Science and Civilisation in China, Part 7, Military Technology: The Gunpowder Epic: 5
Cambridge University Press
Edition: Illustrated, 1/22/1987
EAN 9780521303583, ISBN10: 0521303583
Hardcover, 742 pages, 31 x 21.4 x 6.1 cm
Language: English
Originally published in English
The Gunpowder Epic is one of three planned publications on military technology within Dr Needham's immense undertaking. The discovery of gunpowder in China by the 9th century AD was followed by its rapid applications. It is now clear that the whole development from bombs and grenades to the invention of the metal-barrel hand gun took place in the Chinese culture area before Europeans had any knowledge of the mixture itself. Uses in civil engineering and mechanical engineering were equally important, before the knowledge of gunpowder spread to Europe in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. Dr Needham's new work continues to demonstrate the major importance of Chinese science and technology to world history and maintains the tradition of one of the great scholarly works of the twentieth century.
1. Prefaces; 2. Foreword Joseph Needham; 3. Science and society in east and west Joseph Needham; 4. The roles of Europe and China in the evolution of ecumenical science Joseph Needham; 5. The nature of Chinese society: a technical interpretation Huang Jen-yü and Joseph Needham; 6. History and human values: a Chinese perspective for science and technology Joseph Needham; 7. Literary Chinese as a language for science Kenneth Robinson and Joseph Needham; 8. General conclusions; 9. Joseph Needham: a soliloquy Kenneth Robinson; Bibliographies.
"[An] astonishing and enduring study...[Needham brings] depth of emotion and technical finesse to his task." Jonathan Spence, New York Review of Books "Perhaps the greatest single act of historical synthesis and intercultural communication ever attempted by one man." Laurence Picken, Cambridge University