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The Genius of China: 3000 Years of Science, Discovery and Invention
It is one of the ironies of history that the Chinese, who had all the ingredients for modern science long before the Renaissance, failed to build on their immense knowledge. Today, very few people are aware of the vast body of Chinese invention. The suspension bridge, the fishing reel, the stirrup, the parachute, paper money, playing cards, the decimal system, the seismograph, negative numbers, brandy, rudders, cranks, movable type, matches, steroids as drugs, propellers, biological pest control—all these and many more were Chinese inventions. This volume traces the stunning achievements of ancient and medieval China.
254 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1986
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Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
January 29, 2012
Let me start my one-star review by saying that this book can be pretty fun, and that there are good reasons to read it. If you like steampunk or are looking for inspiration for a role-playing game, go for it. Just don't use it to learn anything about the history of science. I know Joseph Needham says nice things about it, but I can't believe he actually read it. From what I've seen of Needham's Science and Civilisation in China, he tries to document and support all of his claims. Robert Temple does not. Let's look at some examples. Keep in mind that I read this in 1997, and I'm going from notes I made at the time.
In one chapter (page 84 of the copy I read), Temple claims that some ancient Chinese wheelbarrows carried sails and could travel at 40 miles per hour. That's a nice image, and it really needs to be in a movie or a video game. However, for documentation, Temple refers the reader to a later section (pages 195 and 196). Here, he admits that the sails probably just helped people carry heavy loads. So, no high-speed wheelbarrows.
On pages 144 and 145, he talks about the value of pi. He claims that a fifth-century father-and-son team of mathematicians managed to compute pi out to ten decimal places, or 3.1415929203. He compares this to Europe, where even 1,100 years later, the best calculation (also by a father-and-son team) only made it to 3.1415929. This would be really impressive, except for a couple of things. First, the first ten digits of pi aren't 3.1415929203. It's good up until 3.141592, but then, so is the European one. Second, Europe had a much more accurate (as in more correct digits) estimate for pi before 1600. I'm not arguing that the Chinese calculation isn't impressive. It is, but Temple isn't at all shy about editing the facts to make his story sound better.
On pages 127 through 131, Temple describes a really fantastic process by which Chinese chemists brewed amazing chemicals out of human urine. That also needs to appear in a movie. Maybe. However, at the very end of this section, he admits that he doesn't have the faintest idea if they actually made any of those chemicals or not. In other words, it sounded cool, so he wrote it down.
On pages 64 and 65, Temple explains how Chinese engineers invented the "essentials" of a steam engine centuries before anyone else. A steam engine is a device that converts the energy in steam into some more useable form. One would think, then, that the "essentials" of a steam engine would involve steam, and possibly using it to do something. Not according to Temple. For him, the "essentials" are a wheel and some pistons. There's water involved, but it isn't steam. It's a water wheel hooked up to some pistons to transfer energy. That's cool, and it would make a great background for one of the stages in an arcade fighting game, but it is by no means a steam engine.
There are just the examples I felt like making notes on. There are some chapters that I didn't find huge errors in, but those were the chapters on topics I knew nothing about.
I guess I can summarize by saying that Robert Temple has a very vivid imagination, and rather than writing about the history of Chinese science or how space aliens gave super-science to a group of people in Africa, he should be the art director for the next steampunk action film. If you are interested in the history of Chinese science, see if you can find a library that has Joseph Needham's books instead. In fact, you really should go find Needham's books. The things Chinese scientists and engineers actually did a thousand or more years ago will blow your mind and make you wonder why Robert Temple needed to make stuff up.
In one chapter (page 84 of the copy I read), Temple claims that some ancient Chinese wheelbarrows carried sails and could travel at 40 miles per hour. That's a nice image, and it really needs to be in a movie or a video game. However, for documentation, Temple refers the reader to a later section (pages 195 and 196). Here, he admits that the sails probably just helped people carry heavy loads. So, no high-speed wheelbarrows.
On pages 144 and 145, he talks about the value of pi. He claims that a fifth-century father-and-son team of mathematicians managed to compute pi out to ten decimal places, or 3.1415929203. He compares this to Europe, where even 1,100 years later, the best calculation (also by a father-and-son team) only made it to 3.1415929. This would be really impressive, except for a couple of things. First, the first ten digits of pi aren't 3.1415929203. It's good up until 3.141592, but then, so is the European one. Second, Europe had a much more accurate (as in more correct digits) estimate for pi before 1600. I'm not arguing that the Chinese calculation isn't impressive. It is, but Temple isn't at all shy about editing the facts to make his story sound better.
On pages 127 through 131, Temple describes a really fantastic process by which Chinese chemists brewed amazing chemicals out of human urine. That also needs to appear in a movie. Maybe. However, at the very end of this section, he admits that he doesn't have the faintest idea if they actually made any of those chemicals or not. In other words, it sounded cool, so he wrote it down.
On pages 64 and 65, Temple explains how Chinese engineers invented the "essentials" of a steam engine centuries before anyone else. A steam engine is a device that converts the energy in steam into some more useable form. One would think, then, that the "essentials" of a steam engine would involve steam, and possibly using it to do something. Not according to Temple. For him, the "essentials" are a wheel and some pistons. There's water involved, but it isn't steam. It's a water wheel hooked up to some pistons to transfer energy. That's cool, and it would make a great background for one of the stages in an arcade fighting game, but it is by no means a steam engine.
There are just the examples I felt like making notes on. There are some chapters that I didn't find huge errors in, but those were the chapters on topics I knew nothing about.
I guess I can summarize by saying that Robert Temple has a very vivid imagination, and rather than writing about the history of Chinese science or how space aliens gave super-science to a group of people in Africa, he should be the art director for the next steampunk action film. If you are interested in the history of Chinese science, see if you can find a library that has Joseph Needham's books instead. In fact, you really should go find Needham's books. The things Chinese scientists and engineers actually did a thousand or more years ago will blow your mind and make you wonder why Robert Temple needed to make stuff up.
May 20, 2024
This book has some nice photos and graphics, possibly a few quibbles I could raise, but nothing important. It's a good layperson's to the subject, the only serious issue is age, the original based on Needham's work is almost 40 years old, though this edition was published in 2007. Still a decent read given that, and while China didn't invent everything, they sure tried to.
February 19, 2022
Interesting bit of science history although some assertions might not be true.
June 5, 2015
Review title: What China did first
Iis pretty much everything, says Temple. This book pays tribute to the fruits of a large population over long periods of time with an empirical mindset.
First a bit of history (a subject the Chinese probably invented, although too broad to be cataloged here). Temple is a devotee of Joseph Needham, the scientist turned Sinologist made famous by Simon Winchester's biography The man who loved China. The Genius of China is in fact an authorized synopsis of the massive Science and Civilisation in China (13 volumes published in 1986 when Temple wrote, 24 at the time of Winchester's 2008 biography, and still in progress despite Needham's passing in 1995) of which Needham is the author/editor. Clearly, such a mass of data is not likely to be affordable or accessible to the average reader, so Temple performs a valuable service with his synopsis.
And the data is staggering. The endpapers show graphically not just the date of precedence for the Chinese inventions and discoveries in the various fields of science, engineering, medicine, technology, mathematics, transportation, exploration and warfare, but by horizontal bar graph the lag before adoption or reinvention in the west. The lag is typically measured in several centuries, even millennia. Arranged encyclopedicly, the book has an entry for each discovery or invention that documents the event, with the earliest date for reliable contemporary evidence, and pictures of the device or discovery, sometimes from contemporary sources, sometimes from photographs of current iterations of it.
If you have read Winchester's biography or otherwise know something of Needham's life, you can expect that this book isn't just a history of technology and discovery, but a history with a purpose, to show that China was and is superior to the West in its ways of thinking. The comments sometimes quoted from Needham and sometimes directly from Temple about the long lags and European deficiencies in understanding and applying the Chinese advances can be quite snarky, even inappropriate for a scholarly journal. But then this isn't a scholarly journal, is it? It is a popularization of a massive undertaking by a committed and confirmed apologist for Chinese supremacy in these areas, so take it with whatever dosage of salt you feel is appropriate.
But you must in any case be impressed with the body of knowledge compiled here. As I said in my lead, it is a testimony to the incredible inventive power of large populations of people with an empirical mindset over long periods of time in a society with a stable language, culture, and government. As Temple points out, many of the Chinese inventions were empirically discovered and applied to solve specific problems without processing through rigorous scientific methods to understand or extend the implications to theory or other applications.
The introductory essays by Needham and Temple briefly address some key questions that the book will raise to the perceptive reader:
1. Why did it take so long for the West to rediscover or adopt these ideas?
2. Why were so many of these ideas lost or forgotten even within China so that the Western rediscovery seems to be unique and new, even to China?
3. Why did this inventiveness seem to reach a peak and then fade out sometime around the 14th century?
4. Might the answers to any of these questions be related to each other and to the increasing contact between China and the West starting around the time of Marco Polo?
This book doesn't undertake to answer these questions, just to dazzle with the breadth of Chinese precedence in science, discovery, and invention, and it serves nicely.
Iis pretty much everything, says Temple. This book pays tribute to the fruits of a large population over long periods of time with an empirical mindset.
First a bit of history (a subject the Chinese probably invented, although too broad to be cataloged here). Temple is a devotee of Joseph Needham, the scientist turned Sinologist made famous by Simon Winchester's biography The man who loved China. The Genius of China is in fact an authorized synopsis of the massive Science and Civilisation in China (13 volumes published in 1986 when Temple wrote, 24 at the time of Winchester's 2008 biography, and still in progress despite Needham's passing in 1995) of which Needham is the author/editor. Clearly, such a mass of data is not likely to be affordable or accessible to the average reader, so Temple performs a valuable service with his synopsis.
And the data is staggering. The endpapers show graphically not just the date of precedence for the Chinese inventions and discoveries in the various fields of science, engineering, medicine, technology, mathematics, transportation, exploration and warfare, but by horizontal bar graph the lag before adoption or reinvention in the west. The lag is typically measured in several centuries, even millennia. Arranged encyclopedicly, the book has an entry for each discovery or invention that documents the event, with the earliest date for reliable contemporary evidence, and pictures of the device or discovery, sometimes from contemporary sources, sometimes from photographs of current iterations of it.
If you have read Winchester's biography or otherwise know something of Needham's life, you can expect that this book isn't just a history of technology and discovery, but a history with a purpose, to show that China was and is superior to the West in its ways of thinking. The comments sometimes quoted from Needham and sometimes directly from Temple about the long lags and European deficiencies in understanding and applying the Chinese advances can be quite snarky, even inappropriate for a scholarly journal. But then this isn't a scholarly journal, is it? It is a popularization of a massive undertaking by a committed and confirmed apologist for Chinese supremacy in these areas, so take it with whatever dosage of salt you feel is appropriate.
But you must in any case be impressed with the body of knowledge compiled here. As I said in my lead, it is a testimony to the incredible inventive power of large populations of people with an empirical mindset over long periods of time in a society with a stable language, culture, and government. As Temple points out, many of the Chinese inventions were empirically discovered and applied to solve specific problems without processing through rigorous scientific methods to understand or extend the implications to theory or other applications.
The introductory essays by Needham and Temple briefly address some key questions that the book will raise to the perceptive reader:
1. Why did it take so long for the West to rediscover or adopt these ideas?
2. Why were so many of these ideas lost or forgotten even within China so that the Western rediscovery seems to be unique and new, even to China?
3. Why did this inventiveness seem to reach a peak and then fade out sometime around the 14th century?
4. Might the answers to any of these questions be related to each other and to the increasing contact between China and the West starting around the time of Marco Polo?
This book doesn't undertake to answer these questions, just to dazzle with the breadth of Chinese precedence in science, discovery, and invention, and it serves nicely.
March 20, 2017
The perfect answer to knowing more of China's history of inventions without having to buy all of Needham's volumes.
June 17, 2021
Great overview of the topic and a wonderful job on the illustrations and appendices. I did notice one error. On p. 100 it mentions "second century AD", but it's clear from earlier context it means "second century BC".
September 3, 2025
A great book on contributions to the world from Chinese culture. Some of the contributions and claims are subject to debate though.
June 20, 2013
Excellent book on inventions and discovery that originated in China by Robert Temple, a disciple of Dr Joseph Needham.
One question is whether these ideas originated in China and migrated to Europe, or whether they were independently developed in Europe. On the migration side, Temple provides numerous period records that support the migration. However, in some cases the link is not documented and it would appear that the idea was independent, but later.
The best part of the book is the detail. For example, printing started around 700, with many of the sets of blocks surviving today (one set is 81,258 blocks). Unlike today, the blocks were used for short runs with the blocks being stored until the demand supported a new run.
Also some amusing stories. Their first use of paper money lead to firsts in inflation and counterfeiting!
Much of the detail is fascinating and leads to further reading.
One question is whether these ideas originated in China and migrated to Europe, or whether they were independently developed in Europe. On the migration side, Temple provides numerous period records that support the migration. However, in some cases the link is not documented and it would appear that the idea was independent, but later.
The best part of the book is the detail. For example, printing started around 700, with many of the sets of blocks surviving today (one set is 81,258 blocks). Unlike today, the blocks were used for short runs with the blocks being stored until the demand supported a new run.
Also some amusing stories. Their first use of paper money lead to firsts in inflation and counterfeiting!
Much of the detail is fascinating and leads to further reading.
Read
May 22, 2007So the book is kinda outdated (the editors proudly assert that the abacus is still the primary form of number-crunching in the modern Chinese bank,) but it doesn't detract from the book. Apparently, almost everything worth inventing up until the 18th century, was invented by the Chinese. Undoubtedly, the authors have a tendentious view of history, but nonetheless, it's amazing how the Chinese were able to maintain such a berth of technological superiority vis a vis the rest of the world for the better part of recorded human history.
November 30, 2016
Το ένα από τα πέντε αστέρια το δίνω στην εξαιρετική έκδοση. Σκληρόδετο εξώφυλλο. Πανέμοφη μακέτα στο εξώφυλλο. Ιλουστρασιόν χαρτί. Εικονογράφηση πλούσια. Διαγράμματα, χρονολόγια και πολλά άλλα διαφωτιστικά στοιχεία.
Τα 4 αστέρια πηγαίνουν στο περιεχόμενο. Εξαιρετική ερμηνευτική προσέγγιση. Αναλύει πράγματα που δεν τα γνωρίζει ο καθένας. Με λίγα λόγια αναφέρει ότι η δύση δεν θα ήταν τίποτα χωρίς τις κινέζικες ανακαλύψεις. Χρήσιμο σε όλους τους σκεπτόμενους ανθρώπους που θέλουν να εμπλουτίσουν τις γνώσεις τους.
Τα 4 αστέρια πηγαίνουν στο περιεχόμενο. Εξαιρετική ερμηνευτική προσέγγιση. Αναλύει πράγματα που δεν τα γνωρίζει ο καθένας. Με λίγα λόγια αναφέρει ότι η δύση δεν θα ήταν τίποτα χωρίς τις κινέζικες ανακαλύψεις. Χρήσιμο σε όλους τους σκεπτόμενους ανθρώπους που θέλουν να εμπλουτίσουν τις γνώσεις τους.
January 8, 2009
Joseph Needham says in his Foreward, "It is, in its own way, a brilliant distillation of my Science and Civilization in China, published by the Cambridge University Press, a work which will be complete in some twenty-five volumes and of which fifteen have now appeared or are passing through the press."
October 15, 2013
A truly wonderful book! The information is concise and interesting and the proof to back up that the Chinese were one of the most advance people on earth is incredible. Here in the history of China before Europeans that there was hope for humanity, up to a certain point as their weapons of warfare were decidedly deadly.
August 19, 2013
An absolutely marvelous book. The pictures were amazing. The combined work of Robert Temple and Joseph Needham was fantastic. It just goes to show how little regard Western cultures have for other cultures and like to conveniently forget how achievements were made.
November 6, 2015
Πάρα πολύ αναλυτικό και σε σημεία βαρυφορτωμένο βιβλίο, με πλούσια εικογράφηση. Οι με αδύναμη όραση να κρατούν μεγεθυντικό φακό, η γραμματοσειρά είναι εξάρα.
Πολλά είναι εκπληκτικά διαφωτιστικά, αλλά είναι και φορές που ο συγγραφέας ρέπει προς την υπερβολή.
Πολλά είναι εκπληκτικά διαφωτιστικά, αλλά είναι και φορές που ο συγγραφέας ρέπει προς την υπερβολή.
July 26, 2011
Not the most elegant prose, but an eye-opening book nevertheless. Temple and Needham illustrate the enormous debt the modern world owes the ancient Chines.
didnt-finish
December 2, 2011Only read the first chapter, but there were no citations and no analysis of *why* China as so innovative. Also, Game of Thrones began dominating my reading life. So. Back to the library.
August 14, 2011
Invaluable!!!! A must read.
April 29, 2013
Interesting read about the innovative ancient Chinese.
December 6, 2011
Hummm hummmm
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews