What is the reason why the scientific revolution was not born in China, which has a long cultural history?

The basic reason for the scientific and technological revolutions, apart from the need for production, is the nurturing of culture. Why was the scientific revolution not born in China, which has a long cultural history?

Ancient China's holistic cosmology of the unity of man and heaven holds that everything in the world is subject to the general law of the universe as a whole, i.e., the Mandate of Heaven. This law governs the non-living and living worlds, nature and society, and even man and God, but it belongs only to the universe as a whole. The Divine Mandate and human ethics are considered to be one and the same,which can only be experienced through cultivation of the body and mind, but cannot be recognized through experience or practice.

From the viewpoint of modern systems theory, the traditional Chinese view of nature belongs to the absolute holistic conception of systems. It believes that the universe is a unified whole; but it also believes that it can only be recognized as an absolute whole, not from the parts that make it up. It opposes both the analytical method of taking nature other than human beings as the object of cognition, and the decomposition of nature into parts to be cognized; and the comprehensive method of generalizing the laws of the whole from the specific laws of each part. It denies the existence of intermediate laws in the cosmic system, and denies that there is an intermediate level of necessary connection between "providence" and experience.

Ancient Chinese science and technology were characterized by their practical and empirical nature, but they lacked the abstract thinking and knowledge of laws that transcended perceptual experience. Under the constraints of the traditional view of nature, ancient Chinese science was bound to be between the philosophical speculation of a strong polemical nature and the production experience and technical science full of practical spirit. Theoretical science left a blank area. This traditional thinking that all empirical science is directly governed by the "fate of heaven", "heavenly chance". Therefore, whether it is a technician who serves the production on the ground, a scientist, or a philosopher who meditates on the riddle of the universe, they all feel the necessity of studying theoretical sciences and even logical theories.

While the traditional Chinese conception of nature as a whole contains profound ideas and will bring valuable insights to the science of future generations,it is the blank space in theoretical science that has blocked the necessary path of evolutionary development of ancient Chinese science to modern science.

Compared with the ancient Chinese view of nature, the ancient Greek philosophy of nature, which represents the core of the traditional culture of Western antiquity, insists on a holistic view of the world's understanding as did the ancient Chinese view of nature, but its holism is not absolutist, and it is premised on the distinction between nature and human beings and on the recognition that human beings can, through the knowledge of the laws of the intermediate level, realize the totality of the natural world. But its holism is not absolutist; it is premised on the distinction between nature and man and the recognition that man can recognize the totality of nature through the recognition of intermediate levels of law. Although the intermediate-level laws were still obscure in ancient Greek natural science, which made the view of nature based on them highly speculative, it did, after all, quietly set up a channel from ancient science to modern science--such as the logical method, the axiomatic method, and so on.

In fact, the splendid achievements of ancient Chinese science and technology have fully demonstrated how rich the traditional Chinese culture has provided the development of science and technology with ideological nutrients and how broad the living space. Due to the limitations of the productivity level of feudal society, the importance of theoretical science has not yet been fully demonstrated, so the defects of the ancient Chinese view of nature are not yet enough to have a decisive impact on the materialization of science and technology.

However, while the real power of ancient Chinese science and technology was far ahead of the world, the lack of intermediate theoretical sciences determined the potential power of the scientific and technological revolution of the next era--the transcendental elements of spiritual science and technology.

The transformation of Chinese science and technology from leading to lagging behind is not just a process of transformation in modern history. This process has long been latent in Chinese feudal society, and has been manifesting itself gradually with the development of history. The backward and conservative side of traditional Chinese culture cannot but be responsible for this - not only the view of nature, but also the backward and conservative concepts in all aspects.

People must remember that in the modern scientific and technological revolution in Europe and the great changes in society as a whole, China's scientific and technological achievements of papermaking, printing, compass, gunpowder played an important role: the compass helped the emerging bourgeoisie in Europe to open up new territories, providing sufficient natural resources and living space; papermaking and printing became an important means of wide dissemination of science and advanced ideas; gunpowder was a major tool in the development of the Chinese culture. Paper-making and printing became the important means to widely disseminate science and advanced ideas; gunpowder became the material power of the Western bourgeoisie to destroy the feudal power and the Western civilization to defeat the Eastern civilization. The reason why China, the hometown of the four great inventions mentioned above, has not been able to use them to win the competition in modern scientific and technological progress and social change, The backward and conservative side of traditional Chinese culture can not be an important reason for the restraints and confinement.

The Chinese, who first invented the use of the compass and based on it developed a navigation technology that was far ahead of the rest of the world, were not among the pioneers of the world's great modern geographic discoveries. China's Tang Dynasty can build more than 60 meters long sea ship, and the Ming Dynasty Zheng He went to the West China Sea fleet is huge, including the length of more than 100 meters of large treasure ship more than 40 to 60, of which the largest length of up to 150 meters, the entire fleet of generals and other personnel **** more than 27,000 people. And in Zheng He after half a century after the discovery of the New World Columbus voyage fleet is only 88 people, divided into three about 19 meters long boat.

The failure of China to participate in the development of the New World, despite its powerful maritime technology, was due not only to its faulty geographic concepts, but also to many conservative concepts of traditional Chinese culture, such as the narrow concept of the native land (almost no one would be willing to leave their home towns for the purpose of exploring the New World, and the focus was only on "raising the prestige of the Kingdom" and "comforting" the country), the idea of the "native land", and the idea of the "national prestige". " (Zheng He's voyage was terminated due to serious economic losses, while half a century later the Portuguese Dagama's voyage to India via the Cape of Good Hope was 60 times more profitable than the cost of the voyage) and so on.

It is an irony of history that the Chinese, who first invented gunpowder and the use of gunpowder weapons, were finally defeated by the Western "foreign guns". It is also a typical example of how the conservative concepts of traditional Chinese culture hindered the technological revolution. Not only had gunpowder and gunpowder weapons been used in the military as early as the Song Dynasty, but there were ample opportunities to reintroduce and use gunpowder technology even after it had reached the West and evolved into modern artillery technology. For example, during the Ming Dynasty, China had already begun to import some European firearms, including the Franconian gun, the Dutch-made "red barbaric gun" and so on.

The late Ming and early Qing dynasty German missionary Tang Ruowang, Belgian missionary Nan Huairen also for the Chinese government to design and preside over the manufacture of Western-style artillery, ammunition, landmines and so on. In the European merchant ships often in and out of the Chinese waters of the Ming Dynasty after a few hundred years of time, to introduce the use of advanced Western weapons, in fact, China is not a very difficult thing, and hindered the revolution of China's military technology at that time, is still the traditional Chinese culture of the kind of "heaven is unchanged, the road is also unchanged!


The Chinese military revolution is still hampered by the traditional Chinese culture of "heaven remains unchanged, and the Tao also remains unchanged", the maintenance of the "ancestral system", the opposition to the change of the conservative concepts and the "dynasty" of the self-proclaimed, contempt for foreign cultures, foreign science and technology of mentality.

Because the core of traditional Chinese culture is the unity of man and heaven, the maintenance of the hierarchical order of the ethical concepts, natural sciences, as well as very close to the national life of the technical sciences, production science are placed in a secondary position, and advocate a change in the existing order of the new ideas are regarded as the beasts of the sea and guarded against. Thus, ancient China, which was the first country in the world to invent and widely utilize paper and printing presses, and to use these means of communication to achieve the full development of education and culture, basically only created a large number of people who only wanted to make a name for themselves. Not caring about the fate of the country and the nation, not caring about the natural sciences of the corrupt Confucians, resulting in a wide penetration of the Confucian ethical concepts deep into the poor countryside, but not in the dissemination of science and technology and advanced thinking to make due achievements.

However, although it is difficult for traditional Chinese culture to spontaneously generate modern science and technology, it can still cause a scientific and technological revolution and ideological revolution in China by absorbing foreign advanced culture and science. Only, this process was realized only after China had gone through intense cultural and social conflicts and paid the price of a much delayed time.

When the modern scientific and technological revolution inevitably affected China, we found that a fruitful scientific and technological revolution can only take place after a broad and profound intellectual and cultural revolution. The real rise of China's modern scientific and technological revolution and the vigorous development of China's national modern industry were built on the basis of the educational reforms that began with the Hundred Days' Reform and the abolition of the imperial examinations and the achievements of the ideological and cultural revolution of the May Fourth Movement.

History has already told us: Only by fully absorbing foreign science and technology and other advanced ideas, holding high the banner of science and democracy, and thoroughly criticizing the hierarchical ethical concepts that are the dregs of traditional Chinese culture, the pedantic concepts of using the past as a pretext for opposing the present and opposing change, and the foolish concepts of arrogance, blind exclusion, and belittling of science, modern science and technology, it is possible to realize the development of modern science and technology in all fields of society. It is only then that they can really begin to replace the outdated and outmoded traditional science and technology in all areas of society.