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Ruling out Change: Institutional Impediments to Transfer of Technology in Ship Building and Design in the Far East

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 June 2011

Bao Leshi
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Extract

In the Chinese technological tradition, no sector, apart from that of agriculture, is as rich in original ideas as naval architecture. Over the past three millennia, hundreds of different types of craft have been developed for use on China's shallow lakes, on its fast flowing rivers and along its often stormy coastal waters. Each type was developed for specific use as a means of transportation, and would seem to represent the ultimate answer to the challenges posed by local conditions. Ultimate answer, that is, within the limitations of the traditional building materials with which these boats were constructed and fitted out. Nor was ingenuity confined to construction techniques.

Type
Transfer of Science and Technology
Information
Itinerario , Volume 19 , Issue 3 , November 1995 , pp. 142 - 152
Copyright
Copyright © Research Institute for History, Leiden University 1995

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References

Notes

1 The best introductions into the subject are respectively, Audemard's, L. magnum opus in six volumes, Lajonques chitioises (Rotterdam 1957-1965)Google Scholar; Worcester, G.R.G., Sail and Sweep in China (London 1965)Google Scholar and Part 3 of Volume 4 of Needham's, JosephScience and Gvilisation in China (Cambridge 1971)Google Scholar, which is devoted to civil engineering and nautics.

2 Needham, Joseph, Science and Civilisation in China IV/3 (Cambridge 1971) 477–481Google Scholar.

3 Kai, Chou, Hsiamen Chih (‘Gazetteer of Hsia-men’) 5 (1832) 15 and 27Google Scholar.

4 Stavorinus, J.S., Voyages to the East Indies II (London 1798) 286–288Google Scholar.

5 Crawfurd, John, Journal of an Embassy… to the Courts of Siam and Cochin China II (London 1830) 160Google Scholar.

6 This is also one of the points made by Ju-kang, Tien, ‘The Place of Chinese Sailing Ships in Shipping and Trade of Southeast Asia’, Li-shi Yen-chiu 8 (1956) 1–21Google Scholar.

7 By the end of the Tokugawa period when the superior quality of English gunboats had been proven during the Opium war in China of course many other attempts were made to learn from the West.

8 ‘Secreet Dagregister Gehouden door Isaac Titsing 1782–1783’, General State Archive - The Hague (ARA), Nederlandse Factory Japan (NFJ) 25.

9 Romberg 25 January 1787, ARA, NFJ 198.