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 本文作者和译者在2015年1月举行的《美文》恳谈会上
JOSEPH NEEDHAM: Science and Civilization in China.
李约瑟与《中国的科学与文明》
Compiled and Written by Robin Gilbank
Translated by Hu Zongfeng
（英）罗宾·吉尔班克
胡宗锋 译
JOSEPH NEEDHAM, in collaboration with WANG LING: Science and Civilization in China. Volume 4. Physics and Physical Technology. PART II: Mechanical Engineering. 759 pp. 281 plates. Cambridge University Press. £9 10s.
《中国的科学与文明》 第四卷《物理学及相关技术》 第二分册：《机械工程》 李约瑟著，王铃协助
剑桥大学出版社 定价：9.1镑
Each volume published by Dr. Joseph Needham in this series adds to our respect and gratitude for a truly masterly enterprise in presenting the developments of science and technology in China to the western historian of the subject. As the leading authority on these aspects of Chinese civilization Dr. Needham has a right to be impatient with his fellow historians, many of whom he accuses of “deliberately minimizing non-European origins” of various important elements in the development of science and technology.
李约瑟博士这套丛书每一卷的问世，以及其在向西方的历史学家展示中国的科技发展方面都会增加我们对这部大作的敬意和感恩。做为研究中国文明的一线权威，李约瑟博士有权对自己的同行史学家“不耐烦”，他指责自己的很多同行在科技发展的诸多关键问题上，“有意贬低非欧洲血统”的国家。
His enthusiasm for his subject makes him inclined to underestimate the fact that many historians do not have his command of the Chinese language nor such able collaborators for whom it is their native tongue. Most historians have to depend on the few translations of Chinese classics in this field by philologists (who of course are apt to overlook the importance of much scientific and technical information) or they have to base their assumptions on the work of ethnologists, which seldom contains any historical discussion of such subjects. There can be no substitute for a properly annotated translation of the major Chinese classics, a long list of which appears in the extensive bibliography attached to this book. Even the many quotations given by the author hardly meet the need, however well annotated they are. In the present state of knowledge one must make do with such partial firsthand information – to which the author’s local and personal observation adds much weight.
对专业的热情使得他低估了一个事实，那就是他的很多同行既没有他的汉语功夫，也没有母语为汉语的学人与其合作。大多数历史学家在这个行当只能依赖语言学家对中国典籍少有的译著（语言学家当然常常会忽视科技信息的重要性），或者是以民族学家的著述为研究基础，这些人的著述却很少对这方面有历史性的探讨。本书的后面附有一长串涉猎广泛的参考书目，对主要的中国经典著作的注释翻译无以伦比。就眼下的知识境遇来讲，人们不得不借助于这样的一手信息——而这样的信息中作者个人的有限观察占的比重很大。
He must realize, however, that the silence of many of his fellow historians is often due to a fear of quoting from second-hand or third-hand sources (particularly dangerous in translating a Chinese text) even though they may have the greatest admiration for the skill and ingenuity of the Chinese workmen and artisans – an admiration shared by anyone who has ever worked with them.
然而，他没有意识到他的很多同行虽然很羡慕中国工匠的技艺和灵巧——只要接触到大家都会羡慕的——但却沉寂源于害怕引用二手或三手资料（翻译汉语文本确实不易）。
Though this volume is mainly concerned with mechanical engineering, it contains much important material on other matters. Dr. Needham begins with an excellent discussion of the part played by the engineer and the artisan in China. In the Imperial Workshops, where such “nationalized” enterprises as the salt and iron industries were conducted well before our own era, craftsmen has to construct and run far more complex machinery than would be required for the management of estates or to supply the needs of villages in a feudal-bureaucratic society in which the development of the crafts and of industrial production was much retarded.
虽然本丛书的这一卷主要涉及的是机械工程，但也有不少其它方面的主要材料。李约瑟博士开篇探讨的是工程师和匠人在中国的地位。在皇家作坊里，诸如盐和铁这样的国家产业比我们要起步得早，在一个手工艺和工业生产相当滞后的封建官僚社会里，为了满足村落的需要或财产的管理，工匠们不得不制造和操作特别复杂的机械。
The number of slaves in China was always small and they were mainly employed in the household. The larger public works were executed with the help of the corvée system, as in ancient Egypt. A careful analysis of the social status of Chinese inventors shows that technical ingenuity was not restricted to the craftsmen but appeared in all social strata. Dr. Needham also discusses the traditions of the artisans, their system of apprenticeship and the ritual which accompanied their work. His section on Chinese engineering literature makes one long all the more for good editions of such classics. He gives a particularly striking account of the impact of western engineering handbooks on Chinese literature of this kind after the Jesuits landed in Peking.
中国古时候的奴隶不多，大多数是在私人家里干活，大型的公共项目都是靠像古埃及那样的赋役制度，对中国发明者社会地位的仔细考究显示，技术灵巧并不只限于在匠人，而是社会各个阶层都有。李约瑟博士也探讨了工匠的传承，包括学徒制度和出师礼仪。他对中国工程文献的论述，让人们渴望能读到更多的这类经典的好版本。他还特别论述了在耶稣会士到达北京后，西方工程学指南对中国的影响。
The subjects discussed in this book include levers, hinges, gear wheels, pedals, pulleys, cranks, screws, springs, pipes, valves, bellows, pumps and fans (discussed as units in more complex machinery). There are chapters on the harnessing of animals (which was of great importance to western Europe), on the water-moving and water-moved machinery, which led to such developments as the square-pallet chain pump and the paddleboat; on the ingenious forms of clockwork and the special form of windmill used in China; and on the prehistory of aeronautical engineering and the specific forms of the kite, helicopter, top, parachute and balloon developed in the East. A full bibliography and a comprehensive index add to the value of a remarkable handbook, which provides the historian of science and technology which authentic information on Chinese developments.
本书中讲到的有杠杆、铰链、齿轮、踏板、滑轮、曲柄、螺杆、弹簧、导管、阀门、风箱、打气筒和扇子（都是分类详述）。还有章节谈到了驾驭动物的套具（这对西欧来说尤为重要）、驱动水流和水力驱动的器械，后来在此基础上才有了木制水车和明轮船，书中也讲到了中国灵巧的发条和独特的风车，航空历史雏形时形式各异的风筝、类似直升机使用的陀螺和降落伞似的气球等在东方的发展。详实的参考文献和索引使本书更具指南的价值，为科技史的学者提供了一个权威的参考。
Published in the Times Literary Supplement, 10th February 1966.
《泰晤士报文学副刊》1966年2月10日
For the sector of humankind – amongst which I would number myself – that is possessed of a decidedly un-scientific mindset, the life’s work of Joseph Needham (1900-95) is intimidating on a number of fronts. Having only developed a scholarly interest in China in his thirties, he ascended with an almost comet-like velocity to establish himself as the foremost Sinophile in the United Kingdom, if not Europe. By the time the above review was published in 1966, he possessed an unassailable aura. Each new volume (and sub-volume) of Science and Civilization in China was greeted as a milestone in scholarship, for in reality no Westerner could hope to match the breadth of reading accrued by Needham and his team of assistants at Cambridge University. It would be a brave or foolhardy individual who tried to nitpick over his life’s great project. Thus it may be seen a stroke of mercy that at that time the Times Literary Supplement still adhered to the policy of publishing its reviews anonymously.
就人类而言——我也是其中一员——其心态绝对是不科学的，李约瑟（1900-1995）的终身事业涉及诸多让人生畏的前沿。他在而立之年过后才对中国发生学术兴趣，但却以彗星划过天空一样的速度在英国成为最推崇中国的翘楚。到这篇评论发表的1966年，其身上的光环已无以伦比。《中国的科学与文明》每一册（及其分册）的出版都被认为是学术界的里程碑，实际上，没有哪个西方人在阅读的广度上能与李约瑟和他在剑桥大学的团队比肩。试图对其终身的宏伟事业吹毛求疵的人乃胆识过人或鲁莽之徒，故《泰晤士报文学副刊》那时依旧沿袭佚名发表书评的政策不失为恻隐之举。
Science and Civilization in China did not die with Needham. It is still an ongoing project, with an installment on ferrous metallurgy appearing in 2008 and one on ceramic technology in 2004 - both representing a rather staggering turn in specialization when we consider that upon submitting the initial book proposal in May 1948 Needham believed that he could fit everything he wished to say into one single mammoth volume. The Institute which bears his name in Cambridge also attracts international talents to continue the work of the pioneer, but has widened the scope of academic enquiry to include Japan and Korea. I was gratified to discover that one of the current fellows for 2013-14 is a lady historian of cartography with a PhD from Northwest University, Xi’an. It is also heartening to know that Needham visited Shaanxi on several occasions and even penned his own meditation on growing old as he stood among the venerable steles of the Beilin Museum:
《中国的科学与文明》并没有随着李约瑟的离世而夭折，其所从事的宏伟工程依旧在被发扬和广大，2004年出版了《陶瓷》分册，2008年出版了《冶金》分册。与李约瑟在1948年5月最初提交的出书计划相比，这两本分册转向了突出专业特色，当时李约瑟认为自己可以在一卷巨著里囊括一切。剑桥大学以其名字命名的研究所也在吸引着国际人才继续其未竟的事业，不过学术范围更大了，加上了对日本和韩国的研究。我很欣喜的发现2013-2014年在该所的一位研究员是来自西安西北大学的一位研究历史和制图的女博士。更令人心动的是李约瑟曾几次到过陕西，甚至当他站在“碑林博物馆”珍贵的碑林中时，写下了自己的老年抒怀：
At the age of sixty-four and with whitening hair
I return (may the Tao be praised) to this Literary Temple.
Having written much, whether well or ill, I know not,
But with devout intention for the healing of nations,
Shall I come again to Kuan-chung? Who can say?
[…] but with all Chinese friends
I hope, I hope, that Confucius’ belief in man was the just one.
For all justice and righteousness, all learning and love,
We pray, we believe, that the peoples will bury the bomb and not otherwise.
('The Confucian Temple at Chhang-an,’ in Within the Four Seas, pp. 110-1)
六十有四白发苍苍，
重返文庙闻道有时。
著述颇多良莠不知，
心怀虔诚医民伤痕。
谁知何日重返关中？
… … 华夏吾友
祈愿孔孟人间正道，
公平正义仁爱有知。
祈愿天下四海升平
人皆息战而非操戈。
引自“长安孔庙”《四海之内》李约瑟 著110-111页
Poetry was clearly not his strongest suit, yet in the above lines he does succinctly express his confidence in the decency of traditional Chinese culture and implies that China will help to steer the world onto a path towards global peace.
显然，做诗并非李约瑟的强项，但在上述的诗行中，他简洁的表达出了自己对中国传统文化正能量的信念，并预言中国将会引领世界走上全球和平之旅。
汉语原文刊《美文》2015年第二期（未完待续）
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