Séminaire – Centre pour une Histoire de la Philosophie et des Sciences vue d’Asie, d’Afrique, etc (CHPSAA)

Circulation of texts and technical knowledge within East Asia and between East Asia and Europe (16th-19th centuries) Organisation : Florence Bretelle-Establet

14:30 – 15:30
Marie-Océane Lachaud, (PhD, INALCO, IFRAE)
Title : Construction of medical knowledge in premodern Korea : knowledge and practices related to variolation and vaccination
Abstract : Smallpox is a well-known disease since the 6th century in China, Japan, and Korea which has continued to wreak terrible havoc on young children population until the 20th century. Over the centuries, physicians elaborated several treatments for smallpox. From the 17th century, Chinese physicians developed a new technique called variolation which consisted, notably, in inserting dried smallpox crusts into one of the patient’s nostrils. This variolation technique was expected to produce a mild form of smallpox which was considered safer than contracted smallpox naturally during an epidemic. Then, at the end of the 18th century, a new process, the cowpox inoculation, was discovered in Europe, and soon after the first publication presenting the technique, the process reached East Asia. In this presentation, I would like to question how variolation and cowpox inoculation were introduced to the Korean peninsula in the 18th and 19th centuries. More specifically, through which books did Koreans learn about these two techniques ? How medical knowledge about these two methods was shaped through the books used as references ? Who were the main actors in these process ? Are there any major changes in the way these two methods were introduced to Korea ? And if so, what can these changes tell us about the medical conception but also the social and political evolution of Korea between the 18th and 19th centuries ?

15:30 – 15:45
Pause

15:45 – 16:45
Mau Chuan-hui, (Pr Institute of History, National Tsing Hua University)
Title : An overview of the history of the transmission of sericultural knowledge in the Eurasian continent : a comparative study of Nong sang jiyao (The essentials of the agriculture and sericulture, preface of 1273) and La cueillete de la soye (1599)
Abstract : When I studied the history of exchanges of silk industry between China and France, I observed that there are some similarities between La cueillete de la soye (1599) and the Nong sang jiyao 農桑輯要 (The essentials of the agriculture and sericulture, preface of 1273), especially regarding the structure and the logic of classification.
China is the cradle of the silk industry, and it is well-known that the sericulture knowledge and know-how spread from China to the other parts of the Eurasian continent. Up to the 19th century, Chinese sericulture occupied the leading position in the world. With the aim to raise the quality and the quantity of their silk production, some Western scientists working on sericulture tried to deepen their knowledge and skills by studying existing sericulture treatises including Italian, French and Chinese ones, and by using certain scientific methods. The Chinese silk knowledge came essentially from the translations of Chinese works published by French Jesuits in the collection Description de la Chine (1735) edited by Jean-Baptiste Du Halde (1674-1743). The scientists, especially Matthieu Bonafous (1793-1852) even compared these Chinese texts with La cueillete de la soye, compiled by the famous agronomist Olivier de Serres (1539-1619) on Henry IV’s request, while the latter encouraged the development of sericulture in France. Almost all modern scholars considered the Nongzheng quanshu 農政全書 (Complete treatise on agriculture, 1639) of Xu Guangqi 徐光啟 (1562-1633) as the basis of this translation, but if one studies this text systematically it is not difficult to find that Xu integrated a large part of the content from the Essentials of the agriculture and sericulture. While this treatise was compiled under Mongol rule, that is, three centuries earlier than the work of de Serres, it would be interesting to discover some tracks of transmission between the two extremities of the Eurasian Continent through a comparative analysis of these two texts, The essentials of the agriculture and sericulture and La cueillete de la soye.

Lieu : salle 569 (5è étage) bâtiment Olympe de Gouges