What Characteristics of European Civilization Encouraged the Scientific Revolution and Enlightenment and What Factors Prevented These Developments in China?

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using simple rules which in turn made China into a self-contained country. Let the state be small and the people few. So, that the people fearing death, will be reluctant to move great distances. If they have boats and carts, they will not use them. So, that the people will find their food sweet and their clothes beautiful will be content with where they live and happy in their customs.

Though adjoining states be within sight of one another and cocks crowing and dogs barking in one be heard in the next yet the people of one state will grow old and die without having had any dealings with those of another. These matters reached a climax under the Ming dynasty (1368–1644), when the state attempted to prohibit all trade overseas. These contributed to retard the growth of Chin.

A second reason why China did not realize the economic potential of its scientific expertise involved the larger values of the society. The absence of freedom, along with the weight of custom and consensus and what passed for higher wisdom. In addition to above everything was regulated. There are clothing regulations, regulations of public and private construction (dimensions of houses), the colors one wore, the music one listened to, the festivals; all were regulated. There were rules for birth and rules for death and the provincial state watched minutely over every step of its subjects, from cradle to grave.

It was a regime of paper work and harassment, endless paper work and endless harassment. The ingenuity and inventiveness of the Chinese, which have given so much to mankind—silk, tea, porcelain, paper, printing, and more—would no doubt have enriched China further and probably brought it to the threshold of modern industry, had it not been for this stifling state control.