我系助理教授雷震在《清史问题》期刊上发表论文。该论文主要聚焦于1867年至1872年间，一位江西南昌的学者编纂了一份科学及数学书籍的目录。这份书单不仅记录了书籍的内容，还记载了它们是如何辗转进入该学者手中的。因此，这份目录保留了太平天国运动刚结束后的几年里，科学信息如何在华中内陆地区传播的记录。本文通过分析这种传播的物质层面和隐喻层面，论证了科学知识与实践的推广和限制均受到物质条件的制约。该目录揭示了某些科学和数学著作的稀缺性，并强调即使是上海翻译的外文书籍，也难以流通至内陆，甚至包括省城。除了物质的传播，信息还在不同文本中通过多种表述语言进行转换，例如数学知识从具象形式（算筹、算盘）转化为符号形式（抽象记号）。正如这位学者的评注所示，物质条件影响了知识思潮的走向。最后，这份目录显示了手稿本在雕板与铅活字印刷时代依然具有持续的重要性。科学文本的复制方式，决定了哪些知识可以被获取，以及以何种方式被获取。
1. 论文题目
Notes from Enlightenment Studio:The Movement and Materiality of Scientific Information in Nineteenth-Century China
2. 文章摘要
Between 1867 and 1872, a scholar-clerk in Jiangxi Province composed an inventory of scientific and mathematical books. The list records not only their contents, but also the paths they had traced into the scholar's possession. Thus, the inventory preserves a record of how scientific information moved through inland China in the years immediately following the Taiping Rebellion. Analyzing both the physical and metaphorical aspects of this movement, this article argues that scientific knowledge and practice were promoted and constrained by material conditions. The inventory suggests the rarity of certain scientific-mathematical volumes, and underlines that foreign books translated in Shanghai did not circulate easily, even to provincial capitals. In addition to this material movement, information also moved through different representational languages in different texts, for instance through the translation of mathematics from physical forms (counting rod, abacus) to symbolic ones (abstract notation). As illustrated by the scholar's commentaries, material conditions informed intellectual trends. Finally, the inventory shows the continued importance of manuscripts, even in the age of woodblock and moveable type print. The methods of replication of scientific texts shaped what could be known, and in what manner.
3. 作者介绍
雷震（John Alekna），北京大学科学技术与医学史系助理教授，普林斯顿大学博士，牛津大学硕士。他的研究方向为中国、东亚与南亚近代（从19世纪到现在）科技史，特别关注通信技术、知识交流和科学理论的演化。他曾获得Fulbright 奖学金、Blakemore奖学金，并于2023年春赴剑桥大学李约瑟研究所任李氏基金研究员。2024年春于斯坦福大学出版社出版了他的第一本专著Seeking News, Making China: Information, Technology, and the Emergence of Mass Society。他最近的文章发表在Technology & Culture、《清史问题》等期刊。
4. 发表页面
论文链接：
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/991708
