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On Their Own Terms: Science in China, 1550-1900
In "On Their Own Terms," Benjamin A. Elman offers a much-needed synthesis of early Chinese science during the Jesuit period (1600-1800) and the modern sciences as they evolved in China under Protestant influence (1840s-1900).
By 1600 Europe was ahead of Asia in producing basic machines, such as clocks, levers, and pulleys, that would be necessary for the mechanization of agriculture and industry. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, Elman shows, Europeans still sought from the Chinese their secrets of producing silk, fine textiles, and porcelain, as well as large-scale tea cultivation. Chinese literati borrowed in turn new algebraic notations of Hindu-Arabic origin, Tychonic cosmology, Euclidian geometry, and various computational advances.
Since the middle of the nineteenth century, imperial reformers, early Republicans, Guomindang party cadres, and Chinese Communists have all prioritized science and technology. In this book, Elman gives a nuanced account of the ways in which native Chinese science evolved over four centuries, under the influence of both Jesuit and Protestant missionaries. In the end, he argues, the Chinese produced modern science on their own terms.
By 1600 Europe was ahead of Asia in producing basic machines, such as clocks, levers, and pulleys, that would be necessary for the mechanization of agriculture and industry. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, Elman shows, Europeans still sought from the Chinese their secrets of producing silk, fine textiles, and porcelain, as well as large-scale tea cultivation. Chinese literati borrowed in turn new algebraic notations of Hindu-Arabic origin, Tychonic cosmology, Euclidian geometry, and various computational advances.
Since the middle of the nineteenth century, imperial reformers, early Republicans, Guomindang party cadres, and Chinese Communists have all prioritized science and technology. In this book, Elman gives a nuanced account of the ways in which native Chinese science evolved over four centuries, under the influence of both Jesuit and Protestant missionaries. In the end, he argues, the Chinese produced modern science on their own terms.
606 pages, Kindle Edition
First published April 30, 2005
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About the author
Benjamin A. Elman
24 books11 followersBenjamin A. Elman is Gordon Wu '58 Professor of Chinese Studies, Princeton University. His teaching and research fields include Chinese intellectual and cultural history, history of science and history of education in late imperial China.
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October 4, 2023 Benjamin Elman (1946 – ) is a sinologist known for revisionist history. His research publications focus on education and science in China, covering topics such as cultural history of civil exams, education and society, meritocracy and exam systems. In 1968, Elman received a B.A in philosophy from Hamilton College, a selective liberal arts college in New York with Presbyterian Church roots. Upon graduation, Elman served in the Peace Corps in Thailand as a field supervisor in the malaria eradication project for three years. After the Peace Corps, he worked in the Public Health department of New York State for a year then continued his academic career. Elman completed his Master’s in regional studies, where he focused on modern China by studying in Taiwan and Japan via academic exchange programs because the PRC was closed. Notably, he spent time in Hawaii at the East-West Center prior to departing for Taiwan. He obtained his doctoral degree in Oriental Studies from University of Pennsylvania in 1980 with advisers that include Susan Naquin, a specialist in Chinese religious, social and cultural history (1600-1900), and Nathan Sivin, the founding editor of Chinese Science journal and vital contributor to Joseph Needham’s seminal Science and Civilization in China.
The central argument of On Their Own Terms is a product of Elman’s pedigree and lived experiences. When Elman arrived in Taiwan in 1967, he “saw both parts” of Chinese history, which paved the way for him to bring a nuanced perspective to the construction of this book. As the book title signals, Elman provides evidence that the Chinese “produced their own science” through integration of Western influences contrary to popular view. On Their Own Terms investigates the co-evolution of scientific thought and terminology in China as well as the mercurial terms of engagement between Chinese literati, “mandarin missionaries”, and papal authorities outside of China. The book is structured with eleven chapters that are broken into sections on natural studies, evidential research, modern science, and Qing reform. Unlike The Confusions of Pleasure, Elman’s book is not written as a popular history and instead focuses on the needs of an academic audience. Every section is written to be read independent of each other, thus, despite the lack of a clean chronological narration of events, the profuse use of subheadings and repetitive reference to key events and figures ensures readers can access necessary historical context to further their own research agenda.
More importantly, Elman demonstrates how traditions of native sciences domesticated Western influences and religious agenda to ultimately “Westernize without Christianity.” Perhaps due to his experience administering public health, Elman shows that grand plans from the top are messy on the ground. Through his painstaking effort, the series of convoluted events are untangled for the book to successfully refute the “typical historian’s view of Chinese intransigence and imperial arrogance” by offering laborious accounts of adaptation and mutual transformation from the perspective of Chinese and missionary subjects. Reminiscent of his mentor Sivin, who names his cats Thing 1 and Thing 2 because “Nathan believed that only the cat knows its real name,” Elman offers the same self-determination to his subjects so as to thrust the history of science in China past “self-satisfied rhetoric” of Western centrality.
Elman uses a rich array of sources to construct his argument and frame his analysis. Pushing back against “construction of China’s backwardness” and reduction of Chinese classical tradition by missionaries and Chinese radicals, this book investigates how the incentives, methods, and results of education and research in China were contingent upon decisions that hinged on concealed motivations; in the compilation of encyclopedias and primers, selection of exam questions and translation of Western texts, key actors are shown to make counterintuitive choices which challenges the oversimplified conclusion that “doom seems to be inevitable” for China in the face of modern scientific advancements. Through Elman’s analysis, readers can trace the path of development to understand why science in China appeared to have “failed.”
An example of a key event highlighted by Elman with far reaching consequences was the Chinese Rites and Term Controversy. The book illuminates how the disintegration of consensus among Christian denominations due to theological in-fighting ultimately lead to a rejection of Chinese rituals and their terms for God. Prior accommodation efforts by Ricci treated ancestor worship and Confucianism as “civil rites,” thus acceptable for Catholicism. In response, Kangxi emperor ended the Edict of Toleration for Christianity. Chinese scholars who were suspicious of Jesuit intentions, such as Yang Guangxian, were rehabilitated among literati for their astute opposition to Western views. The Chinese criticized Jesuits for claiming the existence of God as an “unverified religious position” that ran counter to principles of learning with “concrete investigations.” The secular and scientifically grounded Chinese resistance to the “perverse” concept of God (tianzhu) as an “otherworldly power” contradicts popular discourse that superstition was one of the root causes of China’s backwardness. In sum, Kangxi’s policy of tolerance only ended when the missionaries became intolerant of others and pressed their preferred “perverse” myth.
Similarly, the hindered evolution of astronomy in China was shown to be due to external factors that do not defy assumptions of Chinese inability or indifference to modern sciences. Through describing a series of events related to serious study of astronomy by the Chinese, Elman demonstrates that Lord Macartney’s sweeping statement that reduced Chinese astronomy studies as “astrological trifling” was ill-informed and therefore popular rhetoric deserves reconsideration. The book explains distorted transmission of Copernican theory could not provide a credible alternative to classical studies, however the underpinning advanced algebra, geometry and calculus were successfully translated and incorporated via traditional single-unknown and four-unknown techniques. Due to the central role of astronomy in safeguarding the “cultural legitimacy” of the emperor, omen readings by the Astro-calendric Bureau held great influence, which Jesuits such as Schall manipulated. In one account, Elman details how Schall memorialized a common sunspot occurrence in order to alert the potential visit from the Dalai Lama may block “the emperor’s radiance.” Schall’s concealed motive, as Elman argues, is to prevent Lamaism from surpassing Christianity in public esteem. Distrust culminated in the Rites Controversy and resulted in an overall depreciation of Western learning’s status among Chinese literati. Ensuing efforts to discredit European contributions as “derivatives of ancient Chinese learning” therefore muted praiseworthy contributions in other scientific fields.
On Their Own Terms is a mandatory resource for any researcher interested in detailed accounts of surprising junctures in the development of Chinese science and education. Just as Ray Huang peeled away the orchestrated facade of agency and power of the Wan-li emperor “owing to the will of Heavens” through the lens of bureaucracy, Elman’s book complicates the will of Heavens by intervening with the disguised agenda of foreign and native technocrats that interpreted the astrological messages. The book counterbalances Mark Elvin’s “misreading” of historical sources that Elvin used to argue Wang Yangming “led most Ming literati away from the precocious intellectual promise of objectivist science and natural studies in Song times,” which resulted in the inevitable demise of Ming China vis-a-vis competition from Europe. Elman triumphantly answers Von Glahn’s call for an “alternative conceptualization” to eclipse Elvin’s once dominant thesis with this book.
Personally, I appreciated the details on persons and historical works alluded to by Elman as they directly relate to my research. For example, Elman quoted James Dinwiddie, the British astronomer and mechanic on the Macartney mission, who said: “what information could we derive respect the arts and sciences in a country where we could not converse with the inhabitants.” Such anecdotes and details are invaluable for retelling history, and I am excited to have found Dinwiddie’s notebooks and scientific journals in Dalhousie’s online archive! If I must contrive a criticism of On Their Own Terms, it is that the story is too important to be written for only an academic audience and could be enlivened with a more popular history approach taken by Timothy Brook and Ray Huang to reach a broader audience.
The central argument of On Their Own Terms is a product of Elman’s pedigree and lived experiences. When Elman arrived in Taiwan in 1967, he “saw both parts” of Chinese history, which paved the way for him to bring a nuanced perspective to the construction of this book. As the book title signals, Elman provides evidence that the Chinese “produced their own science” through integration of Western influences contrary to popular view. On Their Own Terms investigates the co-evolution of scientific thought and terminology in China as well as the mercurial terms of engagement between Chinese literati, “mandarin missionaries”, and papal authorities outside of China. The book is structured with eleven chapters that are broken into sections on natural studies, evidential research, modern science, and Qing reform. Unlike The Confusions of Pleasure, Elman’s book is not written as a popular history and instead focuses on the needs of an academic audience. Every section is written to be read independent of each other, thus, despite the lack of a clean chronological narration of events, the profuse use of subheadings and repetitive reference to key events and figures ensures readers can access necessary historical context to further their own research agenda.
More importantly, Elman demonstrates how traditions of native sciences domesticated Western influences and religious agenda to ultimately “Westernize without Christianity.” Perhaps due to his experience administering public health, Elman shows that grand plans from the top are messy on the ground. Through his painstaking effort, the series of convoluted events are untangled for the book to successfully refute the “typical historian’s view of Chinese intransigence and imperial arrogance” by offering laborious accounts of adaptation and mutual transformation from the perspective of Chinese and missionary subjects. Reminiscent of his mentor Sivin, who names his cats Thing 1 and Thing 2 because “Nathan believed that only the cat knows its real name,” Elman offers the same self-determination to his subjects so as to thrust the history of science in China past “self-satisfied rhetoric” of Western centrality.
Elman uses a rich array of sources to construct his argument and frame his analysis. Pushing back against “construction of China’s backwardness” and reduction of Chinese classical tradition by missionaries and Chinese radicals, this book investigates how the incentives, methods, and results of education and research in China were contingent upon decisions that hinged on concealed motivations; in the compilation of encyclopedias and primers, selection of exam questions and translation of Western texts, key actors are shown to make counterintuitive choices which challenges the oversimplified conclusion that “doom seems to be inevitable” for China in the face of modern scientific advancements. Through Elman’s analysis, readers can trace the path of development to understand why science in China appeared to have “failed.”
An example of a key event highlighted by Elman with far reaching consequences was the Chinese Rites and Term Controversy. The book illuminates how the disintegration of consensus among Christian denominations due to theological in-fighting ultimately lead to a rejection of Chinese rituals and their terms for God. Prior accommodation efforts by Ricci treated ancestor worship and Confucianism as “civil rites,” thus acceptable for Catholicism. In response, Kangxi emperor ended the Edict of Toleration for Christianity. Chinese scholars who were suspicious of Jesuit intentions, such as Yang Guangxian, were rehabilitated among literati for their astute opposition to Western views. The Chinese criticized Jesuits for claiming the existence of God as an “unverified religious position” that ran counter to principles of learning with “concrete investigations.” The secular and scientifically grounded Chinese resistance to the “perverse” concept of God (tianzhu) as an “otherworldly power” contradicts popular discourse that superstition was one of the root causes of China’s backwardness. In sum, Kangxi’s policy of tolerance only ended when the missionaries became intolerant of others and pressed their preferred “perverse” myth.
Similarly, the hindered evolution of astronomy in China was shown to be due to external factors that do not defy assumptions of Chinese inability or indifference to modern sciences. Through describing a series of events related to serious study of astronomy by the Chinese, Elman demonstrates that Lord Macartney’s sweeping statement that reduced Chinese astronomy studies as “astrological trifling” was ill-informed and therefore popular rhetoric deserves reconsideration. The book explains distorted transmission of Copernican theory could not provide a credible alternative to classical studies, however the underpinning advanced algebra, geometry and calculus were successfully translated and incorporated via traditional single-unknown and four-unknown techniques. Due to the central role of astronomy in safeguarding the “cultural legitimacy” of the emperor, omen readings by the Astro-calendric Bureau held great influence, which Jesuits such as Schall manipulated. In one account, Elman details how Schall memorialized a common sunspot occurrence in order to alert the potential visit from the Dalai Lama may block “the emperor’s radiance.” Schall’s concealed motive, as Elman argues, is to prevent Lamaism from surpassing Christianity in public esteem. Distrust culminated in the Rites Controversy and resulted in an overall depreciation of Western learning’s status among Chinese literati. Ensuing efforts to discredit European contributions as “derivatives of ancient Chinese learning” therefore muted praiseworthy contributions in other scientific fields.
On Their Own Terms is a mandatory resource for any researcher interested in detailed accounts of surprising junctures in the development of Chinese science and education. Just as Ray Huang peeled away the orchestrated facade of agency and power of the Wan-li emperor “owing to the will of Heavens” through the lens of bureaucracy, Elman’s book complicates the will of Heavens by intervening with the disguised agenda of foreign and native technocrats that interpreted the astrological messages. The book counterbalances Mark Elvin’s “misreading” of historical sources that Elvin used to argue Wang Yangming “led most Ming literati away from the precocious intellectual promise of objectivist science and natural studies in Song times,” which resulted in the inevitable demise of Ming China vis-a-vis competition from Europe. Elman triumphantly answers Von Glahn’s call for an “alternative conceptualization” to eclipse Elvin’s once dominant thesis with this book.
Personally, I appreciated the details on persons and historical works alluded to by Elman as they directly relate to my research. For example, Elman quoted James Dinwiddie, the British astronomer and mechanic on the Macartney mission, who said: “what information could we derive respect the arts and sciences in a country where we could not converse with the inhabitants.” Such anecdotes and details are invaluable for retelling history, and I am excited to have found Dinwiddie’s notebooks and scientific journals in Dalhousie’s online archive! If I must contrive a criticism of On Their Own Terms, it is that the story is too important to be written for only an academic audience and could be enlivened with a more popular history approach taken by Timothy Brook and Ray Huang to reach a broader audience.
October 16, 2015
nothing is more useful than reading the book together with its author!
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