The Shorter Science and Civilisation in China: Volume 1

An enjoyable read that nicely summarizes Chinese history and then gives a good overview of how the Chinese conceptualized "science". I use "science" here only because science didn't really come into existence until the 1600-1700s (and it's debatable if even that is the same as science of today in many ways), but I will use just plain science, since we usually know what is meant by it [an approach to understanding things through mainly empirical methods] before the Scientific Revolution.There are a couple of times where I feel like Chinese discoveries are a bit hyped up [for example, blood circulation, which was not really discovered until Harvey with Chinese claims to it being more about flow of qi], but for the most part this is not a problem, as the Chinese have so many impressive true discoveries [paper, silk, tea, printing, magnetic compass] and there isn't too much over-hyping (only a couple of instances, and I would consider these instances simply making the Chinese achievements seem a bit more impressive than they seem).The main question seems to be why didn't China have the Scientific revolution. This is an interesting framing device for me, although I'm not sure the question is meaningful. But it allows us to go through Chinese thought over the centuries. We get to see how China was affected by its many dynasties and how different groups influenced how technology and knowledge was interpreted.Overall, I just found it to be a great overview with lots of good information explaining why the Chinese would think about things in a certain way, and how this system made internal sense.Definitely would recommend, if you would like to know more about Chinese thought pertaining to science before the Jesuits visited China.

An outstanding historical view of Chinese science during a period when Europe was floundering. His descriptions of Chinese astronomy and mathematics are superb.This first volume focuses on the factors and currents of thought which acted as a drag on scientific development; both Confucianism and Buddhist were either indifferent to or actively opposed such development.Taoism however favored an empirical approach to understanding the world, and thus facilitated the flowering of the considerable knowledge of scientific arts such as astronomy mathematics geology and measurement of time.This is an exceptional reference work.