Dr Joseph Needham's account of the Chinese achievement in science and technology will stand as one of the great works of our time. It has been acclaimed by specialists in both East and West and also by readers with wider and more general interests. The text, based on research of a high critical quality, is supported by many hundreds of illustrations and is imbued with a warm appreciation of China. Volume I is an introductory volume, in which Dr Needham prepares his readers for the study of a whole human culture. He begins by examining the structure of the Chinese language; he reviews the geography of China and the long history of its people, and discusses the scientific contacts which have occurred throughout the centuries, between Europe and East Asia.
Dr Joseph Needham's account of the Chinese achievement in science and technology will stand as one of the great works of our time. It has been acclaimed by specialists in both East and West and also by readers with wider and more general interests. The text, based on research of a high critical quality, is supported by many hundreds of illustrations and is imbued with a warm appreciation of China. Volume I is an introductory volume, in which Dr Needham prepares his readers for the study of a whole human culture. He begins by examining the structure of the Chinese language; he reviews the geography of China and the long history of its people, and discusses the scientific contacts which have occurred throughout the centuries, between Europe and East Asia.
List of illustrations; List of tables; Contents of the subsequent volumes of 'Science and Civilisation in China'; 1. Preface; 2. Plan of the work; 3. Bibliographical notes; 4. Geographical introduction; 5. Historical introduction: I. The pre-imperial phase; 6. Historical introduction: II. The empire of all under heaven; 7. Conditions of travel of scientific ideas and techniques between China and Europe; Bibliographies; General index.
"[An] astonishing and enduring study...[Needham brings] depth of
emotion and technical finesse to his task."
Jonathan Spence, New York Review of Books
"Perhaps the greatest single act of historical synthesis and
intercultural communication ever attempted by one man."
Laurence Picken, Cambridge University
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