《时务通考》对晚清传入力学知识的重构

Reconstruction of Mechanical Knowledge Introduced into the Late Qing Dynasty by Shiwu Tongkao

《时务通考》是晚清汇编类书,其知识来源于当时编译著作。本文应用文本分析和比较分析等方法,对《时务通考》中涉及的力学知识、体系和表述方式进行了分析,重点分析了碰撞问题在《时务通考》与《重学》中的区别,认为《时务通考》对西方力学知识体系进行了改写与重构,这种改写与重构弱化了西方力学的定量化特征,部分地遮蔽了力学知识之间的内在逻辑关系,反映了对西方力学知识体系和方法认识上的不足。

Shiwu Tongkao (General Surveys of Current Affairs) is a compilatory series, the knowledge in which comes fromcompilatory treatises and translations in late Qing dynasty. Combining the method of textual research with comparative analysis, thisarticle discusses the mechanical knowledge, the system and the way of expression in Shiwu Tongkao. Moreover, this article focuseson the differences about the collision problem between Shiwu Tongkao and Zhongxue, and comes to the conclusion that the system ofWestern mechanical knowledge was rewritten and reconstructed in Shiwu Tongkao, which weakens the quantitative feature ofWestern mechanical knowledge, partly hiding the logical relationship between different mechanical knowledge. This suggests thatthe system and method of Western mechanical knowledge were not adequately understood at that time.