Wen | Chen Jiulin

Joseph Needham, a British scholar, once expressed deep admiration for the brilliant scientific and technological level of ancient China, and raised a question: why did the scientific revolution and industrial revolution not take place in modern China when ancient China made so many important contributions to human development? This is the famous "riddle of Joseph Needham". Professor Wen Yi's "The Code of Scientific Revolution - The Mystery of Guns, War and the Rise of the West" (hereinafter referred to as "the Code") is a new answer to this question.

A new perspective of password

It has to be said that The Code is a unique magnificent work. The author puts forward a new point of view from a special perspective and a new idea.

For the reason why the scientific revolution took place in Europe rather than in China, the "Needham Question (Needham's Mystery)", Professor Wen Yi believes that it is not because China lacks democratic freedom and rational thinking, but because it has been in a peaceful and prosperous unified environment for a long time, lacks the will to participate in international military competition and commercial competition, and the pressure of "being trapped and knowing".

The overall logic of Password can be divided into four levels:

1. The modern scientific revolution in Europe originated from the needs of European countries caused by wars;

2. The demand for war has promoted the development of commerce, forming a pattern of mutual demand, circulation and mutual promotion between war and commerce;

3. State support, namely the so-called "national competition system";

4. Due to the import of gunpowder and artillery from China.

Professor Wen Yi believes that social demand is the biggest driving force to promote scientific revolution and technological change. The author deduces the "truth" of the rise of the West from the perspective of guns and war The reason is: "The new type of hot weapon war with high frequency, high intensity and based on gunpowder and guns has hammered hundreds of feudal city-state countries that closed their doors and were ignorant and backward in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance into twenty or thirty strong, centralized and military mercantilist unified nation states and maritime powers. It is not the western rule of law, reason and justice, and the eastern autocracy and superstition as stated in the popular historical view; Nor is it caused by the 'British Magna Carta Movement' and the 'British Glorious Revolution' emphasized by the popular historical view. " Mr. Wen Yi also said that the so-called theory of the rise of the West relying on "democracy, freedom and the rule of law" was just a huge myth packaged and fabricated by the "collective subconscious" of western racism.

Doubts and Myths

After reading Professor Wenyi's works, I felt a sense of enlightenment. At the same time, I was full of doubts and puzzles. I raised some questions:

First of all, if war and guns are the codes of scientific revolution, why did China not break out scientific revolution, Renaissance and Industrial Revolution during the Mongolian Empire?

During the Mongolian Empire, China was the largest country in human history, and its territory was far beyond the Roman Empire, the British Empire, and the Soviet Socialist Republic. In more than 50 years, Genghis Khan, the Shengwu Emperor, and his successors, with an army of less than 400000 people in total, have successively destroyed more than 40 countries, conquered more than 720 ethnic groups, destroyed more than 10 million troops of various countries, conquered 600 million people of various ethnic groups, and established the Mongolian Empire, the largest country in human history. During the stable period, its territory area exceeded 35 million square kilometers, and during the maximum period, its territory area exceeded 45 million square kilometers. In contrast, the total land area of Asia (including all islands) is only 44 million square kilometers. However, why didn't the "scientific revolution" and "industrial revolution" break out in the Mongolian Empire, which had already used "guns", "blunders" and gunpowder in the war? According to Professor Wen Yi, guns and wars are the "code" for the rise of the West, so why does this "code" fail in the Mongolian Empire which uses thermal weapons?

The second example is that, compared with the belligerence of the Mongol Empire, the 10th to 13th centuries were not the bellicose "Song Dynasty", but the golden age of China's scientific and technological history recognized by the world.

Someone used two figures to illustrate the scientific and technological achievements of the Song Dynasty, namely, one scientific giant and three world changing inventions. A scientific giant is Shen Kuo, an astronomer, mathematician and physicist; The three great inventions that changed the world were movable type printing, the invention and application of compass, and the improvement and perfection of gunpowder formula.

In Shen Kuo's Meng Xi Bi Tan, he not only tested and studied the installation methods of four kinds of compass, but also found the existence of geomagnetic angle. He was the first scholar in the world to discover the existence of the geomagnetic angle, which was more than 400 years earlier than Columbus, a European. As for the contribution of the three great inventions to the whole mankind, Marx is quoted as saying: "gunpowder, compass and printing are the three great inventions that herald the arrival of bourgeois society. Gunpowder blew the knighthood to pieces, the compass opened the world market and established colonies, while printing became a tool of Protestantism and a means of scientific revival, and became the most powerful lever to create necessary prerequisites for spiritual development. " The scientific achievements of the Song Dynasty covered all branches of science and technology, from astronomy, mathematics, physics, chemistry, geosciences, biology, medicine, agronomy and other disciplines to machinery, shipbuilding, navigation, printing, ceramics, architecture, textiles, metallurgy and other technical projects, all of which have attracted worldwide attention; It has left unprecedented records in all fields of Chinese traditional science and technology.

In my opinion, the reason for the development of science and technology in the "Song Dynasty" is the stability of the country, the integration of nations, international exchanges, economic development, and the prosperity of culture, rather than "guns and war". The scientific and technological achievements in the Song Dynasty and the Song Dynasty were not the product of the "long-term arms race under the national competition system", or the crystallization of the so-called "code" of the European scientific revolution, such as "state sponsorship, scientific groups and arms race".

statements of a school

I appreciate the core argument of this book, that is, social needs are the greatest driving force to promote scientific revolution and technological change. However, he did not agree with Professor Wenyi's drawing of "guns, wars and the rise of the West" as an equation, and even concluded that this was the "code" of scientific revolution; Nor do they necessarily agree that the "social needs" they say are just "the social needs to apply mathematics to the military and gun industry and to describe the trajectory of artillery shells". In addition to the military and artillery demand, the social demand should also have a great demand for material life and wealth.

When Professor Wen Yi mentions "the greatest power", it should not be understood as "the only power". Democracy, rule of law, rationality, justice, peace, stability, openness, integration, etc., as mentioned in the popular historical view for a long time, are also important conditions for scientific revolution, and are also the driving force for promoting scientific revolution and technological change. I believe that entrepreneurship is the most indispensable and important factor in the scientific revolution. The "war business" cycle accelerator mentioned by Professor Wen Yi is a clear proof of the mutual support between the two. In a word, the development of an event and the change of an era are by no means the result of a single factor, but the result of the combined influence of various comprehensive factors in a specific period of time and under special conditions.

My personal immature thinking is that peace breeds science; War gives birth to ideas. It is an indisputable fact that the scientific and technological achievements of Europe in the 17th and 18th centuries (war period, scientific revolution period) are very limited and far behind those in peacetime! From the perspective of ideological creation, our Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period achieved many great thinkers and their works; Two major religious civilizations were achieved in the Middle East during the Assyrian Egyptian War, which is a strong proof of the "idea of the birth of war". Professor Wen Yi said in his book: "In fact, the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, which witnessed the most frequent wars in Chinese history, was also a period of rapid scientific and technological progress in Chinese history." However, China's scientific and technological progress in this period was far behind the relatively stable and peaceful "Song Dynasty" and the scientific and technological innovation achievements since the founding of New China, especially since the reform and opening up.

Finally, I quote Professor Wen Yi to conclude: "The Chinese must have the courage to recognize the glorious rise of the West in modern times and the transcendence of the Eastern civilization. However, only when we truly understand why the West can rise and transcend, can we truly understand the West and find a way to counter it."

(This article was published in the 16th issue of China Economic Weekly in 2023)