East Asian Science, Technology, and Medicine (EASTM - Universität Tübingen)
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Translating 宿 *sukh/xiu and 舍 *lhah/she —‘lunar lodges’, or just plain ‘lodges’?
Get PDFTranslating 宿 *sukh/xiu and 舍 *lhah/she —‘lunar lodges’, or just plain ‘lodges’
Hong-Sen Yan, Marco Ceccarelli (eds.), International Symposium on History of Machines and Mechanisms: Proceedings of HMM 2008
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Needham’s Grand Question Revisited: On the Meaning and Justification of Causal Claims in the History of Chinese Science
Get PDFThe Needham Question (i.e. the question why modern science has not developed in Chinese civilization but only in Europe) has drawn a substantial amount of criticism. Despite its apparent innocuousness, influential sinologists have written devastating critiques of it. These criticisms fall into two main categories. The first denies the validity of the central concepts by means of which the question is formulated (e.g. ‛science’ or ‛civilization’). The second calls into question (1) the legitimacy of asking for explanations of absences (i.e. of events that did not occur), (2) the legitimacy of citing absences as explanations (i.e. citing negative facts in explanations), and (3) whether the Needham question can be answered, even if asking for explanations of absences and citing absences as explanations are both legitimate. In this article, we take into account the former criticism, in order to arrive at a new starting point: dividing the Needham Problem into its various sub-questions. We then tackle the latter criticism by calling upon the contemporary philosophy of causation. We will argue that, according to certain theories of causation, the subquestions under discussion can be answered, and we will clarify how they can be argued for.
Needham, Joseph, Science and Civilisation in China, vol. 7: The Social Background, part 2: General Conclusions and Reflections
No full textThe Production of Well Salt by Ethnic Minorities in Pre-modern Yunnan: The “Illustrations on the Salt Production Methods of Yunnan”
Get PDFThis paper makes use of regional historical sources to analyze and investigate the “Illustrations on the Salt Production Methods of Yunnan” (Diannan yanfa tu 滇 南 鹽 法 圖 ), a scroll held by the Chinese National Museum in Beijing. It postulates that pre-modern Yunnan salt works can be divided into three basic types: natural brine springs, brine wells on land, and brine wells in the middle of rivers. The last type, in particular, is characteristic of Yunnan well salt production. At the same time, this paper also discusses the arts of hoisting and transporting brine as well as the methods of boiling brine and forming salt, thus highlighting the diversity of Yunnan’s pre-modern well salt production methods. By reflecting the customs and practices of the Yunnan salt industry, the “Illustrations on the Salt Production Methods of Yunnan” is an important document for the history of science and technology of the ethnic minorities in the southwestern part of China
