An an eminent Chinese cartographer, zoologist, pharmacologist, astronomer, mineralogist and an engineer, Su Song was a man of many interests. He was born in a place, close to Quanzhou. He was known to be a brilliant student all through his academic career who rose to great heights. He was appointed as the ambassador of the Song dynasty.
He was the statesman of the Song dynasty. Not only that, he was given the charge of supervising the administrative and finance department of the Song Dynasty. Song was a contemporary of another famous cartographer – ShenKuo. Su Song possessed great knowledge in various subjects. Many honorable titles were bestowed upon him.
Su Song had in-depth knowledge about cartography. He made a celestial atlas which was a work of great precision. The unique characteristic of his star maps was that the maps were laid out in printed form. He created many terrestrial maps as well. Su Song, the polymath along with a group of scholarly people edited Ben Cao Tu Jing. He composed one of the leading horological writings of the medieval times. This work dealt with a number of pharmaceutical applications. He contrived the Clock Tower of Kaifeng for, which he is best known.
