Oh my goodness! The seismograph we saw is actually a replica that’s less than seventy years old!

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The seismograph that appears firmly depicted in textbooks – the image of a seismograph that is familiar to us today, featuring eight dragons on a barrel-like structure holding copper balls – as well as the illustrations of seismographs found in previous textbooks, were recreated in 1951 by scholar Wang Zhenduo based on the 196-character description of the seismograph provided in the \"History of the Later Han Dynasty.\" These are not the original appearance of the historical artifact. In fact, the incomplete transmission of history means that future generations can only try to reconstruct it; this is to a large extent inevitable in the case of the history of technology. Reconstruction is also a research method, and there is nothing wrong with it. The problem is that, without undergoing rigorous seismological testing, the Wang’s seismograph quickly became the standard illustration used to depict such instruments. It appeared in textbooks, was issued as special stamps across the country, and was also widely made into models placed in parks and squares in many cities throughout the nation. Whenever people think of seismographs, they think of the Wang seismograph.