The Crafting of the 10,000 Things Knowledge and Technology in SeventeenthCentury

Description: The Crafting of the 10,000 Things Knowledge and Technology in SeventeenthCentury China by Dagmar Schäfer The last decades of the Ming dynasty saw a significant increase in publications that examined advances in knowledge and technology. Among the numerous guides and reference books that appeared during this period was a series of texts by Song Yingxing. The author probes this text to focus on the development of scientific thinking in China. FORMAT Paperback LANGUAGE English CONDITION Brand New Publisher Description The last decades of the Ming dynasty, though plagued by chaos and destruction, saw a significant increase of publications that examined advances in knowledge and technology. Among the numerous guides and reference books that appeared during this period was a series of texts by Song Yingxing (1587–1666?), a minor local official living in southern China. His Tiangong kaiwu, the longest and most prominent of these works, documents the extraction and processing of raw materials and the manufacture of goods essential to everyday life, from yeast and wine to paper and ink to boats, carts, and firearms. In The Crafting of the 10,000 Things, Dagmar Schäfer probes this fascinating text and the legacy of its author to shed new light on the development of scientific thinking in China, the purpose of technical writing, and its role in and effects on Chinese history. Meticulously unfolding the layers of Songs personal and cultural life, Schäfer chronicles the factors that motivated Song to transform practical knowledge into written culture. She then examines how Song gained, assessed, and ultimately presented knowledge, and in doing so articulates this eras approaches to rationality, truth, and belief in the study of nature and culture alike. Finally, Schäfer places Songs efforts in conjunction with the work of other Chinese philosophers and writers, before, during, and after his time, and argues that these writings demonstrate collectively a uniquely Chinese way of authorizing technology as a legitimate field of scholarly concern and philosophical knowledge.Offering an overview of a thousand years of scholarship, The Crafting of the 10,000 Things explains the role of technology and crafts in a culture that had an outstandingly successful tradition in this field and was a crucial influence on the technical development of Europe on the eve of the Industrial Revolution. Author Biography Dagmar Schafer is head of the independent research group Concepts and Modalities: Practical Knowledge Transmission in China at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science in Berlin. Table of Contents Introduction Knowing "Things and Affairs" in Premodern China Nature, Crafts, and Knowing Chapter 1. Private Affairs The Ming Dynasty and the Song Family Childhood and Education Driving Forces--The Appointment of Chen Qixin Songs Writing Campaign Chapter 2. Affairs of Honor Knowledge in Terms of qi : Universal Rulings and Rationality The Truth in Heaven and the Order of qi The Power of Heaven--Omens and Eclipses Systems of Value: The Sage-Kings, the Authority of the Past, and Mans Role The Knowledge in Crafts Chapter 3. Public Affairs Crafts and the Ming State Mans Nature ( xing ) and Talents Abilities and Education Social Permeability and the Commercialization of Society: The Merchant Customs and Habits Chapter 4. Written Affairs Rhetoric of Knowledge Inquiry: Texts and Experience Images, Technology and Argument Observing the Nature of qi : Theory and Practice in Knowledge Construction The Complexity of qi Transformations--Composites and Compositions of qi Chapter 5. Formulating the Transformation Reading the Signature of yin-yang qi in Gas, Salt, Wind, and Rain Growth and Decay: Wood, Corpses, and the Proportional Relation of yin and yang Glitches in the Matrix of qi : The Concepts of Ashes and Particles Chapter 6. Acoustics An Anatomy of Sound The Human Voice Volume and Velocity Resonance and Harmony Conclusion. Leaving the Theater Epilogue. Aftermath By Virtue of Friendship: Literary Sponsorship By Virtue of Position: Outside and Opposition By Virtue of Loyalty: Moral Obligations An Artifact in Transmission: The Editions of the Works of Heaven Writing about Practical Knowledge in the Chinese Literati World Acknowledgments Appendix 1. Chinese Dynasties and Various Rulers Appendix 2. Song Yingxing curriculum vitae Appendix 3. Editions of the Tiangong kaiwu Notes Bibliography Index Review "The Crafting of the 10,000 Things is a great achievement, which will repay careful reading on the part of historians of Western Europe and other parts of the world, as well as of China." (Metascience) Review Quote "When it was first rediscovered in Japan early last century, modernist Japanese, Chinese, and Euro-American scholars hastily assimilated Song Yingxings Tiangong kaiwu to the accruing literature on the allegedly ill-fated history of science and technology in late imperial China. They framed an overdetermined view of Songs accomplishments in light of the failure of China to develop modern science. This simple-minded teleology has now been challenged by Dagmar Schfer. Schfer contextualizes Songs so-called magnum opus by placing this longest and most prominent of Songs works alongside his other writings, and reenacts for us the culturally embedded practices that informed Song Yingxings career of knowledge-making in a time of precocious commercialization and commoditization in Ming China." Details ISBN022627280X Pages 352 Publisher The University of Chicago Press Year 2015 ISBN-10 022627280X ISBN-13 9780226272801 Format Paperback Imprint University of Chicago Press Place of Publication Chicago, IL Country of Publication United States Illustrations 24 halftones, 1 line drawing Short Title CRAFTING OF THE 10000 THINGS Language English Media Book DEWEY 509.5109032 Subtitle Knowledge and Technology in Seventeenth-century China Publication Date 2015-02-22 AU Release Date 2015-02-22 NZ Release Date 2015-02-22 US Release Date 2015-02-22 UK Release Date 2015-02-22 Author Dagmar Schäfer Audience Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly We've got this At The Nile, if you're looking for it, we've got it. With fast shipping, low prices, friendly service and well over a million items - you're bound to find what you want, at a price you'll love! TheNile_Item_ID:161783919;

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