Science and Civilization in China
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''Science and Civilisation in China'' (1954–present) is an ongoing series of books about the history of science and technology in China published by
Cambridge University Press Cambridge University Press is the university press of the University of Cambridge. Granted letters patent by King Henry VIII in 1534, it is the oldest university press in the world. It is also the King's Printer. Cambridge University Pre ...
. It was initiated and edited by British historian Joseph Needham (1900–1995). Needham was a well-respected scientist before undertaking this encyclopedia and was even responsible for the "S" in
UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. It ...
. To date there have been seven volumes in twenty-seven books. The series was on the Modern Library Board's 100 Best Nonfiction books of the 20th century. Needham's work was the first of its kind to praise Chinese scientific contributions and provide their history and connection to global knowledge in contrast to eurocentric historiography. By asking his grand questions: why did modern science not develop in China, and why China was technologically superior to the West prior to the 16th century, Needham’s ''Science and Civilisation in China'' is also recognized as one of most influential works in stimulating the discourse on the multicultural roots of modern science. In 1954, Needham—along with an international team of collaborators—initiated the project to study the science, technology, and civilisation of ancient China. This project produced a series of volumes published by
Cambridge University Press Cambridge University Press is the university press of the University of Cambridge. Granted letters patent by King Henry VIII in 1534, it is the oldest university press in the world. It is also the King's Printer. Cambridge University Pre ...
. The project is still continuing under the guidance of the Publications Board of the Needham Research Institute (NRI), chaired by
Christopher Cullen Christopher Cullen is an English sinologist. He has an MA from University of Oxford in engineering and a PhD from the School of Oriental and African Studies in classical Chinese. He is Director Emeritus of the Needham Research Institute and Gene ...
. Volume 3 of the encyclopedia was the first body of work to describe Chinese improvements to
cartography Cartography (; from grc, χάρτης , "papyrus, sheet of paper, map"; and , "write") is the study and practice of making and using maps. Combining science, aesthetics and technique, cartography builds on the premise that reality (or an i ...
,
geology Geology () is a branch of natural science concerned with Earth and other astronomical objects, the features or rocks of which it is composed, and the processes by which they change over time. Modern geology significantly overlaps all other Ea ...
,
seismology Seismology (; from Ancient Greek σεισμός (''seismós'') meaning "earthquake" and -λογία (''-logía'') meaning "study of") is the scientific study of earthquakes and the propagation of elastic waves through the Earth or through other ...
and mineralogy. It also includes descriptions of nautical technology, sailing charts, and wheel-maps. Needham's transliteration of
Chinese characters Chinese characters () are logograms developed for the writing of Chinese. In addition, they have been adapted to write other East Asian languages, and remain a key component of the Japanese writing system where they are known as ''kanji ...
uses the Wade-Giles system, though the aspirate apostrophe (e.g., ''ch'i'') was rendered 'h' (viz. ''chhi''; traditional Chinese: 氣; Mandarin Pinyin: '' ''). However, it was abandoned in favor of the
pinyin Hanyu Pinyin (), often shortened to just pinyin, is the official romanization system for Standard Chinese, Standard Mandarin Chinese in China, and to some extent, in Singapore and Malaysia. It is often used to teach Mandarin, normally writte ...
system by the NRI board in April 2004, with Volume 5, Part 11 becoming the first to use the new system.


Background


Development

Joseph Needham’s interest in the history of Chinese science developed while he worked as an Embryologist at
Cambridge University The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209 and granted a royal charter by Henry III of England, Henry III in 1231, Cambridge is the world' ...
. At the time, Needham had already published works relating to the history of science, including his 1934 book titled ''
A History of Embryology ''A History of Embryology'' is a 1934 book by Joseph Needham. The book is based on lectures on Speculation, Observation, and Experiment. The same lectures were then compiled and released as a book published.The Embryo Project Encyclopedia https: ...
'', and was open to expanding his historical scientific knowledge. Needham's first encounter with Chinese culture occurred in 1937 when three Chinese medical students arrived to work with him at the Cambridge Biochemical Laboratory. Needham's interest in Chinese civilization and scientific progress grew as a result and led him to learn Chinese from his students. Two of those students, Wang Ling, and
Lu Gwei-djen Lu Gwei-djen (; July 22, 1904 – November 28, 1991) was a Chinese biochemist and historian. She was an expert on the history of science and technology in China and a researcher of nutriology. She was an important researcher and co-author of ...
, would later become his collaborators on ''Science and Civilisation in China''. In 1941, China's eastern universities were forced to relocate to the west as a result of the
Second Sino-Japanese War The Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945) or War of Resistance (Chinese term) was a military conflict that was primarily waged between the Republic of China and the Empire of Japan. The war made up the Chinese theater of the wider Pacific Th ...
. Chinese academics sought the help of the British government in an effort to preserve their intellectual life. In 1942, Needham was selected and appointed as a diplomat by the British government and tasked with traveling to China and assessing the situation. During his three years there, Needham realised that the Chinese had developed techniques and mechanisms which were centuries older than their European counterparts. Needham became concerned with the exclusion of China in the Western history of science and began to question why the Chinese ceased to develop new techniques after the 16th century.


Publication

Armed with his new-found knowledge, Needham returned to Cambridge in 1948 and began working on a book with one of the Chinese medical students he met in Cambridge, Wang Ling, who was now a professor at a university. Initially, he planned on releasing only one volume of his findings through the Cambridge University Press, but later changed his mind and proposed up to eleven volumes. In 1954, Needham published the first volume of ''Science and Civilisation in China'', which was well received and was followed by other volumes which focused on specific scientific fields and topics. Needham, along with his collaborators, was personally involved in all of the volumes of Science and Civilization, up until Needham's death in 1995. After Needham's death, Cambridge University established the Needham Research Institute. Scholars of the institution continue Needham's work and have published 8 additional volumes of ''Science and Civilisation in China'', since his death.


Volumes


Summaries

There have been two summaries or condensations of the vast amount of material found in ''Science and Civilisation''. The first, a one-volume
popular history Popular history is a broad genre of historiography that takes a popular approach, aims at a wide readership, and usually emphasizes narrative, personality and vivid detail over scholarly analysis. The term is used in contradistinction to professio ...
book by Robert Temple entitled ''The Genius of China'', was completed in a little over 12 months to be available in 1986 for the visit of Queen Elizabeth II to China. This addressed only the contributions made by China and had a "warm welcome" from Joseph Needham in the introduction, though in the ''Beijing Review'' he criticized that it had "some mistakes ... and various statements that I would like to have seen expressed rather differently". A second was made by
Colin Ronan Colin Alistair Ronan FRAS (4 June 1920, in London – 1 June 1995) was a British author and specialist in the history and philosophy of science. Education Colin Alistair Ronan was educated at Abingdon School in Abingdon-on-Thames, Oxfordshire f ...
, a writer on the history of science, who produced a five volume condensation ''The Shorter Science and Civilisation: An abridgement of Joseph Needham's original text'', between 1980 and his death in 1995. These volumes cover: # China and Chinese science # Mathematics, astronomy, meteorology and the earth sciences # Magnetism, nautical technology, navigation, voyages # Mechanical engineering, machines, clockwork, windmills, aeronautics # Civil engineering, roads, bridges, hydraulic engineering


Reception


Criticism from scholars

''Science and Civilisation in China '' is highly regarded among scholars because of its extensive comparative coverage of Chinese innovations.Finlay, Robert. "China, the West, and World History in Joseph Needham's Science and Civilisation in China." ''Journal of World History'', vol. 11 no. 2, 2000, pp. 265-303. ''Project MUSE'', doi:10.1353/jwh.2000.0035 Needham spent a large amount of time translating, and decoding primary sources for ''Science and Civilisation in China''. All of his efforts helped to confirm that scientific advancements, and analytical ingenuity were abundant in China in early modern times. Yet, beginning with his first volume, some scholars in the
scientific Science is a systematic endeavor that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe. Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earliest archeological evidence for ...
, history of science, and
sinology Sinology, or Chinese studies, is an academic discipline that focuses on the study of China primarily through Chinese philosophy, language, literature, culture and history and often refers to Western scholarship. Its origin "may be traced to th ...
fields criticized Needham's work for being too comparative. In his work, Needham wrote that numerous Chinese inventions ended up in the west, including the
magnetic compass A compass is a device that shows the cardinal directions used for navigation and geographic orientation. It commonly consists of a magnetized needle or other element, such as a compass card or compass rose, which can pivot to align itself with ...
, and the mechanical clock. Needham also wrote that once these inventions reached
Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located entirel ...
, they had a great impact on social life, and helped to stimulate the economy, as well as usher in the
Scientific Revolution The Scientific Revolution was a series of events that marked the emergence of modern science during the early modern period, when developments in mathematics, physics, astronomy, biology (including human anatomy) and chemistry transfo ...
. Other scholars criticized his Marxist background, his understanding of Chinese culture, and his methodology. In the article "China, the West, and World History in Joseph Needham's Science and Civilisation in China", author Robert Finlay criticizes Needham by suggesting "Needham never shied away from bold generalizations" and "employs many outdated concepts and makes countless unsupported assertions". To support this assertion, Finlay points out that Needham never focuses on individual states and regions, instead he places Chinese, Indian, Islamic, and Western achievements within the context of reciprocal relations of Eurasian cultures. Editor of Volume 6,
Nathan Sivin Nathan Sivin (11 May 1931 – 24 June 2022), also known as Xiwen (), was an American sinologist, historian, essayist, educator, and writer. He taught first at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, then at the University of Pennsylvania until his r ...
and Needham's research collaborator
Lu Gwei-djen Lu Gwei-djen (; July 22, 1904 – November 28, 1991) was a Chinese biochemist and historian. She was an expert on the history of science and technology in China and a researcher of nutriology. She was an important researcher and co-author of ...
include updated research to support some of Needham's claims. However, Sivin is critical of Needham suggesting more research is required citing his assumptions of
Taoism Taoism (, ) or Daoism () refers to either a school of philosophical thought (道家; ''daojia'') or to a religion (道教; ''daojiao''), both of which share ideas and concepts of Chinese origin and emphasize living in harmony with the '' Ta ...
's role in promoting scientific feats in China. Sociologist Toby E. Huff gives an overview of Needham's singular legacy in his book ''The Rise of Early Modern Science: Islam, China, and the West.'' But Huff suggests that Needham gave many misleading impressions regarding China's supposed scientific advantages over the west.


Critical acclaim

Needham's ''Science and Civilisation in China'' did not receive criticism from scholars in other fields of study.
Groff Conklin Edward Groff Conklin (September 6, 1904 – July 19, 1968) was an American science fiction anthologist. He edited 40 anthologies of science fiction, one of mystery stories (co-edited with physician Noah Fabricant), wrote books on home improvemen ...
of ''
Galaxy Science Fiction ''Galaxy Science Fiction'' was an American digest-size science fiction magazine, published in Boston from 1950 to 1980. It was founded by a French-Italian company, World Editions, which was looking to break into the American market. World Editi ...
'' in 1955 said that Vol. 1 "presents a richly patterned tapestry of the development of civilization in the Far East", and that "it is for everyone who is intrigued by the unknown, whether future (science fiction) or past (scientific history)". Jonathan Spence wrote in a 1982 ''
New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' article "this work is the most ambitious undertaking in Chinese studies during this century". The ''New York Times'' obituary for Needham stated that those educated in China hail Needham's encyclopedia and compare him to
Charles Darwin Charles Robert Darwin ( ; 12 February 1809 – 19 April 1882) was an English naturalist, geologist, and biologist, widely known for his contributions to evolutionary biology. His proposition that all species of life have descended ...
in terms of importance regarding scientific knowledge. In 1999 Derk Bodde published ''Beyond Science and Civilization: A Post-Needham Critique'' giving more analysis of Needham's work about how sciences of the West and China differed in practice to make for different historical attributes. According to Arun Bala, the author of '' The Dialogue of Civilizations in the Birth of Modern Science,'' Needham postulates that scientific knowledge may evolve to more closely resemble Chinese philosophical views of nature; signifying his belief in Chinese inherent wisdom.


The Needham Question


Origins

After his extensive research of Chinese innovations, Joseph Needham became concerned with the question: Why did modern science stop developing in China after the 16th century? Needham believed this was due to China’s sociopolitical system which was not affected by Chinese inventions. China did not have a structure in which merchants could profit from their inventions, unlike the West. Once Chinese inventions reached
Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located entirel ...
, they revolutionized their sociopolitical system, which used the inventions to dominate political rivals. According to Needham, Chinese innovations, such as
gunpowder Gunpowder, also commonly known as black powder to distinguish it from modern smokeless powder, is the earliest known chemical explosive. It consists of a mixture of sulfur, carbon (in the form of charcoal) and potassium nitrate (saltpeter). Th ...
, the
compass A compass is a device that shows the cardinal directions used for navigation and geographic orientation. It commonly consists of a magnetized needle or other element, such as a compass card or compass rose, which can pivot to align itself wit ...
,
paper Paper is a thin sheet material produced by mechanically or chemically processing cellulose fibres derived from wood, rags, grasses or other vegetable sources in water, draining the water through fine mesh leaving the fibre evenly distrib ...
, and
printing Printing is a process for mass reproducing text and images using a master form or template. The earliest non-paper products involving printing include cylinder seals and objects such as the Cyrus Cylinder and the Cylinders of Nabonidus. The ...
, helped transform European
Feudalism Feudalism, also known as the feudal system, was the combination of the legal, economic, military, cultural and political customs that flourished in medieval Europe between the 9th and 15th centuries. Broadly defined, it was a way of structur ...
into
Capitalism Capitalism is an economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production and their operation for profit. Central characteristics of capitalism include capital accumulation, competitive markets, price system, priva ...
. By the end of the 15th century,
Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located entirel ...
was actively financing scientific discoveries, and nautical exploration. The
paradox A paradox is a logically self-contradictory statement or a statement that runs contrary to one's expectation. It is a statement that, despite apparently valid reasoning from true premises, leads to a seemingly self-contradictory or a logically u ...
of this conclusion was that
Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located entirel ...
surpassed China in scientific innovations, using Chinese technologies.


Re-formulation

After several volumes of ''Science and Civilisation in China'' had been published, Needham was questioned about his theory of the origin of science in the West. Needham, troubled by past criticism and dismissal of his work as Marxist theory, declined to publicly state his relationship to
Marxism Marxism is a left-wing to far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand class relations and social conflict and a dialectical ...
. Later, in Needham’s work ''
The Grand Titration ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...
,'' he re-framed his question as: ''“why, between the first century BC and the fifteenth century AD, Chinese civilization was much more efficient than occidental in applying human natural knowledge to practical human needs”'' The reformulation of the question, changed the narrative of ''Science and Civilisation in China''. Initially, the question centered around China’s failure to develop scientifically after the 16th century. The focus shifted towards an examination of China’s accomplishments prior to development in Europe, this focus was addressed throughout ''Science and Civilisation in China''. Needham's attempt to uncover the reasoning behind China's rise and fall as an elite scientific and technologically advanced nation has been expounded upon and debated for decades including
Justin Yifu Lin Justin Yifu Lin (; born on October 15, 1952) is a Chinese economist and professor of economics at Peking University. He served as the Chief Economist and Senior Vice President of the World Bank from 2008 to 2012. He has been appointed as China S ...
's
University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chic ...
journal article "The Needham Puzzle".


Scholarly Discourse

In the late 1950’s and early 1960’s, in response to Joseph Needham’s ''Science and Civilisation in China'', Western historians insisted that modern science was unique to Western civilizations. Scholars like Roger Hart stated that Needham’s work was significant in helping change the criteria for defining modern science. In Hart’s ''Imagined Civilizations: China, The West, and Their First Encounter'', Hart introduces the idea of the “Great Divide” between “the primitive non-West and the modern West” in the history of science. Hart explains the concept of the “Great Divide” as the perception that non-Western civilizations practiced false sciences. Roger Hart’s idea of the “Great Divide” criticizes the Eurocentric claim that the development of modern science was uniquely Western. Bala’s ''The Dialogue of Civilizations in the Birth of Modern Science'' examines historical and epistemological presumptions in order to break from the Eurocentric view of the development of modern science. Needham’s juxtaposition of the attributes of Eastern and Western science influenced Bala to postulate that the future of science could be close to the Chinese view of nature. Needham and his co-authors are credited for amassing a plethora of evidence regarding the influence and contributions of Chinese technologies and ideas that allowed for the growth of modern science in Europe. Some historians praise the standard of quality and thoroughness maintained throughout the volumes of ''Science and Civilization in China'', but others questioned the accuracy of its contents. George Métailié expressed concerns over Needham’s methodology when he discovered that certain dates quoted by Needham could not be supported with sufficient evidence. Despite the common criticism of ''Science and Civilization in China'' that suggests it may have been biased by Needham’s Marxist beliefs and political leftism, scholars like Gregory Blue believe that there is insufficient evidence to support that Needham’s ideological inclinations are what drove him to formulate the Needham questions. However, historians like H. Floris Cohen did criticize Needham’s imprudent approach to his work, positing that Needham too often made his own biases apparent in his writings and attempted to propagandize his own historical narrative. Similar to how Needham criticizes other historians for exaggerating Greek influences on modern science, Needham’s critics argue that he had the proclivity to exaggerate the influences of Chinese sciences in the same fashion. Since the publishing of the first volume of ''Science and Civilization in China'' in 1954, in the 21st century, a growing sentiment emerged among historians to dilute Europe's influence within the historical narrative of modern science. The reformulated Needham question drew the attention of scholars such as David J. Hess, a social anthropologist who referred to one of Needham’s lists in ''Science and Civilization in China'' to suggest that because the Chinese were technologically superior to the West prior to the 16th century, Chinese science was crucial to the foundation of modern science. American sinologist
Nathan Sivin Nathan Sivin (11 May 1931 – 24 June 2022), also known as Xiwen (), was an American sinologist, historian, essayist, educator, and writer. He taught first at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, then at the University of Pennsylvania until his r ...
counters this argument by suggesting that before the scientific revolution, technology was not a good measure of scientific capacity. The separation of scientific developments in the East and the West occurs thematically in scholarly debates over how extensively responsible the West was for the development of science. Joseph Needham contrasted the more “organic” understanding of nature that China held with the “mechanical” perspective through which the West viewed existence. While certain members of the scientific community viewed China’s science as more of a “pseudoscience,” to Needham, these advancements were part of a proto-scientific period that was later incorporated by the West after the 16th century. The philosopher Filmer Northrop postulated that Chinese achievements were considered to be a primitive science which only relied on intuition, whereas Western achievements were considered to be a result of the scientific process. Despite the notion that foundations of Chinese science were not in agreement with the scientific process, Bala notes that magnetism, a concept that heavily influenced the theories of Johannes Kepler and
Isaac Newton Sir Isaac Newton (25 December 1642 – 20 March 1726/27) was an English mathematician, physicist, astronomer, alchemist, theologian, and author (described in his time as a " natural philosopher"), widely recognised as one of the grea ...
, was developed through the intuition of ancient Chinese sciences. Needham contrasts Western modern science and Eastern natural science as “modern” and “primitive” sciences that were differentiated by their “universality”. He points out that because primitive sciences of the middle ages were intertwined with their cultural backgrounds, primitive sciences were not able to become “universal” until they were integrated with mathematics, a feat accomplished by the West. In response to historians like Rupert Hall, who believed that Eastern science was of negligible influence on modern science, Needham argues that since modern science was a product of combining natural science and mathematics, both Eastern organic science and Western mechanical science should be given equal credit for the creation of modern science. In support of Needham’s sentiment, Marta E. Hanson states that Western science was not able to replicate China’s millennia old ceramic and porcelain production techniques up until the publication of Georges Vogt’s scientific analysis of Chinese porcelain in 1900. Needham’s grand questions influenced other scholars to document the impact of non-European cultures on the development of modern science. Scholars such as Arun Bala have praised ''Science and Civilisation in China'' as the most comprehensive modern survey of the scientific and technological accomplishments of any non-European civilization. Needham’s work helped motivate the publication of more works that documented the influences of multicultural contributions on the development of modern science in its nascent stages, including ''Science and Civilization in Islam'' by Seyyed Hossien Nasr.


References


Citations


Sources

* Robert Finlay, "China, the West, and World History in Joseph Needham's ''Science and Civilisation in China''," ''Journal of World History ''11 (Fall 2000): 265-303. * Justin Lin, "The Needham Puzzle: Why the Industrial Revolution Did Not Originate in China," ''Economic development and cultural change ''43.2 (1995): 269-292
JSTOR link
*


External links


Needham Research Institute
{{DEFAULTSORT:Science and Civilisation in China Joseph Needham Cambridge University Press books Series of non-fiction books Science studies History books about China History of science and technology in China