Editing Qing dynasty (section)

==Science and technology==
{{Main|History of science and technology in China}}
Chinese scholars, court academies, and local officials carried on late Ming dynasty strengths in [[Chinese astronomy#Astronomy during Ming China|astronomy]], [[Chinese mathematics|mathematics]], and [[Chinese geography|geography]], as well as technologies in [[Chinese ceramics|ceramics]], [[History of metallurgy in China|metallurgy]], [[History of transport in China|water transport]], [[History of printing in East Asia|printing]]. Contrary to stereotypes in some Western writing, 16th and 17th century Qing dynasty officials and literati eagerly explored the technology and science introduced by [[History of science and technology in China#Jesuit activity in China|Jesuit missionaries]]. Manchu leaders employed Jesuits to use cannon and gunpowder to great effect in the conquest of China, and the court sponsored their research in astronomy. The aim of these efforts, however, was to reform and improve inherited science and technology, not to replace it. Scientific knowledge advanced during the Qing, but there was not a change in the way this knowledge was organised or the way scientific evidence was defined or its truth tested. Those who studied the physical universe shared their findings with each other and identified themselves as men of science, but they did not have a separate and independent professional role with its own training and advancement. They were still literati.{{sfnp|Porter|2016|pp=229–238}}

The [[Opium Wars]], however, demonstrated the power of steam engine and military technology that had only recently been put into practice in the West. During the [[Self-Strengthening Movement]] of the 1860s and 1870s Confucian officials in several coastal provinces established an industrial base in military technology. The introduction of [[History of rail transport in China|railroads into China]] raised questions that were more political than technological. A British company built the {{cvt|12|mi|km|order=flip}} Shanghai–Woosung line in 1876, obtaining the land under false pretenses, and it was soon torn up. Court officials feared local public opinion and that railways would help invaders, harm farmlands, and obstruct [[feng shui]].<ref>{{Cite journal |first=David |last=Pong |year=1973 |title=Confucian patriotism and the destruction of the Woosung railway, 1877 |journal=Modern Asian Studies |volume=7 |issue=3 |pages=647–676 |doi=10.1017/S0026749X00005333 |jstor=311679 |s2cid=202928323}}</ref> To keep development in Chinese hands, the Qing government borrowed 34&nbsp;billion taels of silver from foreign lenders for railway construction between 1894 and 1911. As late as 1900, only {{cvt|292|mi|km|order=flip}} were in operation. Finally, {{cvt|5200|mi|km|order=flip}} of railway was completed. The British and French after 1905 opened lines to Burma and Vietnam.<ref>{{Cite book |first=Jim |last=Harter |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ESnBiR7vLPQC&pg=PA223 |title=World Railways of the Nineteenth Century |publisher=Johns Hopkins University Press |year=2005 |isbn=978-0801880896 |page=223 |access-date=10 September 2019}}</ref>

Protestant missionaries by the 1830s translated and printed Western science and medical textbooks. The textbooks found homes in the rapidly enlarging network of missionary schools and universities. The textbooks opened learning open possibilities for the small number of Chinese students interested in science, and a very small number interested in technology. After 1900, Japan had a greater role in bringing modern science and technology to Chinese audiences but even then they reached chiefly the children of the rich landowning gentry.<ref>{{Cite book |first=Benjamin |last=Elman |url=https://archive.org/details/ontheirowntermss00elma |title=On Their Own Terms: Science in China, 1550–1900 |publisher=Harvard University Press |year=2005 |isbn=978-0674016859 |pages=270–331, 396 |url-access=limited}}</ref>