Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-cfpbc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-25T00:07:41.065Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

“European Science in China” or “Western Learning”? Representations of Cross-Cultural Transmission, 1600–1800*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 September 2008

Catherine Jami
Catherine Jami
Affiliation:
CNRS and Université de Paris
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

The circulation of science across cultural boundaries involves the construction of various representations by the various actors, who each account for their involvement in the process. The historiography of the transmission of European science to China in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries has long been dominated by one particular narrative: that of the Jesuit missionaries who were the main go-betweens for these two centuries. This fact has contributed to shaping Western images of China's history and science up to the present day.

To retrieve the multifaceted history of this transmission, more than one discourse needs to be taken into account. Even within the Society of Jesus, representations changed with the evolution of patronage of the mission, and the concomitant building up of state-sponsored science in Europe. Chinese sources yield different pictures, accounting for the reception of Western learning — rather than “European science” — in terms of integration rather than of conversion, and legitimizing it first by the Jesuits' status as scholars, then by the idea that Western learning was of Chinese origin. This shift corresponded to the imperial appropriation of this learning.

Type
Article
Information
Science in Context , Volume 12 , Issue 3 , Autumn 1999 , pp. 413 - 434
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1999

Footnotes

*

I am most grateful to Sonja Brentjes, thanks to whom this paper was written. I am also indebted to Steve Simmonite for correcting the English.

References

Adas, Michael. 1989. Machines as the Measure of Men: Science, Technology, and Ideologies of Western Dominance. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Alden, Dauril. 1996. The Making of an Enterprise: The Society of Jesus in Portugal, Its Empire, and Beyond. Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Biagioli, Mario. 1995. “Le prince et les savants: La civilité scientifique au 17e siècle. ” Annales HSS 50 (6):1417–53.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bosnians, Henri. 1924.“L’oeuvre scientifique d’Antoine Thomas.” Annales de la Société Scientifique de Bruxelles 44:69–179.Google Scholar
Bouvet, Joachim. 1691. Letter to Louis Le Comte, 20 October 1691. Manuscript, A.R.S.I., Jap Sin 165: ff. 100–102.Google Scholar
Bouvet, Joachim. 1697. Portrait historique de l’Empereur de la Chine présenté au Roy. Paris: Etienne Michallet.Google Scholar
Chartier, Roger. 1989. “Le monde comme représentation.” Annales ESC 44–6:1505–20.Google Scholar
Chemla, Karine. 1996. “Que signifie l’expression ‘mathématiques européennes’ vue de Chine?” In L’Europe mathématique. Histoire, Mythes, Identité, edited by Goldstein, C., Gray, J. and Ritter, J., 221–45. Paris: Éditions de la Maison des Sciences de 1’Homme.Google Scholar
Chu, Pingyi. 1997. “Scientific Dispute in the Imperial Court: The 1664 Calendar Case.” Chinese Science 14:7–34.Google Scholar
D'elia, Pasquale. 1956. “Presentazione della prima traduzione cinese di Euclide.” Monumenta Serica 15:161–202.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Deron, Isabelle. 1995. Les leçons de sciences occidentals de 1’empereur Kangxi (1662–1722)par les Pères Bouvet et Gerbillon. Paris: Mémoire de Diplôme de l’EHESS.Google Scholar
Elman, Benjamin A. 1984. From Philosophy to Philology: Intellectual and Social Aspects of Change in Late Imperial China. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Engelfriet, Peter M. 1998. Euclid in China: The Genesis of the First Translation of Euclid's Elements in 1607 and Its Reception up to 1723. Leiden: Brill.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Etiemble, , 1988–1989. L’Europe Chinoise. 2 vols. Paris: Gallimard.Google Scholar
Foss, Theodore N. 1988. “A Western Interpretation of China: Jesuit Cartography.” In East Meets West: The Jesuits in China 1582–1773, edited by Ronan, C. and Oh, B., 209–51. Chicago: Loyola University Press.Google Scholar
Gernet, Jacques. 1972. Le monde chinois. Paris: Armand Colin.Google Scholar
Gernet, Jacques. 1982. Chine et christianisme: Action et réaction. Paris: Gallimard.Google Scholar
Rongjin, Ge, ed. 1994. Zhongguo shixue sixiang shi (History of “solid learning” thought in China). 3 vols. Beijing: Shoudu shifan daxue chubanshe.Google Scholar
Guy, Kent. 1987. The Emperor's Four Treasuries: Scholars and the State in the Late Ch’ien-lung Era. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard Univ$eabs:ersity Press.$eabs:Google Scholar
Qi, Han. 1997a. “17, 18 shiji Ouzhou he Zhongguo de kexue guanxi — yi Yingguo huangjia xuehui he zai Hua yesuhuishi de jiaoliu wei li” (Scientific relations between Europe and China in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries: A case study of exchanges between the British Royal Society and the China Jesuits). Ziran bianzhengfa tongxun 19(3):47–56.Google Scholar
Qi, Han. 1997b. “Patronage scientifique et carriére politique: Li Guangdi entre Kangxi et Mei Wending.” Études chinoises 16(2):7–37.Google Scholar
Hashimoto, Keizo. 1988. Hsü Kuang-ch'i and Astronomical Reform: The Process of the Chinese Acceptance of Western Astronomy, 1629–1635. Osaka: Kansai University Press.Google Scholar
Hsia, Florence. 1999. “The French Jesuits and the Mission to China.” Ph.D diss. University of Chicago.Google Scholar
Huang, Yi-Long. 1996. “Hongyi dapao yu Ming-Qing zhanzheng —yi huopao cezhun jishu zhi yanbian wei li” (Cannon and wars in China 1600–1900: A case study on the targeting techniques introduced from Europe). Qinghua xuebao 26(1):31–70.Google Scholar
Hummel, Arthur W., ed. 1943. Eminent Chinese of the Ch'ing Period. 2 vols. Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office.Google Scholar
Jami, Catherine. 1990, “Ouzhou shuxue zai Kangxi nianjian de chuanbo qing-kuang — Fu Shengze jieshao fuhao daishu changshi de shibai” (The conditions of transmission of European mathematics during the Kangxi reign — Jean-Francois Foucquet's unsuccessful attempt to introduce symbolic algebra). In Shuxue shi yanjiu wenji (Collected studies in the history of mathematics), vol. 1, edited by Di, Li, 117–22. Hohhot: Nei Menggu daxue chubanshe.Google Scholar
Jami, Catherine. 1991. “The Yuzhi shuli jingyun and Mathematics during the Kangxi Reign.” In Jindai Zhongguo keji shi lunji (Science and technology in modern China), edited by Tsui-hua, Yang and Yi-long, Huang, 155–72. Taipei: Zhongyang yanjiu yuan jindai shi yanjiusuo & Qinghua daxue Lishi yanjiusuo.Google Scholar
Jami, Catherine. 1993. “L'histoire des mathématiques vue par les lettrés chinois (XVIIe et XVIIIesiècles): traditionchinoiseet contribution européenne.” In L'Europe en Chine: Interactions scientifiques, religieuses et culturelles aux XVIIe et XVIIIe siècles. Actes du colloque de la Fondation Hugot, 14–17 october 1991, edited by Jami, C. and Delahaye, H., 147–67. Paris: Collége de France (Mémoires de l'Institut des Hautes Études Chinoises XXXIV).Google Scholar
Jami, Catherine. 1994. “L'empereur Kangxi (1662–1722) et la diffusion des sciences occidentales en Chine.” In Nombres, astres, plantes et viscéres. Sept essais sur l'histoire des sciences et des techniques en Asie orientale, edited by Ang, I. and Will, P.-E., 193–209. Paris: Collége de France (Mémoires de l'Institut des Hautes Études Chinoises XXXV).Google Scholar
Jami, Catherine. 1995. “From Louis XIV's Court to Kangxi's Court: An Institutional Analysisof the French Jesuit Mission to China (1662–1722).” In East Asian Science: Tradition and Beyond, edited by Hashimoto, K., Jami, C. and Skar, L., 493–99. Osaka: Kansai University Press.Google Scholar
Jami, Catherine. 1999. “Joseph Needham and the Historiography of Chinese Mathematics.” In Situating the History of Science: Dialogues with Joseph Needham, edited by Habib, S.I and Raina, D., 260–78. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Catherine, Jami, and Peter, Engelfriet, eds. Forthcoming. Experimenting in the Fields of Tradition: Xu Guangqi (1562–1633), Statesman and Scholar.Google Scholar
Kessler, Lawrence. 1976. K'ang-hsi and the Consolidation of Ch'ing Rule 1662–1684. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Klopp, Onno, ed. 1864. Die Werke von Leibniz.… in der Köninglichen Bibliothek zu Hannover. 1st series, vol. 3. Hanover.Google Scholar
Licoppe, Christian. 1994. “The Crystallisation of a New Narrative Form in Experimental Reports (1660–1690): The Experimental Evidence as a Transactionbetween Philosophical Knowledge and Aristocratic Power.” Science in Context 7(2):205–44.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dun, Liu. 1991. “Qingchu minzu sichao shanbian ji qi dui Qingdai tianwen shuxue de yingxiang” (The transmutation of nationalism in early Qing thought and its influence on astronomy and mathematics during the Qing period). Ziran bianzhengfa tongxun 13(3):42–53.Google Scholar
Zhizao, Li. [1613] 1614. “Xu.” Preface to Tongwen suanzhi (Rules of arithmetic common to cultures). Translated by Ricci, Matteo and Zhizao, Li.Google Scholar
Wending, Mei. 1759. Jixuetang shichao (Poems of the Hall of unremitting study).Google Scholar
Mungello, David E., ed. 1994. The Chinese Rites Controversy: Its History and Meaning. Nettetal: Steyler Verlag.Google Scholar
Needham, Joseph. 1954. Science and Civilisation in China. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Needham, Joseph. 1969. The Grand Titration: Science and Society in East and West. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.Google Scholar
Peterson, Willard J., 1976. “From Interest to Indifference: Fang I-chih and Western Learning.” Ch'ing-shih wen-ti 3(5):72–85.Google Scholar
Peterson, Willard J.,1986. “Calendar Reform Prior to the Arrival of Missionaries at the Ming Court.” Ming Studies 21:45–61.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Peterson, Willard J., 1998. “Learning from Heaven: The Introduction of Christianity and Other Western Ideas into Late Ming China.” In The Cambridge History of China, edited by witchett, D. T. and Fairbanks, J. K.. Vol. 8: The Ming Dynasty, 1368–1644, part 2, 789–839. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pfister, Louis. 1932–1934. Notices biographiques et bibliographiques sur lesjesuites de l'ancienne mission de Chine, 1552–1773. 2 vols. Shanghai: Imprimerie de la mission catholique.Google Scholar
Pinot, Virgile. 1932, Documents inédits relatifs á la connaissance de la Chine en France. Paris: Paul Geuthner.Google Scholar
Yuan, Ruan. [1799] 1982. Chouren zhuan. Taipei: Shijie shuju.Google Scholar
Sivin, Nathan. 1982. “Why the Scientific Revolution Did Not Take Place in China — Or Didn't It?” Chinese Science 5:45–66.Google Scholar
Sivin, Nathan. 1995. Science in Ancient China: Researches and Reflections. Aldershot: Variorum.Google Scholar
Spence, Jonathan. [1969] 1980. To Change China: Western Advisers in China 1620–1960. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books.Google Scholar
Thomas, Antoine. 1685. Synopsis Mathematica complectens varios tractatus quo hujus scientae tyronibus et missionis sinicae candidatus breviter el dare concinnavit. Douai: Mairesse.Google Scholar
Thomaz de Bossierre, Y. 1977. Un Beige mandarin à la cour de Chine aux XVIIe et X VIIIe siècles Antoine Thomas 1644–1709 Ngan to Ping-che. Paris: Les Belles Lettres.Google Scholar
Van der Cruysse, Dick. 1991. Louis XIV et le Siam. Paris: Fayard.Google Scholar
Van Helden, Albert. 1989. “Galileo, Telescopic Astronomy, and the Copernican System.” In Planetary Astronomy from the Renaissance to the Rise of Astrophysics. Part A: Tycho Brahe to Newton, edited by Taton, R. and Wilson, C., 81–105. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Verhaeren, Henri. [1949] 1969. Catalogue de la bibliotheque du Pè-tang. Paris: Cathasia.Google Scholar
Voltaire, . [1751] 1782. An Essay on Universal History. Translated. Edinburgh.Google Scholar
Qianjin, Wang. 1995. “‘Huangyu quanlantu’cehui” (The drawing of the “complete map of the empire”). In Zhongguo jinxiandai kexuejishu shi (History of science and technology in modern and contemporary China). Edited by Guangbi, Dong, 131–74. Hunan jiaoyu chubanshe.Google Scholar
Zhongmin, Wang, ed. 1984. Xu Guangqiji (Collected Writings of Xu Guangqi). Shanghai: Shanghai guji chubanshe, 2 vols.Google Scholar
Kiyosi, Yabuuti. 1990. Chëgoku no tenmon rekihô (Chinese astronomy). Tokyo: Heibonsha.Google Scholar
Zürcher, Erik. 1995. “From ‘Jesuit Studies’ to ‘Western Learning’.” In Europe Studies China: Papers from an International Conference on the History of European Sinology, edited by Wilson, M. and Cayley, J.. London: Hanshan Tang.Google Scholar
Zürcher, Erik, Standaert, Nicolas, and Dudink, Adrianus. 1991. Bibliography of the Jesuit Mission in China ca. 1580–ca. 1680. Leiden: Leiden University, Centre of Non-Western Studies.Google Scholar