Though their quality is somewhat uneven, all the papers are written in a very accessible style. Even for those familiar with some of the extraordinary technical accomplishments of early China, the topics and details of these straightforward narratives cannot help but fascinate. And for those wanting to follow up a topic, each essay includes references and a bibliography. Chinese ideograms are printed in the text and index, and there is a host of well-presented charts and illustrations.
This collection is testimony to a burgeoning interest in early Chinese science and technology and to the stunning data that are being revealed by China's unrelenting archaeological exploration of its own past. The history of science is a new academic discipline in China, and its popularity is such that much of the research is still done by gifted amateurs, whose training and experience is in one of the scientific disciplines.
In some papers, ...
