On Saturday, April 8, 2023 at 10:48:19 PM UTC-7, wrote:
According to the article "The Needham Question":
- China always valued the humanities above the sciences. If you aspired to high office it was the classics rather than the sciences that you would study. In China the Daoists studied nature but it was the Confucians who formed the ruling elite.
Confucians regarded the Daoist teaching as something for the illiterate masses and this had a negative impact on scientific research. Daoist analysis was fairly superficial, involving observation and reflection rather than taking things apart and trying
to answer the fundamental ‘why?’ questions. Many Daoist texts are full of wonderment at the structure of nature without seeking to explain how it all came to be. The primary concern of Chinese administrators was the health and welfare of people
rather than increasing knowledge. Science for science’s sake was not thought of as a useful occupation as it did not directly benefit anyone. It was considered more worthwhile to study ethics and politics that could enhance everyone’s well-being. By
contrast in Europe the ancient studies in sciences (nature, mathematics, physics and philosophy) retained a high status.
According to the book "China: Its History and Culture, 4th Edition":
- It has been pointed out that a general education in the literature of the classics prepared both Chinese and British imperial officials for a generally successful and fair-minded rule. But it is not always stressed, or indeed remembered, that in the
heyday of classical education in both these regimes, the object was not the mere acquisition of knowledge, but knowledge for the sake of character in the hope of attaining wisdom. The young aspirant for office in China received an education in classics
written with a distinct didactic aim. The schoolboy at Westminster School read the Greeks and Romans and the Bible, not merely to excel intellectually but to imitate the best, Socrates and Cicero, and avoid the worst, Nero and Commodus (with even more
important lessons from the Bible, though these were haphazardly applied).
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