TY - BOOK ID - 32577385 TI - The shorter science and civilisation in China AU - Ronan, Colin A. AU - Needham, Joseph PY - 1978 SN - 0521292867 0521218217 0521235820 0521315360 9780521218214 PB - Cambridge Cambridge University press DB - UniCat KW - Science KW - History KW - China KW - Civilization. KW - Intellectual life KW - History. KW - Intellectual life. KW - S02/0200 KW - S19/0140 KW - -#SML: Joseph Spae KW - #SML: Jeroom Heyndrickx KW - #SML: Chinese memorial library KW - 5/6 (09) KW - Natural science KW - Science of science KW - Sciences KW - China: General works--Civilization and culture KW - China: Natural sciences--History of sciences KW - Geschiedenis van de exacte en toegepaste wetenschappen KW - Technology KW - Technologie KW - Histoire KW - S19/0200 KW - S19/0500 KW - S19/1000 KW - S19/1100 KW - #SML: Joseph Spae KW - China: Natural sciences--Astronomy, chronometry, zodiac etc. KW - China: Natural sciences--Geology (incl. geological aspects of earthquakes) KW - China: Natural sciences--Physica and nuclear physica KW - China: Natural sciences--Mathematics (incl. abacus) KW - 943 China KW - 943 Chine KW - Natural sciences KW - China: Natural sciences--Astronomy, chronometry, zodiac etc KW - Science - China - History KW - China - Civilization. KW - China - Intellectual life KW - -History UR - https://www.unicat.be/uniCat?func=search&query=sysid:32577385 AB - Joseph Needham's Science and Civilisation in China is a monumental piece of scholarship which breaks new ground in presenting to the Western reader a detailed and coherent account of the development of science, technology and medicine in China from the earliest times until the advent of the Jesuits and the beginnings of modern science in the late seventeenth century. It is a vast work, necessarily more suited to the scholar and research worker than the general reader. This paperback version, abridged and re-written by Colin Ronan, makes this extremely important study accessible to a wider public. The present book covers the material treated in volumes I and II of Dr Needham's original work. The reader is introduced to the country of China, its history, geography and language, and an account is given of how scientific knowledge travelled between China and Europe. The major part of the book is then devoted to the history of scientific thought in China itself. Beginning with ancient times, it describes the milieu in which arose the schools of the Confucians, Taoists, Mohists, Logicians and Legalists. We are thus brought on to the fundamental ideas which dominated scientific thinking in the Chinese Middle Ages, to the doctrines of the Two Forces (Yin and Yang) and the Five Elements (wu hsing), to the impact of the sceptical tradition and Buddhist and Neo-Confucian thought. ER -