Description
Book SynopsisIn
A Cultural History of Modern Science in China, Elman has retold the story of the Jesuit impact on late imperial China, circa 1600-1800, and the Protestant era in early modern China from the 1840s to 1900 in a concise and accessible form ideal for the classroom.
Trade ReviewElman shows that progress in Chinese science continued after 1600, as it absorbed new ideas from the West, and, for him, China's nineteenth-century failure to respond adequately to Western incursions has been exaggerated...[
A Cultural History of Modern Science in China] offer[s] a new and important perspective on Sino-European interaction. -- Delia Davin * Times Literary Supplement *
Elman's study is a tremendous achievement, both in its analytical insight and empirical depth. -- Thomas S. Mullaney * Science *
In this concise but comprehensive new book, Elman makes his masterful synthesis of the scholarship in the field--including his own--accessible to nonspecialists. A textbook treating modern Chinese science up to 1900, long awaited, has at last emerged. -- Danian Hu * Isis *
In this concise, accessible, but comprehensive book, Benjamin Elman describes the effects on science of the Jesuit mission in imperial China in 1600–1800, and the latter influence of Protestants in the nineteenth century. By doing so, he places the emergence of modern science in China in historical context. * Nature *
Table of ContentsList of Illustrations Conventions Chinese Dynasties Introduction 1. The Jesuit Legacy 2. Recovering the Chinese Classics 3. The Rise of Imperial Chinese Manufacturing and Trade 4. Science and the Protestant Mission 5. From Textbooks to Darwin: Modern Science Arrives 6. Government Arsenals Spur New Technologies 7. The Displacement of Traditional Chinese Science and Medicine Appendixes: 1. Tang Mathematical Classics 2. "Science Outline Series," 1882-1898 3. Table of Contents for the 1886 Primers for Science Studies 4. Twenty-three Fields of the Sciences in the 1886 Primers for Science Studies 5. Some Officially Selected Chinese Prize Essay Topics from the Shanghai Polytechnic 6. Some Translations of Chemistry, 1855-1873 7. Partial Chronological List of Arsenals, etc., in China, 1861-1892 Notes Acknowledgments Index
