Science and Civilisation in China
Science and Civilisation in China
$320.00
USDDonald B. Wagner provides a comprehensive historical account of the production and use of iron and steel in China in their political and economic context. An initial chapter on the traditional Chinese iron industry introduces the important technical concepts and the ways in which technology, geography, and economics interact and influence political phenomena. Recent archaeological work indicates that the earliest production of iron in China was in the Northwest, and that the technology was introduced from the West via Central Asia. It was, however, the invention in South China of large-scale technologies which put China on a very different developmental path from that of the West. Further chapters deal with developments from the Han to the Tang, the technical evolution and economic revolution of the Song period, and economic expansion under the Ming. A final chapter investigates the debt of the modern steel industry to Chinese developments.
- Offers the most comprehensive historical account of the development of ferrous metallurgy in China from the beginning, ca. 1000 BC, to modern times
- Provides full analysis of the economic aspects of the topic
- Includes important digressions into the history of Western technologies
Reviews & endorsements
"Wagner, the world's leading authority on this subject, has written the most comprehensive study yet available of iron and steel in China. His approach is especially valuable in considering the social consequences of iron and steel technologies, particularly in agriculture and warfare...This essential work, offering a rich, detailed, scholarly analysis of Chinese iron and steel industries, will be the standard authority for decades to come."
--Choice
Product details
June 2008Hardback
9780521875660
512 pages
250 × 200 × 35 mm
1.66kg
139 b/w illus. 48 colour illus. 4 tables
Available
Table of Contents
- 1. Introduction
- 2. Introductory orientations: the traditional Chinese iron industry in recent centuries
- 3. The earliest use of iron in China
- 4. The flourishing iron industry of the -3rd and -2nd centuries
- 5. The Han state monopoly of the iron industry
- 6. The arts of the smith from Late Han through Tang
- 7. Technical evolution and economic revolution in the Song period
- 8. Economic expansion in the Ming period
- 9. Some Chinese contributions to modern siderurgical technology
- 10. Epilogue.
