Chinese Traditional Culture and Technology

Author: Yue Guo'ai
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2006-08-01
Features: This book examines the interaction between science and culture from an interdisciplinary perspective, employing cultural studies methods. Using extensive historical materials, it argues the interconnectedness and mutual promotion between traditional Chinese culture and ancient science and technology. The book begins with thematic studies, specifically exploring the relationship between the Hundred Schools of Thought during the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods and science and technology, as well as the connections between traditional culture and ancient mathematics, astronomy, agriculture, chemistry, and medicine. It analyzes the relationship between the scientific thought of the renowned ancient Chinese scientist Shen Kuo and traditional culture, as well as the connection between the Confucian scholar Zhu Xi's Neo-Confucianism and science, and his research on astronomy. The book also explains the integration of Confucianism and Western science and technology during the Ming and Qing dynasties and further addresses the academic question of the relationship between Confucian culture and ancient Chinese science and technology.
Notably, the book does not dwell on why modern science did not emerge in China but instead focuses more pragmatically on how modern Chinese, facing national crises and the rise of Western science, achieved the modernization of Chinese science through the slogan "saving the nation through science."
This book examines the interaction between science and culture from an interdisciplinary perspective, employing cultural studies methods and extensive historical materials to demonstrate the interconnectedness and mutual promotion between traditional Chinese culture and ancient science and technology across five disciplines: mathematics, astronomy, agriculture, chemistry, and medicine. It explores the issue of why Chinese science lagged behind the West from the Ming and Qing dynasties onward and presents the journey of the modernization of Chinese science.
Ancient Chinese scientists were primarily scholars and literati. In fact, the term "scientist" was first coined by the British scholar William Whewell in his book The Philosophy of Inductive Science, published in 1840. He stated, "It is very necessary to give a name to those who cultivate science in general, and I propose to call them scientists."1 The British science sociologist J.D. Bernal once remarked, "In early times, science was often a pursuit of the wealthy and idle or a sideline for those who were moderately well-off in more established professions."2 In other words, in ancient Western societies, like Whewell described, professional scientists dedicated solely to scientific research did not exist. This was also the case in ancient China. Some Chinese science historians argue that ancient Chinese intellectuals "saw entering officialdom as their path, and after gaining official positions, they regarded governing the state as their duty. To achieve this goal, especially after Confucianism was made the dominant ideology during the Han Dynasty, only those who thoroughly studied the classics could become officials or govern. Thus, most intellectuals devoted their to the arduous study of the classics, seeking to cultivate what was called the 'inner sage and outer king' ideal."