During the Wanli era of the Ming Dynasty (1573-1620), in Guixi (now Guixi City, Jiangxi Province), a villager was plowing his field when he discovered the remains of an ancient city wall. Out of curiosity, the man started digging. As he dug further, he finally uncovered a beautifully colored stone.
He decided to bring the rock home as a toy for his child to play with, and after a few days, the family noticed something peculiar about the stone: every noon and midnight, the stone would emit a “clanging” sound. Perplexed, the man placed the timekeeping stone on his family shrine for safekeeping.
One day, a local literary official responsible for educational affairs in the area, a man named Ye Xin, decided to visit the villager’s home after hearing about this strange phenomenon of the stone. Taking the stone in his hand, Ye examined it thoroughly but could not figure out its secrets. In frustration, Ye grabbed the stone and smashed it on the ground, breaking it into pieces.
The timekeeping stone was shattered
To his surprise, the shattered stone had many small and delicate components inside, revealing that it was not a natural stone but a finely crafted object. Even more astonishingly, an inscription on the inside of the stone read: “Broken by Ye Xin’s hand.”
It turned out that the creator of this object was also a prophet who knew that what he made would be shattered by someone named Ye Xin. Some speculated that it was created by a man named Zhuge Wuhou, a legendary figure associated with the ability to foretell the future.
Upon reading this tale, I thought it resembled an alarm clock ringing regularly; however, nobody heard the clock’s sounds until it was unearthed. It likely did not have a power source until it was excavated, and perhaps it relied on an automatic winding mechanism driven by its swinging motion (like the principle of modern, high-end mechanical watches).
Another possibility is that it had a solar-powered device that generated electricity when exposed to sunlight or some other factor. Ancient China witnessed many mysterious phenomena and inventions that surpassed the knowledge of today’s modern times.
Even more remarkable is the phrase “Broken by Ye Xin’s hand,” which indicates that its creator was an extraordinary prophet. In the Western world, after centuries of scientific development, we have not heard of any scientist or engineer with prophetic abilities. Yet, the maker of this “stone” apparently had exceptional foresight, in addition to also being a skilled craftsman.
Ancient China followed a different path of scientific development from the modern West, involving exploring and acquiring knowledge and technology through supernatural abilities. For example, ancient Chinese medicine masters understood the existence of meridians through deep meditation and introspection of the human body.
By contrast, Western science can be considered superficial, relying on hypotheses, speculations, and experiments to validate knowledge with hard evidence.
Western science is unwilling to acknowledge what it cannot validate. Perhaps if Western science approached things with the understanding that not all items can be observed directly with modern equipment or our senses and had a more open mind regarding these things, it, too, could uncover things that can only be shown to those with a higher understanding of life and the universe.
Until that time, many mysteries will likely continue to go unsolved.
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