Bulletin Number Five 1983

An Interview with D r. Joseph Needham Q. Your Science and Civilization in China is a monu mental piece o f scholarship presenting to readers a detailed and coherent account o f the develop ment o f science and technology in China. What made you take up this study? A. Well, you wouldn't expect me to say anything on the monumental scholarship! As to why I took up the project, it all began when three young Chinese scholars came to Cambridge to work for their doctorates. Their minds and intellectual capacity were just like my own, and the work they did was as good as ours. It raised therefore the question: Why had modem science originated only in Europe and not in China? Another ques­ tion presented itself as we got to know more about it: Why had China been more advanced in science, technology and medicine than Europe for fourteen previous centuries? Alongside these there were two obvious questions: How far did China really get in ancient and medieval times? And why had Europe taken the lead in the 17th century and from then onwards? I was stimulated to find the answers for them. Q. Has it anything to do with the social and economic conditions o f the countries? A. Well, we think so. The social conditions were undoubtedly just right in Europe for it to develop, while in China they weren't. We think it's con­ nected w ith mercantile activities. It is d ifficu lt to know what exactly the connection is. But there is one thing on which one can be quite certain: there were three things that happened in Europe for which no equivalent existed in China, from 1450 onwards. One was the Protestant Reforma tion, another was the rise o f capitalism, the rise o f the bourgeoisie, and the third was the rise o f modem science. You can't really dissect that. It's a kind o f package deal. O f course, if you are ， for instance, a theologian, you can say that the Reformation was the most important feature; if you are an orthodox Marxist, you can say that the economic trend was the most important factor; and if you are an old-fashioned historian o f science, you may say that nothing matters at all except the flow o f scientific thought itself. But we don't believe in-independence; we think they are all connected. Q. Well, has China's development in science contri­ buted to the rise o f modem science? A. Yes ， that's a very good question. It certainly did, and w ithout the Europeans knowing it either. You see, the rise o f modern science has generally been taken back to Euclidean geometry and Ptolemaic planetary astronomy. Undoubtedly this is quite true but there was a third factor, and that was the knowledge o f magnetism and all the previous work on magnetism had been done in China. In fact, it has been said very well that the Chinese were worrying about the declination o f the needle: why it didn't point exactly to the astronomical North; before the Europeans even knew about polarity at all. So all the early work on magnetism, especially magnetic polarity, was done in China. Q. Were the different schools o f thought in ancient China conducive to the development o f science and technology in China? A. There again we always feel that the most impor­ tant group o f people were the Taoists, the Tao Chia, because I still maintain that whenever you get the roots o f ancient science coming out, whether in pharmacy, alchemy, early chemistry, hydraulic engineering or anywhere you look, you always find the Taoists there. They were always 22 ACADEMIC/CULTURAL EVENTS