HIST 150 / EALC 150 / HIPSS 292 / CHSS 390
Winter 2001
Tuesday, Thursday 1:30-2:50 p.m.
Henry Hinds Laboratory for the Geophysical Sciences, Room 180
Roger Hart
office: Social Sciences Research Building, Room 206
office hours: Tuesdays 3-6 p.m.
In this course we will explore East Asian science, technology, and medicine by reading primary texts (in translation). We will read selections from the most important existing historical documents on divination, astronomy, optics, mathematics, alchemy, medicine, and technology. Most of these sources are from China, but we will also examine issues in the history of Japanese and Korean science, technology, and medicine. We will take an interdisciplinary approach -- drawing on cultural history, anthropology, gender studies, and philosophy -- to analyze these texts in their intellectual, social, and cultural context. We will conclude by examining "traditional" Chinese medicine in the modern era, and the globalization of technoscience in Japan. This course is designed for students interested in: (i) the history, philosophy and anthropology of science, technology, and medicine; (ii) East Asian studies; (iii) "non-Western" cultures. Knowledge of East Asian languages is not required for the course.
Class attendance is mandatory. Students may choose one of the following two options:
(1) Before the first class of each week write a brief summary of the primary and required secondary readings assigned for that week (but not the supplementary readings), to be sent to me by email by 10 p.m. Monday evening. Students should complete reading notes for nine of the ten weeks. Notes on the primary sources should summarize the material, usually in one paragraph. Notes on the secondary readings should usually be two short paragraphs -- one summarizing the central argument and one offering critical analysis. The reading notes should total 2 to 3 pages per week. These will be graded and will serve as the basis for class discussions. Grading: reading assignments 70%; class participation 30%.
(2) Students interested in a particular topic should complete a final paper of 10 pp. for undergraduates and 20 pp. for graduate students. Students should consult me as early as possible on possible topics. An outline and bibliography are due by February 13; a first draft must be turned in by February 27; and the final draft is due March 8. Grading: final paper 70%; class participation 30%.
All of the primary and required secondary readings for this course will be available in the following formats from Regenstein Library Reserves: (i) two xeroxes of each of the readings (on two-hour reserve); (ii) all of the books from which the readings are taken (on two-hour reserve); (iii) all of the readings are available for downloading in .PDF format through electronic reserves.
Joseph Needham, "Poverties and Triumphs of Chinese Scientific Tradition," reprinted in The Grand Titration: Science and Society in East and West (Boston: G. Allen & Unwin, 1979), pp. 14-54.
G. E. R. Lloyd, "Science in Antiquity: The Greek and Chinese Cases and Their Relevance to the Problems of Cognition," chap. 10 of Adversaries and Authorities: Investigations Into Ancient Greek and Chinese Science, Ideas in Context (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996), pp. 209-227.
Roger Hart, "Beyond Science and Civilization: A Post-Needham Critique," East Asian Science, Technology, and Medicine 16 (1999): 88-114.
Roger Hart, "The Great Explanandum," essay review of The Measure of Reality: Quantification and Western Society, 1250-1600, by Alfred W. Crosby, American Historical Review 105, no. 2 (April 2000): 486-493.
Oracle bone inscriptions from Keightley's article (listed below) and Keightley, Sources of Shang History: The Oracle-bone Inscriptions of Bronze Age China (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1978).
I Ching: The Classic of Changes, trans. Edward L. Shaughnessy, Classics of Ancient China (New York: Ballantine Books, 1997), selections.
David N. Keightley, "Science of the Ancestors," to be included in Hart, ed. Cultural Studies of Chinese Science, Technology and Medicine.
Lothar von Falkenhausen, introduction to Suspended Music: Chime-Bells in the Culture of Bronze Age China (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1993), pp. 1-19.
David N. Keightley, "Art, Ancestors, and the Origins of Writing in China," Representations 56 (1996): 68-95.
Edward L. Shaughnessy, "The Composition of 'Qian' and 'Kun' Hexagrams of the Zhouyi," in Before Confucius: Studies in the Creation of the Chinese Classics (Albany, N.Y.: State University of New York Press, 1997), 197-220.
Christopher Cullen, Astronomy and Mathematics in Ancient China: The Zhou bi suan jing (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1996), selections.
A. C. Graham and Nathan Sivin, "A systematic approach to the Mohist optics (ca. 300 B.C.)," in Chinese Science: Explorations of An Ancient Tradition, ed. Nathan Sivin and Shigeru Nakayama, MIT East Asian Science Series, vol. 2 (Cambridge: MIT Press, 1973), pp. 105-152.
Cullen, Astronomy and Mathematics in Ancient China, pp. 20-67.
Shigeru Nakayama, "The Early Impact of Chinese Astronomy: From the Sixth Century to the Early Sixteenth Century," part 1 of A History of Japanese Astronomy: Chinese Background and Western Impact, Harvard-Yenching Institute Monograph Series, vol. 18 (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1969), pp. 5-76.
Sang-woon Jeon, "Astronomy," chap. 1 of Science and Technology in Korea: Traditional Instruments and Techniques (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1974), 11-106.
Ronan, "The Sciences of the Heavens: (i) Astronomy," in vol. 2 of The Shorter Science and Civlilisation in China, pp. 67-222.
Nine Chapters on Calculational Techniques [Jiu zhang suan shu], trans. Roger Hart, selections.
Urlich Libbrecht, Chinese Mathematics in the Thirteenth Century, the Shu-Shu Chiu-Chang of Ch'in Chiu-Shao (Cambridge: MIT Press, 1973), selections.
Roger Hart, "Local Knowledges, Local Contexts: Mathematics in Yuan and Ming China," MS.
Ronan, "Mathematics," in vol. 2 of The Shorter Science and Civilisation in China, pp. 1-67.
Mikami, Yoshio. The Development of Mathematics in China and Japan. New York: Chelsea, 1974.
Nathan Sivin, Chinese Alchemy: Preliminary Studies, Harvard Monographs in the History of Science (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1968), selections.
Nathan Sivin, "Chinese Alchemy and the Manipulation of Time," reprinted in Sivin, ed., Science and Technology in East Asia (New York: Science History Publications, 1977), 109-122.
Mirceau Eliade, The Forge and the Crucible (Univ. of Chicago Press, 1978), 109-26.
Huang di nei jing su wen, ling shu, tai su, in Paul U. Unschuld, Introductory Readings in Classical Chinese Medicine: Sixty Texts with Vocabulary and Translation, a Guide to Research Aids and a General Glossary (Boston: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1988).
Yasuyori Tamba, The Essentials of Medicine in Ancient China and Japan: Yasuyori Tamba's "Ishimpo," trans. Emil C.H. Hsia, Ilza Veith, Robert H. Geertsma (Leiden: Brill, 1986), selections.
Christopher Cullen, "Patients and Healers in Late Imperial China: Evidence from the Jinpingmei," History of Science 31 no. 2 (1993): 99-150.
Paul U. Unschuld, Medicine in China: A History of Ideas (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1985).
Klaas Ruitenbeek, Carpentry and Building in Late Imperial China: A Study of the 15th-Century Carpenter's Manual "Lu Ban Jing," Sinica Leidensia 23 (Leiden: Brill, 1993), selections.
Sung Ying-hsing, Chinese Technology in the Seventeenth Century: T'ien-Kung K'ai-Wu, trans. E. tu Zen Sun and Shiou-chuan Sun (University Park: Pennsylvania State University, 1966), selections.
Francesca Bray, "House Form & Meaning," chap. 2 of Technology and Gender: Fabrics of Power in Later Imperial China (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1997), 59-90.
Sang-woon Jeon, "Chemistry, Chemical Technology, and Pharmaceutics," chap. 4 of Science and Technology in Korea: Traditional Instruments and Techniques (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1974), 233-69.
Hartwell, Robert. "A Cycle of Economic Change in Imperial China: Coal and Iron in Northeast China, 750-1350," Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient 10 (1967): 102-59.
Nathan Sivin, Traditional Medicine in Contemporary China (University of Michigan China Center, 1987), selections.
Sivin, Traditional Medicine in Contemporary China, selections.
Paul U. Unschuld, Medicine in China: A History of Ideas (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1985).
Sharon Traweek, "Big Science and Colonialist Discourse: Building High-Energy Physics in Japan," in Big Science: The Growth of Large-Scale Research, ed. Peter Galison and Bruce Hevly (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1992), pp. 100-28.
Joan H. Fujimura, "Transnational Genomics: Transgressing the Boundary between the 'Modern/West' and the 'Premodern/East,'" in Doing Science + Culture, ed. Roddey Reid and Sharon Traweek (New York: Routledge, 2000), pp. 71-92.
Rethinking Science and Civilization: The Ideologies, Disciplines and Rhetorics of World History: http://www.stanford.edu/dept/HPS/RethinkingSciCiv/
The following is a preliminary list, arranged by topic, of primary historical texts on East Asian science, technology, and medicine that have been translated into English. Most of these works also include further historical, textual, and critical analysis.
Ko Hung, Alchemy, Medicine, Religion in the China of A.D. 320: The Nei P'ien of Ko Hung (Pao-P'u Tzu) (Cambridge, Mass.: M.I.T. Press, 1967).
Nathan Sivin, Chinese Alchemy: Preliminary Studies, Harvard Monographs in the History of Science (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1968).
Tan-Fang Chien-Yuan: A 10th-Century Chinese Alchemical Source-Book, trans. Ho Peng Yoke (Hong Kong: Univ. of Hong Kong, Centre of Asian Studies, 1980).
Christopher Cullen, Astronomy and Mathematics in Ancient China: The Zhou bi suan jing (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1996).
Boudewijn Walraven. Songs of the Shaman: The Ritual Chants of the Korean Mudang (New York: Kegan Paul International, 1994).
The Sea Island Mathematical Manual: Surveying and Mathematics in Ancient China, trans. Frank Swetz (University Park, Pa.: Pennsylvania State Univ. Press, 1992).
Lay-Yong Lam, A Critical Study of the Yang Hui Suan Fa, a Thirteenth-Century Mathematical Treatise (Singapore University Press, 1977).
Libbrecht, Ulrich. Chinese Mathematics in the Thirteenth Century: The Shu-Shu Chiu-Chang of Ch’in Chiu-Shao. Vol. 1 of the M.I.T. East Asian Series. Cambridge: MIT Press, 1973.
Early Chinese Medical Literature: The Mawangdui Medical Manuscripts, trans. Donald J. Harper (London: Kegan Paul International, 1998).
Nathan Sivin, Traditional Medicine in Contemporary China (Ann Arbor: Center for Chinese Studies, Univ. of Michigan, 1987).
Sung Tz'u, The Washing Away of Wrongs: Forensic Medicine in 13th-Century China, trans. Brian E. Mcknight (Ann Arbor: Center for Chinese Studies, Univ. of Michigan, 1981).
Tamba, Yasuyori, The Essentials of Medicine in Ancient China and Japan: Yasuyori Tamba's "Ishimpo," trans. Emil C.H. Hsia, Ilza Veith, and Robert H. Geertsma (Leiden: Brill, 1986).
Introductory Readings in Classical Chinese Medicine: Sixty Texts with Vocabulary and Translation, a Guide to Research Aids and a General Glossary, trans. Paul U. Unschuld (Boston: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1988).
Nan-Ching: The Classic of Difficult Issues, with Commentaries by Chinese and Japanese Authors from the Third Through the Twentieth Century, trans. Paul U. Unschuld, Comparative Studies of Health Systems and Medical Care (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1986).
Hsu Ta-ch'un, Forgotten Traditions in Ancient Chinese Medicine, trans. Paul U. Unschuld (Brookline, Mass.: Paradigm Publications, 1990).
Sun Ssu-miao[?] (581-682?), Essential Subtleties on the Silver Sea: The Yin-Hai Jing-Wei: A Chinese Classic on Ophthalmology, trans. Jürgen Kovacs and Paul U. Unschuld (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1998).
A. C. Graham, Later Mohist Logic, Ethics, and Science (London: School of Oriental and African Studies, Univ. London, 1978).
Klaas Ruitenbeek, Carpentry and Building in Late Imperial China: A Study of the Fifteenth-Century Carpenter’s Manual Lu Ban Jing, vol. 23 of Sinica Leidensia (New York: E. J. Brill, 1993).
Sung Ying-hsing, Chinese Technology in the Seventeenth Century: T'ien-Kung K'ai-Wu, trans. E. tu Zen Sun and Shiou-chuan (University Park: Pennsylvania State University, 1966).
Salt Production Techniques of Ancient China: The Aobo Tu, trans. Hans Ulrich Vogel and Tora, Yoshida (Leiden and New York: Brill, 1993).
Donald B. Wagner, Iron and Steel in Ancient China (Leiden: Brill, 1993).
The following bibliography of secondary research focuses on works that address the content (that is, the "internal" or technical aspects) of East Asian science, technology, or medicine. I have included general works written in English that do not require specialized training in the sciences or knowledge of East Asian languages, and omitted textual or highly technical studies. The first section on bibliographies provides a broader range of sources.
Bartholomew, James R. "An Annotated Bibliography of English Language Works on the Social History of Modern Japanese Science." In Shigeru Nakayama, Science and Society in Modern Japan: Selected Historical Sources. Cambridge: MIT Press, 1974 (pp. 312-325).
Fairbank, John King and Merle Goldman. "Suggested Reading." In China: A New History, enl. ed. Cambridge: Belknap Press of the Harvard University Press, 1998 (pp. 459-514).
Elman, Benjamin. Syllabus for "Topics in the History of Science in Imperial China": http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/history/elman/classes/201L/f97/
Elman, Benjamin. Syllabus for "Classical Historiography for Chinese History": http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/history/elman/ClassBib/
Hanson, Marta with contributions from Yi-Li Wu, “Bibliography of Western-Language Sources on Medicine in East Asia”: http://staff.albion.edu/hist/chimed/
Hart, Roger. Syllabus for "Cultural History of Chinese Science, Technology, and Medicine": http://home.uchicago.edu/~rphart/courses-Stanford/ChinSciTechMed
Loewe, Michael, ed. Early Chinese Texts: A Bibliographical Guide. Vol. 2 of the Early China Special Monograph Series. Berkeley: Society for the Study of Early China, Institute of East Asian Studies, University of California, Berkeley, 1993.
Pregadio, Fabrizio. "Chinese Alchemy: An Annotated Bibliography of Works in Western Languages," Monumenta Serica: Journal of Oriental Studies, 1996.
Sivin, Nathan. "Science and Medicine in Imperial China—the State of the Field." Journal of Asian Studies 47, no. 1 (1988, February): 41-90.
Sivin, Nathan. "Selected, Annotated Bibliography of the History of Chinese Science: Sources in Western Languages." In Science in Ancient China: Researches and Reflections. Variorum Collected Studies Series. Brookfield, Vt.: Ashgate Publishing Company, 1995.
Wilkinson, Endymion. Chinese History: A Manual. Rev. and enl. ed, Harvard-Yenching Institute Monograph Series, vol. 52. Cambridge, Mass.: Published by the Harvard University Asia Center for the Harvard-Yenching Institute : Distributed by Harvard University Press, 2000.
Needham, Joseph. Science and Civilisation in China. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1954-:
vol. 1, Introductory Orientations;
vol. 2, History of Scientific Thought;
vol. 3, Mathematics and the Sciences of the Heavens and the Earth;
vol. 4, Physics and Physical Technology -- pt. 1, Physics, pt. 2, Mechanical Engineering, pt. 3. Civil Engineering and Nautics;
vol. 5, Chemistry and Chemical Technology -- pt. 1, Paper and Printing, pt. 2, Spagyrical Discovery and Invention: Magisteries of Gold and Immortality, pt. 3, Spagyrical Discovery and Invention: Historical Survey, from Cinnabar Elixirs to Synthetic Insulin, pt. 4, Spagyrical Discovery and Invention: Apparatus, Theories, and Gifts, pt. 5, Spagyrical Discovery and Invention: Physiological Alchemy, pt. 6, Military Technology: Missiles and Sieges, pt. 7, Military Technology: The Gunpowder Epic, pt. 9, Textile Technology, Spinning and Reeling;
vol. 6, Biology and Biological Technology -- pt. 1, Botany, pt. 2, Agriculture, pt. 3, Agro-Industries and Forestry;
vol. 7, pt. 1, Language and Logic.
Needham, Joseph and Colin A. Ronan, The Shorter Science and Civilisation in China. An Abridgement of Joseph Needham's Original Text. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1978- .
vol. 2 contains vol. 3 and a section of vol. 4, pt. 1 of the original series.
vol. 3 contains a section of vol. 3, pt. I, and a section of vol. 4, pt. 3 of the original series;
vol. 4 contains the main sections of vol. 4, pt. 2 of the original series: Engineers, Their Status, Tools and Materials; Basic Mechanical Principles and Types of Machines; Land Transport; Clockwork; Windmills and Aeronautics.
vol. 5 contains the first section of vol. 4, pt. 3, and the final section of vol. 4, pt. 2 of the original series.
Gernet, Jacques. A History of Chinese Civilization. 2nd ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996.
Loewe, Michael, and Edward L. Shaughnessy. The Cambridge History of Ancient China: From the Origins of Civilization to 221 B.C. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1999.
Twitchett, Denis, and J. K. Fairbank, eds. The Cambridge History of China. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1978-: vol .1, The Ch'in and Han Empires, 221 B.C.-A.D. 220; vol.3, Sui and T'ang China, 589-906, pt.1; vols. 7-8, The Ming Dynasty, 1368-1644, pts. 1-2; vol. 10, Late Ch'ing, 1800-1911, pt. 1; vol. 11, Late Ch'ing, 1800-1911, pt. 2; vol. 12, Republican China, 1912-1949, pt. 1; vol. 13, Republican China, 1912-1949, pt. 2; vol. 14, The People's Republic, pt. 1; vol. 15, The People's Republic, pt. 2, Revolutions within the Chinese Revolution, 1966-1982.
Hashimoto, Keizo et al. eds. East Asian Science: Tradition and Beyond. Osaka: Kansai University Press, 1995.
Sivin, Nathan, ed. Science and Technology in East Asia. History of Science: Selections from Isis. New York: Science History Publications, 1977.
Bowers, John Z., J. William Hess, and Nathan Sivin, eds. Science and Medicine in Twentieth-Century China: Research and Education. Vol. 3 of Science, Medicine, and Technology in East Asia. Ann Arbor: Center for Chinese Studies, University of Michigan, 1988.
Chen, Cheng-Yih, ed. Science and Technology in Chinese Civilization. Singapore: World Scientific, 1987.
Orleans, Leo A., ed. Science in Contemporary China. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1980.
Sivin, Nathan. Medicine, Philosophy and Religion in Ancient China: Researches and Reflections, Variorum Collected Studies Series (Brookfield, Vt.: Ashgate Publishing Company, 1995).
Sivin, Nathan. Science in Ancient China: Researches and Reflections. Variorum Collected Studies Series. Brookfield, Vt.: Ashgate Publishing Company, 1995.
Sugimoto, Masayoshi, and David L. Swain. Science and Culture in Traditional Japan, A.D. 600-1840. Cambridge: MIT Press, 1978.
Nakayama, Shigeru, David L. Swain, and Yagi Eri. Science and Society in Modern Japan: Selected Historical Sources. Cambridge: M.I.T. Press, 1974.
Nakayama, Shigeru. Science, Technology, and Society in Postwar Japan. London and New York: Kegan Paul International, 1991.
Morris-Suzuki, Tessa. The Technological Transformation of Japan: From the Seventeenth to the Twenty-First Century. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1994.
Jeon, Sang-woon. Science and Technology in Korea: Traditional Instruments and Techniques. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1974.
Nakayama, Shigeru. A History of Japanese Astronomy: Chinese Background and Western Impact. Harvard-Yenching Institute Monograph Series, vol. 18. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1969.
Sivin, Nathan. "Cosmos and Computation in Early Chinese Mathematical Astronomy." Republished in Sivin, Science in Ancient China: Researches and Reflections. Brookfield, Vt: Aldershot, 1995, pp. 1-73.
Du Shiran and Li Yan. Chinese Mathematics: A Concise History. Translated by John N. Crossley and Anthony W.-C. Lun. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1987.
Martzloff, Jean-Claude. A History of Chinese Mathematics. Berlin: Springer-Verlag, 1997.
Mikami, Yoshio. The Development of Mathematics in China and Japan. Reprint of 1913 edition. New York: Chelsea, 1974.
Libbrecht, Ulrich. Chinese Mathematics in the Thirteenth Century: The Shu-Shu Chiu-Chang of Ch’in Chiu-Shao. M.I.T. East Asian Series, Vol. 1. Cambridge: MIT Press, 1973.
Unschuld, Paul U. Medicine in China: A History of Ideas. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1985.
Unschuld, Paul U. Medicine in China: A History of Pharmaceutics. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1986.