5. Problems in the Study of the History of Chinese Science

Abstract

One of the questions most frequently asked about Chinese culture in general and about Chinese science in particular is Why did the Scientific Revolution not take place in China? or Why did modern science not develop independently in China? This question has exerted a great influence on the scholarly study of traditional Chinese science. The assumption that the difference between Chinese and Western cultures does not reflect different patterns of cultural development, but different stages in a single universal developmental pattern that every culture necessarily follows. This broader assumption has given rise to many debates concerning certain problems in interpreting traditional Chinese history, most notably those concerning its division into periods, and the problems of feudalism, serfdom and capitalism. Among scholars, only Needham has explicitly espoused the notion of a single universal science. But the same point of view is revealed in various tendencies in the studies of Chinese science.Keywords: Chinese culture; Chinese science; Needham; scientific revolution; single universal science; Western cultures