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and I just watched the full hour, kept being pulled into it – gives a fascinating inside view of China’s development and history, as well as a very colorful portrait of Needham, who was totally eccentric, had a 50 year affair with his Chinese assistant, was a nudist, accordion player, Morris dancer, and socialist….
mI have volume 4 part 2 here at home, off by one part. One of the other volumes is on alchemy, I have not read it though. He has also written Taoist Mysteries and Magic and Taoism the Road to Immortality.
Those books are written by john blofield, I believe. I have Needham’s volume on alchemy, it supplies lots of interesting details and sources. But Needham himself has a somewhat negative attitude about alchemy, i.e. this stuff is not real, but it led to real developments in chemistry and science.
Yes you are correct it is Blofeld. Blofeld also wrote a nice book titled “City of Lingering Splendor, ….” about his time in Beijing being a party goer. I had a mental pathway confused about both of them regarding their similarities therefore the mix up. Needham was a scholar/scientist and I am sure approached alchemy from that point of view and didn’t see the depth to it. I never sought out the alchemy volume for that reason. There are some tidbits in Blofeld’s Taoist books and I think he also has written a Buddhist book(s) though I haven’t read the Buddhist ones.
transcript of radio program – link
http://www.abc.net.au/rn/scienceshow/stories/2009/2456578.htm
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