Abstract
The fifteenth-century expansion of European science breathed life into hybrid scientific practices around the globe. The renowned historian of Chinese science Joseph Needham (1900–1995) memorably described an intellectual synthesis: “The older streams of science in different civilizations like rivers flowed into the ocean of modern science.”1 Needham’s description sounds as if the Chinese should simply embrace Europe’s “oecumenical” modern sciences and overlooks the new relations of power between the foreigners and their hosts. A broader perspective suggests that the landing of modern science on Chinese soil involved more than a few jolts.
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Notes
- 1.
J. Needham, “The Roles of Europe and China in the Evolution of Oecumenical Science,” in Clerks and Craftsmen in China and the West: Lectures and Addresses on the History of Science and Technology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1970, p. 397.
- 2.
Fa-ti Fan, British Naturalists in Qing China: Science, Empire, and Cultural Encounter. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2004; J. Canizares-Esguerra, “Iberian Colonial Science,” Isis, 96, 1 (2005): 64–70; S. J. Harris, “Jesuit Scientific Activity in the Overseas Missions, 1540–1773,” Isis, 96, 1 (2005): 71–79; M. Harrison, “Science and the British Empire,” Isis, 96, 1 (2005): 56–63; M. A. Osborne, “Science and the French Empire,” Isis, 96, 1 (2005): 80–87; L. Schiebinger, “Introduction,” Isis, 96, 1 (2005): 52–55.
- 3.
B. Elman, On Their Own Terms: Science in China, 1550–1900. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2005.
- 4.
Pingyi Chu, “Remembering our Grand Tradition: Chourenzhuan and the Scientific Exchanges between China and Europe, 1600–1800,” History of Science, 41, 2 (2003): 193–215.
- 5.
L. Struve, “Ambivalence and Action: Some Frustrated Scholars of the Late K’ang-hsi Period,” in S. Jonathon and J. E. Will Jr., eds., From Ming to Ch’ing. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1979, pp. 323–365.
- 6.
Shikai Zhu, 朱士楷, Xincheng xianzhi 新塍鎮志 (Gazetteer of Xincheng town). Shanghai: Shanghai shudian, 1992, pp. 817, 898–899, 989.)
- 7.
Pingyi Chu, “Trust, instruments, and cross-cultural scientific exchanges: Chinese debate over the shape of the earth, 1600–1800,” Science in Context, 12, 3 (1999): 385–411; Yuan Ruan, 阮元, Chourenzhuan 疇人傳 (Biographies of Astronomers and Mathematicians). Taipei: Shijie shuju, 1982, p. 504.
- 8.
Zhang Yongjing, 張雍敬, Dingli yuheng 定曆玉衡 (Guidelines for Producing Calendars). In Xuxiu siku quanshu 續修四庫全書 (Addendum to the Complete Collection of the Four Treasuries), Vol. 1040, Shanghai: Shanghai guji chubanshe, 1997, pp. 485–494.
- 9.
Zhang Yongjing, Dingli yuheng, p. 484.
- 10.
Daiwie Fu, “Problem Domain, Taxonomy, and Comparativity in Histories of Sciences: with a Case Study in the Comparative History of ‘optics’.” in Cheng-hung Lin and Daiwie Fu, eds., Philosophy and Conceptual History of Science in Taiwan, Boston Studies in the Philosophy of Science, Vol. 141, Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1992, pp. 123–148.
- 11.
Zhang Yongjing, Dingli yuheng, pp. 451–456.
- 12.
Ibid., pp. 451–456.
- 13.
Ibid., pp. 458–460.
- 14.
Ibid., p. 461.
- 15.
Ibid., p. 457.
- 16.
Ibid., pp. 460–462.
- 17.
Ibid., pp. 470–476.
- 18.
Yuan Ruan, op. cit., pp. 341–345.
- 19.
Zheng Wei, 魏徵 et al., eds., Suishu 隋書 (Sui Dynastic History). Taipei: Dingwen shuju, 1980, p. 523.
- 20.
Tingyu Zhang, 張廷玉 et al., eds., Ming shi 明史 (Ming Dynastic History). Taipei: Dingwen shuju, 1982, p. 518.
- 21.
Pingyi Chu, “Scientific dispute in the imperial court: the 1664 calendar case,” Chinese Science, 14 (1997): 7–34.
- 22.
Guangxian Yang, 楊光先, Budeyi 不得已 (I cannot do otherwise), in W. Xiangxiang ed., Tianzhujiao dongchuan wenxian xubian 天主教東傳文獻續編 (Supplement to the Documents on Christianity Coming to the East), Vol. 3, Taipei: Xuesheng shuju, 1965, pp. 1157–1161.
- 23.
Wending Mei, 梅文鼎, Lixue yiwenbu. 曆學疑問補 (Supplement to the Questions on Calendrical Learning), in Lisuan quanshu (Complete Works on Mathematics and Astronomy), in Siku quanshu (Complete Collection of the Four Treasuries), Vol. 794, Taipei: Shangwu yinshuguan, 1983, pp. 6–7.
- 24.
Zhang Yongjing, Dingli yuheng, pp. 436–440.
- 25.
Ibid., pp. 441–444, 512–513, 528–541, 638–642.
- 26.
Ibid., p. 645.
- 27.
Yongtang Zhang, 張永堂Mingmo Qingchu lixue yu kexue guanxi zailun 明末清初理學與科學關係再論 (Reinvestigating the Relationship between the Study of Principle and Science), Taipei: Taiwan xuesheng shuju, 1994.
- 28.
Guangxian Yang, op. cit., pp. 1263–1264.
- 29.
Zhang Yongjing, Dingli yuheng, p. 644.
- 30.
Pingyi Chu, “Archiving knowledge: a life history of the Chongzhen lishu (Calendrical Treatises of the Chongzhen Reign),” Extrême-Orient, Extrême-Occident (2007): 159–184.
- 31.
Ibid., pp. 437–438.
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Chu, P. (2011). Adoption and Resistance: Zhang Yongjing and Ancient Chinese Calendrical Methods. In: Günergun, F., Raina, D. (eds) Science between Europe and Asia. Boston Studies in the Philosophy of Science, vol 275. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-9968-6_10
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