In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, Western scientific interest in China focused primarily on natural history. Prominent scholars in Europe as well as Westerners in China, including missionaries, merchants, consular officers, and visiting plant hunters, eagerly investigated the flora and fauna of China. Yet despite the importance and extent of this scientific activity, ...
In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, Western scientific interest in China focused primarily on natural history. Prominent scholars in Europe as well as Westerners in China, including missionaries, merchants, consular officers, and visiting plant hunters, eagerly investigated the flora and fauna of China. Yet despite the importance and extent of this scientific activity, it has been entirely neglected by historians of science.
This book is the first comprehensive study on this topic. In a series of vivid chapters, Fa-ti Fan examines the research of British naturalists in China in relation to the history of natural history, of empire, and of Sino-Western relations. The author gives a panoramic view of how the British naturalists and the Chinese explored, studied, and represented China’s natural world in the social and cultural environment of Qing China.
Using the example of British naturalists in China, the author argues for reinterpreting the history of natural history, by including neglected historical actors, intellectual traditions, and cultural practices. His approach moves beyond viewing the history of science and empire within European history and considers the exchange of ideas, aesthetic tastes, material culture, and plants and animals in local and global contexts. This compelling book provides an innovative framework for understanding the formation of scientific practice and knowledge in cultural encounters.
作者简介
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Fa-ti Fan is Assistant Professor of History at the State University of New York at Binghamton.
Reviewed work(s): Fa‐ti Fan. British Naturalists in Qing China: Science, Empire, and Cultural Encounter. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. 2004. Pp. xi, 238. $49.95. Robert Bickers University of Bristol The normalization of the history of China's encou...
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1 有用 小红帽 2011-01-30 10:52:07
it tells us exactly what its title says: no more, no less.
0 有用 Alan 2018-07-19 23:21:10
考察了英帝国博物学家的在华活动——关注博物学家们如何在中外机构、人员形成的网络中寻找物种、制作记录/标本、生产知识。博物学家大多是业余,其活动受商业利益(比如著名的茶叶大盗Fortune的故事)等动机驱使。好些章节基于殖民档案/书写的材料提供了细致的历史细节:广州的出口绘画业中华人画师和英国博物学家合作绘制物种图录(第二章)、19世纪在欧洲职业化的汉学同博物学的交涉(第四章)、田野工作中情感经验和... 考察了英帝国博物学家的在华活动——关注博物学家们如何在中外机构、人员形成的网络中寻找物种、制作记录/标本、生产知识。博物学家大多是业余,其活动受商业利益(比如著名的茶叶大盗Fortune的故事)等动机驱使。好些章节基于殖民档案/书写的材料提供了细致的历史细节:广州的出口绘画业中华人画师和英国博物学家合作绘制物种图录(第二章)、19世纪在欧洲职业化的汉学同博物学的交涉(第四章)、田野工作中情感经验和文化接触(第五章)。 (展开)
7 有用 やす 2016-04-14 11:36:07
"范选取的是一个非常小的材料,但他以此触碰的是一个庞大的问题,即‘西方科学的根基是什么’,他的研究指出这个根基并不局限在欧洲,而是由无数边缘的材料支撑而起。"得老师指点明白了此书为何得以给学术界打鸡血。
0 有用 Maysaa 2015-05-06 11:28:03
Excellent book!
0 有用 C 2019-04-17 10:24:43
题目、论点、文字都不错,但缺少中国这一边的史料是硬伤,导致很多可以深挖的“文化遭遇”只能一笔带过。