李约瑟难题 英文小论文

Name: Zhu Yancheng;Student ID: 1353573

Time of Class: Wednesday 1-2

The word count: 1240 words

13 Dec. 2014

The reasons why had China been overtaken by the West in science

and technology

Abstract

Before 17th century, Chinese technology was always the leader in the world, while the western countries kept a low level in science and technology compared to the China.

But things all changed since the Industrial Revolution happened. Western world came into a new age that everything was developing rapidly, and its technology exceeded China in a splendid speed. During the same time, Chinese people had little progress in science field.

The reason why Chinese technology fell, despite its earlier successes, is very strange. This question was first mentioned by Joseph Needham, an English scholar. I read his book and sought some historical data in the Internet, to make my own view about this question.

Keywords:Chinese technology; agricultural civilization;feudalism; lack of theories; no competition.

1.Introduction

1.1 The significance of the topic

It is known to us that China is one of the four ancient civilizations, and the only country of them that exist till now. Its brilliant success in science and technology was witnessed by dozens of centuries.

But the development of Chinese science had many obstructions too, which might cause great difficulties slowing down the pace of its progress. Unfortunately, our society kept old and decayed conception, refusing to step into new period of the science, while Industrial Revolution changed the whole western world.

Even today, some of these obstructions also play bad roles during the time our country rising from ruins left by the invaders.

So, it’s important for us to know the truth in that age, the truth what weaken our country or what strengthen our opponent.

1.2 Research methods

By coincidence, I have studied this question in my senior middle school, just a little. Before I look up reference material, my first choice is looking through the history of Chinese technology, to learn its developing characteristics. Then I compared the difference in environment for scientific research between China and Western countries in 17th and 18th century. Finally, I listed four points to explain the fall of Chinese technology.

2.My research about Needham problem

2.1 Agricultural civilization limited the space to develop technology

Ancient China was born on a vast and rich land, which means its agricultural civilization can grow to be extremely advanced. Also, its agricultural skills always kept ahead among all countries. But paying so much attention to agriculture lead to the