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“Benefit of Water”*: The Approach of Joseph Needham

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Science and Civilisation in China. Vol. IV, Part 3: Civil Engineering and Nautics. By NeedhamJoseph, with the collaboration of Wang Ling and Lu Gwei-Djen. Cambridge: University Press, 1971. xli, Acknowledgements, Author's Notes, 931 pp. Abbreviations, Bibliography, Index. Interim List of Editions Used, Table. $55.00.

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 March 2011

David N. Keightley
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The Journal of Asian Studies , Volume 31 , Issue 2 , February 1972 , pp. 367 - 371
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Copyright © The Association for Asian Studies, Inc. 1972

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References

1 Some minor comments: Needham's translations of longer passages are trenchant and generally persuasive. I noticed only one place (p. 255, lines 24–27) where I would venture serious disagreement. Instead of “To reduce the speed of a stream. …” etc., I would translate, “To make sluggish water flow, the water-course should be bent like chiming-stones, by 3's or 5's (i.e., by an indeterminate number of obtuse-angled bends).” The etymologies given in the series are not always reliable; of the six etymologies given on p. 72, for example, five need revision. The translation of some official titles is inconsistent. “Yangtze” of p. 16, line 23, should be “Yellow River.”

2 The cost of informing Western “literati” about China's science and civilization has risen in an alarming and saddening way. Volume II in the series cost only 2¢ a page in 1956; the volume under review costs 5.6¢ a page. In the present case, it might have been wiser to break Vol. IV, Part 3, into two separate books, one on Civil Engineering, the other on Nautics, each of about 500 pages and selling for $28. The reduction in unit-cost would have permitted more scholars with a particular interest in one subject or the other to buy. It should be noted, incidentally, that a translation of the entire series into Chinese is in preparation, under the direction of Ch'en Li-fu, as part of Taiwan's Cultural Renaissance (Tung-fang tsa-chih, III.3 (Sept. I, 1969), 27–30).