Illustration: Lau Ka-kuen
The report is cited from South China Morning Post. For original report, please refer to How Chinese science and technology have influenced the West … and vice versa
Han Qi is a professor of Chinese history and culture at Hong Kong Polytechnic University. He has published a large body of work on East-West cultural exchanges in history – in particular the transmission of science between China and Europe.
- In what ways has Chinese scientific knowledge influenced Western scientists – especially in fields that are still salient today?
There are people who believe that China only has traditions in technology, but not in science. However, in fields like astronomy, China actually has a very long tradition of astronomical observation dating back more than 2,000 years. China has the longest and most complete records of astronomical observations, including solar and lunar eclipses, and records of stars, meteors and supernovas. Europeans do not have the same level of observational astronomy records, so Chinese records have actually had an influence on the West.
In the 17th and 18th centuries, many people began to study the universe. For a long time both Western and Chinese astronomers were not sure about the changing rule of the values of the obliquity of the ecliptic. In 1722, a French Jesuit missionary named Antoine Gaubil arrived in Beijing and checked over numerous Chinese historical records. After compiling the records, he sent them to France. In the early 19th century, there was a famous French astronomer and mathematician named Pierre-Simon Laplace who read the compiled manuscript and performed some calculations and conducted research based on it. This was a way in which Chinese astronomical observations have had a very direct impact on science up until today.
In the 20th century, contemporary astronomers also searched for new evidence from China’s records. In the 1950s, a Russian astrophysicist met the then vice-president of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. The astrophysicist said they were studying radio astronomy and wanted to know about Chinese records of supernovas. So researchers at the academy went and found the records, and later they ended up writing a paper that was originally published in Chinese and later translated into English. This became one of the most cited astrophysics papers, and was of great importance to the field.
So these ancient Chinese scientific observations have influenced both European and American astronomers. Even now, some people are still using these records to find the earliest star explosions using large telescopes. This is the influence of Chinese astronomical records on both current and past astronomy.
- Have Chinese historical records also enabled the development of climate modelling and the study of climate change?
Yes. The former vice-president of the Chinese Academy of Sciences that I just mentioned, Zhu Kezhen, studied the climate. China has many historical records that reflect changes in the climate. Zhu wrote a paper about China’s climate over a period of 5,000 years, which was very influential in the field of climate and environmental studies. It showed how Chinese records, including botanical records, could be used to infer the past climate, and is an important example of the contemporary contributions of these records to science.
- What are some of the earliest recorded scientific and technological exchanges from China to the West?
There are many aspects within science and technology, but generally we know that there are the so-called four great inventions, whose coinage actually appeared quite late. [It] was coined in 1925 by Thomas Francis Carter, a professor at Columbia University in the United States, who wrote The Invention of Printing in China and Its Spread Westward. He mentioned the four great inventions for the first time in that book, which included printing, paper, gunpowder and the compass. In the past, Europeans did not believe paper was invented by the Chinese and instead thought it had come from the Arabic world. Over time, they began to believe it had come from China as there were many unearthed relics and documents.
In AD751 – during the Tang dynasty – there was a clash between Muslim and Chinese armies called the Battle of Talas, and during that battle some Chinese soldiers with the ability to make paper were arrested. Following this, a papermaking industry began in Samarkand, Uzbekistan which later spread to the Western world. So, many people in Europe initially thought that Arabs might have been the inventors of paper.
Before the coinage of the four great inventions there were the three great inventions – which did not include paper – mentioned by European scholars like philosopher Francis Bacon, although they did not know that it had come from China at first. Over time people slowly began to trace back the inventions and determined they had originated from China. In science, the four great inventions have had the most important influence on the West.
Some scholars still do not believe that there is enough reliable evidence to prove that printing followed westward transmission from China. However we know that printing began to be used in China during the Tang dynasty in the 7th century, and later came movable type printing. Using historical records, we can see a slow westward movement of printing across China. So this should have also reached the West, but we have not found any historical records to show which European may have seen China’s movable type or woodblock printing. No matter what, this was probably one of the largest impacts China has had on the world, although its spread was a slow process.
In terms of the compass, although we also do not have specific evidence, China’s compass likely preceded the Arabic compass by a few decades. There is a lot of evidence that the compass was adopted in the Song dynasty, and at the time Chinese and Arabic countries had frequent exchanges due to the Maritime Silk Road. China has had communications with Arabic countries through the sea since the Tang dynasty, which then expanded during the Song dynasty as can be seen through navigational records. During the Song dynasty, the compass appeared in many Chinese books, and this appearance was delayed by several decades in Arabic records. The ocean is a very important transmission pathway.
As for the spread of gunpowder, this had to have had something to do with war. Among the four great inventions, paper was invented quite early as we already had it in the Han dynasty. However the compass and gunpowder were adopted later, during the Song dynasty. The reason why so many inventions may have emerged during the Song dynasty could have been because its territory was smaller than the Tang dynasty, and it was surrounded by enemies including the Liao dynasty and Western Xia, which meant conflict. So gunpowder became a necessity in this period, and the westward spread of gunpowder likely happened when the Yuan dynasty later invaded the Song dynasty.
In the 16th and 17th centuries, individuals like the Italian scholar Gerolamo Cardano and Francis Bacon came to believe the three great inventions were very important, so they started thinking about information on when they had been invented.
The step-by-step transfer of technology along the Silk Road is very clear, showing a westward transmission first across China to Xinjiang, and then to Rome. Besides the four great inventions, which have had a significant influence on culture, there are other important Chinese inventions like silk and porcelain that have also had an enormous influence on daily life. Europeans actually learned how to make porcelain from China very late, at around 1700. At the time there were many Jesuit missionaries, particularly from France, who arrived in Jingdezhen in Jiangxi province – the capital of blue and white porcelain.
In the 1720s, a French missionary arrived in Jingdezhen and some workers taught him how to make porcelain, which he wrote out in a letter that was sent back to France, and later translated into many languages. In that letter, he outlined techniques for making porcelain, such as the special kind of clay used to make it called Gaolingtu. The English terminology used for this material is Kaolin clay, which directly comes from the Chinese name and was not translated. The firing temperature of Kaolin clay is higher than the clay used in other pottery, so Europeans believed as long as they could find this clay they could make porcelain.
They looked for it in different places, including Germany and France, and around 1700 they found it in Meissen, Germany and this region came to have a porcelain manufacturing industry. Then around 1770, it was also found in France. So it took several hundred years for them to learn how to make porcelain. Some of the blue and white pigments used in China may have actually been due to the influence of Persians, and was also the result of exchanges.
So I believe the four great inventions and porcelain have had the greatest impact on the world, although there are many other smaller inventions.
China has always had a strong tradition in technology. You can see now that China has suddenly developed lots of technologies that have reached world-leading levels, and many are based on conceptual knowledge. Some of the ideas used may be Western ideas – such as batteries or solar energy – but China can make it the best and the cheapest, allowing people around the world to access it. China has made significant contributions to technology, but from the perspective of modern science, China does not have a strong tradition and has been influenced by the West.
- What are some of the ways in which Western knowledge has influenced the development of Chinese science? Are there any noteworthy instances of scientific exchange from the West to East?
I spoke about how China has influenced other countries, however other countries have also had an influence on China. One important example is the spread of knowledge from India, which brought Buddhism to the country, but also brought Indian astronomy and cosmology that reached Xian, traditionally known as Changan. In the Tang dynasty, there were foreign experts including Persian and Indian astronomers that worked for China’s bureau of astronomy, and this likely also was the case previously. Indian astronomers were influenced by Greek knowledge, and therefore this also influenced China.
There were fewer foreigners in the Song dynasty, however in the Yuan dynasty, whose historical capital was what is now Beijing, there were many Muslim astronomers. During the Yuan dynasty, astronomy made great progress and precision of astronomical observations increased, which was likely due to Arabic or Persian influence. So knowledge from outside China within astronomy has been influential from the Tang dynasty up until now.
In 1582, Italian Jesuit missionary Matteo Ricci came to China and brought European astronomy to Beijing, including knowledge from Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe, Polish astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus, and Alexandrian mathematician Ptolemy. From the Ming dynasty to the Qing dynasty foreign missionaries have been in the Imperial Astronomical Bureau. Therefore a lot of calendar making in China was influenced by foreigners from 1629 into the early 19th century.
In addition to astronomy, many mathematics concepts were also brought over to China, including Euclidean geometry, algebra, logarithms and trigonometry. After the opium wars, protestant missionaries began to preach about modern science in China. This marked a different period in scientific transfer.
- Today’s China is seen as a nation that’s strong in mathematics. Has this always been the case, or was this influenced by the West?
Traditional Chinese mathematics is very different from Western mathematics. European and Arabic countries have a tradition of geometry, and of logic and deduction. China’s mathematics was originally based on calculation, so rather than aspects like geometry, China was strong in calculation and solving equations, especially in the Song and Yuan dynasties. Their traditional methods of calculation are similar to modern day computer calculations, so China has historically had a strong suit in arithmetics and equations. Now, many contemporary mathematicians believe that these Chinese calculation traditions also had some influence on the West, but contemporary mathematics is very different from the field then.
- Are there elements of Chinese science that might have been lost to history due to the adoption of Western knowledge and methods?
There is a calculation method outlined in a book called Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Procedures. A famous Chinese mathematician called Wu Wenjun thought that this idea was very useful, and used computers to prove it. People originally thought it was not very important, but he thought it was and used it in his research. So this is an example of traditional science that also had a contemporary value. Some people thought it was exaggerated, but he himself said his computation method was influenced by ancient Chinese mathematics.
Traditional Chinese science did not feature things like what is now modern physics or chemistry, so these came from Europe. So some people think that China did not have any of what we know as modern science, however this is not entirely true. In addition to astronomy, mathematics and some other technologies I mentioned, China still has a tradition in scientific fields like botany, agriculture and medicine. Chinese medicine has some wonderful therapeutic effects, there was even a Nobel Prize for a malaria cure that was derived from a traditional Chinese medicine recipe, and this saved so many people.
- You have published a number of books and papers about scientific contact between the West and China. What are some of the interesting events you’ve encountered and researched?
After European missionaries came to China, they wanted to introduce their religion and sciences to the country, however some Chinese conservatives strongly opposed this. The second emperor of the Qing dynasty, Kangxi, wanted to prove whether a European method or a Chinese method was correct. They found a way to put a gnomon on the ground along with a ruler and determined who was correct based on whether or not they could correctly predict how the sun would fall at noon.
The emperor, the conservatives and the European missionaries all came together to see whose prediction was correct – which ended up being the missionaries – so the emperor decided to adopt the Western method. So in this event, the observation of a gnomon shadow affected the emperor’s decision-making on policy. After this the emperor kept asking the Europeans if they had any new methods or theories, and from the age of 14 through to his 60s to 70s he was always curious about the Western methods.
This event totally changed the emperor’s viewpoint, so he admired the Western method. But later he found that the Western methods also had their issues, so he believed that the Chinese should be independent and not completely trust the foreigners. This emperor was very smart, but the rest of the Qing dynasty emperors were not interested in science like he was. When I found this case I thought it was very interesting and wrote a paper about it.
- Without the exchange of scientific information between China and the West, how might the development of science have been impacted?
The exchange of information is very important. However if we go back to ancient times we don’t always have special records of the exchange of information. I’ll give an example of why exchanging information is so important. In the 18th century, there was a type of metal called white copper that was produced in Yunnan and Sichuan provinces, and no other country had such production. The so-called white copper actually contained nickel, so it resembled silver.
Missionaries who came to China saw that they had white copper and relayed this information back to their countries, and it was then exported to Europe. After the white copper arrived in Europe, the British and Germans tried to imitate it, and the Germans eventually succeeded in making it. This is the influence of information transfer. If the Europeans had not found out about this metal through their missionaries, they might not have tried to ever make it. The information stimulus promoted the technology transfer.
In another case in the 18th century, a place called Zigong in Sichuan province had many salt wells. After drilling down to the salt water, they would boil the water to get salt. In China, this technology has been significantly developed since the Song dynasty. In the 19th century, China was able to use very small wells to drill very deep into the ground. Guess how deep these wells reached? Almost 1,000 metres [3,280 feet]. When I visited a museum there I was shocked. This is a very impressive Chinese technology. In the 19th century once French missionaries arrived in Zigong, they did fieldwork to learn about this method and then introduced it to the West. This information later influenced how the United States and Germany developed oil and gas drilling. If there had been no missionaries who came to this area, then it would have been impossible to transfer this technology. If information is not available, then many ideas are not available as well.
There are now many technologies that if the US has it and China hears about it, they may soon have it too. It was the same back then. A little information could quickly change the development of technology. If there is direct cooperation, of course it may be faster. This includes the current high-speed train technology in China which is influenced by Germany, Japan or France. Of course you need to have a solid technological foundation and industrial background in order to do so – if you have no background it would be impossible. China now has a relatively comprehensive industrial base, so now the development of technology is very, very fast – 30 years ago we could not have imagined that China would make such great technological progress.
- What lessons can be drawn from scientific knowledge exchanges throughout history?
The development of science is very complicated. For example the emperor I mentioned, his words impacted policymaking and scientific transfer. Many factors influence the transmission and development of science, such as people and religion. Many of the earliest people who came to China were missionaries, but it may have been different if it were members of science societies who had come.
So behind the dissemination of science there is the influence of the ruler and of policymakers, and there are also political and religious factors that impact the transfer of knowledge. Other factors like open-door policies and such related to political factors also have an impact. So if we look at the past, we can see that different factors affected the development and spread of science, and we can try and avoid the limiting factors.
