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Science and Civilisation in China, Vol. 2, History of Scientific Thought

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It is very difficult to convey the great scope of this work. It has
been described as one of the l00 most significant works of non-fiction
of the 20th century. Only Arthur Waley, perhaps, had a greater role in
introducing the values and creative force of classical China to the west
than Joseph Needham. Needham, with a group of devoted scholars in the
Academica Sinica, labored over 40 years to produce this series, which
is without comparison in any european language. Not content with
superficial descriptions, at any stage, Needham uncovers the seminal
sources , at every juncture, to describe the birth and evolution
of this unique source of speculative, always empirical, yet spiritual
thought. One of it's greatest values is as a counter-point to the
growth of our own tradition, from its Greek sources through the
renaissance, and beyond. To give historical and cultural context,
Needham uses the seminal Greek sources, throughout, to show the
contrast as well as the originality of Chinese sources. The other
significant contribution, placing China within the context of world
cultures, is to explain the sources and development of China's own
empirical traditions and their growth into rigorous disciplines, and
their own concepts of time and cosmology.
Although this second volume does go into the development of
Taoism with considerable depth, it is not a great source for learning
the literary or artistic traditions of China. But as a guide to China's
emerging views of the natural world from astronomy to Chemistry,
Needham's work is without equal.

Needham is a superior thinker. His work on the Tao Te Ching is the best I have read in Englidh.