博物日本：本草學與江戶日本的自然觀

by Federico Marcon, 費德里柯．馬孔, 林潔盈 (Translator)

走入江戶本草學者的世界
認識近世日本探索未知，建構自然知識的歷程

啟蒙運動、科學革命只發生在西方？
德川幕府時代，日本也曾嘗試有系統地整理自然知識
江戶時代累積的研究成果，明治維新後融入近代科學，也影響了臺灣

重新認識在亞洲近代化過程中，被遺忘的一頁知識史

★普林斯頓東亞研究專家費德里柯．馬孔顛覆認知、開創視野之作
★深入江戶日本的社會文化，看本草學者如何掌握時勢，盤點自然，開創新知！　
★跳脫東西文化大分流的刻板印象，看見從江戶日本到近代科學的連續發展
★科學史、環境史、博物學領域學者共同推薦

在古代日本，未開發的自然被認為是神聖的空間，人類不能輕易跨入。但這樣的自然觀，到了江戶時代卻發生重大轉變。有一群本草學者，開始有系統地研究自然、認識自然。幕府時代的後期，也曾發展出與近代歐洲相近的開發自然、富國思想。明治維新之後，江戶時代累積的本草學研究成果，被吸納進西式的學科分類中，對臺灣也曾產生深遠的影響。
　
過往史家認為，科學革命、啟蒙運動都發生在西方。本書顛覆了這種刻板印象，指出在德川時期（一六○○—一八六八）曾經發生近似的知識革命。

十六世紀末，李時珍的《本草綱目》從中國傳入日本。日本的學者雖然深受影響，卻也很快發現：來自中國的自然知識在日本無法完全實用。時值戰國時代結束，德川政權穩固，社會經濟開始發展，新知識得到發展的空間。漸漸地，本地學者開始研究日本本草，發展出與中國不同的本草學。

日本第一部原創藥物學百科全書——貝原益軒的《大和本草》，即是在這樣背景下問世。貝原益軒曾表示，他的研究目是提供本國人民具體幫助。到了德川幕府第八代將軍德川吉宗在位時，更是對日本動植物物種發動了全面性的調查，由本草學者主導，各藩國配合提交「產物帳」。德川吉宗更參考普查所獲得的新知，進行農業改革，並建立國家贊助的藥園。

本書帶領我們進入江戶時代蓬勃發展的本草學，一探其中豐富奇妙的知識史問題：

◆日本為何能發展出與中國截然不同的本草學？——從以中國的《本草綱目》為典範，到注重觀察本地自然、發展本地知識。
◆幕府、藩國怎樣贊助、培養新一代學者？
◆貝原益軒、丹羽正伯等學者如何整理本地自然知識？
◆日本學者為何在十八世紀進行全國的物種普查？
◆幕府將軍，各地如何搜集資訊編纂「產物帳」？
◆本草學問如何影響經濟改革？十九世紀的「薩摩經濟奇蹟」，背後有本草學者運籌帷幄？
◆日本近世自然觀的轉變，與西方近代自然觀有何異同？
◆明治維新之後，本草學與西方科學的關係，是斷裂還是融合？

這是在亞洲近代化過程中，被忽略的一段知識史。馬孔帶著我們，跳脫西方科學發展史的視角，深入日本近代的一場知識革命。除了讓我們更加認識知識生產、典範創造的過程，打開「何謂科學？何謂知識？」的想像，也帶給我們一個重新認識亞洲，認識亞洲近現代化歷程的寬闊視野。


本書特色

1. 本書收錄日本生物物種、花草圖鑑等黑白圖片超過五十張，讓讀者閱讀本書的同時，感受江戶本草學在兩百多年間的發展中，歷代日本繪師、標本製作專家觀察細膩、畫工與作工精緻的展現。

2. 本書乃英語世界東亞研究領域中，第一本詳細談論日本江戶時代科學史的著作，可謂日本科學史與自然環境史研究的先聲，更是國內第一本相關領域的譯作。

3. 本書為國內少見的東亞科學史相關作品，可以作為國內讀者認識科學與社會史、博物學、醫學與藥學史等相關領域的第一塊入門磚。

4. 臺灣讀者雖然已相當熟悉日本文化，但是卻很少人瞭解到，大家喜愛的所謂「日式」、「和風」風格，像是浮世繪、花鳥畫，其背後都是受到江戶本草學發展的直接影響，特別是有關於圖鑑與標本製作上所影響的日本美學風格。

Genres: Japan, History, Nonfiction, Philosophy, Science, Environment

544 pages, Paperback

First published May 25, 2015

Reviews

[Avery]

The story of early modern Japanese who tried to document living beings and flora of the natural world. No critical theory but plenty of gorgeous illustrations. Very Italian!

[Marty · Rating 4 out of 5]

He’s got a point, y’know

[Floris]

In this book Federico Marcon traces the development of a kind of natural-history-cum-materia-medica-cum-agronomy in Japan called honzōgaku. He aims to correct the assumption that “enlightening” in the sense of scientific modernity is indisputably a Western (European) phenomenon. This book shows that there was a Japanese kind of enlightening happening as well around the same time. In that sense it is both concerned with the empirics of nomenclature development as well as the metaphysical relationship between knowledge, nature, and society. The way he analyses honzōgaku is familiar to scholars of the (European) Enlightenment: he looks at the professionalisation of specialised scholars, advancements in agriculture, the relationship between economic policies and developments in the sciences, the emergence of popular entertainment and pastimes, and intellectual discourses related to flora and fauna (Chap 1). As a result, the approach fostered by honzōgaku scholars to nature reflects those approaches seen in the Enlightenment, including practices of collection, observation, representation, and the creation of taxonomies. By demonstrating how a kind of scientific enlightenment played out in Japan Marcon helps to de-center the dominant European narrative of the scientific revolution, whilst providing many scholars in the “West” with a valuable insight into Japanese natural history. Of course, not all of the interactions Marcon describes are specific to Japan. He strongly emphasises, for example, how nature and the naturalist continuously “make” one another, which is recognisable anywhere in the world. He also believes that by studying how scholars sought to classify nature we gain a deeper insight into the needs of the societies they lived in (Chapter 2). He uses this particularly to explain the neo-Confucian idea of symmetry between natural history and linguistics (things=names). The book isn’t an entirely pleasant reading experience, though. Certain arguments are introduced at the end of chapters and treated too superficially. I should also say that I was pretty put off by his jargon-y style throughout the text, which had an unpleasant tone of showing-off to it at times.

[Yeast · Rating 4 out of 5]

7/10 A book on honzogaku in its Japanese and international (i.e. Chinese and Korean) context. While it begins with a Critical-Theory-ish and STS-ish exegesis of the interrelation between material/economic condition, concept, and the agency of objects, eventually this book adopts a more conventional intellectual-cultural history approach to its subject.

The author tries hard to simultaneously compare the focus of "natural object" in honzogaku and western science, and avoid the "honzogaku is just (an incomplete?) scientific revolution in Japan" type of argument. He largely succeeds - though I feel he can emphasize more on the controversy generated during the successive transformation of honzogaku as well as on the response of rural society to this mainly urban, if popular, cultural phenomenon.

Overall, highly recommend to historians of science or people interested in environment & society in general.

[Erica · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fabulous book arguing that honzogaku--natural history and scientific rigor in Japan--sprouted contemporaneously but separate from Western Enlightenment. I am not a scholar of Japan, but learned a lot--and clearly this book has lots of applications for the history of science and natural history/art in college classrooms.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

Phenomenal

I just loved this. I did not expect the amount of political discussion or the depth of history and philosophy that this topic would lead to. I learned a lot.

[Sven Waldmann · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very informative lecture about how knowledge was created and passed on in feudal Japan.

['Izzat Radzi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Review much later this week.
Too many notes and a long list of further reads in the references.