Scientific Revolution

in China

Was it really exist?
 Intro

 One question that has been the subject of debate
among historians has been why China did not
develop a scientific revolution and why Chinese
technology fell behind that of Europe. Many
hypotheses have been proposed ranging from the
cultural to the political and economic.
 “No” team

Sociopolitical system and the failure
 Briefing

 China’s failure to make the transition from pre-
modern science to modern science probably had
something to do with China’s sociopolitical system.
 One may argue that the key to the question is not so
much that this system prohibited intellectual
creativity. In fact, internal structure of the system
diverted the intellectuals away from scientific
endeavors
 Comparison

Pre-modern times
 Most technological  Technological inventions
inventions originated
from the experiences of
craftsperson and farmers,
and scientific findings
were made
spontaneously by a few
geniuses with insight in
observing nature.
Modern times
mainly result from experiment.
Scientific discovery is made
primarily by the technique of
mathematized hypotheses and
models about nature tested by
controlled experiment or
replicable tests, which can
more reliably be performed by
scientists with special training.
 Main reasons

 More advance in technology and science would be more likely to
occur in a larger society. China had comparative advantages in pre-
modern times because of its large population but fell behind the West
in modem times because technological invention in China continued
to rely on happenstance and experience, while Europe changed to
planned experiment cum science in the scientific revolution of the
seventeenth century.
 The reason that China failed to have a scientific revolution attributed
to the contents of civil service examinations and the criteria of
promotion, which distracted the attention of intellectuals away from
investing the human capital necessary for modern scientific research.
Therefore, the probability of making a transition from primitive
science to modern science was reduced.
Why there is no breakthrough technology
ever invented in China in ancient era?

 On the whole, it was members of the small educated
class in China who did science, and passed down
their understanding in books.
 “Technology” in Chinese traditional was matter of
craft and skills that they passed only to their off-
springs in family.
 Very few percent of people were be able to read
scientific books.
 The difference between two religions


 Chinese science got along without a clearly
separation between mind and body, objective and
subjective, even wave and particle.
 In the West, Plato, Galileo, Descartes and many
others built up the realm of physical science, clearly
separated the conflict between religion and science.
“Yes” team

 Reasons

 Chinese population
was large enough
 workers
were cheap enough
 agrarian productivity
was high enough
-> Chinese workers were perfectly able to quickly perform
any needed task
 Result

 China indeed had a scientific revolution in the 17th
century and that we are still far from understanding
the scientific revolutions of the West and China in all
their political, economic and social ramifications
 Including: Archaeology, Geology and climatology,
Pharmacology, Horology and clockworks, Alchemy
and Taoism, Gunpowder warfare…
The four Great Inventions of ancient
China :

 Compass
 GunPowder
 PaperMaking
 Printing
Scientific Revolution
in China

 Abacus (1000BC –
500BC)
 Acupuncture
 2003: 3rd country sent
humans into space.
 nuclear weapons,
 satellite launching and
recovery,
 superconductivity,
 high-yield hybrid rice
 Scientific revolution

 Definition:
 The Scientific Revolution was a period when
physics, astronomy, biology, human
anatomy, chemistry, and other sciences grew new
ideas which led to a rejection of old doctrines, and laid
the foundation of modern science.
 The Scientific Revolution was a transformation of our
knowledge of the external world. It changed the
questions we asked, the means we used to explore
them, and the character of the answers
 Evidence in China

 Western mathematics and mathematical astronomy were
introduced to China beginning a little after 1600
 Several Chinese scholars quickly responded and began
reshaping the way astronomy was done in China.
 They changed the sense of which concepts, tools, and
methods are centrally important, so that geometry and
trigonometry largely replaced traditional numerical or
algebraic procedures
 Chinese astronomers came to believe for the first time that
mathematical models can explain the phenomena as well
as predict them.
 Conclusion

 Chan Le 20101001
 Chinh Nguyen 20091308
 Duy Le 20091305
 Quan Tran 20081021
 Nhan Tran 20101009
 Huan Nguyen 20081192
 Hoang Truong 20081219