The Research Of "Needham Problem" Study

Needham (1900-1995) is a famous British scientist, science and technology historian and member of the Royal Society。In 1964,he presented a question about Chinese technology in his"Science and Society on eastern and western"countries, which is considered as the "Needham problem." This question has many different forms of expression, and recognized way of expression is:"From the 1st century BC to the 14th century, Chinese have ever been beyond the European in the application of natural knowledge and human needs. but Why did not the modern scientific revolution happen in China "Its core idea is: Why did not the Chinese culture nurture modern technology?The "Needham Problem" has been familiar to the scholars of the history of science and technology or other academic. Discussion of this issue has lasted for over half a century.the academic community considered" Needham Problem" as an unavoidable question to study Chinese history of science and technology, and did not stop until people understand carefully.therefore, a variety of answers appeared.In 1937, Needham began to study mysterious ancient science and technology of china. In fact, early Republic of Qing Dynasty in china, Yan Fu, Liang Qi chao, Feng You Ian, and other scholars was aware of the gap of science and technology between eastern countries and western countries, they tried answering the questions that are similar to the "Needham Problem ". In 1994, Needham talked about and studied this problem in the Seminar in Zhe Jiang University with Zhu Kezhen, Chen Li and Qian Bao-cong.etc. In addition, according to their own experience, three Nobel Prize winners Albert Einstein, Hideki Yukawa, Yang Zhen ning expressed their views on the "Needham Problem ".Now, no matter what the answer is, no matter how to solve the problem or whether it is meaningful, which are not the most important, the most important is that as a foreigner,The Needham declared the glory of ancient civilization of the science and technology in china to the Western world, which played an important role and established a sample to study the ancient civilization of science and technology in china, from then on, it caused a great interest that international academic studied the ancient civilization of science and technology in china.