The making of modern China

The making of modern China Winston Churchill once described Rus- problem of language. China, whose resia as ‘a riddle wrapped in a mystery moter frontiers rarely stayed fixed for inside an enigma’. The rolling Churchillong, comprised a diversity of peoples lian phrase might equally well have with languages of their own. Offsetting been applied to China. There, too, this, was the existence of a universal some of the mystery is slowly being language, Mandarin, which served for dispelled but to the western world the official communications and scholarly legend of the inscrutable orient is still interchange throughout the empire. very much a reality. Despite having the The European situation was similar: for world’s longest enduring, and in many nearly two thousand years Latin was the respects richest, civilisation and a lingua franca of a diversity of nations, as population larger by far than that of any was Arabic in Islam. The affinity beother country, the enigma largely re- tween Arabic and Latin is slight, yet it mains. After the dark years of the served to bring back to Europe translaCultural Revolution there is a manifest, tions of long-forgotten Greek and Ro.and reciprocated, desire to bridge the man classics. Through Arabic, too, the gulf between east and west. west acquired a knowledge of some of Unfortunately, many obstacles stand the classical texts of India, China, and in the way of understanding the true Persia. But there was virtually no affininature of this ancient civilisation now ty between the language of the west and emerging as a world power. First and that of China, so totally different is their foremost is its geographical remoteness, conceptual basis. For all practical purcoupled with an age-old tradition of poses, nobody in Europe could read an xenophobia. From Roman times there original Chinese text, nor converse with was active and continual contact be- a Chinese person, and vice versa. The tween Europe and China and each had situation is not much better today: for some knowledge of the other’s charac- business and other transactions most teristics. In the first century AD, in the westerners in China have to rely heavily Han Dynasty, the Chinese general Pan on interpreters or English-speaking colCh’ao penetrated as far west as the leagues. Caspian and made contact with the While China is extending a cautious Parthians on the fringe of the Roman welcome to tourists most short-term Empire. Ptolemy, in his surprisingly visitors can in practice learn little. Visits accurate map of the known world, iden- are restricted to a few popular centres tified the port of Cattigara in southern and the barrier of language effectively China. Trade flowed in both directions: segregates visitors from the Chinese gems, silk, and spices from the east; themselves. Moreover, large areas of glass, pottery, and metals from the China are still forbidden territory for west. Much came overland along the foreigners. Silk Road and its tributaries but inIn the circumstances, those who creasingly by sea - via Indian ports and seriously want to learn something about the Red Sea- after Hippalus discovered China must of necessity rely heavily on the monsoon winds in the first century secondary sources, and it is satisfactory BC. Nor were goods the only things to see a growing volume of printed which flowed along these trade routes. matter in English of an excellent stanThey served also as a channel for new dard. The Chinese have themselves ideas: from China the west gained such contributed to this but, many of their major technical inventions as the books are not easily obtainable through magnetic compass, printing from mov- normal western bookselling channels. A able type, gunpowder, and the manu- truly magnificent recent example is the facture of paper. Rather later, the in- scholarly and lavishly illustrated History spiration for Jethro Tull’s seed-drill - and development of Ancient Chinese which profoundly affected the crop- Architecture compiled by the Institute growing technique of western agricul- of the History of Natural Sciences of the ture - came from China by way of Italy. Chinese Academy of Sciences, and Nevertheless, despite this flow of planned as part of a series on the history trade and ideas, China effectively grew of Chinese science and technology. up in isolation. The flow was not conFrom the western side, Joseph tinuous but occurred in stages, very few Needham’s monumental and definitive individuals travelling the entire route. Science and Civilisation in China - now Ptolemy’s map marks the famous Stone nearing completion after more than 35 Tower, somewhere on the northern years - has not only illuminated the edge of the Pamirs, beyond which no history of China itself as never before traveller was normally allowed to pro- but thrown much light on the relaceed. Though western traders, notably tionship of China over the centuries not the Portuguese, did some business in only with Europe but with the Middle west China ports from the 16th century East, Korea, and Japan. This is a work it was not until the Treaty of Nanking in far beyond the ordinary reader both in 1842 - and the creation of five treaty depth of specialist scholarship and cost ports - that such trade was regularized. of purchase but, by inspiring many In addition to all this, there was the other more manageable works, its influence has been enormous. Among the Endeevour. New Series, Volume 13. No. 2 19119. most important of these offspring is the. 0100-3327189 $3.00 + 0.00. abridgement currently being produced 0 WOO. MaxweR Psrgsmon Macmillan plc. Printed in Great Britain. by Cohn Ronan, which puts the sub-

stance of Needham’s work within the reach of the general reader. But scholarly books on the history of China do no more than detail the factors that have led to the emergence of modern China, eager to retain its ancient culture and yet to identify with the western world and its scientifically and technologically based societies. There is, therefore, reason to welcome a massive new work, ~nforrna~~o~ Chi*, compiled and translated into Enitsh by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences with the support of the Chinese government. This is a work of a very different kind, designated in its sub-title as ‘a comprehensive and authoritative reference source of New China’. While the emphasis is on China today some sections - such as those on science and technology and on the social sciences - have historical introductions. Additionally, there is a section on the history of China from prehistoric times, followed by a 30-page chronology of significant dates. There is also a 50-page section of biographies from prechristian times to the present, and a short gazetteer. Inevitably, in such an encyclopedic work, not all sections will be relevant to all readers, but scientists of all persuasions will find much of interest. There are sections on the flora, fauna, and soil structure of China; on geology and mineral resources; on agriculture and climate; on archaeology; on energy resources and the energy industry; on medical research and traditional medicine. Finally, before the comprehensive indexes, there are nearly 200 statistical tables, ranging from rainfall in key cities to the annual output of graduates. Profusely illustrated in colour and black-and-white, with numerous maps, these volumes form a handsome set. They are to be updated with a supplementary volume in 1990. This could profit from a greatly extended bibliography, as the existing one has some notable omissions. These include Ronan’s abridgement of Needham; the multivolume history of China currently appearing under the imprint of the Cambridge University Press; and Witold Rodzinski’s History of China. This deficiency is easily remedied. More intractable - and indeed virtually insoluble -is the consistent transliteration of Chinese. In this work the pinyin style is favoured rather than the older Wade-Giles and the twopage explanation is helpful for the novice. The issue is further confused, however, by much recent renaming. Many western readers will not, for example, immediately identify Tibet with Xizang or our old friend the Yangtze Kiang river with the Changjian. Such difficulties emphasize the magnitude of the gap to be bridged. * Information China. Compiled and translated by the Chinese Academy of Social

Sciences.3 vats. Pp. 1621.PergamonPress, Oxford. 1988.f450.00, US$795.00. 47