Sail across the sea

Chapter 559 Who Has a Scientific Tradition
Joking aside, Yuan Xiaoyan's difficulties are real and something Gao Fan hadn't anticipated.

What Gao Fan asked Yuan Xiaoyan to do was to counter the various reverse trends of thought from the present to the first decade of the new century, promote national self-confidence, boost the confidence of national enterprises, and at the same time guide consumers to form correct consumption concepts and avoid paying "intelligence tax" to foreign brands.

Based on his experience in later generations, Gao Fan felt that achieving this goal was very easy. After all, there were countless examples that could prove China's strength; all that was needed was to show them to everyone.

But after listening to Yuan Xiaoyan, he realized that his ideas were too ahead of their time. In 1992, China had virtually no achievements to boast about; it lagged far behind the West in almost every field. To talk about building national self-confidence at such a time was simply asking the impossible.

"Perhaps we can start with ancient history?" Gao Fan said somewhat uncertainly.

Yuan Xiaoyan shook her head and said, "I've discussed this issue with some of my colleagues. They said that there's nothing to brag about in ancient Chinese history; the ancient West was far more advanced than us. Look at Plato, Aristotle, and Archimedes of ancient Greece; when they were writing their scientific works, we were still studying the Four Books and Five Classics."

“Wait, what does Plato have to do with the West?” Gao Fan recalled some later accounts and retorted, “Ancient Greece is ancient Greece, and the modern West is the modern West. Westerners didn’t know about ancient Greece until the 14th century. Before that, they experienced a 1000-year Middle Ages, and their level of ignorance was even greater than that of our Shang Dynasty.”

“Your statement…” Yuan Xiaoyan gasped, finding Gao Fan’s explanation difficult to accept.

Having graduated from Peking University, Yuan Xiaoyan had some knowledge of European history and knew that Gao Fan's statement made sense. Regardless of how much of ancient Greek civilization is verifiable, the most basic point is that there is no direct line of inheritance between ancient Greek civilization and modern Western civilization.

The countries that represent modern Western nations, such as Britain, France, Germany, and Italy, were merely northern barbarians during the Roman Empire and had virtually no culture. After the fall of the Roman Empire, these countries did not inherit its legacy but remained in a state of ignorance for a long time until the Renaissance, when they received texts supposedly from ancient Greece from the Arabs.

This is a bit like a herder who has been herding for generations and is illiterate. One day, he digs up an ancient tomb and finds a copy of the Analects. Does that mean he can call himself a descendant of Confucius?

“I’ve seen some experts say that the West has a scientific tradition spanning thousands of years, while China has never had one. Therefore, if Chinese people want to master modern science, they must break with their own cultural traditions. How do you think we should respond to this viewpoint?” Yuan Xiaoyan asked.

Gao Fan laughed and said, "Just tell them that when the Chinese wrote 'Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art,' the ancestors of countries like England, France, Germany, and Italy were still herding horses. Who do you think has a scientific tradition?"

"But if I say that, I'll get beaten to death."

"Really? Aren't you cultured people? Shouldn't cultured people persuade others with reason?"

"That's a twisted logic!"

"You should use your magazine to tell them that the claim that the West has a scientific tradition is fallacy. We acknowledge that the West has indeed made significant scientific breakthroughs in modern times, but that has absolutely nothing to do with any scientific tradition. What is tradition? Tradition is learning and researching using the same methods generation after generation, each generation standing on the shoulders of the previous one. If you interrupt your studies for 1000 years and then get a secret manual from someone else, can that be called tradition?"

"So why do you think these people say that China has no scientific tradition?"

"It's very simple. It's about making the Chinese people think that they are a backward nation, unqualified to stand up to the noble Western countries, and that the only way out is to be a vassal of the West forever."

"You're being too..."

Yuan Xiaoyan didn't know what words to use. She thought carefully about the scenes when she discussed this issue with her friends, and it seemed that the final conclusion was indeed that Westerners were superior and that China could not surpass the West.

"After thinking about it, I think our publication should do roughly the following things."

Gao Fan did think about it for a moment, then held up one finger and said to Yuan Xiaoyan:
"The first thing is to reject the currently popular Western view of history and establish our own view of history. As we just discussed, there is no mysterious scientific tradition in the West. The so-called scientific tradition is nothing more than something conjured up by some pedantic liberal arts scholars."

"Including ancient Greece in Western history is a smokescreen played by Western historiography. Think about it, if ancient Greece were removed from Western history, would those claims that the West has a scientific tradition still hold water?"

Yuan Xiaoyan didn't answer the question. Instead, she carefully wrote down Gao Fan's point in her notebook. Just now, she understood Gao Fan's analytical logic and believed that it was sound. The next step was simply to figure out how to get her readers to accept this viewpoint as well.

Gao Fan's idea is correct. If we sever the connection between modern West and ancient Greece, then the history of Western science can only be traced back to the 17th century at most, which is a very short moment in human history. If the West was able to illuminate its technological path after 1000 years of the Dark Ages, why should we say that China today cannot master modern technology?
As for Gao Fan's habitual discrimination against liberal arts students, Yuan Xiaoyan was already used to it; it wasn't the first time anyway.

Seeing that Yuan Xiaoyan had almost finished taking notes, Gao Fan raised a second finger and continued, "The second thing is to dispel the myths about the modern Western world, such as that Westerners value contracts, that Western countries engage in fair trade, and that Western media do not lie. In short, we need to break through the filters and restore the truth about the West."

Yuan Xiaoyan nodded and said, "I've already arranged for someone to prepare the materials for this. Following your previous suggestions, I had people conduct a comprehensive search of Western political, economic, and social literature, and found many analytical articles written by Western scholars. In fact, insightful people in the West have always been exposing the hypocrisy of the West, while it is our own scholars who are always whitewashing the West."

“Sometimes I find it quite strange that some Chinese scholars claim to have studied in Western countries for many years or worked as visiting scholars for many years, so why don’t they notice these negative phenomena in the West?”

(End of this chapter)