Inheritance and Rebellion Author: Chen Fangzheng Publisher: Life·Reading·New Knowledge Sanlian Bookstore

Introduction
This is an outstanding and current history of the development of Western science and scientific thought. The author has extracted the essence of four or five hundred ancient and modern documents and constructed a concise and fluent historical narrative, which has achieved the realm of being easy to understand and easy to grasp. However, the achievement and value of this book are far more than that, because the author not only compiled a history of Western science, but also used it as a stepping stone to explore a more important historical and cultural issue, namely, "Why did modern science appear in the West?" However, to clarify this issue, the scope of research must be extended from the history of science to the overall history of Western thought and culture. Careful readers will not find it difficult to find that behind the narrative of the history of science, this book is set off by a layer of Western philosophical history, and also a set of Western cultural history. However, the depth of this book is not limited to this. The author writes about the history of Western science, but what he cares about in his heart is the relationship between science and Chinese culture; the design and argumentation of the whole book are also intentionally or unintentionally aimed at the "Needham Question". The author has a deep understanding of Joseph Needham's "Science and Civilization in China" and other related works and his comments are very pertinent.
The first edition of this book was published in 2009. After its publication, it attracted widespread attention at home and abroad and won the 5th National Library Wenjin Book Award. This revised edition is revised and supplemented by the author, expanding the original 12 chapters to 15 chapters. The revised content accounts for nearly half of the original book: in addition to adding an overview of the development of medicine and geography, it also discusses in detail the development of many threads leading to the modern scientific revolution from Copernicus to Newton. The revised edition is very substantial in both length and content, and is worth careful reading and thinking.
About the Author
Chen Fangzheng, PhD in Physics, Honorary Professor of the Department of Physics at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, former Director and current Honorary Senior Research Fellow of the Institute of Chinese Culture, Zhu Kezhen Chair Professor of the History of Science at the Institute of the History of Natural Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences. His academic work includes comparative modernization, the relationship between science and technology and modernization, and philosophy of science. In recent years, he has devoted himself to the study of the history of science. He has written "Standing on the Threshold of a Brave New Century", "Beyond Freedom and Equality", "Welcoming a Brave New Century: Expectations and Doubts", etc. He has founded and presided over the bimonthly "Twenty-first Century", edited the "World under the Impact of Modernization" series, and was responsible for the establishment of the "Chinese Ancient Documents Electronic Database", and served as the co-editor of the two series "Word-by-Word Index of Ancient Books in the Pre-Qin and Han Dynasties" and "Word-by-Word Index of Ancient Books in the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties".