he or she would receive a slight shock from the idol, convinc-
ing the person of the idol’s power.ASIA AND THE PACIFIC
BY TOM STREISSGUTH
Th e earliest scientists in Asia, as elsewhere, were farmers,
miners, and smiths. Th e need to supply large communities
with food gave rise to settled agriculture as well as the science
of botany. Early Asian farmers cultivated rice, wheat, and
barley, experimenting with those strains that could be eas-
ily grown, managed, and harvested. Th ey domesticated fruit
trees and collected wild plants they knew to have useful me-
dicinal properties. Botanical knowledge came about through
long periods of questioning, observing, and experimenting.
In ancient China farmers developed new techniques of ag-
riculture using the same methods. Th ey learned to plant in
rows, irrigate their fi elds, and build crop terraces on hillsides.
Observation of the skies and measurement of the year and
the seasons—the earliest scientifi c astronomy—gave them a
method of timing their planting and harvesting.
Th e Chinese also undertook the world’s fi rst geological
research. Th ey collected and classifi ed various kinds of rocks
and came up with theories as to how the rocks were made.
Th ey investigated the properties of soil and climate that al-
lowed crops to fl ourish in certain regions. Th ey speculated
that the earth and the mountains were in constant motion
and that the weathering of rock and soil erosion lay at the
origins of natural features such as valleys and mountains.
Th roughout Asia the growth of farming allowed settle-
ments to gather and store surplus food. Th is gave rise to a
class of artisans who made weapons, tools, utensils, jewelry,
and furniture. Mining and smelting metal ores that came
from underneath the ground began the science of metallurgy.
By observing the properties of ores and heating them in com-
bination, metalsmiths created bronze, an alloy of copper and
tin, as well as iron and steel. Bronze making arose indepen-
dently in China and Southeast Asia, where hunter-gatherers
in what is now Th ailand were smelting copper and tin and
making bronze goods as early as 2000 b.c.e.ASIAN COSMOLOGIES
Pure science, or theoretical science, arose from observation
of the natural world. Scientifi c understanding varied with
the language, religion, and culture of the observers. Dur-
ing the Vedic Period (1500–600 b.c.e.) of India, for example,
powerful deities were understood to reign over the earth,
the heavens, and all manifestations of life. Brahma was the
creator god who dreamed the world into being. Agni was
the god of fi re and Varuna the god of the sky. Surya was the
sun and Mitra the moon. Th e ancient religious text known
as the Rig-Veda, which dates to at least 1000 b.c.e., laid the
groundwork for Indian science and mathematics through
their ideas about the origin and nature of the universe and
of all matter.In China the philosophy of Dao (“the Way”) came to
dominant the thinking of sages and scientists. Dao was the
basic working principle of the universe, expressed through
the concept of yin and yang, the balance of opposites. Yang
was the expression of action, dominance, creativity, light, and
the sun; yin was the moon and night, the completion of action,
and the female characteristics of reticence and submission.
Imbalance of yin and yang brought about sickness, poverty,
and war; when the two forces were in harmony, peace and
health reigned, with yin and yang in an uneasy and always
temporary agreement.
In the Chinese view, the yin-yang balance was but one
aspect of energy and matter (qi), which also manifested in
wuxing, or the fi ve elements of metal, wood, water, earth, and
fi re. Th e wuxing acted on one another in many ways: water
overcame fi re, for example, while wood restrained earth and
generated fi re. Fire symbolized upward movement, while wa-
ter always ran downhill. Together these properties and their
interactions gave the Chinese a comprehensive explanation of
the infi nitely varied phenomena of the natural world.SCIENCE IN ANCIENT CHINA
During China’s Han Dynasty, which began in 202 b.c.e.,
these various ideas and the schools of thought they had en-
gendered, were melded into a single philosophical doctrine,
known to historians as the Han synthesis. Chinese scientists
of this period attempted to explain all natural phenomena—
observations of astronomy, the human body, geology, botany,
chemistry and alchemy, physics, biological processes, the
weather, mathematics—in terms of the balance of opposing
and complementary elements.
Th e Chinese had already been actively observing the
natural world for millennia. Prehistoric Chinese accurately
recorded the length of the year, at 365.25 days, as is recorded
on inscribed bones. Th ey also estimated the length of the lu-
nar month to 29.53 days; this calculation gave rise to an accu-
rate lunar calendar beginning at the winter solstice. (By order
of the emperor’s astronomers, a month was inserted at the
appropriate time to keep this calendar aligned with the sea-
sons.) A lunar calendar is still in use in determining festival
days in China and throughout Asia.
Under the Chinese emperors, astronomers and all other
scientists were part of the imperial household. Th ey worked at
the behest of the emperor to lend the ruler greater knowledge
and glory and to strengthen his claim as the link between the
earth and the unseen world. Astronomical observatories, fi rst
built during the Neolithic Age, were common structures in
China by 1000 b.c.e. Th ey were used to record the motion of
the moon, planets, and comets against the apparently fi xed
stars and constellations. Chinese astronomers also observed
sunspots, which are sometimes large enough to be visible
to the naked eye, and began recording them in detail in the
“imperial histories.” Th ey recorded the appearance of comets
(including the appearance of Halley’s comet in 240 b.c.e.). In
the fourth century b.c.e. the astronomer Gan De created a932 science: Asia and the Pacific0895-1194_Soc&Culturev4(s-z).i932 932 10/10/07 2:30:28 PM