An Outline of Chinese Geology

Abstract

BEFORE we properly discuss the geology of China a few words on the geological work in that country will not be superfluous. Let us first of all ask the Chinese themselves if they, in the course of their intellectual evolution for thousands of years, have contributed anything valuable to our science. The inquiry into this point by the writer has so far been met by a negative answer. True, in ancient Chinese literature one often finds fragmentary suggestions and allegorical statements related to geology. As a typical example we may take the well-known expression “blue seas change into mulberry fields”. This sentence is much quoted by popular writers either for depicting the ephemeral state of worldly aflairs or for illustrating the slow, mighty change that persistently takes place on the earth. It is in the latter sense that it demands our attention. Again, there are a number of volumes both extremely ancient and comparatively modern treating of the drainage systems of China, and in some cases with rough indication of changes of the sea level. The descriptions of minerals like those in the “Bên-tsao-gang-mong” are certainly a record of incipient development of mineralogical study originated in China and by the Chinese; but as to the purpose, it was anything but geologic.