PureInsight | December 30, 2002
Shen Kuo was a famous scientist of Northern Song dynasty, an all-round scholar of astronomy, law, mathematics and medical science. His 30-volume work, Mengxi Bitan (Dream Stream Essays), containing 609 articles, covers such fields as politics, economics, philosophy, history, military affairs, science, and technology. His lasting influence on the Chinese civilization can still be seen today. For example, he wrote an article about petroleum, calling it "shiyou" (literally, "rock oil"), a term that the Chinese continue to use today. He recorded where oil could be found, the nature of petroleum and its uses, and used ashes of petroleum to make ink sticks. He predicted that "This thing will definitely be widely used in the future."
An article from the 21st Volume of "Mengxi Bitan" records the corpse of a giant as follows:
A Buddhist monastery is situated on top of the mountain, Tian Shan, in the city of Yan Zhou. In the monastery lay a tomb. According to legend, it was the tomb of King Shi Pi, whose merits were recorded in the Buddhist scripture, "Da Zhi Lun". The scripture tells the story of King Shi Pi and how he once cut off all of the flesh bit by bit from his own body in order to feed a hungry eagle. Under the foot of the mountain Tian Shan, a river named Zhuo Jin flows. Along the river the county of Fushi is situated. Given the definition of Fushi, which means, "merciful giving of the flesh," it was said that its name came from the legendary story of King Shi Pi. However, according to the Han Shu, an ancient book of Chinese history, Fushi County already existed in the Qin Dynasty before the Buddhist scripture was published. Therefore, it is doubtful that the name of the county, Fushi, came from the Buddhist scripture. In the county of Fushi, people from the Tang Dynasty, commemorating King Shi Pi, erected a stone tablet. What a pity that this stone tablet was broken, and the carved writings on the stone tablet have faded beyond recognition! This happened when some treacherous officials had the monastery damaged. The monastery had been changed into a storehouse. The tomb of Shi Pi was dug up and thousands of tons of coal from the tomb were taken. The inner and outer coffin was totally rotten, decayed and damaged. The corpse in the coffin was luckily still well preserved. The volume of its jawbone is measured at 1 dou (1 dou = 3.87 gallon). Its shin bone is measured at more 2 feet. From the tomb, more than seventy jade articles, (including a tooth made of jade with a length of 30.5 cm [11.9 inches]), were stolen by the corrupt officials. Meanwhile, the golden and silver household utensils were taken by the laborers. These people had been scrambling for the jewellery so madly that the corpse of King Shi Pi was almost pulled and dragged into pieces. Finally, the corpse was placed into a small box and buried. An official, Xia Yuan Xiang, who was the military supervisor at the time, disclosed this event.
The above record shows that the tomb of King Shi Pi was actually the tomb of a giant. It can be proved from the description, "The volume of its jawbone is measured at 1 dou. Its shin bone is measured at more 2 feet."
Translated from: http://www.zhengjian.org/zj/articles/2002/11/24/19359.html
