This paper is designed to place technical knowledge within a context of less technical ideas. Shen Gua (1031–1095), a literatus and statesman who lived under the Northern Song (960–1127), possessed a strong interest in technical knowledge. In examining the category “Particular Skills” (jiyi) Shen Gua coined in his famed work Brush Talks by Dream Brook, my aim is to demonstrate that Shen Gua's interest in technical knowledge was an integral part of his intellectual enterprise. His perspective and methods in acquiring the skills of particular kinds reveal his intellectual predilections as a literatus, whose livelihood and social status depended on his production of knowledge in written form.
