Don't let the title fool you. This is not just about China, this is about the human condition. Someone with an imagination should have worked on the title and given it a bit more excitement. I almost skipped reading the book because the title seemed so dry.
I read this book twice and will probably read it, again. The author's presentation is simply masterful. Step by step, he recreates the setting and background for the book's creation and utilization. In fact, he walks the reader through about 2000 years of 'uses' that people found for the book. According to Cullen, this classic was probably a gift to a Chinese emperor and then dumped in a back room for 200 years. It was only when political circumstances changed and an 'old' book might be valuable that it was 'rediscovered' and rendered useful.
For anyone interested in the practice of ancient astronomy, Cullen goes into great detail on the tools and practice of Chinese astronomers from about 3000 BC to the arrival of Jesuits in 1600. For anyone interested in Chinese political history, Cullen explores imperial Chinese history in a way that simply makes one want to read much, much more. For anyone interested in ancient Chinese record keeping, Cullen offers practical advice on what to make of the 'documents' we moderns discover.
I hope they make this a paperback so that it can get wider circulation. What is commonly called 'the history of math' is often embarrassingly western (ethno-centric). This book offers a means of correcting that unfortunate state of affairs.
Author(s): Robert Wardy
Series: Needham Research Institute Studies
Edition: annotated edition
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Year: 2000
Language: English
Pages: 184
Cover......Page 1
Half-title......Page 3
Series-tilte......Page 5
Title......Page 7
Copyright......Page 8
Contents......Page 9
Preface......Page 11
1 Introduction......Page 15
2 Guidance and constraint......Page 17
3.1 Whorf ’s hypothesis......Page 25
3.2 Deflationary philosophical anthropology......Page 30
3.3 Von Humboldt’s legacy......Page 33
4 Case-study 1: conditionals......Page 39
5 Case-study 2: Chinese is a list......Page 44
6.1 Against ‘logical’ translation......Page 49
6.2 Why form might matter......Page 53
6.3 Procrustean logic......Page 58
7 Case-study 3: being......Page 65
8 Case-study 4: truth......Page 69
9 Case-study 5: nouns and ontology......Page 73
10 Conclusion......Page 76
1 Introduction......Page 83
2 What’s in a name?......Page 101
3 Disputation, discrimination, inference......Page 112
4 The need for logic......Page 121
5 Finite and infinite......Page 126
6 The simple and the complex......Page 130
7 All the things there are......Page 134
8 How many questions?......Page 145
9 Relatively speaking......Page 148
10 Particular and general......Page 151
11 Translating the untranslatable......Page 160
Epilogue......Page 164
Glossary of technical terms......Page 167
References......Page 175
Index......Page 180
