Hardly has a question in the field of Chinese studies been discussed in such a generalizing and controversial manner as the question of whether there had been "science" in China or not. But the reason for which, even today, it cannot be answered unanimously probably lies in the very question itself: there is no unambiguous definition of the term "science". The frequently used separation into traditional Chinese science and modern European science cannot be maintained any longer since it arose from a specific historiographical perspective.

The first milestone in the investigation…