或問	
  WAKUMON	 23	
  No.26,（2014）pp.23-44	  The terminological battle for ‘air’ in modern China
Rune Svarverud(魯納)1

Introduction
In contemporary science education we take the understanding of ‘air’ as a mixture of gases and thephysical and chemical properties of air and its components for granted. Air has in recent years become
the object of renewed interest and concern with debates on the climate effects of rising CO2
concentrations in the atmosphere and on the negative health effects of ambient and indoor airborne
pollution. In China recently the most impassioned debates and disturbing information have been related
to the rising levels and harmful effects of the small particles of particulate matter in urban air, mostly
measured as the smallest particles of particulate matter in air referred to as PM2.5. This focus on andconcern about airborne gases and airborne pollution is an effect of increasing scientific knowledge about
the climate and the relationship between the quality of ambient air and human health. This now global
field of research has developed rapidly over a period of a few decades. In historical terms the field ofknowledge related to air, pollution and health has also gone through several stages where the constructionof meaning and knowledge to explain the seemingly empty (kong 空) space between heaven and earthand between man and his/her environment has developed with the historical development of science.
In the same way that contemporary European understanding of the significance of air quality and healtheffects of poor air quality is a result of the history of air science in Europe, the same can be said about the
Chinese case. Advanced science is today a global field, and so is international research on air, air quality,
air pollution and health effects of air pollution. Popular perceptions and interpretations of this field ofknowledge are, however, to a much larger degree influenced by specific cultural traits, traditional
interpretations, the history of popular science in a specific culture and the language with which theseperceptions are conveyed. It is the language of air science in China that is the topic of this article. It may
be objected that popular science is today a global field of knowledge that is barely subject to the historyof science in a specific cultural context such as China. Some may also argue that ‘air’ in the earlyscientific translations from the 1850s in China was translated using the term kongqi 空氣, ‘oxygen’ was

	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  
1

Professor of Chinese at the Department of Culture Studies and Oriental Languages, University of Oslo.
Special thanks to Mark Teeuwen (University of Oslo), Wang Yangzong 王揚宗 and He Juan 何涓 (bothChinese Academy of Sciences), for their generous help in identifying primary sources for this article.

	
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  translated as yangqi 養氣, ‘nitrogen’ as danqi 淡氣, and ‘water vapour’ as shuizhengqi 水蒸氣 or shiqi
濕氣 etc. and that there is not much more to be said about the transmission and translation of air sciencefrom Western texts into Chinese. My claim is that there is much more to be understood from the Chinese
process of translation and adaptation of these terms. We may assume that there is a simple and uniform
one-to-one relationship between the terms ‘air’, ‘atmosphere’ and ‘weather’ in English (with parallels inother European languages) and the contemporary Chinese terms kongqi, daqi 大氣 and tianqi 天氣. My
aim here is to show that the Chinese terms for air, atmosphere, gases and climate carry cultural traits,
brought into the field of popular science through the history of science in China, that have influenced andwill necessarily influence popular debates on these issues in China. Simultaneously, a close study of theterminological development of air science in China will also give us a better understanding of one
particular aspect of the translation and development of modern science in China. I will in the following
show that the process of term translation for central concepts in the modern sciences in China, often
through Japan, was far from a unilinear process but in fact a complicated process involving confusing
contradictions between different schools of translation and different sets of semantic fields. Simple
categorisations of term translations, like semantic loans, roundtrip diffusion via Japan, Chinese
neologisms etc., may not be sufficiently precise to describe the often complicated genealogy of specificterm translations. I will use terms for ‘air’ to illustrate this point.
Traditional understanding of ‘air’ and air-related health issues
In ancient Greek philosophy air (ἀήρ) was regarded as one of the four, and later five, basic elements
alongside earth, water, fire and ether. This system for describing the properties of all things influenced
European thinking up to the Renaissance. The element of air indicated the properties wet and hot.
Aristotle added the fifth element ether in order to describe the incorruptible and unchangeable element ofheaven and the stars. Air was also included among the elements of medieval European alchemy. In
ancient Chinese philosophy we also recognize a system for describing 5 basic elements, or properties,(wuxing 五行) but none of these have a parallel in the ancient Greek element referred to as air.
Oxygen, nitrogen and carbon dioxide as components of the atmosphere were discovered during the
Enlightenment in the 1750-70s through the work of a number of scientists. Antoine Lavoisier(1743-1794) built his investigations on previous works by his predecessors and contributed to the earlymodern European scientific quantitative understanding of air as a mixture of several gases rather than just
one single substance. Lavoisier studied the oxidation of metals and concluded that air contains several
gases of which oxygen is one that supports combustion while nitrogen does not. Lavoisier also found thatoxygen was the part of air that contributed to respiration. Through the work of scientists like Lavoisierduring the Enlightenment the process of identifying the various substances of air had started, a work thatwould later lead to the discovery of other gases present in air, such as the isolation of argon gas in 1894.

	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
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Miasma theory in Europe claimed that diseases such as cholera and Black Death were caused by rotting
air called miasma, also referred to as ‘night air’. This theory held that these diseases were caused byorganic matter that was rotting and emanating bad air. This poisonous vapour called miasma could becaused by bad health, contaminated water or rotting substances and would directly inflict diseases upon
the person exposed to this air. Miasma could not be transmitted between individuals. Until the 1850
miasma theory was popular for explaining the spread of infectious diseases, and nurses like FlorenceNightingale (1820-1910) supported this theory and worked to clean the air in hospitals to prevent the
spread of diseases. The description of ‘unhealthy fog’ in cities like London in the early 19th century
indicated the presence of miasma that would cause the spread of diseases. During the 19th century
theories about diseases spreading through physical contact divided the medical community in two, andgradually evidence of germs as the cause of diseases, proven through the work of John Snow
(1813-1858), Louis Pasteur (1822-1895), Robert Koch (1843-1910) and others, discredited miasma
theory from the 1850s.
In China we also find early theories about the negative health effects of bad air. In early Chinese texts wefind descriptions of the hot and humid climate in southern regions being detrimental for human health,such as Jia Yi’s 賈誼 (200-168 BC) descriptions of his exile in the south in the 2 nd century BC. The ideaof zhangqi 瘴氣 being a cause of diseases has a long tradition within Chinese folk medicine, often
found described in local historical sources. This idea of zhangqi as a cause of disease is still prevalent in
Chinese folk medicine today.
Qi 氣 is an ancient term in Chinese traditional medicine that refers to the vital energy, life-giving power,
or esoteric substance, that maintains life, and is kept in balance through a life without excesses, a wellbalanced diet, and through external manipulation of specific acupuncture points (xuewei 穴位) on the
body. The character for qi has its origin in rice or grain presented as gifts, then pronounced xi (Qiu 2000:
330), and its ancient semantics are attached to rising damp, gas and vapour. Ancient meanings of qi also
include other sensory phenomena such as ‘cloud’, ‘damp’, ‘smoke’, ‘gas’, ‘smell’, ‘breathing’,‘temper/mood (of the face)’, ‘six phenomena of Heaven’ (liuqi 六氣), ‘timespan’, and is an importantphilosophical concept of ‘substance’ coupled with ‘principle’ (li 理) in Neo-Confucianism. (Hanyu
dacidian, vol. 6, pp. 1023-1025) Thus qi in its traditional sense is semantically related both to health andto vapours. It is therefore not surprising to find that the character qi came to be essential when terms werecoined in the modern natural sciences for phenomena and substances related to life-giving ‘air’. A
number of traditional terms derived from qi were, as we shall see below, invoked when ‘air’ and‘atmosphere’ were first translated into Chinese. These include tianqi 天氣 and diqi 地氣, daqi 大氣,shengqi 生氣 and kongqi 空氣. (see e.g. Wright 2000: 5-7) Tianqi and diqi were used already in

	
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  classical Chinese texts as terms referring to climatic changes. Tianqi referred then to clear qi rising
towards the sky, whereas diqi referred to murky qi of the earth that could inflict illness upon people.
(Hanyu dacidian, vol. 2, p. 1027, 1430) In the Confucian text Liji 禮記, chapter Yueling 月令, probably
compiled in the 1st century AD, we read for the first month of spring: 是月也。天氣下降。地氣上勝。
天地和同。草木萌動。 (Shisanjing zhushu 1982, Liji, juan 14, p. 1356) “In this month, heavenly qi
descends upon the earth and earthly qi rises towards the sky, there will be harmony between Heaven andEarth, and plants and trees will start to blossom and grow.” Shengqi is also an ancient Chinese term
referring to the vital qi that gives and maintains life in all living creatures ands plants. In the same chapterof the Liji we find a passage describing the life giving qualities of shengqi during the last month of spring:
是月也。生氣方盛。陽氣發泄。句者畢出。萌者盡達。不可以內。 (Shisanjing 1982, Liji, juan 14, p.
1363) “In this month, life giving qi is at its most fullest, and bright qi radiates. All crippled [creates]
come forward, and all growing [plants] reach out. Nothing can hold back.” (See also Hanyu dacidian, vol7, p. 1504) Kongqi is originally an early daoist term meaning ‘primordial qi’ (元氣) or ‘pure qi’ (清氣)(Hanyu dacidian, vol. 8, p. 417)
The Aristotelian idea of ether as the fifth incorruptible element of heaven and the stars was also brought
into the debate on Western sciences in China in late imperial times. Inspired by Western physics Tan
Sitong 譚嗣同 (1865-1898) developed a theory about ether as the substance behind all the elements in
his book Renxue 仁學 (Japan, 1899). Tan’s theory about ether was inspired by the Chinese notion of qi
as the prime substance. His theory fused Chinese and Western learning and tried to bridge the gap
between the physical and the spiritual realm. Kang Youwei (康有為) (1858-1927) also worked with theidea of ether as a prime substance. John Fryer (傅蘭雅) (1839-1928), a translator of science texts at
Jiangnan Arsenal in Shanghai, also associated ether with qi in order to make Western physics palatable toChinese intellectuals. (Elman 2005: 400-403)
Against this backdrop of traditional recognition of qi as a sensory substance related to phenomena
between heaven and earth and closely related to balance of vital energy in the human body European
science was introduced into China after the Opium War. The process of introducing science in China
started with the early science translations in the 1850s and continued with more systematic introductionstranslated into Chinese from the 1870s. Below I will investigate how ‘air science’ was translated andintroduced into China and the terms involved in this process from the 1850s.
The translation of ‘air’ into Chinese
The translation and introduction of what we may call ‘air science’ from Western texts into Chinese runparallel with the introduction and translation of Western sciences into Chinese after the Opium war.
When we consult relevant dictionaries (e.g. Jinxiandai Hanyu xinci ciyuan cidian: 147) on the term ‘air’

	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
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we find that they refer to the first occurrence of the modern term kongqi 空氣 as a Chinese translation of‘air’ in an article by William Muirhead (慕維廉) (1822-1900) on geography and the seas in the Chinese
language missionary journal Liuhe congtan 六合叢談 (Shanghae Serial) from July/August 1857: 青色

最易返照，故空氣海水，皆見為青色也。 (Liuhe congtan no. 7, p. 3a) “The colour green reflects mosteasily, therefore empty qi (kongqi) and sea water all appear to be green.” I will in this article challenge
the idea that Muirhead coined the term kongqi for ‘air’ in 1857 and that all later texts accepted andcontinued this new term translation. Lydia Liu has suggested that the term kongqi meaning ‘air’ may
represent a round-trip diffusion via Japan, indicating that the term is an ancient Chinese term that was
imbued with a modern scientific meaning in Japan and then imported back into China with new semantic
content - often during the period following the Sino-Japanese war in 1894-95. (Liu 1995: 265) It remains
to be investigated how ‘air’ became translated with kongqi and what role Japan may have had in thisprocess, which is the main topic of this article. One of the first Western scientific introductions to air in
Chinese is to be found in an article in the 2nd issue of the Liuhe congtan from February/March 1857
(Liuhe congtan no. 2, pp. 3a-3b). In this article on geography Muirhead introduces air as the gas thatsurrounds the globe, that is essential for all life, and has the ability to refract light emitted from the sun.
Air is unanimously referred to as qi in this article, and only in one passage does he make reference to theidea of emptiness/kong: 又氣雖空澄亦能阻礙日之光道。 (Liuhe congtan no. 2, p. 3a) “Furthermore,even though air is empty and transparent it has the ability to inhibit radiation from the sun”. In fact, thesentence from the 7th issue of the Liuhe congtan, referred to in the dictionary on modern neologisms in
Chinese and in scholarly works on the early translations of ‘air’, is the only passage where the
combination kong qi occurs in this magazine. It is therefore my claim that Muirhead did not coin the term
kongqi as a technical translation of ‘air’ in this text but rather applies emptiness/kong as a descriptive
characteristic of air/qi – ‘empty air’. Given that the term kongqi was not coined by Muirhead as atechnical term translation of ‘air’, we will have to continue our search for Chinese translated term(s) for‘air’. As I shall show below, we will have to wait for another 15 years for the term kongqi to appear as atechnical term translation for ‘air’ in China.
This does not mean, however, that ‘air’ was not introduced as an essential and life giving substance when
missionary translators introduced the discipline of chemistry in China in works on natural science fromthe late 1840s. Benjamin Hobson (合信) (1816-1873) compiled and edited a book on geography andastronomy entitled Tianwen lüelun 天文略論, published in 1849, which contains a chapter on theatmosphere. Air is introduced as atmosphere and systematically termed diqi 地氣. (Wang Yangzong
2009: 16) Hobson also compiled and published a general work on modern science entitled Bowu xinbian
2
博物新編 in 1854-55. (Wright 2000, pp. 263-266). The text is not particularly dedicated to chemistry

	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  
2

First published in Guangzhou in 1854 and then in Shanghai in 1855.

	
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  and not focussed on air and its gases as such. The entire text opens the discussions on science, however,it includes an introduction to the atmosphere and introduces the term qi generally for gases and for the
air/atmosphere that surrounds the globe. The text introduces the idea that this gas surrounding us consistsof several different kinds of gases which are commonly termed as shengqi 生氣.3 The composition ofthis air, shengqi, is by Hobson explained as consisting mainly of the following elements; oxygen,nitrogen, water vapor and CO2 and is closely related to the nourishment of life through its vital function
for animals and plants. (Hobson 1855, juan 1, pp. 1a-3a) In a later chapter on weather and atmosphericphenomena entitled On clouds and mist, Yunwulun 雲霧論, we encounter the term kongqi on a few
occasions. A close reading of the text shows, however, that kongqi in this chapter does not serve as atechnical term translation for ‘air’, which would make it a substitution for shengqi for the life giving
mixture of gases called ‘air’ from the first section, but is in fact a short form of what is introduced in the
text as a term for ‘atmosphere’, tiankongqi 天空氣. (Hobson 1855, juan 4, pp. 5a-7a) Hobson’s
dictionary on medical terms in Chinese and English from 1858 confirms that Benjamin Hobson
introduced shengqi as a translated technical term for ‘air’ as a composite and life giving gas. In the
dictionary he gives the term diqi 地氣 for ‘atmosphere’ indicating that he was not entirely firm on thetechnical term for ‘atmosphere’ at this time. (Hobson 1858 in MCST)
Air science was systematically introduced as a field of science for the first time in China in 1868.
William A.P. Martin (丁韙良) (1827-1916) wrote a far more comprehensive introduction to the sciences,compared to the Bowu xinbian, and published it in Chinese with the title Gewu rumen 格物入門 at the
Tongwenguan in Beijing. Under the title ‘air science’ or ‘gasology’, qixue 氣學4, which comprises one
whole volume of the 7 volume Gewu rumen, various aspects of the properties and composition of air andgases are introduced in the form of questions and answers. Unlike Hobbes in Bowu xinbian Martin
endeavoured to introduce a systematic nomenclature in chemistry in this work. (Wright 2000, pp.
266-272, Liu Guangding 2002, p. 204). Martin and his colleagues at Tongwenguan relied on terms withsemantics from Chinese tradition to translate elements, substances and phenomena in chemistry,
unfortunately often impractical, however, for the systematic introduction of the modern science ofchemistry in Chinese. (Reardon-Andersen 1991: 40; Wright 1998: 668) In the second volume of the
Gewu rumen entitled Qixue both ‘air’, as the mixture of gases, and the ‘atmosphere’, as the layer of gas
surrounding the globe, are translated tianqi 天氣, thus imbuing the scientific term for ‘air’ withsemantics from traditional Confucian philosophy about climatic change and nourishment of life, as wehave seen above.

	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  
3

The term shengqi/seiki 生氣 was applied in early Japanese chemistry translations, such as the Kagaku
kinmo 化學訓蒙 published in 1873, as a term translation for oxygen (gas).
4
Some authors use the term ‘pneumatics’, but I prefer ‘air science’, ‘gasology’, or simply qixue, as‘pneumatics’ is much more specific and semantically narrow than the area of knowledge known as qixue in late
Qing China.

	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
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Until the early 1870s these two incompatible translations of air, shengqi and tianqi, possibly also
including the term diqi related to ‘air’ and ‘atmosphere’, existed in Chinese scientific literature, shengqi
with an institutional base in the south (Guangzhou/Shanghai) and tianqi with an institutional base in thenorth (Beijing). A number of monolingual and bilingual dictionaries of the Chinese language were
published during this period. An examination of the terms for ‘air’, ‘atmosphere’ and ‘weather’ in
dictionaries complied by Robert Morrison (1815-1823 and 1865), S. Wells Williams (1856 and 1874), W.
Lobscheid (1871) and Justus Doolittle (1872) confirms the unstable state of affairs for technicaltranslations of terms like ‘air’ before 1872. In Morrison’s dictionary from 1815-1823 we find the terms qi
and diqi as translations of ‘air’, and that “air of the atmosphere is generally called 風 fung”. (Morrison
1815-1823, part 2, 3, vol. 2, p. 20) Williams’ dictionaries from 1856 and 1874 do not give us any
indication that technical term translations for ‘air’ have entered the Chinese common language, andMorrison’s 1865 reprinted dictionary glosses the terms tianqi with “the weather” and “the temperature of
the atmosphere” (Morrison 1865, vol. 2, p. 405) and shengqi with “to be angry, to fume with rage or
passion”. (Morrison 1865, vol. 2, p. 206) Still in Lobscheid’s dictionary published in 1871 we only findsimilar common translations related to ‘air’ and tianqi, (Lobscheid 1871, pp. 89, 303; Shen Guowei 2001:
294-300) indicating that until this time editors of bilingual dictionaries in Chinese were not concernedwith how technical terms like ‘air’ and ‘atmosphere’ were represented in Chinese, and the same is true
for the chemical elements and compounds as components of air. This changed with Justus Doolittle’s
dictionary published in 1872. Doolittle consulted science translations and lists of scientific terms whencompiling his own dictionary by synthesising various Chinese “regional standards”. In addition, he added
lists of technical term translations as appendices to his own dictionary. (Shen Guowei 2001: 301-303) In
this dictionary Doolittle attempted to make more systematic sense of all the different terms for ‘air’ and‘atmosphere’. He translates ‘air (of atmosphere)’ as qi 氣, diqi 地氣 and fengqi 風氣 (Doolittle 1872,
vol. 1, p. 11), while ‘atmosphere’ is translated diqi 地氣, tianqi 天氣 and tiankong zhi qi 天空之氣
(Doolittle 1872, vol. 1, p. 25). Shengqi 生氣 is referred to as ‘vital air’. (ibid.) Doolittle’s attempt at
unifying terms from different text translations into one set of terms for these different aspects of ‘air’ didnot, however, have a lasting effect on the landscape of ‘air’ translations, as we shall see below.
As appendices to Doolittle’s lists of terms we find lists of scientific terms deducted from the different
individual text translations, from W.A.P Martin’s terms in natural philosophy (Doolittle 1872, vol. 2, pp.
308-315), from Hobson’s medical vocabulary (Doolittle 1872, vol. 2, pp. 315-318) and from John
Glasgow Kerr’s scientific terms (Doolittle 1872, vol. 2, pp. 543-549). The list of terms from Hobson
confirms that he designated the term shengqi for ‘air supporting life’ while diqi, and also the term qizhi
氣質 referring to gas as substance, are used as technical term translations for ‘air’ as substance and ‘air’of the atmosphere. (Doolittle 1872, vol. 2, pp. 315-318) This list confirms our reading of Hobson above,

	
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  that he has introduced these two terms for ‘air’ with slightly different, but not entirely distinct, semantic
contents. Doolittle’s reference to Martin’s terms also confirms our initial reading of Martin’s introduction
to the sciences, as all semantic connotations of ‘air’ in English, both air as a composite gas and air as
atmosphere, are covered by Martin’s technical term tianqi. (Doolittle 1872, vol. 2, pp. 308-309)
Doolittle’s dictionary also included a list of terms from John G. Kerr’s term translations in chemistry.
(Doolittle 1872, vol. 2, pp. 543-549) We find systematic translations of all the essential chemicalelements in this list, but ‘air’ as term is not included. The absence of the term kongqi in all parts ofDoolittle’s dictionary supports my argument that kongqi was not conceived as a term translation of ‘air’or ‘atmosphere’ in the early 1870s.
An entirely new phase in the introduction of modern chemistry in China commenced in 1870 and 1871
with the publication of two comprehensive volumes on chemistry translated from one and the same
original – David Ames Wells’ Principles and Applications of Chemistry (New York 1862). The first ofthese is the Huaxue chujie 化學初階, translated by John Glasgow Kerr (嘉約翰) (1824-1901) and He
Liaoran 何瞭然 and published in Guangzhou in 1870, the second of these is Huaxue jianyuan 化學鑑原, translated by John Fryer and Xu Shou 徐壽 (1818-1884) and published at the Jiangnan Arsenal in
Shanghai from 1871 (the first volume was published in 1871, the second volume in 1875 and the third
volume in 1879). (Wright 2000, pp. 273-278, Liu Guangding 2002: 204, 205, 206) When working out
systematic nomenclatures in chemistry for their publications, Kerr and He based parts of their termtranslations on lists they had obtained from Fryer and Xu. James Reardon-Anderson concludes that
“Fryer and Hsü deserve credit as founders of the modern Chinese chemical nomenclature”.
(Reardon-Anderson 1991, p. 41) Fryer and Xu published an extensive glossary of terms and substances in
1885, Huaxue cailiao Zhong-Xi mingmubiao 化學材料中西名目表. The foundation for this set was,however, set already in the early 1870s. Reardon-Anderson has found that when assigning characters anddefining terms for chemical elements and compounds Fryer/Xu and Kerr/Liao established principles thatwent contrary to Martin’s translations. (Reardon-Anderson 1991, p. 42) Reardon-Anderson is clearlyright in this assumption for the chemical elements, but his conclusion is not valid for the terms for ‘air’.
For ‘air’ Kerr/Liao followed Martin and systematically employed the term tianqi, whereas Fryer/Xu
assigned the neologism kongqi for ’air’. (Zhang Zigao & Yang Gen 1986: 118) Thus, by 1871 China had
a set of no less than (at least) four different technical translations for ‘air’; shengqi, diqi, tianqi and now
also kongqi. Hobson’s terms shengqi and diqi as technical term translations for ‘air’ and ‘atmosphere’
were relatively soon made obsolete by the influence of these new texts.

	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  

5

5
Not entirely obsolete, however, as we find the term shengqi for ‘life-giving air’ in journal articles in the1870s and 1880s and still in use in an anonymous article entitled Shengqi yangti 生氣養體 in Zhixinbao 知新報 in 1897. (Zhixinbao 1897, no. 26, pp. 24a-24b) Also the term diqi is occasionally found meaning‘atmosphere’ in journal articles in the 1880s and 1890s.

	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
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The systematic translation of texts on chemistry that started with Kerr/He and Fryer/Xu in the early
1870s continued with increasing speed into the 1870s and 1880s when Jiangnan Arsenal and Yizhi
shuhui in Shanghai, and Tongwenguan in Beijing played the major institutional roles. All three
institutions engaged in the translation and publication of books in the natural sciences, including
chemistry. John Fryer and Xu Shou, together with Xu Jianyin 徐建寅, took on leading roles in thisrespect at the Jiangnan Arsenal, whereas William A.P. Martin and Anatole Adrien Billequin (畢利幹)(1837-1894), together with Cheng Lin (承霖) and Wang Zhongxiang (王鐘祥), took on similar roles at
the Tongwenguan. Texts translated by Fryer and colleagues and published in Shanghai with introductions
to air in the 1870s, 1880s and 1890s include:
1871: Huaxue fenyuan 化學分原 translated by Fryer and Xu Jianyin, published by Jiangnan Arsenal6
1881: Huaxue yizhi 化學易知 written by Fryer, published by Yizhi shuhui 益智書會71883: Huaxue kaozhi 化學考質 translated by Fryer and Xu Shou, published by Jiangnan Arsenal8
1883/1888: Huaxue qiushu 化學求數 translated by Fryer and Xu Shou, published by Jiangnan Arsenal9
1886: Huaxue xuzhi 化學須知 and Qixue xuzhi 氣學須知 edited by Fryer, published by Yizhi
shuhui/Jiangnan Arsenal10
1890: Huaxue weishenglun 化學衛生論 translated by Fryer, published at the Gezhi shushi 格致書室111898: Huaxue gongyi 化學工藝 translated by Fryer and Wang Zhensheng, published by Jiangnan
ArsenalAll these texts translate all aspects of ‘air’, as gas and as atmosphere, with the term kongqi, following the
vocabulary that the Jiangnan Arsenal translators introduced in 1871. In the 1886 publication on ‘airscience’, Qixue xuzhi, Fryer also explains his choice of term and explicitly imbues the modern scientificunderstanding of ‘air’ with connotation from the ancient European idea of air as one of the four elements:
空氣為流行縹緲之物，古人列為四行之一，謂能長養萬物者也，其彌漫於地球周圍，猶如氣海，
高厚約一百三十餘里，故地面一切人物，皆得受其包涵，凡各孔各隙，亦能無微不入，因其目不
能見，手不能捫，故曰空氣，然實非空，確有質性可驗， (Qixue xuzhi 1886, p. 6a) “Kongqi is a flowing
and invisible substance. People in ancient times listed it as one of the four elements and referred to it as
the substance that has the ability to maintain life. Its concentration around the earth resembles a sea of qi
with a thickness of more than 130 li. Therefore all people and things on the surface of the earth are

	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  
6

Wright 2000: 57, 471; Liu Guangding 2002: 205
Wright 2000: 293, 472; Liu Guangding 2002: 207
8Wright 2000:472; Liu Guangding 2002:207
9
Wright 2000: 472; Liu Guangding 2002: 207
10Wright 2000: 472; Liu Guangding 2002: 209
11
May have been published by the Guangxuehui 廣學會 in Shanghai already in 1879 (Liu Guangding 2002:
206; Wright 2000: 472)
7

	
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  wrapped up in it, it even fills all small holes and cracks. Since we cannot see it with our eyes and cannot
grasp it with our hands we call it empty (kong) qi. It is in reality not empty, it is a substance that can bemade evident.” It is significant for our analysis here that Fryer does not make any attempts to attach
semantic relevance to the term kongqi as an ancient idea taken from the daoist tradition.
Parallel in time with endeavours by Fryer and his colleagues in Shanghai to introduce kongqi as a modern
scientific term for air by drawing on Western tradition Martin and his colleagues in Beijing had adifferent strategy. They continued to rely on the Chinese term tianqi as a technical term translation for‘air’ introduced in the 1868 publication of Gewu rumen. Anatole Adrien Billequin at Tongwenguan
published his chemistry translation Huaxue zhinan 化學指南 at Tongwenguan in 1873. A major part of
the first volume is dedicated to an introduction to oxygen and other gases of the atmosphere.12 Air as gas
and as atmosphere is unanimously translated as tianqi. This terminological tradition is continued when
Billequin, Cheng Lin and Wang Zhongxiang published the Huaxue chanyuan 化學闡原 at
Tongwenguan in 1882.13
David Wright concludes that these chemistry translations were not widely applied outside of the
Tongwenguan, whereas the translations from Fryer and his colleagues in Shanghai gained much greater
influence. (Wright 2000: 284-285) It is therefore to be expected that Fryer’s term kongqi exerted greater
influence upon the growing interest in chemistry and ‘gasology’ in China than Martin and Billequin’s
term tianqi. That is a correct observation when we consider the rather narrow circle of Chinese
intellectuals and foreigners engaged in the promotion and translation of chemistry and natural science in
China at this time. A browse through a number of translations on chemistry in the 1880s, 1890s and theearly 20th century shows that these texts all employ Fryer’s term kongqi for ‘air’:1875-80: Gewu tanyuan 格物探原 written by Alexander Williamson, published in Shanghai14
1896: Gezhi qimeng 格致啟蒙 translated by Young Allen and Zheng Changyan, published by Jiangnan
Arsenal1896: Huaxue xinbian 化學新編 translated by John C. Ferguson and Li Tianxiang, published by
Nanking University15
1898: Huaxue bianzhi 化學辨質 translated by James Boyd Neal and Shang Baochen, published in
Shanghai by the Meihua shuguan 16

	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  
12

The most remarkable feature of the Huaxue zhinan is Billequin’s attempt at introducing a new system forthe chemical elements. (Wright 2000: 284; see also Liu Guangding 2002: 205; Wright 2000: 281-285)
13
Liu Guangding 2002: 207; Wright 2000: 281-285
14
Wright 2000: 93-97, 470
15
Liu Guangding 2002: 209
16
Liu Guangding 2002: 210

	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
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1900: Huaxue yuanliulun 化學源流論, published by Jiangnan Arsenal17

1903: Huaxue daoyuan 化學導原 translated by Sun Yunxin, published in Jiangning by Jiangchu shuju18
1903: (Zuixin zhongxue jiaokeshu) Huaxue (最新中學教科書)化學 translated by Xie Honglai andZhong-Xi yishe, published by Shangwu yinshuguan in Shanghai19
1904: (Zuijin) Putong huaxue jiaokeshu (最近)普通化學教科書 translated and published by Sanyishe in
Changsha20
Yet another term translation for ‘air’ was introduced in 1886 with Joseph Edkins’ publication of Huaxue
qimeng 化學啟蒙.21 Three whole chapters are dedicated to the chemistry of ‘air’, which he translates
fengqi 風氣 covering all aspects of air and atmosphere. The first passage in chapter 3 gives aninteresting introduction to his choice of term: 在此室內，爾我之間，有無形之物，何由能知乎，諸生
謂門外有風，試還問之諸生，所謂風者為何，將手與臂迅速動搖，必覺指尖處有風，以扇向面撲搧，即覺有風吹噓，風為行動之氣，可名其氣曰風氣，便與他氣有別， (Edkins (ed. and tr.) 1886: 8a-8b)“In this room, between you and me, there is a formless substance. How can we know this? Everyone
would say that there is wind outside the door. But what if we ask them what this wind really is? If wetake the hand and the arm and rapidly move them, we will sense a wind at the fingertips, and if we wave
a fan towards the face we can feel a wind blowing. Wind is moving qi, and we can call this qi ‘fengqi’ inorder to distinguish it from other kinds of qi.” In 1886 Edkins attempted to introduce a new technicalterm translation for ‘air’ presumably because he was less than satisfied with existing terms and found theterm fengqi and its terminological relationship to wind and qi more compelling than terms like tianqi andkongqi. Unfortunately for Edkins his innovative term translation for ‘air’ was not used in other texts22
and did not gain general recognition.
A committee for the standardization of medical terms was established by the Medical Missionary
Association of China, and under the leadership of Philip B. Cousland they published the first modern
dictionary of Chinese medical terms in Chinese in 1908. Here we find systematic use of kongqi for ‘air’.
(Cousland et.al. (eds.) 1908: 8) We also find the same tendency in the many scientific journal articles
discussing air-related phenomena from this same period; Tianqi is obscure in these publications as termtranslation for ‘air’, whereas kongqi is common in journal articles for ‘air’ from 1873.23 China’s first

	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  
17

Liu Guangding 2002: 210
Liu Guangding 2002: 212
19
Liu Guangding 2002: 212
20
Liu Guangding 2002: 209 (Liu gives the wrong year of publication)
21
Wright 2000: 473; Liu Guangding 2002: 208-209
22
Except for the mention of this term in Doolittle’s dictionary from 1872 and in Edkins’ own edited texts inthe same Gezhi qimeng 格致啟蒙 series published in 1886, like Gezhi zongxue qimeng 格致總學啟蒙 andGezhi zhixue qimeng 格致質學啟蒙.
23
Starting in the Jiaohui xinbao 教會新報 in 1873 (issue 224) and the Gezhi huibian 格致彙編 in theautumn issue 1876.
18

	
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或問	
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  chemistry journal, the Yaquan zazhi 亞泉雜誌, was published in Shanghai between October 1900 and
April 1901. In articles in the Yaquan zazhi we find systematic use of kongqi for ‘air’ and tianqi only for‘weather/climate’, thus following the Fryer/Xu-tradition.
This is, however, contrary to the general picture we get from examining bilingual dictionaries publishedduring this period, such as Eifel 1877, Kwong 1887, Giles 1892, Yan 1908, Williams 1909, MacGillivray
1918, Mathews 1931. We find the term tianqi frequently occurring in the common meaning related toweather, climate, temperature and vapour (Eifel 1877: 721; Giles 1892: 125, 1390; Williams 1909: 77,790; MacGillivray 1918; Mathews 1931: 921), and we find the term shengqi in its common meaning of“to get/be angry” (Giles 1892: 126; Williams 1909: 77, 694; MacGilivray 1918: 771; Mathews 1931:
796). In addition, we also frequently come across translations of the common semantics of the terms qi
氣, feng 風, diqi 地氣, daqi 大氣, fengqi 風氣, tuqi 土氣 and tiankong zhi qi 天空之氣 related to‘air’ and ‘atmosphere’ (Kwong 1887: 11, 23, 458, 459; Giles 1892: 125; Yan 1908: 44-45, 127; Williams
1909: 77; MacGillivrany 1918: 882; Mathews 1931: 897). These are, however, to be understoodprimarily with semantics from the common language and are not presented as technical term translationsof ‘air’ and ‘atmosphere’. When we search for technical term translations in these dictionaries we findthat only the term tianqi appears in this sense in these dictionaries before 1908, and the term kongqi does
not occur in this sense. In Yan 1908 tianqi also appears as the technical term translation for ‘air’ and for‘atmosphere’ (Yan 1908: 44-45, 127). Under the term ‘atmospheric’ in Yan 1908, however, we encounterthe term kongqi in a number of combinations. (Yan 1908: 127) In Mathews 1931 kongqi is clearlypresented as a technical term translation of ‘air’. (Mathews 1931: 547)
We can at this stage conclude that Fryer’s term kongqi gained rapid influence in intellectual circles,
among those involved in translation and promulgation of science in China, but Martin/Billequin’s term
tianqi sustained the influence from Fryer’s term much longer in common dictionaries presumably
representing more common language usage.
‘Air’ via JapanThe trajectory of term translations for the chemical elements in Chinese have been thoroughly studied
and described in research literature. The process of term translations for the elements can be traced backto the early term translations in Hobson’s Bowu xinbian and the magazine Liuhe congtan in the 1850s.
Initially, we find a number of competing systems for the chemical elements in Chinese, such as the rather
obscure system for naming the elements introduced in Lobscheid’s dictionary, the terms in Martin’stranslations, in Kerr’s translations and in Fryer’s translations. (Shen Guowei 2001: 294-301; Wright 1998:
667-671; Wright 2000: 201-228, 449-460; Reardon-Anderson 1991: 40-45; Zhang Zigao and Yang Gen
1986: 111-116; He Juan 2005) Already before the burgeoning Japanese influence on text and term

	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
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translations in the sciences from the late 19th and early 20th centuries the system designed by Fryer/Xu at
Jiangnan Arsenal had gained general recognition in China. These term translations created at the

Jiangnan Arsenal have, through a protracted process of standardization that ended with the publication of
the Huaxue mingming yuanze 化學命名原則 in 1932 generally also continued into Modern Standard
Chinese. (He Juan 2005) If we look specifically at the chemical elements involved in ‘air’ we find thatoxygen was translated yangqi 養氣 from yang 養, ‘to nourish’ and qi 氣 for ‘gas, vapour’ already by
Hobson in 1849 and 1855. In Hobson’s works we also find danqi 淡氣 for nitrogen (dan 淡 for ‘bland’)and qingqi 輕氣 for hydrogen (qing 輕 for ‘light’) (Hobson 1855, vol. 1, pp. 1a-2b; Shen Guowei 2001:
297-298; Wright 1998: 669; Wright 2000: 221-227, 449-460; Nakayama 1991: 303-304). In later texts
these single characters yang, dan and qing were applied for the elements. These term translations weregenerally followed in texts and lists of scientific terms in the late 19th and early 20th century.24 Through asystematic study of teaching material published between 1903 and 1932 He Juan has concluded that thesechemical elements were assigned distinct Chinese characters to distinguish them from the original
characters meaning ‘to nourish’, ‘light’ and ‘bland’. Through this process we got yang 氧 for oxygen,dan 氮 for nitrogen and qing 氫 for hydrogen, a system that to a large extent was first introduced
through Calvin Wilson Mateer’s dictionaries on chemical terms from 1901 and on technical terms from1904 (Wright 2000: 449-460) and taken up in teaching material from 1920. (He Juan 2005) These new
characters also entered scholarly works on chemistry in the early 1920s 25 and more popular texts on
chemistry only in the 1930s. The Japanese influence on scientific term translations in many scientificdisciplines was prominent after 1895 and often made indigenous Chinese term translations obsolete.
Japan had already from 1825 started to develop a system of term translations for some of the mostcommon chemical elements but these had little influence on the term translation process in China,
presumably because the Chinese term translations for chemical elements were firm and stable by the
1890s. (Wright 2000: 227, Nakayama 1991: 302-205) The Japanese influence is, however, not entirely
obsolete when investigating the translation history of the elements of air, as I will show below.
Fan Diji 范迪吉 heading an editorial group of 6 co-editors published a large encyclopaedia of modern
knowledge entitled Baike quanshu 百科全書 at the Huiwen shushe 會文書社 in Shanghai in 1903.
The encyclopaedia contains modern knowledge in both the human, the social and the natural sciences in
100 volumes, some of which are direct translations from Japanese texts, others formulated as questions
and answers (wenda 問答) presenting scientific knowledge in popular form. Several of these 100
volumes deal with knowledge related to air and gases, in particular the volumes 7, 13, 20, 76, 85 and 88.
‘Air’ is unanimously translated kongqi in all these volumes. When these volumes represent texts on

	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  
24

Lobscheid’s dictionary from 1871 is the most prominent exception. In addition Martin/Billequin introduced
the term danqi 淡氣 for hydrogen and used xiaoqi 硝氣 for nitrogen.
25
When the two systems often were listed in parallel in order to avoid confusion.

	
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  chemistry translated from Japanese we find that the gases and elements related to air have taken the termtranslations from Japanese in spite of the relatively firm Chinese vocabulary by this time. Oxygen istranslated as suansu (Jap. sanso) 酸素, nitrogen as zhisu (Jap. sasso) 窒素26, and hydrogen is translated
as shuisu (Jap. suiso) 水素. Gases in general are translated wasi 瓦斯 and not qi 氣 or qiti 氣體. (FanDiji (ed.) 1903: vol. 7, p. 39a; vol. 76, pp. 3a-3b; vol. 77, pp. 2a-3b; Wang Lida 1958: 90) These terms
date back to the early Japanese texts on chemistry and physics presenting Antoine Lavoisier’s Traitéélémentaire de chimie (Paris 1789) in Japanese in the text Kikai kanran 氣海觀瀾 translated/edited by
Rinsō Aochi 青地林宗 and published in 1827. The semantics of these term translations have theiraffiliations in the German and Dutch languages. (Shimao 1972: 310-313, Tsukuhara 1993: 100-106, 154)
In other volumes of the Baike quanshu, in particular in the question and answer texts, we find the use of
the common Chinese term translations yang, qing, dan etc., and sometimes these two systems are used intandem in one and the same text. (Fan Diji et.al. (eds.) 1903: vol. 13, pp. 3a-4b; vol. 20, p. 2b; vol. 76, pp.
5a-6a) Other teaching material translated from Japanese originals, such as (Zuijin) Putong huaxue
jiaokeshu (最近)普通化學教科書 and Zuixin huaxue jiangyi 最新化學講義 published in Chinese in1904 and 1905 have also applied the Japanese terminology for the elements. He Juan has found thistendency in some more of the school textbooks published between 1901 and 1920. (He Juan 2005) Thistendency did not, however, last long and later texts continued the established Chinese set of technicalterm translations for these elements.
If we turn our attention from chemical elements and again back to our primary interest in termtranslations for ‘air’ we find a slightly different trajectory of influence between China and Japan.
Benjamin Hobson’s Bowu xinbian published in China in 1854/1855 was reprinted in Japan already in1858. (Amelung 2004: 386) Thus we know that Hobson’s term shengqi/seiki 生氣 for ‘air’ wasavailable in Japan in 1858. William A.P. Martin’s Gewu rumen was reprinted in Japan in 1869,(http://kindai.ndl.go.jp; see also Tan Ruqian 1981: 210) thus introducing Martin’s term tianqi/tenki 天氣for ‘air’ in Japan. Kerr and He’s Huaxue chujie was reprinted in Japan (Tokyo and Osaka) in 1873,
confirming the introduction of the term tianqi for ‘air’ in Japan. (http://kindai.ndl.go.jp) None of theseterms for ‘air’ gained any influence or made their way into current Japanese texts or bilingual dictionaries,
such as James Curtis Hepburn’s (1815-1911) A Japanese and English Dictionary (和英語林集成) from1867 and 1872, indicating that they did not become alternative term translations for ‘air’ in Japan.
Nakayama Shigero 中山茂 has suggested that the term kongqi/kūki was used in the meaning of ‘air’ inJapan already in 1823-28, (Masini 1993: 185) most probably pointing to the Kikai kanran published in
1827. This information cannot be confirmed when checking the Kikai kanran. Elsewhere Nakayama
Shigero points to the entry in Liuhe congtan from 1857 as the first occurrence of the term kongqi

	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  
26

We do also at this time find nitrogen translated yu (育). (Xie Honglai & Zhong-Xi yishe (trs.) 1903)

	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
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referring to ‘air’. (Nakayama 1991, p. 304) In Japanese science texts published before the 1870s we findboth kūki 空氣 and taiki 大氣 for ‘air’ and ‘atmosphere’, the latter being the most frequent of the two;In the Kikai kanran 氣海觀瀾 from 1827 we find only the term fun’iki 氛圍氣 used for air both as gas
and as the atmosphere. (Aochi Rinsō 1827: 11a-11b) In the Seimi kaisō 舍密開宗 published in 1837-47‘air’ in all forms is translated taiki. (Udagawa Yōan 1837-47: book 2, p. 8a) In the Kikai kanran kōgi 氣海觀瀾廣義 from 1856 we find both kūki and taiki used for ‘air’, kūki indicating air as gas and taiki air
as atmosphere. (Kōmin Kawamoto 1956: book 2, 3a, 5b, 6a) In the Seimi binran 舍密便覽 published in1859 only taiki is used for ‘air’. (Kawano Teizo 1859: chart 6) Also in the Kagaku kinmo 化學訓蒙published in 1873 we only find the term taiki for ‘air’. (Ishiguro Tadanori 1873: book 2, pp. 1a-3a)
Hepburn’s dictionary published in Japan in the first edition in 1867 gives the following translation for
kūki/空氣: “The atmosphere, air”. Precisely the same translation is given for the term taiki/大氣(Hepburn 1867: 278, 516) From 1873 onwards kūki as well as taiki became frequently used terms for ‘air’and ‘atmosphere’ in Japanese science texts, kūki mainly referring to air as gas and taiki to air as
atmosphere, taiki being the most frequent of the two. (http://kindai.ndl.go.jp)
We can conclude that kongqi/kūki appears as a term used for ‘air’ in Japan already before Fryer/Xu
published Huaxue jianyuan in 1871 but was not the most frequent technical term translation for ‘air’ and‘atmosphere’ in Japanese science texts before the 1870s. Taiki was the standard Japanese technical term
for all aspects and qualities of ‘air’ at this time. Chinese translators and scholars of this time made very
little effort to learn from early Japanese scientific translations, whereas Japanese translators made visits
to Jiangnan Arsenal to buy Chinese translated books on the sciences. (Reardon-Anderson 1991: 51) Fryer
most probably coined and introduced the term kongqi without reference to the earlier occasional Japanese
use of the term kūki for ‘air’. Because of the influence in Japan of books from the Jiangnan Arsenal theterm kūki rapidly gained influence in Japan after the early 1870s alongside the established term taiki.
Conclusion
In this article I have endeavoured to describe the genealogy of term translations for ‘air’ and air-related
terms in late Qing China. I have argued against the commonly recognized origin of the term kongqi 空氣
in Chinese dated to an article in Liuhe congtan from July/August 1857. The term kūki/kongqi appeared asa translation of ‘air’ in some texts in Japan before the 1870s but kūki was not the most commonly usedtechnical term translation for ‘air’ in Japan. The standard technical term for ‘air’ and atmosphere’ inJapan before the 1870s was taiki 大氣. Textual evidence in this study shows that the Chinese term
kongqi was coined by John Fryer and Xu Shou at the Jiangnan Arsenal when translating the chemical text
Huaxue jianyuan, published in 1871. Fryer, Xu and other translators at the Jiangnan Arsenal applied theterm kongqi for all physical and chemical aspects of ‘air’, including air as atmosphere, and thesetranslators of the Arsenal continued this term translation throughout late Qing times. These translated

	
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或問	
  第 26 号	
  （2014）	
  texts influenced the translation of ‘air’ in Japan and kūki soon replaced the term taiki for ‘air’ in Japan
from the early 1870s. This relatively late evidence for the etymological history of kongqi as a technicalterm translation for ‘air’ in China opens up for the possibility that other term translations for ‘air’ and‘atmosphere’ were current before the early 1870s.
The history of term translations for ‘air’ in late Qing China is far more complex than what is commonlysuggested and involves several classical terms imbued with modern scientific semantics. Before kongqi
was introduced by Fryer and Xu a number of alternative translations were in current use in translated
texts, in dictionaries and in popular science journals. In 1849 and 1855 Benjamin Hobson introduced theterm shengqi for ‘air’ as a life-nourishing gas and diqi, and occasionally also tiankongqi, as termtranslations for air of the atmosphere. The first more systematic introduction of what we may call ‘airscience’ in China was published in 1868 with Martin’s science primer Gewu rumen. In this book hesystematically translated ‘air’, both as a mixed gas and as the atmosphere surrounding the globe, with theterm tianqi. This term translation for ‘air’ was continued by Martin, Billequin and Chinese colleagues at
the Tongwenguan also in later texts on air and gases in late Qing. John Glasgow Kerr and He Liaorantranslated the same text that was the basis for Fryer and Xu Shou’s Huaxue jianyuan and published thiswith the title Huaxue chujie in 1870. There are similarities between Kerr and Fryer’s two translations in
the early 1870s but when it comes to the term translation for ‘air’ Kerr and He continued Martin’s term
tianqi. Bilingual dictionaries from the period before 1870 confirm that only these terms, shengqi, diqi andtianqi, were current for the various aspects of ‘air’, kongqi was not. Joseph Edkins attempted to introduce
a new term translation for ‘air’ with the term fengqi in his 1886 publication, but that term never gained
further recognition.
When we compare the two main traditions, the Tongwenguan and the Jiangnan Arsenal traditions, andthe two main terms for ‘air’ tianqi and kongqi, we find that Martin and Billequin’s tianqi was establishedupon the semantics of the term taken from ancient Chinese Confucian philosophy while Fryer and Xu
Shou’s kongqi was coined as a ‘modern’ technical term for the scientific features of ‘air’. From otherstudies on the influence of texts and term translations from these two institutions we know that Jiangnan
Arsenal exerted greater influence on late Qing science text translations and early science educationcompared to that of Tongwenguan. The same is the case for these two term translations, kongqi gained
the upper hand compared to tianqi in the growing volume of text translations concerned with air in late
Qing. In the popularisation of science and in general dictionaries in late Qing China, however, tianqi wasthcurrent well into the 20 century.

We are familiar with the profound effect the translation efforts of Chinese students and intellectuals inJapan after 1895 had on the Chinese lexicon in many branches of the sciences. If we investigate the

	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
  	
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Chinese term translations for the chemical elements involved in air, such as oxygen, nitrogen, andhydrogen, we find that the Chinese tradition from the Jiangnan Arsenal endured the influence from adifferent set of terms from Japan that made itself evident for a short period in Chinese publications
around 1903-05. Regarding the terms for ‘air’ the influence from Japan after 1895 simply reinforced theinfluence of the term kongqi, contributing to the gradual demise of the term tianqi from Tongwenguan.
During the first decades of the 20th century kongqi substituted tianqi for ‘air’ as gas and the atmosphere inboth science texts and in popular literature, and the term tianqi was confined to the semantics of ‘weather’and ‘climate’.

	
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