对近代科学何以未在中国产生之若干原因的分析

An Analysis of the Causes of the Failure of Modern Science to Develop in China in Recent Times

在我们探讨中国科学技术在近代落后的各种原因时,首先应当讨论的是为什么近代科学没有在中国产生的问题。这是因为,当欧洲在十六、七世纪(约当我国明代中后期至清代初期)产生出具有深远影响的近代科学以后,欧洲的科学技术便以一种前所未有的规模和速度迅速地发展着。而中国科学在当时则没有象欧洲那样出现革命性的变化,没有产生出近代科学;中国科学仍然是以传统的方式和按原来的速度缓慢地行进着。这样一来,中国科学技术同欧洲科学技术相比,便开始出现了显著的差距。因此,中国当时没有产生近代科学是中国科学技术在近代由先进转向落后的起点。那么中国为什么没有产生近代科学?这是一个牵涉到好多方面的问题,既有中国科学本身的弱点,也有当时中国封建社会的政治。

Modern science in recent times, produced in Europe during the 16th and 17th centuries, failes to devolop in China. This was the beginning of the backwardness of China’s science and technology in recent times. This article mainly stresses in three respects why recent science did not come into being in China before the middle and later period of the Ming dynasty. One respect was the intrinsic defect of China’s traditional science, another was the feudal political and educational system which impeded the development of science and the third was that China’s science lacked the motive force of capitalist production. The article points out that the intrinsic defect in China’s traditional science was the important cause, but the social cause was much more fundamental than the factor of China’s science itself. Owing to it strong feudal power, capitalism could not develop in China. Moreover, the political and educational system and the system of selecting talented personnel ignored and repudiated science and technology. All these deprived China of the social conditions obtaining in Europe under which modern science has developed in recent times.