Science and Civilisation in China, Volume 6: Biology and Biological Technology, Part 2: Agriculture

Science and Civilisation in China #6.6

by Joseph Needham, Francesca Bray, C. Cullen (Editor)

This second part of the sixth volume of Joseph Needham's great enterprise is the first to be written by a collaborator. Francesca Bray, working closely with Dr Needham, has produced the most comprehensive study of Chinese agriculture to be published in the West. From a huge mass of source material, often confusing and obscure, and from first-hand study in China, she brings order and illumination to a crucial area of Chinese technological development. The main body of the book is an account of the technological history of agriculture, with major sections devoted to field systems, implements and techniques (sowing, harvesting, storing) and crop systems (what has grown and where and how crops rotated). The concluding section contrasts Europe's Agricultural Revolution with agrarian change in North China in the Han and with the 'Green Revolution' in South China in the Sung. In the theoretical analysis which concludes this section we find a vital contribution to the elucidation of the main question posed by Dr Needham's work: why did the Scientific Revolution which transformed the world take place in Europe and not in China?

Genres: History, China, Nonfiction, Science, Medicine

768 pages, Hardcover

First published May 25, 1984

About the author

Joseph Needham was a British biochemist, historian and sinologist known for his scientific research and writing on the history of Chinese science and technology. He was elected a fellow of the Royal Society in 1941, and a fellow of the British Academy in 1971. In 1992, Queen Elizabeth II conferred on him the Companionship of Honour, and the Royal Society noted he was the only living person to hold these three titles.

Reviews

[Scott Feero · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have 16 volumes of Needham's Science and Civilisation in China; extraordinary breadth.

For anyone interested, there is a condensed version that covers the salient points.

Otherwise each Cambridge vol. is Ridiculously expensive.

[Em · Rating 3 out of 5]

I hate the writing style but the information was good.

[Ivan Savić · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very detailed description of chinese agriculture, but also agriculture in general.