Needham (Dr. Needham, 1900- 1995), an Englishman, is the honorary director of Needham Institute of Cambridge University, and has been devoted to the study of the history of science and technology in China for a long time. Author of the history of science and technology in China. It has trained a group of outstanding historians of science and technology for China. 1994 was elected as the first batch of foreign academicians of China Academy of Sciences. Dr Needham is a famous British scientist, a member of the Royal Society (FRS), an academician of the British Academy of Sciences (FBA), a master of the history of science and technology in China, an old friend of the people of China, and an outstanding contemporary humanist. He was famous for his biochemical research in his early years. In 1930s and 1940s, he published Chemical Embryology (three volumes) and Biochemistry and Morphogenesis, which enjoyed a high reputation in the field of international biochemistry. 1937, under the influence of three overseas students from China, such as Lu Guizhen, he converted to the ancient civilization of China and turned to study the ancient science, technology and medicine of China without interruption. 1in the autumn of 942, ordered by the Royal Society, he came to China to help wartime scientific and educational institutions, and established the Sino-British Science Cooperation Museum in Chongqing, the capital, to meet a large number of China scientists and scholars and forge a profound friendship. During his four years in China, Needham extensively investigated and studied China's cultural relics and ancient books, which prepared him for writing the history of science and technology in China in the future. /kloc-in the spring of 0/946, Joseph Needham left his post and went to Paris to be the director of the natural science department of UNESCO. Two years later, he returned to Cambridge, and with the help of China's assistants, Dr. Wang Ling and Dr. Lu Guizhen, he began to write a series of masterpieces, The History of Science and Technology in China. After the founding of People's Republic of China (PRC), Needham personally initiated and became the president of the British-Chinese Friendship Association and the British-Chinese Understanding Association respectively. He visited China for eight times, collected information on the history of science and technology in China on a large scale, and learned about the political, economic, scientific and cultural development of new China on the spot. 1954, Joseph Needham published the first history of science and technology in China, which caused a sensation in western sinology. In this 34-volume series of masterpieces, he showed the world with a vast amount of historical materials and conclusive evidence: "Chinese civilization has played a huge role in the history of science and technology that has never been recognized", and "China's accumulation of science, technology and knowledge was far better than that of the West in the past decade or so before the emergence of modern science and technology". Needham is known as "a great scholar in the 20th century" and "an encyclopedic figure". China's position in the history of science and technology-Joseph Needham We discuss a question, namely the position of China culture in the history of science and technology. Only by studying China's social, cultural and economic system can we understand why China's theoretical science and applied science developed greatly in ancient times and the Middle Ages, but after the era of rites and music at the beginning of the 7th century, modern science did not develop in China, or it can be said that it did not develop at all. Broadly speaking, we can say that between the 3rd century BC and 5th century AD, China's science and technology were much more advanced than Europe's (except for the brilliant climax of Greek theoretical construction), but after the Renaissance, European science began to take the lead. Indeed, in Galileo's era, it can be said that science invented technology itself, and thus produced a unified world of modern science, which was owned by all mankind, thus eliminating the racial imprint that marked various forms of science and technology in the Middle Ages. As I said before, what emerged in Europe after the Renaissance was not "European science", but modern science which was widely applied all over the world. Men and women of all cultures were free. Enjoy it. Although this breakthrough occurred in Europe, and only in Europe, it does not prove that Europeans have the special quality of the so-called "Faust soul" often advertised by German mystics, nor can they insist on listing European culture as the highest "world culture" like some writers. Because there are many special factors that must be considered in Europe: the specific conditions of European historical development, the formation of European feudal system, the growing needs of European mercantilism and industrialization, and the consistent promotion and promotion of European cultural history by Greeks since the Soviet Union-all these and other similar factors are enough to fully explain the mystery of Galileo's miracle. Therefore, we have no reason to attribute the emergence and growth of modern science in Europe to the European spirit or the mysterious fate of European talents. At the same time, seeing the great contributions made by other nationalities to the establishment of modern science, we feel that we should not say this. As for China itself, the question we want to study is still: Why was China society more conducive to the development of science than the western society before the 8th century, but it stopped the development of science after18th century? What happened in Renaissance Europe: for example, the vigorous development of post-modern science in Galileo's era, the perfection of mathematical proof reasoning methods and so on; All these have had a far-reaching impact on the relationship between the people of the East and the West. We all know the consequences. As we know, due to the development of modern technology, the living standard in the west has been greatly improved; We also know that in the past two or three hundred years, westerners have gained a dominant position in the military and easily conquered other cultures, resulting in such a bad influence. However, if the whole world can prevent itself from being destroyed by the infinite power produced by modern science, then the benefits we can get from modern science are endless. (Although China has made so many great achievements in the fields of science, mathematics and technology in the past) Why did the rise of modern science take place in Europe instead of East Asian civilization? Behind this problem, all the problems concerning the nature and development of China society are involved. We have put forward some ideas before to explain why there has never been a European Renaissance in China's history. In China, the concept of the ancient Greek city-state did not exist at all. In the west, the interests of businessmen play an important role in the prosperity of modern science; In China, the interests of businessmen have always been dominant. In addition, there are ideological factors. On the one hand, it is the sanctified clan ancestor system; On the other hand, it is the personification of God's creator, and people think that God's rational instructions can be barely explained in their own mathematical language. On the one hand, it is the internal "Tao" of everything that makes them naturally achieve harmony; On the other hand, the theory of atomic action and mechanical propulsion. The emergence of modern natural science seems to need an enlightened natural simplicity factor, which China lacks in his natural wisdom. It is this problem that first prompted me to make up my mind to compile a comprehensive and systematic book about China's science, scientific thought and technological development in the future. Later, I realized that behind this question, there is another question that is at least as important: Why did China always make much progress than Europe during the period from 200 BC to about AD 1400 or before the Renaissance 1450? Another question needs to be answered: Why can China's bureaucratic feudalism better apply science (it often seems to be a theoretical science that does not exist objectively, so it is much better than Greek nationalism or medieval western feudalism? This situation seems difficult to explain; But we can cite many examples to prove that not all of them are within the scope of technology. Apart from the three famous inventions of printing, gunpowder and compass, they were popular because of Francis Bacon's reputation. I once talked about the invention of cast iron technology and the method of molten iron casting-I didn't know about it until Europe AD 1380, and in China, as early as the 2nd century BC, people were used to making farm tools by casting. Of course, I can't explain how to vote in detail here. I think everyone knows this. This is a special case, which shows that China's technology has far surpassed that of the West in a long time. It is also surprising that although China did not have the deductive geometry created by Ogritt and Apolloni, it was China, not Europe, who invented the equatorial device and mechanical clock on the telescope long before the Renaissance. The development of mechanical clocks is particularly surprising, because China has always been described as an agricultural society with no concept of time. In this regard, it may be very important that some of these medieval inventions are closely related to the bureaucratic nature of China culture. We can cite seismographs, rain gauges and snow gauges as examples. In the tightly structured bureaucratic system, the highly organized and far-sighted upper-class intellectuals, even feudal ones, feel it necessary to know where the earthquake happened in time so as to give immediate relief or send troops to the severely affected areas. Obviously, it was this situation that prompted Zhang Heng to manufacture and use the earliest seismograph in the 2nd century AD. For the same reason, rain gauges and snow gauges are also important, because floods may occur anywhere and the ruling group must predict them. In some math books of 1 1 and12nd century, the exercises about the beginning of rain gauge were listed, from which I learned that this kind of rain gauge is widely used and may be set at the foot of the western foothills near the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau to understand how rainfall and snow amount are formed. For another example, my collaborator and I recently wrote a detailed article about an amazing geodetic survey: an expedition sent in 723 AD made real observations for 2-3 years, and the meridian was determined by combining the observation results. This masterpiece was completed under the leadership of the royal astronomer Nangong Shuo and the outstanding monk mathematician. There is no doubt that this is the most amazing organized geodesy in the whole Middle Ages. From the Mongolian border to zhina, nine main observation stations were set up along the route of about 2,500 kilometers, and the length of the solar shadow and the polar height of the solar solstice in summer and winter were systematically observed. I don't believe that in any other medieval civilization, it is possible to conceive and implement such a large-scale geodetic survey organized by people. This is indeed memorable, which is also inseparable from the bureaucratic characteristics of China's feudal society. Today, China is exploring the scientific achievements of these generations and compiling the history of science. Now he shows a high degree of enthusiasm for science, because only by relying on scientific development can the living standards of Asian people catch up with other advanced countries in the world. But China people began to realize that their ancestors also made great achievements in scientific discovery, observation and invention. They are eager to know many stories buried by the dust of history for centuries, but modern western historians are reluctant to reveal them. For example, in the17th century, the west discovered the illusion of the sun (the illusion of sunlight, solar halo and arc formed by ice accumulation in the upper atmosphere), while astronomers in China observed this complex phenomenon before 1000 years ago, and described and named each component. How important it is for Asian thinkers and technical experts who have lost their historical heritage to know such a fact! For another example, since Watt, the wonderful connecting rod and piston rod structures in all steam engines and internal engines were first invented not by Italian Renaissance engineers, nor by Leonardo da Vinci, nor by Alexandrians, but by Wang Zhen of China in A.D. 1300, who was first used in his smelting hydraulic blast furnace. If Asian thinkers and technologists know this fact, can they not be proud? Now even in children's picture books in China, there are pictures and descriptions of seismograph made by Zhang Heng, papermaking invented by Cai Lun in 1 century, movable type printing invented by Bi Sheng in1century and so on. China's "Universal Joint" hanger can be traced back to Ding Huan in A.D. 180, and the "Pascal" triangle was founded by Zhu Shijie in A.D. 1303. All these achievements have been confirmed by the research of sinologists. Therefore, westerners must realize that in China's view, science is not due to the generosity of Christian missionaries, nor is it rooted in China's own culture. On the contrary, science has a brilliant and profound foundation in China culture. These China people know each other better and better now. If China's medieval society was really as absolute as some people advertised, and there was no freedom, we could not explain how so many creations and civilizations came into being for thousands of years, nor could we understand why China had been in a leading position than Europe for such a long time. Perhaps because of social stability, some scholars described it as a typical "social stagnation" in medieval China culture. Where does this start? I don't mean to belittle the amazing achievements made by the current government of China under the leadership of the * * * production party to improve the fate of the "old people" in China. At the same time, if any westerner really wants to understand the work done by the modern China government, he must also understand some characteristics of the long-standing cultural traditions of China and China; On the one hand, westerners have little knowledge. Indeed, China's own scholars sometimes belittle their past history and underestimate the great achievements in philosophy and art for thousands of years to show the profound changes that have taken place in the newly born China. This situation can only be said to be self-inflicted! In fact, other countries in the world need to learn from China with an open mind, not from modern China, but from historical China, because from the wisdom and experience of the Chinese, we can get many good medicines to cure modern diseases and the necessary elements to promote the future development of all human philosophy.