Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
of production and with this also grew capitalism. With such social background, the
progressive intellectuals of that time naturally paid much attention to the research of
natural sciences and technology. Their interest was on the investigation and explora-
tion of Nature and also the summarization and propagation of the techniques of
production. Such prominent personalities like Li Shi-Zhen, Sung Ying-Sing and
Hsü Xia-Ke were leading representatives of the time. But the reactionary forces and
backward infl uences which supported the feudalistic sovereignty went all out to
suppress and shatter this new progress in search of truth. Their tactics were to con-
trol the governmental examinations. At that time the means of the Emperor and the
bureaucrats to select government offi cials were to give examinations, the contents
and subjects of which emphasised loyalty and fi delity of the persons who took the
examinations. Natural sciences were not included in the examinations. All those
that worked on scientifi c studies were considered by society as “Laolies” or manual
workers and all manual workers or labourers were looked down upon by “Laohsins”
or brainworkers. “Brainworkers are the controllers and manual workers are the
controlled.” This was the social attitude and public opinion of Hsü's time. Thus, the
Chinese society was clearly divided into two categories: those who controlled and
those who were controlled. And the Chinese term brainworkers means the social
group who knows nothing about the ways of production—all they know is using
their ink-brushes to play with words. Thus the few people who devoted their time to
the research of sciences were also considered as manual workers. And in the eyes of
the brainworkers, they were lower in social status, or the outcasts of society, and
among this lowly group were the medical men. And for them to take and pass the
exams was undoubtedly out of the question. For instance, Li Shi-Zhen was among
those of this group who had taken the exams several times but failed each time.
As to Hsü Xia-Ke, he despised this corrupt and unfair system of examinations.
Even when he was a young man, he showed his hatred of the corruption of the
bureaucracy. He decided to devote his life to outdoor fi eldwork and explorations,
making torturous journeys against all hardships in order to fi nd out the secret of
Nature. Here, we see a man against the society of his time, a rebel who broke away
from the bound of old traditions and society and did become a pioneer of the
new era.
Yet, in the age of the supremacy of imperialistic feudalism, Hsü Xia-Ke was not
to live to do what he had wished. Only 3 years after his death, there began the worst
of the feudalistic dynasties in the history of China, that is, the Ching Dynasty, the
diffi cult time under the oppression of the Manchu minority. The intellectuals of the
Han society were under strict control of the government. No words or feeling against
the Manchus were allowed. Punishment of death was the penalty for all those who
wrote anything against the imperial Manchu sovereignty and his relatives. This was
called in the Chinese history as the “Criminal Case of the Words”, that is, people were
put in jail and put to death because of the words they had written. The condition was
so bad that many of the intellectuals were driven to hide themselves or to leave
their positions. All they could do was to write abstract essays, of no practical use.
The beginning or germination of capitalistic thinking and its infl uence on ideology,
that is, the ideas of reacting against the restrictions of feudalism, the efforts to seek
