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China Foreign Learning and Chinese Learning
Western mathematics and science were introduced to China in the
seventeenth and eighteenth centuries by Jesuit missionaries but had
little impact. In the nineteenth century, the trauma of repeated
defeat at the hands of Western invaders (in 1840-41 and 1860)
finally convinced some Chinese leaders of the need to master
foreign military technology. As part of the Self-Strengthening
Movement in the 1860s, a number of foreign-style arsenals,
shipyards, and associated training schools were established
(see The Self-Strengthening Movement
, ch. 1). The initial effort to
produce steamships and artillery led, step-by-step, to recognition
of the need to master metallurgy, chemistry, mathematics, physics,
and foreign languages. The last decades of the century saw the
establishment, under the auspices either of the imperial government
or of foreign missionaries, of secondary schools and colleges
teaching science, as well as the movement of Chinese students to
advancd studies in Japan, the United States, and Europe.
Individual Chinese students had no great difficulty mastering
Western science, but the growth in their numbers and potential
influence posed a challenge to the Confucian scholar-officials who
dominated the imperial government and Chinese society. Such
officials were reluctant to grant foreign-trained scientists and
engineers a status equal to that of Confucian scholars, and they
were suspicious of foreign ideas about politics and social
organization, such as professional autonomy, freedom of speech and
assembly, and experiments rather than written texts as validation
of propositions. Nineteenth-century officials attempted to control
the influx of foreign knowledge and values, distinguishing
militarily useful technology, which was to be imported and
assimilated, from foreign philosophy, religion, or political and
social values, which were to be rejected. The slogan "Chinese
learning for the essence, Western learning for utility" expressed
this attitude. Although the terms were no longer used, the
fundamental issue remained significant in the 1980s, as the Chinese
Communist Party attempted to distinguish between beneficial foreign
technology and harmful and "polluting" foreign ideas and practices.
Throughout the twentieth century, China's political leaders have
had a deeply ambivalent attitude toward science and technology,
promoting it as necessary for national defense and national
strength but fearing it as a carrier of threatening alien ideas and
practices.
By 1900 China's science and technology establishment, minimal
though it was, already manifested several features that would
characterize it throughout the twentieth century. Although China's
early scientific achievements were a source of national pride, they
had no direct influence on the practice and teaching of science in
China, which was based on foreign models and foreign training. As
a group, China's scientists, with their foreign education, foreignlanguage competence, and exposure to foreign ideas of science as an
autonomous, international, and professional activity, formed the
most cosmopolitan element of the population. China's scientists,
more than their foreign counterparts, were motivated by patriotism
and the desire to help their country through their work, and many
deliberately chose applied over basic scientific work. Chinese
intellectuals were influenced by the Confucian teachings that
intellectuals had special responsibilities toward their society and
should play a role in public affairs. Much scientific work was done
under government patronage, direction, and funding. The government,
whether imperial or republican, was interested in science for what
it could contribute to national development and military power, and
it saw science as a means rather than as an end in itself. The
first major publisher of translations of scientific works was the
Jiangnan Arsenal, founded in Shanghai in 1866, which published
nearly 200 basic and applied scientific texts originally written in
English, French, or German.
In the first two decades of the twentieth century an increasing
number of colleges and universities were founded, and growing
numbers of Chinese students were educated abroad. The Science
Society of China, whose membership included most of the country's
leading scientists and engineers, was founded by Chinese students
at Cornell University in 1914. In 1915 it began publication in
China of a major journal, Kexue (Science), which was
patterned on the journal of the American Association for the
Advancement of Science. In 1922 the Society established a major
biological research laboratory in Nanjing. The Society devoted
itself to the popularization of science through an active and
diverse publication program, the improvement of science education,
and participation in international scientific meetings.
The establishment of the Guomindang government at Nanjing in
1927 was followed by the creation of several government research
and training institutions
(see Republican China
, ch. 1). The
Academia Sinica, founded in 1928, had a dozen research institutes,
whose personnel did research and advised the government. The late
1920s and early 1930s saw the establishment of many research
institutes, such as the Fan Memorial Biological Institute in
Beijing and the Beijing Research Laboratory, which eventually
formed departments in physics, biology, pharmacology, and other
fields. Most of the research institutes were characterized both by
very limited funds and personnel and by productive, high- quality
scientific work. By the 1930s China possessed a number of
foreign-trained scientists who did research of high quality, which
they published in both Chinese and foreign scientific journals.
These scientists worked in the major universities or in research
institutes funded by the government or foreign organizations (such
as missionary groups and the Rockefeller Foundation) and were
concentrated in Beijing, Nanjing, and Shanghai.
Between 1937 and 1949, China's scientists and scientific work
suffered the ravages of invasion, civil war, and runaway inflation.
Funds to support research, never ample, almost totally disappeared,
and most scientists were forced to devote most of their energies to
teaching, administration, or a government job. In a change from the
earlier pattern, many students opted not to return to China after
foreign education, choosing instead to seek careers abroad.
Data as of July 1987
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