"'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.

"Adam Schall von Bell's Investigations of the Earth's Interior (Kunyu gezhi 坤與格致, 1639-1640): Recent Achievements and Future Prospects"/Hans Ulrich Vogel and Cao Jin曹晉

https://www.sciengine.com/CAHST/doi/10.3724/SP.J.1461.2024.02001

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

Local access dig.pdf [Vogel and Cao-Adam Schall von Bell's Investigations.pdf]

Abstract:

This article explores Adam Schall von Bell’s Investigations of the Earth’s Interior (Kunyu gezhi 坤輿格致, 1639–1640), a significant Jesuit work aimed at reforming the Chinese mining and smelting industry by introducing relevant European technologies during the late Ming period. After being lost for centuries, the recent rediscovery of a partial manuscript housed in the Nanjing Library has reinvigorated scholarly interest in this treatise. The authors present findings on the manuscript’s origins, dating, and its reliance on Georgius Agricola’s De re metallica alongside other Renaissance works, such as those by Lazarus Ercker or Vannoccio Biringuccio. They challenge claims that the Investigations of the Earth’s Interior introduced the Western concept of “minerals” (kuangwu 礦物) to China, arguing that the term retained its traditional meaning of “ores and materials.” Additionally, the article presents new historical documents revealing attempts to implement the treatise’s methods and the bureaucratic challenges that prevented its widespread adoption. These topics shed light on the Investigations of the Earth’s Interior’s role in early global knowledge transmission and its potential impact on China’s mining and metallurgical practices during the Ming-Qing transition.