Abstract:

It is documented that China had its own oil wells already in 980 AD.Because,oil wells drilled in Yanchang County,northern Shaanxi Province,were recorded in"Peaceful Miscellanea"by Li Fang,etc.of the North Song Dynasty(the book was written in 980 AD).Oil wells in counties of(now called)Yanchang,Yanchuan and Yijun,etc.Shaanxi Province,were also written down in"The Central Annals of the Yuan Dynasty"by Bo Lanxi,etc.The recorded history of these oil wells is 300,235 years earlier respectively than that of oil and brine-bearing wells in Jiazhou region noted down then by Cao Xuequan in"Miscellanea of Central Sichuan".Furthermore,the publication of the book"Peaceful Miscellanea"is about 100 years earlier than that or"Mengxi Sketches and Notes"of Shen Kuo,thus the term of"petroleum"was not initiated by Shen Kuo.