李约瑟与竺可桢的中国科学史研究

针对＂中国自来无科学＂的论断,以竺可桢为代表的中国学者致力于中国科学史研究,发表大量学术论著,为中国辉煌而久远的科技发展史正名;李约瑟亦不约而同地加入了大讨论,并以大量无可争辩的事实有力地批判了＂西方中心论＂。作为李约瑟《中国科学技术史》编纂强有力的支持者,竺可桢有目的地为李约瑟搜集中国科学技术史的书籍资料,并通过中国科学院给予其人力、财力资助。而李约瑟的《中国科学技术史》编撰计划实际上也诱发了竺可桢着手建立中国科学史研究专门机构的构想。就二十八宿起源地点与创立时期的学术争论,竺可桢坚持中国起源说,李约瑟则依违于巴比伦起源说与双方独立起源说之间。

Exchanges on the History of Science Research between Joseph Needham and Coching Chu

Though from different cultures, common academic interests have brought Joseph Needham and Coching Chu together to be close friends. After a 4 year stay in China during World War II, Needham found out that there was an absolute gold-mine of the scien tific heritage in the ancient China and made up his mind to join Coching Chu and his Chinese colleagues for gold-mining. Their commu nication of thirty years was a splendid period of modern Chinese history of science. This paper focuses on their academic exchanges and cooperation as well as their great contributions to the grand research course of Chinese history of science.