The Chinese Journal for the History of Science and technology  NO.1 2000

Dissemination and Repercussion of the Idea of a Spherical Earth in China from Late Ming to Early Qing……CHEN Meidong ;CHEN Hui

【Abstract】 Matteo Ricci shocked China in 1583 with the idea that the earth is a sphere, which was followed by the flood of scientific papers in which his missionary followers defended this idea with a variety of arguments. What they had painstakingly achieved prepared a theoretical ground for the reception of the spherical-carth idea throughout China. Since the beginning of the 17th century, the idea of a spherical earth had been widely recognized by a number of distinguished Chinese scholars, such as Xu Guangqi, Li Zhizao and Wang Yingmin, and subsequently, Xiong Mingyu, Fang Yizhi, Jie Zuang and You Yi in the next seventy years. Approved by Emperor Kangxi and advocated by the mathematician Mei Wending to beat the opposition from Wang Fuzhi and Yang Guangxian who maintained that China was the origin of European sciences, the idea of a spherical earth continued to spread.

Returned Members of the Association of Chinese Scientific Workers in U. S. A ……DUAN Yibing

【Abstract】 The Chinese Association of Scientific Workers was founded on July 1, 1945 and its division in U. S. A., the Association of Chinese Scientific Workers in USA, was founded on June 18, 1949. The division grew rapidly in number and influence among the Chinese students learning in USA. There were 714 members on May 1, 1950. After the establishment of P. R. China, the members responded to the China's call of returning to construct their motherland. This paper shows 182 members returned and most of them did contribute to P. R. China's science and technology, including 61 among them who became Academicians of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

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A Chronological Table for Officials Serving in the Division of Astronomy of the Qing Dynasty Qintianjian……SHI Yumin

【Abstract】 The Division of Astronomy of the Qing Dynasty Qintianjian (Imperial Board of Astronomy) observed astronomical phenomena and recorded propitious omens. The firsthand observations were available for calendar and astrology. This paper inquires into the evolution of the division and compiles a chronological table of officials who served in it.

Further Discussion on the Establishment of the Department of Biology of Peking University in 1925……XUE Pangao

【Abstract】 According to relevant historical materials, this essay reiterates that the Department of Biology of Peking University was set up in 1925, not in 1926 or 1920.

Restoration of the Fan Memorial Institute of Biology……HU Zonggang

【Abstract】 The Fan Memorial Institute of Biology in Peiping was a very famous institute of biology during the Period of the Republic of China. After China's victory in the War of Resistance Against Japan, the institute started to rebuild under the leadership of Hsien-Hsu Hu. Because of civil war, inflation and the extreme lack of funds, it had not been restored to its former state before the war although some successes had been achieved through arduous effort. Based on historical archieves, this article recounts the historical facts during that time.

The Earliest Hitherto Discovered Illustration Named Zheng He Going to the South Seas in the Book Tianfei Jing……JIN Qiupeng

【Abstract】 Zheng He going to the South Seas is a significant affair in the history of world matritime navigation. But for a long period, there is no related picture about the treasure ship to be referred to. In this paper, the author intreduces the illustration named Zheng He Going to the South Seas which was newly found in the book Tianfei Jing. The shape of the team of ships in the illustration could be regarded as a proof that Zheng He's treasure ship is of the Fu type.

The Chinese Map in the Books of Samuel Purchas……DU Shiran; DU Fang

【Abstract】 The same map has been found in the books of Samuel Purchas, Purchas: Hs Pilgrimage (4th edition, 1626, London) and Purchas: His Pilgrime (lstedition, 1625, London). These two books were discovered in the collection of the library of Bukkyo University in Jatpan. This paper attempts to give some discussion on the map which may be related to Matteo Ricci.

On Five Kinds of Processed Paper in Ming Dynasty……FAN Jialu; ZHANG Binglun; FANG Xiaoyang

【Abstract】 This essay systematically studies the technoloical process of the following four kinds of processed paper recorded in several books of Ming Dynasty: paper dyed with juice of sunflower leaf (kui Jian), paper printed with golden or silvery material (jin yin yin hua jian), paper lightly sized with Chinese honey locust juice, and paper soaked with holyhock juice and beaten repeatedly with a cane. Meanwhile, some mistakes about them are corrected. In addition , a brief introduction is given to another new paper-processing material of the same period.

Trial-manufacture and Use of European Astronomical Instruments in the Late Ming Dynasty……ZHANG Baichun

【Abstract】 Round about 1600, Matthieu Ricci, an Italian Jesuit missionary, trial-produced such European instruments as celestial globes, astrolabes and sundials to stimulate Chinese people,s interests in Western civilization and religion. After 1629, under the leadership of Xu Guangqi and Li Tianjing, Jean Terrenz, Jacques Rho and Adam Schall von Bell instructed their co-wokers in manufacturing European-style instruments at the Astronomical Bureau. Before the end of 1644, they had made such astronomical instruments as quadrants, sextants, zodiacal-equatorial armillary spheres,telescopes, most of which were small-size instruments. Astronomers used them to observe eclipses and other astronomical phenomena.

Tianbu Zhenyuan and the Early Diffusion of Copernican Astronomy in China……SHI Yunli

【Abstract】 This paper points out that the Western source of the Tianbu Zhenyuan, which was translated into Chinese by Jean-Nicolas Smogolenski in the early Qing dynasty, turns out to be the Tabulae motuum coelestium perpetuae composed by Philip von Lansberge, a Belgium astronomer who was an exponent of Copernican astronomy and based his tables on the heliocentric system.Judged from Smogolenski's purpose in translating these tables and the fact that several Chinese scholars learnt the Western geo-kinetic doctrine from him, it seems quite plausible that Smogolenski used heliocentric models in his original translation of these tables, whereas when Xue Fengzuo adapted the tables for his Lixue Huitong, the positions of the sun and the earth in these models were interchanged.

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