East Asian Science: Tradition and Beyond ed. by Hashimoto Keizô, et al

Abstract

TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE Book Reviews 499 Dr. Lindee is associate professor in the Department of the History and Sociology of Science at the University of Pennsylvania. Coauthor, with Dorothy Nelkin, of The DNA Mystique: The Gene as a Cultural Icon (New York: W. H. Freeman, 1995) and author of SufferingMadeReal: American Science and the Survivors at Hiroshima (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1994), she teaches courses on the history of molecular biology, genetics, and biotechnology. East Asian Science: Tradition and Beyond. Edited by Hashimoto Keizo, CatherineJami, and Lowell Skar. Osaka,Japan: Kansai University Press, 1995. Pp. 546. This volume contains sixty-five of the more than one hundred pre­ sentations at the Seventh International Conference on the History of Science in EastAsia, held in Kyoto in 1993. This series ofconferences started in 1982 as the International Conferences on the History of Science in China. In 1990 its scope was broadened to the history of science, technology, and medicine in East Asia. The content of this volume reflects a steady growth of interest in studies of East Asian science and technology but also a growing awareness of shared historical traditions and contemporary con­ cerns in the larger East Asian area. Most research reports trace and analyze the development of techniques and concepts in premodern Chinese science, medicine, and technology. They are concerned with understanding these techniques and concepts in the shared lan­ guage and perspective of modern—i.e., Western—scientific think­ ing. In the same vein, the historical contact points between tradi­ tional Chinese science and Western science are explored. Panel 1, “Comparisons and Exchanges between East Asian and Western Sci­ ence,” and section II.5, “China,Japan, and the West: Early Modern Encounters,” contain many fascinating vignettes. New and significant trends emerge also. A growing number of pa­ pers emphasize the value and internal consistency of traditional Chi­ nese and East Asian thinking and its persistence especially in medi­ cine. Other contributions focus on the exchange between China, Korea, andJapan before and during their 19th-century meeting with Western science, medicine, and technology. An entire section is de­ voted to “The Future of Technology in East Asia.” Not surprisingly, this section is marked by optimism about the potential of East Asian cultures to respond, on their own terms, to the challenges of eco­ nomic acceleration. Excellent scholarly research papers of interest to readers of Tech­ nology and Culture can be found in sections II.1 (“Approaches to Non-textual Objects”) and II.3 (“Modern and Quantitative Analyses of Traditional Disciplines”). A comprehensive analysis of “The Ori­ gins of Swords in Northeastern Japan” (Yoshida, T., et al.) traces 500 Book Reviews TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE details of pre-12th-century sword-making techniques and presents evidence not only that they originated in Korea and China but that some came from the Amur region of northeast Asia. The structure and earthquake-resistance oftraditional timberwork towers in China (one of which has survived since a.d. 1056) are analyzed in detail by Tanaka T. and by Guo Daiheng. Techno-archeology is represented by Mei Jianjun and Ko Tsun’s “Comparison of Ancient Metallurgy in India and China.” The breadth of technical subjects and the detailed reports in this volume contribute much to the historical mosaic of the meeting of East and West, which is now continuing on more equal terms. How­ ever, overarching questions remain about the cultural assumptions implicit in many historical studies. Is “science” synonymous with “Western science”? Is “modern society” necessarily shaped by “Western technology”? These basic questions remain the most fasci­ nating, because they are the most difficult to answer. The problem is not simply whether modernization is possible without science. As Pierre-Etienne Will writes in this volume, “The question to ask, rather, is that of the compatibility, or lack thereof, between the par­ ticular brands of scientific thinking that were developed in early modern Europe and in East Asia” (p. 43). Nathan Sivin’s plenary lecture, “Comparing Greek and Chinese Science,” illustrates the effort involved in posing and answering this question fairly. The comparison which he and the classical historian G. E. R. Lloyd have undertaken focuses on Greek culture between 300 b.c. and a.d...