Science in East Asia
Scholarship On East Asian Science
Historical studies of East Asian science grew out of two broader traditions: the rigorous philological scholarship (kaozheng) that evolved in China, Japan, and Korea, and the chronicling of positive progress (focused mainly on concepts) prevalent in early-twentieth-century Europe and America. The best-known philological scholars are Xi Zezong (b. 1931) in Beijing and Yabuuchi Kiyoshi (1906–2000) in Kyoto. And the best-known Western chronicler is Joseph Needham (1900–1995) in Cambridge, England. From around 1970 on, social history (drawing on sociology and anthropology) filled some of the gaps in the prevalent history of scientific ideas. In the 1980s, as the antagonism between "internalist" intellectual history and "externalist" social history drew to an end in the West, mainstream history of science took up the challenge of exploring phenomena as a whole, using the widest range of disciplinary tools. Nathan Sivin, using "cultural manifolds" that integrate every dimension of the problems investigated, has applied this approach to East Asian science and to cross-cultural comparisons.
New primary sources have led to fundamental reevaluations. From the 1950s on, archeological excavations have disinterred many troves of manuscripts, some earlier than any extant book, others that cast a fresh light on later technical developments. Many of these documents were not published until 1980 or later. And the excavations continue. The result is a quickly changing base of empirical knowledge, especially about the beginnings of science, that makes many earlier generalizations obsolete.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Cullen, Christopher. Astronomy and Mathematics in Ancient China: The Zhou bi suan jing. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 1996. Includes an excellent introduction.
Darwin, Charles. Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestication. 2 vols. London: Murray, 1868.
Furth, Charlotte. A Flourishing Yin: Gender in China's Medical History, 960–1665. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1999. On medical care for women and childbirth, with a chapter on women as healers.
Hsu, Elisabeth, ed. Innovation in Chinese Medicine. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 2001. A good collection of conference papers.
Jeon Sang-woon. Science and Technology in Korea: Traditional Instruments and Techniques. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1974. Revised as A History of Science in Korea. Seoul: Jimoondang, 1998.
Libbrecht, Ulrich. Chinese Mathematics in the Thirteenth Century. The Shu-shu chiu-chang of Ch'in Chiu-shao. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1973.
Lloyd, G. E. R., and Nathan Sivin. The Way and the Word: Science and Medicine in Early China and Greece. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2002. Comparisons that use an integrative methodology.
Martzloff, Jean-Claude. A History of Chinese Mathematics. Translated by Stephen L. Wilson. Berlin: Springer-Verlag, 1997. Translation of Histoire des mathématiques chinoises. Paris: Masson, 1988.
Nakayama, Shigeru. A History of Japanese Astronomy: Chinese Background and Western Impact. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1969. Offers many important insights into Chinese astronomy as well.
Needham, Joseph, et al. Science and Civilisation in China. 22 vols. to date. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1954–. Magisterial survey, partly outdated.
Scheid, Volker. Chinese Medicine in Contemporary China: Plurality and Synthesis. Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 2002. Important, well-informed study.
Sivin, Nathan. Science in Ancient China: Researches and Reflections. Brookfield, Vt.: Variorum, 1995. Selected essays.
Sugimoto, Masayoshi, and David Swain. Science and Culture in Traditional Japan: A.D. 600–1854. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1978.
Nathan Sivin
Additional topics
Science EncyclopediaScience & Philosophy: Jean-Paul Sartre Biography to Seminiferous tubulesScience in East Asia - The Sciences, Scholarship On East Asian Science, Bibliography