Mineral and mineralogy in late Qing China: translations and conceptualizations, 1860s–1910s

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article critically examines the translations of two terms – mineral and mineralogy – in modern China. The last decades of the Qing dynasty (1860s–1910s) witnessed a transition in the terminological usage of the Chinese equivalents of mineral and mineralogy from jinshi (metals and rocks) and jinshi xue (a study of metals and rocks) to kuangwu and kuangwu xue. A scrutiny of this transition raises questions regarding not only the exchanges in scientific knowledge between China, the West, and Japan since the nineteenth century, but the changes in the understanding of natural things in China. This article locates the translation of the terms within the scope of cultural translation and the history of science. It sheds new light both on the confrontations between languages and knowledge systems, which led to the re-conceptualization of natural things in China and Japan, and on the interplay between various domestic and transnational forces that shaped the intellectual landscapes in China. Through the confrontations and interplay, mineralogy eventually projected minerals into the domain of science and modern science claimed the authority over understanding these natural things.