"'Strong Liquid' from the Western Ocean: Introduction, Manufacture, and Applications of Nitric Acid in Ming-Qing China (1620s-1780s)"/ Cao Jin 曹晉

https://www.sciengine.com/CAHST/doi/10.3724/SP.J.1461.2024.02049

This article belongs to volume 8, issue 2 of the Chinese Annals of History of Science and Technology, 2024

Local access dig.pdf [Cao-"Strong Liquid" from the Western Ocean.pdf]

Abstract:

Nitric acid or qiangshui 强水 (“strong liquid,” from lat. aqua fortis) was introduced to China multiple times by European missionaries during the Ming and Qing dynasties. Xu Guangqi 徐光啟 (1562–1633) was the first Chinese to record related knowledge from his communication with Johann Schreck (1576–1630). Johann Adam Schall von Bell (1591–1666), Joachim Bouvet (1656–1730), and Matteo Ripa (1682–1746) independently described the substance to the Chinese in their writings, explaining production methods together with different applications such as separating and assaying of gold and silver, etching of iron or copperplates, and manufacturing of thermometers. This paper focuses on newly discovered Chinese materials, mainly from the Investigations of the Earth’s Interior (Kunyu gezhi 坤輿格致, 1640) by Schall von Bell and his Chinese collaborators, but also from the Record of Essentials of Inception and Completion (Kaicheng jiyao 開成紀要) by Xu Guangqi. It analyzes different aspects of knowledge transmission processes including the identification of useful knowledge, the purpose of transmission, the sources of European knowledge, and the applied methods of translation and explanation. From these analyses we can better understand the reasons of their failure or success.