Marine shells on mountaintops and the uplift of mountains (Zhu Xi)
Conchas marinas en las cumbres y elevación de las montañas (Zhu Xi)
- Date
- c. 1190 · confidence low
- Place
- Wuyi Mountains, Nanping, Fujian, China
- Credited to
- Zhu Xi
- Field
- Cosmos & Earth
What was discovered
The philosopher Zhu Xi noticed shells and marine remains in mountain rocks and inferred that what is now high had once been low and soft, so that the landscape changes over time. His reasoning is akin to Shen Kuo's a century earlier.
We know it from the compilation of his conversations (Zhuzi yulei, 1270); date and place are approximate. Joseph Needham highlighted it as an example of Chinese geological thought.
What it led to
- entrenched in Neo-Confucianism the idea of slow changes in relief
- a reference source for historians of Chinese geology