The translation of modern Western science in nineteenth-century China, 1840-1895

ISIS

Volumn 89, Issue 4, 1998, Pages 653-673

  Wright, David ^a  

^a NONE   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 2442649546     PISSN: 00211753     EISSN: 15456994     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1086/384159     Document Type: Review

References (156)

1. A. I. Sabra, "Situating Arabic Science: Locality versus Essence," Isis, 1996, 57:654-670, on p. 657.
2. On the general issues in this essay see Cyrus Peake, "Some Aspects of the Introduction of Modern Science into China," Isis. 1934, 22:173-217;
3. Tsuen-hsuin Tsien, "Western Impact on China through Translation," Far Eastern Quarterly, 1954, 13:305-327;
4. John K. Fairbank, The Influence of Modern Western Science and Technology on Japan and China (Rome: X Congresso Internazionale di Scienze Storiche, 1955);
5. R. G. A. Dolby, "The Transmission of Science," History of Science, 1977, 15:1-43;
6. and Ssu-yü Teng and Fairbank, China's Response to the West: A Documentary Survey, 1839-1923 (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard Univ. Press, 1979).
7. On intellectual space for science in late imperial China see Jonathan Porter, "The Scientific Community in Early Modern China," Isis, 1982, 73:529-544;
8. Kuo Ting-yee and Liu Kwang-ching, "Self-Strengthening: The Pursuit of Western Technology," in The Cambridge History of China, ed. D. C. Twitchett and Fairbank, Vol. 10, pt. 1 (Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1978), pp. 491-542; and Ma Zuyi, Zhongguo fanyi jianshi ög) fi î$ fl5 5Ë [A history of translation in China] (Beijing: Zhongguo duiwai fanyi chuban gongsi, 1984);
9. David C. Reynolds, "Redrawing China's Intellectual Map: Images of Science in Nineteenth-Century China," Late Imperial China, 1991, 12(1):27-61;
10. and Nathan Sivin, "A Biography of Wang Hsi-shan," in Science in Ancient China: Researches and Reflections (Aldershot: Variorum, 1995), pp. 1-28.
11. Dealing specifically with the scientific translations of the late Qing are the pioneering work by James Reardon-Anderson, The Study of Change: Chemistry in China, 1840-1949 (Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1991); Li Nanqiu Q jt|t ft, Zhongguo kexue wenxian fanyi shigao cfag i4¥ÜKPi$Äffi [A draft history of the translation of scientific texts in China] (Hefei: Zhongguo Kexue Jishu Daxue chubanshe, 1993); and Xiong Yuezhi ÎS ft 2, Xixue Dongjian yu wan Qing shehui [The eastward movement of Western studies and late Qing society] (Shanghai: Shanghai renmin chubanshe, 1994), which is the fullest account of the processes discussed in this essay yet to appear in Chinese or English.
12. Walter Fuchs, "Zur technischen Organisation der Übersetzungen Buddhistischer Schriften ins Chinesische," Asia Major, 1930, 6:84-103;
13. E. Zürcher, The Buddhist Conquest of China (Leiden: Brill, 1972), p. 31;
14. Tang Yongtong jß ffl K, Han-Wei-Liang Jin-Nanbeichao Fojiaoshi 8ÎÉÎMg&:lfc$ifô!S!!!£ [A history of Buddhism under the Han, Wei, Jin, and Northern and Southern dynasties] (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1963), pp. 408-411;
15. Leon Hurwitz, "The Problem of Translating Buddhist Canonical Texts into Chinese," Babel, 1963, 9:48-52, esp. pp. 48-50; and
16. Victor H. Mair, "Buddhism and the Rise of the Written Vernacular in East Asia: The Making of National Languages," Journal of Asian Studies, 1994, 53:707-751, esp. p. 719.
17. On the problem of rendering Buddhist ideas in Chinese see Zürcher, Buddhist Conquest of China, p. 12;
18. and T'ang Yung-t'ung, "On 'ko-yi,' the Earliest Method by Which Indian Buddhism and Chinese Thought Were Synthesised," in Radhakrishnan: Comparative Studies in Philosophy, ed. W. R. Inge (London: Allen & Unwin, 1951), pp. 276-286.
19. On the system for transcribing the sounds of Sanskrit see Stanislaus Julien, Méthode pour déchiffrer et transcrire les noms sanscrits qui se rencontrent dans les livres chinois (Paris: Imprimerie Impériale, 1861);
20. Gustave Schlegel, "The Secret of the Chinese Method of Transcribing Foreign Sounds," T'oung Pao, 2nd Ser., 1900, 1:1-32,
21. and Zürcher, Buddhist Conquest of China, pp. 39-40. The transcription was so accurate that it has sometimes proved possible to reconstruct the original Sanskrit text where this has been lost. Moreover, awareness of Sanskrit phonology led Chinese scholars to their first detailed analysis of the phonetics of their own language. The Secret History of the Mongols was transcribed phonetically from Mongolian into Chinese characters, probably during the late Yuan (Mongol) dynasty (A.D. 1279-1368).
22. See Chen Yuan fi$ if, Yuan bishi yiyin yongii kao [An investigation into the Chinese characters used in the transcription of the Secret History of the Mongols] (Beiping: Guoli zhongyang yanjiuyuan lishi yuyan yanjiusuo, 1934). This transcription involved the invention of phonetic subscripts and superscripts to denote sounds not found in Chinese, as well as the creation of some completely new characters.
23. Xu Jiyu, Yinghuan zhilüe [A brief account of geography] (1848), fanli 1.3a-3b.
24. See also Fred W. Drake, China Charts the World: Hsu Chi-yü and His Geography of 1848 (Cambridge, Mass.: East Asia Research Center, Harvard Univ., 1975), pp. 222-224 n 17. On the difficulties in rendering place-names
25. see Kazuo Enoki et al., Ch'in-ting Hsi-yü t'ung-wen-chih [An imperial translingual gazetteer of the Western regions], Vol. 4 (introduction and index) (Tokyo: Tōyō Bunko, 1964), pp. xvi-xxiii.
26. M. Aurousseau, The Rendering of Geographical Names (London: Hutchinson Univ. Library, 1957), gives a valuable summary of the issues.
27. On the features of local dialects see Yao Hanming ift JX ÎÎS, "Shilun xin ciyu yu guifanhua" [Essay on neologisms and standardization], [Language teaching and linguistic studies], 1995, 1:82-95.
28. A good demythologizing introduction to the Chinese language and script is John DeFrancis, The Chinese Language: Fact and Fantasy (Honolulu: Univ. Hawaii Press, 1984). DeFrancis calls the varieties of Chinese "regionalects" (p. 57). They include Mandarin, Shanghainese, Cantonese, and so on. There are also many languages spoken in China that are not members of the Han Chinese family: some are distantly related to Chinese (e.g., Tibetan), while others belong to completely different language groups (e.g., Mongolian).
29. Most other scripts have as their basic unit isolated sounds such as /m/ or /a/ (as in the alphabets used for English, Russian, Greek, and Arabic) or isolated syllables such as /wa/ or /ko/ (as in the hangul script for Korean or the hiragana script for Japanese). Tones are of course an essential feature of the Chinese language, but I am not marking them in this essay.
30. These are the forms of the characters that became fixed around the time of the Han dynasty, and I have given their modern pronunciations. The pictorial elements have become highly stylized, but one can still see in the characters for "bird" and "horse" four dots, which originally denoted feathers and legs, respectively.
31. There have been many attempts to show that such "phonetics" have some semantic connection with the characters they are used to form. See William G. Boltz, The Origin and Early Development of the Chinese Writing System (New Haven, Conn.: American Oriental Society, 1994), p. 90 ff.
32. The fact that in some cases such guesses would be wildly wrong is in part a measure of the phonetic evolution of the language in the two or three millennia since the characters were first formed.
33. The "simplified" characters introduced by the Chinese government in the 1950s have replaced the traditional forms for most purposes, but the latter forms are still recognized by most educated readers and seem, if anything, to be more widely used in China today than twenty years ago. People in Taiwan and overseas Chinese communities still retain the traditional script.
34. Cynthia J. Brokaw, "Tai Chen and Learning in the Confucian Tradition," in Education and Society in Late Imperial China, 1600-1900, ed. Benjamin Elman and A. Woodside (Berkeley: Univ. California Press, 1994), pp. 257-291, on p. 270; and
35. Elman, From Philosophy to Philology: Intellectual and Social Aspects of Change in Late Imperial China (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard Univ. Press, 1984), esp. pp. 69, 221.
36. On the study of artifacts see Catherine Jami, "Learning Mathematical Sciences during the Early and Mid-Ch'ing," in Education and Society in Late Imperial China, ed. Elman and Woodside, pp. 223-256, esp. p. 228; and
37. Elman, From Philosophy to Philology, pp. 180-184.
38. Joseph Needham's work is best known through his monumental series Science and Civilisation in China, 7 vols. (Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1954-). An annotated bibliography of the works of
39. Nathan Sivin is given in Chinese Science, 1996, 13:135-142. The "Chinese origin of Western science" theory arose with the first Jesuit mission to China in the late Ming period. During the early Qing dynasty, the Kangxi Emperor commented that the mathematics the Jesuits had brought to China were "all Chinese in origin."
40. See Jonathan D. Spence, Emperor of China: Self-Portrait of K'ang-hsi (1974; rpt., London: Peregrine, 1977), p. 74;
41. and Quan Hansheng, [The late Qing theory that "Western studies originated in China"], in Zhongguo jindaishi luncong [A collection of essays on modern Chinese history], ed. Li Dingyi öJg- (Taibei: Zhengzhong shuju, 1956), Vol. 5, pp. 216-258.
42. Westerners were often just as eager to prove that all Chinese science derived from the West; see, e.g., G. E. Moule, "The Obligations of China to Europe in the Matter of Physical Science Acknowledged by Eminent Chinese," Journal of the North China Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, N.S., 1871-1872, 7:146-164.
43. Quan Hansheng, "Qingmo fandui Xihua de yanlun" [Arguments against Westernization in the late Qing period], Lingnan Xuebao £8 F(I * & [Lingnan journal], 1936, 5:122-166.
44. Henri Bernard, Matteo Ricci's Scientific Contribution to China (Beiping: Henri Vetch, 1935);
45. Bernard, "Notes on the Introduction of the Natural Sciences into the Chinese Empire," Yenching Journal of Social Studies, 1941, 3:220-241;
46. Pasquale M. D'Elia, Galileo in China: Relations through the Roman College between Galileo and the Jesuit Scientist-Missionaries (1610-1640) (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard Univ. Press, 1960);
47. Zhang Zigao 3S -fiff, Zhongguo huaxueshi gao [A draft history of chemistry in China] (Beijing: Kexue chubanshe, 1964), pp. 183-195;
48. Nathan Sivin, "Copernicus in China," in Colloquia Copernicana II (Warsaw, 1973), pp. 63-122;
49. Sivin, "Why the Scientific Revolution Did Not Take Place in China - Or Didn't It?" Chin. Sci., 1982, 5:45-66;
50. and Du Shiran ii 5 £5 and Han Qi $$. fa-, "An Overview of Chinese Science in the Ming-Qing Period," in East Asian Science: Tradition and Beyond, ed. Keizo Hashimoto et al. (Osaka: Kansai Univ. Press, 1995), pp. 105-110.
51. "Methods of Imparting Western Knowledge to the Chinese," Journal of the China Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, 1886, 21:1-21, esp. p. 15. See
52. John Fryer's reply to attacks on the need for translation: Fryer, Can Western Knowledge Be More Effectually Imparted to the Chinese Nation for the Time Being by Giving Them Translations of Foreign Books, or by Teaching Them to Speak and Read Foreign Languages? (n.d.), Fryer Papers, Box 1, Carton 1, Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley. The Fryer Papers represent a major source for historians of the translation movement in late imperial China.
53. "Easy wenli" avoided literary allusions and obscure constructions, keeping to structures and vocabulary that were not too distant from the colloquial language. It was still far removed from the vernacular or baihua style. Of the missionaries, only Calvin Mateer dared to write science and mathematics textbooks that were truly colloquial, and he was severely censured by his colleagues for writing in a style that they felt was bound to be rejected by the literati. See W. A. P. Martin, "Dr Mateer's Geometry - A Review," Chinese Recorder, 1886, 77:314-316.
54. See also Servus [E.C. Bridgman], "The Bible: Its Adaptation to the Moral Condition of Man: Remarks on the Qualifications of Translators and the Style Proper for a Version of the Scriptures in Chinese," Chinese Repository, Nov. 1835, 4:297-305.
55. "Methods of Imparting Western Knowledge to the Chinese" (cit. n. 16), pp. 16, 5.
56. North China Herald, 4 Oct. 1889, pp. 405-406.
57. George Sarton, "The Tower of Babel," Isis, 1948, 39:3-15.
58. Edward T. R. Moncrieffe to Henry Venn, 8 June 1850, Church Missionary Society Archives, C CH O/63/ 3A, p. 4, Special Collections Department, Main Library, University of Birmingham; quoted by permission of the Church Mission Society. Moncrieffe was to leave China in scandalous circumstances in 1852, after the discovery of his liaison with Agnes Gützlaff, the recently widowed wife of the pioneer missionary Karl Gützlaff (1803-1851).
59. John Fryer, Catalogue of Educational Books, Works of General Knowledge, Scientific and Technical Treatises, &c., &c., &c., in the Chinese Language (Shanghai: Presbyterian Mission Press, 1894);
60. and Fryer, Educational Directory for China (Shanghai: Educational Association of China, 1895).
61. On the work of the missionary societies in translating science see Pan Jixing 3r la M, "Qingji de Guangxuehui" [The Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge in the Qing dynasty], Bulletin of the Institute of Modern History, Taibei, 1973, 4:193-227; and
62. Wang Yangzong "Qingmo Yizhi Shuhui tongyi shuyu gongzuo shuping" [A critical account of the work of the late Qing Educational Association of China in standardizing technical terminology], Zhongguo keji shiliao [China historical materials of science and technology], 1991, 12(2):9-19.
63. Daniel Jerome Macgowan, Bowu tongshu [Philosophical almanac] (Ningbo: Aihuatang, 1851);
64. and Benjamin Hobson, Bowu xinbian [A new compilation on natural philosophy] (Guangzhou: Huiai yiguan, 1855).
65. The chemistry textbook was Huaxue chujie 4b 9 W RÏ [First steps in chemistry] (Guangzhou: Boji yiju, 1870), a partial translation of David Wells, Principles and Applications of Chemistry (1862). He Liaoran had been a student of Benjamin Hobson in Guangzhou.
66. In his preface to Huaxue chujie, John Kerr states that the illustrations are "electrotype plates obtained from Messrs Ivison, Phinney, Blakeman & Co., New York." See also Joseph Needham and Ho Ping-yü, "The Laboratory Equipment of the Early Medieval Chinese Alchemists," Ambix, June 1959, 7:57-115.
67. See John Fryer, "An Account of the Department for the Translation of Foreign Books at the Kiangnan Arsenal, Shanghai," North China Herald, 29 Jan. 1880, pp. 77-81;
68. Fryer, "Science in China," Nature, 1881, 24:9-11, 54-57;
69. Fryer, "Jiangnan Zhizao Zongju Fanyi Xishu shilüe" [An account of the Department for the Translation of Foreign Books at the Jiangnan Arsenal], Gezhi huibian tfi ë! ft 16 [Chinese scientific and industrial magazine], June 1880, 3(5):10a-12b,
70. Fryer, "Gezhi huibian tfi ë! ft 16 [Chinese scientific and industrial magazine], July 1880, 3(6):9a-11b,
71. Fryer, "Gezhi huibian tfi ë! ft 16 [Chinese scientific and industrial magazine], Aug. 1880, 3(7):9a-11b,
72. Fryer, "Gezhi huibian tfi ë! ft 16 [Chinese scientific and industrial magazine], Sept. 1880, 3(8):9a-10b; and
73. Jiangnan zhizaoju yishu tiyao ÎIfSSÎa£PPSS{SS [A summary of the translations of the Jiangnan Arsenal] (Shanghai: Translation Department, Jiangnan Arsenal, 1909). Secondary sources include
74. Wang Yangzong, "Jiangnan Zhizaoju Fanyiguan shilüe" [A brief account of the history of the Translation Department of the Jiangnan Arsenal], Zhongguo keji shiliao, 1988, 9:65-74; and
75. Wang Yangzong, "Jiangnan Zhizaoju fanyi shumu xinkao" [New investigations into the catalogue of translated books from the Jiangnan Arsenal], Zhongguo keji shiliao, ibid., 1995, 15(2):3-18.
76. Gewu rumen (Beijing: Tongwenguan, 1868). On the Beijing Tongwenguan see Knight Biggerstaff, "The T'ung Wen Kuan," Chinese Social and Political Science Review, 1934, 18:307-340.
77. Regarding conservative opposition see M. J. O'Brien, "The Peking College," North China Herald, 25 Jan. 1870, pp. 63-66;
78. and Liu Kwang-ching, "Politics, Intellectual Content, and Reform: The T'ung-wen Kuan Controversy of 1867," in Reform in Nineteenth-Century China, ed. Paul A. Cohen and John E. Schrecker (Cambridge, Mass.: East Asian Research Center, Harvard Univ., 1976), pp. 87-100.
79. On science as missionary work see W. A. P. Martin, "Western Science as Auxiliary to the Spread of the Gospel," Chin. Rec., 1897, 29:111-116.
80. On Billequin see Henri Cordier, "Obituary of A. A. Billequin," T'oung Pao, 1st Ser., 1894, 5:441-442.
81. North China Herald, 11 Jan. 1870, p. 22;
82. and Guo Songtao, Lundun yu Bali riji [London and Paris diary], in Zow xiang shijie congshu [The "Going out into the world" collection], ed. Zhong Shuhe & $ J5J (Changsha: Yuelu shushe, 1985), pp. 922-923 (quoting Fryer).
83. John Fryer was briefly a missionary in the early 1860s and had a somewhat uneasy relationship with the official church. See A. A. Bennett, John Fryer: The Introduction of Western Science and Technology in Nineteenth-Century China (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard Univ. Press, 1967);
84. Ferdinand Dagenais, "John Fryer's Early Years in China, I: Diary of His Voyage to Hong Kong," Journal of the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, 1989, 29:252-301;
85. and Dagenais, "John Fryer's Early Years in China, II: First Impressions of Hong Kong and the Chinese PeopleJournal of the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, ," ibid., 1990, 50:146-168. Fryer himself taught French at the Guang Fangyanguan (the former Shanghai Tongwenguan).
86. The primary source for the Shanghai Tongwenguan, which changed its name in 1870 to Guang Fangyanguan, is "Guang Fangyanguan quan'an" [A complete account of the Shanghai Tongwenguan] (1894), rpt. in Shanghai tan yu Shanghai ren congshu [The Shanghai Bund and Shanghai People collection], ed. Yang Yi $518 (Shanghai guji chubanshe, 1989), pp. 101-163.
87. See also Knight Biggerstaff, The Earliest Modern Government Schools in China (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell Univ. Press, 1961), pp. 180-181.
88. See Mary C. Wright, The Last Stand of Chinese Conservatism: The T'ung-chih Restoration of 1862-1874 (Stanford, Calif.: Stanford Univ. Press, 1957; rpt., London: Atheneum, 1965);
89. and Teng and Fairbank, China's Response to the West (cit. n. 2), pp. 64-65.
90. Fryer, "Account of the Department for the Translation of Foreign Books" (cit. n. 25), p. 80.
91. See also Thomas Carter, The Invention of Printing in China and Its Spread Westwards, 2nd ed. (New York: Ronald, 1955), p. 34, for a fine description of the preparation of the wood blocks that were used for most Chinese books in the nineteenth century. Movable metal type had been used in East Asia for many centuries, but it was too expensive for all but the most prestigious of publications.
92. "The responsibility for whatever undue haste or carelessness may characterize my work rests rather on my Chinese colleagues than myself": John Fryer, "Scientific Terminology: Present Discrepancies and Means of Securing Uniformity," in Records of the General Conference of the Protestant Missionaries of China Held at Shanghai, May 7-20, 1890 (Shanghai, 1890), pp. 531-549, on p. 536. This attitude contrasts with the pains-taking approach of the Buddhist translators.
93. Hua Hengfang, preface to Dixue qianshi }& $ ¢S [Elements of geology] (Shanghai: Jiangnan Arsenal, 1871), p. 1a.
94. See also Wann-Sheng Horng, "Hua Hengfang (1833-1902) and His Notebook on Learning Mathematics - Xue suan bi tan" Philosophy and the History of Science - A Taiwanese Journal, Oct. 1993, 2(2):27-76, on p. 39.
95. On Hua's nightmares see Charlotte Furth, Ting Wen-chiang (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard Univ. Press, 1970), p. 37.
96. Fryer, "Account of the Department for the Translation of Foreign Books" (cit. n. 25), p. 81.
97. John Fryer to Susy, 11 July 1868, p. 2, Fryer Papers, Box 1.
98. On Xu Shou see Reardon-Anderson, Study of Change (cit. n. 2), Ch. 1; and
99. David Wright, "Careers in Western Science in Nineteenth-Century China: Xu Shou and Xu Jianyin," Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, Apr. 1995, 5(1):49-90.
100. On Xu's skepticism regarding traditional Chinese medicine see Xu Shou, "Yixue Iun" [On medicine], Gezhi huibian, Apr. 1876, 1(3):8a-9b.
101. For a report on his work on acoustics see Xu Shou, "Kaozheng lülü shuo" [Evidential research on mathematical harmonics], Gezhi huibian, ibid., Aug. 1880, 5(7):14b-15a.
102. Regarding Xu Shou's work on optics see Jiang Shuyuan & $} SP!, "Xu Shou de liangfeng qinbi xin" [Two letters by Xu Shou in his own hand], Zhongguo keji shiliao, 1984, 5(4):52-54.
103. Fryer, "Account of the Department for the Translation of Foreign Books" (cit. n. 25), p. 77. Bowu xinbian was a compilation of translations on a range of natural sciences. It contained sections on physics, chemistry, astronomy, geography, and zoology and was influential both in China and in Japan as the earliest widely available text devoted entirely to modern science. The extracts it contained probably derived from a number of sources, including Bowu tongshu and an unpublished text by Aurelius Harland (1822-1858). I am grateful to Erasmus Harland for drawing my attention to the latter possibility.
104. Yang Gen fe 48, ed., Xu Shou he Zhongguo jindai huaxueshi [Xu Shou and the history of modern chemistry in China] (Beijing: Kexue jishu wenxian chubanshe, 1986).
105. See Viviane Alleton and Jean-Claude Alleton, Terminologie de la chimie en chinois moderne (Paris: Mouton, 1966);
106. and David Wright, "The Great Desideratum," Chin. Sci., 1997, 74:45-90.
107. On resistance to foreign scripts see Gezhi huibian, Apr. 1877,2(2):16a.
108. Transcription is discussed in Zhao Yuanren g TC ff, "Zai Iun zhuyin zimu yiyinfa" [The phonetic method of transliterating sounds reconsidered], Kexue Î4 Ö[Science], 1923-1924, 8(9):888-902;
109. and Liu Zexian ffl if &, "Cong kexue xin mingci de fanyi kan Hanzi de quedian" [Seeing the shortcomings of Chinese characters from the translation of scientific terms], Zhongguo yuwen 41HSA [Chinese language], Aug. 1953, 74:9-13.
110. Zhang Binglin 3$c tfi IS, "Yishu Gonghui xu" [An account of the Translation Society] (1897), in Zhang Taiyan xuanji [Selected works of Zhang Binglin] (Shanghai: Shanghai renmin chubanshe, 1981), pp. 29-37, on p. 30. Even in mathematics there were short-lived attempts to Sinicize the Western notation.
111. See Zhang Dianzhou "jfe M Ö, "Dai-wei-ji shiji de yuan shu he yuan zuozhe" [The source-text and original author of Dai-wei-ji shiji], Zhongguo keji shiliao, 1992, 13(2):86-90.
112. Fryer, "Account of the Department for the Translation of Foreign Books" (cit. n. 25), p. 79;
113. Fryer, "Scientific Terminology" (cit n. 31), p. 534; and
114. Liu Zexian, Kexue mingci he wenzi gaige [Scientific terms and language reform] (Beijing: Wenzi gaige chubanshe, 1958), p. 29.
115. For later views on the question of loanwords see Zhou Youguang /Sl -ßA, "Wailaici pinyinfa wenti" [The problem of romanizing foreign loanwords], Zhongguo yuwen, 1959, 3:106-113; and
116. Zdenka Novtná, "Linguistic Factors of the Low Adaptability of Loan-words to the Lexical System of Modern Chinese," Monumenta Serica, 1967, 29:103-118.
117. For renderings of "benzene" and "chloroform" see Xu Shou and John Fryer, comps., Huaxue cailiao Zhong-Xi mingmingbiao [A Chinese-English vocabulary of the names of chemical substances] (Shanghai: Jiangnan Arsenal, 1885), pp. 5, 10; and Huaxue yuhui 4k $ Ss U! [Chemical glossary] (Shanghai: Commercial Press, 1908), pp. 4, 7. On borrowing more generally see Jean Aitchison, Language Change: Progress or Decay? (London: Fontana, 1981), pp. 120-121.
118. W. A. P. Martin, "Alchemy in China: The Source of Chemistry," in The Lore of Cathay (Edinburgh: Oliphant, Anderson & Ferrier, 1901), pp. 44-71;
119. and Gewu rumen (cit. n. 26), 6.77a-79b.
120. In the latter work, Martin says that "chemistry and [Chinese] alchemy are "tong ben er yi ming, zi mu xiang shu [of different names but the same origin, mutually related as child is to mother]": Gewu rumen ibid, 6.77a.
121. For a critical description of the nomenclature as "alchemical" see Gustave Schlegel, "Scientific Confectionery," T'oung Pao, 1894, 5:147-151.
122. "Methods of Imparting Western Knowledge to the Chinese" (cit. n. 16), p. 3. Note that qi, as well as denoting "gas" or "vapor," may in other contexts have meanings that are far more metaphysical, such as "matter-energy."
123. Kangxi zidian ig 5S ? A [Kangxi dictionary] (1716; rpt., Hong Kong: Zhonghua shuju, 1977), pp. 1224, 1246.
124. Fryer, "Account of the Department for the Translation of Foreign Books" (cit. n. 25), p. 79.
125. On the creation of new characters see Fryer, "Scientific Terminology" (cit. n. 31 ), p. 542. On the significance of phonetics in kaozheng scholarship see Elman, From Philosophy to Philology (cit. n. 12), p. 218 ff.
126. DeFrancis, Chinese Language (cit. n. 6), p. 72 and Ch. 8.
127. On Japanese loanwords see Wang Lida 3E A SE, "Xiandai Hanyu zhong cong Riyu jielai de cihui" [Japanese loanwords in modern Chinese vocabulary], Zhongguo yuwen, 1958, 2:90-94;
128. and Lydia Liu, Translingual Practice (Stanford, Calif.: Stanford Univ. Press, 1995), p. 32 ff.
129. On the introduction of Western science to Japan see Eikoh Shimao, "The Reception of Lavoisier's Chemistry in Japan," Isis, 1972, 63:309-320;
130. James R. Bartholomew, The Formation of Science in Japan (New Haven, Conn.: Yale Univ. Press, 1989); and
131. Togo Tsukahara, Affinity and Shinwa Ryoku: Introduction of Western Chemical Concepts in Early Nineteenth-Century Japan (Amsterdam: Grieben, 1993).
132. On Chinese students studying in Japan see Immanuel C. Y. Hsü, The Rise of Modern China, 2nd ed. (New York/London: Oxford Univ. Press, 1975), pp. 414-421.
133. On equipment and instruments see John Thomson, Thomson's China (Hong Kong: Oxford Univ. Press, 1993), p. 209;
134. Second Report of the Chinese Polytechnic and Reading Rooms, Shanghai (Shanghai: North China Herald Office, 1878), p. 8; and
135. Gezhi huibian, Spring 1890, 5(1):1b.
136. On the market in pirated textbooks see Chin. Rec., Aug. 1897, 25:388-389,
137. Chin. Rec., Sept. 1897, 25:444.
138. Gezhi huibian, June 1877, 2(4):12a.
139. On the "Readers' Inquiries" columns see Li San-po, "Letters to the Editor in John Fryer's Chinese Scientific Magazine, 1876-1892: An Analysis," Bull. Inst. Mod. Hist., Taibei, 1974, 4:729-777.
140. Knight Biggerstaff, "Shanghai Polytechnic Institution and Reading Room: An Attempt to Introduce Western Science and Technology to the Chinese," Pacific Historical Review, May 1956, 25(2):127-149;
141. Wang Ermin Î A S5, Shanghai Gezhi Shuyuan zhilüe A brief account of the Shanghai Polytechnic] (Hong Kong: Chinese Univ. Press, 1980); and
142. David Wright, "Making Space for Science in China: John Fryer and the Shanghai Polytechnic," British Journal for the History of Science, 1996, 29:1 -16.
143. Xu Jianyin to Wang Kangnian, in Wang Kangnian shiyou shuzha ŒIß £p 615 ÏÎS ÎL [Correspondence of the teachers and friends of Wang Kangnian] (Shanghai: Shanghai guji chubanshe, 1986), Vol. 2, p. 1510.
144. Zhang Zhidong 3g 2. M Zhang Wenxianggong quanji 3§ ±S fi £U [The collected works of Zhang Zhidong] (Shanghai: Commercial Press, 1937), pp. 203.14a, 203.16a. See also
145. Su Jing U $1 Qingji tongwenguan ji qi shi-sheng ÏSÎ |n] A IB S K Åö4 [The Qing dynasty Tongwenguans, their students and teachers] (Taibei: Su Jing, 1985); and
146. Xu Zhenya t£ S 3E, "Jingshi Tongwenguan zhong de huaxue jiaoyu" [Chemical education at the Beijing Tongwenguan], Zhongguo keji shillao, 1987, 8(5):28-36.
147. Fryer, "Account of the Department for the Translation of Foreign Books" (cit. n. 25), p. 81. For contemporary Chinese assessments of the translations see
148. Che Shancheng $ U U, "Taixi gezhi zhi xue yu jin ke fanyi zhu shu xiang lüe de-shi he zhe wei zui yao lun" [On the study of Western science and whether the successes or failures of the recent translations are the more important], in Gezhi keyi huibian fê & JS! âjfc JS [Essays on scientific themes], ed. Wang Tao ïg, Vol. 4 (1889-1890), pp. 28a-32b; and
149. Liang Qichao E, "Lun yishu" [On translation], in Yinbingshi heji ikitfc ]g £•9= [Collected works from the ice-sipper's studio], 40 vols. (Shanghai: Zhonghua shuju, 1932), Vol. 1, pp. 64-76.
150. Luan Xueqian (fê $ fjj, "Gezhi Shuyuan jiaoyan huaxue ji" [A memoir of teaching chemistry at the Shanghai Polytechnic], part of "Sanshi nian qian wuguo kexue jiaoyu zhi yi ban" [A science education class in China thirty years ago], Kexue, 1924, S(4):430-432,
151. partially translated in Reardon-Anderson, Study of Change (cit. n. 2), p. 49.
152. On the decline of the Fuzhou Shipyard Schools see Steven A. Leibo, Transferring Technology to China: Prosper Giquel and the Self-Strengthening Movement (Berkeley: Inst. East Asian Studies, 1985);
153. Fang Aiji Ji ôÅ*• "Wo guo zuizao de zaochuan zhuanke xuexiao - Fuzhou chuanzhengju qianxuetang" [China's earliest specialist shipbuilding school - the Fuzhou Shipyard School], Zhongguo keji shiliao, 1985, 6(5):57-62;
154. and Fryer, Educational Directory for China (cit. n. 22), p. 82.
155. On the growth of scientific societies see Pan Junxiang i$ §$¥, "Wuxu shiqi de woguo ziran kexue xuehui" [Natural science societies during the Hundred Days' Reform Period in China], Zhongguo keji shiliao, 1983, 1:28-30.
156. D. Kwok, Scientism in Chinese Thought (New Haven, Conn.: Yale Univ. Press, 1965).