CURRICULUM VITAE AND PUBLICATIONS OF PROF. C. CULLEN
Updated: Jan 2007
Personal details
Full name: Christopher Cullen
Address for correspondence:
Needham Research Institute,
8 Sylvester Road,
Cambridge CB3 9AF,
United Kingdom
Telephone 01223 311545
Email: c.cullen@nri.org.uk
Nationality: British
Academic qualifications:
M.A. (Oxford) in Engineering Science.
Postgraduate Certificate in Education (Oxford).
Ph.D. (London) in Classical Chinese.
M.A. (Cambridge) by incorporation.
Main university posts:
1977-1981: Stipendiary Research Fellow, Clare Hall Cambridge
1988-2003: Lecturer/Senior Lecturer in History of East Asian Science Technology
and Medicine, Department of History, School of Oriental and African Studies,
University of London
2003- Director, Needham Research Institute
2005- Fellow, Darwin College
2007 - Honorary Professor of the History of East Asian Science, Technolgy and
Medicine, University of Cambridge
The Needham Research Institute (NRI) is devoted to the promotion of research into
the history of science, technology and medicine in East Asia. It welcomes visiting
scholars from all over the world to its purpose built buildings in Sylvester Road, a few
yards from Clare Hall. The Institute’s principal research resource is its unparalleled
library, which has grown from the personal research collection of the great sinologist
and historian of science Joseph Needham (1900-1994). The main income of the
Institute comes from its endowment, which is administered by a charitable trust, but it
is also active and successful in obtaining funding from foundations. Full details of the
NRI and its activities are available from its website at www.nri.org.uk.
Membership of professional bodies, etc.
Served as Council member of Royal Asiatic Society for three years
Founded History of Science section of the British Association for the Advancement of
Science, and served as Recorder for three years.
2005- present: President, International Society for the History of East Asian Science,
Technology and Medicine (I served as Secretary in the three years from the Society's
foundation in 1990).
2005- present: President, East Asia Commission, Division of History of Science and
Technology, International Union for History and Philosophy of Science
Honours
Honorary Professor, University of Cambridge
Honorary Professor, Chinese Academy of Sciences
Corresponding Member, International Academy for the History of Science
Visiting Professor, Inner Mongolia Normal University (2004)
Visiting Professor, Tianjin Normal University (2004)
Visiting Professor, Shandong University (2004)
Visiting Professor, Chinese University of Hong Kong (2004)
Visiting Professor, Northwest University, Xi’an (2007)
Affiliations
Affiliated Lecturer, Faculty of Oriental Studies, University of Cambridge.
Affiliated Research Scholar, Department of History and Philosophy of Science,
University of Cambridge.
Research
My research interests flow from a broad interest in the history of science in China,
seen in its widest social and intellectual context. I am currently working intensively
on projects in the areas of ancient mathematics and mathematical astronomy, but also
have ongoing interests in the history of medicine.
Editing
As Chairman of the Publications Board of the Needham Research Institute, I am
General Editor of the Science and Civilisation in China series (Cambridge University
Press) and of the Needham Research Institute Studies series (RoutledgeCurzon). I
have so far seen eight volumes of Science and Civilisation in China to the press, as
well as five volumes of NRI Studies. Other volumes of both series are at various
stages of active preparation. I have recently launched a new series, under the name of
Needham Research Institute Working Papers, designed to promote the rapid
circulation of research results whose formal appearance might otherwise be delayed.
Fundraising and grant administration
Over the past eighteen years (which constitutes the duration of my main university
career) I have raised and administered approximately 1.3 million pounds in research
funding from various sources, some of it for projects directly managed by myself and
some of it in the form of fellowship funding. In addition to that I was instrumental in
obtaining (through the Dragon’s Ascent project) funding of US $7.6 million, which
was divided equally between the Needham Research Institute and its partner
organisation in China.
Consultation: European Science Foundation ERIH project
The European Science Foundation is running a project to compile a European
Research Index in the Humanities (ERIH), whose object is to counter the heavy US
and anglophone bias of commonly used citation indexes. I was asked to serve as a
member of the Expert Panel in the History and Philosophy of Science for this project.
In this capacity I attended a number of meetings in Brussels from 2005-6 and
corresponded intensively with fellow panel members.
Christopher Cullen: Publications
(a) Books
Monographs:
Astronomy and Mathematics in Ancient China: the Zhou bi suan jing Cambridge 1996
(reprinted 2006)
This is a translation and study of an ancient Chinese text of c. 100 AD, the first of the 'Ten
Mathematical Classics", with full introductory discussions of the nature of early Chinese
astronomical and mathematical thought and practice.
The Dragon's Ascent Hong Kong 2001
This is a substantial and fully illustrated historical introduction to Chinese culture, with a
perspective broadly based on the work of Joseph Needham. It is designed for a wide but wellinformed readership, and was written to accompany the film series of the same name.
Medicine in Mediaeval China: the Dunhuang Manuscripts (written and edited with Vivienne
Lo, RoutledgeCurzon, 2004)
This is a collective work, the outcome of a major international collaborative project to study
and analyse the medical material from the Dunhuang cave library recovered by Aurel Stein
and others at the beginning of the last century.
The Suàn shù shū 筭數書 ‘Writings on reckoning’: a translation of a Chinese mathematical
collection of the second century BC, with explanatory commentary Needham Research
Institute Working Papers no.1, Needham Research Institute, Cambridge 2004
This the first work in a Western language to deal at length with the topic of the earliest
known Chinese mathematical text, excavate from a tomb closed in 186 BC. It contains an
introductory essay, a full translation and commentary, together with a critical edition of the
text.
Edited:
Since February 1992 I have been Chairman of the editorial board of the Science and
Civilisation in China series, which was founded by Joseph Needham and is published by
Cambridge University Press. It is my responsibility to deal with all scholarly aspects of the
commissioning, planning, execution and quality control of this ongoing multi-volume work,
which is the major British based publishing project in Chinese studies. All the parts of SCC
volumes are important and substantial contributions to their field, and are publishing projects
of some complexity. Parts which have been seen to press under my management comprise:
VOL. V. Chemistry and Chemical Technology
Pt. 6. Military Technology: Missiles and Sieges. Joseph Needham, Robin D.S. Yates, with
the collaboration of Krzysztof Gawlikowski and others (1994)
Pt 11: Ferrous Metallurgy. Don Wagner (in press, due July 2007)
Pt. 12: Ceramic Technology. Rose Kerr (2004)
Pt. 13: Mining. Peter Golas (1999)
VOL. VI. Biology and Biological Technology
Pt. 3. Agroindustries and Forestry. Christopher.A. Daniels and Nicholas .K. Menzies (1996)
Pt. 5. Fermentations and Food Science. H.T. Huang (2000)
Pt. 6. Medicine. Joseph Needham and Lu Gwei-djen, edited by Nathan Sivin (2000)
VOL. VII. The Social Background
Pt. 1. Language and Logic. Christof Harbsmeier (1998)
Pt. 2. Reflections and General Conclusions. Joseph Needham and others. (2004)
I also edit the Needham Research Institute Studies monograph series, of which eight volumes
have so far appeared:
Astronomy and mathematics in ancient China: the Zhou bi suan jing
Christopher Cullen
Cambridge University Press 1996 (reprinted 2006)
Aristotle in China: Language, Categories and Translation
Robert Wardy
Cambridge University Press 2000
Innovation in Chinese Medicine
(Ed.) Elisabeth Hsü
Cambridge University Press 2001
A Chinese Physician - Wang Ji and the 'Stone Mountain medical case histories'
Joanna Grant
RoutledgeCurzon, 2002
Chinese Mathematical Astrology
Ho Peng Yoke
RoutledgeCurzon 2003
Medieval Chinese Medicine: the Dunhuang medical manuscripts
(Eds.) Vivienne Lo and Christopher Cullen
RoutledgeCurzon 2004
Medicine of Revolution: Chinese Medicine in Early Communist China (1945-1963)
Kim Taylor
RoutledgeCurzon 2004
Explorations in Daoism: Science in Literature
Ho Peng Yoke
RoutledgeCurzon 2007
Other volumes in this series are in active preparation.
(b) Articles and book chapters
———. 1976. A Chinese Eratosthenes of the flat earth: a study of a fragment of cosmology
in Huai nan tzu. Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 39 (1):106127.
———. 1979. Can we find the Star of Bethlehem in Far Eastern Records? Quarterly Journal
of the Royal Astronomical Society 20:153-159.
———. 1980. Was there a Maunder Minimum? Nature 283:427-8.
———. 1981. Some further points on the shih. Early China 6:31-46.
———. 1982. An eighth century Chinese table of tangents. Chinese Science 5:1-33.
———. 1982. The Han cosmic model: a response to Donald Harper. Early China 7:130-133.
———. 1983. On the term hsuan chi and the three-lobed jade discs (with Anne S.L. Farrer).
Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 46 (1):53-76.
———. 1983. Science and medicine in China. In Information Sources for the History of
Science and Medicine, edited by Corsi and Weindling. London: Butterworths.
———. 1984. Understanding: Chinese science and medicine. In The Heart of the Dragon.
London: Collins/Harvill.
———. 1990. The science/technology interface in seventeenth-century China: Song
Yingxing on qi and the wu xing. Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African
Studies 53 (2):295-318.
———. 1991. Halleys comet and the "ghost" event of 10 B.C. Quarterly Journal of the
Royal Astronomical Society 32:113-119.
———. 1991. Song Yingxing on astronomy. In Science and Technology in Modern China,
edited by T.-H. Yang and Y.-l. Huang. Taipei: Institute of Modern History, Academia
Sinica.
———. 1993. Appendix A: A Chinese Eratosthenes of the Flat Earth. In Heaven and Earth
in Early Han Thought, edited by J. S. Major. New York: State University of New
York.
———. 1993. The Chiu chang suan shu. In Early Chinese Texts: a Bibliographical Guide
(Early China monograph no.2), edited by M. A. N. Loewe. Berkeley: Society for the
Study of Early China.
———. 1993. The Chou pi suan jing. In Early Chinese Texts: a Bibliographical Guide
(Early China monograph no.2), edited by M. A. N. Loewe. Berkeley: Society for the
Study of early China.
———. 1993. Motivations for Scientific Change in Ancient China: Emperor Wu and the
Grand Inception Astronomical Reforms of 104 BC. Journal for the History of
Astronomy 24 (3):185-203.
———. 1993. Patients and Healers in Late Imperial China: Evidence from the Jinpingmei.
History of Science 31 (2):99-150.
———. 1994. Song Yingxing: a Chinese Diderot in search of working space. In China and
the West: Proceedings of the International Colloquium. Brussels: Royal Academy of
Science and Letters.
———. 1995. How can we do the comparative history of mathematics? Proof in Liu Hui and
the Zhou bi. Philosophy and the History of Science 4 (1):11-49.
———. 1995. Yale on China: Parker and Hume on Chinese Medicine. In East Asian Science:
Tradition and Beyond, edited by K. Hashimoto and C. Jami. Osaka.
———. 1995. The Zhoubi revisited. In East Asian Science: Tradition and Beyond, edited by
K. Hashimoto and C. Jami. Osaka: -.
———. 1997. Innnovations techniques en Chine et en Europe. La revue: musée des arts et
métiers 21:20-29.
———. 2000. Seeing the Appearances: Ecliptic and Equator in the Eastern Han. Studies in
the History of Natural Sciences xix (4):352-382.
———. 2000. The Threatening Stranger: Kewu 客忤 in Pre-modern Chinese Paediatrics. In
Contagion: Perspectives from Pre-modern Societies, edited by L. Conrad and D.
Wujastyk. London: -.
———. 2001. Constructing a past imagining a future: the essential role of East Asia in
understanding the origins and possible directions of modern science. Sungkyun
Journal of East Asian Studies 1:265-282.
———. 2001. Yi'an (case statements): the origins of a genre of Chinese medical literature.
In Innovation in Chinese Medicine, edited by E. Hsu. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.
———. 2002. The first complete Chinese theory of the moon: the innovations of Liu Hong c.
AD 200. Journal for the History of Astronomy 33:1-24.
———. 2004. The birthday of the Old Man of Jiang County and other puzzles: work in
progress on Liu Xin’s Canon of the Ages. Asia Major xiv (2):27-70.
———. 2004. Jianqiao Li Yuese Yanjiusuo he "Zhonguo Kexue Jishu Shi". The Chinese
Journal for the History of Science and Technology 26 (1):65-69.
———. 2004. The way and the word. Science and medicine in early China and Greece:
Essay Review. Studies In History and Philosophy of Science 35, 2: 357-362
———. 2005. Plenary lecture 'Making and Transmitting Mathematical Knowledge in
Ancient China: Some Comparative Considerations'. In 11th International Conference
on the History of Science in East Asia. Munich: 15 August 2005.
———. 2005. Translating Ancient Chinese Astronomical System with Excel: How not to
stew the strawberries? Journal for the History of Astronomy xxxvi:336-338.
———. 2006. Can we make the history of mathematics historical? The case of ancient
China. Studies in the History and Philosophy of Science 37 (515-525).
———. 2006. The arts of number in ancient China: new directions in research.
Festchrift in honour of Professor Ang Tian Se. B. E. Khor
and S. Chiah. Petaling Jaya, PEJATI: 258-298
———. 2007 Huo Rong's observation programme of AD 102 and the Han li solar table.
Journal for the History of Astronomy 38(1): 75-98.
———. 2007 The Suàn shù shū (筭數書) 'Writings on reckoning':
Rewriting the history of early Chinese mathematics in the
light of an excavated manuscript" Historia Mathematica
34(1): 10-44.
———. 2007 ‘Actors, networks and ‘disturbing spectacles’ in institutional science: 2nd
century Chinese debates on astronomy’, Antiqvorvm Philosophia, 1 (2007), 237-268.
———. 2008 (In press). Numbers, numeracy, and the cosmos in early imperial China. In
Cambridge History of China: The Qin and Han empires (supplementary volume),
edited by M. A. N. Loewe and M. Nylan. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
———. 2008 (In press). People and numbers in early imperial China: locating
‘mathematics’ and ‘mathematicians’ in Chinese space. In Oxford Handbook of the
History of Mathematics, edited by Eleanor Robson. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
(c) Recent public lectures and conference presentations:
———. 2004. Public Lecture 'Building cross-cultural bridges through translation: the case of
mathematics'. Wilson T.S. Wang Visiting Professor Public Lecture. Chinese
University of Hong Kong.
———. 2004. 'The retrospective invention of discovery: China and the sphericity of the
Earth'. ESF Exploratory Workshop - Sciences in Asia: Representations and
Historiography, 17th to 20th Centuries. Needham Research Institute, Cambridge.
———. 2005. Seminar presentation (in French) ‘La table solaire du Hanli “Système
astronomique de la dynastie Han”. Séminaire d'histoire et d'épistémologie des
mathématiques; Journée d'étude sur les tables numériques. Laboratoire REHSEIS
(UMR 7596, CNRS et université Paris 7), Paris.
———. 2005. Plenary lecture 'Making and Transmitting
Mathematical Knowledge in Ancient China: Some
Comparative Considerations'. 11th International Conference on the
History of Science in East Asia. Munich: 15 August 2005.
———. 2005. Plenary Lecture ‘Shifting Tectonic Plates in the
History of Science’. XXIInd International Congress of History of
Science. Beijing.
———. 2005. Presentation at Demos seminar (IIEE, London) on
‘China – the next scientific superpower?’
———. 2006. Presentation at Free University of Berlin workshop ‘On the peculiarities of
pre-Tang Chinese astral science: responses to queries.’
———. 2006. Seminar at University of Istanbul ‘Reflections on the transmission and
transformation of technologies: printing and gunpowder between East and West’
———. 2006. Public lecture at University of Zurich on ‘The changing history of Chinese
mathematics in the light of archaeology’
———. 2006. Seminar at Malaysian Conference on Sinology, Kuala Lumpur: ‘The arts of
number in ancient China: new directions in research’
———. 2007. Seminar at the Ecole française d'Extrême-Orient (EFEO), Paris: ‘ "Tout
savoir sur les nombres" - pour une histoire intellectuelle et sociale des nombres dans
la Chine ancienne’
(d) Film and other media
From 1996 to 2001 I acted as principal academic consultant in the making of The Dragon's
Ascent, an eight-part television documentary series. As well as advising on the overall
planning and content of the series I also wrote a large proportion of the script material. All
rights in the series have now been sold. It has already had showings in East Asia, Europe and
the USA. Rights are being handled by Carlton International.
In addition to the book associated with the series (see above) I was also the principal author
of material for the accompanying CD-ROM which combines print medium and film
material..
In 1998-1999 I worked in association with a group of Cambridge academics and with
Windfall Films in making a television documentary series on the world historical context of
the industrial revolution The day the world took off. As well as supplying written material I
travelled to China to be filmed making a number of presentations on location. The series was
broadcast on Channel 4 in 2000.
I have made several appearances on both BBC Radio 3 and Radio 4 in discussion
programmes relating to China, including three on Melvyn Bragg’s In Our Time, most
recently on October 19 2006 in a discussion of the ‘Needham Problem’.
(e) Educational outreach
I am currently chairman of a working group set up by a government agency (the Specialist
Schools and Academies Trust) to develop web-based materials relating to China, with the
aim of greatly increasing the profile of China in the secondary school curriculum. Material
was trialled in selected schools in the autumn of 2006, and has met with an enthusiastic
response. It is now planned to develop a wide range of material for the whole curriculum.