Why quantum physics needs Asian philosophy
Albert Einstein, Werner Heisenberg, Erwin Schrödinger and nearly all the other pioneers in quantum physics were captivated by Chinese and Indian thought. Einstein praised the Bhagavad Gita and Schrödinger’s work was strongly influenced by the Vedas. Danish physicist Niels Bohr, one of the pioneers of quantum physics, was fascinated by the Chinese notion of Tao. Bohr is the father of the Complementarity Principle, a tenet in quantum physics stating that a complete knowledge of phenomena on atomic scale requires a description of both wave and particle properties. When Bohr was knighted for his work, he used the yin-yang symbol in his coat of arms and inscribed it with the words Contraria sunt complementa (opposites are complementary).
What explains the fascination of the quantum physics pioneers with ancient Asian thought? The Asian sages had no way of knowing about electrons, protons, neutrons, and photons. They were aware of magnetism, but they didn’t have electricity, a prerequisite for understanding particle physics. But classic Chinese and Indian texts suggested to the quantum physics pioneers that ancient Asian thinkers had a grasp on the invisible realm that underlies appearances – the realm laid bare by particle physics which showed that matter, whether animate or inanimate, is energy. It seemed as if the Asian thinkers had an understanding of the source of Creation.
In the 100 years since the quantum revolution, the fascination of Asian thought by the founders of quantum physics was largely forgotten, and quite often ridiculed. But today’s physicists still struggle to interpret the findings of particle physics, among them the wave-particle duality. And despite a century of trying, physicists have yet to reconcile the standard atomic model with Einstein’s Relativity Theory. The former deals with the micro-cosmos (subatomic particles), the latter deals with the macro-cosmos (gravity). Their integration would ostensibly provide a Theory of Everything.
Space and time
Let’s take a bird’s-eye view of the quantum physics revolution. At the end of the 19th century, German scientists Heinrich Hertz, Ludwig Boltzmann and Max Planck studied the so-called photoelectric effect, and concluded that light not only had wave-like characteristics, as had been commonly assumed, but that it could take on the appearance of discrete particles, or “quanta,” as they called them (hence the name quantum physics). In 1905, Einstein developed a mathematical equation on the behavior of quanta in a paper on the photoelectric, which earned him his only Nobel Prize and would lead him to develop a new theory of gravity.
Legend has it that an apple falling from a tree led Isaac Newton to develop his theory of gravity. Einstein, living at the dawn of the machine age, offered a dynamic variation of Newton’s eureka moment. In his 1916 paper Relativity he wrote: “I stand at the window of a railway carriage which is traveling uniformly, and drop a stone on the embankment, without throwing it. Then, disregarding the influence of the air resistance, I see the stone descend in a straight line. A pedestrian who observes the misdeed from the footpath notices that the stone falls to earth in a parabolic curve. I now ask: Do the ‘positions’ traversed by the stone lie ‘in reality’ on a straight line or on a parabola?”
Einstein answers his own question. Reality is relative in that it depends on the “frame of reference” of the observer. He wrote: “The stone traverses a straight line relative to a system of coordinates rigidly attached to the carriage, but relative to a system of coordinates rigidly attached to the ground (embankment) it describes a parabola. With the aid of this example, it is clearly seen that there is no such thing as an independently existing trajectory … but only a trajectory relative to a particular body of reference.” In other words, what we observe depends on our position in space.
Using his knowledge of quanta (later commonly referred to as photons), Einstein proposed that light from distant stars behind the sun is deflected or curved by 1.73 arc seconds as it passes the gravitational effect of sun on its way to Earth. In 1919, scientists photographed a solar eclipse and confirmed Einstein’s calculation to the decimal point. The effect of curved space is typically – and misleadingly – illustrated with the flat surface of a trampoline hit by a ball.
Common sense dictates that curved space is best seen as a metaphor. The trajectory of light (photons) may be curved, and the notion of curved space assumes that light and space are interchangeable phenomena. Space means different things to physicists, astronauts, and architects. But Einstein offered a mathematical construct that fuses the three dimensions of space and the one “dimension” of time into a single four-dimensional continuum. Spacetime diagrams can visualize “relativistic effects” and how our position in space and time determines how we experience a given event.
Chinese space and time – Yu-Zhou
Not widely know is that the Chinese had unified space and time esthetically about 2,000 years before Einstein did so mathematically. It was part of their Tao-inspired method to categorize all natural phenomena in yin and yang. Time was yang, space was yin. Historical records suggest that the ancient Chinese spoke of Yu, meaning space-universe, and Zhou, or time-universe. About 2,000 years ago, these concepts began to appear together: Yu-Zhou.
According to the 20th-century Chinese scholar Feng Youlan, the first known reference to the Chinese character for Yu-Zhou included the following explanation: “What comprises the four points of the compass together with what is above and below: this is called Yu. What comprises past, present and future: this is called Zhou.”
The Yu-Zhou most likely has its origin in feng shui, the Chinese form of an ancient practice known as geomancy. Chinese emperors, who typically constructed entirely new capital cities when they ascended the Dragon Throne, consulted feng shui masters to select the most favorable space (place, location, site) for the new capital. Feng shui masters used a magnetic compass to determine the favorable orientation (typically on the Earth’s magnetic north-south axis) for the new city. Moreover, they selected the favorable astronomical time (the ideal “cosmic moment”) to commence construction, which explains why feng shui experts were also referred to as Masters of Time.
The way the Chinese philosophers defined Yu-Zhou illustrates how they viewed space and time. In one of the Chinese classics, the Mohist Canon expositions, we read: “Duration unites past and present, dawn and dusk. Space embraces east, west, south, and north.” In another classic, the Shizi, we read: “Above, below and the four directions are called space, going from the past to the present is called time.”
The classic Chinese hand scroll illustrates how the Chinese esthetically synthesized space and time. While the classic European painting depicts a static, frozen moment in time and uses linear perspective to depict space, the Chinese hand scroll, like a movie, is based on a scenario that takes the viewer through space and time. And rather than linear perspective, the Chinese scroll used axonometry, popularly referred to as parallel projection, which conceptually accommodates space and time. Axonometry places the viewer in, rather than in front of, space.
JAN KRIKKE
Jan Krikke is a former Japan correspondent for various media, former managing editor of Asia 2000 in Hong Kong, and author of Quantum Physics and Artificial Intelligence in the 21st Century: Lessons learned from China.
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Why the world relies on a Chinese “perspective”
Virtually every architect, engineer and designer in the world today relies on axonometry, a projection system first used in China about 2000 years ago. Axonometry is the Chinese alternative to European linear perspective and was used by both Chinese artists and architects. Yet few books on art history mention the origin of axonometry and what it can tell us about the Chinese world view.
The projection of three-dimensional space on the two-dimensional picture planes was an elusive goal throughout the world. All early art was two-dimensional. Artist lacked a graphic tool to depict 3D space on the 2D picture plane.
About 2500 years ago, Greek artists “open the door” to linear perspective when they depicted man-made objects that seemed to recede from the picture plane. The overall pictorial space was not yet coherent, but the open door suggested depth on the 2D surface.
More than a thousand years later, Italian Renaissance artists took the next step when they invented the so-called vanishing point. The lines of projection converge at imaginary point at the horizon. The vanishing point enabled artists to depict a coherent pictorial space on the 2D picture plane. Linear or scientific perspective, together with claire-obscure, formed the basis Europe’s pictorial language until the 19th century.
A Chinese perspective
About 2000 years ago, the Chinese developed dengjiao toushi, a graphic tool probably invented by Chinese architects. It came to be known in the West as axonometry.
Unlike linear perspective, axonometry is not based on optics. It has no vanishing point. Pillars and beams remain strictly parallel, unaffected by optical distortion. The size and geometry of all man-made objects remain constant, regardless of the position of the viewer.
Space and time
Axonometry was crucial in the development of the Chinese hand scroll painting, an art form that art historian George Rowley referred to as “the supreme creation of Chinese genius.” Classic hand scroll paintings were up to ten meters in length. They are viewed by unrolling them from right to left in equal segments of about 50 cm. The painting takes the viewer through a visual story in space and time.
A scroll may depict life along a river. We unroll the opening sequence of the scroll and see people boarding a boat on a river. As we unroll the scroll further from right to left, we see the boat cross a lake, navigate rapids in the river, stop at a small harbor, and lastly arrive at its destination at the sea shore. We have traveled through the landscape (space) in the course of the day (time).
Importantly, the scroll is not a sequence of separate scenes. It is a continuous, seamless image. This explains the importance of axonometry. When a building comes into view, it is depicted in axonometric projection. Linear perspective, which assumes a fixed position of the viewer, could not be used in the pictorial scroll format. With axonometry, which lacks a vanishing point, the focus is everywhere and nowhere.
Introduction in Europe
Jesuit missionaries based in China brought illustrations of axonometry back to Europe in the 17th century. The exotic graphic device was initially used for diamond cutting, ballistic measurements and other technical measurements. Its wider acceptance came in the 19th century, when English scientist William Farish, using Euclidean geometry, developed isometry. It gave axonometry a mathematical foundation.
Farish published a paper entitled ‘On Isometrical Perspective’ in which he made clear the Industrial Revolution needed technical working drawings free of optical distortion.
Modernist embrace
The popular acceptance of axonometry came in the 1920s, when modernist artist and architects discovered its value in depicting modern, industrial architecture. De Stijl architects Theo van Doesburg and Cornelis van Eesteren caused a sensation in Paris when they presented axonometric renderings of their designs. Today, axonometry is used architects, engineers and designers all over the world.
Axonometry was also crucial in the development of Computer Aided Design and subsequent forms of visual computing. Our modern world is virtually constructed in axonometry. However, its Chinese origin and the world view that created axonometry has been largely ignored.
Axonometry is the reflection of the ancient Chinese thought that space and time are intrinsically related — in modern terminology a space-time continuum. The Chinese notion of space-time was probably formulated by Chinese ancient Feng-Shui masters. Historian Feng Yu-Ian explained that the Chinese in ancient times Chinese spoke of Yu, which means ‘space-universe’. They also spoke of Zhou, which means ‘time-universe’. A little more than 2000 years ago, these words began to appear together: Yu-Zhou.
Yu-Zhou represents the yin-yang universe. Yu is yin, Zhou is yang. Feng Yu-Ian noted that the scholar Lu Xiang-shan was reading an ancient book and came upon the characters Yu and Zhou. The explanation said, ‘What comprises the four points of the compass together with what is above and below: this is called Yu. What comprises past, present and future: this is called Zhou.’
Yu-Zhou and axonometry appeared to have been conceived at roughly the same time. One can be used to illustrate the other.
Axonometry and its geometric cousin isometry were an invaluable addition to linear perspective. American author and architect Claude Bragdon, author of The Frozen Fountain, offered what must be the best description of its aesthetic qualities. He wrote:
‘Isometric perspective, less faithful to appearance, is more faithful to fact; it shows things nearly as they are known to the mind. Parallel lines are reallyparallel; there is no far and no near, the size of everything remains constant because all things are represented as being the same distance away and the eye of the spectator everywhere at once. When we imagine a thing, or strive to visualize it in the mind or memory, we do it in this way, without the distortion of ordinary perspective. Isometric perspective is therefore more intellectual, more archetypal, it more truly renders the mental image — the thing seen by the mind’s eye.’
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