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CURRICULUM STUDIES
WORLDWIDE
Series Editors: William F. Pinar and Janet L. Miller

NAVIGATING
EDUCATIONAL
CHANGE IN CHINA
Contemporary
History and Lived
Experiences
Fang Wang
Leslie N.K. Lo
 Curriculum Studies Worldwide

Series editors
William F. Pinar
Department of Curriculum and Pedagogy
University of British Columbia
Vancouver, BC, Canada

Janet L. Miller
Teachers College
New York, NY, USA
This series supports the internationalization of curriculum studies
worldwide. At this historical moment, curriculum inquiry occurs within
national borders. Like the founders of the International Association for
the Advancement of Curriculum Studies, we do not envision a world-
wide field of curriculum studies mirroring the standardization the larger
phenomenon of globalization threatens. In establishing this series, our
commitment is to provide support for complicated conversation within
and across national and regional borders regarding the content, context,
and process of education, the organizational and intellectual center of
which is the curriculum.

More information about this series at

http://www.springer.com/series/14948
 Fang Wang · Leslie N.K. Lo

Navigating
Educational Change
in China
Contemporary History and Lived Experiences
Fang Wang Leslie N.K. Lo
Northeast Normal University Beijing Normal University
Changchun, China Beijing, China

Curriculum Studies Worldwide

ISBN 978-3-319-63614-6 ISBN 978-3-319-63615-3 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-63615-3

Library of Congress Control Number: 2017948719

© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2018

This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the
Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights
of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction
on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and
retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology
now known or hereafter developed.
The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this
publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are
exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use.
The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and
information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication.
Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied,
with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have
been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published
maps and institutional affiliations.

Cover illustration: © Melisa Hasan

Printed on acid-free paper

This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by Springer Nature

The registered company is Springer International Publishing AG
The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland
 This book is published under the auspices of the Teacher Studies and
Development Project at the Education University of Hong Kong and
Beijing Normal University.
 Acknowledgements

This book is the fruit of conversation, collaboration, and reflection

­sustained over a period of 3 years. First conceived as a journal article,
its eventual length warranted publication in book form. The authors’
original intention was to narrate the lived experiences of a senior aca-
demic in the changing milieu of higher education in China but further
thoughts arose on two strands of ideas that emerged from the interviews
with the professor—the relationship between tradition, modernity, and
­postmodernity and the contrariety between indigenous Chinese values
and practices and those that were imported from the West. It seemed
that an observation on the professor’s treatment of these ideas is essential
to his intellectual history, no matter how briefly it is to be presented.
Professor William Pinar provided the idea of an intellectual history of
the subject’s lived experiences. He also gave critical comments on the
embryonic draft of the essay and suggested a change of course on its
route to publication, which shaped the narrative presented in this book.
We are most grateful for this guidance.
We thank the Tin Ka Ping Foundation in Hong Kong for its gener-
ous support, which created opportunities for the authors to meet for the
planning of this project.
The Center for Teacher Education Research at the Beijing Normal
University facilitated a continuous dialogue between the authors through
a visiting scholarship and its sustained support of the research.

vii
viii Acknowledgements

Funding of the research and writing of this book come partially

from the Teacher Studies and Development Project at the Education
University of Hong Kong and Beijing Normal University.
Mr. John Cable has provided expert editorial guidance for this book.
We are indebted to him for his timely advice and critical suggestions that
have helped us make necessary improvements to the book manuscript.
We offer our special thanks to Prof. Teacher Yu for sharing his experi-
ences and insights in delightful conversations. His readiness to enlighten
is inspiring, and his trust in our constancy of purpose is deeply appreci-
ated.
From the conceptualization of this book to the choice of its topics,
we have tapped the wisdom of generations of scholars, both Chinese and
Western. Colleagues and students in Changchun, Beijing, and Hong
Kong have helped us to give voice to the lived experiences of the profes-
sor, from conversation and critique to voice recording and transcription.
However, the faults in this book remain our own.
 Contents

1 Introduction 1

2 Memories and Imageries 17

3 Sifting Through the Enigma of Tradition and Modernity 53

4 Balancing the Indigenous and the Foreign 69

5 Navigating Educational Change 93

Bibliography 117

Index 119

ix
 About the Authors

Fang Wang is Associate Professor in Curriculum Studies at the Faculty

of Education at Northeast Normal University in Changchun, China,
where she received a doctorate degree in curriculum and teaching.
Leslie N.K. Lo is Professor at the Faculty of Education and a senior
research fellow at the Center for Teacher Education Research at Beijing
Normal University, China.

xi
 CHAPTER 1

Introduction

Abstract A sketch of the encounter between two academics provides the

background for this book. It is observed that previous studies on Chinese
education have mainly focused on the system but not the person, and that
more attention should be given to the agency of individual educators who
work to change the system. The present study is inspired by the emergence
of a critical discourse on the lived experiences of individual educators. It
attempts to elucidate the intellectual and professional pathways of one
Chinese professor who has served as a scholar, teacher, and administrators
in Chinese higher education. From interviews that have spanned several
years, his views constitute a reflection on the complexity of educational
change in China through the lens of a senior academic.

Keywords Case study · Education professor · Intellectual history

Chinese higher education

The Encounter
The dean of education sat in his office, waiting for the arrival of an
important guest. The office was obviously too small for his huge book
collection, and since he had moved into it, he had chosen to work at
an ordinary IKEA desk hidden behind walls of books and journals. As
the head of the university’s largest academic unit, Teacher Yu had been
appointed dean of a newly constituted faculty of education, which was

© The Author(s) 2018 1

F. Wang and L.N. K. Lo, Navigating Educational Change in China,
Curriculum Studies Worldwide, DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-63615-3_1
2 F. WANG AND L.N.K. LO

intended to consolidate the myriad functions of a growing number of

units with clear affiliation to educational studies. Teacher Yu had a num-
ber of embryonic ideas for moving the faculty forward in an increasingly
competitive environment of Chinese higher education. Even though
these ideas were a mixture of aspirations toward enhanced branding, the
scholarship of his faculty, professed beliefs in an axiological anchor for
curriculum and teaching, and undefined actions targeting internation-
alization, he believed that they could bring the faculty to a new stage of
development.
Ordinarily, Teacher Yu could talk endlessly about his ideas, for he
liked to sound out others on new ideas, particularly his students. He was
always nice to his students, taking them out for food, drinks and singing,
and expounding with them his views on postmodernism and the future
of Chinese education, but as he awaited the arrival of his guest, he was
focusing expectantly on the scholarly dialogue that he hoped, with some
trepidation, would emerge during his meeting with the visitor.
The visitor, William Pinar, a professor at the University of British
Columbia in Canada, was an important figure in Curriculum Studies.
His new approach to curriculum inquiry, the Currere, was well known
among certain academic pockets in China. Teacher Yu appreciated
Pinar’s book, Understanding Curriculum, and considered it a major the-
oretical source for his study of postmodernism. He later confided to the
visitor that he had read the voluminous monograph thrice. The meeting
with Pinar was the highlight of the day for Teacher Yu, for it provided a
pleasant diversion from the mundane duties of a dean.
When Pinar was escorted into the dean’s office, Teacher Yu was bur-
ying himself in work, teapot within reach but the flowers and fruits that
were the standard paraphernalia for the reception of foreign guests were
noticeable by their absence. Instead of the drawn-out ceremonial greetings
that were a part of the protocol, Teacher Yu took Pinar for a tour of his
book collection. The books on his shelves were a collection of philosophi-
cal, educational, and historical books, some various editions of the same
titles, and tomes, some recondite, by certain historical figures in the disci-
plines that formed his “academic foundation.” Teacher Yu wanted to share
the excitement of having owned certain “treasures” in his book collection
with Pinar. He climbed the ladder-stool a few times to retrieve books in
Chinese or English to show the visitor—a rare edition of the Analect here
and the inaugural lecture of a prominent scholar there. Before long, the
host and the visitor realized that they shared ample common interest in
 1 INTRODUCTION 3

the thoughts of Foucault, Derrida, Dewey, Locke, Whitehead, Kant, and

Weber, to name but few. It appeared that what had been merely a courtesy
visit had become an occasion for true scholarly bonding.
Before his departure from China, Pinar remarked to his guide, a
young teacher in his host’s faculty, that “it would be interesting to learn
about Yu’s intellectual history.” At the time, he was actively involved in
a project that examined the development of Curriculum Studies in vari-
ous parts of the world through the study of the intellectual histories of
individual scholars. His meeting with Teacher Yu had naturally led him
to focus his lens on the intellectual development of a scholar who was a
fellow traveler on a parallel path of scholarship.
Subsequently, the young teacher talked to dean Yu about being inter-
viewed for the project. She said it would be a study of his intellectual
history, approached from multiple perspectives that would include his
personal academic influences. Dean Yu agreed and it was decided to
focus the study on his ideas, education, and work. The interviews contin-
ued over the course of two years, and this book is a record of those inter-
views. Soon after the first interview, it was learned that Teacher Yu would
take up yet another change of appointment, becoming the principal of
one of the university’s affiliated primary schools.
**************
Observers of Chinese education today tend to see it as one of the
driving forces behind China’s rapid rise as a world power. The trans-
formation of Chinese education from near-dormancy to vibrant revival
has captured the interest of educators around the world. The expansion
of its education system has made learning available to millions of chil-
dren in some of the poorest regions in the country. A dramatic increase
in university enrollment, further augmented by widespread participation
in distance learning, has elevated the quality of China’s workforce to a
new height. The recent outstanding performance of Shanghai students in
international assessments of academic achievement may be taken as evi-
dence of the country’s educational success.
Its impressive achievements notwithstanding, Chinese education has
also displayed gross disparities among geographic regions and various
types of schools and higher institutions. Implementation of educational
and curricular reforms has yielded uneven results, favoring schools in
the more affluent localities. Schooling is still examination-oriented, and
university students spend too much time on attending lectures rather
4 F. WANG AND L.N.K. LO

than on activities that can enrich their college experiences. As the world
learns to appreciate the strengths and limitations of Chinese education
through reports, studies, and visits, more questions have surfaced regard-
ing the future direction of its educational institutions, the aspirations of
its students and teachers, and the deeper meaning of China’s educational
development.
Our understanding of Chinese education has been informed by per-
sonal experiences, formal study in academic courses, observations in field
research, and a steady flow of observations embedded in the literature
in the field. A continuous survey of literature has given the authors the
impression that, until recently, noteworthy studies on the educational
development in China have mainly focused on the education system or a
sector of the system rather than on its stakeholders, such as teachers and
students. This tendency is especially discernible in early publications that
purport to be “value-neutral” studies, which delineate the broad eco-
nomic and political forces that have shaped the modernization of educa-
tion in China.1
In the research for this book, we dug deeper into the literature and
found that there was a conspicuous absence of “the person” in English
language publications on Chinese education. There are a few early stud-
ies on Chinese educators, but they are generally considered as studies
of Chinese intellectuals, a study of a social group that had left a strong
imprint on the country’s development.2 Studies on Chinese educators,
then, are mostly portrayals of prominent public intellectuals serving in
the capacity of educators.3 The focus of these studies is mainly on their
place in the system and their role in bringing about systemic changes.
Their life and work are posited in the broad context of general societal
development, not in educational settings. Their trials and tribulations
and their individual struggles as educators are masked by the system
which evolved under their stewardship. Such an absence fails to reflect
the flavor or color, or emphasize the capacity of education as a social
institution by not giving due consideration to the agency of individual
educators who work to change the system.
A critical discourse on the agency of individual educators is important
because they constitute a major constituency in the education system.
Their journeys crisscross the educational landscape shaping its contours
of thought and practice. Along the pathways of their life and work, edu-
cational insights can be gained from the personal experiences of these
educators. The ways that individual educators frame and make sense of
 1 INTRODUCTION 5

their worlds and life-changing events represent not only their own ideas
and thinking but also reflect the intellectual currents of their times.

Guiding Literature
Three studies have mainly inspired the writing of this book. Their
approaches to studying Chinese educators mark a noteworthy departure
from the mainstream literature. Rather than treating the contribution of
the person to the system as their principal concern, these studies situ-
ate individual educators as persons at the center of their exploration. The
examination of the ideas, values, and identity in relation to the personal
histories of individual Chinese educators affords an intimate portrayal
of persons responding to shifting situations in their lives. Some of these
educators are scholar-teachers of an older generation who have anchored
the development of educational studies in China. Others are educators
who have crossed national and cultural borders to work in different edu-
cational settings. Still, others are experts in Curriculum Studies who have
contributed to the establishment of the field in China.
In her book, Portraits of Influential Chinese Educators, published in
Hayhoe 2007, Ruth Hayhoe adopts a “narrative approach” to the study
of eleven prominent scholars in contemporary Chinese education. The
work of these influential educators is discussed in terms of their contri-
bution to various sub-fields of educational studies, such as comparative
education, theory of learning, higher education, philosophy of educa-
tion, and moral education. Their life experiences as members of fami-
lies, institutions, communities, and nation are examined along with an
exposition of their core values and educational views. The study gives
voice to a group of scholar-teachers that is influential in educational
studies in China but has had only limited exposure in Western litera-
ture. In the process of creating portraits of these educators with find-
ings from interviews and reading, the author found a common theme
threading through the life stories of the educators. It was the Confucian
heritage—the writing and teaching of Confucius that upheld the sense
of self-worth and self-respect of the individual—that had served as
an essential foundation for the lives and thoughts of the educators. As
persons who suffered personal attacks during the Cultural Revolution
when Confucianism also came under severe criticism, these educators
had embraced it in their lives and work. Through education, they had
6 F. WANG AND L.N.K. LO

persevered in keeping alive a key aspect of their cultural heritage with a

clear sense of intellectual purpose.
Another source of inspiration for this study is Hongyu Wang’s book,
Nonviolence and Education: Cross-cultural pathways (2014), which
is a study of the cross-cultural pathways of four university professors. It
explores the lived experiences of two Chinese and two American professors
at the intersection of the individual, society and history, and weaving the
autobiographical and the global. Wang places autobiographical reflection
at the center of her inquiry in an attempt to relate the meaning of the sub-
jects’ work to their personal awareness. It is the individual’s “engagement
in his or her unique pathway that is the center of attention,” she claims,
“not intergroup relationship.” To her, the site of education “is ultimately
individual personhood” (p. xii). Individual pathways of shifts and situa-
tions are thus explored through interviews with the four academics who
remain anonymous. Details of the interviews precede reflections by Wang,
who draws on Chinese and American intellectual traditions. With extensive
reference made to the works on Daoism, Buddhism, and American non-
violent activism, the author’s commitment to formulating a vision of non-
violence in Curriculum Studies is clearly discernible.
The third source of inspiration for this study is William Pinar’s book,
Curriculum Studies in China: Intellectual histories, present circumstances
(2014). In his study, Pinar assembles essays by eight Chinese scholars
which narrate their intellectual histories in relation to the present cir-
cumstances of Curriculum Studies in China. The scholars’ journeys
are situated in history, culture, international developments, and educa-
tional contexts. The stories of the Chinese scholars are given depth by
Pinar’s interviews with them, by the essays that they composed, and by
the “protracted exchanges” of views that the author conducted with
three experts in order to provide an informed and assessable range of
curricula in China in both historical and current contexts. The goal of
these efforts is to illuminate “the acumen, sensitivity, and insight” of
the perspective of the Chinese scholars (Pinar 2014, p. 2). In the spirit
of “Currere”—a methodological concept developed by Pinar to eluci-
date educational experiences through autobiographical reflection (Pinar
1975)—the book mines the intellectual history and present commit-
ments of each scholar and attempts to demonstrate the unique ways in
which these individuals understood and made sense of their own cir-
cumstances within the larger context curriculum development in China.
Pinar’s book serves to inspire the present study as a methodological
 1 INTRODUCTION 7

compass that points to the possibility of unearthing authentic educa-

tional concerns through reflections on personal history. It also exem-
plifies a linkage that can be built between the private passion of the
educators and the larger cultural and historical context of their past.
The books by Hayhoe, Wang, and Pinar have laid the groundwork for a
new approach to the study of Chinese educators. The use of life histories,
grounded in the personal experiences of the participating educators, pro-
vides an alternative pathway of intellectual exploration that can serve as an
invigorating parallel to the conventional mode of investigation. All three
studies point to the critical dimensions of time and space in the shifting
circumstances of the educators’ lives. Pinar’s study of the curriculum schol-
ars yields an understanding of the meaning of their intellectual pursuits,
which are seen as “a shifting and situated series” that “reconstructs pri-
vate passion into public service” (Pinar 2014, p. 2). In their self-reflective
essays, the eight scholars offer insights into how they changed the curricu-
lum in China and were in turn changed by its reconstruction. The lived
experiences of the curriculum experts, as depicted in their essays, are cap-
tured by critical events that occurred in different junctures of their individ-
ual journeys of becoming—finding one’s direction and situation, studying
abroad, changing specializations, or simply holding to one’s beliefs and
purposes. At the core of their intellectual development is a communion
with the nation’s history and culture that is present in their personal sto-
ries. The same affinity to history and culture is discernible in the life his-
tories of the influential Chinese educators that Hayhoe narrates. Whereas
these educators lived and worked in unique institutional contexts, they
shared a common adherence to the Confucian way of being scholar-teach-
ers who cultivated themselves determinedly in order to shoulder social
responsibilities. In telling the stories of her educators, Hayhoe was aware
of the issues that surrounded the multiple layers of time in her narration
“…time past, in memory, time present, in attention, and time future, in
expectation” (Hayhoe 2004: 330). Similarly, the stories of Wang’s four
professors illuminate the essentiality of life history and cultural space in the
study of educators who crossed national and cultural borders to engage
with others in educational settings that are different from their own. By
situating the four professors at the intersection of the individual, society,
and history, Wang explores how life chances and situated personhood
affect cross-cultural engagements.
Taken together, the above studies illustrate the essentiality of under-
standing human existence in the exploration of educational phenomena,
8 F. WANG AND L.N.K. LO

which envelops the person in the interplay of history, culture, and com-
munity. Through the study of the lived experiences of the person, it is
possible to unearth a deeper understanding of the larger educational
context in which he or she lives.

Purpose of the Book

The purpose of this book is to elucidate the intellectual and professional
pathways of one Chinese professor who has made his mark as a scholar,
teacher, and administrator in China’s higher education. It is a reflection
on the complexity of educational change in China through the lens of a
senior academic. From his experience as an observer of political upheav-
als, being a student of the philosophy of education, thought worker for
undergraduates, university teacher and administrator, and the principal of
an elite urban primary school, we revisit certain landmarks in his intel-
lectual journey and examine the impact of change on Chinese education
at important historic junctures. As the lived experience of this profes-
sor demonstrates, the contemporary history of Chinese education, as
embedded in the personal accounts of the individual, is a series of mem-
ories of change and uncertainty. However, it is in the fluid context of
change that the agency of the individual can best be illuminated.
In this narrative, the professor is situated at the intersection of history,
culture, society, and the individual where the search for personal iden-
tity becomes a lifelong project. Like other educators of his time, he has
lived and worked in an institutional context that struggles to strike a bal-
ance between tradition and modernity, and to translate foreign (mostly
Western) ideas into blueprints for indigenous practices. It is in such a
fluid institutional context that the agency of the individual becomes
more pronounced. The political imperative that Chinese education
should retain its own cultural and national character while striving to
modernize has made the challenge more complex for the professor who
has occupied several key positions at his university. His story is about
making transitions between the different worlds of the Chinese academe
while trying to find an intellectual and professional anchor.

Methods of Inquiry and Emerging Themes

The present study is based on information collected from five formal
interviews with the professor and studies of his academic essays.
 1 INTRODUCTION 9

The five interviews, conducted in Chinese by the first author, took

place over the course of several years. The first interview took place
in 2009, preceding the planning of this book. The ensuing interviews
took place during 2014–2016. Each interview lasted for about two
hours. Information collected from the interviews was supplemented
and clarified by more informal conversations and correspondence with
the professor. Transcripts of interviews were shared with the profes-
sor for verification of accuracy. Initially, in order to construct a prelim-
inary framework for the interviews with the professor, we adopted the
questions that Pinar used in his interviews with the Chinese curriculum
experts (Pinar 2014) as our guide. These questions touch upon myriad
aspects of the intellectual histories of his participating scholars—from the
genesis of their present intellectual pursuits to the imagined “next steps”
for scholarly and professional advancement—with the intention of situat-
ing their endeavors in the larger institutional and societal contexts. The
Pinar questions were used in the early interviews, but, as the conversa-
tions with the professor led to fresh topics of interest, the list of ques-
tions underwent a metamorphosis as new outlooks, with concerns that
were directly related to his experiences, emerged.
The academic essays that have been selected for research purpose are
among the professor’s most noteworthy publications and have direct rel-
evance to the topics of discussion. Among the topics are his views on the
place of modernity and postmodernity in Chinese education and on the
indigenization of education in an age of globalization. As all of his publi-
cations are written in Chinese, extracted passages in his written essays are
translated for use in this book. Additionally, the first author has kept a
research journal that records personal observations and feelings through-
out the research process. This journal has proved to be a useful resource
for reflection, especially when the injection of more contextual informa-
tion in the text was found necessary.
The interviews aim to situate the professor in multiple layers of time
and space. For that, the intellectual history of the professor is revealed by
a continuous dialogue on his lived experiences. Our conversations were
sustained by a mode of interviewing that allowed him to digress, with
questions injected mainly for clarification or in pursuit of fresh topics.
As the interviews progressed, several interrelated issues have emerged.
For the purpose of this study, we have translated them into the following
research questions that have guided the writing of this book: (1) Under
what historical, social, and educational circumstances did the professor
10 F. WANG AND L.N.K. LO

choose his pursuits that have led to diverse academic and professional
experiences? (2) For the development of Chinese education and society,
how does he reconcile the differences between tradition and modernity,
and the tensions between the foreign and the indigenous? (3) How does
he make sense of the educational and societal changes that have shaped
the conditions of his work and identity?
Our attempt to address the above research questions has led to a
series of themes that form the basis of inquiry for each of the book’s
chapters. These themes are as follows: (1) memories and images of
important events and significant others in the professor’s life; (2) his
views on tradition, modernity, and postmodernity; (3) his understanding
of the tensions arising from the interaction between the indigenous and
the foreign; and (4) his search for identity in the varied terrain of educa-
tional change.

The Choice of Teacher Yu

Our choice of “Teacher Yu, the professor” is based on the uniqueness of
his pursuits, on the one hand, and the commonalities that he shares with
his compatriot educators, on the other hand. By placing his thoughts,
feelings, and actions at the center of our inquiry, we hope to offer a fresh
look at the development of contemporary Chinese education through
the lens of human agency. Teacher Yu is an educator who has played dif-
ferent roles in a normal university which has remained his sole employer
since he left college. An examination of how he has made the transition
between the site of scholarship and the site of administrative work, and
how he has made sense of his world will carry the narrative beyond the
confines of systemic goals and strategies (Werts and Brewer 2015: 207).
In a way, the journey of Teacher Yu is similar to many of his con-
temporaries as it has been shaped by sociopolitical forces of history and
personal choices he has made. He is an academic in his early fifties who
chose to work for his alma mater, a common practice for many univer-
sity teachers of his time. Like many academics in his age group, he has
never gone abroad to study. He gained experience working as a student
counselor in the university without earning a formal master’s degree and
pursued his doctoral study part-time at the same university. His career
as a university teacher seems to have followed the usual path of ascen-
sion, from lectureship to full professorship. However, it is the various
transitions among political, academic, and administrative positions that
Another random document with
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have studied the progress of the analytical, as well as the
mechanical sciences. We are compelled to pause and look
backwards here; just as happened in the history of astronomy, when
we arrived at the brink of the great mechanical inductions of Newton,
and found that we must trace the history of Mechanics, before we
could proceed to mechanical Astronomy. The terms “force, attraction,
inertia, momentum,” sent us back into preceding centuries then, just
as the terms “composition” and “element” send us back now.

Nor is it to a small extent that we have thus to double back upon

our past advance. Next to Astronomy, Chemistry is one of the most
ancient of sciences;—the field of the earliest attempts of man to
command and understand nature. It has held men for centuries by a
kind of fascination; and innumerable and endless are the various
labors, the failures and successes, the speculations and
conclusions, the strange pretences and fantastical dreams, of those
who have pursued it. To exhibit all these, or give any account of
them, would be impossible; and for our design, it would not be
pertinent. To extract from the mass that which is to our purpose, is
difficult; but the attempt must be made. We must endeavor to
analyse the history of Chemistry, so far as it has tended towards the
establishment of general principles. We shall thus obtain a sight of
generalizations of a new kind, and shall prepare ourselves for others
of a higher order.
 B O O K XIV.

T H E A N A LY T I C A L S C I E N C E .
HISTORY OF CHEMISTRY.
. . . . . . . Soon had his crew
Opened into the hill a spacious wound,
And digged out ribs of gold . . . .
Anon out of the earth a fabric huge
Rose like an exhalation, with the sound
Of dulcet symphonies and voices sweet,
Built like a temple.
Milton. Paradise Lost, i.
 CHAPTER I.

Improvement of the Notion of Chemical Analysis, and Recognition of it as

the Spagiric Art.

T HE doctrine of “the four elements” is one of the oldest

monuments of man’s speculative nature; goes back, perhaps, to
times anterior to Greek philosophy; and as the doctrine of Aristotle
and Galen, reigned for fifteen hundred years over the Gentile,
Christian, and Mohammedan world. In medicine, taught as the
doctrine of the four “elementary qualities,” of which the human body
and all other substances are compounded, it had a very powerful
and extensive influence upon medical practice. But this doctrine
never led to any attempt actually to analyse bodies into their
supposed elements: for composition was inferred from the
resemblance of the qualities, not from the separate exhibition of the
ingredients; the supposed analysis was, in short, a decomposition of
the body into adjectives, not into substances.

This doctrine, therefore, may be considered as a negative state,

antecedent to the very beginning of chemistry; and some progress
beyond this mere negation was made, as soon as men began to
endeavor to compound and decompound substances by the use of
fire or mixture, however erroneous might be the opinions and
expectations which they combined with their attempts. Alchemy is a
step in chemistry, so far as it implies the recognition of the work of
the cupel and the retort, as the produce of analysis and synthesis.
How perplexed and perverted were the forms in which this
recognition was clothed,—how mixed up with mythical follies and
extravagancies, we have already seen; and the share which
Alchemy had in the formation of any sounder knowledge, is not such
as to justify any further notice of that pursuit.

The result of the attempts to analyse bodies by heat, mixture, and

the like processes, was the doctrine that the first principles of things
are three, not four; namely, salt, sulphur, and mercury; and that, of
these three, all things are compounded. In reality, the doctrine, as
thus stated, contained no truth which was of any value; for, though
the chemist could extract from most bodies portions which he called
salt, 262 and sulphur, and mercury, these names were given, rather
to save the hypothesis, than because the substances were really
those usually so called: and thus the supposed analyses proved
nothing, as Boyle justly urged against them. 1
1 Shaw’s Boyle. Skeptical Chymist, pp. 312, 313. &c.

The only real advance in chemical theory, therefore, which we can

ascribe to the school of the three principles, as compared with those
who held the ancient dogma of the four elements, is, the
acknowledgment of the changes produced by the chemist’s
operations, as being changes which were to be accounted for by the
union and separation of substantial elements, or, as they were
sometimes called, of hypostatical principles. The workmen of this
school acquired, no doubt, a considerable acquaintance with the
results of the kinds of processes which they pursued; they applied
their knowledge to the preparation of new medicines; and some of
them, as Paracelsus and Van Helmont, attained, in this way, to great
fame and distinction: but their merits, as regards theoretical
chemistry, consist only in a truer conception of the problem, and of
the mode of attempting its solution, than their predecessors had
entertained.
 This step is well marked by a word which, about the time of which
we speak, was introduced to denote the chemist’s employment. It
was called the Spagiric art, (often misspelt Spagyric,) from two
Greek words, (σπάω, ἀγείρω,) which mean to separate parts, and to
unite them. These two processes, or in more modern language,
analysis and synthesis, constitute the whole business of the chemist.
We are not making a fanciful arrangement, therefore, when we mark
the recognition of this object as a step in the progress of chemistry. I
now proceed to consider the manner in which the conditions of this
analysis and synthesis were further developed.
 CHAPTER II.

Doctrine of Acid and Alkali.—Sylvius.

A MONG the results of mixture observed by chemists, were many

instances in which two ingredients, each in itself pungent or
destructive, being put together, became mild and inoperative; each
263 counteracting and neutralizing the activity of the other. The
notion of such opposition and neutrality is applicable to a very wide
range of chemical processes. The person who appears first to have
steadily seized and generally applied this notion is Francis de la Boé
Sylvius; who was born in 1614, and practised medicine at
Amsterdam, with a success and reputation which gave great
currency to his opinions on that art. 2 His chemical theories were
propounded as subordinate to his medical doctrines; and from being
thus presented under a most important practical aspect, excited far
more attention than mere theoretical opinions on the composition of
bodies could have done. Sylvius is spoken of by historians of
science, as the founder of the iatro-chemical sect among physicians;
that is, the sect which considers the disorders in the human frame as
the effects of chemical relations of the fluids, and applies to them
modes of cure founded upon this doctrine. We have here to speak,
not of his physiological, but of his chemical views.
2 Sprengel. Geschichte der Arzneykunde, vol. iv. Thomson’s
History of Chemistry in the corresponding part is translated from
Sprengel.

The distinction of acid and alkaline bodies (acidum, lixivum) was

familiar before the time of Sylvius; but he framed a system, by
considering them both as eminently acrid and yet opposite, and by
applying this notion to the human frame. Thus 3 the lymph contains
an acid, the bile an alkaline salt. These two opposite acrid
substances, when they are brought together, neutralize each other
(infringunt), and are changed into an intermediate and milder
substance.
3 De Methodo Medendi, Amst. 1679. Lib. ii. cap. 28, sects. 8 and
53.

The progress of this doctrine, as a physiological one, is an

important part of the history of medical science in the seventeenth
century; but with that we are not here concerned. But as a chemical
doctrine, this notion of the opposition of acid and alkali, and of its
very general applicability, struck deep root, and has not been
eradicated up to our own time. Boyle, indeed, whose disposition led
him to suspect all generalities, expressed doubts with regard to this
view; 4 and argued that the supposition of acid and alkaline parts in
all bodies was precarious, their offices arbitrary, and the notion of
them unsettled. Indeed it was not difficult to show, that there was no
one certain criterion to which all supposed acids conformed. Yet the
general conception of such a combination as that of acid and alkali
was supposed to 264 be, served so well to express many chemical
facts, that it kept its ground. It is found, for instance, in Lemery’s
Chemistry, which was one of those in most general use before the
introduction of the phlogistic theory. In this work (which was
translated into English by Keill, in 1698) we find alkalies defined by
their effervescing with acids. 5 They were distinguished as the
mineral alkali (soda), the vegetable alkali (potassa), and the volatile
alkali (ammonia). Again, in Macquer’s Chemistry, which was long the
text-book in Europe during the reign of phlogiston, we find acids and
alkalies, and their union, in which they rob each other of their
characteristic properties, and form neutral salts, stated among the
leading principles of the science. 6
4 Shaw’s Boyle, iii. p. 432.

5 Lemery, p. 25.

6 Macquer, p. 19.

In truth, the mutual relation of acids to alkalies was the most

essential part of the knowledge which chemists possessed
concerning them. The importance of this relation arose from its being
the first distinct form in which the notion of chemical attraction or
affinity appeared. For the acrid or caustic character of acids and
alkalies is, in fact, a tendency to alter the bodies they touch, and thus
to alter themselves; and the neutral character of the compounds is
the absence of any such proclivity to change. Acids and alkalies
have a strong disposition to unite. They combine, often with
vehemence, and produce neutral salts; they exhibit, in short, a
prominent example of the chemical attraction, or affinity, by which
two ingredients are formed into a compound. The relation of acid and
base in a salt is, to this day, one of the main grounds of all
theoretical reasonings.

The more distinct development of the notion of such chemical

attraction, gradually made its way among the chemists of the latter
part of the seventeenth and the beginning of the eighteenth century,
as we may see in the writings of Boyle, Newton, and their followers.
Beecher speaks of this attraction as a magnetism; but I do not know
that any writer in particular, can be pointed out as the person who
firmly established the general notion of chemical attraction.
 But this idea of chemical attraction became both more clear and
more extensively applicable, when it assumed the form of the
doctrine of elective attractions, in which shape we must now speak
of it. 265
 CHAPTER III.

Doctrine of Elective Attractions. Geoffroy. Bergman.

T HOUGH the chemical combinations of bodies had already been

referred to attraction, in a vague and general manner, it was
impossible to explain the changes that take place, without supposing
the attraction to be greater or less, according to the nature of the
body. Yet it was some time before the necessity of such a
supposition was clearly seen. In the history of the French Academy
for 1718 (published 1719), the writer of the introductory notice
(probably Fontenelle) says, “That a body which is united to another,
for example, a solvent which has penetrated a metal, should quit it to
go and unite itself with another which we present to it, is a thing of
which the possibility had never been guessed by the most subtle
philosophers, and of which the explanation even now is not easy.”
The doctrine had, in fact, been stated by Stahl, but the assertion just
quoted shows, at least, that it was not familiar. The principle,
however, is very clearly stated 7 in a memoir in the same volume, by
Geoffroy, a French physician of great talents and varied knowledge,
“We observe in chemistry,” he says, “certain relations amongst
different bodies, which cause them to unite. These relations have
their degrees and their laws. We observe their different degrees in
this;—that among different matters jumbled together, which have a
certain disposition to unite, we find that one of these substances
always unites constantly with a certain other, preferably to all the
rest.” He then states that those which unite by preference, have “plus
de rapport,” or, according to a phrase afterwards used, more affinity.
“And I have satisfied myself,” he adds, “that we may deduce, from
these observations, the following proposition, which is very
extensively true, though I cannot enunciate it as universal, not
having been able to examine all the possible combinations, to assure
myself that I should find no exception.” The proposition which he
states in this admirable spirit of philosophical caution, is this: “In all
cases where two substances, 266 which have any disposition to
combine, are united; if there approaches them a third, which has
more affinity with one of the two, this one unites with the third and
lets go the other.” He then states these affinities in the form of a
Table; placing a substance at the head of each column, and other
substances in succession below it, according to the order of their
affinities for the substance which stands at the head. He allows that
the separation is not always complete (an imperfection which he
ascribes to the glutinosity of fluids and other causes), but, with such
exceptions, he defends very resolutely and successfully his Table,
and the notions which it implies.
7 Mém. Acad. Par. 1718, p. 202.

The value of such a tabulation was immense at the time, and is

even still very great; it enabled the chemist to trace beforehand the
results of any operation; since, when the ingredients were given, he
could see which were the strongest of the affinities brought into play,
and, consequently, what compounds would be formed. Geoffroy
himself gave several good examples of this use of his table. It was
speedily adopted into works on chemistry. For instance, Macquer 8
places it at the end of his book; “taking it,” as he says, “to be of great
use at the end of an elementary tract, as it collects into one point of
view, the most essential and fundamental doctrines which are
dispersed through the work.”
8 Pref., p. 13.
 The doctrine of Elective Attraction, as thus promulgated, contained
so large a mass of truth, that it was never seriously shaken, though it
required further development and correction. In particular the
celebrated work of Torbern Bergman, professor at Upsala, On
Elective Attractions, published in 1775, introduced into it material
improvements. Bergman observed, that not only the order of
attractions, but the sum of those attractions which had to form the
new compounds, must be taken account of, in order to judge of the
result. Thus, 9 if we have a combination of two elements, P, s,
(potassa and vitriolic acid), and another combination, L, m, (lime and
muriatic acid,) though s has a greater affinity for P than for L, yet the
sum of the attractions of P to m, and of L to s, is greater than that of
the original compounds, and therefore if the two combinations are
brought together, the new compounds, P, m, and L, s, are formed.
9 Elect. Attract., p. 19.

The Table of Elective Attractions, modified by Bergman in

pursuance of these views, and corrected according to the advanced
knowledge of the time, became still more important than before. The
next step 267 was to take into account the quantities of the elements
which combined; but this leads us into a new train of investigation,
which was, indeed, a natural sequel to the researches of Geoffroy
and Bergman.

In 1803, however, a chemist of great eminence, Berthollet,

published a work (Essai de Statique Chimique), the tendency of
which appeared to be to throw the subject back into the condition in
which it had been before Geoffroy. For Berthollet maintained that the
rules of chemical combination were not definite, and dependent on
the nature of the substances alone, but indefinite, depending on the
quantity present, and other circumstances. Proust answered him,
and as Berzelius says, 10 “Berthollet defended himself with an
acuteness which makes the reader hesitate in his judgment; but the
great mass of facts finally decided the point in favor of Proust.”
Before, however, we trace the result of these researches, we must
consider Chemistry as extending her inquiries to combustion as well
as mixture, to airs as well as fluids and solids, and to weight as well
as quality. These three steps we shall now briefly treat of.
10 Chem. t. iii. p. 23.
 CHAPTER IV.

Doctrine of Acidification and Combustion.—Phlogistic Theory.

P UBLICATION of the Theory by Beccher and Stahl.—It will be

recollected that we are tracing the history of the progress only of
Chemistry, not of its errors;—that we are concerned with doctrines
only so far as they are true, and have remained part of the received
system of chemical truths. The Phlogistic Theory was deposed and
succeeded by the Theory of Oxygen. But this circumstance must not
lead us to overlook the really sound and permanent part of the
opinions which the founders of the phlogistic theory taught. They
brought together, as processes of the same kind, a number of
changes which at first appeared to have nothing in common; as
acidification, combustion, respiration. Now this classification is true;
and its importance remains undiminished, whatever are the
explanations which we adopt of the processes themselves.

The two chemists to whom are to be ascribed the merit of this

step, and the establishment of the phlogistic theory which they
connected 268 with it, are John Joachim Beccher and George Ernest
Stahl; the former of whom was professor at Mentz, and physician to
the Elector of Bavaria (born 1625, died 1682); the latter was
professor at Halle, and afterwards royal physician at Berlin (born
1660, died 1734). These two men, who thus contributed to a
common purpose, were very different from each other. The first was
a frank and ardent enthusiast in the pursuit of chemistry, who speaks
of himself and his employments with a communicativeness and
affection both amusing and engaging. The other was a teacher of
great talents and influence, but accused of haughtiness and
moroseness; a character which is well borne out by the manner in
which, in his writings, he anticipates an unfavorable reception, and
defies it. But it is right to add to this that he speaks of Beccher, his
predecessor, with an ungrudging acknowledgment of obligations to
him, and a vehement assertion of his merit as the founder of the true
system, which give a strong impression of Stahl’s justice and
magnanimity.

Beccher’s opinions were at first promulgated rather as a correction

than a refutation of the doctrine of the three principles, salt, sulphur,
and mercury. The main peculiarity of his views consists in the offices
which he ascribes to his sulphur, these being such as afterwards
induced Stahl to give the name of Phlogiston to this element.
Beccher had the sagacity to see that the reduction of metals to an
earthy form (calx), and the formation of sulphuric acid from sulphur,
are operations connected by a general analogy, as being alike
processes of combustion. Hence the metal was supposed to consist
of an earth, and of something which, in the process of combustion,
was separated from it; and, in like manner, sulphur was supposed to
consist of the sulphuric acid, which remained after its combustion,
and of the combustible part or true sulphur, which flew off in the
burning. Beccher insists very distinctly upon this difference between
his element sulphur and the “sulphur” of his Paracelsian
predecessors.

It must be considered as indicating great knowledge and talent in

Stahl, that he perceived so clearly what part of the views of Beccher
was of general truth and permanent value. Though he 11 everywhere
gives to Beccher the credit of the theoretical opinions which he
promulgates, (“Beccheriana sunt quæ profero,”) it seems certain that
he had the merit, not only of proving them more completely, and
applying them more widely than his forerunner, but also of
conceiving them 269 with a distinctness which Beccher did not attain.
In 1697, appeared Stahl’s Zymotechnia Fundamentalis (the Doctrine
of Fermentation), “simulque experimentum novum sulphur verum
arte producendi.” In this work (besides other tenets which the author
considered as very important), the opinion published by Beccher was
now maintained in a very distinct form;—namely, that the process of
forming sulphur from sulphuric acid, and of restoring the metals from
their calces, are analogous, and consist alike in the addition of some
combustible element, which Stahl termed phlogiston (φλογίστον,
combustible). The experiment most insisted on in the work now
spoken of, 12 was the formation of sulphur from sulphate of potass
(or of soda) by fusing the salt with an alkali, and throwing in coals to
supply phlogiston. This is the “experimentum novum.” Though Stahl
published an account of this process, he seems to have regretted his
openness. “He denies not,” he says, “that he should peradventure
have dissembled this experiment as the true foundation of the
Beccherian assertion concerning the nature of sulphur, if he had not
been provoked by the pretending arrogance of some of his
contemporaries.”
11 Stahl, Præf. ad Specim. Becch. 1703.

12 P. 117.

From this time, Stahl’s confidence in his theory may be traced

becoming more and more settled in his succeeding publications. It is
hardly necessary to observe here, that the explanations which his
theory gives are easily transformed into those which the more recent
theory supplies. According to modern views, the addition of oxygen
takes place in the formation of acids and of calces, and in
combustion, instead of the subtraction of phlogiston. The coal which
Stahl supposed to supply the combustible in his experiment, does in
fact absorb the liberated oxygen. In like manner, when an acid
corrodes a metal, and, according to existing theory, combines with
and oxidates it, Stahl supposed that the phlogiston separated from
the metal and combined with the acid. That the explanations of the
phlogistic theory are so generally capable of being translated into the
oxygen theory, merely by inverting the supposed transfer of the
combustible element, shows us how important a step towards the
modern doctrines the phlogistic theory really was.

The question, whether these processes were in fact addition or

subtraction, was decided by the balance, and belongs to a
succeeding period of the science. But we may observe, that both
Beccher and Stahl were aware of the increase of weight which
metals undergo in 270 calcination; although the time had not yet
arrived in which this fact was to be made one of the bases of the
theory.

It has been said, 13 that in the adoption of the phlogistic theory, that
is, in supposing the above-mentioned processes to be addition
rather than subtraction, “of two possible roads the wrong was
chosen, as if to prove the perversity of the human mind.” But we
must not forget how natural it was to suppose that some part of a
body was destroyed or removed by combustion; and we may
observe, that the merit of Beccher and Stahl did not consist in the
selection of one road or two, but in advancing so far as to reach this
point of separation. That, having done this, they went a little further
on the wrong line, was an error which detracted little from the merit
or value of the progress really made. It would be easy to show, from
the writings of phlogistic chemists, what important and extensive
truths their theory enabled them to express simply and clearly.