From a very early period,the Chinese already vaguely sensed that the cultivation of crops required an intricate system.The third century BCE work Master Lü's Spring and Autumn Annals(Lüshi chunqiu 吕氏春秋)states that crops were fed by heaven and raised by earth,and that harvests depended on the farmers who worked the land.
The research and development of neodymium iron boron(NdFeB)permanent magnets saw breakthroughs in China in 1984.The success of the technology of using low-purity Nd not only helped Chinese-made NdFeB permanent magnets reach a high cost-performance ratio,but also shaped China's rare-earth industry for decades.This article emphatically investigates the important role played by a number of transnational factors since the 1970s in the development of the NdFeB technology in China,including the exploitation of rare earth mines in China,the introduction of the physics of amorphous solids into the country,Sino-French scientific and technological exchanges and cooperation,the plans to build BEPC and the subsequent BSRF in the field of high energy physics in Beijing,and the development of Alpha Magnetic Spectrometers in the United States.As China has participated more actively in the globalization of contemporary sciences since the 1970s,the quick development of physics of amorphous solids and NdFeB magnets serves as a representative case study for how the development of new industries has been boosted by advancements in contemporary physics in China.
The eighteenth-century Vietnamese medical work Treatise on Medical Knowledge by Hai Thuong(Hai Thuong Y Tong Tam Linh海上医宗心领),authored by the eminent physician Le Huu Trac 黎有卓,reflects the transmission,application,and innovation of traditional Chinese medicine(TCM)in Vietnam.It encompasses principles,methods,formulas,medicines,clinical specialties,and clinical medical cases.Its primary textual foundation derives from Feng's Tips and Secret Records(Fengshi jinnang milu 冯氏锦囊秘录)by Feng Zhaozhang 冯兆张(late Ming-early Qing),supplemented by Ming-era works such as Zhang Jingyue's张景岳 Jingyue's Complete Compendium(Jingyue quanshu 景岳全书),Li Chan's 李梴 The Gateway to Medicine(Yixue rumen 医学入门),and Zhao Xianke's赵献可 Thorough Knowledge of Medicine(Yi guan医贯).By synthesizing,enriching,streamlining,and annotating the quintessence of Ming-Qing medical texts,Le Huu Trac established the framework of traditional Vietnamese medicine,innovating upon TCM.Treatise on Medical Knowledge by Hai Thuong emphasizes the concept of"congenital water and fire"(先天水火),attributing the patho-mechanism of critical illnesses to the depletion of true yin and true yang(真阴真阳亏损),while expanding the indications of classical TCM formulas such as the Six-Ingredient Pill(六味丸)and Eight-Ingredient Pill(八味丸)through variations in their constituents,thus attaining the further localization of TCM.It advances the view that"there are no cold damage patterns(伤寒症)in Lingnan,rendering the Ephedra Decoction(麻黄汤)and Cinnamon Twig Decoction(桂枝汤)inapplicable,"as a result devising"three exterior-resolving formulas"(解表三方)and"six interior-harmonizing formulas"(和里六方)tailored to Vietnam's climate and patient constitutions.The text also incorporates southern medicines(南 药)and formulas containing them,using Han-Nom bilingual names to enhance understanding and application by the Vietnamese.Its Yang Case Collection(阳案集)and Yin Case Collection(阴案集),documenting both successful and unsuccessful treatments of severe illnesses,exemplify Vietnamese physicians' local exploration and practice of Chinese medical knowledge,embodying a profound understanding and flexible application of TCM by Vietnamese physicians.
The Sluice Gate with Freight Carts is the earliest extant scroll in China that depicted a water mill.It was drawn during the early or middle Northern Song dynasty and was possibly a true portrayal of the West Water Mill Office.The copresence of a banquet scene of the Northern Song dynasty's scholar-officials and a water mill both suggests a realistic reproduction of a specific scene and indicates the significance of the water mill as a cultural space.The Northern Song dynasty's government-operated water mills were especially noticeable in the Capital Circuit 京畿路,whose center was Dongjing 东京.The basic development path of government-operated water mills in the inner and outer city of Dongjing was first from grain processing,which supplied the needs of the imperial palace,to tea processing,in which the governmental commercial capital also participated.Regarding city space and the use of water sources,the development spread from the north of the city to the south.Other prefectures outside Dongjing also had government-operated water mills-some brought income that could be used as official fiscal expenditure,including military expenditure,and were used to satisfy the need of local people's livelihood,while some were used to serve the monopoly policy of tea and demonstrate the benevolent governance of local officials.In the Northern Song dynasty,the water mill was no longer merely a production site;rather,it was also a cultural space that integrated a natural background and artificial ingenuity.Closely related to the hosting of emperors and the garden making,sightseeing,feasting,and drinking of scholar-officials,along with the festival activities of locals,the water mill in the Northern Song dynasty was of great cultural significance.
Dr.Edmund Dipper,a distinguished German doctor practicing in China during the tumultuous decades of the 1920s and 1930s,rose to near-legendary status during the Republican era.Yet,the historical trajectory leading to his acclaim remains shrouded in conflicting narratives.Dipper's formative years demonstrate that his success in China stemmed from a multifaceted background encompassing education,religion,and military service.This was coupled with an unwavering commitment to excellence in medical practice and adaptability and resourcefulness in navigating cross-cultural settings.These factors allowed him to successfully avoid strife between church factions when managing the Faber Hospital.Furthermore,Dipper's remarkable intercultural acumen enabled him to seize a crucial historical opportunity.By adeptly navigating the German Hospital through the repatriation of German citizens after China declared war on Germany in 1917,he not only preserved his own standing but also safeguarded the hospital's key personnel.This strategic maneuvering laid the groundwork for his illustrious career trajectory.Dipper epitomizes a subset of Western doctors in China during this era,underscoring the imperative to further explore their nuanced historical contributions.
At the beginning of the twentieth century,cultural policy became a central element of Germany's expansionist foreign policy toward China.In this context,the German government had a Poliklinik established in Chongqing in 1906,intending to leverage"medical propaganda"to extend German influence.Despite these ambitions,the Poliklinik faced socio-political challenges and local resistance,which hindered its ability to fully realize the German government's political objectives.By the time the Poliklinik ceased operations in 1919,it had not achieved the strategic impact anticipated by Berlin.However,the Poliklinik contributed significantly to fostering mutual understanding and facilitating cross-cultural communication in the medical field between China and Germany.Thus,while initially conceived as an instrument of Germany's cultural policy,the actual social and cultural influence of the Poliklinik on Germany and China was rather constructive:it had not only enhanced the understanding of German medicine and culture among the Chinese people,but also promoted knowledge about Southwest China's medical conditions among the German academic community.
This article explores Adam Schall von Bell's Investigations of the Earth's Interior(Kunyu gezhi坤輿格致,1639-1640),a significant Jesuit work aimed at reforming the Chinese mining and smelting industry by introducing relevant European technologies during the late Ming period.After being lost for centuries,the recent rediscovery of a partial manuscript housed in the Nanjing Library has reinvigorated scholarly interest in this treatise.The authors present findings on the manuscript's origins,dating,and its reliance on Georgius Agricola's De re metallica alongside other Renaissance works,such as those by Lazarus Ercker or Vannoccio Biringuccio.They challenge claims that the Investigations of the Earth's Interior introduced the Western concept of"minerals"(kuangwu 礦物)to China,arguing that the term retained its traditional meaning of"ores and materials."Additionally,the article presents new historical documents revealing attempts to implement the treatise's methods and the bureaucratic challenges that prevented its widespread adoption.These topics shed light on the Investigations of the Earth's Interior's role in early global knowledge transmission and its potential impact on China's mining and metallurgical practices during the Ming-Qing transition.
>The surprising rediscovery of the believed-to-be-lost “translation” of Georgius Agricola's mining science masterpiece De re metallica(1556) into Chinese by the German Jesuit Adam Schall von Bell(Chinese name Tang Ruowang 湯若望; 1592–1666) in 2015 has led to increasing interest and activity in pertinent research, both in Germany and in China. Being associated with Agricola, one of the most significant protagonists and polymaths of the German Renaissance, and with Schall von Bell, the most influential China-bound German Jesuit missionary, this text is of extraordinary importance for the history of East-West relations as well as for German cultural history.
Following Aristotle,St.Thomas Aquinas considered sublunar matter and supralunar matter to be substantially different,composed of two distinct species.The Coimbra Jesuit commentary on De coelo,published in 1593,supported the Aristotelian position,a position upheld by Jesuit philosophers and astronomers even into the mid-seventeenth century.However,the latest astronomical discoveries suggested otherwise,suggesting that supralunar matter is also subject to change and therefore belongs to the same species as sublunar matter,forming a material continuum.In a sharp contrast to this conservative Jesuit position in Europe,the Portuguese Jesuit Francisco Furtado and the Christian literatus Li Zhizao in the Huan you quan(1628)argued for the uniformity of matter across the sublunar and supralunar spheres.The paper investigates the argumentation of the Huan you quan and advances three reasons for this significant shift.
Pre-modem Chinese crafts,such as iron smelting,cookery,medicine,and the production of vehicles,bows,and arrows indicate the traditional Chinese view of technology as being organic,holistic,and comprehensive.This view of technology is guided by the concept of he(和)and employs the means and methods of he,thus achieving the purport of he.In Chinese,the character he(和)possesses positive connotations.It originated from the meaning of"to season;to add flavoring to"(调和)and that of flavors being"perfectly harmonious"(和美).From this sensory experience,he gradually extended to the abstract levels of materiality,humanity,sociality,"order"(wei 位),and"power,situation,force"(shi 势).Finally,he was elevated to the supreme level of"qi of great harmony"(taihe zhi qi太和之气),which is comparable to the concept of dao(道).The philosophy of he has exerted wide impact on such areas as technology,art,national character,cultural psychology,and behavior patterns,and has become an integral part of China's inherent culture.The paradoxes and deviations of he hold their own profound philosophical implications that merit further exploration As humanity confronts significant challenges,such as how we can coexist with others,with technology,and with nature,the ancient Eastern wisdom embodied in he continues to possess practical characteristics and value.
Nitric acid or qiangshui强水("strong liquid,"from lat.aqua fortis)was introduced to China multiple times by European missionaries during the Ming and Qing dynasties.Xu Guangqi徐光啟(1562-1633)was the first Chinese to record related knowledge from his communication with Johann Schreck(1576-1630).Johann Adam Schall von Bell(1591-1666),Joachim Bouvet(1656-1730),and Matteo Ripa(1682-1746)independently described the substance to the Chinese in their writings,explaining production methods together with different applications such as separating and assaying of gold and silver,etching of iron or copperplates,and manufacturing of thermometers.This paper focuses on newly discovered Chinese materials,mainly from the Investigations of the Earth's Interior(Kunyu gezhi坤輿格致,1640)by Schall von Bell and his Chinese collaborators,but also from the Record of Essentials of Inception and Completion(Kaicheng jiyao開成紀要)by Xu Guangqi.It analyzes different aspects of knowledge transmission processes including the identification of useful knowledge,the purpose of transmission,the sources of European knowledge,and the applied methods of translation and explanation.From these analyses we can better understand the reasons of their failure or success.
By comparing the spread and use of the traditional Chinese calendar Season-Granting System (Shoushi li 授时历) in Korea and Japan, this article analyzes the differences between the two countries in their motivations for, approaches to, and results of adopting the calendar. Korean adoption of the Season-Granting System was led by the government, motivated by certain political and diplomatic considerations, while during the Edo period the Japanese learned the calendar more out of technical considerations, with the participation of astronomers and calendrical scientists from both inside and outside of the government. Moreover, the Season-Granting System not only had an important impact on the development of the calendar in these two countries, but also its traditions of "accurate measurement" (jingce 精测) and "precise calculation" (misuan 密算) contributed to the improvement of astronomical instruments in Korea and the development of traditional Japanese mathematics (Wasan).
The idea of the hypothetical Magellanica Continent(Terra Australis Incognita)was introduced into China by the Jesuit missionaries during the seventeenth century.While not accepted by the Chinese government,it was affirmed and transmitted to the public by a few Chinese scholars,including Feng Yingjing,Cheng Bai'er,Zhang Huang,Xiong Mingyu,Xiong Renlin,You Yi,Zhou Yuqi,Jie Xuan,Wang Honghan,and Ye Zipei.Most of them communicated closely with the Jesuit missionaries,and several even helped the missionaries compose the maps.The concept was updated progressively by Matteo Ricci,Giulio Aleni,Johann Adam Schall von Bell,Francesco Sambiasi,and Ferdinand Verbiest.Chinese scholars copied the missionaries'relevant maps and textual introductions without much modification.However,they paid little attention to advancements in the idea,and many of them circulated outdated knowledge.It was not until the middle-and late-nineteenth century that Chinese scholars reexamined the correctness of this hypothetical continent.
The careers of three Chinese physicists,Hu Ning,Ma Shijun,and Peng Huanwu at the Dublin Institute for Advance Studies in the 1940s,and later,are described.A brief history of the foundation and operations of the institute,as well as the roles in it of Erwin Schrödinger,Walter Heitler,Max Born,and others are included.Some details are given of the works carried out there.The three men's post-institute careers are described,Ma eventually in Australia,and Hu and Peng in the People's Republic of China where they became distinguished leaders of theoretical physics research.
The November 1948 open session of the Institute of Geological Sciences AS USSR was previously unknown,in contrast to the August 1948 session of VASKhNIL.The publication of the transcript of the session of geologists is based on the original verified transcript from the Geological Institute and the Archive RAS.It presented reports on the main scientific directions of geology:stratigraphy,the Quaternary geology,lithology,geotectonics,petrography and petrology,mineralogy and geochemistry,and the geology of ore and coal deposits.This thick book details all the Q&A sessions,discussions of theories,methods,and practice among the leading Soviet geoscientists.The session and its resolution describe the situation and development of geology in the USSR in the mid-twentieth century as well as the collateral impact of the Lysenko affair on the earth sciences in the USSR.
From June 24 to June 25,"The Establishment and Development of the Discipline of History of Science and Technology in China:Symposium Commemorating the 130th Anniversary of the Births of Li Yan and Qian Baocong was held at the Institute for the History of Natural Sciences,Chinese Academy of Sciences(IHNS,CAS).
