Why Didn’t Modern Scientific Revolutions Happen in China?
Abstract
This paper throws light upon why modern scientific revolutions didn’t happen in China. In this paper, the author mainly adopts literature methodology and thinking method to expound the issue. Through literature methodology, the author collects various theses related to the issue and has a thorough knowledge of the issue. In this way, the analyses which were carried out by means of thinking method are fairly convincing. The author analyzes the issue from the angles of the politics of ancient China, science and technology of ancient China, the mode of production in ancient China, the diplomacy of modern China, the effects of warfare on modern China and contemporary national conditions of China. Finally the paper comes to the conclusion that it is the repression of feudal system, the limitations of the methods applied in ancient scientific research, the traditional Asian mode of production, the conservative diplomacy, the effects of warfare and the poor national conditions that result in the modern scientific revolutions ’ not happening in China.
Key words: feudal system, limitations, conservative, warfare, literature methodology
Introduction
Joseph Needham raised the famous “Needham Puzzle”, which was devoted to answering the title of this thesis. In his opinion, there were mainly the following reasons: firstly, ancient China did not have the concept of nature which is agreeable for the growing of science; secondly, Chinese people put too much emphasis on utilitarianism, which held back the development of science in China; thirdly, the imperial examination system in ancient China snuffed out people’s interest in exploring nature. Honestly speaking, Needham’s analyses make sense to some degree. But as a British scholar, Needham does have some limitations when making comments on this puzzle, because he cannot have a thorough understanding of Chinese history. In this paper, the author tries to answer the “Needham Puzzle” from different perspectives which may serve as complements and refinement of Needham’s hypothesis.
Ⅰ. Repression of feudal system
The feudal system that dominated China for more than 2,000 years greatly confines the development of science. In order to consolidate their reigns, ancient Chinese emperors adopted three formidable measures: the first one was carried out by Emperor Qin Shi Huang to burn numerous books, ban various schools of thoughts and kill those who dare to oppose the dictator;
the second one was done by Emperor Wu of Han to totally prohibit other schools of thoughts and only keep Confucianism; the third one came out in Sui Dynasty, which was the well-known imperial examination system.
Those measures have disastrous effect on the development of science in ancient China. Since the autocracy is strengthened step by step, intellects’ social statuses are lowered little by little; or rather, intellects have a tendency of attaching themselves to powerful bureaucrats. As a result, their interest in doing scientific research diminishes gradually. In addition, because of rulers ’ back-up, Confucianism becomes the dominant thought in ancient Chinese society. As a result, philosophy cannot flourish and theoretical thinking cannot bloom, which actually means that science is unlikely sprout in such kind of atmosphere. Besides, the imperial examination system put too much emphasis on mechanical memorizing on classics rather than creation in natural research. Hence, those so-called intellectuals are separated from natural science and groups of science and technology can’t come into being.
Ⅱ. Limitations of scientific research in ancient China
In fact, in ancient times, scientific research did exist, but those so -called scientists were flawed to some extent. Intellects of ancient China stresses technology rather and theoretical science; they think highly of utilitarianism instead of logic thinking; they trust too much experience from inherited from their forefathers and overlook the importance of innovation; they fail to make detailed research into methodology but stick to singular research method.
Ancient China has reached a host of great achievements in technology, but those brilliant people just stop there. For instance, in astronomy, ancient Chinese people did too research on calendar, which was used to keep time; in mathematics, they emphasized too much on tricks of arithmetic; in alchemy, they never thought of the common regularities that combine different melting skills. In medicine, they relied on empiricism of looking, listening, questioning and feeling the pulse. (McClellan Ⅲand Dorn, 2006)
The knowledge system of ancient China did not rely on logic reasoning but rely on instinct. And this kind of cognitive techniques lasted for almost 2,000 years. These defects doomed that science in ancient China could not see revolutionary transformation.
Ⅲ. Traditional Asian mode of production
Traditional Asian mode of production cannot provide material support for the
development of scientific revolution. As is known, modern scientific revolution came into being hand in hand with capitalist mode of production. Capitalism never successfully took root in the Chinese earth; hence, China could not nurture modern scientific revolution.
In China ’s Asian production mode, ancient Chinese peasants mainly produced products for their own use, thus they lack the motive to improve the techniques of producing process and the quality of their products. In addition to that, each ancient dynasty adopted policies that encouraged agriculture but repressed commerce. As a result, industry and commerce could not develop. Without the support of industry, new techniques and new products cannot be popularized, new thinking patterns could not be spread, scientific achievement could not be put into use, and science could not develop rapidly.
By contrast, in ocean civilization of western countries, industry and commerce were the mainstay for the prosperity of the economy. Merchants, unlike peasants, were free from the restriction of land. They had the chances to get in contact with new things. In addition, in order to make their products popular, they have to improve the quality of their products and develop new techniques, which relied greatly on the development of science and technology.
By comparing traditional Chinese Asian mode of production and the capitalistic mode of production in western world, it is not hard to find out that the former one is not the more proper for the development of science.
Ⅳ. Conservative diplomatic policies of modern China
Another reason that accounts for the “Needham Puzzle” is the conservative diplomatic strategy carried out by modern Chinese government. The enclosed strategy actually resulted from a sense of arrogance and self-defense.
The arrogance of the rulers of Qing Dynasty emerged from its greatness in national power at that time. Even in the field of industry, China once took the lead. As a matter of fact, one guy named Belloc used to make an interesting calculation: in 1750, the volume of industrial production to the whole Qing Empire amounted to 32.8% of the world industrial output. The figure is ten percent higher than that of the whole Europe. This temporary strength gave the rulers of Qing Dynasty a sense of superiority, correspondingly, they thought of westerners as barbarians. Hence, they thought it futile to have contact with them. （Copyright 1996 - 2011 SINA Corporation, All Rights Reserved）.
On the other hand, China in Qing Dynasty was still a nation of farming culture, which strongly excluded tricky commerce. Western merchants were just the group of people with whom Qing government refused to get into contact. In addition to that, those western merchant ships were usually equipped with cannons and quite a few western merchants once harmed their Chinese counterparts. These factors made Qing government feel hostile to those “unexpected guests ”.
In this sense, it seemed that the enclosed strategy made sense to some extent. However, in the long run, it was harmful rather than beneficial to the development of science and technology in China. Firstly, the strategy largely confined free trade between Qing and the western world. In this way, the domestic products could not face competition of their like, thus, the domestic industry would not have the motive of improving the quality and bringing in new techniques; secondly, this strategy strongly restricted the communication of thoughts between China and the western world. As is known, the western world had experienced the Renaissance, which was a radical reformation in arts and philosophical thoughts as well. Besides, some great scientists like Galileo and Newton had reached magnificent achievements in science. But in China, there never existed such great thoughts and discoveries. Therefore, China at that time was in dire need of learning the advanced thoughts and technology from those “barbarians ”, if it did not want to be lagged behind. Obviously the rules of Qing did not notice this point, or China would not have been invaded so easily by those “barbarians ” in subsequent years.
In summary, the enclosed strategy of Qing Dynasty made Chins lose a good chance to catch up with the advanced western countries in science and technology. The consequences were devastating in the wars in later years.
Ⅴ. Haunting warfare in modern times
Being backward in science and technology put China in adverse position when faced with wars waged by western powers, and these wars further diminished the possibilities, if any, for China to nurture the modern scientific revolution.
After the industrial revolution, China was lagged much further behind the advanced western countries. Capitalist states got to start looting natural resources from less developed countries. In order to achieve these goals, invaders resorted to wars, for they possessed superiority in equipment. Unfortunately, China was reduced to one of the victims. In fact, the war was not very disastrous, but its aftermath was real nightmare to China.
The Opium Wars arose from China's attempts to suppress the opium trade. British traders had been illegally exporting opium to China, and the resulting widespread addiction was causing
serious social and economic disruption in the country. In 1839 the Chinese government confiscated all opium warehoused at Canton by British merchants. The antagonism between the two sides increased a few days later when some drunken British sailors killed a Chinese villager. The British government, which did not trust the Chinese legal system, refused to turn the accused men over to the Chinese courts. Hostilities broke out, and the small British forces were quickly victorious. The Treaty of Nanking, signed Aug. 29, 1842, and the British Supplementary Treaty of the Bogue, signed Oct. 8, 1843, provided for the payment of a large indemnity by China, cession of five ports for British trade and residence, and the right of British citizens to be tried by British courts. Other Western countries quickly demanded and were given similar privileges.
After the Opium Wars, invaders launched and re-launched wars on China, the results of those wars were not hard to tell—China lost in most of them. What’s worse, the greedy invaders forced Qing government to sign numerous unequal treaties again provided for great amounts of payment of indemnity by China. Where could the feeble Qing government get such amount of money？Nowhere! Then the shameful dictators started to loot treasures from ordinary people, who had suffered a lot from the consecutive wars.
It is not hard to indicate from these pieces of background information that during the modern times, hardly had Chinese people got the freedom or the time to tend scientific development in China, for they had to perpetuate themselves in the first place. On the other hand, when it comes to the so-called Chinese intellects at that time, some of them did realized the importance of advanced science and technology, and they turned to industry to save the nation, but most of others attached great importance to agriculture. Such trend undoubtedly held back the development of Chinese science in modern times to certain extent.
Ⅵ. Poor national conditions of the new-born China
After many years’ stubborn struggle, China finally got over previous chaos and PRC was founded with a host of great changes, but none of them endowed China with the miracle power to start a brand new scientific revolution. Some measures taken by the leaders even prevented China’s modernization.
Firstly, China’s economy was in a process of recovery at the beginning of the republic, which meant that it was almost impossible to spare extra money to develop science and technology. After long times of wars, China’s economy was damaged greatly. Many cities were left in ruins; people at that time had to solve the problems of food and clothing. As a result, people could hardly allow for scientific development.
Secondly, the educational courses were left undone, which made it impossible for Chinese
people to have the sense to launch a scientific revolution. On one hand, during the years of haunting wars, many magnificent scholars went abroad for the sake of their security. After the wars, they were unwilling to come back, because the living conditions and research facilities abroad were much more advanced than those in China at that time. Thus, there were leaders in scientific field who could save the development of Chinese science; on the other hand, owing to the damage done by the wars, there were few educational institutions that could work normally.
What ’s worse, sometimes the leader might make false decisions, which were disastrous to the development of science and technology. In 1966, Mao Zedong launched the Cultural Revolution. The aim of the Cultural Revolution was to wipe out the old, backwards parts of Chinese culture. Unfortunately this was a time of chaos and destruction in China. Many precious artifacts were destroyed, and many intellectuals were beaten, imprisoned or even killed. In 1976 Mao died and the Cultural Revolution ended, but it left a permanent imprint on China. As is known, in 1970s the information revolution took place in America, from where computers gradually spread throughout the world. However, China at that time was struggling in the Cultural Revolution, which was disastrous to Chinese academic fields. As a consequence, it was hard for China to recover from the chaos and destruction, let alone to take the lead in scientific spheres.
Ⅶ. Conclusion
This paper answered the “Needham Puzzle ” from different perspectives, and made some complements to former researches. Through referring to various documents, the author had a panorama of the Chinese history and the related issues involved in the “puzzle”. The paper presents the findings as follows: the repression of the feudal system sowed the seeds of non- science thoughts in ancient intellects; the limitations of the scientific research of ancient China was the proof of such thought; traditional Asian mode of production and conservative diplomatic strategy tried to avoid contact with outside world; haunting wars and their aftermath left China no room to develop science and technology. All these factors altogether account for the reason why modern scientific revolution did not happen in China.
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