Lecture to Royal Asiatic Society —Myth of Ancient Chinese Scientific Wisdom Exploded "Science in Ancient China" was the subject of an interesting address given on Thursday to members of the Royal Asiatic Society by Dr. Herbert Chatley. There is a popular belief, said the lecturer, common to old China hands as well as the Chinese themselves, that ancient China possessed extraordinary wisdom in the physical sciences. Strictly speaking, however, the ancient world knew such thing as science, either in the East or the West, as understood in the modern sense of the word, that is to say: method based en the conception of complete consistency between fact and idea and involving complete agreement between the two. China had nevertheless made important contributions to knowledge.
Tueory oF Evouvrion, There were three great periods of intellectual activity in China: the primitive period of Yao and Shun, the middle period of Confucius and his school, and the late period of the philosopher Chu—about the time of the Plantagenets. The general philosophy associated with the jock of Changes professed to explain the evolution of the Universe in terms of the great positive and negative principles, providing a system upon which all Chinese philosophy has been framed and having for one of its leading ideas the polarity, or sex character, of all things—a fact to which more attention migh. well be given. Some idea of ne scientific literature of China can be gained from Wylie's biography, said the lecturer, and one cannot but be struck with the enormous part played by letters in China. The characters have become almost divine in Chinese eyes, and for many centuries extraordinary importance has been attached to literature as such. At the same time, the involved character of the language has proved a hindrance to the acquisition of real knowledge.
The lecturer proceeded to give an outline of the Chinese records in various branches of science. {n the Book of History there are early references to astronomy, touching upon the sun, moon and planets and the chronological cycles. Mathematics were developed up to the solution of complex equations, arrived at before the Jesuit missionaries added so considerably to this branch of learning. In meteorology, the early interest in the subject was noted, and some interesting comment offered ty the lecturer upon the development of the calendar. In geology, the early reference to fossils and development of the theory of periodic cataclysms wis mentioned, the speaker following this with notes on chemistry, the story of alchemy, and the practical use made of chemical knowledge in the arts of metallurgy, ceramics, and
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.