| Cao Huan-wen was a well-known chemist, industrialist and scholar abundant in works and achievements in the Republic times, and he was also one of the preparing committee members and the main erectors of the North-west Industry Corporation, and became the first vice mayor of Taiyuan in charge of the Industry and Science after the founding of PRC. There have been still very small amounts of researches on Cao in the last decades, however, which only introduces the political position of his, referring nothing to the outstanding works he had made as a historian of science and technology. In fact, Cao Huan-wen was vital in the academic circle of science and technology in China. In the List of personnel getting aids from the Gengzi’s indemnity in 1938, for instance, Cao won the first price in the group of the chemists. Contrastively, Chen Zhen, who won the second in the group of the biologists, became an academician of Academia Sinica in the year of 1948. Meanwhile, Cao Huan-wen was vital in the academic circle of history of science and technology in China. With the author’s excavating, ordering and analyzing of original manuscripts and related literature, and the comparison with the works made by other scholars in the world, the study has found:1. The book named Complete History of Gunpowder in Ancient China, which was written by Cao, is the first treatise of history of science and technology that discusses the origin, development and spread of gunpowder.2. It is Cao Huan-wen who first develops the idea in the world that the ancient Chinese medico-alchemists invented the gunpowder.3. The book named Research on the Yuncheng Saline, which is also written by Cao, is the first scientific treatise in the world that systematically explains the salt-producing principle and how salt could be made on "the Glauber’s Salt Cake". In other words, with the addition of the book Historical Materials of Taiyuan Industry, Cao Huan-wen merits the reward of an extraordinary expert on account of his foundational work in the fields of History of gunpowder, Research on Yuncheng Saline and History of Taiyuan Industry.Limited by the time and materials, this article picks two key points of Cao Huan-wen’s research work-the research on the history of gunpowder and Yuncheng Saline-in the Republic times, when he showed the most active vitality in his whole academic career. This article belongs to the research of history of science and technology from the perspective of comparison of research materials and methods of gunpowder and salt, and it belongs, as well, to the research of history of historiography from the perspective of comparison of Cao Huan-wen and other scholars.This article includes three parts:introduction, main body (four chapters) and conclusion.The introduction part mainly describes the purpose and significance of this paper, the domestic and foreign research situation, research ideas, research methods and research difficulties, innovation and deficiency.The main body of this paper can be divided into three parts:Chapter one:Based on the interview to Cao Hui-bin, daughter of Cao Huan-wen, who is vice chairman of science and technology association of Taiyuan, this chapter briefly verifies and illustrates Cao Huan-wen’s life experience, including his studying abroad in Japan in the early 20th century, his help to build Shanxi industry when he came back to China as well as his contribution to the construction of China’s industry and science since 1949, according to some materials, such as Biography of Hunyuan County, Materials of Taiyuan Art and History and Shanxi Technology.Chapter two and chapter three mainly talk about the analysis of Cao Huan-wen’s study on the history of gunpowder.Chapter two:In this chapter, the author analyzes and contrasts Cao Huan-wen’s writings and literature on the history of gunpowder of Ming dynasty, Qing dynasty and western countries in the late 18th and early 19th century, and summarizes the character and difficult situation of modern historiography of gunpowder, which is the foundation of the analysis of Cao Huan-wen’s solution to deal with the difficult situation in chapter three.Chapter three:The author excavates and lists some originals and first-hand materials of Cao Huan-wen’s writings on the history of gunpowder. Moreover, the author also summarizes Cao’s creation and breakthrough in the methodology of historical materials and historiography of gunpowder by literal and longitudinal comparison.Chapter four is the part of the analysis of Cao Huan-wen’s research on Yuncheng saline:The author summarizes features of modern studies on Yuncheng Saline by counting and contrasting salt history and writings of Yuncheng saline domestic and overseas during the period of the republic China (1911-1949). Most importantly, the author searches some of Cao’s papers of salt history written in the period of the republic China. In addition, the author also analyzes Research on Yuncheng Saline published on Northwest Industry Monthly. By comparing with modern researches, the author verifies Cao Huan-wen’s chemical researches on the saline, including the terification of chemical composition of the mirabilite plate, the origin of the mirabilite and its chemical functions. What’s more, this paper also verifies the study on chemical history of the improvement of salt-making technology of Yuncheng saline. This paper particularly discusses the issues on how Cao Huan-wen solved the chemical and industrial technology of Sichuan well salt on the basis of principle of "salty and fresh water blending", and explains that Cao’s research is the transformation of Paradigm of scientific research on Yuncheng saline.The conclusion consists of two parts. On one hand, the author summarizes the whole paper; on the other hand, the author points out the deficiency and the effort direction of this paper.The creative points of this paper:1.The author interviews Cao Huan-wen’s. What’s more, the author reviews a number of first-hand literature, such as Cao Huan-wen’s paper of gunpowder history-Origin of Chinese Gunpowder published in Aviation machinery (1942) and Northwest Industry Monthly(1946) and Personal Opinions on Salt Administration of Yuncheng saline, Proposal of Lu Salt Readjustment, and North-western Saline, respectively published in Chinese Industry Quarterly(1934-1935), Chinese Industry Monthly(1935-1936) and Northwest Industry Monthly(1946). In the local literature reading room and special literature reading room of Shanxi library, the author gets Cao’s Collection of Salt Affairs of He Dong Lu Salt and Northwest Industry Weekly(1946-1941), where there are more than ten speech drafts. Furthermore, the author also uses many kinds of archive databases, search engines and internet resources to find out over twenty writings about the western researches on the history of gunpowder in the late 19th century and early 20th century and analyzes the feature of them. By consulting, conveying literature, reading transcribing and copying more than ten types of precious science works in the national library of China, including Science Outpost and Chinese Alchemy, the author analyzes some significant research results and features of the history of gunpowder during the period of Cao’s and the later.2. The author contrastively analyzes Cao Huan-wen’s diary manuscript and the paper of the history of gunpowder, aiming to make certain of the exact period when the manuscript was written, and infer the theoretical origin of Cao’s research conclusions.3. Comparative history includes the comparison of both historical materials and historical methodology. This paper particularly discusses from two aspects of the historical materials and historical methodology, emphasizing the verification of historical data and the comparison of methodology of studies on the history of gunpowder and salt in modern China and western countries. And the author finally finds out Cao Huan-wen’s position and coordinate in the field of modern scientific history.4. There are still some studies that the modern scholars have not conducted or are being questioned. The author tries to make some hypotheses and verify those studies, and gets his own point of view. For example, Cao Huan-wen might have some indirect academic exchanges with Dr. Joseph Needham in the 1940s. Besides, the author verifies and corrects some incorrect opinions which has been reached an agreement for a long time:Dr. Joseph Needham made a speech in 1944 in Chongqing, and arbitrarily modified an important conclusion in one of his speech draft when he later published the book of Science Outpost in 1948.5. This paper proposes the origin of the standards for the modern mainstream science research of Yuncheng saline. For example, the three chemical functions of Yuncheng salt-making on the mirabilite plate, which were mentioned in most authoritative researches, had been proposed by Cao Huan-wen in the book Research on Yuncheng Saline half a century earlier.6. The author visited the Yuncheng saline, Chi Shen Temple, He dong museum and Yuncheng saline district museum in person. He also interviewed the local specialists and recorded the original inscription. Moreover, the author got a great inspiration from the buildings in Chi Shen temple that reflects the saline culture, and from their names and some other aspects, which supports Cao Huan-wen’s conclusion that the development of the saline science could date back to the Wei and Jin dynasties when alchemy was of great popularity. |
PDF Full Text Request