The Poverties and Triumphs of the Chinese Scientific Tradition

Nokia, Sony, Pentium:these are Western brands that govern the commodious existence of human beings in this planet. For this, we cannot blame the world for regarding the West as superior when it comes to science and technology. Though the Chinese has always been known as brilliant people, their version of science and technology does not quite impress the world of its low-class myriad of batteries and TV sets that last only until the next Christmas bonus. The West looks at Chinese science and technology as ancient and mystified, not considering it as serious science, rather only as a part of the Chinese culture and Oriental tradition. At present, the success of Modern science is attributed to the West. The Renaissance gave birth to the fundamental bases of the structure of the natural sciences we have today(1)the application of mathematical hypotheses to nature, (2)the full understanding and use of experimental method, (3)the distinction between the primary and secondary qualities, (4)the geometrisation of space, and (5)the acceptance of the mechanical model of reality. For that, the primitive medieval Western scientific theories the Aristotlean elements, the Galenical humours, doctrines of pneumatic physiology and alchemists, and natural philosophies of Kabbalaare referred as the roots of the science we have today. But the world is not about the West. Another life exists unique from the living conditions of the European countries where Galileo and Aristotle lived. The science of the medieval world were tied closely to the ethnic environments in which they had arisen, and it was very difficult, if not impossible, for the people of those different cultures to find any common basis of discourse.1 We backtrack some hundreds of years ago; a long time before Bill Gates was born. The era was between the second century B.C. and the 16th century A.D. ad we focus on the face of science and technology in traditional China. The East Asian culture was much more efficient than the European West in applying knowledge of Nature to useful purposes. The Chinese had remarkable mathematical achievements, using the decimal

Needham, John, The Grand Titration: Science and Society in East and West. University of Toronto Press: 1969. Chapter 5, pp.178-189.

place-value and the blank space as a reference to zero, way before than anywhere else in the world. The algebraic system (now, curse the Chinese!) was also a product of their profound mathematical thought. Other branches of science were also present in the Chinese society. Three main components of physicsoptics, magnetism and acousticswere in fact developed in ancient and medieval China. Quantitative cartography also began in China, contributing largely to the advancement of geological sciences and meteorology. The classical Chinese culture also triumohed in the field of engineering, most especially in mechanical side. Agricultural inventions were Chinas contribution to Biology. But despite these noble ideas, the West still looks at the Chinese science with indifference, maybe because of the contrasts of the two, apropos to scientific beliefs and methodologies. CHINA Organic materialism; organistic view of the world Algebraic Wave particle antithesis Five elements: air, water, fire, earth, emptiness Astronomy WEST Mechanical view of the world Geometric Aristotlean and Galenical humours Euclid

The Chinese really made ingenious inventions out of their ideas, which is, I Stress, contrasting to the Western ideologies. The mechanical clockwork began in Thang China, in spite of the highly agrarian character of East Asian civilization. The gunpowder is one of the most innovative addtitions of the Chinese when it comes to martial technology. The mastery of textile fibre also came form them. And at the time when the Europeans did not even know about polarity, the Chinese were already worrying about magnetic declination. The China pioneered may scientific and technological ideas, we cannot deny it is lagging far far behind the exceptional Western technology. The West points to Chinas ideographic language as the main impedement on its science and technology industry. But John Needham said if there is something to be blamed on this issue, it would be the mandarinate (feudal-bureaucratic) system of the classical Chinese society. For 2000 years, the civil service creamed off the best brains of the nation. In effect, the greatest minds in the land worked for the government: the advancements in science and technology were put in the backseat.

It is unfair to say Asia did not contribute on the worldwide advancements of science and technology. In fact, the Asian culture, most especially the Chinese, helped lay the foundations of mathematics and all the sciences, which are still useful at present. But then again, science should be universal. It should bind people, not disengage. It should not be a debate of who discovered who; or where certain branches of science came frombecause wherever a theory originated or invention was made, it should unite the people in the world towards a more comfortable and harmonious lifestyle through science and technology. Science is universal. It speaks one language, it has one culture: it is for the betterment of the society.