Jiang Sheng

Institute of Religion, Science and Social Studies (IRSSS), Shandong University

Project title: Daoism and Science: Past and Present

Abstract: As the native religion of China, Daoism, together with Confucianism and Buddhism, composes the main body of traditional Chinese culture. Daoists, in pursuit of the ideal of becoming immortals by practicing “Dao”, made great efforts to transcend the usual outlooks of life and knowledge on the basis of inheriting and developing ancient science in China. This made it possible for Daoism to bring about a great number of inventions. The ideal of Daoist religion of longevity and immortality by human effort, its love of nature, and hence its idea of treasuring human body and practical life, makes deep relations between Daoism and science in China. Thus, the religious characteristics of Daoism naturally lead it to use science as its ‘tool’. Daoist idea played immanent roles in ancient Chinese science and contributed significantly to the development of science in history.

Prof. Jiang Sheng is the Founder, Director and presently Professor at the Institute of Religion, Science and Social Studies at Shandong University and at the Center for the Study of Daoism and Science at Sichuan University. He is a director of the Chinese Society of Religious Studies, Director of the Chinese Confucius Foundation, member of the Japanese Society of Taoistic Research and a founding executive of the Hong Kong Taoist Culture & Information Center. He is also the vice-dean of the College of Oriental Culture Studies at Shandong University. In 1998 he was invited by China's National Social Sciences Foundation to lead the project of "History of Science and Technology in Taoism" and founded an international group for its purposes. Prof. Jiang has won numerous academic prizes including the National Key Scholars Selected to the New Century Talents Program of China (2004), first prize for the Best Publication in the Social Sciences (Shandong Province, 2004), and the best Doctoral Degree with Distinguished Academic Achievements (Sichuan, 2000).