Wen-yuan Qian
Wen-yuan Qian | |
|---|---|
| Born | April 14, 1936 |
| Died | August 21, 2003 (aged 67) |
| Citizenship | American |
| Alma mater | Peking University |
| Occupation(s) | Historian of science; sinologist |
| Employer(s) | Zhejiang University; Blackburn College; MacMurray College |
| Known for | The Great Inertia: Scientific Stagnation in Traditional China |
Wen-yuan Qian (14 April 1936 – 21 August 2003) was an American professor of history who taught at Blackburn College and MacMurray College.
Early life and education
[edit]Qian was born in Shanghai. He studied physics at Peking University, graduating in 1959.[1]
Career
[edit]Qian taught physics at Zhejiang University from 1959 to 1980.[1] During the Cultural Revolution, he was branded an "ideological counter-revolutionary."[2] In 1980, the government of the People's Republic of China sent Qian to the United States to continue his studies. In 1983, he graduated from Northwestern University with a Master of Arts in history. Qian was funded by the W. Clement Stone Foundation to translate several works from Chinese to English.[1] In 1985, he published his most known work, The Great Inertia: Scientific Stagnation in Traditional China.[3] The work was "cast in the form of a challenge" to Joseph Needham's Science and Civilisation in China.[2] Qian believed that political conditions, particularly the imperial examination system, stymied the development of modern science in dynastic China.[4] Qian saw the neglect of formal logic and rigorous proof as a central cause in the failure to develop modern science.[5]: 108, 217
In 1988, Qian graduated from the University of Michigan with a doctorate in history and began teaching history at Blackburn College the same year. From 1992 to 2002, he taught history at MacMurray College.[1] Qian died in 2003 in Jacksonville, Illinois.[1]
Works
[edit]
- Qian, Wen-yuan (1988). Axiomaticism in Science Development (PhD thesis). hdl:2027.42/161851. OCLC 21402755.
- Qian, Wen-yuan (June 1985). "Science Development: Sino-Western Comparative Insights". Science Communication. 6 (4): 377–405. doi:10.1177/107554708500600404. hdl:2027.42/68479. ISSN 0164-0259. OCLC 4651285863.
- Qian, Wen-yuan (1985). The Great Inertia: Scientific Stagnation in Traditional China. Croom Helm. ISBN 978-0-7099-2104-2. LCCN 84014217. OCLC 10914880. OL 2851872M.
- Qian, Wen-yuan (1982-10-01). "The Great Inertia: An Introduction to a Causal Inquiry into Traditional China's Scientific Stagnation". Comparative Civilizations Review. 9 (9). ISSN 0733-4540. OCLC 8091893947.
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ a b c d e "Obituary information for Wen-yuan Qian". www.airsman-hires.com. Archived from the original on 2023-04-01. Retrieved 2025-01-05.
- ^ a b Henderson, John B. (1985). "Steps not Made". Science. 230 (4725): 534–535. doi:10.1126/science.230.4725.534. ISSN 0036-8075. JSTOR 1695246. PMID 17809681.
- ^ Cartier, Michel (August 1985). "Wen-yuan Qian, The Great Inertia: Scientific Stagnation in Traditional China, Londres-Sydney-Dover-New Hampshire, Croom Helm, 1984, XII + 155 p.". Annales. Histoire, Sciences Sociales (in French). 40 (4): 957–958. doi:10.1017/S0395264900084432. ISSN 0395-2649.
- ^ Lin, Justin Yifu (2008-01-01). "The Needham puzzle, the Weber question, and China's miracle: Long-term performance since the Sung dynasty". China Economic Journal. 1 (1): 63–95. doi:10.1080/17538960701565053. ISSN 1753-8963.
- ^ Hannas, William C. (2003-12-31). The Writing on the Wall: How Asian Orthography Curbs Creativity. University of Pennsylvania Press. doi:10.9783/9780812202168. ISBN 978-0-8122-3711-5. OL 11345563M.
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