IIRC, while the Daoist sages weren't Post-Enlightenment (by our understanding) they were pretty close to the proverbial mad scientists.  They came up with some nifty stuff, all out of a desire to find out how things worked.  Some interpretations of the Dao (or Tao) lend themselves to early protoscientific examination, along the lines of 'we think we know what's happening, but is what we see what's really going on?  Let's find out...'<br/><br/>'Course, most of their nifty inventions were also little more than neat toys, which really brings them into parallel with steampunk and pulp mad scientists.