The Evolution of Evolutionism in China, 1870-1930
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 3562860 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Xiaoxing Jin (University of Notre Dame, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2020 |
| Volume | 111 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 46-66 |
| Publication date | 2020-03-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Isis (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0021-1753 • E-ISSN: 1545-6994 |
| Publisher | University of Chicago Press (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1086/708367 |
| OpenAlex | W3010353859 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 22 |
The earliest references to Darwin in China, which came by way of the network of Protestant missionaries, emerged in the early 1870s: the principle of general transformism and ideas about human origins were transmitted to the Chinese intellectual landscape. Only with the "evolutionary sensation" aroused by Yan Fu, in the mid-1890s, did Chinese readers begin to learn of Darwinian principles like the "struggle for existence" and "natural selection." Translation of the Origin began much later, in 1902, and the initial effort was misleading. In his translation of the first five chapters of the Origin, published before 1906, Ma Junwu used linguistic strategies to modify Darwin's texts so as to reflect Yan's progressive transformism. But in his 1920 translation of the book in its entirety, Ma redid his earlier work. The complete Chinese Origin did not generate a sensation in the biological community. Even so, the deliberate selection, absorption, and appropriation of Darwinian ideas by the Chinese over the next several decades assimilated the new evolution into their own cultural setting. The case of "Darwin in China" details a specific Chinese context that deepens our understanding of how audiences for new scientific theories can be actively involved in the processes of appropriation and universalizing, while also disseminating, modifying, and assimilating Darwinian ideas in local context
Appropriation · China · Context (archaeology · Darwin (ADL · Darwinism · Epistemology · Evolutionism · Indigenization · Selection (genetic algorithm · Sociology · Anthropology · Chinese history and philosophy · Diverse Historical and Scientific Studies · History · History of Science and Medicine · Philosophy
The Reception of Darwinism in the Iberian World
The Poverty of the Linnaean Hierarchy
Darwin's Footprint
Retouching the Past with Living Things
China and Charles Darwin
Tokens of Exchange
Victorian Sensation
On Their Own Terms
China encounters Darwinism
Translation and transmutation
Mendel No Mendelian
Malthus, Darwin, and the Concept of Struggle
Historians of Science Translating the History of Science
| Unique citing works | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,33 |
| Citation span | 2023 - 2023 (1) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 1 |