Mineral and mineralogy in late Qing China: translations and conceptualizations, 1860s–1910s

ABSTRACT

This article critically examines the translations of two terms – mineral and mineralogy – in modern China. The last decades of the Qing dynasty (1860s–1910s) witnessed a transition in the terminological usage of the Chinese equivalents of mineral and mineralogy from jinshi (metals and rocks) and jinshi xue (a study of metals and rocks) to kuangwu and kuangwu xue. A scrutiny of this transition raises questions regarding not only the exchanges in scientific knowledge between China, the West, and Japan since the nineteenth century, but the changes in the understanding of natural things in China. This article locates the translation of the terms within the scope of cultural translation and the history of science. It sheds new light both on the confrontations between languages and knowledge systems, which led to the re-conceptualization of natural things in China and Japan, and on the interplay between various domestic and transnational forces that shaped the intellectual landscapes in China. Through the confrontations and interplay, mineralogy eventually projected minerals into the domain of science and modern science claimed the authority over understanding these natural things.

KEYWORDS:

• Chinese history
• history of mineralogy
• science and translation
• history of concepts

Acknowledgments

I am indebted to Prof. Antonia Finnane, Prof. Simon Creak, and Dr Gerhard Wiesenfeldt for their encouragement and support during the writing and revision of this paper. Earlier versions of this paper have been presented at workshops in the University of Melbourne and the AAS-in-Asia Conference in Taipei. Thanks are due to the audiences for their helpful comments. I would also like to thank the editors and anonymous referees for their valuable suggestions which have improved this paper.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 There is a wealth of research in this field. Of particular relevance to the present essay are D. R. Oldroyd, ‘Mineralogy and the “Chemical Revolution”’, Centaurus, 19.1 (1975), 54–71; W. R. Albury and D. R. Oldroyd, ‘From Renaissance Mineral Studies to Historical Geology, in the Light of Michel Foucault’s “The Order of Things”’, The British Journal for the History of Science, 10.3 (1977), 187–215; and Rachel Laudan, From Mineralogy to Geology: The Foundations of a Science, 1650–1830 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1994).

2 Few studies have been specifically focused on the history of mineralogy in China, and most of them have neglected the implications of the introduction of mineralogy for Chinese culture and society. For example, see Cui Yunhao, Zhongguo jinxiandai kuangwu xue shi [A History of Mineralogy in Modern China] (Beijing: Kexue chubanshe, 1995). Some studies are on chemistry, for most relevant, see James Reardon-Anderson, The Study of Change: Chemistry in China, 1840–1949, Studies of the East Asian Institute, Columbia University (Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press, 1991); David Wright, Translating Science: The Transmission of Western Chemistry Into Late Imperial China, 1840–1900 (Leiden: BRILL, 2000); and Yadong Li, ‘The Introduction of Chemical Theories into Nineteenth-Century China’, Annals of Science, 51.5 (1994), 517–30.

3 For example, Xu Weize in 1902 categorized mineralogical and geological texts together in the dixue section in his catalogue of Western books. See Xu Weize, Zengban dongxi xue shulu [Expanded Catalogue of Chinese and Western books] (Beijing: the author, 1902; repr. Beijing: Beijing tushuguan chubanshe, 2003), pp. 22b–23a.

4 Tsui-Hua Yang, ‘The Development of Geology in Republican China, 1912–1937’, in Philosophy and Conceptual History of Science in Taiwan, ed. by Cheng-Hung Lin and Daiwie Fu, Boston Studies in the Philosophy of Science 141 (Netherlands: Springer, 1993), p. 222. Yang mistakenly identifies the original book as System of Mineralogy. Other scholars include Mariko Takegami, who in her recent study on the origins of modern geology in China holds a similar opinion. See Mariko Takegami, ‘The Origins of Modern Geology in China: The Work of D. J. Macgowan and R. Pumpelly’, Zinbun, 46 (2016), 179–97 (p. 184).

5 For example, Liang Qichao in 1896 believed that Jinshi shibie was not completely appropriate to be included in the category of either mining studies or sciences of the Earth, so he relegated it to the category of chemistry. In 1910, Ma Junwu categorized it as a mineralogical text. See Wang Genyuan and Cui Yunhao, ‘Guanyu Jinshi shibie de fanyi chuban he diben’ [On the translation, publication, and original book of Jinshi shibie], Zhongguo keji shiliao, 11 (1990), 89–96 (p. 91).

6 Chemical nomenclature has been the primary focus of historians. For a comprehensive study, see Wright, Translating Science; for another, see Wang Yangzong, ‘A New Inquiry into the Translation of Chemical Terms by John Fryer and Xu Shou’, in New Terms for New Ideas: Western Knowledge and Lexical Change in Late Imperial China, ed. by Michael Lackner, Iwo Amelung, and Joachim Kurtz (Leiden: BRILL, 2001), pp. 271–83. James Reardon-Anderson’s study has also a focus on chemistry in modern China. In this work, Reardon-Anderson examines not only the translations of specific chemicals, but the implications of the discipline of chemistry for China. For specific translations of chemicals by Xu Shou and John Fryer, see James Reardon-Anderson, pp. 36–45.

7 Shellen Wu, Empires of Coal: Fueling China’s Entry into the Modern World Order, 1860–1920 (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2015), p. 79.

8 For example, Wen Changbin, Minguo keji yiming tongyi gognzuo Shijian yu lilun [Practices and Theories of Standardizing Translated Scientific Terms in Republican China] (Beijing: Commercial Press, 2011), p. 8.

9 Cui Yunhao and Chen Yunyan, among others, have noticed the transition between jinshi and kuangwu as the equivalent to mineral. They however see the transition and replacement as natural and smooth and holds the opinion that the translation, whether jinshi or kuangwu, merely reflects the transmission of modern geology. See Cui Yunhao and Chen Yunyan, ‘Kuangwu ciyuan zaikao’, Zhongguo keji shiliao, 14 (1993), 76–84.

10 Zhang Hongzhao, ‘Foreword’ to Dong Chang, Kuangwu yanshi ji dizhi mingci jiyao [Vocabulary of Mineralogical, Petrological and Geological Terms] (Peking: Nongshangbu dizhi diaochasuo, 1923). The Pinyin system is adopted to transliterate terms, names, and publication titles in Chinese, and the Kunrei-shiki system is adopted for Japanese except certain commonly used terms and names.

11 For a case of study of scientific terminology that is trapped in conceptual history, see Bernhard F. Scholz, ‘Conceptual History in Context: Reconstructing the Terminology of an Academic Discipline’, in History of Concepts, Comparative Perspectives (Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 1998), pp. 87–102.

12 For ‘biographies of scientific objects’, see Lorraine Daston, ‘Introduction’, in Biographies of Scientific Objects, ed. by Lorraine Daston (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000), pp. 1–14.

13 For the changing concept of ‘mineralogy’ in Europe before the nineteenth century, see Laudan, pp. 20–28. Certain studies have identified China’s traditional mineralogy, but ‘mineralogy’ is used in a broad sense. For example, see Joseph Needham, Science and Civilisation in China, Volume 3: Mathematics and the Sciences of the Heavens and the Earth (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1959), p. 636.

14 Lidia Liu, Translingual Practice: Literature, National Culture, and Translated Modernity—China, 1900–1937 (Pal Alto: Stanford University Press, 1995), pp. xvi–xviii.

15 Ibid., p. 25.

16 Ibid., p. 18, 29.

17 Ibid., p. 29.

18 For most notable researches, see Reardon-Anderson, pt. I; David Wright, ‘Careers in Western Science in Nineteenth-Century China: Xu Shou and Xu Jianyin’, Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, 5 (1995), 49–90; David Wright, ‘The Great Desideratum: Chinese Chemical Nomenclature and the Transmission of Western Chemical Concepts’, Chinese Science, 14 (January 1997), pp. 35–70; David Wright, ‘The Translation of Modern Western Science in Nineteenth-Century China, 1840–1895’, Isis, 89 (1998), 653–73; Wright, Translating Science.

19 Wright, Translating Science, pp. 184–90.

20 Wright, Translating Science, pp. 183–247.

21 For exemplar studies, see Yue Meng, ‘Hybrid Science Versus Modernity: The Practice of the Jiangnan Arsenal, 1864–1897’, East Asian Science, Technology & Medicine, 16 (January 1999), 13–52; Chan Man Sing, ‘Sinicizing Western Science: The Case of Quanti Xinlun 全體新論’, T’oung Pao, 98 (1 January 2012), 528–56.

22 Wright, ‘The Translation of Modern Western Science in Nineteenth-Century China, 1840–1895’, p. 672.

23 Benjamin A. Elman, On Their Own Terms (Cambridge and London: Harvard University Press, 2005), pp. xxi–xxxviii.

24 Elman has on different occasions argued on this point. See Benjamin A. Elman, ‘“Universal Science” Versus “Chinese Science”: The Changing Identity of Natural Studies in China, 1850–1930.’, Historiography East & West, 1.1 (2003), 68–116; Benjamin A. Elman, ‘From Pre-Modern Chinese Natural Studies to Modern Science in China’, in Mapping Meanings: The Field of New Learning in Late Qing China, ed. by Michael Lackner and Natascha Vittinghoff (Leiden and Boston, MA: BRILL, 2004), pp. 25–74.

25 Jing Tsu and Benjamin Elman, ‘Introduction’, in Science and Technology in Modern China, 1880s–1940s’, ed. by Jing Tsu and Benjamin A. Elman (Leiden and Boston, MA: Brill, 2014), pp. 1–14 (p. 8).

26 Benjamin Elman, ‘Toward a History of Modern Science in Republican China’, in Science and Technology in Modern China, 1880s–1940s’, ed. by Jing Tsu and Benjamin A. Elman, pp. 15–38 (pp. 24–29).

27 There is a wealth of literature on the history of the Arsenal. For example, see Yue Meng, ‘Hybrid Science Versus Modernity: The Practice of The Jiangnan Arsenal, 1864–1897’, pp. 16–24.

28 Zhang Zengyi, ‘Jiangnan zhizao zongju de yishu huodong’ [Book translation of the Jiangnan Arsenal.] Jindaishi yanjiu, 3 (1996), 212–23 (p. 214). Scholars hold varied opinions on the total number of books translated by the Arsenal, but the consensus is that the number should be around two hundred. For a synthetical discussion on this issue, see Shanghai Tushuguan, Jiangnan zhizaoju fanyiguan tuzhi [Illustrated Gazetteer of the Translation Bureau of the Jiangnan Arsenal] (Shanghai: Shanghai kexue jishu wenxian chubanshe, 2010), pp. 73–77. The original publication date of Jinshi shibie is identified by Wang Genyuan and Cui Yunhao as 1871. See Wang Genyuan and Cui Yunhao, ‘Guanyu Jinshi shibie de fanyi chuban he diben’, 89–96. But the year of translation was 1869.

29 Nie Fuling and Guo Shirong, ‘Dizhixue yuanli de yanbian yu dixue qianshi’ [The evolution of Lyell’s Principles of Geology and Dixue qianshi], Neimenggu shifan daxue xuebao (ziran kexue hanwen ban), 41 (2012), 307–13.

30 The want of a sufficient mastery of the Chinese language, its construction, history and resources is one of the causes listed by John Fryer for the problems in the Arsenal’s translation, see John Fryer, Essay on Chinese Scientific Terminology, its Present Discrepancies, and Means of Securing Uniformity (Shanghai: Presbyterian Mission Press, 1890), p. 13.

31 Wright, ‘The Translation of Modern Western Science in Nineteenth-Century China, 1840–1895’, p. 654.

32 John Fryer, ‘Jiangnan zhizao zongju fanyi xishu shilüe’ [A Brief History of Translating Western Books in the Jiangnan Arsenal], in Fanyi lunji, ed. by Luo Xinzhang (Beijing: Commercial Press, 1984), pp. 219–20.

33 For an example of Chinese scholars’ significance in the translation, see Chan Man Sing, ‘Sinicizing Western Science: The Case of Quanti Xinlun 全體新論’, T’oung Pao, 98 (2012), 528–56 (p. 532).

34 Fryer, Essay on Chinese Scientific Terminology, p. 4.

35 Ibid., p. 14.

36 Hua Hengfang, ‘Preface’ to James Dwight Dana, Jinshi shibie [A Classification of Metals and Rocks], trans. by Hua Hengfang and Daniel Jerome MacGowan (Shanghai: Jiangnan Arsenal, 1871; repr. Hongwen shuju, 1896), p. 1.

37 Laudan, p. 22.

38 Laudan, pp. 23–25.

39 Laudan, p. 21.

40 Frank Dawson Adams, The Birth and Development of the Geological Sciences (New York: Dover Publications, 1990), pp. 195–205.

41 Robert Siegfried and Betty Jo Dobbs, ‘Composition, a Neglected Aspect of the Chemical Revolution’, Annals of Science, 24 (1968), 275–93 (p. 281).

42 D. R. Oldroyd, ‘Mineralogy and the “Chemical Revolution”’, p. 55.

43 Laudan, p. 56.

44 The translation of Shennong bencao jing is rendered by Nathan Sivin. See Nathan Sivin, ‘Science and Medicine in Imperial China—The State of the Field’, The Journal of Asian Studies, 47 (1988), 41–90 (p. 43).

45 Carla Nappi, The Monkey and the Inkpot: Natural History and Its Transformations in Early Modern China (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2010), pp. 20–21.

46 James Dwight Dana, Manual of Mineralogy: Including Observations on Mines, Rocks, Reduction of Ores, and the Applications of the Science to the Arts, with 260 Illustrations. Designed for the Use of Schools and Colleges (New Haven, CT: Durrie & Peck, 1855), p. 15.

47 Li Shizhen, Bencao gangmu, 1:9a. For an English translation of Bencao gangmu, Li Shizhen, Compendium of Materia Medica: Bencao Gangmu, trans. by Luo Xiwen (Beijing: Foreign Languages Press, 2003), ii, pp. 898–901.

48 Dana, Jinshi shibie, p. 1:1a.

49 Ibid., p. 1:1.

50 Ibid.

51 Shellen Wu, Empire of Coal, pp. 84–87.

52 Charles Lyell, Elements of Geology Or the Ancient Changes of the Earth and Its Inhabitants as Illustrated by Geological Monuments (London: John Murray, 1865), pp. 1–3.

53 Lyell, Elements of Geology, p. 758.

54 Lyell, Elements of Geology, p. 94.

55 Lyell, Dixue qianshi (Shanghai: Jiangnan zhizaoju, 1871; repr. in Jiangnan Zhizaoju keji yizhu jicheng [Compiled Translated Works of the Jiangnan Arsenal] dixue qixiang hanghai juan, comp. by Feng Lisheng (Hefei: Zhongguo kexue jishu daxue chubanshe, 2017), pp. 27–337), pp. 9: 1b–2b.

56 Lyell, Dixue qianshi, pp. 38: 1a–2b.

57 James Dana, Jinshibiao [Vocabulary of Mineralogical Terms], trans. by Hua Hengfang and Daniel MacGowan (Shanghai: Jiangnan zhizaoju, 1883), p. 1.

58 Zhan Hongzhang, Zuixin shiyong kuangwu jiaokeshu [The Newest Textbook of Applied Mineralogy] (Shanghai: Shizhong shuju, 1905).

59 Ibid., p. 17.

60 Robert S. Schwantes, ‘Foreign Emplyees in the Development of Japan’, in The Modernizers: Overseas Students, Foreign Employees, and Meiji Japan, ed. by Ardath W. Burks (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1985), pp. 207–08.

61 For the discuss on the foreign employees, see Ardath W. Burks, ‘Japan’s Outreach: The Ryūgakusei’, in The Modernizers: Overseas Students, Foreign Employees, and Meiji Japan, ed. by Ardath W. Burks (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1985), pp. 187–206; ‘The West’s Inreach: The Oyatoi Gaikokujin’, in The Modernizers: Overseas Students, Foreign Employees, And Meiji Japan, ed. by Ardath W. Burks (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1985), pp. 207–18.

62 Masao Watanabe, Science And Cultural Exchange in Modern History: Japan And The West (Tokyo, Japan: Hokusen-sha, 1997), p. 141.

63 Inô Zyakusui and Niwa Sêhaku, Syobutu ruisan [A Classified Collection of All Things] ([n.p.]: [n.pub.], 1710).

64 Ibid., ‘Preface’.

65 Ibid.

66 For a discussion on Hiraga, the idea of opening things, and the Dutch learning, see Tessa Morris-Suzuki, Re-inventing Japan: Time, Space, Nation, Japan in the modern world (Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe, 1998), pp. 35–46 (pp. 44–46).

67 Hiraga Gennai, ‘Explanatory Note’, Buturui hinsitu [Comments on Classified Things], 6 vols (Osaka: Kashiwaraya Seiemon, 1763), I, p. 1b.

68 Nisita Naokai, ‘Preface’, Kinseki nenpyô [The Chronological Table of Epigraphs] ([n.p.]: [n.pub.],1838).

69 Komuro Syôzan, Kôtyô dango zirui [A Classified Words Dictionary of the Royal Empire], 5 vols (Tokyo: Bansêdô, 1873), II, pp. 2: 1a–2b; Maeda Tosiki, Doitu tangohen: tyûkai [German words, with annotations] (Tokyo: Aitikan, 1871).

70 James Dana, Kinseki Syôkai [An Introduction to Mineralogy], trans. by Sirano Kimirô (Tokyo: Kakugigaku, 1879); James Dana, Kinsekigaku hikkê [Essential Mineralogy], trans. by Sugimura Zirô (Yasusarason: Sigimura Zirô, 1880); James Dana, Kinseki itiran zukai [An Illustrated Mineral List], trans. by Ootubo Genzô, 2 vols (Nagoya: Bunkôdô 1883), I.

71 Johannes Leunis, Kinsekigaku [Mineralogy], trans. by Wada Tunasirô (Tokyo: Bunkaisya, 1886), p. 1.

72 The term tisitugaku was imported into Japanese through William Muirhead’s Dili quanzhi (Universal geography) in the 1850s. This book was originally published in Chinese by the London Missionary Press at Shanghai in 1853 and 1854, and appeared in Japan soon after. But Muirhead by this term did not mean geology, but rather physical geography. Not until in the translation of the book Tisitugaku (Geology) by Uryû Hazimu in 1872 did the term first gain its equivalence to geology in book titles. For Uryû’s translation, see Uryû Hazimu, Tisitugaku (Tokyo: Monbushou, 1872).

73 Ibid., p. 2.

74 For example, Wada Tunasirô, Honpô kinseki ryakusi [A Record of the Minerals of Our Country] (Tokyo: Nissyûsya, 1878); he has also approved the use of kinseki in some books. For exmaple, Mutô Hisasi, Nihon kinseki santi [The Producing Places of Minerals in Japan] (Tokyo: Kunaisyô Hakubutukan, 1879).

75 Wada, Honpô kinseki ryakusi, p. 3.

76 Ibid., p. 4.

77 Johannes Buijs, Kikai kanran kôgi [A Textbook on Physics], trans. by Kawamoto Kômin (Kyoto: Katumura Ziemon, 1855), p. 3: 4b.

78 Ibid., p. 3: 15b.

79 Ephraim Chambers, Hakubutu sinpen hoi [A Supllement to the New Book of Natural History], trans. by Obata Tokuzirô (Tokyo: Syûrodô 1869), p. 2: 29a.

80 Eugéne Cortambert, Tikyû sanbutu zassi [The Products of the Earth], trans. by Horikawa Kensai (Tokyo: Izumiya Hanbee, 1872), p. 27a; Takasima Katuzirô, Sinsen rikasyo [A New Textbook of Science], 2nd ed., 4 vols (Tokyo: Bungakusya, 1887), I, pp. 1: 1a–8b.

81 Dotyaku têyô [An Introduction to Native Things], trans. by Kondô Kêzô and Kanda Yutaka, 2 vols, vol. 1 (Tokyo: Hukubunsya, 1874), preface.

82 James Finlay Weir Johnston, Nôgaku kanmê [An Introduction to Agriculture], trans. by Siga Raizan (Tokyo: Kinsentô, 1879), p. 3: 1a.

83 Ibid., pp. 1:2b–4b.

84 Ibid., pp. 2:10b–11a.

85 Ibid., p. 2:12a.

86 Ellis Davison, Insyoku yôzyô sinsyo [A New Book on Diet and Nourishing Life], trans. by Yamamoto Yositosi, 4 vols (Tokyo: Bakyûkaku, 1875), IV, pp. 4: 17a, 26a–29a.

87 Michael Foster, Syôgaku sêrusyo [A Text Book of Physiology], trans. by Huruwatari Sukehide, 12 vols (Tokyo: Huruwatari Sukehide, 1879), III, pp. 13a–14b.

88 Takahasi Hitamatu and Sibata Syôkei, Inryôsui [On Drinking Water] (Tokyo: Simamura Risuke, 1887), pp. 7–15.

89 Kumazawa Zen'an and Sibata Syôkei, Hutû kinsekigaku [General Mineralogy] ([n.p.]: Shimamura Risuke, 1885).

90 Ibid., ‘Explanatory Words’, p. 1.

91 Ibid., pp. 2–3.

92 Kotô Bunzirô, Kinsekigaku: itimê kôbutugaku [A Study of Metals and Rocks, or Mineralogy] (Tokyo: Kotô Bunzirô, 1884).

93 Ibid., pp. 1–2.

94 Kotô Bunzirô, Kôbutugaku syoho [Elementary Mineralogy], 2 vols, (Tokyo: Sawaya sokiti, 1885), I, preface.

95 Ibid., pp. 2–4.

96 Wada Tunasirô, Kôhôron [On the Law of Mines] (Tokyo: Habunkan, 1890), pp. 58–59; other examples were in 1904 and 1907, see Wada Tunasirô, Honpô kôbutu hyôhon [Mineral Specimines of our Country] (Tokyo: Wada Tunasirô, 1907); Wada Tunasirô, Nihon kôbutusi [A Gazetteer of Minerals in Japan] (Tokyo: Wada Tunasirô, 1904).

97 Zinbo Kotora, Sinpen tisitugaku [A New Geology] (Tokyo: Utida rôkakuho, 1892), pp. 1–8.

98 Ai Suzhen, ‘Qingdai chuban de dizhixue yizhu ji tedian’ [The Translated Geological Books Published in the Qing Dynasty and Their Features], Zhongguo keji shiliao, 19 (1998), 11–25 (p. 12).

99 Elman, ‘“Universal Science” Versus “Chinese Science”’, p. 70, 73.

100 David Wright, ‘The Translation of Modern Western Science in Nineteenth-Century China, 1840–1895’, pp. 653–73.

101 Meng, p. 17.

102 The transmission of modern science from Japan into China after the Sino-Japan War has been discussed by many scholars, for example, see Reardon-Anderson, The Study of Change, pp. 80–82.

103 For discussions on the prewar comparison between China and Japan, see ibid., pp. 16–24; Elman, ‘“Universal Science” Versus “Chinese Science”’, pp. 81–86.

104 Ibid., p. 29.

105 Saneto Keishu, Zhongguoren liuxue riben Shi [A History of the Chinese Students Studying in Japan] (Beijing: Sanlian chuban she, 1983), pp. 22–23.

106 Ibid., pp. 24–27.

107 Ibid., p. 39.

108 Tan Ruqian, ‘Introduction’ to Tan Ruqian, Zhongguo yi riben shu zonghe mulu [A Bibliography of Chinese Translated Japanese Books] (Hongkong: Hongkong University Press, 1980), pp. 41–54.

109 For a discussion on the compilation and publication of the encyclopaedia, see Ishikawa Yoshihiro, ‘Kindai nittyû no honyaku hyakkaziten ni tuite’ [On the Translations of Encyclopaedias in Modern Japan and China],’ in Kindai dôazia ni okeru honyaku gainen no tenkai, ed. by Ishikawa Yoshihiro and Hazama Nawaki (Kyoto: Institute for Research in Humanities, Kyoto University, 2013), pp. 284–90.

110 For a bibliography of the encyclopaedia, see ibid., pp. 306–07.

111 Zinbo Kotora, Kuangwuxue jiaokeshu [A Textbook of Mineralogy] (Taiyuan: The Imperial University of Shanxi, 1905).

112 Chen Wenzhe, Putong jiaoyu kuangwujie jiaokeshu [A Textbook on the Mineral Kindom for the Public Education] (Shanghai: Changming gongsi, 1906).

113 Gu Lang and Zhou Shuren, Zhongguo kuangchan zhi [A Record of China’s Mineral Products] (Shanghai: Pujishuju, 1906).

114 Gu and Zhou, ‘Preface’, Zhongguo Kuangchan zhi, p. 1.

115 Yokoyama Madaziro, ‘Dizhixue jiaokeshu’ [Geological Textbook], Mengxue bao, 18 (1905), p. 40.

116 Du Yaquan, ‘Kuangwuxue jiangyi’ [Mineralogical Textbook], Shifan jiangyi, 10 (1911), p. 2.

117 Zhang Hongzhao, Liuliu zishu [An Account of My Life] (Wuhan: Wuhan dizhi xueyuan chuban she, 1987), pp. 7–8.

118 In fact, Zhang intended to major in mathematics or agriculture, rather than geology. He gave up his plan because it was almost impossible for foreigners to be admitted by the department of agriculture. Zhang, Liuliu zishu, p. 20.

119 Albury and Oldroyd, ‘From Renaissance Mineral Studies to Historical Geology’, pp. 187–89; for Foucault’s idea, see Michel Foucault, The Order of Things: An Archaeology of the Human Sciences, World of Man (London: Routledge, 1989).

120 Ursula Klein and Wolfgang Lefèvre, Materials in Eighteenth-Century Science: A Historical Ontology (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2007), pp. 1–3.

121 Ibid., p. 78, 110, pp. 163–77.

122 Elman, “Universal Science” Versus “Chinese Science”, p. 74.