The Priority of Chinese Inventions.

Abstract

A WRITER in the North China Herald of Shanghai, referring to the Chinese claims to have originated many modern Western scientific inventions, says that Chinese patriotism has exhibited itself in an ardent desire to claim priority over Europeans in this respect. They are a very ingenious people, and, in past times having invented many valuable implements, it has always seemed to them a fair hypothesis that as every machine is an improvement on something that preceded it, the machinery and telescopes of the West may have originated at first in something Chinese. Yuen-yuen, a former Governor-General of Canton, in his “History of Astronomers,” written at the beginning of this century, again prominently brought forward the idea that European mathematics came from China, and many subsequent writers have made the same claim. Not only is this the case in mathematics, but the Chinese say that our telescopes, steam-engines, firearms, and cannons are owing to them. Ever since China first saw steamers, fifty years ago, and since she came to know of the existence of European mathematics three hundred years ago, she has, from time to time, with more or less eagerness shown herself bent on claiming that the knowledge and skill shown in the West began in the first place with China. Mei-wen-ting, a great Chinese scholar, who died at an advanced age in the year 1722, after considering the whole question from the Chinese point of view, came to the conclusion that Europeans had got their mathematics and science from China. Amongst other reasons for this belief he states that in the “Chon-pi,” a mathematical work of about B.C. 1100, although not expressly stated, the rotundity of the earth is implied. In the same book are to be found, he says, the properties of a right-angled triangle, as, for instance, that the square of the hypotenuse is equal to the sum of the squares of the other two sides. Since this is a fundamental problem, Mei-wen-ting claims that Western geometrical and trigonometrical knowledge is due to China. He accounts for the spread of Chinese astronomy to us by the scattering of the schools of astronomy in China, which, according to Szu-ma-chien, an historian who wrote a century before the Christian era, took place about B.C. 760. The fugitive astronomers, flying from the tyranny of the early Chow dynasty, diffused Chinese learning amongst the barbarians. Similarly in other matters the Chinese claim that the metaphysics of Indian Buddhism are due to the journey of Lao-tse to the West. The writer concludes his interesting discussion as follows:—“We need not trouble ourselves much respecting the Chinese claim to have originated Western science: they only claim to have started the preliminary ideas. As to the Chinese having always had enlightened views on many scientific and political subjects, we may frankly admit it. They speak 2200 years ago of concave and convex mirrors being able to magnify objects. Four thousand years ago they had instruments for observing the stars. In the year A.D. 1122 they made use of the magnet pointing to the south on board ship to guide the vessel on her course. With the proviso that they may have derived some of their early knowledge in these things and in others, such as the manufacture of fireworks, from foreign countries, these and many like facts we may allow. But we would be glad for them to study the history of Western inventions, and show a willingness to recognize the ingenuity, knowledge, and intellectual power of other nations wherever they are found. Let them also enter on a rivalry in inventions. Let them make new discoveries and advance in the arts in new ways such as may ba of benefit in the world. The Western nations will not be slow to acknowledge any efficient aid they may give in science, politics, or the arts.”