Treccani History of Science
Science in China
B1 – Qin-Han to Tang: the emergence of specialized literature
Edited by Karine Chemla, Francesca Bray, George Métailié
General introduction
• 1. Prologue
• 2. Some views on the historiography of science in China
• 3. A presentation of the section
• 4. How can the history of science in China contribute to both the history of science and the history of China?
Premodern Chinese science in a comparativist perspective
Qin-Han to Tang dynasties
• 1. The unification of the Chinese empire and the shaping of the canonical corpus
• 2. Archaeology and the restoration of a lost world of texts
• 3. Recovering ancient categories of knowledge
• 4. Cosmology and the history of science in early imperial China
• 5. Bureaucracy and the production of knowledge
• 6. The variety of Chinese traditions and the Tang unification
The foundation of the empire to the Tang
• 1. The unification of the empire
• 2. The conception of the universe
• 3. Agriculture, control of the territory, and exchanges with the outside world
Echoes from the pre-imperial period
• 1. Religious trauma and humanist–naturalist orientation
• 2. Faith lost and rebuilt
• 3. Idealism versus utilitarianism
• 4. Epistemological issues
• 5. Conceptualizing infinity and relativism
• 6. Relativism and the transcendent
• 7. Positivism and authoritarianism
Three schools of thought
• 1. Mohists and the Mohist Canons
• 2. The “cosmologists”
• 3. The disputes of the dialecticians
The beginnings of the empire
• 1. The holistic vision of the Han
• 2. “Mystery school” and “pure conversations”
• 3. The Buddhist adventure in China
• 4. The Confucian revival at the end of the Tang and early Song
Science and social context
• 1. The social and political background
• 2. The cultural dimension and the role of education
• 3. Science and social needs
Educational institutions and classical texts
• 1. Public education
• 2. Private education
• 3. Development of schools of mathematics and medicine in the Tang dynasty
• 4. Types of texts in the Han and Tang dynasties
Production, circulation, and management of writings
• 1. The supports of writing
• 2. Libraries and the circulation of the manuscript book
• 3. Book classification and the hierarchy of knowledge
The study of the language: the unification of writing and the compilation of dictionaries
• 1. Character books in the process of the unification of writing
• 2. The organization of characters by themes
• 3. The organization of characters by keys
• 4. The organization of characters by rhymes
Shushu – Occult arts
• 1. An introduction to the occult arts
• 2. An early geomantic theory and its relation to compass deviation
Mathematics
• 1. Counting rods
• 2. The Nine Chapters on Mathematical Procedures: the constitution of a canon in mathematics
• 3. Mathematics and exegesis: the commentaries on The Nine Chapters
• 4. The evolution of mathematics from the Han dynasty to the Tang dynasty
• 5. Mathematical methods in compiling calendars
The sky
• 1. Astronomical Bureau
• 2. Instrumentation
• 3. Celestial maps
• 4. Astronomy and astrology
• 5. Calendar making
Patterns of organisation of knowledge
• 1. Harmonics, systems of units, and calendar making
• 2. Musical scales
• 3. Mathematical harmonics
• 4. Weights and measures
• 5. Time measurement and its cosmic correlations
• 6. Pitch-pipes and prognostication
Cosmography from early times to the Tang dynasty
• 1. Cosmographic doctrines: Gaitian, Huntian, and Xuanye
• 2. Measuring the universe
• 3. The development of cosmography and its decline
The Earth
• 1. Official geographical texts from Han to Tang
• 2. The Classic of Mountains and Seas and the conception of “terrestrial organization”
• 3. Trips to the southern regions
Agriculture
• 1. Agriculture and the state in Han
• 2. The Essential Techniques for the People (Qimin yaoshu)
Medicine
• 1. The making of medicine
• 2. Canon production and lineage
• 3. The classical theory of Chinese medicine from Qin to Tang
• 4. The development of diagnostics and clinical analysis: 3rd–9th centuries
• 5. Therapeutic strategies
• 6. The contributions of Taoism and Buddhism to the development of the pharmacopoeia
Immortality of the human body: alchemy
• 1. The evolution of the Chinese alchemical tradition
• 2. Social and ritual aspects
• 3. The elixir
• 4. Ingredients and methods
• 5. Alchemy, Taoism, and science
Some views on the natural world
• 1. The pharmacopoeia
• 2. Dictionaries and other kinds of writings
Technology: the case of ferrous metallurgy
• 1. The Han state monopoly of the iron industry
• 2. The organization of iron production in Han China
• 3. The technology of iron production in Han China
China and other countries
• 1. An ancient Indian astrological text and its Chinese translations
• 2. Tang dynasty