商品簡介
Needham, a prodigious scholar of Chinese history and culture, began work on the topic of Chinese iron and steel in the mid-20th century, publishing a brief text he considered incomplete. As part of Needham's encyclopedic work, Science and civilisation in China, Donald B. Wagner, the leading scholar in Chinese metallurgy, has transformed Needham's short piece into a full opus describing the development, science, industry, and cultural importance of a technology in which the Chinese excelled. Drawing on an exhaustive selection of the primary and secondary sources, the archaeological evidence, and his own training in metallurgy, Wagner describes in detail the processes involved in the mining and manufacturing of iron and steel, including government involvement and monopolies. Following a thoughtful overview of the topic and its study, the chapters proceed chronologically through the modern era, which is treated in a concluding chapter on the influence of Chinese metalworking technology on other cultures, and the impact of Mao's Great Leap Forward on traditional technologies. The volume is illustrated throughout with drawings and photographs. This is an unusually substantial work, decades in the making, and written in a style that is accessible to the interested general reader as well as graduate students and academics. Annotation c2008 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
