A Forgotten Friendship: How a French Missionary and a Manchu Prince Studied Electricity and Ballooning in Late Eighteenth Century Beijing

2017 ◽  
Vol 46 (1) ◽  
pp. 89-118
Author(s):  
Alexander Statman
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Natural Philosophy ◽  
Cultural Exchange ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Society Of Jesus ◽  
New Developments ◽  
The North ◽  
Late Eighteenth Century ◽  
Late Eighteenth ◽  
Qianlong Emperor

After the suppression of the Society of Jesus in 1773, the French missionary Joseph-Marie Amiot, last of the great Jesuit scholars of China, befriended the Manchu prince Hongwu 弘旿, court artist and cousin of the Qianlong emperor. Hongwu became the most enthusiastic local patron of the ex-Jesuits still living in Beijing, helping them with research and providing them with information. Together, Amiot and Hongwu discussed new developments in natural philosophy, from electrical medicine to gas balloons. They conducted experiments in the Jesuit’s quarters at the North Church and in the prince’s nearby mansion, drawing from European and Chinese traditions alike to explain them. In the end, they concluded that their investigations were socially and politically dangerous, so they decided to keep them secret. It has generally seemed that the missionaries who remained in Beijing toward the end of the eighteenth century had few local encounters and failed to communicate contemporary natural philosophy; the story of the friendship between Hongwu and Amiot is a notable exception, revealing that cross-cultural exchange remained possible.

Jean-Baptiste Lamarck's Quest for Natural Species

1996 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 541-553
Author(s):  
Alexandre Métraux
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Natural Philosophy ◽  
Adult Life ◽  
Early Nineteenth Century ◽  
Late Eighteenth Century ◽  
Late Eighteenth

Jean-Baptiste Lamarck (1744–1829) was a prolific writer, a multifaceted naturalist, and a zoologist by second profession. Throughout his adult life he lived up to his passion of politely contributing to the advancement of natural philosophy by publishing more than 30,000 pages, probably too much for even the most scrupulous (and persevering) historians of science who seek to reconstruct his theories and to shed some light on the role he played in late eighteenth-century and early nineteenth-century biology.

Upland adjustments: west Wales and Swaledale and the sequences of migration

2018 ◽  
pp. 165-179
Author(s):  
Eric Richards
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Rural Population ◽  
British Isles ◽  
Classic Case ◽  
Rural Change ◽  
The North ◽  
Late Eighteenth Century ◽  
Late Eighteenth ◽  
The Common

Wales, in common with many locations in the British Isles, had a mixed career during the economic and demographic upheavals of the late eighteenth century. Rural west Wales was especially prominent in the emigration account; it also vividly manifested some of the classic conditions making for mobility. Increased mobility in rural Wales was marked also by particular episodes of emigration which entered the folk memory. The demographic and economic career of the upland Swaledale region in the North Yorkshire Pennines demonstrates with unusual clarity several typical sequences within the long-term decline of its rural population. The Swaledale economy remained dominated by agriculture, and productivity increases were impressive, especially in dairying. Swaledale was a classic case of rural change associated with migratory adjustments to demographic and economic pressures, and was a regional variant of the common experience in rural Britain.

scholarly journals PAUPER INVENTORIES, SOCIAL RELATIONS, AND THE NATURE OF POOR RELIEF UNDER THE OLD POOR LAW, ENGLAND, c. 1601–1834

2018 ◽  
Vol 62 (2) ◽  
pp. 375-398 ◽  
Author(s):  
JOSEPH HARLEY
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Social Relations ◽  
Legal Status ◽  
Poor Relief ◽  
Poor Law ◽  
The North ◽  
Late Eighteenth Century ◽  
Local Practices ◽  
Late Eighteenth ◽  
The Many

ABSTRACTDuring the old poor law, many paupers had their possessions inventoried and later taken by authorities as part of the process of obtaining poor relief. Historians have known about this for decades, yet little research has been conducted to establish how widespread the system was, what types of parishioners had their belongings inventoried and why, what the legal status of the practice was, and how it affected social relations in the parish. Using nearly 450 pauper inventories, this article examines these historiographical lacunae. It is argued that the policy had no legal basis and came from local practices and policies. The system is found to be more common in the south and east of England than in the north, and it is argued that the practice gradually became less common from the late eighteenth century. The inventorying of paupers’ goods often formed one of the many creative ways in which parishes helped the poor before 1770, as it guaranteed many paupers assistance until death. However, by the late eighteenth century the appraising of paupers’ goods was closely tied to a negative shift in the attitudes of larger ratepayers and officials, who increasingly wanted to dissuade people from applying for assistance and reduce expenditure.

Philosophical threads: natural philosophy and public experiment among the weavers of Spitalfields

1995 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 37-62 ◽  
Author(s):  
Larry Stewart ◽  
Paul Weindling
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Industrial Revolution ◽  
Natural Philosophy ◽  
Scientific Discourse ◽  
Social Distinction ◽  
Late Eighteenth Century ◽  
Late Eighteenth ◽  
Public World ◽  
Century Science

In the overwhelmingly public world of the twentieth century, science often seems simultaneously remote and ubiquitous. There are many complex reasons for this, of course, not the least being the capacity of technology for material transformation and the apparent inability of scientific discourse to communicate its practice to the unanointed. In some ways, our current predicament appears similar to that of the late eighteenth century when so many promises had already been made of what natural philosophy might accomplish, and when many clamoured for access to the power of natural philosophical practice. At that point, on the verge of the stunning dislocations of the industrial revolution, many of the literate and mechanical public took considerable steps to bridge the gap otherwise policed by social distinction.

The Operational Definition of the Elements

2020 ◽  
pp. 167-187
Author(s):  
Joachim Schummer
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Cultural Context ◽  
Natural Philosophy ◽  
Operational Definition ◽  
Late Eighteenth Century ◽  
Time Space ◽  
Late Eighteenth ◽  
Definition Of

The paper reappraises the operational definition of elements, adopted in the late eighteenth century, by investigating both epistemic discontinuities and continuities within the broader epistemological and cultural context. The first part points out the radical disruption that the operational definition implied for most of science, which consisted in giving up explanation, the primary goal of natural philosophy, because the new elements had to be discovered. The operational turn in chemistry is then compared to several well-discussed “revolutions,” including the Kantian, relativistic, and quantum revolutions in physics, which similarly modified our understanding of fundamental concepts of natural philosophy, such as time, space, and causation, by relating them to human capacities.

A Classical Cathay and a Real China

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-28
Author(s):  
Chris Murray
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Chinese Culture ◽  
Ancient Greece ◽  
Cultural Exchange ◽  
The State ◽  
Arabian Nights ◽  
Late Eighteenth Century ◽  
Classical Reception ◽  
Late Eighteenth ◽  
History Of

Classical imagery and allusion in narratives of the 1793 Macartney Embassy to China demonstrate the importance of classical reception in Anglophone engagements with Chinese culture. Concepts from ancient Greece and Rome helped to interpret what was foreign or, as critics of the Macartney Embassy noted, denoted utter incomprehension. Classics offered a lens through which Westerners viewed China, although definitions of what was classical or Chinese were in perpetual flux. Anglophone readers derived their ideas of China primarily from translations of Jesuit scholarship mixed with the Orientalist generalizations of Arabian Nights. This chapter considers the state of British Sinology in the late eighteenth century (which relied primarily on Jean-Baptiste du Halde’s General History of China), the disastrous outcome of the Macartney Embassy, the inadequacy of conceptualizing China according to European models, and recent attempts to theorize Sino-British cultural exchange in light of Edward W. Said’s work.

scholarly journals Vivir en la región norte de la Intendencia de Guadalajara a finales del siglo XVIII. Un análisis de la vida cotidiana a través del informe de Félix María Calleja

2014 ◽  
Vol 6 (11) ◽  
pp. 152-184 ◽  
Author(s):  
José Rojas Galván
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Cultural History ◽  
Social Groups ◽  
Life Crisis ◽  
The North ◽  
Late Eighteenth Century ◽  
Late Eighteenth ◽  
Regional History ◽  
Los Grupos ◽  
Research Show

El artículo analiza algunos aspectos de la vida cotidiana de los diferentes grupos sociales presentes en la región norte de la Intendencia de Guadalajara (México) a finales del siglo XVIII. El trabajo toma como base el informe que realizó sobre la zona el capitán Félix María Calleja en 1790. En dicho documento aparecen elementos que permiten examinar el modo de vivir en dicho espacio. Por ello, la investigación toma como referentes teóricos las perspectivas de la historia regional y la historia cultural en tanto que buscan hacer evidentes las transformaciones de un territorio con respecto a las manifestaciones culturales de los grupos sociales. Las fuentes documentales utilizadas provienen del Archivo General de Indias, España, del Archivo General de Simancas, España, del Archivo General de la Nación, México. Los resultados de la investigación reflejan los factores que contribuyeron a una desarticulación de la región norte de la Intendencia de Guadalajara a partir de 1785, año en que se presentaron una serie de epidemias, como resultado de un prolongado periodo de sequía, lo cual provocó que la vida cotidiana en dicha región sufriera alteraciones, incluso que entrara en crisis.Palabras clave: región, vida cotidiana, crisis, Intendencia de Guadalajara, Félix Calleja. Live in the North Region of the Intendencia of Guadalajara in the Late Eighteenth Century. An analysis of quotidian life through the report of Félix María CallejaAbstractIn this paper is analyzed several aspects about of quotidian life in different social groups from north region of Jalisco, in the period of intendencia of Guadalajara (Mexico), ending 18’Th century. The main source is Felix Maria Calleja’s inform in 1790 year. In this document is mentioned certain factors useful to study the life of these society. Thus, the research take as theoretical referents the perspectives precedents of regional history and cultural History, because looking for the emerging the cultural manifestation of groups. The document resources are Archivo General de Indias, España, del Archivo General de Simancas, España, del Archivo General de la Nación, México. The results of this research show a desarticulation of the región and crisis in the quotidian life, since 1785 combine with epidemics’ result of the scarcity of water. Keywords: region, quotidian life, crisis, Intendencia de Guadalajara, Félix Calleja.

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