Civilization In China Research Articles

Science and Civilisation in China. Vol. 5: Chemistry and Chemical Technology. Part 1: Paper and Printing

Science and Civilisation in China. Vol. 5: Chemistry and Chemical Technology. Part 1: Paper and Printing

Classical chinese contributions to shipbuilding

The indebtedness of the west to Chinese technological innovation has only lately been generally recognized, thanks in large measure to Joseph Needham's great Science and Civilisation in China, now nearing completion. The Chinese origin of four major inventions—the magnetic compass, gunpowder, printing, and paper — is now widely recognized but a score of other important technical innovations also originated in China. This article describes three major Chinese contributions to shipbuilding: the stern post rudder, the compartmentalized hull, and paddle wheel propulsion.

Reviews

Reviews Get access TSIEN TSUEN-HSUIN, Paper and Printing, in JOSEPH NEEDHAM, Science and Civilisation in China, vol. 5: Chemistry and Chemical Technology, part I. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1985, £45.00. ISBN 0521 086906. FRANCES WOOD FRANCES WOOD London Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar The Library, Volume s6-IX, Issue 1, March 1987, Pages 56–58, https://doi.org/10.1093/library/s6-IX.1.56 Published: 01 March 1987

The Characteristics of Ancient China’s Astronomy

What are the characteristics of ancient China’s astronomy? Many scholars have discussed the problem. In 1939 Herbert Chatley summed up fifteen points. Joseph Needham(1959) in his great work Science and civilisation in China concentrated it into seven points. 1the elaboration of a polar and equatorial system strikingly different from that of the Hellenistic peoples;2the early conception of an infinite universe, with the stars as bodies floating in empty space;3the development of quantitative positional astronomy and star catalogues two centuries before any other civilisation of which comparable works have come down to us;4the use in these catalogues of equatorial coordinates, and a faithfulness to them extending over two millennia;5the elaboration, in steadily increasing complexity, of astronomical instruments, culminating in the 13th century invention of the equatorial mounting, as an ‘adapted torquetum’ or ‘dissected’ armillary sphere;6the invention of the clock drive for that forerunner of the telescope, the sighting tube, and a number of ingenious mechanical devices ancillary to astronomical instruments;7the maintenance, for longer continuous periods than any other civilisation, of accurate records of celestial phenomena, such as eclipses, comets, Sunspots, etc.

The ancient Chinese “calendrical” pitchpipes

The most important symbol of “order” or “natural law” in Han China (202 B.C. to 220 A.D.) was a set of 12 end‐blown bamboo tubes known today as the “pitchpipes.” Each pipe sounded a single tone of the chromatic octave and served as “tonic” for a specific calendrical period. All weights and measures of the empire were derived from the dimensions and capacity of the fundamental pipe, from which the lengths of other pipes were proportioned according to string ratios. It is of interest to the history of acoustical physics and to the study of science and civilization in China to ask how much “order” such pipes display when blown. Within a narrow Han limitation to diameter/length ratios between 1/30 and 1/27, and to fundamental lengths somewhat shorter than the foot, the cyclic excess in “pure” wholetones of 9:8 offsets pipe “end correction” sufficiently to permit the wholetone scale on the tonic (i.e., the six yang, “male” tones, the only ones strictly designated lu, meaning “order”) to be sounded at or very near equal temperament values. Thus pitchpipes—within well‐defined physical parameters—were arguably an appropriate cultural icon for cyclic orderliness. Sinologists overlook this lawfulness.

Science and Civilisation in China . Vol. 6: Biology and Biological Technology . Pt. 2: Agriculture by Francesca Bray (review)

Science and Civilisation in China . Vol. 6: Biology and Biological Technology . Pt. 2: Agriculture by Francesca Bray (review)

Revaluation on the Ancient Civilization in South China

Revaluation on the Ancient Civilization in South China

Pioneer Scientists in Pre‐Independance India

The conviction that scientific rationality can lead to intellectual liberation and thus convey benefits to a society that are at least as important as the material benefits derived from research has been central to Western thinking since the 17th century. That conviction is evident, for example, in the career of Benjamin Franklin, and is reflected in most of the official documents associated with the establishment of the American Republic. Studies by several scholars—most notably Joseph Needham in his Science and Civilization in China—indicate that the development of science in other societies has also been deeply rooted in a cultural tradition of tolerance. If so, then it can be argued that neither modern science nor the conditions required to capture its tangible benefits can thrive in any society unless science can be harmonized with the cultural traditions of that society.

Science and Civilisation in China, Volume VI, Biology and Biological Technology: Part II: Agriculture by Francesca Bray.

Science and Civilisation in China, Volume VI, Biology and Biological Technology: Part II: Agriculture by Francesca Bray.

Science and Civilisation in China. Volume 5: Chemistry and Chemical Technology/Part I: Paper and Priting.

Science and Civilisation in China. Volume 5: Chemistry and Chemical Technology/Part I: Paper and Priting.

Science and Civilisation in China V:5 and VI:2

Science and Civilisation in China V:5 and VI:2

Science and Civilisation in China V:5 and VI:2

Science and Civilisation in China V:5 and VI:2

Science and Civilisation in China. Volume 6: Biology and Biological Technology/Part II: Agriculture.

Science and Civilisation in China. Volume 6: Biology and Biological Technology/Part II: Agriculture.

China under the plough

Science and Civilisation in China. Volume 6, Part II Agriculture. By Francesca Bray. Cambridge University Press: 1984. Pp. 724, £50, $99.50.

The Shorter Science and Civilization in China

The Shorter Science and Civilization in China

The Shorter Science and Civilisation in China: An Abridgement of Joseph Needham's Original Text. Vol. 1: Vols. I and II of the Major Series. By Colin A. Ronan and Joseph Needham. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1978 (cloth); 1980 (paper), xi, 326 pp. (cloth); 337 pp. (paper). Illustrations, Tables, Bibliography, Index. $29.95 (cloth); $12.95 (paper).

The Shorter Science and Civilisation in China: An Abridgement of Joseph Needham's Original Text. Vol. 1: Vols. I and II of the Major Series. By Colin A. Ronan and Joseph Needham. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1978 (cloth); 1980 (paper), xi, 326 pp. (cloth); 337 pp. (paper). Illustrations, Tables, Bibliography, Index. $29.95 (cloth); $12.95 (paper).

Science and Civilisation in China. Vol. 5. Chemistry and Chemical Technology. Pt. IV: Spagyrical Discovery and Invention: Apparatus, Theories, and Gifts. By Joseph Needham, with the collaboration of Ho Pingyü and Lu Gwei-djen. pp. xlviii, 772. Cambridge, etc., Cambridge University Press, 1980. £48.

Science and Civilisation in China. Vol. 5. Chemistry and Chemical Technology. Pt. IV: Spagyrical Discovery and Invention: Apparatus, Theories, and Gifts. By Joseph Needham, with the collaboration of Ho Pingyü and Lu Gwei-djen. pp. xlviii, 772. Cambridge, etc., Cambridge University Press, 1980. £48. - Volume 114 Issue 2

Science and Civilisation in China, Vol. 5: Chemistry and Chemical Technology, Part IV: Spagyrical Discovery and Invention: Apparatus, Theories and Gifts. By Joseph Needham. [Cambridge: C.U.P., 1980.692 pp. + index £48–00.

Science and Civilisation in China, Vol. 5: Chemistry and Chemical Technology, Part IV: Spagyrical Discovery and Invention: Apparatus, Theories and Gifts. By Joseph Needham. [Cambridge: C.U.P., 1980.692 pp. + index £48–00.

Dr Needham on Chinese and European science: some comments

For forty years, Dr Joseph Needham of Cambridge has conducted a masterly survey into the history of science and technology, through the whole period of classical Chinese civilisation. Aided latterly by a small group of specialists, he has now published more than ten separate volumes entitled Science and Civilization in China. This monumental work has led to a number of observations in which aspects of Chinese achievements are compared with related activities in European science. These comments are concerned with what may be inadequacies in these comparisons. One of Needham's recurring problems is to explain why Chinese technology, ahead of that in Europe for more than two millenia, did not lead to the rational mathematico-logical science of the post-Galilean variety. Some of his assessments are criticised. It is suggested that a major feature in the West was Greek-Arabic mathematics with its logical structure and its enormous power in the analysis of physical systems. Needham, as a biologist, has a deep appreciation of the 'organic' world-view which is so strongly represented in Chinese writings: but there are dangers, to be avoided, in supporting a dichotomy between the biological and physical sciences. Is field theory essentially non-mechanistic only in that it cannot usefully be illustrated in terms of levers and pulleys? Some of Needham's claims for the significance of Chinese science are considered in relation in the science we call chemistry.

Early Civilization in China: Shang Civilization . Kwang-Chih Chang. Yale University Press, New Haven, Conn., 1980. xviii, 418 pp., illus. $30.

Early Civilization in China: <i>Shang Civilization</i> . Kwang-Chih Chang. Yale University Press, New Haven, Conn., 1980. xviii, 418 pp., illus. $30.