The Chinese Journal for the History of Science and technology  NO.3 2002

Japan's Colonial Scientific Research Institution in China: The Shanghai Science Institute……LIANG Bo，ZHAI Wen-bao

【Abstract】 This article investigates the process of setting up of the Shanghai Science (SSI) and the role of Chinese scientists thereof,describes the transformation of SSI from the so-called unadulterated academic research to being a tool of Japan's infringement of China, provides information about the staff status,organizational system of branch of learning and chief research activities of SSI,and briefly presents a few indigenous Chinese scientists and the relationship of SSI with the academic and cultural circles then in China.

A Study on the Ingenuity of North China's Traditional Stone Roller……ZOU Qing-yun

【Abstract】 This paper points out that as a traditional food processing implement with unique mechanical performance, the stone roller of North China is rarely noted in ancient works and current history books of science and technology. In addition, it looks tentatively into its mechanical characteristic and processing performance of the northern stone roller, and makes some suggestions for doing further research about it.

Econmic Analysis of Some Questions in Shushu Jiuzhang……LU Xing-huan

【Abstract】 By analyzing some subjects on tax,construction,interest and price in Shushu Jiuzhang(Mathematical Treatise in Nine Chapters),the principal work and results of this paper are as follows: (1) The reasons for not dividing integer part from fraction part in levying taxes of "xia shui zhe bo"and "he mai zhe bo" in "Hu Shui Yi Ge". (2) The reason for neglecting the mesurements of lumber in calculation in the "Lou Lu Gong Liao" question. (3) The understanding of monthly interest in the "Tui Qiu Dian Ben" question.(4) The currency standard for commodity prices in some subjects of prices.

Textual Research on A Marvelous Book on Vaccination Recently Coming Out of England……ZHANG Daqing

【Abstract】 Through textual research on A Marvelous Book on Vaccination Recently Coming Out of England,which is collected in the Medical History Library of Yale University,this article introduces individuals and events involved in its collection,and points out that the book is a significant bibliography on the history of medical exchange between China and the West.The article believes it is a very valuable book for historians of medicine and science.

The Mural Star Map of the Tomb Kitora……Narike Tetsuro

【Abstract】 The tomb Kitora in the Asuka Village of Prefecture Nara, Japan was investigated by a small camera which was put into the said tomb through a hole on its southern wall. The result of investigation shows the tomb to have murals on the four walls depicted with Blue-Dragon, White-Tiger, Black-Tortoise & Snake, and Vermillion-Bird, respectively. This kind of motif also occurs in China and Japan. However, the ceiling is drawn with a star map copied faithfully from that for observation in those days. As the tomb is supposed to be built around A.D.700, this star map may be regarded as the oldest one in the world. But the details of it remain unknown hitherto, because the tomb has not been subjected to excavation yet. There are only some photographs now. Moreover, the photograph of the star map is rather obscure because it was taken obliquely. Since astronomy did not develop at all then in Japan, there is no doubt that the original star map came from China or Korea. The original map of the tomb Takamatsu must have been the same one in the tomb Kitora, for the two tombs are near to each other and both of them were produced about the same time. As we do not know the details of the Kitora star map, the star map of the tomb Takamatsu is of great importance. First, this paper compares the star map of the tomb Takamatsu with the Chart of the Heaven of Suzhou, China and the star map Chon-sang-yol-cha-bun-ya-ji-do originated in Kokuryo. Next, it compares the Kitora star map with the Chart of the Heaven and Chon-sang-yol-cha-bun-ya-ji-do. It is quite clear that the original of the star map of Kitora comes from Kokuryo. In addition to the equator and the ecliptic, the Kitora star map is drawn with boundary circles for visible area. According to the diameters of these circles, the latitude of the observation point is found to be 38 degrees, which is equal to the latitude of Pyongyang, the capital of Kokuryo. Furthermore, judging from the relation between the ecliptic and the constallations, research is done on the time the original was made. It turns out that the original of the Kitora star map must be produced in about A.D.500. The composition of the murals in the tomb Kitora is the same as that of Kokuryo. The author is sure that the buried man was an astronomer from Kokuryo.

A Primary X-ray Apparatus Was Admitted into Soochow Hospital in 1897……DAI Wu-san

【Abstract】 It was recorded in detail in "The Marvelous Lantern"in Dian Shi Zhi Pictorial (No.3,Li)that the X-ray apparatus was operated in Soochow Hospital, a hospital run by the US Christian church. This was a primary X-ray apparatus and the admission time was 1897.

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Imported Chinese Medical Books and Their Japanese Reprints in the Edo Period……MAYANAGI Makoto

【Abstract】 In the Edo Period,Chinese medical knowledge mostly reached Japan through the medium of books. An appreciable number of these books was disseminated in the form of Japanese reprints with wide distribution. The author decides to study,compare and analyze these imported medical books,thinking that in this way it would be possible to get a hold,in historical and numerical terms,on the actual conditions under which Chinese medicine was introduced to and accepted by society at large. The rasults are as follows. The records on the import of Chinese medical books contain a total of 1917 references to 804 separate titles. As a rule,they are voluminous books that were polular in China and could be sold to Japan at a high price. Japanese reprints of Chinese medical books number 679,distributed over 314 separate titles,and approx. half of them were made during the first half of the Edo Period. Reprints of Nei Jing(Canon of Medicine,a notoriously difficult text)and of works on the technically demanding subjects of acupuncture and moxibustion in the first half of the Edo Period. Books containing the main,canonical text were reprinted forty to fifty years after the appearance of the annotated editions of the same texts. After the middle of the Edo Period,reprints of Chinese books suddenly became fewer,which was due to the increasingly Japanese character that medicine took on,and to an increase in the printing of Japanese medical books. All in all,approx. 40% of the imported books was eventually reprinted in Japan. A very high percentage of these reprints(46%)appeared within fifty years of the year in which they were first imported,the time lag becoming shorter and shorter as one approaches the beginning of the Edo Period. Already in the first half of the Edo Period,bestsellers among the Japanese reprints were thin books of three chapters or less. Whether these books were popular in China,or whether they were recent publications,had no relation with their popularity in Japan. Throughout the Edo Period,it is also found that reprints of excerpts and revisions of voluminous Chinese books show the typically Japanese inclination to be of small size. Thus,throughout the Edo Period Japan had its own,original point of view in the reception of Chinese medical books and medical knowledge,and at the same time managed to turn them into something Japanese.

The Theory of Rasa in Ayurveda……LIAO Yu-qun

【Abstract】 Rasa is a concept of extreme importance in Indian culture. Representing the fine matter in diet, it is the basis for deciding all nutritive functions and therapeutic effects. Around this concept, philosophers of ancient times had set off animated discussions, in which the sub-concepts of "potential rasa" and "rasa after digestion" put forward all belong to vital content that is most speculative. However, such vital content is not seen in Chinese medicine which also pays a good deal of attention to the rasa of diet and drugs. In this paper, the theory of rasa is introduced and explained, and attached to at the same time with several translated relevant chapters or sections from the ancient Indian medical classics Susruta-samhita and Caraka-samhita.

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