Ordering the Myriad Things: From Traditional Knowledge to Scientific Botany in China

Web publication (2023)

Authors

D. Tan Spatial Planning and Strategy - Architecture and the Built Environment
Research Group
Spatial Planning and Strategy (Architecture and the Built Environment) (TU Delft)
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Published Date

2023

Language

English

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Faculty

Architecture and the Built Environment

Department

Urbanism

Research Group

Spatial Planning and Strategy

Abstract

How was botany as a new science established in modern China? In his book Ordering the Myriad Things: From Traditional Knowledge to Scientific Botany in China, Nicholas K. Menzies unravels the story of the transition from traditional knowledge about plants to the science of botany, particularly during the period from the mid-nineteenth century to the mid-twentieth century. In light of various potential epistemological representations of an objective nature, he acknowledges the profound difference between the Chinese traditional way of understanding the world and the Eurocentric scientific approach. Menzies gives his attention to the places that they intersect.