From Oracle Bones to Computers

Baotong Gu

Description

From Oracle Bones to Computers not only provides a succinct yet in-depth account of the development of writing technologies in the five thousand years of China's history but also develops an operationalized model of rhetorical analysis that can be applied to the study of any writing technology development.

Informations

• Publié par: Parlor Press, LLC
• Date de parution: 25 mars 2009
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781602355422
• Langue: English

Extrait

From Oracle Bones to Computers
The Emergence of Writing Technologies in China
Baotong Gu
Parlor Press
West Lafayette, Indiana
www.parlorpress.com


Parlor Press LLC, West Lafayette, Indiana 47906
© 2009 by Parlor Press
All rights reserved.
Printed in the United States of America
S A N: 2 5 4 - 8 8 7 9
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Gu, Baotong, 1963-
From oracle bones to computers : the emergence of writing technologies in China / Baotong Gu.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-60235-101-1 (acid-free paper) -- ISBN 978-1-60235-100-4 (pbk. : acid-free paper)
1. Writing--China--Materials and instruments--History. 2. Written communication--Technological innovations--China--History. 3. Written communication--Technological innovations--History. I. Title.
Z45.G83 2009
303.48’30951--dc22
2009008637
Cover design by David Blakesley.
Printed on acid-free paper.
Parlor Press, LLC is an independent publisher of scholarly and trade titles in print and multimedia formats. This book is available in paper, cloth and Adobe eBook formats from Parlor Press on the World Wide Web at http://www.parlorpress.com or through online and brick-and-mortar bookstores. For submission information or to find out about Parlor Press publications, write to Parlor Press, 8 1 6 Robinson St., West Lafayette, Indiana, 47906, or e-mail [e-mail].


To my parents and billions of other Chinese who never had the privilege to enjoy literacy


Contents
Acknowledgments
1 Introduction: (De)Mystifying the Chinese Culture
2 (Un)loading Technology
3 Rhetoricizing and Operationalizing Technology
4 Oracle and Bronze Inscriptions
5 Early Forms of Pen, Ink, and Paper
6 The Modern Form of Paper
7 Block Printing and Movable Type
8 The Chinese Typewriter
9 The Computer and the Internet
10 Conclusion: Toward a More Pluralistic Model of Knowledge Construction
Appendix: Milestone First Events in China’s Internet Use
References
Index for Print Edition
About the Author


Acknowledgments
It is not until you undertake a project like this that you realize how much you must rely on the selfless efforts of others. Though only my name appears on the cover as the author of this book, I can never justifiably claim sole authorship. I owe the completion of this book project to a number of people, to whom no language is adequate to express my deep-felt gratitude.
This book originated in my dissertation work at Purdue, so my first word of thanks goes to the members of my dissertation committee: Patricia Sullivan, James Porter, Janice Lauer, Johndan Johnson-Eilola, and Tony Silva. Their insightful comments and advice molded my initial thinking on the project and helped lay a solid foundation for this book.
I am also deeply grateful to my colleagues at Georgia State University, especially to Randy Malamud and George Pullman for their constant moral support and encouragement, which provided me with much of the strength and resolve I needed to complete the project; to my Rhetoric and Composition colleagues for their help and advice in many facets of my professional life, and to Angela Hall-Godsey for taking care of much of the drudgery work of Lower Division Studies so that I could concentrate on this book.
I owe a special thank-you to the staff at Parlor Press, especially to editor David Blakesley for steering me along the right course throughout this publication process and making it basically painless, to the two anonymous reviewers for their selfless work and very helpful advice on improving my manuscript, and to copyeditor Rebecca Longster for her meticulous attention to details and her overall excellent job, which has spared me a lot of embarrassment.
My final word of thanks goes to my family—my wife, Li, and my children, Shelly and Shawn—whose patience and moral support have made this project possible.


1 Introduction: (De)Mystifying the Chinese Culture
These “Ocean Men” [foreigners], as they are called . . . are tall beasts with deep sunken eyes and beaklike noses. The lower part of their faces, the backs of their hands, and I understand, their entire bodies are covered with a mat of curly hair, much as are the monkeys of the southern forests. But the strangest part about them is that, although undoubtedly men, they seem to possess none of the mental faculties of men. The most bestial of peasants is far more human, although these Ocean Men go from place to place with the self-reliance of a man of scholarship and are in some respects exceedingly clever. It is quite possible that they are susceptible to training and could with patience be taught the modes of conduct proper to a human being. (cited in Oliver, 1971, p. 5)
The above passage is the depiction by a scholarly Chinese of his first impression of white men in his country. The absurdity of such a perception is beyond question. However, that somebody should view a fellow human being, though of a different race, in such a manner is by no means a uniquely Chinese phenomenon. What is of interest here is not the absurdity of the story or the ignorance of a particular human being or species, for mere ignorance cannot adequately explain such a phenomenon. Nor is the observer’s possible prejudice to take the blame. What is at work is the observer’s enculturated consciousness, which is facilitating, albeit to a woeful effect, his reconstruction of the white men based on his experience of members of the white race, which, unfortunately, is extremely limited.
What, then, does this have to do with writing technologies?
The answer, which is far more complicated than I can articulate here, lies in people’s perception and subsequent rhetorical construction of the meaning of a particular phenomenon, ideology, or artifact . . . be it a foreigner or a new technology. What a foreigner is, in the above case, depends on the observer’s experience with the human species, which is limited to his own race, and makes sense only in the context of his own race. In a similar way, what a writing technology is—what it means, how it should be used, and how it should be further developed—depends, to a large extent, on how people (the participants of technology development) perceive and define this technology.
Therefore, it is the main goal of this book to interpret such perceptions and their implications on the development of technologies, particularly writing technologies. However, the purpose of this book is multifold: to define technology, technology development, and technology transfer; to present a coherent and comprehensive picture of the emergence of various writing technologies throughout the history of China, including, for example, oracle inscriptions, bronze inscriptions, pen, ink, early forms of paper (such as bamboo, wood, and silk), paper of the modern form, block and movable type printing, the Chinese typewriter, and the computer; to explore the impact of these writing technologies on the respective historical periods with special regard to writing and communication behavior; and, most importantly, to deconstruct the social, political, and cultural contexts and their shaping influence on writing technology developments.
China: An Intriguing Case
Several factors make China an intriguing case for the study of writing technology development: a long history of civilization (over five thousand years), a source of some of the most important inventions of writing technologies (such as pen, ink, paper, and printing), a confusing pattern of development (with some periods flourishing with milestone emergences and others completely void of development), a combination of both native developments and foreign transfers (thus rendering itself an appropriate case study of technology transfer), and an intriguing, if not mysterious, writing system.
The first intriguing factor, China’s long civilization of over five thousand years, provides a rich site for any study, not the least of which is writing technology development. The history of the written Chinese itself can be traced as far back as the Dawenkou culture between the twenty-eighth century BCE and the twenty-third century BCE (Peng et al., 1989, p. 432). Over four or five thousand years of evolution, the Chinese civilization underwent a series of differing cultures during different historical periods and dynasties. This myriad of cultures adds an intriguing complexity to the context of writing technology development. In addition, a mature civilization as the site of study yields validity to our investigation, which targets culture as the scene of development.
A second intriguing factor lies in the fact that the Chinese civilization has been host to several of the most important inventions in writing technologies, such as pen, paper, ink, and printing. As early as the sixteenth century BCE, in the Shang Dynasty, when there was hardly any writing, not to mention writing technology, in other parts of the world, the Chinese were already using turtle shells and other animal bones for oracle inscriptions (Xia et al., 1979, p. 1673). This was arguably the earliest form of writing technology in the history of human civilization.
Another notable era of writing technology development is the subsequent period of the Zhou Dynasty (from the eleventh to the third century BCE). This so-called classical period of China saw the use of bamboo pens, soot ink, and bamboo and wood slips as primitive forms of paper (Carter, 1955, p. 94). Then came the invent