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The Poverties and Triumphsof the Chinese Scientific
Tradition
Nokia, Sony, Pentium:these are Western brands that govern the
commodious existence of human
beings in this planet. For this, we cannot blame the world for
regarding the West as superior when itcomes to science and
technology.
Though the Chinese has always been known as brilliant people,
their version of science and
technology does not quite impress the world of its low-class
myriad of batteries and TV sets that last
only until the next Christmas bonus. The West looks at Chinese
science and technology as ancient and
mystified, not considering it asserious science, rather only as
a part of the Chinese culture and Oriental
tradition.
At present, the success of Modern science is attributed to the
West. The Renaissance gave birth to
the fundamental bases of the structure of the natural sciences
we have today(1)the application of
mathematical hypotheses to nature, (2)the full understanding and
use of experimental method, (3)the
distinction between the primary and secondary qualities, (4)the
geometrisation of space, and (5)the
acceptance of the mechanical model of reality. For that, the
primitive medieval Western scientific theories
the Aristotlean elements, the Galenical humours, doctrines of
pneumatic physiology and alchemists,
and natural philosophies of Kabbalaare referred as the roots of
the science we have today.
But the world is not about the West. Another life exists unique
from the living conditions of the
European countries where Galileo and Aristotle lived.
The science of the medieval world were tied closely to the
ethnic environments in which
they had arisen, and it was very difficult, if not impossible,
for the people of those different
cultures to find any common basis of discourse.1
We backtrack some hundreds of years ago; a long time before Bill
Gates was born. The era was
between the second century B.C. and the 16th century A.D. ad we
focus on the face of science and
technology in traditional China.
The East Asian culture was much more efficient than the European
West in applying knowledge
of Nature to useful purposes. The Chinese had remarkable
mathematical achievements, using the decimal
1 Needham, John, The Grand Titration: Science and Society in
East and West. University of Toronto Press: 1969.
Chapter 5, pp.178-189.
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place-value and the blank space as a reference to zero, way
before than anywhere else in the world. The
algebraic system (now, curse the Chinese!) was also a product of
their profound mathematical thought.
Other branches of science were also present in the Chinese
society. Three main components of
physicsoptics, magnetism and acousticswere in fact developed in
ancient and medieval China.
Quantitative cartography also began in China, contributing
largely to the advancement of geological
sciences and meteorology. The classical Chinese culture also
triumohed in the field of engineering, most
especially in mechanical side. Agricultural inventionswere
Chinas contribution to Biology.
But despite these noble ideas, the West still looks at the
Chinese science with indifference, maybe
because of the contrasts of the two, apropos to scientific
beliefs and methodologies.
CHINA WESTOrganic materialism; organistic view of the
world
Mechanical view of the world
Algebraic Geometric
Wave particle antithesis
Five elements: air, water, fire, earth, emptiness Aristotlean
and Galenical humours
Astronomy Euclid
The Chinese really made ingenious inventions out of their ideas,
which is, I Stress, contrasting to
the Western ideologies. The mechanical clockworkbegan in Thang
China, in spite of the highly agrarian
character of East Asian civilization. The gunpowder is one of
the most innovative addtitions of the
Chinese when it comes to martial technology. The mastery of
textile fibre also came form them. And at
the time when the Europeans did not even know about polarity,
the Chinese were already worrying about
magnetic declination.
The China pioneered may scientific and technological ideas, we
cannot deny it is lagging far far
behind the exceptional Western technology. The West points to
Chinas ideographic language as the
main impedement on its science and technology industry. But John
Needham said if there is something
to be blamed on this issue, it would be the mandarinate
(feudal-bureaucratic) system of the classical
Chinese society.
For 2000 years, the civil service creamed off the best brains of
the nation. In effect, the greatest
minds in the land worked for the government: the advancements in
science and technology were put in
the backseat.
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It is unfair to say Asia did not contribute on the worldwide
advancements of science and
technology. In fact, the Asian culture, most especially the
Chinese, helped lay the foundations of
mathematics and all the sciences, which are still useful at
present.
But then again, science should be universal. It should bind
people, not disengage. It should not
be a debate of who discovered who; or where certain branches of
science came frombecause wherever
a theory originated or invention was made, it should unite the
people in the world towards a more
comfortable and harmonious lifestyle through science and
technology.
Science is universal. It speaks one language, it has one
culture: it is for the betterment of the
society.
