Looking at it from Asia: the Processes that Shaped the Sources of History of Science (Boston Studies in the Philosophy and History of Science Book 265)

"The idea of this volume took shape within a group of scholars working on the history of science in Asia. Despite the great differences in time, locations and disciplines between our respective fields of research, we all faced similar situations: among the huge mass of written documents available to historians and that were eventually taken as sources in the historiography of science, some had been well studied while others had been dismissed or ignored. This observation will seem obvious to historians, whose daily work consists in shaping corpuses to raise new questions. The diagnosis has long been established that such selections related to the historians' agenda and thereby reflected the ways in which historiography somehow belonged to its time. Yet, it appeared to us that this diagnosis was insufficient and that the selective consideration of source material was also at least partly related to mechanisms of selection that occurred upstream from the historian's classical work of shaping a corpus. Therefore, we came to the idea that, in order to write, or to rewrite, chapters in the history of science, historians may benefit from relying on a critical analysis of the factors that, along history, shaped the documents that have become their sources or the collections from which they constitute their corpuses. It is to the development of such a branch of critical analysis in the history of science, to its methods and to its benefits --to be illustrated in carefully chosen case studies--, that we suggest to devote a collective research and a book. We want to inquire into how the corpuses we form incorporate long sequences of selections and reorganizations that took place in history and that must be brought to light if we do not want various types of actors of the past to carve their choices and conceptions into our questions and conclusions." -- Library of Congress Annotation The idea of this volume took shape within a group of scholars working on the history of science in Asia. Despite the great differences in time, locations and disciplines between our respective fields of research, we all faced similar situations: among the huge mass of written documents available to historians and that were eventually taken as sources in the historiography of science, some had been well studied while others had been dismissed or ignored. This observation will seem obvious to historians, whose daily work consists in shaping corpuses to raise new questions. The diagnosis has long been established that such selections related to the historians€™ agenda and thereby reflected the ways in which historiography somehow belonged to its time. Yet, it appeared to us that this diagnosis was insufficient and that the selective consideration of source material was also at least partly related to mechanisms of selection that occurred upstream from the historian€™s classical work of shaping a corpus. Therefore, we came to the idea that, in order to write, or to rewrite, chapters in the history of science, historians may benefit from relying on a critical analysis of the factors that, along history, shaped the documents that have become their sources or the collections from which they constitute their corpuses. It is to the development of such a branch of critical analysis in the history of science, to its methods and to its benefits €”to be illustrated in carefully chosen case studies€”, that we suggest to devote a collective research and a book. We want to inquire into how the corpuses we form incorporate long sequences of selections and reorganizations that took place in history and that must be brought to light if we do not want various types of actors of the past to carve their choices and conceptions into our questions and conclusions Front Matter....Pages i-xlvi Front Matter....Pages 1-1 Formation and Administration of the Collections of Literary and Scholarly Tablets in First Millennium Babylonia....Pages 3-35 The Textual Form of Knowledge: Occult Miscellanies in Ancient and Medieval Chinese Manuscripts, Fourth Century B.C. to Tenth Century A.D.....Pages 37-80 Sanskrit Scientific Libraries and Their Uses: Examples and Problems of the Early Modern Period....Pages 81-114 The French Jesuit Manuscripts on Indian Astronomy: The Narratology and Mystery Surrounding a Late Seventeenth – Early Eighteenth Century Project....Pages 115-140 Scientific Texts in Contest, 1600–1800....Pages 141-166 Front Matter....Pages 167-167 A Chinese Canon in Mathematics and Its Two Layers of Commentaries: Reading a Collection of Texts as Shaped by Actors....Pages 169-210 On Sanskrit Commentaries Dealing with Mathematics (Fifth–Twelfth Century)....Pages 211-244 Mesopotamian Metrological Lists And Tables:Forgotten Sources....Pages 245-276 What Shaped Our Corpuses of Astral and Mathematical Cuneiform Texts?....Pages 277-303 Knowledge and Practice of Mathematics in Late Ming Daily life Encyclopedias....Pages 305-329 Is the Lower Yangzi River Region the Only Seat of Medical Knowledge in Late Imperial China? A Glance at the Far South Region and at Its Medical Documents....Pages 331-369 Imperial Science Written in Manchu in Early Qing China: Does It Matter?....Pages 371-391 Sinification as Limitation: Minh Mạng’s Prohibition on Use of Nôm and the Resulting Marginalization of Nôm Medical Texts....Pages 393-412 Back Matter....Pages 413-426 Formation and administration of the collections of literary and scholarly tables in first millennium Babylonia / Philippe Clancier The textual form of knowledge: occult miscellanies in ancient and medieval Chinese manuscripts, fourth century B.C. to tenth century A.D. / Donald Harper Sanskrit scientific libraries and their uses: examples and problems of the early modern period / Christopher Minkowski The French Jesuit manuscripts on Indian astronomy: the narratology and mystery surrounding a late seventeenth-early eighteenth century project / Dhruv Raina Scientific texts in contest, 1600-1800 / Chu Pingyi A Chinese canon in mathematics and its two layers of commentaries: reading a collection of texts as shaped by actors / Karine Chemla On Sanskrit commentaries dealing with mathematics (fifth-twelfth century) / Agathe Keller Mesopotamian metrological lists and tables: forgotten sources / Christine Proust What shaped our corpuses of astral and mathematical cuneiform texts? / David Brown Knowledge and practice of mathematics in late Ming daily life encyclopedias / Andrea Bréard Is the lower Yangzi river region the only seat of medical knowledge in late imperial China? A glance at the far south region and its medical documents / Florence Bretelle-Establet Imperial science written in Manchu in early Qing China: does it matter? / Catherine Jami Sinification as limitation: Minh Mang's prohibition on use of Nôm and the resulting marginalization of Nôm medical texts / C. Michele Thompson. How do Documents Become Sources? Perspectives from Asia and Science Florence Bretelle-Establet From Documents to Sources in Historiography The present volume develops a specific type of critical analysis of the written documents that have become historians’ sources. For reasons that will be explained later, the history of science in Asia has been taken as a framework. However, the issue addressed is general in scope. It emerged from reflections on a problem that may seem common to historians: why, among the huge mass of written documents available to historians, some have been well studied while others have been dismissed or ignored? The question of historical sources and their (unequal) use in historiography is not new. Which documents have been used and favored as historical sources by historians has been a key historiographical issue that has occupied a large space in the historical production of the last four decades, in France at least.