1939] 
History of Entomology in China 
23 
SOME EXTRACTS FROM THE HISTORY OF 
ENTOMOLOGY IN CHINA 
By Gaines Liu 
Biological Laboratories, Harvard University 
The following extracts are of historical interest only. 
They are published here, not in the spirit of questioning the 
scholarship of those whose work I shall mention, but to ren- 
der available some of the historical facts to those who might 
care to have them but who are handicapped by language 
difficulties. My point can be better explained by a very good 
instance. In a book, called Chow Li, one of the 13 Classics 
published long before the Christian era, we find a detailed 
account of a “Bureau of Entomology” which would be con- 
sidered well organized even under our modern standard. 
Yet China is not even mentioned by Dr. L. 0. Howard, one 
of the best known and the most respected entomologists of 
the world today, in his “History of Applied Entomology”. 
It is very plain in this case that the whole trouble is due to 
an inability to consult Chinese literature. Later on I shall 
publish a note on this ancient “Bureau of Entomology”. For 
the present I should like to add some information to supple- 
ment the following books, namely : 
1. The Biological Control of Insects, by H. L. Sweet- 
man, 1936. 
2. The Insect Singers, by J. G. Myers, 1929. 
3. Entomology, by J. A. Folsom and R. A. Wardle, 
1934. 
1. The Biological Control of Insects — Earliest Record 
ca, 889-903. 
This book appeared in 1936. I ordered it last year when I 
was in China but the war came earlier than the book, and it 
was only lately that I had the pleasure of making the ac- 
