History of science and technology in China

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The history of science and technology in China is both long and rich with technological contribution. In Antiquity, independent of Greek philosophers and other civilizations, ancient Chinese philosophers made significant advances in science, technology, mathematics, and astronomy. The first recorded observations of comets, solar eclipses, and supernovas were made in China.^[1] Traditional Chinese Medicine, acupuncture and herbal medicine were also practised.

Among the earliest inventions were the abacus and the "shadow clock" and the first flying machine such as Kite and Kongming lantern^[2] The "Four Great Inventions of ancient China" were among the most important technological advances; these were the compass, gunpowder, papermaking, and printing, which were later known in Europe by the end of the Middle Ages. The Tang dynasty (AD 618 - 906) in particular was a time of great innovation.^[2] A good deal of exchange occurred between Western and Chinese discoveries up to the Qing dynasty.

The Jesuit China missions of the 16th and 17th centuries introduced Western science and astronomy, then undergoing its own revolution, to China, and knowledge of Chinese technology was brought to Europe.^[3][4] Much of the early Western work in the history of science in China was done by Joseph Needham.

Contents 1 Early technological achievements 2 The Four Great Inventions of ancient China 3 The Middle Ages 4 Jesuit activity in China 5 Scientific and technological stagnation 6 Science and technology in the People's Republic of China 7 Notes 8 References 9 See also

[edit] Early technological achievements

Perhaps the oldest longstanding contributions of the ancient Chinese are in Traditional Chinese Medicine, including acupuncture and herbal medicine, derived from Taoist philosophy. The practice of acupuncture can be traced as far back as the 1st millennium BC and some scientists believe that there is evidence that practices similar to acupuncture were used in Eurasia during the early Bronze Age.^[5]

The ancient Chinese also invented counting and time-keeping devices, which facilitated mathematical and astronomical observations. Shadow clocks, the forerunners of the sundial, first appeared in China about 4,000 years ago,^[2] while the abacus was invented in China sometime between 1000 BC and 500 BC.^[6][7] Using these the Chinese were able to record observations, documenting the first solar eclipse in 2137 BC, and making the first recording of any planetary grouping in 500 BC.^[1] The Book of Silk was the first definitive atlas of comets, written c. 400 BC. It listed 29 comets (referred to as broom stars) that appeared over a period of about 300 years, with renderings of comets describing an event its appearance corresponded to.^[1]

In architecture, the pinnacle of Chinese technology manifested itself in the Great Wall of China, under the first Chinese Emperor Qin Shi Huang between 220 BC and 200 BC. Typical Chinese architecture changed little from the succeeding Han Dynasty until the 19th century.^[8] The Qin Dynasty also developed the crossbow, which later became the mainstream weapon in Europe. Several remains of crossbows have been found among the soldiers of the Terracotta Army in the tomb of Qin Shi Huang.^[9]

Sliding calipers were invented in China almost 2,000 years ago.^[2] The Eastern Han Dynasty scholar and astronomer Zhang Heng invented one of the first armillary sphere, and catalogued 2500 stars and over 100 constellations. In 132, he invented the first seismological detector, called the "Houfeng Didong Yi" ("Instrument for inquiring into the wind and the shaking of the earth").^[10] According to the History of Later Han Dynasty (25-220 AD), this seismograph was an urn-like instrument, which would drop one of eight balls to indicate when and in which direction an earthquake had occurred.^[10] On June 13, 2005, Chinese seismologists announced that they had created a replica of the instrument.^[10]

Chinese were the first civilization to success in exploring the aviation,Kite and Kongming lantern(proto Hot air balloon) are the first flying machines.

[edit] The Four Great Inventions of ancient China

Main article: Four Great Inventions of ancient China

The "Four Great Inventions of ancient China" (Traditional Chinese: 四大發明; Simplified Chinese: 四大发明; pinyin: Sì dà fā míng) are the compass, gunpowder, papermaking, and printing. Paper and printing were developed first. Printing was recorded in China in the Tang Dynasty, although the earliest surviving examples of printed cloth patterns date to before 220.^[11] Pin-pointing the development of the compass can be difficult: the magnetic attraction of a needle is attested by the Louen-heng, composed between AD 20 and 100,^[12] although the first undisputed magnetized needles in Chinese literature appear in 1086.^[13]

By AD 300, Ge Hong, an alchemist of the Jin Dynasty, conclusively recorded the chemical reactions caused when saltpetre, pine resin and charcoal were heated together in his book "Book of the Master of the Preservations of Solidarity".^[14] Another early record of gunpowder, a Chinese book from c. 850 AD indicates that gunpowder was a byproduct of Taoist alchemical efforts to develop an elixir of immortality:^[15]

Some have heated together sulfur, realgar and saltpeter with honey; smoke and flames result, so that their hands and faces have been burnt, and even the whole house where they were working burned down.^[16]

These four discoveries had an enormous impact on the development of Chinese civilization and a far-ranging global impact. Gunpowder, for example, spread to the Arabs in the 13th century and thence to Europe.^[17] According to English philosopher Francis Bacon, writing in Novum Organum:

Printing, gunpowder and the compass: These three have changed the whole face and state of things throughout the world; the first in literature, the second in warfare, the third in navigation; whence have followed innumerable changes, in so much that no empire, no sect, no star seems to have exerted greater power and influence in human affairs than these mechanical discoveries." ^[18]

[edit] The Middle Ages

Among the scientific accomplishments of early China were matches, dry docks, the double-action piston pump, cast iron, the iron plough, the multi-tube seed drill, the wheelbarrow, the suspension bridge, the parachute, natural gas as fuel, the raised-relief map, and the propeller. The Tang Dynasty (618 - 906 AD) in particular was a time of great innovation.^[2]

In the 7th century, book-printing was developed in China and Japan, using delicate hand-carved wooden blocks to print individual pages.^[2] The 9th century Diamond Sutra is the earliest known printed document.^[2] Movable type was also used in China for a time, but was abandoned because of the number of characters needed; it would not be until Gutenburg that the technique was reinvented in a suitable environment.^[2]

In addition to gunpowder, the Chinese also developed improved delivery systems for the Byzantine weapon of Greek fire,Meng Huo You and Pen Huo Qi first used in China c. 900.^[19] Chinese illustrations were more realistic than in Byzantine manuscripts,^[19] and detailed accounts from 1044 recommending its use on city walls and ramparts show the brass container as fitted with a horizontal pump, and a nozzle of small diameter.^[19] The records of a battle on the Yangtze near Nanjing in 975 offer an insight into the dangers of the weapon, as a change of wind direction blew the fire back onto the Song forces.^[19]

The Song Dynasty (960-1279) brought a new stability for China after a century of civil war, and started a new area of modernisation by encouraging examinations and meritocracy. The first Song Emperor created political institutions that allowed a great deal of freedom of discourse and thought, which facilitated the growth of scientific advance, economic reforms, and achievements in arts and literature.^[20] Trade flourished both within China and overseas, and the encouragement of technology allowed the mints at Kaifeng and Hangzhou to gradually increase in production.^[20] In 1080, the mints of Emperor Shenzong were produced 5 billion coins (roughly 50 per Chinese citizen), and the first banknotes were produced in 1023.^[20] These coins were so durable that they would still be in use 700 years later, in the 18th century.^[20]

Chinese astronomers were also among the first to record observations of a supernova, in 1054, making the Crab Nebula the first astronomical object recognized as being connected to a supernova explosion.^[21] Arab and Chinese astronomy intermingled under the Mongol rule of the Yuan Dynasty. Muslim astronomers worked in the Chinese astronomical bureau established by Kublai Khan, while some Chinese astronomers also worked at the Persian Maragha observatory.^[22] (Before this, in ancient times, Indian astronomers had lent their experitise to the Chinese court [3]). Mongol rule also saw technological advances from an economic perspective, with the first mass production of paper banknotes by Kublai Khan in the 11th century.^[2]

[edit] Jesuit activity in China

The Jesuit China missions of the 16th and 17th centuries introduced Western science and astronomy, then undergoing its own revolution, to China. The Society of Jesus introduced, according to Thomas Woods, "a substantial body of scientific knowledge and a vast array of mental tools for understanding the physical universe, including the Euclidean geometry that made planetary motion comprehensible."^[3] Another expert quoted by Woods said the scientific revolution brought by the Jesuits coincided with a time when science was at a very low level in China:

[The Jesuits] made efforts to translate western mathematical and astronomical works into Chinese and aroused the interest of Chinese scholars in these sciences. They made very extensive astronomical observation and carried out the first modern cartographic work in China. They also learned to appreciate the scientific achievements of this ancient culture and made them known in Europe. Through their correspondence European scientists first learned about the Chinese science and culture.^[4]

[edit] Scientific and technological stagnation

One question that has been the subject of debate among historians has been why China did not develop a scientific revolution and why Chinese technology fell behind that of Europe. Many hypotheses have been proposed ranging from the cultural to the political and economic. Nathan Sivin has argued that China indeed had a scientific revolution in the 17th century and that we are still far from understanding the scientific revolutions of the West and China in all their political, economic and social ramifications.^[23] John K. Fairbank argued that the Chinese political system was hostile to scientific progress.

Needham argued, and most scholars agreed, that cultural factors prevented these Chinese achievements from developing into what could be called "science".^[3] It was the religious and philosophical framework of the Chinese intellectuals which made them unable to believe in the ideas of laws of nature:

It was not that there was no order in nature for the Chinese, but rather that it was not an order ordained by a rational personal being, and hence there was no conviction that rational personal beings would be able to spell out in their lesser earthly languages the divine code of laws which he had decreed aforetime. The Taoists, indeed, would have scorned such an idea as being too naïve for the subtlety and complexity of the universe as they intuited it.^[24]

Similar grounds have been found for questioning much of the philosophy behind traditional Chinese medicine, which, derived mainly from Taoist philosophy, reflects the classical Chinese belief that individual human experiences express causative principles effective in the environment at all scales. Because its theory predates use of the scientific method, it has received various criticisms based on scientific thinking. Even though there are physically verifiable anatomical or histological bases for the existence of acupuncture points or meridians, for instance skin conductance measurements show increases at the predicted points (see _The Body Electric_ by Robert O. Becker, M.D., pgs 233-236), philosopher Robert Todd Carroll, a member of the Skeptics Society, deemed acupuncture a pseudoscience because it "confuse(s) metaphysical claims with empirical claims".[4]:

...no matter how it is done, scientific research can never demonstrate that unblocking chi by acupuncture or any other means is effective against any disease. Chi is defined as being undetectable by the methods of empirical science.[5]

More recent historians have questioned political and cultural explanations and have focused more on economic causes. Mark Elvin's high level equilibrium trap is one well-known example of this line of thought, as well as Kenneth Pomeranz' argument that resources from the New World made the crucial difference between European and Chinese development.

[edit] Science and technology in the People's Republic of China

Main article: Science and technology in the People's Republic of China

Science and technology in the People's Republic of China is growing rapidly. As the People's Republic of China has become better connected to the global economy, the government has placed more emphasis on science and technology. This has led to increases in funding, improved scientific structure, and more money for research. These factors have led to advancements in agriculture, medicine, genetics, and global change.

[edit] Notes

1. ^ ^{a b c} Ancient Chinese Astronomy
2. ^ ^{a b c d e f g h i} Inventions (Pocket Guides).
3. ^ ^{a b c} Woods
4. ^ ^{a b} Agustín Udías, p.53
5. ^ [1], [2]
6. ^ Video: Computers: The Abacus. Encyclopædia Britannica.
7. ^ The Invention of the Abacus. Maxfield & Montrose Interactive Inc.
8. ^ Buildings (Pocket Guides).
9. ^ Weapons of the terracotta army
10. ^ ^{a b c} People's Daily Online
11. ^ Shelagh Vainker
12. ^ "A lodestone attracts a needle." Li Shu-hua, p.176
13. ^ Li Shu-hua, p.182f.
14. ^ Liang, pp. Appendix C VII
15. ^ Kelly, p. 3
16. ^ Kelly, p. 4
17. ^ Kelly, p. 22. "Around 1240 the Arabs acquired knowledge of saltpeter (“Chinese snow”) from the East, perhaps through India. They knew of gunpowder soon afterward. They also learned about fireworks (“Chinese flowers”) and rockets (“Chinese arrows”)."
18. ^ Novum Organum, Liber I, CXXIX - Adapted from the 1863 translation
19. ^ ^{a b c d} Turnbull, p. 43
20. ^ ^{a b c d} Money of the World Special Christmas Edition, Orbis Publishing Ltd, 1998.
21. ^ Mayall N.U. (1939), The Crab Nebula, a Probable Supernova, Astronomical Society of the Pacific Leaflets, v. 3, p.145
22. ^ Abstracta Iranica
23. ^ Nathan Sivin's Curriculum Vitae
24. ^ Joseph Needham, p. 581.

[edit] References

• Inventions (Pocket Guides). Publisher: DK CHILDREN; Pocket edition (March 15, 1995). ISBN 1564588890. ISBN 978-1564588890
• Buildings (Pocket Guides). Publisher: DK CHILDREN; Pocket edition (March 15, 1995). ISBN 1564588858. ISBN 978-1564588852
• Mark Elvin, "The high-level equilibrium trap: the causes of the decline of invention in the traditional Chinese textile industries" in W. E. Willmott, Economic Organization in Chinese Society, (Stanford, Calif., Stanford University Press, 1972) pp. 137-172.
  • The High-level Equilibrium TrapPDF (64.3 KiB)
• Kelly, Jack (2004). Gunpowder: Alchemy, Bombards, & Pyrotechnics: The History of the Explosive that Changed the World. Basic Books. ISBN 0-465-03718-6. 
• Liang, Jieming (2006). Chinese Siege Warfare: Mechanical Artillery & Siege Weapons of Antiquity. ISBN 981-05-5380-3. 
• Joseph Needham, Science and Civilization in China, volume 1. (Cambridge University Press, 1954)
• Li Shu-hua, “Origine de la Boussole 11. Aimant et Boussole,” Isis, Vol. 45, No. 2. (Jul., 1954)
• Stephen Turnbull, The Walls of Constantinople, AD 324–1453, Osprey Publishing, ISBN 1-84176-759-X
• Agustín Udías, Searching the Heavens and the Earth: The History of Jesuit Observatories (Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2003)
• Shelagh Vainker in Anne Farrer (ed), "Caves of the Thousand Buddhas" , 1990, British Museum publications, ISBN 0 7141 1447 2
• Thomas Woods, How the Catholic Church Built Western Civilization, (Washington, DC: Regenery, 2005), ISBN 0-89526-038-7

[edit] See also

• Chinese mathematics
• List of Chinese inventions
• Science and technology in the People's Republic of China
• Traditional Chinese medicine
• Yongle Encyclopedia