 There were many technical and scientific writings during the Song period . The two most eminent authors of the scientific and technical fields were Shen Kuo ( 1031 – 1095 ) and his contemporary Su Song ( 1020 – 1101 ) . Shen Kuo published his Dream Pool Essays in 1088 AD , an enormous encyclopedic book that covered a wide range of subjects , including literature , art , military strategy , mathematics , astronomy , meteorology , geology , geography , metallurgy , engineering , hydraulics , architecture , zoology , botany , agronomy , medicine , anthropology , archeology , and more . As for Shen Kuo 's equally brilliant peer , Su Song created a celestial atlas of five different star maps , wrote the 1070 AD pharmaceutical treatise of the Ben Cao Tu Jing ( Illustrated Pharmacopoeia ) , which had the related subjects of botany , zoology , metallurgy , and mineralogy , and wrote his famous horological treatise of the Xin Yi Xiang Fa Yao in 1092 AD , which described in full detail his ingenious astronomical clock tower constructed in the capital city of Kaifeng . Although these two figures were perhaps the greatest technical authors in their field during the time , there were many others . For producing textiles , Qin Guan 's book of 1090 AD , the Can Shu ( Book of Sericulture ) , included description of a silk @-@ reeling machine that incorporated the earliest known use of the mechanical belt drive in order to function . In the literary field of agronomy , there was the Jiu Huang Huo Min Shu ( The Rescue of the People ; a Treatise on Famine Prevention and Relief ) edited by Dong Wei in the 12th century , the Cha Lu ( Record of Tea ) written by Cai Xiang in 1060 AD , the Zhu Zi Cang Fa ( Master Zhu on Managing Communal Granaries ) written by Zhu Xi in 1182 AD , and many others . There were also great authors of written works pertaining to geography and cartography during the Song , such as Yue Shi ( his book in 983 ) , Wang Zhu ( in 1051 ) , Li Dechu ( in 1080 ) , Chen Kunchen ( in 1111 ) , Ouyang Wen ( in 1117 ) , and Zhu Mu ( in 1240 ) . Although an early form of the local geographic gazetteer existed in China since the 1st century , the matured form known as " treatise on a place " , or fangzhi , replaced the old " map guide " , or tujing , under the Song . The major differences between the two were that fangzhi were products of local initiative and decision @-@ making , were typically ten to fifty chapters in length , and were almost always printed for a large audience , whereas tujing were products of infrequent demands from the central government and were typically only four chapters long . The widespread availability of printing in the Song allowed many ordinary people to access materials that were once read almost exclusively by experts , such as printed texts and handbooks on agriculture , childbirth , pharmacy and medicine , domestic economics , geography , divination , and Taoist rituals . 
