Wen-yuan Qian (Chinese: 錢文源; 14 April 1936 – 21 August 2003) was an American professor of history who taught at Blackburn College and MacMurray College.
Wen-yuan Qian | |
|---|---|
錢文源 | |
| Born | April 14, 1936 |
| Died | August 21, 2003 (aged 67) |
| Citizenship | American |
| Education | University of Michigan (PhD) |
| Alma mater | Peking University |
| Occupations | Historian of science; sinologist |
| Employer(s) | Zhejiang University; Blackburn College; MacMurray College |
| Known for | The Great Inertia: Scientific Stagnation in Traditional China |
| Scientific career | |
| Thesis | Axiomaticism in Science Development. (1988) |
Early life and education
editQian was born in Shanghai. He studied physics at Peking University, graduating in 1959.[1]
Career
editQian taught physics at Zhejiang University from 1959 to 1980.[1] During the Cultural Revolution, he was branded an "ideological counter-revolutionary."[2] In 1980, the government of the People's Republic of China sent Qian to the United States to continue his studies while his wife and daughter remained in China.[3] In 1983, he graduated from Northwestern University with a Master of Arts in history.[3] Qian was funded by the W. Clement Stone Foundation to translate several works from Chinese to English.[1]
In 1985, Qian published his most known work, The Great Inertia: Scientific Stagnation in Traditional China.[4] The work was framed as a challenge to Joseph Needham's Science and Civilisation in China,[2] and has been analyzed in relation to it.[5][6][7] He believed that political conditions, particularly the imperial examination system, stymied the development of modern science in dynastic China.[8] Qian saw the neglect of formal logic and rigorous proof as a central cause in the failure to develop modern science.[9]: 108, 217 At the time, Qian's thesis was considered controversial among sinologists.[10] Victor H. Mair called The Great Inertia an "arching cry of a thoughtful critic from within the Chinese tradition addressed to the enthusiastic advocate from without."[10]
In 1988, Qian graduated from the University of Michigan with a doctorate in history and began teaching history at Blackburn College the same year. From 1992 to 2002, he taught history at MacMurray College.[1] Qian died in 2003 in Jacksonville, Illinois.[1]
Works
edit
- Qian, Wen-yuan (1988). Axiomaticism in Science Development (PhD thesis). hdl:2027.42/161851. OCLC 21402755.
- Qian, Wen-yuan (June 1985). "Science Development: Sino-Western Comparative Insights". Science Communication. 6 (4): 377–405. doi:10.1177/107554708500600404. hdl:2027.42/68479. ISSN 0164-0259. OCLC 4651285863.
- Qian, Wen-yuan (1985). The Great Inertia: Scientific Stagnation in Traditional China. Croom Helm. ISBN 978-0-7099-2104-2. LCCN 84014217. OCLC 10914880. OL 2851872M.
- Qian, Wen-yuan (1982-10-01). "The Great Inertia: An Introduction to a Causal Inquiry into Traditional China's Scientific Stagnation". Comparative Civilizations Review. 9 (9). ISSN 0733-4540. OCLC 8091893947.
See also
editReferences
edit- 1 2 3 4 5 "Obituary information for Wen-yuan Qian". www.airsman-hires.com. Archived from the original on 2023-04-01. Retrieved 2025-01-05.
- 1 2 Henderson, John B. (1985). "Steps not Made". Science. 230 (4725): 534–535. doi:10.1126/science.230.4725.534. ISSN 0036-8075. JSTOR 1695246. PMID 17809681.
- 1 2 Cullen, Christopher (1984-12-20). "Essays into history" (PDF). Nature. 312 (5996): 789–789. doi:10.1038/312789a0. ISSN 0028-0836.
- ↑ Cartier, Michel (August 1985). "Wen-yuan Qian, The Great Inertia: Scientific Stagnation in Traditional China, Londres-Sydney-Dover-New Hampshire, Croom Helm, 1984, XII + 155 p.". Annales. Histoire, Sciences Sociales (in French). 40 (4): 957–958. doi:10.1017/S0395264900084432. ISSN 0395-2649.
- ↑ Gutmann, Matthew C. (January 1992). "Cross‐cultural conceits: Science in China and the West". Science as Culture. 3 (2): 208–239. doi:10.1080/09505439209526345. ISSN 0950-5431.
- ↑ Daly, Jonathan (2014-07-11). "Why not China?". Historians Debate the Rise of the West. Routledge. p. 148. doi:10.4324/9781315773537. ISBN 978-1-317-68171-7.
- ↑ Wang, Wensheng (March 2024). "The Value and Prospect of the Needham Question: A Historiographical Reflection and Elaboration". Journal of World History. 35 (1): 119–161. doi:10.1353/jwh.2024.a920673. ISSN 1527-8050.
- ↑ Lin, Justin Yifu (2008-01-01). "The Needham puzzle, the Weber question, and China's miracle: Long-term performance since the Sung dynasty". China Economic Journal. 1 (1): 63–95. doi:10.1080/17538960701565053. ISSN 1753-8963.
- ↑ Hannas, William C. (2003-12-31). The Writing on the Wall: How Asian Orthography Curbs Creativity. University of Pennsylvania Press. doi:10.9783/9780812202168. ISBN 978-0-8122-3711-5. OL 11345563M.
- 1 2 Mair, Victor H. (October 1991). "Review" (PDF). Sino-Platonic Papers (31). University of Pennsylvania.