Science and Civilisation in China, Part 9, Textile Technology: Spinning and Reeling

Science and Civilisation in China, Part 9, Textile Technology: Spinning and Reeling
Title Science and Civilisation in China, Part 9, Textile Technology: Spinning and Reeling PDF eBook
Author Joseph Needham
Publisher Cambridge University Press
Total Pages 560
Release 1988-06-09
Genre Business & Economics
ISBN 9780521320214

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This study, the first of two parts, gives a comprehensive account of Chinese textiles and textile technology and deals with the evolution of bast fibre spinning and silk-reeling in the history of China. These operations are the basic techniques in the production of yarn and thread, pre-requisite to weaving, and any study of Chinese textile technology must start with the raw material obtained from fibre plants such as hemp, ramie, jute, cotton, etc, and silk reeled off from cocoons of the domestic silkworm. The time-span covered runs from the neolithic to the nineteenth century. Archaeological and pictoral evidence, the bulk of it hitherto unpublished in the West, is brought together with Chinese textual sources (which are extensively translated and interpreted) to illustrate Chinese achievements in this field. Professor Kuhn's study reveals the way in which Chinese textile-technological inventiveness has influenced textile production in other regions of the world and in medieval Europe. It explains how textile technology reached its high point between the tenth and thirteenth centuries and attempts to indicate the reasons for its subsequent relative decline. The development of the textile industry in Europe was a key factor in the rise of capitalism. In the case of China after Sung times, textile technology and the organisation of textile labour may help indicate why such a development did not take place in China.

Science and Civilisation in China: Volume 7, The Social Background, Part 2, General Conclusions and Reflections

Science and Civilisation in China: Volume 7, The Social Background, Part 2, General Conclusions and Reflections
Title Science and Civilisation in China: Volume 7, The Social Background, Part 2, General Conclusions and Reflections PDF eBook
Author Joseph Needham
Publisher Cambridge University Press
Total Pages 344
Release 2004-07-22
Genre Business & Economics
ISBN 9780521087322

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It would be difficult to overstate the importance of Joseph Needham's Science and Civilisation in China series. For nearly fifty years, Needham and his collaborators have revealed the ideals, concepts and achievements of China's scientific and technological traditions from the earliest times to about 1800 through this great enterprise. During his long working lifetime, Needham kept in draft various essays, some written with collaborators, in which he set out his broad views on the Chinese social and historical context. These essays, edited by one of his closest collaborators, Kenneth Robinson, are contained in the present volume. A reading of this material makes it possible to reconstruct the assumptions and problematics that underpinned and drove the Needham project throughout the nearly one half century during which he was at the helm. The documents gathered here reveal the intellectual foundations of one of the greatest scholarly enterprises of the twentieth century.

The Cambridge History of China: Volume 5, Sung China, 960–1279 AD, Part 2

The Cambridge History of China: Volume 5, Sung China, 960–1279 AD, Part 2
Title The Cambridge History of China: Volume 5, Sung China, 960–1279 AD, Part 2 PDF eBook
Author John W. Chaffee
Publisher Cambridge University Press
Total Pages 1127
Release 2015-03-05
Genre History
ISBN 1316239519

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This is the second of two volumes on the Sung Dynasty, which together provide a comprehensive history of China from the fall of the T'ang Dynasty in 907 to the Mongol conquest of the Southern Sung in 1279. With contributions from leading historians in the field, Volume 5, Part Two paints a complex portrait of a dynasty beset by problems and contradictions, but one which, despite its military and geopolitical weakness, was nevertheless economically powerful, culturally brilliant, socially fluid and the most populous of any empire in global history to that point. In this much anticipated addition to the series, the authors survey key themes across ten chapters, including government, economy, society, religion, and thought to provide an authoritative and topical treatment of a profound and significant period in Chinese history.

Textiles and Clothing of Việt Nam

Textiles and Clothing of Việt Nam
Title Textiles and Clothing of Việt Nam PDF eBook
Author Michael C. Howard
Publisher McFarland
Total Pages 227
Release 2016-08-01
Genre Social Science
ISBN 1476624402

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Việt Nam is the home of more than fifty ethnic minorities--such as the Cham and Thai--many of which have distinctive clothing and weaving traditions linked to antiquity. The tight-fitting tunic called ao dai, widely recognized as a national symbol, has its roots in the country's 2,000-year history of textiles. Beginning with silk production in the Bronze Age cultures of the Red River, this book covers textiles in Việt Nam--including bark-cloth, kapok and hemp--through the centuries of Chinese rule in the north, a number of independent feudal societies and the brief period of French colonial rule.

Textiles and Clothing Along the Silk Roads

Textiles and Clothing Along the Silk Roads
Title Textiles and Clothing Along the Silk Roads PDF eBook
Author China National Silk Museum
Publisher UNESCO Publishing
Total Pages 401
Release 2022-10-05
Genre Political Science
ISBN 9231005391

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Technology in World Civilization, revised and expanded edition

Technology in World Civilization, revised and expanded edition
Title Technology in World Civilization, revised and expanded edition PDF eBook
Author Arnold Pacey
Publisher MIT Press
Total Pages 357
Release 2021-08-03
Genre Technology & Engineering
ISBN 0262366282

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The new edition of a milestone work on the global history of technology. This milestone history of technology, first published in 1990 and now revised and expanded in light of recent research, broke new ground by taking a global view, avoiding the conventional Eurocentric perspective and placing the development of technology squarely in the context of a "world civilization." Case studies include "technological dialogues" between China and West Asia in the eleventh century, medieval African states and the Islamic world, and the United States and Japan post-1950. It examines railway empires through the examples of Russia and Japan and explores current synergies of innovation in energy supply and smartphone technology through African cases. The book uses the term "technological dialogue" to challenges the top-down concept of "technology transfer," showing instead that technologies are typically modified to fit local needs and conditions, often triggering further innovation. The authors trace these encounters and exchanges over a thousand years, examining changes in such technologies as agriculture, firearms, printing, electricity, and railroads. A new chapter brings the narrative into the twenty-first century, discussing technological developments including petrochemicals, aerospace, and digitalization from often unexpected global viewpoints and asking what new kind of industrial revolution is needed to meet the challenges of the Anthropocene.

The Cambridge Economic History of the Modern World: Volume 1, 1700 to 1870

The Cambridge Economic History of the Modern World: Volume 1, 1700 to 1870
Title The Cambridge Economic History of the Modern World: Volume 1, 1700 to 1870 PDF eBook
Author Stephen Broadberry
Publisher Cambridge University Press
Total Pages 514
Release 2021-06-24
Genre Business & Economics
ISBN 1009038028

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The first volume of The Cambridge Economic History of the Modern World traces the emergence of modern economic growth in eighteenth century Britain and its spread across the globe. Focusing on the period from 1700 to 1870, a team of leading experts in economic history offer a series of regional studies from around the world, as well as thematic analyses of key factors governing the differential outcomes in different parts of the global economy. Topics covered include population and human development, capital and technology, geography and institutions, living standards and inequality, international flows of trade and labour, the international monetary system, and war and empire.