LEADER 05708nam 22006014a 450 001 9910778440103321 005 20230617041846.0 010 $a0-674-03668-9 024 7 $a10.4159/9780674036680 035 $a(CKB)1000000000805483 035 $a(OCoLC)456207808 035 $a(CaPaEBR)ebrary10328829 035 $a(SSID)ssj0000115036 035 $a(PQKBManifestationID)11128468 035 $a(PQKBTitleCode)TC0000115036 035 $a(PQKBWorkID)10004915 035 $a(PQKB)11721819 035 $a(MiAaPQ)EBC3300651 035 $a(Au-PeEL)EBL3300651 035 $a(CaPaEBR)ebr10328829 035 $a(OCoLC)923112662 035 $a(DE-B1597)574453 035 $a(DE-B1597)9780674036680 035 $a(EXLCZ)991000000000805483 100 $a20030618d2004 uy 0 101 0 $aeng 135 $aurcn||||||||| 181 $ctxt 182 $cc 183 $acr 200 10$aBritish naturalists in Qing China$b[electronic resource] $escience, empire, and cultural encounter /$fFa-ti Fan 210 $aCambridge, Mass. $cHarvard University Press$d2004 215 $a1 online resource (269 p.) 300 $aBibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph 311 $a0-674-01143-0 320 $aIncludes bibliographical references (p. 163-165) and index. 327 $tFrontmatter -- $tContents -- $tAcknowledgments -- $tIntroduction -- $tI The Port -- $t1 Natural History in a Chinese Entrepôt -- $t2 Art, Commerce, and Natural History -- $tII THE LAND -- $t3 Science and Informal Empire -- $t4 Sinology and Natural History -- $t5 Travel and Fieldwork in the Interior -- $tEpilogue -- $tAppendix: Selected Biographical Notes -- $tAbbreviations -- $tNotes -- $tIndex 330 $aIn the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, Western scientific interest in China focused primarily on natural history. Prominent scholars in Europe as well as Westerners in China, including missionaries, merchants, consular officers, and visiting plant hunters, eagerly investigated the flora and fauna of China. Yet despite the importance and extent of this scientific activity, it has been entirely neglected by historians of science. This book is the first comprehensive study on this topic. In a series of vivid chapters, Fa-ti Fan examines the research of British naturalists in China in relation to the history of natural history, of empire, and of Sino-Western relations. The author gives a panoramic view of how the British naturalists and the Chinese explored, studied, and represented China's natural world in the social and cultural environment of Qing China. Using the example of British naturalists in China, the author argues for reinterpreting the history of natural history, by including neglected historical actors, intellectual traditions, and cultural practices. His approach moves beyond viewing the history of science and empire within European history and considers the exchange of ideas, aesthetic tastes, material culture, and plants and animals in local and global contexts. This compelling book provides an innovative framework for understanding the formation of scientific practice and knowledge in cultural encounters. Table of Contents: Acknowledgments Introduction I. The Port 1. Natural History in a Chinese EntrepÃ?´t 2. Art, Commerce, and Natural History II. The Land 3. Science and Informal Empire 4. Sinology and Natural History 5. Travel and Fieldwork in the Interior Epilogue Appendix: Selected Biographical Notes Abbreviations Notes Index Fa-ti Fan's study of the encounter between the British culture of the naturalist and the Chinese culture of the Qing is both a delight and a revelation. The topic has scarcely been addressed by historians of science, and this work fills important gaps in our knowledge of British scientific practice in a noncolonial context and of Chinese reactions to Western science in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. In addition to the culture of Victorian naturalists and Sinology, Fan shows an admirable grasp of visual representation in science, Chinese taxonomic schemes, Chinese export art, British imperial scholarship, and journeys of exploration. His treatment of the China trade and descriptions of Chinese markets and nurseries are especially welcome. I learned a great deal, and I strongly recommend this book.--Philip Rehbock, author of Philosophical Naturalists: Themes in Early Nineteenth-Century British BiologyBy focusing on the experiences of British naturalists in China during a time when it was gradually being opened up to foreign influences, Fan makes at least two important contributions to history of science: He gives us an authoritative study of British naturalists in China (as far as I know the only one of its kind), and he forces us to rethink some of our categories for doing history of science, including how we conceive of the relationship between science and imperialism, and between Western naturalist and native. Fan's scholarship is meticulous, with careful attention to detail, and his prose is clear, controlled, and succinct.--Bernard Lightman, editor of Victorian Science in Context 606 $aNatural history$xResearch$zChina$xHistory$yQing dynasty, 1644-1912 606 $aBritish$zChina$xHistory$yQing dynasty, 1644-1912 607 $aChina$xHistory$yQing dynasty, 1644-1912 615 0$aNatural history$xResearch$xHistory 615 0$aBritish$xHistory 676 $a508/.07/2051 686 $aTB 2340$2rvk 700 $aFan$b Fa-ti$f1964-$01511679 801 0$bMiAaPQ 801 1$bMiAaPQ 801 2$bMiAaPQ 906 $aBOOK 912 $a9910778440103321 996 $aBritish naturalists in Qing China$93745139 997 $aUNINA