuous and upright, was granted the position of Deputy Administrator of Jiaxing Prefecture. Li Boyu was invited to come to Zhejiang and settled down in Xiashi. Generation followed generation for five centuries until the seventeenth generation produced a son, a well-known scholar of the Confucian classics, whose name was Li Zulie (literary name, Master Xugu), Zulie first married the granddaughter of Xu Jixi, the head of Wanghai County. Unfortunately, she died very early. He then married her sister, who also died of illness. He later married the learned, reasonable and virtuous daughter of Cui Jingyuan, an eminent Confucian scholar. After marriage, the couple sincerely loved and respected each other. In the small hours of January 2, 1811, between 11 PM and 1 AM, she gave birth to a healthy baby boy. At that time, Zulie was already over 40. He was elated to have a son at middle age. Twirling his mustache, he glanced at his desk and saw his favorite pot of Kaffir Orchids with several pale red early blossoms exuding fragrance. He therefore named his baby son Xinlan (heart orchid), and gave him the courtesy name Jingfang (competing fragrance). This baby was Li Shanlan, who later became a forerunner of modern Chinese science.2