2 2 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



SCIENCE AMONG THE CHINESE. II 



By Dr. C. K. EDMUNDS 



PRESIDENT OF CANTON CHRISTIAN COLLEGE 



III. Alleged Anticipations of Modern Science 



1. Introductory. — Some intimate students of Chinese literature and 

 life, notably Dr. W. A. P. Martin, claim that in many cases Chinese 

 philosophy has anticipated the doctrines of modern science. The same 

 may be said of the ancient Greek thinkers, whose speculations have had 

 a direct and large influence in the development of modern thought, such 

 as the Chinese philosophers have not had. For it seems likely that the 

 physical speculations of the Greeks, from which European science 

 started, were a true native growth of the Greek mind and owed nothing 

 to the lore of Egypt or of the east. (This is the opinion of Whewell as 

 expressed in his " History of the Inductive Sciences.") 



It is doubtless true that several of the guesses made by the ancients 

 are in general accord with present theories as developed and supported 

 by a wealth of observation, experimentation and inference. And it is 

 true that the honors, if there be any, of having made such guesses, must 

 be awarded in part to the Chinese as well as to the Greeks with this great 

 difference, that in many cases the Greeks were true students of nature 

 and checked their speculations by observation — a course which, though 

 entertained by some Chinese philosophers, was not sufficiently appre- 

 ciated by either them or their disciples to be put into practise. 



The speculations to which we refer were developed during the glo- 

 rious Sung dynasty, in the century a.d. 1020-1120, which stands pre- 

 eminent among the forty centuries of Chinese recorded history as the 

 age of philosophy. At the time when Europe was in darkness and the 

 crusades were in full swing, the five famous philosophers — Chou, Chang, 

 Cheng (two brothers) and Chu — were constructing the castle of faith 

 and knowledge for their successors. It is from the writings of the last 

 of these, the most famous of the five, that the foregoing quotations have 

 been taken. 



All five were Confucian scholars, but it seems likely that their mental 

 activity was stimulated and directed by the speculations of Buddhist and 

 Taoist writers. Their works derive importance from the fact that for 

 500 years, since the publication by imperial authority of the great 

 " EHcyclopgedia of Philosophy," they have been the government standard, 

 to which all aspirants for honors in the civil service examinations had 

 to conform. They therefore represent the views of the educated men of 



