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中国科学技术史语言与逻辑选译(一) 李约瑟 陈国华【译者言】李约瑟(Joseph Needham,19001995)主编的中国科学技术史1自1954年出版第1卷以来,对西方和中国思想界产生了巨大影响,随之而来的“李约瑟之问(the Needham Question)”,即“为何现代科学,也就是对有关大自然各种假设的数理化,连同其对先进技术的全部意蕴,仅在伽利略时代的西方像火山一样喷发出来”,却“没有在中华文明里发展起来”,而在之前的许多世纪里,中华文明在将自然知识应用到解决实际需求方面“比西方文明高效得多”?2更是引发了一场经久不息的讨论。或许由于原书名Science and Civilization in China里的Civilization被译成了“技术”,导致中国的人文学者普遍误以为书中内容全是科学技术,与自己的专业无关。其实这套书最后第7卷介绍古代中国科学技术发展的语言思想和社会文化背景,其上册语言与逻辑3专门介绍古代中国的语言与逻辑,与中国的每一位语言学家和逻辑学家都密切相关。本期“译路同行”译注的选篇即李约瑟生前为此书撰写的前言。关于李约瑟,这里需要多说几句。他1921年6月毕业于剑桥大学冈维尔与基斯学院4,获学士学位,接着又攻读硕士,1924年成为该学院研究院士5,同年9月娶剑桥大学新成立的生化研究所研究人员多萝西莫伊尔6为妻,1925年1月获硕士学位,同年10月获博士学位,成为学院的院士。受新婚妻子及其老板、剑桥大学生化研究所所长和生化系主任弗雷德里克霍普金斯7的影响,李约瑟转而研究生物化学,并在霍普金斯实验室工作,专攻胚胎学和形态发生学(morphogenesis),连续出版多部专著,成为该领域一位卓有建树的科学家。1937年,三位年轻的中国生物化学家来到剑桥大学进修,其中一位女研究生名叫鲁桂珍8,师从李约瑟夫人,从而结识了李约瑟。从这三位中国学生,尤其是鲁桂珍那里,李约瑟听到许多有关中国古代医药学和其他学科的知识,令他极感兴趣。后来他在中国科学技术史第7卷下册的“结论”里回忆说,他发现这些中国青年生物化学家的头脑与他的没有什么区别,于是萌生了一个巨大疑问(Grand Question):为什么现代科学没有源自中国?为了研究古代中国的科学技术及其社会文化背景,他不仅让鲁桂珍教他中文,给他和妻子分别起了中文名字李约瑟和李大斐,还在1939年鲁桂珍离开英国赴美工作后自费请汉学家教他古典中文(Classical Chinese)。他1941年被推举为英国皇家学会(Royal Society)院士;1942年,在该学会的推荐下,他被英国政府任命为设在重庆的中英科学合作馆(Sino-British Science Co-operation Office)馆长,任期4年。任职期间,他收集了大量中国古代科技文献,结识了后来最重要的一位合作研究者、历史学家王铃9,鲁桂珍也于1945年从美国回到重庆,在中英科学合作馆任顾问。1946年,李约瑟应朋友之邀被聘为新成立的联合国教科文组织(总部在巴黎)自然科学部第一任主任;鲁桂珍于1948年入职该组织秘书处。同年,李约瑟辞职回到基斯学院,一边教授生物化学,一边编写中国科学技术史,并向剑桥大学出版社提交了写作计划,说他将证明铸铁(cast iron)、犁铧(ploughshare)、马镫(stirrup)、火药(gunpowder)、印刷术(printing)、磁性罗盘(magnetic compass)、发条擒纵机构(clockwork escapement)等对西方文明进程产生巨大影响的事物,并非当时人们普遍以为的那样是西方人发明的,而是中国人发明的。他的第一位合作者王铃协助他完成了8册书的写作;后来他又邀请多位各领域的专家学者分担这套书各册的写作;鲁桂珍也于1957年辞去联合国教科文组织的工作,加入进来,协助李约瑟完成了9册书的写作。在全书25册中,15册的第一作者是李约瑟本人。1965年他被推選为基斯学院院长,在任11年;1971年他被推举为英国国家学术院(British Academy)院士;1992年女王伊丽莎白二世授予他名誉勋位(Order of the Companions of Honour),成为英国唯一在世时获得皇家学会院士、国家学术院院士和名誉勋位这三项殊荣的科学家。FOREWORD (I)Since the winter of 1986 we have been installed in10 our new and permanent building, of which the East Wing11 was built primarily by contributions from Hongkong (through our Trust there, of which the chairman is Dr Mao Wn-Chhi), while the Centre Block12 is owing to the generosity of Tan Sri13 Tan Chin Tuan14 of the Overseas Chinese Banking Corporation of Singapore. The architect was Christophe Grillet of Caius15 and the builder was Roger Bailey of Messrs Johnson & Bailey, Ltd. The building has vermilion pillars (like a Chinese Temple16) and there is white Chinese lattice-work17 in the veranda18 railings. The building has won several awards, notably one from the Royal Institute of British Architects; others for the excellence of its brickwork and its woodwork19. It stands at the corner of Herschel Road and Sylvester Road, Cambridge, on land belonging to Robinson College. It is in this new building that we come at last to20 Volume 7.More than forty years have passed since Volume 1 in this series was published. We imagined then that Volume 7 would be the seventh in a series of only seven slim volumes21, and not the last in a series of thirty. But so great was the wealth which we discovered inside the Chinese Treasure Mountain that our original plans had to be adapted. From the main shafts22 which have been sunk, subsidiary tunnels now run in all directions. Inevitably some lines of exploration have had to be abandoned; with others work is postponed, and sometimes the order in which work had been planned for publication has had to be altered. Volume 7 more than any other has been subjected to the pressures of time and change, but it is with great pleasure that I now present Volume 7, part 1.For the support of our research and writing, we must mention the National Science Foundation (USA), the Mellon23 and the Luce24 Foundations, and the National Institute for Research Advancement25 (Japan). Without their continued support, our work would have been impossible. Most of their help was mediated through our New York Trust (Chairman Mr John Diebold); and this is also deserving of our warmest thanks for obtaining from the Kresge Foundation26 a grant of US$150,000 towards the building of the South Wing of our Institute.In Volume 2 we wrote in large measure about the impact of Chinese people, societies and philosophies on the growth of science. Thereafter we wrote about specific fields of Chinese scientific thoughtin mathematics, astronomy, meteorology, geography and cartography, geology, seismology, mineralogy, and then, turning to physics, on heat, light, sound, magnetism and electricity, and, in a new set of volumes, to engineering27mechanical, civil and nautical. This was to be followed by things chemical in several volumes, some of which are not yet completed, on military and textile technology, and on paper and printing, Chinese inventions which were of decisive importance in the growth of modern science. Then came the great effort to disentangle Chinese alchemy and the beginnings of modern chemistry28, which required four volumes. These were followed by specific applications of c
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