The main reasons for China’s backwardness in science and technology in modern times include the following aspects:

1. The influence of traditional cultural background. The Chinese people, who have been influenced by Confucian cultural thoughts for thousands of years, have He is cautious, humble and prudent in words, actions and even academic views, and is unwilling to take a step beyond the bounds easily. Traditional Chinese Confucian culture advocates "three principles of normality" and "the golden mean", is not good at getting to the bottom of the research, and is not happy with unconventional ideas. Behavior, respect for teachers and elders, and academic respect for older scholars. Even if younger scholars have objections to the views of older scholars, most of them adopt a tolerant attitude and are unwilling or unable to bear to point out what they think is inappropriate. , unwilling to carry out earth-shattering revolutions, has a bad reputation of being disrespectful, unfilial, mean and immoral. There are some famous concepts in Confucianism, such as the concept of "parents are here, don't travel far", which has prevented many people from giving up ambitious expeditions activities have killed many people's fantasies about the unknown world, and China's geomechanics has not made great achievements since Zhang Heng invented the seismometer. This traditional culture of conformity, conservatism and superstition certainly originated in the development of modern science and technology in China. It has a strong inhibitory effect.

2. The influence of bureaucracy. In my country’s feudal society, the long-term feudal autocratic bureaucracy is the mortal enemy of the democratic system on which science and technology thrive. The ruling class demands Science and technology are subject to their own interests, and a large number of science and technology related to the development of handicraft production that have nothing to do with their immediate interests will not be taken seriously or even curbed. For example, the book "Tiangong Kaiwu" during the budding period of capitalism in the Ming Dynasty was The famous ancient Chinese scientist Song Yingxing's summary of agricultural and handicraft production technology was at the world's advanced level at the time. However, this work did not receive the attention it deserved. The geographer Xu Xiake's "Travel Notes of Xu Xiake" was published 150 years after his death. It was not printed into a book until 2000, and a large number of manuscripts were lost.

3. The influence of the feudal education system. China’s education system, from the time it entered feudal society until modern times, was based on the private school teaching method. By the Sui and Tang Dynasties, The imperial examination system began to be implemented.

The teaching methods of private schools are far inferior to the overall education methods of Western classrooms. Generally, there is one teacher who teaches two or three children all day long to memorize the "Three Character Classic" and some Confucius and Mencius articles. .These teaching methods are neither systematic nor standardized, and they only require students to memorize by rote without asking students to understand, let alone any scientific and technological inventions. The overall knowledge gain of students is very little.

As for Although the imperial examination system played a direct role in promoting the development of ancient science and technology. For example, it is conducive to selecting talents, promoting the rapid development of education, etc. However, with the advancement of history, the imperial examination system has increasingly hindered the development of modern science and technology, and its many shortcomings have become increasingly apparent. The most prominent ones are ：

1. The content, scope, and form of the imperial examination are very narrow. The content of the imperial examination is generally limited to the ideological and theoretical works of Confucius and Mencius, and the scope is limited to Confucianism. The format is to recite poems, write poems, answer questions, play chess, calligraphy, and painting, and write essays on astronomy. Geography, mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology, medicine and other subject knowledge are rarely covered, let alone the combination of technology, experiment and operation. Especially in the Ming Dynasty, China began to implement the eight-legged imperial examination system to select scholars. The content, scope and content of the examination were The form is even more narrow, with only propositions in the "Four Books" and "Five Classics". Writing must go through eight fixed steps in sequence. It cannot overwhelm any order. It is very rigid and further affects the thinking and practical ability of anti-smoking people. It can be seen that at this time The imperial examination system has become a policy of obscuring the people and is no longer a way to select talents.

2. The imperial examination system only focused on theory and despised practice, resulting in an unbalanced scientific and technological structure. The ultimate purpose of the imperial examination system was to select talents for the ruling class to maintain their class rule. Therefore, the ruling class paid special attention to those talents who could increase their ability to speak and reason, such as those who could speak to the world. Talents who can analyze and predict major events and carry forward the teachings of Confucius and Mencius. On the contrary, the imperial examination system is not interested in those who are skilled craftsmen and those who are good at inventing and creating. As a result, these skilled craftsmen can neither be officials nor receive support and encouragement from the government. Of course, they have no intention to go to work. Carry out practical activities such as scientific and technological inventions and creations. Therefore, by

Due to the unbalanced scientific and technological structure in modern China, the theoretical part accounts for the vast majority, and the experimental and technical parts only account for a very small minority. Moreover, the theory, experiment, and technology are separated from each other, which greatly destroys and inhibits the development of scientific and technological talents.

Whether it is the teaching methods of private schools or the imperial examination system, they are all reflections of the decadence and backwardness of China’s feudal society in the modern education system. This decadence and backwardness began at the end of feudal society. After the world entered modern times, not only was it not eliminated or weakened, but it was further strengthened. Western education in modern times strongly advocated the mutual union and circulation of science, experimentation, and technology. Compared with this increasingly progressive education system, China's traditional science, which once had an advantage in the world, had to be completely surpassed by Western natural science in modern times.

4. The impact of decadent social systems and home-going politics

Political democracy in a country The degree of science and technology development affects the level of science and technology development in this country. Autocracy and dictatorship are prominent manifestations of old Chinese politics, so it is conceivable that the development of modern science and technology in China is slow. Science needs democracy, and democracy promotes science. Science and Democracy complements each other. It is precisely because autocracy and dictatorship are serious obstacles to scientific development that the New Culture Movement launched by Chen Duxiu in 1915 deeply hated the autocratic and authoritarian national political system of old China and issued the slogan "Promote democracy, oppose autocracy; promote science , oppose ignorance; promote new culture, oppose the old culture". Natural scientific research is the exploration of unknown natural phenomena, and scientific and technological knowledge is a true reflection of the nature and laws of objective things. It must respect objective facts, pay attention to experiments and Practice requires rational thinking, obedience to scientific truth, and the ability to freely discuss issues. This nature of the scientific and technological field naturally requires democracy and freedom. Without academic democracy and freedom, scientific and technological undertakings will be difficult to develop.

From the beginning of the Renaissance movement and the rise of capitalism in the West, until the end of the 1940s when capitalism developed greatly, China was under the rule of feudal autocracy and the Kuomintang dictatorship. Western democracy and freedom greatly exceeded China's bourgeoisie started with the slogans of freedom, democracy, and equality. After they gained power, they established the so-called "democratic communist state" with a representative system. Although bourgeois national politics is essentially bourgeois. Dictatorship, but the scope of democracy in a bourgeois country is, after all, much larger than that of feudal society. Therefore, under Western bourgeois democratic politics, the development of science and technology is much faster than in modern China.

5. Close-door policy Influence of policies. From the second half of the 15th century to the 18th century, the development of Western science and technology underwent a fundamental turning point with the development of the capitalist mode of production. The first scientific and technological revolution began in the 18th century, and another one began at the end of the 19th century. The second technological revolution wrote a glorious chapter in the history of the development of science and technology.

On the contrary, while science and technology in Western countries are advancing rapidly, in addition to China's backward social system and production methods In addition to no change, the policy of seclusion and self-defense was also implemented. The policy of seclusion and self-defense was necessary and progressive in a certain historical period. Because at the end of the Ming Dynasty, Japanese pirates were prevalent along the southeastern coast, and the government implemented the policy of self-isolation and self-defense.

It is helpful to prevent piracy and protect the stability of people's lives along the southeast coast. However, after the Japanese pirates were eliminated, the Chinese government did not immediately stop the seclusion policy. Instead, it became more self-contained. Especially after entering the Qing Dynasty, the Qing Dynasty was arrogant and closed-minded. Listen, I have been dreaming of "the sun rising from heaven". This has made China a frog in the well, isolated from the world, and far behind the trend of world development. For example, during the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty, the British envoy Ma Xialini once invited General Fu Ankang watched his guards practice the new European firearms technique. Fu Kang'an said coldly: "You can look at it, you can not look at it. There should be nothing unusual about this firearm manipulation method"! At this time, Qianlong The emperor actually didn’t even know where the country of England was located, its area, and population. It is precisely because of this arrogant mentality that China has neither any desire to rapidly increase productivity nor the ability to carry out a scientific and technological revolution. requirements, coupled with isolation from the rest of the world, not to mention the rapid advancement of science and technology in the outside world.

As we all know, the history of social development and scientific and technological development has proven that the need for the development of productive forces is the most fundamental, most lasting, and most powerful force that promotes the continuous advancement of science and technology. It is the need for production that raises many topics for scientific research. This will also lead to major progress and breakthroughs in science and technology. However, China's modern science and technology has neither the desire to develop itself, nor the driving force, nor the external stimulation, so it is a historical necessity that it lags behind the times.