East Asian Science, Technology, and Medicine (EASTM - Universität Tübingen)
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Four Points to Be Considered when Writing “A History of Science and Civilisation in Korea”
Get PDFA research project entitled “A History of Science and Civilisation in Korea” is planning to publish an English-language monograph series that endeavours to learn from established scholarship on the history of science by benefiting from its accomplishments and overcoming some of its shortcomings. This paper argues that the following four points are im-portant for Korean historians of science to consider: (1) overcoming ‘pre-sentism’—to avoid writing history from a contemporary standpoint and to justify present-day Korea, (2) adopting a cross-cultural approach—to avoid unjustified nationalistic and ethno-centric interpretations of historical data, (3) considering both elite traditions and folk traditions in Korea—to present a more balanced view on different traditions in Korea, and (4) adopting traditional Korean concepts and categories of knowledge, if necessary; that is, that when no Western concepts are suitable for reference but indigenous Korean concepts are, adopting traditional Korean concepts is preferable. For example, the adoption of p’ungsu (geomancy) as a category of the Ko-rean body of scientific knowledge. In this paper these four points will be discussed with supporting evidence, and I believe that using these four points as guidelines will enhance the quality of new writings on the history of Korean science by overcoming some of the shortcomings of existing scholarship on the history of science, technology and medicine in Korea or elsewhere
Vladimir Tikhonov, Social Darwinism and Nationalism in Korea: The Beginnings (1880s-1910s)—“Survival” as an Ideology of Korean Modernity
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Ding Fubao and the Morals of Medical Modernization
Get PDFThis paper surveys the life and medical activities of Chinese scholar, physician, and translator Ding Fubao 丁福保 (1874-1952). Ding’s career as an early adopter and translator of scientific medicine, and as a broker between western-trained physicians and reform-minded practi-tioners of Chinese medicine, affords rare insight into both the promise and the shortcomings of western-style medical modernization. In particular, Ding’s experiences illustrate the ways in which illness and healing re-mained closely associated with moral virtue, even in the mind of this most committed modernizer. Through Ding, we can examine the growth of modern professions in China and the struggle to achieve any kind of professional monopoly on practice; the huge influence of Japan on China’s modernization, and aspects of the relationship between culture and scientific change
John P. Dimoia, Reconstructing Bodies: Biomedicine, Health, and Nation Building in South Korea since 1945
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Typography for a Modern World? The Ways of Chinese Movable Types
Get PDFThis article presents a brief history and poses questions about traditional Chinese movable type printing. This is a technology that developed in the pre-modern period and never underwent in the mechanization in the ways that Western movable type printing did. Nevertheless, even today, Chinese traditional movable types continue to be used in some places in China. The authors not only describe the chronology of but also analyse significant cultural, political, and social factors affecting the devel-opment traditional Chinese typography.The first part of this article discusses the movable type made of earthenware and of wood, which are described in various sources written by scholar-officials. In the case of movable type for the Tangut script, how-ever, the main evidence come from chiefly religious imprints which provide information about material evidence as well as a few about printers, typesetters, etc. The second section describes the long hiatus from the Yuan until the second half of the fifteenth century in the utilization of metallic typography in the private circles in Wuxi in Jiangnan, whose publications still survive, and how during the last dynasty, the movable type production reflects some trends in book publishing in general, with the important engagement of some of the Manchu emperors. In the last section of the paper, the authors explain why although wooden types existed in the Kingdom of Xixia (1032-1227) and in the Yuan dynasty (1279-1368), it was only in the Ming (1368-1644) to Qing (1644-1911) periods that their use became more widespread in China. Wooden movable type played a key role in the printing of genealogies in various areas (e.g. Zhejiang, Anhui, Jiangsu, Hunan, and Fujian). That all also indicates that wood is the “mate-rial medium” of traditional Chinese printing, never mind if employed in blocks or types
Traditional Chinese Knowledge before the Japanese Discovery of Western Science in Gabor Lukacs’ Kaitai Shinsho & Geka Sōden
Get PDFReview Article on Gabor Lukacs, Kaitai Shinsho: The Single Most Famous Japanese Book of Medicine & Geka Sōden: An Early Very Important Manuscript on Surger
