Why did Modern Science not Emerge in China
DouXujie
Abstract: Why did the modern science not emerge in China? This is a famous question that first put forward by the famous scholar Joph Needham in his book science and civilization in china. I would like to give an answer by explaining the traditional Chine philosophy reasons and the particularity of the late imperial China.
"Needham's Grand Question", also known as "The Needham Question", is why China had been overtaken by the West in science and technology, despite its earlier success: “Why did modern science, the mathematization of hypothes about Nature, with all its implications for advanced technology, take its meteoric ri only in the West at the time of Galileo [but] had not developed in Chine civilization.[1][2]
南师大财务处Chine traditional philosophy always focus the “whole” rather than the noumenon
Chine traditional philosophy always focus the “whole” rather than the noumenon and the reprentative book is Yi Jing, the Book of Changes, one of the most important Chine traditional phil
小儿鼻炎的症状osophy resource. It has been called the origin of all moral principles (Da Dao Zhi Yuan). This book is a compulsory subject of the ancient emperor. Thus, it has a tremendous influence of the whole Chine history process and the development. Here is the way Joph Needham put it in 1956: while the five-element (wu-hxing) and two-force (yin-yang) theories were favorable rather than inimical to the development of scientific thought in China, the elaborated symbolic system of the Book of Changes was almost from the start a mischievous handicap. It tempted tho who were interested in Nature to rest in explanations that were no explanations at all. The Book of Changes was a system for pigeon-holing novelty and then doing nothing more about it. [3] In the instances one is tempted to counter the arguments with matters of fact. The Book of Changes was first put to divine affairs and the divination must u something to symbolize it. Every single symbolization stands for a possible change and if we could have the means to conclude all the changes in the world to a finite number. Then we would be capable to expend one single changes to the other changes. This finally developed into a methodic world outlook. This has decided that the traditional Chine philosophy is totally different from the substance philosophy and the causality philosophy in the western culture. It could be considered as some kinds of function philosophy. If we look through the books in Chine history we would easily found that the majority is about history and only few of them is about science medicine or production. On the contrary, in western culture we could be able t
o find a lot of books which contained all kinds of subject. As a result, the focus of the “whole” and the neglect of the noumenon directly influenced the development of China.
Becau of the neglect of noumenon in Chine philosophy, Chine philosophy
would not put forward the distinction between reality and phenomenon. It means that the Chine philosophy rarely pursuit the final noumenon. Although Chine traditional philosophy did not have the concept of noumenon, it always have the thought of the “whole” which means all existence is an organic combination. In this background, what the Chine people would like to pursuit is not the root of the matter but the adaption to the whole. Thus, “Chine thoughts could always be summarized into the relationship between mankind and nature”.[4] This kind of thought ignored the importance of personality and finally lead to a neglect of the differences. The reason why Chine science thought did not develop well is not the deficiency of the enthusiasm of exploring the nature phenomenon. It’s becau that they didn’t have an outlook that motive them to rearch the root of the matter. In contrast, the western thought always concentrated on the “finally reality” and this helped them develop their science. In China, the traditional philosophy only concentrate on the “whole” and the noumenon concept did not appear at all. Then science did not develop in China.
The imperial civil rvice examinations and the ruling class restrain the development of technology
The education and the lect mechanism of Chine feudalism restrain the intellectual’s thought and exclude the science content. In order to consolidate their domination, the feudal emperor would like to establish a kind of regime to foolish the people. Especially to control the intellectuals to role the country. The central element of Confucianism is recommending the etiquette and maintaining the "the golden mean". It also advocates the feudal morality and oppos all kinds of revolution and reformation. Such kind of theory would certainly be ud by the ruling class. Since Emperor Han adopt Don Zho ngshu’s suggestion, he decided to b an from hundred philosophers, venerate Confucianism. In order to draw all the intellectual and heroes to his side, Emperor Taizong of Tang invented the imperial civil rvice examinations and t a special subject called Mingjing to attract more Confucianism learners. In the middle age of Ming dynasty, the ruling class even stipulated that the civil rvant must be lected from the people who pass the exam. The substance of the exam has also be limited into a special lite rary form called “Baguwen” which only allowed the examinees to u limited ntences that extracted from the book SiShu and SiShuJizhu. The examinees were not allowed to u their own words and express their own opinions. This kind of rules have turned the intellectuals into a dry pedantic, discipline wood. This was a tremendous tragedy and this system greatly restricted the development of science. The emperor SongRenzon had written such words in his poem: “There will be golden hou in the book; there will be belle in the book; there will be tons o
f food in the book; there will be hou herd in the book”. In this kind of society, if someone wanted to promote his social statue, the only way is to take the imperial civil rvice examinations and join into the bureaucrat. There is an old saying in China, “All the subjects are inferior but reading books”. The innovation and the science rearch were all classified into the insignificant skill. This leading thought wasted a lot of talents and diverted the intellectuals from the real social problems and
economic participation. As a result, the modern science which bad on experiments and participations could hardly emerge anymore.
On the other hand, the ruling class not only ud the foolish education system and the imperial civil rvice examinations to exclude the science, but also monopolize the important science programs. Such as the astronomy and calendar. It has been banned in ever dynastic and in Ming dynastic, civilian who try to learn about the astronomy would be ntenced to death. Thus, science technology had always been discriminated and restrained. The great philosopher Confucius hated the science technology as well. He did not have a strong body and he could not distinguish the five cereals. More than that, he also considered the student who wanted to learn about agriculture as an inferior. Under such situation, even though the ruling class did not forbid the science technology, the citizen would not like to take the risk to get involved in the science.
学会坚持
The hubris of the feudal bureaucrat and the “clo the door” restrict the spread and develop of science technology
In the ancient times, the society was bad on the lf-sufficiency economic, the integral science technology level was not highly developed and the traffic was not convenient enough for the countries to contact. However, during a long period of time the ancient feudal China are highly opening to the other country. For example, in Han dynastic, China have many contacts with the ancient India and Japan (which called DongYing at that time). Especially in Tang dynastic and Song dynastic, nearly all the scientific field have a flourishing prospect. Unfortunately, the long-standing history, flourishing economic and the vast territory made the emperor so arrogant that they think China is the only developed country. Only few knowledge had been spread into China until Qing dynastic. And most of them become the amument of the emperors. After Zheng He's voyages in the 15th century, the foreign policy of the Ming Dynasty in China became increasingly isolationist. Emperor Hongwu was the first to propo the policy to ban all maritime shipping in 1371. The Qing Dynasty that came after the Ming often continued the latter dynasty's isolationist policies. Wokou or Japane pirates were one of the key primary concerns, although the maritime ban was not without some control. The ancestor invented the compass but the descendant u it to identify the geomanti
c omen. The western people ud it to arch for treasure, establish their colony and opened the word market; the ancestor invented the powder, it rarely be ud to explore the mine but made into fireworks to expel the ghost. The western people ud it to break the feudal knight class. It even be ud to massacre the Chine in the opium war.
郭耀明The constraint of the science technology caud by the lack of capitalism productivity.
There are many caus accelerate the development of modern science. However, the fundamental elements are decided by the social productivity level. Engels has said: “If the society have the necessity of technology, then this necessity would put science forward which more powerful than ten universities”. [5] But China just have a huge
deficiency of the power that capitalism productivity could put science forward. China is a country bad on agriculture since ancient times. Agriculture took place the most part of the entire feudal economic system. During the long period of feudal society, the commodity did not really exist. The lf-sufficiency model have occupied the major part of the ancient economic system. The governor always put agriculture to the first place and the business to the last. Becau of the abundant resources, the production could be easily fulfilled by manpower and animal power. The industry and
commence only stay at the primitive level. The society did not have the urgent demand of science technology. In general, the feudal economic which bad on conrvative productivity were short of the simulative factors and the simulative factors of the technology revolution. On the contrary, the feudal economic always excludes the changeable techniques.
The modern science were rin by the development of capitalism production. Then capitalism production first brought the real problems which need to be solved by the modern techniques. And this provided the field to grow, develop and apply the modern science. However, when the capitalism first appeared in the last period of Ming dynamic, it had been killed by the feudal force and civil war. Thus, this ed didn’t bear any fruit. Modern science lost the living field and no longer progress further.
Summary: In conclusion, the answers to the question why did modern science not emerge in China contain many different perspective. From the very beginning, the Chine traditional philosophy always focus the “whole” rather than the noumenon, and then the imperial civil rvice examinations existed and strengthen the limitation of the development of technology. At the same time, the arrogant feudal bureaucrat and the “clo the door” also restrict the spread and develop of science technology. The lack of capitalism productivity also block the advancing road. All tho caus
锅贴饺子es lead the recent China to a tragic situation and China finally misd the development of the modern science.
References:
[1]Joph Needham (1969). The Grand Titration: Science and Society in East and West.
议论文评语[2]Joph Needham (2004). Science and Civilization in China. 7 part 2.
[3]Joph Needham, Science and Civilization in China, II, 336 and 340
[4]Zhang Donsun. The Basic Differences between Chine and Western
如封似闭Thought.1995.后背中间脊柱疼怎么回事
[5]Engels. Marx and Engels Anthology 505
