126-656: The Wujing Zongyao ( Chinese : 武經總要 ), sometimes rendered in English as the Complete Essentials for the Military Classics , is a Chinese military compendium written from around 1040 to 1044. The book was compiled during the Northern Song dynasty by Zeng Gongliang (曾公亮), Ding Du (丁度) and Yang Weide (楊惟德), whose writing influenced many later Chinese military writers. The compendium
252-556: A PhD . He had intended to study medicine, but came under the influence of Frederick Hopkins , resulting in his switch to biochemistry . After graduation, Needham was elected to a fellowship at Gonville and Caius College and worked in Hopkins' laboratory at the University Department of Biochemistry, specialising in embryology and morphogenesis . His three-volume work Chemical Embryology , published in 1931, includes
378-403: A potassium nitrate level of 55.4% to 55.5%, sulfur content of 19.4% to 26.5%, and carbonaceous content of 23% to 25.2%. The first step for making gunpowder is to powder and mix together sulphur, saltpetre, charcoal, pitch, and dried lacquer. Tung oil, dried plants, and wax are mixed next to create a paste. The paste and powder are combined and carefully stirred. Then the mixture is placed inside
504-532: A better government now than for centuries", but on a visit in 1972 he was deeply depressed by the changes under the Cultural Revolution . Needham married the biochemist Dorothy Moyle (1896–1987) in 1924 and they became the first husband and wife both to be elected as Fellows of the Royal Society . Simon Winchester notes that, in his younger days, Needham was an avid gymnosophist and he
630-509: A certain extent in South Korea , remain virtually identical to traditional characters, with variations between the two forms largely stylistic. There has historically been a debate on traditional and simplified Chinese characters . Because the simplifications are fairly systematic, it is possible to convert computer-encoded characters between the two sets, with the main issue being ambiguities in simplified representations resulting from
756-533: A comparative advantage in developing technology in modern times. Lin blamed the institutions in China for preventing the adoption of the experiment-based methodology. Its sociopolitical institution inhibited intellectual creativity, but more importantly, it diverted this creativity away from scientific endeavours. Totalitarian control by the state in the Chinese Empire inhibited public dispute, competition, and
882-515: A figurine of an immortal in place on the end of a long wooden staff, the figure having its arm stretched out and always pointing to the southern cardinal direction . Although the authors of the Wujing Zongyao were mistaken in believing that the design of the south-pointing chariot was not handed down (as it was reinvented during the Song period and combined with an odometer ), they described
1008-718: A flamethrower with a double-acting two- piston cylinder-pump capable of shooting a continuous blast of flame. The first Chinese battle to use the double-piston pump flamethrower was the Battle of Langshan Jiang in 919 AD. In the Battle of Langshan Jiang (Wolf Mountain River, 狼山江), the naval fleet of the Wenmu King of Wuyue defeated the fleet of the Kingdom of Wu because he had used 'fire oil' (huo yóu, 火油) to burn his fleet; this signified
1134-438: A high degree of self-esteem. Just as put forward by Landes (2006), the downward tyranny combined with the cultural triumphalism had made China as a state to become a bad learner. (p. 11). It is clear China could not be able to accept any information from their inferiors. The High-Level Equilibrium Trap. High population, although sometimes it can be a cheap source of labor which is necessary for economic development, sometimes
1260-523: A history of embryology from Egyptian times up to the early 19th century, including quotations in most European languages. Including this history reflected Needham's fear that overspecialization would hold back scientific progress and that social and historical forces shaped science. In 1936, he and several other Cambridge scientists founded the History of Science Committee. The Committee included conservatives but also Marxists like J.D. Bernal , whose views on
1386-408: A horizontal cylinder above; they are all connected with the tank. The head and the tail of the cylinder are large (the middle) is of narrow (diameter). In the tail end there is a small opening as big as a millet grain. The head end has (two) round openings 1½ inches in diameter. At the side of the tank there is a hole with a (little) tube which is used for filling, and this is fitted with a cover. Inside
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#17327653914991512-463: A new device which allowed one to navigate. This was the 'south pointing fish' (a thermoremanence compass ), essentially a heated iron (or preferably steel) object cut in the shape of a fish and suspended in a bowl of water. The Wujing Zongyao part 1 volume 15 text stated: When troops encountered gloomy weather or dark nights, and the directions of space could not be distinguished, they let an old horse go on before to lead them, or else they made use of
1638-427: A nitrate level of 27% if all carbonaceous matter was taken, 31.2% if this excluded poisons, and 51.7% if charcoal alone was used. The sulfur content would be 13.5% if all carbonaceous matter was taken, 15.6% if this excluded the poisons, and 25.9% if only charcoal alone was specified. The carbon content was 59.5% if all carbonaceous matter was taken into account, 53.2% if this excluded poisons, and 22.4% if charcoal alone
1764-437: A paper container, wrapped up, and tied using hemp twine. Several precautions are taken to prevent the gunpowder from becoming damp. For the second formula, the inner ball alone had a nitrate percentage of 61.5% to 50.2%, a sulfur content of 30.8% to 25.1%, and if all carbonaceous matter was taken, 24.7%, if just taking the charcoal content alone, the carbon level was 7.7%. If the outer coating and inner ball are both included with
1890-464: A part that could not be found elsewhere in Chinese civilization. The mainstream school of thinking of the bureaucratic Chinese elite, or ' Confucianism ' (another problematic term) in his vocabulary, seemed to him to be less interested in science and technology, and to have 'turned its face away from Nature.' Ironically, the dynasty that apparently turned away from printing from 706 till its demise in 907
2016-411: A paste permeating the ball; bind it up with hempen string. When you want to find the range of anything, shoot off this fire-ball first, then other incendiary balls can follow. Gunpowder was attached to fire arrows ( 火箭 ) and utilized as an incendiary. The Wujing Zongyao records that fire arrows were launched from bows or crossbows. The gunpowder used for fire arrows was likely a low-nitrate powder, and
2142-421: A preface by Li Jin. The entire Wujing Zongyao was reprinted in 1510 AD and this version is currently the oldest extant copy available. However, the historian Joseph Needham asserts that the 1510 AD edition is the most reliable in its faithfulness to the original version, since it was printed from blocks that were re-carved directly from tracings of the edition made in 1231 AD, rather than recombining fragments of
2268-540: A professional mathematician who became Master of the Temple , a royal church in London. Barnes inspired an interest in the philosophers and medieval scholastics that Needham pursued in his father's library. Needham later attributed his strong Christian faith to Barnes' philosophical theology, which was founded on rational argument, and attributed his openness to the religions of other cultures to Barnes as well. In 1914, with
2394-519: A science and technology programme, which included a metal shop that gave the young Needham a grounding in engineering. Sanderson also emphasised to the boys of the school that co-operation led to higher human achievement than competition and that knowledge of history was necessary to build a better future. The Bible, in Sanderson's teaching, supplied archaeological knowledge to compare with the present. During school holidays, Needham assisted his father in
2520-537: A significant influence on later naval handbooks and encyclopedias such as the naval section of the Wubei Zhi from circa 1628. These works would incorporate illustrations of ships originally from the Wujing Zongyao . The use of pictures from the Wujing Zongyao would continue to appear in Japanese naval texts up until the 18th century. The illustrations were used by both Nishikawa Joken's Ka-i Tsūshō-kō (Studies on
2646-613: A standard set of Chinese character forms used to write Chinese languages . In Taiwan , the set of traditional characters is regulated by the Ministry of Education and standardized in the Standard Form of National Characters . These forms were predominant in written Chinese until the middle of the 20th century, when various countries that use Chinese characters began standardizing simplified sets of characters, often with characters that existed before as well-known variants of
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#17327653914992772-586: A study commission, tacitly offering access to materials and contacts in China needed for his then early research. Needham agreed to be an inspector in North Korea and his report supported the allegations (it is debated to this very day whether the evidence had been planted as a part of a complicated disinformation campaign). Needham's biographer Simon Winchester claimed that "Needham was intellectually in love with communism; and yet communist spymasters and agents, it turned out, had pitilessly duped him." Needham
2898-432: A wider government audience. Its chief editor, Zeng Gongliang, was assisted by the astronomer Yang Weide and the scholar Ding Du. After five years, the book was published with a preface authored by Emperor Renzong himself. Lorge remarks that Zeng Gongliang, the chief editor, was a government official rather than a military general, implying that the Wujing Zongyao was likely written for other government officials. Parts of
3024-869: Is 産 (also the accepted form in Japan and Korea), while in Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan the accepted form is 產 (also the accepted form in Vietnamese chữ Nôm ). The PRC tends to print material intended for people in Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan, and overseas Chinese in traditional characters. For example, versions of the People's Daily are printed in traditional characters, and both People's Daily and Xinhua have traditional character versions of their website available, using Big5 encoding. Mainland companies selling products in Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan use traditional characters in order to communicate with consumers;
3150-477: Is also clear that the agrarian revolution experienced in Europe was a tangible asset towards industrialization. The issue of the abundance of land was also at the forefront in ensuring that industrial revolution was realized in Europe contrary to what was experienced in China whereby the large populations put a lot of strain to the available resources as a result making industrial revolution unattainable in China during
3276-400: Is ordered to draw the piston rod fully backwards and work it (back and forth) as vigorously as possible. Whereupon the oil (the petrol) comes out through the ignition chamber and is shot forth as blazing flame. Then the text goes on to provide further instructions about equipment, maintenance, and repair of flamethrowers: When filling, use the bowl, the spoon and filter; for igniting there is
3402-429: Is quenched with water in a basin, so that its tail is submerged for several tenths of an inch. It is then kept in a tightly closed box. To use it, a small bowl filled with water is set up in a windless place, and the fish is laid as flat as possible upon the water-surface so that it floats, whereupon its head will point south. Later on in the Song dynasty the compass was used with maritime navigation. Several decades after
3528-404: Is specified alone. The sulfur content was 19.8% if all carbonaceous matter was considered, 24.7% if this excluded poisons, and 30% if charcoal is specified alone. The carbon content was 40.5% if all carbonaceous matter was considered, 25.9% if this excluded poisons, and 10% if charcoal alone was specified. If both the inner ball and outer coating are considered for the third formula, that would yield
3654-631: Is this: why had China been overtaken by the West in science and technology, despite their earlier successes? In Needham's words, "Why did modern science, the mathematization of hypotheses about Nature, with all its implications for advanced technology, take its meteoric rise only in the West at the time of Galileo?", and why it "had not developed in Chinese civilization" which, in the previous many centuries "was much more efficient than occidental in applying" natural knowledge to practical needs. Francis Bacon considered four inventions as completely transforming
3780-493: The Chinese Commercial News , World News , and United Daily News all use traditional characters, as do some Hong Kong–based magazines such as Yazhou Zhoukan . The Philippine Chinese Daily uses simplified characters. DVDs are usually subtitled using traditional characters, influenced by media from Taiwan as well as by the two countries sharing the same DVD region , 3. With most having immigrated to
3906-602: The Gujin Tushu Jicheng encyclopaedia, a comprehensive record of China's past. On his return to Europe, he was asked by Julian Huxley to become the first head of the Natural Sciences Section of UNESCO in Paris, France. In fact it was Needham who insisted that science should be included in the organisation's mandate at an earlier planning meeting. After two years in which the suspicions of
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4032-540: The Han dynasty (202 BC – 220 AD). However, it was the later Wujing Zongyao that would provide the first illustrated drawing and greater textual explanation for how this flamethrower operated. In describing the drawn illustration of the flamethrower in the book, the Wujing Zongyao states: On the right is the petrol flamethrower (lit. fierce fire oil-shooter). The tank is made of brass , and supported on four legs. From its upper surface arise four (vertical) tubes attached to
4158-501: The Kensiu language . Joseph Needham Noel Joseph Terence Montgomery Needham CH FRS FBA ( / ˈ n iː d ə m / ; 9 December 1900 – 24 March 1995) was a British biochemist , historian of science and sinologist known for his scientific research and writing on the history of Chinese science and technology , initiating publication of the multivolume Science and Civilisation in China . A focus of his
4284-596: The Shanghai edition. The Xu Wujing Zongyao (續武經總要; literally "Continuation of Wujing Zongyao") is a "continuation" of the Wujing Zongyao written in the late Ming dynasty. The book focuses primarily on army formations and military deployments. It was written by Fan Jingwen (1587–1644), who was then the Vice President of the Board of War (兵部尚書; bingbu shangshu ). Fan wrote the book because he felt that reprints of
4410-640: The Shanghainese -language character U+20C8E 𠲎 CJK UNIFIED IDEOGRAPH-20C8E —a composition of 伐 with the ⼝ 'MOUTH' radical—used instead of the Standard Chinese 嗎 ; 吗 . Typefaces often use the initialism TC to signify the use of traditional Chinese characters, as well as SC for simplified Chinese characters . In addition, the Noto, Italy family of typefaces, for example, also provides separate fonts for
4536-501: The Wujing Zongyao by Chinese alchemists in the 9th century. Early references to gunpowder can be found in the Daoist book Zhenyuan miaodao yaolue , written circa 850, and gunpowder was utilized in Chinese warfare as early as the 10th century in fire arrows and gunpowder fuses used to light the Chinese two-piston flamethrower . However it was not until the Wujing Zongyao that the exact chemical formulas for early Chinese gunpowder
4662-503: The Wujing Zongyao circulating at that time were out of date and did not take into account the technological and strategic changes that had occurred since the Song dynasty. The only surviving copy of the Xu Wujing Zongyao is held by Fudan University Library. In the 3rd century, the Chinese engineer Ma Jun invented the south-pointing chariot . This was a wheeled vehicle that employed differential gearing in order to lock
4788-495: The Wujing Zongyao was written, the scientist and statesman Shen Kuo (1031–1095 AD) wrote of the first truly magnetized compass needle in his book Dream Pool Essays (1088 AD). With a more efficient compass magnetized by lodestone , the thermoremanence compass fell out of use. The later maritime author Zhu Yu wrote of the magnetic needle compass as a means to navigate at sea in his Pingzhou Table Talks of 1119 AD. The Wujing Zongyao' s illustrated descriptions of warships had
4914-553: The Wujing Zongyao were copied from older sources; historian Ralph D. Sawyer calls it "essentially a cut-and-paste job", containing many passages from earlier classical military writings whose original authors are left unidentified, a common practice at the time. During the Song dynasty, the Wujing Zongyao was appended to two other books: the Xingjun xuzhi and the Baizhan qifa , both written by anonymous authors. The Wujing Zongyao
5040-466: The "periphery" nations that lie outside of the bright zone. In addition to supporting periphery nations, Needham incorporated his desire for a non-Eurocentric record of science in UNESCO's mission. To this end, Huxley and Needham devised an ambitious scholarly project they called The History of Scientific and Cultural Development of Mankind (shortened to History of Mankind ) . The goal of this project
5166-409: The "swallow-tail" incendiary ( 燕尾炬 ; yanweiju ) and the flying incendiary ( 飛炬 ; feiju ). The swallow-tail incendiary was made of straw tied together and dipped in fat or oil. Chinese soldiers defending a city under siege would light the incendiary and lower it onto any wooden structure of the invading army to engulf it in fire. The flying incendiary visually resembled the swallow-tail incendiary, but
Wujing Zongyao - Misplaced Pages Continue
5292-471: The Americans over scientific co-operation with communists intensified, Needham resigned in 1948 and returned to Gonville and Caius College, where he resumed his fellowship and his rooms, which were soon filled with his books. He devoted his energy to the history of Chinese science until his retirement in 1990, even though he continued to teach some biochemistry until 1993. Needham's reputation recovered from
5418-655: The Chair of Chinese in the University of Cambridge, a post never awarded to Needham, was endowed in his honour as the Joseph Needham Professorship of Chinese History, Science and Civilisation . Since 2016, an annual Needham Memorial Lecture is held at Clare College. Needham was a high church Anglo-Catholic who worshipped regularly at Ely Cathedral and in the college chapel, but he also described himself as an "honorary Taoist ". In 1961, Needham
5544-556: The Chinese beat Europeans to the Scientific Revolution? – happens to be one of the few questions that people often ask in public places about why something didn't happen in history. It is analogous to the question of why your name did not appear on page 3 of today's newspaper. There are several hypotheses attempting to explain the Needham Question. Yingqiu Liu and Chunjiang Liu argued that the issue rested on
5670-446: The Chinese state. As illustrated, "The Ming code of core laws also sought to block social mobility" (Landes, 2006, p. 7). How can you expect the industrial revolution to a country that prohibited its people from performing social mobility? From the above, you will come to find that it is clear that the Chinese would not be able to achieve industrial revolution since they were heavily tamed by their state government who were naïve about
5796-1019: The Intercourse and Trade with Chinese and Barbarians) in 1708 and Kanazawa Kanemitsu's Wakan Senyōshū (Collected Studies on the Ships used by the Chinese and Japanese) in 1766. The Wujing Zongyao divides Chinese warships into six categories: Tower ships ( lou chuan ), combat or war junks ( dou xian or zhan xian ), covered swoopers ( meng chong ), flying barques ( zou ge ), patrol boats ( you ting ), and sea hawk ships ( hai hu ). The Wujing Zongyao' s typology for classifying Chinese warships would reappear in later naval texts for many centuries. The Wujing Zongyao records detailed descriptions of gunpowder weapons such as incendiary projectiles, smoke bombs , fire arrows , and grenades . It documents incendiary projectiles containing low-nitrate gunpowder, which were launched from catapults or lowered down from city walls onto besiegers. Examples of these incendiaries include
5922-583: The Korean affair (see below) such that by 1959 he was elected as president of the fellows of Caius College and in 1965 he became Master (head) of the college, a post which he held until he was 76. In 1948, Needham proposed a project to the Cambridge University Press for a book on Science and Civilisation in China . Within weeks of being accepted, the project had grown to seven volumes, and it has expanded ever since. His initial collaborator
6048-555: The People's Republic of China, traditional Chinese characters are standardised according to the Table of Comparison between Standard, Traditional and Variant Chinese Characters . Dictionaries published in mainland China generally show both simplified and their traditional counterparts. There are differences between the accepted traditional forms in mainland China and elsewhere, for example the accepted traditional form of 产 in mainland China
6174-532: The United States during the second half of the 19th century, Chinese Americans have long used traditional characters. When not providing both, US public notices and signs in Chinese are generally written in traditional characters, more often than in simplified characters. In the past, traditional Chinese was most often encoded on computers using the Big5 standard, which favored traditional characters. However,
6300-486: The accumulated sufficient knowledge. A strong need to save labor was finally felt in Europe. The agrarian revolution experienced before also provided agricultural surplus that ultimately served as the core assets towards financing the industrial revolution. (p. 272). The accumulation of adequate labor and knowledge to their threshold was a significant step that the European embraced to ignite an industrial revolution. It
6426-533: The aspect of innovation. According to Justin Lin, China did not make the shift from an experience-based technological invention process to an experiment-based innovation process. The experience-based process depended on the size of a population, and while new technologies have come about through the trials and errors of the peasants and artisans, experiment-based processes surpasses experience-based processes in yielding new technology. Progress from experimentation following
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#17327653914996552-439: The belief that science was the universal experience that bound humanity, Huxley and Needham hoped that their project would help ease some of the animosity between the two spheres. The project involved hundreds of scholars from around the globe and took over a decade to reach fruition in 1966. The work is still continued today with new volumes published periodically. "Needham's Grand Question", also known as "The Needham Question",
6678-456: The branding iron; for maintaining (or renewing) the fire there is the container. The branding iron is made sharp like an awl so that it may be used to unblock the tubes if they get stopped up. There are tongs with which to pick up the glowing fire, and there is a soldering iron for stopping up leaks. If the tanks or the tubes get cracked and leak they may be mended by using green wax. Altogether there are 12 items of equipment, all of brass except
6804-725: The caves in Dunhuang at the end of the Great Wall where the earliest dated printed book - a copy of the Diamond Sutra - was found. The other long trip reached Fuzhou on the east coast, returning across the Xiang River just two days before the Japanese blew up the bridge at Hengyang and cut off that part of China. In 1944 he visited Yunnan in an attempt to reach the Burmese border. Everywhere he went he purchased and
6930-421: The compendium also contains details on various other gunpowder weapons such as fire arrows , incendiary bombs and projectiles, and grenades and smoke bombs . It also describes an early form of the compass (using thermoremanence ), and has the oldest illustration of a Chinese flamethrower with a double-action dual- piston cylinder-pump capable of shooting a continuous blast of flame. The Wujing Zongyao
7056-473: The culture of the Chinese has valued the males in the society; as a result, early marriages were experienced which boosted the fertility rates leading to the rapid increase in the China population. (p. 271). An increase in population with no equivalent increase in economic and technological development will ultimately suppress the available resources causing laxity to the general economic development. The high population experienced in China significantly raised
7182-408: The cylinder there is a (piston-)rod packed with silk floss, the head of which is wound round with hemp waste about ½ inches thick. Before and behind, the two communicating tubes are (alternately) occluded (lit. controlled), and (the mechanism) thus determined. The tail has a horizontal handle (the pump handle), in front of which there is a round cover. When (the handle is pushed) in (the pistons) close
7308-399: The early fourteenth century. Needham's work has been criticised by most scholars who assert that it has a strong inclination to exaggerate Chinese technological achievements and has an excessive propensity to assume a Chinese origin for the wide range of objects his work covered. Pierre-Yves Manguin writes, for instance: J Needham's (1971) monumental work on Chinese nautics offers by far
7434-445: The effects of these institutions on technological advancement were indirect. Needham's political views were unorthodox and his lifestyle controversial. His left-wing stance was based in a form of Christian socialism . However he was influenced by Louis Rapkine and Liliana Lubińska , both Marxists brought up with a Jewish anti-clerical outlook. He never joined any Communist Party . After 1949 his sympathy with Chinese culture
7560-505: The expansion of a countries market. As Landes (2006) further puts it, in 1368 when the new emperor Hongwu was inaugurated, his main objective was war. (p. 6). A lot of revenue that can otherwise be used for innovative procedures are as a result lost in wars. Heavy participation in war significantly hindered the Chinese to have the capability of focusing on the industrial revolution. Landes (2006) further explains that Chinese were advised to stay put and never to move without permission from
7686-401: The feudal system that the European had embraced, (p. 272). The availability of unexploited ventures made European have significant potential in the execution of a fully-fledged industrial revolution. Lin (1995) further adds that although Europe was lagging behind China during the pre-modern era in terms of economic and technological advancements, the right time finally came for Europe to use
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#17327653914997812-975: The field of Chinese technological history, he still struggled to break free from his preconceived notions of European exceptionalism. Re-Orient criticizes Needham for his Eurocentric assumptions borrowed from Marx and the presupposition of Needham's famous Grand Question that science was a uniquely Western phenomenon. Frank observes: Alas, it was also originally Needham's Marxist and Weberian point of departure. As Needham found more and more evidence about science and technology in China, he struggled to liberate himself from his Eurocentric original sin, which he had inherited directly from Marx, as Cohen also observes. But Needham never quite succeeded, perhaps because his concentration on China prevented him from sufficiently revising his still ethnocentric view of Europe itself. T. H. Barrett asserts in The Woman Who Discovered Printing that Needham
7938-533: The first Chinese use of gunpowder in warfare, since a slow-burning match fuse was required to ignite the flames. Greek fire is likely based on distilled petroleum and is a weapon of Byzantine origin. The Chinese author Lin Yu explained in his book of 919 AD that Greek fire was acquired from their Arab maritime trade contacts in the Indian Ocean . Furthermore, the Chinese had been using the piston syringe since
8064-580: The government were ever allowed to read it as increased propagation would have increased the chance of it falling into enemy hands. A remaining copy of the Wujing Zongyao was remade into a newly published edition in 1231 AD in the Southern Song dynasty . During the Ming dynasty (1368–1644 AD), another book was published in 1439 AD featuring fragments of the Wujing Zongyao of 1231 while omitting some material and combining it with two other books, including
8190-420: The growth of modern science, while the clusters of independent European nations were more favourable to competition and scientific development. In addition, the Chinese did not have the incentives to acquire human capital necessary for modern scientific experimentation. Civil service was deemed the most rewarding and honourable work in pre-modern China. The gifted had more incentives to pursue this route to move up
8316-402: The help of Allied governments, UNESCO is an international organization that aims to bring education to regions that had been affected by Nazi occupation. Needham and Huxley advocated the growth of scientific education as a means to overcome political conflict and hence founded UNESCO in an effort to expand its influence. Composed of representatives from various Allied countries, UNESCO operated on
8442-430: The help of international education the most. He also argued that the lack of familiarity between other nations and those in the bright zone made ideological exchange difficult. Finally, he expressed the notion that other countries had issues disseminating knowledge because they lacked the capital necessary for distribution. Due to these constraints, Needham suggested that most of the organization's support should be given to
8568-451: The high population can be a great setback when it comes to development. The land which a factor of production can be negatively affected by high population. The ratio of person-to-land-area will eventually decrease as the population of a community grows. During the thirteenth century, China was significantly affected by this population factor when it came to the point of ignition of an industrial revolution. As Lin (1995) puts forward, initially,
8694-493: The inverse is equally true as well. In digital media, many cultural phenomena imported from Hong Kong and Taiwan into mainland China, such as music videos, karaoke videos, subtitled movies, and subtitled dramas, use traditional Chinese characters. In Hong Kong and Macau , traditional characters were retained during the colonial period, while the mainland adopted simplified characters. Simplified characters are contemporaneously used to accommodate immigrants and tourists, often from
8820-519: The lack of property rights and that those rights were only obtainable through favour of the emperor. Protection was incomplete as the emperor could rescind those rights at any time. Science and technology were subjugated to the needs of the feudal royal family, and any new discoveries were sequestered by the government for its use. The government took steps to control and interfere with private enterprises by manipulating prices and engaging in bribery. Each revolution in China redistributed property rights under
8946-493: The logic of a scientific method can occur at a much faster rate because the inventor can perform many trials during the same production period under a controlled environment. Results from experimentation is dependent on the stock of scientific knowledge while results from experience-based processes is tied directly to the size of a population; hence, experiment-based innovation processes have a higher likelihood of producing better technology as human capital grows. China had about twice
9072-725: The mainland. The increasing use of simplified characters has led to concern among residents regarding protecting what they see as their local heritage. Taiwan has never adopted simplified characters. The use of simplified characters in government documents and educational settings is discouraged by the government of Taiwan. Nevertheless, with sufficient context simplified characters are likely to be successfully read by those used to traditional characters, especially given some previous exposure. Many simplified characters were previously variants that had long been in some use, with systematic stroke simplifications used in folk handwriting since antiquity. Traditional characters were recognized as
9198-682: The majority of Chinese text in mainland China are simplified characters , there is no legislation prohibiting the use of traditional Chinese characters, and often traditional Chinese characters remain in use for stylistic and commercial purposes, such as in shopfront displays and advertising. Traditional Chinese characters remain ubiquitous on buildings that predate the promulgation of the current simplification scheme, such as former government buildings, religious buildings, educational institutions, and historical monuments. Traditional Chinese characters continue to be used for ceremonial, cultural, scholarly/academic research, and artistic/decorative purposes. In
9324-553: The man to land ratio. The China population was massive. Just as Lin (1995) elaborates, the raising man-land-ratio in the Chinese meant that there was a diminishing surplus per capita. Due to this, China were not able to have surplus resources which can be tapped and used to ignite the industrial revolution. Just as Lin (1995) puts forward, Europeans were enjoying an optimum man to land ratio with no land strain. The Europeans also had vast unexploited technologies as well as economics possibilities. All these advantages were possible because of
9450-983: The merging of previously distinct character forms. Many Chinese online newspapers allow users to switch between these character sets. Traditional characters are known by different names throughout the Chinese-speaking world. The government of Taiwan officially refers to traditional Chinese characters as 正體字 ; 正体字 ; zhèngtǐzì ; 'orthodox characters'. This term is also used outside Taiwan to distinguish standard characters, including both simplified, and traditional, from other variants and idiomatic characters . Users of traditional characters elsewhere, as well as those using simplified characters, call traditional characters 繁體字 ; 繁体字 ; fántǐzì ; 'complex characters', 老字 ; lǎozì ; 'old characters', or 全體字 ; 全体字 ; quántǐzì ; 'full characters' to distinguish them from simplified characters. Some argue that since traditional characters are often
9576-478: The modern world, marking it off from the antiquity of the Middle Ages: paper and printing, gunpowder, and the magnetic compass. He regarded the origins of these inventions as 'obscure and inglorious', dying without ever knowing that all of them were Chinese. Part of Needham's work attempts to "put this record straight". Needham's works attribute significant weight to the impact of Confucianism and Taoism on
9702-405: The most scholarly synthesis on the subjects of Chinese shipbuilding and navigation. His propensity to view the Chinese as the initiators of all things and his constant references to the superiority of Chinese over the rest of the world's techniques does at times detract from his argument. In another vein of criticism, Andre Gunder Frank 's Re-Orient argues that despite Needham's contributions in
9828-404: The mouth of the tubes (in turn). Before use the tank is filled with rather more than three catties of the oil with a spoon through a filter; at the same time gunpowder (composition) is placed in the ignition chamber at the head. When the fire is to be started one applies a heated branding iron (to the ignition chamber), and the piston-rod is forced fully into the cylinder—then the man at the back
9954-677: The official script in Singapore until 1969, when the government officially adopted Simplified characters. Traditional characters still are widely used in contexts such as in baby and corporation names, advertisements, decorations, official documents and in newspapers. The Chinese Filipino community continues to be one of the most conservative in Southeast Asia regarding simplification. Although major public universities teach in simplified characters, many well-established Chinese schools still use traditional characters. Publications such as
10080-427: The operating rooms of several wartime hospitals, an experience that convinced him that he was not interested in becoming a surgeon. The Royal Navy, however, appointed him a surgeon sub-lieutenant, a position that he held for only a few months. In 1921, Needham graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree from Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge . In January 1925, Needham earned an MA . In October 1925, Needham earned
10206-725: The order originally contemplated in the project's prospectus. Needham's final organizing schema was: See Science and Civilisation in China for a full list. The project is still proceeding under the guidance of the Publications Board of the Needham Research Institute , directed by Professor Mei Jianjun. Needham, along with colleague Julian Huxley , was one of the founders of the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization ( UNESCO ). Developed in 1945 with
10332-700: The original standard forms, they should not be called 'complex'. Conversely, there is a common objection to the description of traditional characters as 'standard', due to them not being used by a large population of Chinese speakers. Additionally, as the process of Chinese character creation often made many characters more elaborate over time, there is sometimes a hesitation to characterize them as 'traditional'. Some people refer to traditional characters as 'proper characters' ( 正字 ; zhèngzì or 正寫 ; zhèngxiě ) and to simplified characters as 簡筆字 ; 简笔字 ; jiǎnbǐzì ; 'simplified-stroke characters' or 減筆字 ; 减笔字 ; jiǎnbǐzì ; 'reduced-stroke characters', as
10458-646: The original with other material. After the Wujing Zongyao of 1510 was printed, other Ming copies were made. This included the Jiajing edition (1522–1566 AD), the Wanli edition (1573–1619 AD) of Quanzhou , and the Wanli edition (1573–1619) of Jinling by Tang Xinyün (preserved by Cunjingge). During the Qing dynasty (1644–1911 AD) it was also reprinted in two different editions during the 18th century, and again in 1934 with
10584-468: The outbreak of World War I , Needham was sent to Oundle School , founded in 1556 in Northamptonshire . He did not enjoy leaving home, but he later described the headmaster Frederick William Sanderson as a "man of genius" and said that without that influence on him at a tender age, he might not have attempted his largest work. Sanderson had been charged by the school's governors with developing
10710-581: The pace of Chinese scientific discovery, and emphasises the "diffusionist" approach of Chinese science as opposed to a perceived independent inventiveness in the western world. Needham thought the notion that the Chinese script had inhibited scientific thought was "grossly overrated". His own research revealed a steady accumulation of scientific results throughout Chinese history . In the final volume he suggests "A continuing general and scientific progress manifested itself in traditional Chinese society but this
10836-405: The population of Europe until the 13th century and so had a higher probability of creating new technologies. After the 14th century, China's population grew exponentially, but progress in innovation saw diminishing returns. Europe had a smaller population but began to integrate science and technology that arose from the scientific revolution in the 17th century. This scientific revolution gave Europe
10962-833: The predominant forms. Simplified characters as codified by the People's Republic of China are predominantly used in mainland China , Malaysia, and Singapore. "Traditional" as such is a retronym applied to non-simplified character sets in the wake of widespread use of simplified characters. Traditional characters are commonly used in Taiwan , Hong Kong , and Macau , as well as in most overseas Chinese communities outside of Southeast Asia. As for non-Chinese languages written using Chinese characters, Japanese kanji include many simplified characters known as shinjitai standardized after World War II, sometimes distinct from their simplified Chinese counterparts . Korean hanja , still used to
11088-552: The principle that ideas and information should spread freely among nations. However, Needham disagreed with this initial mode of exchange because of its failure to include nations outside of Europe and America. To communicate his discordance with the model, Needham wrote and distributed a formal message to others in the organization explaining its flaws. He stated that nations outside of the European-American "bright zone", or primary location of scientific advancement, needed
11214-451: The quantity of gunpowder varied according to the type of bow. In the book, the force of gunpowder is said to be enough to launch an arrow, but only when the elasticity of the crossbow is sufficient. The Wujing Zongyao discusses various types of incendiary bombs and grenades. They used a low-nitrate gunpowder that, while not powerful enough to cause an explosion, was effective for incendiary weapons. The huoqiu ( 火毬 ; literally "fire ball")
11340-553: The same feudal system. Land and property were reallocated first and foremost to the royal family of the new dynasty up until the late Qing Dynasty (1644–1911) when fiefdom land was taken over by warlords and merchants. These limited property rights constrained potential scientific innovations. The Chinese Empire enacted totalitarian control and was able to do so because of its great size. There were smaller independent states that had no choice but to comply with this control. They could not afford to isolate themselves. The Chinese believed in
11466-411: The second black-powder formula, that would yield a nitrate level of 34.7% to 54.8%, a sulfur content of 17.4% to 27.4%, and if all carbonaceous material is used, 47.9% carbon, if only charcoal is used, 17.8%. If the inner ball of the third black-powder formula is only considered, it held nitrate levels of 39.6% if all carbonaceous matter was taken, 49.4% nitrate if excluding the poisons, and 60% if charcoal
11592-484: The social and economic frameworks of science influence Needham. Needham's Terry Lecture of 1936 was published by Cambridge University Press in association with Yale University Press under the title of Order and Life . In 1939 he produced a massive work on morphogenesis that a Harvard reviewer claimed "will go down in the history of science as Joseph Needham's magnum opus, " little knowing what would come later. Although his career as biochemist and an academic
11718-693: The social status ladder as opposed to pursuing scientific endeavours. Further the laxity and lack of innovation exhibited by China made her to be surpassed by the growing European levels of technological advancement and innovation. As Landes (2006) puts forward, the Chinese lived as they wanted. They were ruled by an emperor "Son of Heaven" who they termed to be unique, and he was godlike. As he further adds, this emperor had arrogant representatives who were chosen in terms of "competitive examinations in Confucian letters and morals." As explained, these representatives were submissive to their subordinates as they possessed
11844-473: The south-pointing carriage, or the south-pointing fish to identify the directions. Now the carriage method has not been handed down, but in the fish method a thin leaf of iron is cut into the shape of a fish two inches long and half an inch broad, having a pointed head and tail. This is then heated in a charcoal fire, and when it has become thoroughly red-hot, it is taken out by the head with iron tongs and placed so that its tail points due north. In this position it
11970-732: The study of Classical Chinese privately with Gustav Haloun . Under the Royal Society 's direction, Needham was the director of the Sino-British Science Co-operation Office in Chongqing from 1942 to 1946. During this time he made several long journeys through war-torn China and many smaller ones, visiting scientific and educational establishments and obtaining for them much needed supplies. His longest trip in late 1943 ended in far west in Gansu at
12096-497: The threshold of modern industry, had it not been for this stifling state control. It is the State that kills technological progress in China". Meanwhile, the lack of a free market in China escalated to a new affair whereby the Chinese were restricted from carrying trade with foreigners. Foreign trade is a great source of foreign knowledge as well as the capability of acquisition of new products. Foreign trade promotes innovation as well as
12222-475: The time to be western inventions. The first volume eventually appeared in 1954. The publication received widespread acclaim, which intensified to lyricism as the further volumes appeared. He wrote fifteen volumes himself, and the regular production of further volumes continued after his death in 1995. Later, Volume III was divided, so that 27 volumes have now been published. Successive volumes are published as they are completed, which means that they do not appear in
12348-560: The tongs, the branding iron, and the soldering iron. Another method is to fix a brass gourd -shaped container inside a large tube; below it has two feet, and inside there are two small feet communicating with them (comm: all made of brass) and there is also the piston. The method of shooting is as described above. If the enemy comes to attack a city, these weapons are placed on the great ramparts , or else in outworks, so that large numbers of assailants cannot get through. Traditional Chinese characters Traditional Chinese characters are
12474-636: The traditional character set used in Taiwan ( TC ) and the set used in Hong Kong ( HK ). Most Chinese-language webpages now use Unicode for their text. The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) recommends the use of the language tag zh-Hant to specify webpage content written with traditional characters. In the Japanese writing system , kyujitai are traditional forms, which were simplified to create shinjitai for standardized Japanese use following World War II. Kyūjitai are mostly congruent with
12600-926: The traditional characters in Chinese, save for minor stylistic variation. Characters that are not included in the jōyō kanji list are generally recommended to be printed in their traditional forms, with a few exceptions. Additionally, there are kokuji , which are kanji wholly created in Japan, rather than originally being borrowed from China. In the Korean writing system , hanja —replaced almost entirely by hangul in South Korea and totally replaced in North Korea —are mostly identical with their traditional counterparts, save minor stylistic variations. As with Japanese, there are autochthonous hanja, known as gukja . Traditional Chinese characters are also used by non-Chinese ethnic groups. The Maniq people living in Thailand and Malaysia use Chinese characters to write
12726-518: The ubiquitous Unicode standard gives equal weight to simplified and traditional Chinese characters, and has become by far the most popular encoding for Chinese-language text. There are various input method editors (IMEs) available for the input of Chinese characters . Many characters, often dialectical variants, are encoded in Unicode but cannot be inputted using certain IMEs, with one example being
12852-595: The unity of the text, the context of the quotation, and taxonomy in which those fragments are embedded, then reorganize and reinterpret them in a new, Western taxonomy and narrative. Needham used this process of selection and re-assembly to argue for a Chinese tradition of science that did not exist as such. Justin Lin argues against Needham's premise that China's early adoption of modern socioeconomic institutions contributed heavily to its technological advancement. Lin contends that technological advancements at this time were largely separate from economic circumstance, and that
12978-446: The well-being of the state as their primary motive for economic activity, and individual initiatives were shunned. There were regulations on the press, clothing, construction, music, birth rates, and trade. The Chinese state controlled all aspects of life, severely limiting any incentives to innovate and to better one's self. "The ingenuity and inventiveness of the Chinese would no doubt have enriched China further and probably brought it to
13104-539: The words for simplified and reduced are homophonous in Standard Chinese , both pronounced as jiǎn . The modern shapes of traditional Chinese characters first appeared with the emergence of the clerical script during the Han dynasty c. 200 BCE , with the sets of forms and norms more or less stable since the Southern and Northern dynasties period c. the 5th century . Although
13230-516: Was a doctor, and his mother, Alicia Adelaïde, née Montgomery (1863–1945) , was a music composer from Oldcastle, County Meath, Ireland. His father, born in East London, then a poor section of town, rose to become a Harley Street physician, but frequently battled with Needham's mother. The young Needham often mediated. In his early teens, he was taken to hear the Sunday lectures of Ernest Barnes ,
13356-480: Was always attracted by pretty women. When he and Lu Gwei-djen met in 1937, they fell deeply in love, which Dorothy accepted. The three of them eventually lived contentedly on the same road in Cambridge for many years. In 1989, two years after Dorothy's death, Needham married Lu, who died two years later. He suffered from Parkinson's disease from 1982, and died at the age of 94 at his Cambridge home. In 2008,
13482-430: Was as Taoist as any in Chinese history, though perhaps its 'state Taoism' would have seemed a corrupt and inauthentic business to Needham. Daiwie Fu , in the essay "On Mengxi bitan' s World of Marginalities and 'South-pointing Needles': Fragment Translation vs. Contextual Tradition", criticises Needham, among other Western scholars, for translations that select fragments deemed “scientific,” usually without appreciating
13608-737: Was awarded the George Sarton Medal by the History of Science Society and in 1966 he became Master of Gonville and Caius College . In 1979, Joseph Needham received the Dexter Award for Outstanding Achievement in the History of Chemistry from the American Chemical Society . In 1984, Needham became the fourth recipient of the J.D. Bernal Award, awarded by the Society for Social Studies of Science. In 1990, he
13734-505: Was blacklisted by the US government until well into the 1970s. In 1965, with Derek Bryan , a retired diplomat whom he first met in China, Needham established the Society for Anglo-Chinese Understanding , which for some years provided the only way for British subjects to visit the People's Republic of China. On a visit to China in 1964 he was met by Zhou Enlai, and in 1965 stated that "China has
13860-468: Was compiled under the sponsorship of Emperor Renzong of Song (r. 1022–1063 AD), who was concerned that many officials were unfamiliar with the military classics, and partially as a response to the Song dynasty's war with the Tanguts of Western Xia . A team of scholars worked from 1040 to 1044 to compile the Wujing Zongyao with the intent to collect all known military knowledge and to disseminate it to
13986-412: Was constructed with a container made from bamboo. In the Wujing Zongyao and other military texts, the distinction between a bomb and a grenade is ambiguous. At the time, the Chinese usually did not categorize gunpowder weapons according to their delivery method. One of the few exceptions is the shoupao , or hand bomb, which is analogous to the hand grenade. Gunpowder had already been invented prior to
14112-485: Was extended to the new government. During his stay in China, Needham was asked to analyse some cattle cakes that had been scattered by American aircraft in the south of China at the end of World War II, and found they were impregnated with anthrax . During the Korean War he made further accusations that the Americans had used biological warfare . Zhou Enlai coordinated an international campaign to enlist Needham for
14238-412: Was filled with gunpowder and launched using a trebuchet. Upon impact, the huoqiu would start a fire among an invading army. Chinese bombs such as the thunder clap bomb or pili pao used a greater percentage of gunpowder than that of the huoqiu . The gunpowder mixture for a bomb was placed within a rigid container that held in the expanding gas, allowing for more powerful explosions. The thunder clap bomb
14364-429: Was given old historical and scientific books which he shipped back to Britain through diplomatic channels. They were to form the foundation of his later research. He got to know Zhou Enlai , first Premier of the People's Republic of China , and met numerous Chinese scholars, including the painter Wu Zuoren , and the meteorologist Zhu Kezhen , who later sent crates of books to him in Cambridge, including 2,000 volumes of
14490-613: Was kept in the Imperial Library while a number of hand-written copies were distributed elsewhere, including a copy given to Wang Shao by Emperor Shenzong of Song in 1069 AD. The original copy of the Wujing Zongyao was lost during the Jin–Song wars when the invading Jurchens sacked the Northern Song capital of Kaifeng in 1126 AD. Only a few manuscripts survived as a result of its secretive nature. Very few trustees of
14616-460: Was lowered using an iron chain from a swape lever installed within the walls of the city. The book also describes an 'igniter ball' used in warfare and for finding the firing range. The Wujing Zongyao stated the following: The 'igniter ball' ( yin huo qiu ) is made of paper round like a ball, inside which is put between three and five pounds of powdered bricks. Melt yellow wax and let it stand until clear, then add powdered charcoal and make it into
14742-545: Was one of 347 military treatises listed in the biographical chapters of the History of Song (1345 AD), one of the Twenty-Four Histories . Of these 347 different military treatises from the Song period, only the Wujing Zongyao , the Huqianjing (Tiger Seal Manual) of Xu Dong in 1004 AD, and fragments of similar works found in the later Yongle Dadian , have survived. The original text of the Wujing Zongyao
14868-418: Was published under the auspices of Emperor Renzong of Song , who also authored the book's preface. The book covers a wide range of subjects, including everything from naval warships to different types of catapults . It contains the earliest known written chemical formulas for gunpowder , made from saltpeter , sulphur and charcoal along with many added ingredients. In addition to formulas for gunpowder,
14994-411: Was revealed. The Wujing Zongyao contains three formulas for gunpowder: one for an explosive bomb launched from a trebuchet , another for a similar bomb with hooks attached so that it could latch on to any wooden structure and set it on fire, and another formula specified for a poison-smoke bomb used for chemical warfare . The Wujing Zongyao' s first recorded gunpowder formula used in these bombs held
15120-704: Was specified. The first black-powder concoction was simply labeled as the "method for making the fire-chemical", with its ingredients and measured weight (in ounces ) of each ingredient listed in the section below with the others listed in similar fashion. Fireball formula Total weight = 82.2 oz. Caltrop fireball formula Inner ball Total weight of inner ball = 79.7 oz. Outer coating Total weight of outer coating = 36.6 oz. Total weight = 116.3 oz. Poisonous smoke ball formula Inner ball Total weight of inner ball = 77.7 oz. Outer coating Total weight of outer coating = 36.6 oz. Total weight = 114.3 oz. The Wujing Zongyao describes
15246-464: Was the historian Wang Ling , whom he had met in Lizhuang and obtained a position for at Trinity . The first years were devoted to compiling a list of every mechanical invention and abstract idea that had been made and conceived in China. These included cast iron , the ploughshare , the stirrup , gunpowder , printing , the magnetic compass and clockwork escapements, most of which were thought at
15372-543: Was to write a non-ethnocentric account of scientific and cultural history; it aimed to synthesize the contributions, perspectives, and development of oriental nations in the East in a way that was complementary to the Western scientific tradition. This vision was partly influenced by the political climate of the time of its planning in the late 1940s - the "East" and "West" were seen as cultural and political opposites. Working from
15498-467: Was unduly critical of Buddhism , describing it as having 'tragically played a part in strangling the growth of Chinese science,' to which Needham readily conceded in a conversation a few years later. Barrett also criticizes Needham's favoritism and uncritical evaluation of Taoism in Chinese technological history: He had a tendency — not entirely justified in the light of more recent research — to think well of Taoism, because he saw it as playing
15624-473: Was violently overtaken by the exponential growth of modern science after the Renaissance in Europe. China was homeostatic , but never stagnant." Nathan Sivin , one of Needham's collaborators, while agreeing that Needham's achievement was monumental, suggested that the "Needham question", as a counterfactual hypothesis, was not conducive to a useful answer: It is striking that this question – Why didn't
15750-448: Was well established, his career developed in unanticipated directions during and after World War II . Three Chinese scientists came to Cambridge for graduate study in 1937: Lu Gwei-djen , Wang Ying-lai , and Shen Shih-Chang ( 沈詩章 , the only one under Needham's tutelage). Lu, daughter of a Nanjing pharmacist, taught Needham Chinese, igniting his interest in China's ancient technological and scientific past. He then pursued, and mastered,
15876-632: Was what has come to be called the Needham Question of why and how China had ceded its leadership in science and technology to Western countries. He was elected a fellow of the Royal Society in 1941 and a fellow of the British Academy in 1971. In 1992, Queen Elizabeth II conferred on him the Order of the Companions of Honour , and the Royal Society noted he was the only living person to hold these three titles. Needham's father, Joseph,
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