Table Of ContentCIDNESE STUDIES IN TilE IDSTORY AND
PIDLOSOPHY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
BOSTON STUDIES IN THE PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE
Editor
ROBERTS. COHEN, Boston University
Editorial Advisory Board
THOMAS F. GLICK, Boston University
ADOLF GRUNBAUM, University of Pittsburgh
SYLVAN S. SCHWEBER, Brandeis University
JOHN J. STACHEL, Boston University
MARX W. W ARTOFSKY, Baruch College of
the City University of New York
VOLUME 179
Science and Democracy
CHINESE STUDIES IN THE
HISTORY AND
PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE
AND TECHNOLOGY
Edited by
FAN DAINIAN
Chinese Academy of Science, Beijing
and
ROBERT S. COHEN
Boston University
Translated by
Kathleen Dugan and Jiang Mingshan
Springer-Science+Business Media, B.V.
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Chinese studies in the history and philosophy of science and
technology / edited by Fan Dainian and Robert S. Cohen : translated
by Kathleen Dugan and Jiang Minshan.
p. cm. -- (Boston studies in the philosophy of science : v.
179)
Includes index.
ISBN 0-7923-3463-9 (hb alk. paper)
1. Science--China--History. 2. Technology--China--History.
3. SCience--China--Philosophy. 4. Technology--China--Phi losophy.
1. Fan, Tai-nien. II. Cohen, R. S. <Robert SonneJ III. Series.
0174.B67 val. 179
[0127.C]
509' .51--dc20 95-13781
ISBN 978-90-481-4546-1 ISBN 978-94-015-8717-4 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-94-015-8717-4
AII Rights Reserved
© 1996 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
Originally published by Kluwer Academic Publishers in 1996
No part of the material protected by this copyright notice may be reproduced or
utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical,
includ ing photocopying, recording or by any information storage and
retrieval system, without written permission from
the copyright owner.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
EDITORIAL NOTE I ROBERTS. COHEN ix
PREFACE I FAN DAINIAN xi
PART I I SCIENCE, DEMOCRACY AND SOCIETY
Yu GUANGYUAN I On the Emancipation of the Mind
Xu LIANGYING I Essay on the Role of Science and Democracy in
Society 5
GoNG YuzHI I Historical Development of the Chinese Communist
Party's Scientific Policy (Prior to the Founding of the People's
Republic) 13
Yu GUANGYUAN I Speeches at the Qingdao Genetics Conference of
1956 27
LI PEISHAN, MENG QINZHE, HUANG QINGHE AND HUANG SHU-E I The
Qingdao Conference of 1956 on Genetics: The Historical Back-
ground and Fundamental Experiences 41
PART II I PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE
FANG LIZHI AND ZHou YOUYUAN I Concepts of Space and Time in
Ancient China and in Modem Cosmology 55
JIN GUANTAO AND HuA GuoFAN I Information and Feedback in
Epistemology 61
Luo JIACHANG I Time: A Philosophical Survey 77
FANG Lizm I The Concept of 'Primordial Motion': Past and Present 95
DING DAFU I On the Unity of Biology and Physics 103
CHEN Bu I Homeostasis and Chinese Traditional Medicine:
Commenting on Cannon's The Wisdom of the Body 115
DONG GUANGBI I The Book of Changes and Mathematics 125
PART III I HISTORY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
JIN GUANTAO, FAN HONGYE AND LIU QINGFENG I The Structure of
Science and Technology in History: On the Factors Delaying the
Development of Science and Technology in China in Comparison
with the West since the 17th Century (Part One) 137
vii
viii TABLE OF CONTENTS
JIN GUANTAO, FAN HoNGYE AND LIU QINGFENG I Historical Changes in
the Structure of Science and Technology (Part Two, A Commentary) 165
Xu LIANGYING I The Problem of Demarcation of Periods in the History
of Science 185
LIN WENZHAO I A Brief Account of Chinese Studies of the History
of Science and Technology in China 199
DAI NIANZU I The Development of Modem Physics in China: The 50th
Anniversary of the Founding of the Chinese Physical Society 207
QIU LIANGHUI I A Preliminary Study of the Characteristics of
Metallurgical Technology in Ancient China 219
MEI RONGZHAO I Liu Hui 's Theories of Mathematics 243
LE XIUCHENG I A Comparison of the Structures of the Mathematical
Systems of China and the West: Several Revelations from
Information Theory 255
SoNG JIE I The Historical Value of the Nine Chapters on the
Mathematical Art in Society and the Economy 261
Lu JINGYAN I Studies of the South-Pointing Chariot: Survey of the
Past 80 Years 267
LIU DuN I A Comparison of Archimedes' and Liu Hui's Studies of
Circles 279
ZHANG BINGLUN AND WANG ZICHUN I The Struggle Between
Evolutionary Theory and Creationism in China 289
SONG ZHENGHAI AND CHEN CHUANGKANG I Why did Zheng He's Sea
Voyage Fail to Lead the Chinese to Make the 'Great Geographic
Discovery'? 303
CHEN Y ALAN I The Effect of the Autocratic Monarchy of the Qing
Dynasty on Science and Technology 315
ZHANG BINGLUN I A Preliminary Analysis of Scientific Development
and its Causes in Anhui Province during the Ming and Qing
Dynasties 327
WANG YusHENG I Li Shanlan: Forerunner of Modem Science in China 345
WANG YusHENG I Hua Hengfang: Forerunner and Disseminator of
Modem Science in China 369
GAO PINGSHU I Cai Yuanpei's Contributions to China's Science 395
LI BocoNG I The Treatise on Fevers and Miscellaneous Diseases:
Vicissitudes during the Millenium after its Completion 419
JIN ZUMENG I A Critique of 'Zhang Heng's Theory of a Spherical
Earth' 427
Y AN KANGNIAN I Niels Bohr in China 433
ZHANG WEI I Millikan and China 439
WEI HoNGSEN I Norbert Wiener at Qinghua University 447
NOTES ON THE CONTRIBUTORS 453
INDEX OF NoN-CHINESE NAMES 459
INDEX OF CHINESE NAMES 463
EDITORIAL NOTE
The indisputable contributions to science and engineering by scholars of
Chinese origin in the 20th century continue to be recognized, praised, indeed
puzzled over; what might account for such creative brilliance, nearly every
where these scholars live and work, whatever the social, political and economic
system? Furthermore, the great detailed explorations and interpretive insights
into 'science and civilization in China' (to use Joseph Needham's apt con
nective phrase) have stimulated recognition of continuing brilliance from
ancient times through middle ages and into the period of Western imperialist
confrontation. Although sensitivity to nature was ever present, whether in
common-sense technologies or through nature-mysticisms, the development
of autonomous science proper, and of instrumental technique, was also
admirable in achievements and in intellectual investigation. A new, and perhaps
deeper, phase began with the revolutionary changes which culminated in
1949 with the coming to power of Mao's Communist Party. To some extent
modelled after the capitalist democracies of Europe and North America, the
movement toward a new post-imperial China explicitly linked democracy
with science, but so did the contending force which in its tum followed the
European Marxist and indeed Leninist linking of socialism and science. The
idealist gloss on what science may mean for establishing the new society
included two principal issues: the vast utility of science applied to human
needs, and the reasonable, open and evidence-based, democratic methods of
scientific work.
The democratic hopes of the first years after 1949 and the intellectual vitality
of those hopes, so sweetly expressed in the authority's injunction to 'let 100
flowers bloom', were encouraged, then repressed, sometimes reviving here
or there, in one field or another, but inconsistently. Still, until the so-called
Cultural Revolution, many technical fields flourished, and even then perhaps
some were protected for security purposes. However, with the new governing
authority led by Deng, with a striking reform of economic powers and oppor
tunities, came a renewed respect for science.
Once more respect for the social and democratic character of science came
forward. We see this in the motto of this book, and we recognize a Marxist
formulation in Yu Guangyuan's essay 'On the Emancipation of the Mind'. How
encouraging it had been to hold the Qingdao conference on genetics in 1956,
with ideals of mutually listening scientific debate, and then again, 25 years
later, in the new Deng time, to reflect on that conference. How moving and
curious it may seen, perhaps somehow old-fashioned, to read Yu Guangyuan's
renaming Chen Duxiu's embrace of Mr. Democracy and Mr. Science as
Comrade Democracy and Comrade Science! (p. 4)
ix
Fan Dainian and RobertS. Cohen (e ds.), Chinese Studies in the History and Philosophy ofS cience
and Technology, ix-x.
@ 1996 Kluwer Academic Publishers.
X EDITORIAL NOTE
The establishment of the Journal of Dialectics of Nature was one step in
the process of undogmatic scholarship in the historical and philosophical
studies of the sciences, medicine and technology in the People's Republic. That
first half-decade of the journal is represented by the substantial contents of this
book. From that time, 1985, these fields have gone on to extensive develop
ments, with new journals too, with books and conferences and university
programs, and with critical collaboration with scholarly colleagues throughout
the world. But with the first issues of the new Journal, with the understanding
that the phrase 'dialectics of nature' has the broad scope to include the full
human (and humane) understanding of nature and of mankind's ways with
nature, a renaissance of Chinese philosophy and history of science was
underway.
Robert S. Cohen
June 1996
PREFACE
HISTORY AND PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE IN CONTEMPORARY CHINA
1979-1985
The 35 articles in this collection were all selected from the first five volumes
of the Journal of Dialectics of Nature published by the Chinese Academy of
Sciences between 1979 and 1985.
The Journal, established in 1979 with the philosopher and economist
Professor Yu Guangyuan as Editor-in-Chief, is a comprehensive theoretical
publication concerning the history, philosophy and sociology of the natural
sciences. It's founding was a response to China's reform, particularly the
policy of openness to the outside world. The articles published during these
years were representative of scholarly work by scientists, philosophers and
historians.
For 30 years following the founding of the People's Republic of China
the cultural policy of the Chinese government rejected non-Marxist western
philosophy and sociology of science, which were considered to be bourgeois
ideologies. This situation remained unchanged until 1979. In the following
years, Chinese scholars began to undertake distinctive, original research in
these fields. This collection provides a cross-section of these efforts during the
initial phase.
To enable western scholars to understand the historical process of this
change in Chinese academics, Yu Guangyuan's 'On the Emancipation of the
Mind' and Xu Liangying's 'Essay on the Role of Science and Democracy in
Society' were included in this collection. From these, it may be seen that
academic circles in China were actively seeking to promote a sound, demo
cratic system to develop science and philosophy, and thereby to contribute
to the new policy of political reform and the four modernizations, industry,
agriculture, national defence, and, for these scholars in particular, science
and technology.
We have included seven papers on the philosophy of science, three of which
are discussions of philosophical issues in cosmology and biology. The
remaining four, written by philosophers of science, concern information and
cognition, homeostasis and Chinese traditional medicine, the I Ching (Yi
ling) and mathematics, etc.
Studies on the history of science and technology, particularly research on
ancient Chinese science and technology, have an older and stronger founda
tion in China and there are Chinese research institutions, societies and journals
devoted to this field. The section 'History of Science and Technology' in the
journal emphasizes mainly the history of science. For this collection, we
xi
Fan Dainian and Robert S. Cohen (e ds.), Chinese Studies in the History and Philosophy of Science
and Technology, xi-xiii.
~ 1996 Kluwer Academic Publishers.
