Guest Mat Report post Posted January 31, 2004 In the provinces he was doing ethnology, Yang Hsiung described the invention of belt drive around 18 B.C.E. Off-hand, I think it was some 800 years later that it showed up in the West. Yang's magnum opus, the Taixuanjing(he would have never called it jing['classic']), was undoubtedly influenced by other such things: It leaves me, it enters me. Good and Evil are shown, By the four stars of the Plough. (Taixuanjing, shou II) This points to the real possibility that Yang and those who conversed at White Tiger Pavilion, knew about oxygen, that is to say, phlogistic air, long before it was 'discovered' in the West by Lavossier or Priestly, the latter having been given credit for the discovery of oxygen. This likely happened on account of experimentation in fermentation and alchemy. R, M. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
roddy 5,435 Report post Posted January 31, 2004 This points to the real possibility that Yang and those who conversed at White Tiger Pavilion, knew about oxygen How? And what's phlogistic air? Roddy Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
