Joseph Needham
Encyclopedia
Noel Joseph Terence Montgomery Needham, CH, FRS, FBA (9 December 1900 – 24 March 1995), also known as Li Yuese , was a British scientist
, historian
and sinologist known for his scientific research and writing on the history of Chinese science. He was elected a fellow of the Royal Society
in 1941, and as a fellow of the British Academy
in 1971. In 1992, the Queen
conferred on him the Companionship of Honour
and the Royal Society noted he was the only living person to hold these three titles.
family. His father was a doctor
and his mother, Alicia Adelaïde Montgomery (1863–1945), was a French
-Irish
composer
and music
teacher. Needham was educated at Oundle School
, before receiving his bachelor's degree
in 1921 from Cambridge University
, master's degree
in January 1925 and doctorate
in October 1925. He had intended reading medicine but came under the influence of Frederick Gowland Hopkins
and switched to Biochemistry
.
, specialising in embryology
and morphogenesis
. His 3-volume work Chemical Embryology, published in 1931, includes a history of embryology from Egyptian times up to the early 19th century, including quotations in most European languages. His Silliman memorial lecture of 1936 was published by Yale University under the title of Order and Life. In 1939 he produced a massive work on morphogenesis
that a Harvard reviewer claimed "will go down in the history of science as Joseph Needham's magnum opus", little knowing what would come later.
Although his career as biochemist
and an academic was well established, his career developed in unanticipated directions during and after World War II.
Three Chinese
scientists came to work with Needham in 1937: Lu Gwei-djen
, Wang Ying-lai (王應睞), and Chen Shi-zhang (沈詩章). Lu (1904–91), daughter of a Nanjing
ese pharmacist, taught Needham Chinese, igniting his interest in China
's ancient technological and scientific past. He then pursued, and mastered, the study of Classical Chinese
privately with Gustav Haloun
.
Under the Royal Society
's direction, Needham was the director of the Sino-British Science Co-operation Office in Chongqing
from 1942 to 1946. During this time he made several long journeys through war-torn China and many smaller ones, visiting scientific and educational establishments and obtaining for them much needed supplies. His longest trip ended in far west in Xinjiang
at the caves in Dunhuang
at the end of the Great Wall where the first printed copy of the Diamond Sutra
was found. The other long trip reached Fuzhou
on the east coast, returning across the Xiang River
just two days before the Japanese blew up the bridge at Hengyang
and cut off that part of China. In 1944 he visited Yunnan
in an attempt to reach the Burmese border. Everywhere he went he purchased and was given old historical and scientific books which he shipped back to England through diplomatic channels and were to form the foundation of his later research. He got to know Zhou Enlai
and met numerous Chinese scholars, including the painter
Wu Zuoren
(吳作人), and the meteorologist Zhu Kezhen who was later to send him in Cambridge crates of books, including the 2,000 volumes of the Gujin Tushu Jicheng
encyclopedia, a comprehensive record of China's past.
On his return to the west he was asked by Julian Huxley
to become the first head of the Natural Sciences Section of UNESCO
in Paris
, France
. In fact it was Needham who insisted that Science should be included in the organisation's mandate at an earlier planning meeting. After two years in which the suspicions of the Americans over scientific cooperation with communists intensified, Needham resigned in 1948 and returned to Gonville and Caius College, where he resumed his fellowship and his rooms, which were soon filled with his books. He devoted his energy to the history of Chinese science until his retirement in 1990, even though he continued to teach some biochemistry until 1966.
Needham's reputation recovered from the Korean affair (see below) such that by 1959 he was elected as president of the fellows of Caius College and in 1965 he became master (head) of the College, a post which he held until he was 76.
for a book on "Science and Civilisation in China". Within weeks of it being accepted, the project had grown to seven volumes and it has expanded ever since. His initial collaborator was the historian Wang Ling
(王玲), who he had met in Lizhuang and obtained a position for at Trinity
. The first years were devoted to compiling a list of every mechanical invention and abstract idea that had been made and conceived in China. These included cast iron, the ploughshare, the stirrup, gunpowder, printing, the magnetic compass, and clockwork escapements, most of which were thought at the time to be western inventions. The first volume eventually appeared in 1954.
The publication received widespread acclaim which increased to the lyrical as further volumes appeared. He wrote fifteen volumes himself and the regular production of further volumes continued after his death in 1995. After volume III the volumes were split into parts and currently 24 volumes have been published. Successive volumes have been published as they became ready, which means that they have not appeared in the order originally contemplated in the project's prospectus.
Needham's final organising schema:
See Science and Civilization in China for a full list
The project is still proceeding under the guidance of the Publications Board of the Needham Research Institute
, chaired by Christopher Cullen
.
in science
and technology
, despite its earlier successes. His works attribute significant weight to the impact of Confucianism
and Taoism
on the pace of Chinese scientific discovery, and emphasizes what it describes as the "diffusionist" approach of Chinese science as opposed to a perceived independent inventiveness in the western world.
Needham held that the notion that the Chinese script had inhibited scientific thought was "grossly overrated".
His own research revealed a steady accumulation of scientific results throughout Chinese history. In the final volume he suggests "A continuing general and scientific progress manifested itself in traditional Chinese society but this was violently overtaken by the exponential growth of modern science after the Renaissance in Europe. China was homeostatic, but never stagnant."
Nathan Sivin
, one of Needham's collaborators, while agreeing that Needham's achievement was monumental, suggested that the "Needham question", as a counterfactual hypothesis, was not conducive to a useful answer: "It is striking that this question – Why didn't the Chinese beat Europeans to the Scientific Revolution? – happens to be one of the few questions that people often ask in public places about why something didn't happen in history. It is analogous to the question of why your name did not appear on page 3 of today's newspaper."
and after 1949 his sympathy with Chinese culture was extended to the new government. During his stay in China, Needham was asked to analyze some cattle-cakes which the Communists claimed had been scattered by American aircraft in the south of China at the end of World War II, and found they were impregnated with anthrax
. During the Korean War
further accusations were made that the Americans had used biological warfare
. Zhou Enlai
coordinated an international campaign to enlist Needham for a study commission, tacitly offering access to materials and contacts in China needed for his then early research. Needham agreed to be an inspector in North Korea
and his report supported the allegations. After post-cold war revelations that the Soviets had assisted the Chinese in setting up false scenarios, Needham's biographer Simon Winchester
comments that "Needham was intellectually in love with communism; and yet communist spymasters and agents, it turned out, had pitilessly duped him." Needham was blacklisted by the U.S. government until well into the 1970s.
In 1965, with Derek Bryan, a retired diplomat who he first met in China, Needham established the Society for Anglo-Chinese Understanding
, which for some years provided the only way for the British to visit the People's Republic of China. On a visit to China in 1964 he was met by Zhou Enlai, but on a visit in 1972 he was deeply depressed by the changes under the Cultural Revolution
.
(1896–1987) in 1924 and they became the first husband and wife both to be elected as Fellows of the Royal Society.
Simon Winchester notes that, in his younger days, Needham was an avid gymnosophist
and he was always attracted by pretty women. When he and Lu Gwei-djen
met in 1937, they fell deeply in love, which Dorothy accepted. The three of them eventually lived contentedly on the same road in Cambridge for many years. In 1989, two years after Dorothy's death, Needham married Lu, who died two years later. He suffered from Parkinson's disease
from 1982, and died at the age of 94 at his Cambridge home. In 2008 the Chair of Chinese in the University of Cambridge, a post never awarded to Needham, was endowed in his honour as the Joseph Needham Professorship of Chinese History, Science, and Civilization.
by the History of Science Society
and in 1966 he became Master of Gonville and Caius College. In 1984, Needham became the fourth recipient of the J.D. Bernal Award, awarded by the Society for Social Studies of Science. In 1990, he was awarded the Fukuoka Asian Culture Prize
by Fukuoka
City.
The Needham Research Institute
, devoted to the study of China's scientific history, was opened in 1985 by Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh
.
Scientist
A scientist in a broad sense is one engaging in a systematic activity to acquire knowledge. In a more restricted sense, a scientist is an individual who uses the scientific method. The person may be an expert in one or more areas of science. This article focuses on the more restricted use of the word...
, historian
Historian
A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the study of all history in time. If the individual is...
and sinologist known for his scientific research and writing on the history of Chinese science. He was elected a fellow of the Royal Society
Royal Society
The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, known simply as the Royal Society, is a learned society for science, and is possibly the oldest such society in existence. Founded in November 1660, it was granted a Royal Charter by King Charles II as the "Royal Society of London"...
in 1941, and as a fellow of the British Academy
British Academy
The British Academy is the United Kingdom's national body for the humanities and the social sciences. Its purpose is to inspire, recognise and support excellence in the humanities and social sciences, throughout the UK and internationally, and to champion their role and value.It receives an annual...
in 1971. In 1992, the Queen
Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom
Elizabeth II is the constitutional monarch of 16 sovereign states known as the Commonwealth realms: the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Jamaica, Barbados, the Bahamas, Grenada, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Belize,...
conferred on him the Companionship of Honour
Order of the Companions of Honour
The Order of the Companions of Honour is an order of the Commonwealth realms. It was founded by King George V in June 1917, as a reward for outstanding achievements in the arts, literature, music, science, politics, industry or religion....
and the Royal Society noted he was the only living person to hold these three titles.
Early years
Needham was the only child of a LondonLondon
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
family. His father was a doctor
Physician
A physician is a health care provider who practices the profession of medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring human health through the study, diagnosis, and treatment of disease, injury and other physical and mental impairments...
and his mother, Alicia Adelaïde Montgomery (1863–1945), was a French
French people
The French are a nation that share a common French culture and speak the French language as a mother tongue. Historically, the French population are descended from peoples of Celtic, Latin and Germanic origin, and are today a mixture of several ethnic groups...
-Irish
Irish people
The Irish people are an ethnic group who originate in Ireland, an island in northwestern Europe. Ireland has been populated for around 9,000 years , with the Irish people's earliest ancestors recorded having legends of being descended from groups such as the Nemedians, Fomorians, Fir Bolg, Tuatha...
composer
Composer
A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...
and music
Music
Music is an art form whose medium is sound and silence. Its common elements are pitch , rhythm , dynamics, and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture...
teacher. Needham was educated at Oundle School
Oundle School
Oundle School is a co-educational British public school located in the ancient market town of Oundle in Northamptonshire. The school has been maintained by the Worshipful Company of Grocers of the City of London since its foundation in 1556. Oundle has eight boys' houses, five girls' houses, a day...
, before receiving his bachelor's degree
Bachelor's degree
A bachelor's degree is usually an academic degree awarded for an undergraduate course or major that generally lasts for three or four years, but can range anywhere from two to six years depending on the region of the world...
in 1921 from Cambridge University
University of Cambridge
The University of Cambridge is a public research university located in Cambridge, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest university in both the United Kingdom and the English-speaking world , and the seventh-oldest globally...
, master's degree
Master's degree
A master's is an academic degree granted to individuals who have undergone study demonstrating a mastery or high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice...
in January 1925 and doctorate
Doctorate
A doctorate is an academic degree or professional degree that in most countries refers to a class of degrees which qualify the holder to teach in a specific field, A doctorate is an academic degree or professional degree that in most countries refers to a class of degrees which qualify the holder...
in October 1925. He had intended reading medicine but came under the influence of Frederick Gowland Hopkins
Frederick Hopkins
Sir Frederick Gowland Hopkins OM FRS was an English biochemist who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1929, with Christiaan Eijkman, for the discovery of vitamins. He also discovered the amino acid tryptophan, in 1901...
and switched to Biochemistry
Biochemistry
Biochemistry, sometimes called biological chemistry, is the study of chemical processes in living organisms, including, but not limited to, living matter. Biochemistry governs all living organisms and living processes...
.
Career
After graduation, he worked in Hopkins's laboratory at Gonville and Caius College, CambridgeGonville and Caius College, Cambridge
Gonville and Caius College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge in Cambridge, England. The college is often referred to simply as "Caius" , after its second founder, John Keys, who fashionably latinised the spelling of his name after studying in Italy.- Outline :Gonville and...
, specialising in embryology
Embryology
Embryology is a science which is about the development of an embryo from the fertilization of the ovum to the fetus stage...
and morphogenesis
Morphogenesis
Morphogenesis , is the biological process that causes an organism to develop its shape...
. His 3-volume work Chemical Embryology, published in 1931, includes a history of embryology from Egyptian times up to the early 19th century, including quotations in most European languages. His Silliman memorial lecture of 1936 was published by Yale University under the title of Order and Life. In 1939 he produced a massive work on morphogenesis
Morphogenesis
Morphogenesis , is the biological process that causes an organism to develop its shape...
that a Harvard reviewer claimed "will go down in the history of science as Joseph Needham's magnum opus", little knowing what would come later.
Although his career as biochemist
Biochemist
Biochemists are scientists who are trained in biochemistry. Typical biochemists study chemical processes and chemical transformations in living organisms. The prefix of "bio" in "biochemist" can be understood as a fusion of "biological chemist."-Role:...
and an academic was well established, his career developed in unanticipated directions during and after World War II.
Three Chinese
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
scientists came to work with Needham in 1937: Lu Gwei-djen
Lu Gwei-djen
Lu Gwei-Djen was an expert on the History of science and technology in China, doctor of nutriology. She was an important researcher and co-author of the project Science and Civilization in China series led by Joseph Needham...
, Wang Ying-lai (王應睞), and Chen Shi-zhang (沈詩章). Lu (1904–91), daughter of a Nanjing
Nanjing
' is the capital of Jiangsu province in China and has a prominent place in Chinese history and culture, having been the capital of China on several occasions...
ese pharmacist, taught Needham Chinese, igniting his interest in China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
's ancient technological and scientific past. He then pursued, and mastered, the study of Classical Chinese
Classical Chinese
Classical Chinese or Literary Chinese is a traditional style of written Chinese based on the grammar and vocabulary of ancient Chinese, making it different from any modern spoken form of Chinese...
privately with Gustav Haloun
Gustav Haloun
Gustav Haloun was a Czech Sinologist. He taught at Prague University , Halle University , and Göttingen University , before becoming Professor of Chinese at Cambridge University.He researched about the Hundred Schools of Thought, Bactria, Da Yuezhi, and...
.
Under the Royal Society
Royal Society
The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, known simply as the Royal Society, is a learned society for science, and is possibly the oldest such society in existence. Founded in November 1660, it was granted a Royal Charter by King Charles II as the "Royal Society of London"...
's direction, Needham was the director of the Sino-British Science Co-operation Office in Chongqing
Chongqing
Chongqing is a major city in Southwest China and one of the five national central cities of China. Administratively, it is one of the PRC's four direct-controlled municipalities , and the only such municipality in inland China.The municipality was created on 14 March 1997, succeeding the...
from 1942 to 1946. During this time he made several long journeys through war-torn China and many smaller ones, visiting scientific and educational establishments and obtaining for them much needed supplies. His longest trip ended in far west in Xinjiang
Xinjiang
Xinjiang is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China. It is the largest Chinese administrative division and spans over 1.6 million km2...
at the caves in Dunhuang
Dunhuang
Dunhuang is a city in northwestern Gansu province, Western China. It was a major stop on the ancient Silk Road. It was also known at times as Shāzhōu , or 'City of Sands', a name still used today...
at the end of the Great Wall where the first printed copy of the Diamond Sutra
Diamond Sutra
The Diamond Sūtra , is a short and well-known Mahāyāna sūtra from the Prajñāpāramitā, or "Perfection of Wisdom" genre, and emphasizes the practice of non-abiding and non-attachment...
was found. The other long trip reached Fuzhou
Fuzhou
Fuzhou is the capital and one of the largest cities in Fujian Province, People's Republic of China. Along with the many counties of Ningde, those of Fuzhou are considered to constitute the Mindong linguistic and cultural area....
on the east coast, returning across the Xiang River
Xiang River
The Xiang River , in older transliterations as the Siang River or Hsiang River, is a river in southern China...
just two days before the Japanese blew up the bridge at Hengyang
Hengyang
Hengyang is the second largest city of China's Hunan Province. It straddles the Xiang River about 160 km south of Changsha.-History:Its former name was Hengzhou . This was the capital of a prefecture in the Tang Dynasty's Jiangnan and West Jiangnan circuits...
and cut off that part of China. In 1944 he visited Yunnan
Yunnan
Yunnan is a province of the People's Republic of China, located in the far southwest of the country spanning approximately and with a population of 45.7 million . The capital of the province is Kunming. The province borders Burma, Laos, and Vietnam.Yunnan is situated in a mountainous area, with...
in an attempt to reach the Burmese border. Everywhere he went he purchased and was given old historical and scientific books which he shipped back to England through diplomatic channels and were to form the foundation of his later research. He got to know Zhou Enlai
Zhou Enlai
Zhou Enlai was the first Premier of the People's Republic of China, serving from October 1949 until his death in January 1976...
and met numerous Chinese scholars, including the painter
Painting
Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a surface . The application of the medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush but other objects can be used. In art, the term painting describes both the act and the result of the action. However, painting is...
Wu Zuoren
Wu Zuoren
Wu Zuoren was a traditional Chinese painter. A native of Jing County, Anhui, he was born in Suzhou, Jiangsu Province. He practiced both traditional Chinese ink painting and European oil painting.-Chronology:...
(吳作人), and the meteorologist Zhu Kezhen who was later to send him in Cambridge crates of books, including the 2,000 volumes of the Gujin Tushu Jicheng
Gujin Túshu Jíchéng
The Gujin Tushu Jicheng , is a vast encyclopaedic work written in China during the reigns of Qing emperors Kangxi and Yongzheng, completed in 1725. The work was headed initially by scholar Chen Menglei , and later by Jiang Tingxi. It contained 800,000 pages and over 100 million Chinese characters...
encyclopedia, a comprehensive record of China's past.
On his return to the west he was asked by Julian Huxley
Julian Huxley
Sir Julian Sorell Huxley FRS was an English evolutionary biologist, humanist and internationalist. He was a proponent of natural selection, and a leading figure in the mid-twentieth century evolutionary synthesis...
to become the first head of the Natural Sciences Section of UNESCO
UNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations...
in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
. In fact it was Needham who insisted that Science should be included in the organisation's mandate at an earlier planning meeting. After two years in which the suspicions of the Americans over scientific cooperation with communists intensified, Needham resigned in 1948 and returned to Gonville and Caius College, where he resumed his fellowship and his rooms, which were soon filled with his books. He devoted his energy to the history of Chinese science until his retirement in 1990, even though he continued to teach some biochemistry until 1966.
Needham's reputation recovered from the Korean affair (see below) such that by 1959 he was elected as president of the fellows of Caius College and in 1965 he became master (head) of the College, a post which he held until he was 76.
Science and Civilisation in China
In 1948, Needham, proposed a project to the Cambridge University PressCambridge University Press
Cambridge University Press is the publishing business of the University of Cambridge. Granted letters patent by Henry VIII in 1534, it is the world's oldest publishing house, and the second largest university press in the world...
for a book on "Science and Civilisation in China". Within weeks of it being accepted, the project had grown to seven volumes and it has expanded ever since. His initial collaborator was the historian Wang Ling
Wang Ling (historian)
Wang Ling was a Chinese and Australian historian and educator known for his collaboration with Joseph Needham on the history of science and technology in China.-Biography:...
(王玲), who he had met in Lizhuang and obtained a position for at Trinity
Trinity College, Cambridge
Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Trinity has more members than any other college in Cambridge or Oxford, with around 700 undergraduates, 430 graduates, and over 170 Fellows...
. The first years were devoted to compiling a list of every mechanical invention and abstract idea that had been made and conceived in China. These included cast iron, the ploughshare, the stirrup, gunpowder, printing, the magnetic compass, and clockwork escapements, most of which were thought at the time to be western inventions. The first volume eventually appeared in 1954.
The publication received widespread acclaim which increased to the lyrical as further volumes appeared. He wrote fifteen volumes himself and the regular production of further volumes continued after his death in 1995. After volume III the volumes were split into parts and currently 24 volumes have been published. Successive volumes have been published as they became ready, which means that they have not appeared in the order originally contemplated in the project's prospectus.
Needham's final organising schema:
- Vol. I. Introductory Orientations
- Vol. II. History of Scientific Thought
- Vol. III. Mathematics and the Sciences of the Heavens and Earth
- Vol. IV. Physics and Physical Technology
- Vol. V. Chemistry and Chemical Technology
- Vol. VI. Biology and Biological Technology
- Vol. VII. The Social Background
See Science and Civilization in China for a full list
The project is still proceeding under the guidance of the Publications Board of the Needham Research Institute
Needham Research Institute
The Needham Research Institute or NRI, located on the grounds of the Robinson College, in Cambridge, England, is a center for research into the history of science, technology and medicine in East Asia. It is part of the University of Cambridge...
, chaired by Christopher Cullen
Christopher Cullen
Christopher Thomas Cullen, MBE, is a Scottish television and radio presenter, television writer, broadcaster, novelist, environmentalist and former newsreader. He has been contributing to British television and radio for over two decades...
.
The Needham Question
"Needham's Grand Question", also known as "The Needham Question", is why China had been overtaken by the WestWestern world
The Western world, also known as the West and the Occident , is a term referring to the countries of Western Europe , the countries of the Americas, as well all countries of Northern and Central Europe, Australia and New Zealand...
in science
Science
Science is a systematic enterprise that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe...
and technology
Technology
Technology is the making, usage, and knowledge of tools, machines, techniques, crafts, systems or methods of organization in order to solve a problem or perform a specific function. It can also refer to the collection of such tools, machinery, and procedures. The word technology comes ;...
, despite its earlier successes. His works attribute significant weight to the impact of Confucianism
Confucianism
Confucianism is a Chinese ethical and philosophical system developed from the teachings of the Chinese philosopher Confucius . Confucianism originated as an "ethical-sociopolitical teaching" during the Spring and Autumn Period, but later developed metaphysical and cosmological elements in the Han...
and Taoism
Taoism
Taoism refers to a philosophical or religious tradition in which the basic concept is to establish harmony with the Tao , which is the mechanism of everything that exists...
on the pace of Chinese scientific discovery, and emphasizes what it describes as the "diffusionist" approach of Chinese science as opposed to a perceived independent inventiveness in the western world.
Needham held that the notion that the Chinese script had inhibited scientific thought was "grossly overrated".
His own research revealed a steady accumulation of scientific results throughout Chinese history. In the final volume he suggests "A continuing general and scientific progress manifested itself in traditional Chinese society but this was violently overtaken by the exponential growth of modern science after the Renaissance in Europe. China was homeostatic, but never stagnant."
Nathan Sivin
Nathan Sivin
Nathan Sivin , also known as Xiwen is an American author, scholar, sinologist, historian, essayist, and currently professor emeritus at the University of Pennsylvania...
, one of Needham's collaborators, while agreeing that Needham's achievement was monumental, suggested that the "Needham question", as a counterfactual hypothesis, was not conducive to a useful answer: "It is striking that this question – Why didn't the Chinese beat Europeans to the Scientific Revolution? – happens to be one of the few questions that people often ask in public places about why something didn't happen in history. It is analogous to the question of why your name did not appear on page 3 of today's newspaper."
Evaluations and critiques
Needham's work has been criticized by some scholars for its strong inclination to exaggerate Chinese technological achievements and its propensity to assume a Chinese origin for the wide range of objects his work covered:
J Needham's (1971) monumental work on Chinese nautics offers by far the most
scholarly synthesis on the subjects of Chinese shipbuilding and navigation. His propensity to view the Chinese as the initiators of all things and his constant references
to the superiority of Chinese over the rest of the world's techniques does at times
detract from his argument.
Political involvement
Needham's political views were unorthodox and his lifestyle controversial. His left-wing stance was based in an idiosyncratic form of Christian socialismChristian socialism
Christian socialism generally refers to those on the Christian left whose politics are both Christian and socialist and who see these two philosophies as being interrelated. This category can include Liberation theology and the doctrine of the social gospel...
and after 1949 his sympathy with Chinese culture was extended to the new government. During his stay in China, Needham was asked to analyze some cattle-cakes which the Communists claimed had been scattered by American aircraft in the south of China at the end of World War II, and found they were impregnated with anthrax
Anthrax
Anthrax is an acute disease caused by the bacterium Bacillus anthracis. Most forms of the disease are lethal, and it affects both humans and other animals...
. During the Korean War
Korean War
The Korean War was a conventional war between South Korea, supported by the United Nations, and North Korea, supported by the People's Republic of China , with military material aid from the Soviet Union...
further accusations were made that the Americans had used biological warfare
Biological warfare
Biological warfare is the use of biological toxins or infectious agents such as bacteria, viruses, and fungi with intent to kill or incapacitate humans, animals or plants as an act of war...
. Zhou Enlai
Zhou Enlai
Zhou Enlai was the first Premier of the People's Republic of China, serving from October 1949 until his death in January 1976...
coordinated an international campaign to enlist Needham for a study commission, tacitly offering access to materials and contacts in China needed for his then early research. Needham agreed to be an inspector in North Korea
North Korea
The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea , , is a country in East Asia, occupying the northern half of the Korean Peninsula. Its capital and largest city is Pyongyang. The Korean Demilitarized Zone serves as the buffer zone between North Korea and South Korea...
and his report supported the allegations. After post-cold war revelations that the Soviets had assisted the Chinese in setting up false scenarios, Needham's biographer Simon Winchester
Simon Winchester
Simon Winchester, OBE , is a British-American author and journalist who resides mostly in the United States. Through his career at The Guardian, Winchester covered numerous significant events including Bloody Sunday and the Watergate Scandal...
comments that "Needham was intellectually in love with communism; and yet communist spymasters and agents, it turned out, had pitilessly duped him." Needham was blacklisted by the U.S. government until well into the 1970s.
In 1965, with Derek Bryan, a retired diplomat who he first met in China, Needham established the Society for Anglo-Chinese Understanding
Society for Anglo-Chinese Understanding
The Society for Anglo-Chinese Understanding is a charity whose goal is to foster understanding between British and Chinese people, established in 1965 and based in Barrow-in-Furness, United Kingdom . It publishes the quarterly China Eye magazine. It liaisons with local British Chinese communities...
, which for some years provided the only way for the British to visit the People's Republic of China. On a visit to China in 1964 he was met by Zhou Enlai, but on a visit in 1972 he was deeply depressed by the changes under the Cultural Revolution
Cultural Revolution
The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, commonly known as the Cultural Revolution , was a socio-political movement that took place in the People's Republic of China from 1966 through 1976...
.
Personal life
Needham was married to the biochemist Dorothy MoyleDorothy M. Needham
Dorothy Mary Moyle Needham FRS was an English biochemist known for her work on the biochemistry of muscle. She was married to biochemist Joseph Needham....
(1896–1987) in 1924 and they became the first husband and wife both to be elected as Fellows of the Royal Society.
Simon Winchester notes that, in his younger days, Needham was an avid gymnosophist
Gymnosophy
Gymnosophy was originally the doctrines of a sect of philosophers who practiced nudity, asceticism and meditation. In the early 20th century, the term was appropriated by several groups to denote a broad philosophy that included as a central thought that the nude human body is a natural condition...
and he was always attracted by pretty women. When he and Lu Gwei-djen
Lu Gwei-djen
Lu Gwei-Djen was an expert on the History of science and technology in China, doctor of nutriology. She was an important researcher and co-author of the project Science and Civilization in China series led by Joseph Needham...
met in 1937, they fell deeply in love, which Dorothy accepted. The three of them eventually lived contentedly on the same road in Cambridge for many years. In 1989, two years after Dorothy's death, Needham married Lu, who died two years later. He suffered from Parkinson's disease
Parkinson's disease
Parkinson's disease is a degenerative disorder of the central nervous system...
from 1982, and died at the age of 94 at his Cambridge home. In 2008 the Chair of Chinese in the University of Cambridge, a post never awarded to Needham, was endowed in his honour as the Joseph Needham Professorship of Chinese History, Science, and Civilization.
Honours and awards
In 1961, Needham was awarded the George Sarton MedalGeorge Sarton Medal
The George Sarton Medal is the most prestigious award given by the History of Science Society. It has been awarded annually since 1955. It is awarded to an historian of science from the international community who became distinguished for "a lifetime of scholarly achievement" in the field...
by the History of Science Society
History of Science Society
The History of Science Society is the primary professional society for the academic study of the history of science.It was founded in 1924 by George Sarton and Lawrence Joseph Henderson, primarily to support the publication of Isis, a journal of the history of science Sarton had started in 1912....
and in 1966 he became Master of Gonville and Caius College. In 1984, Needham became the fourth recipient of the J.D. Bernal Award, awarded by the Society for Social Studies of Science. In 1990, he was awarded the Fukuoka Asian Culture Prize
Fukuoka Asian Culture Prize
The is an award established by Fukuoka City and the Yokatopia Foundation to honor the outstanding work of individuals or organizations in preserving or creating Asian culture...
by Fukuoka
Fukuoka, Fukuoka
is the capital city of Fukuoka Prefecture and is situated on the northern shore of the island of Kyushu in Japan.Voted number 14 in a 2010 poll of the World's Most Livable Cities, Fukuoka is praised for its green spaces in a metropolitan setting. It is the most populous city in Kyushu, followed by...
City.
The Needham Research Institute
Needham Research Institute
The Needham Research Institute or NRI, located on the grounds of the Robinson College, in Cambridge, England, is a center for research into the history of science, technology and medicine in East Asia. It is part of the University of Cambridge...
, devoted to the study of China's scientific history, was opened in 1985 by Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh
Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh
Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh is the husband of Elizabeth II. He is the United Kingdom's longest-serving consort and the oldest serving spouse of a reigning British monarch....
.
- Order of the Companions of HonourOrder of the Companions of HonourThe Order of the Companions of Honour is an order of the Commonwealth realms. It was founded by King George V in June 1917, as a reward for outstanding achievements in the arts, literature, music, science, politics, industry or religion....
, 1992. - British AcademyBritish AcademyThe British Academy is the United Kingdom's national body for the humanities and the social sciences. Its purpose is to inspire, recognise and support excellence in the humanities and social sciences, throughout the UK and internationally, and to champion their role and value.It receives an annual...
, 1971. - Royal SocietyRoyal SocietyThe Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, known simply as the Royal Society, is a learned society for science, and is possibly the oldest such society in existence. Founded in November 1660, it was granted a Royal Charter by King Charles II as the "Royal Society of London"...
, 1941.
See also
- List of Sinologists
- List of historians
- Rise of the West
- G.E.R. Lloyd
- Four Great Inventions
English
- Interview with biographer Simon Winchester on ABC Brisbane September 2000
- David Cosandy, Joseph Needham and the rise of the West
- Needham Research Institute (NRI)
- Science and Civilisation in China
- Asian Philosophy and Critical Thinking Divergence or Convergence?
- Guide to manuscripts by British scientists: N, O.
- BBC Radio4 'In Our Time' audio stream on the Needham Question.
- Works by Joseph Needham at Internet ArchiveInternet ArchiveThe Internet Archive is a non-profit digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It offers permanent storage and access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, music, moving images, and nearly 3 million public domain books. The Internet Archive...
- Question marks: Chinese invention - The Economist, Jun 5th 2008, review of Needham biography by Simon Winchester
- Needham's wartime photos in China