The topic of historical scientific inquiry usually has scholars studying the Scientific Revolution of Western Europe during the 16th and 17th centuries. Although Western Europe had this full flowering of science, Europeans in many cases borrowed a considerable amount of technology and scientific knowledge from the Chinese. The Chinese had developed most of these items centuries before the West, yet failed to take their understanding of science and technology to the next step. The question that then follows is: "Why did the Chinese not have a scientific revolution in the way that the western Europeans had?" In order to understand why there was an absence of modern science in China we must first look at what the traditional Chinese valued and the ruling class that instituted this calculated prohibition of scientific inquiry. The specific area of scientific inquiry will be Chinese calendrical science and Confucian ideology from the Sung through the Ch'ing dynasties.

Chinese achievements in science and technology far surpassed most civilizations up to the 16th century when Europe began to take the lead. The great historian of Chinese science, Joseph Needham states, "Nevertheless, before the river of Chinese science flowed, like all other such rivers, into the sea of modern science, China had seen remarkable achievements in many directions." In most cases the Chinese were centuries ahead of the West when it came to technology. Needham adds, "First, it seems that although the Chinese gave so abundantly to the rest of the world in inventions, their own sciences were relatively little affected by those of the rest of the world." Some of the various forms of technological achievement include the development of printing, paper, gunpowder, silk, weaving, hydraulics, irrigation, and deep well drilling. Additional achievements also include the inventions of the magentic compass, the stern post rudder, the segmental arch bridge, the wheelbarrow, the seismograph, and the various achievements in bronze works, cast iron, ceramics, and porcelain. With such a long list of technological achievements to their credit, it is no surprise why other civilizations wanted to establish trade relations with the Chinese in order to get these products, whereas the Chinese could care less about the outside world.

With everything seemingly going for it as an advanced civilization, the question that still arises is, "Why did modern science not develop in China the way it had in Western Europe?" It would make sense that such a vast empire with so many technological achievements to its name would have continued on the path and developed science in the modern sense of the word. For our purposes here, we will use the science of astronomy and its relationship to the creation of the calendar as the example of how this form of science was inhibited by Confucian ideology. It should be noted that the first few chapters of this work are necessary context for the development of my thesis. The study of traditional China demands that the reader have knowledge of many different aspects of the civilization because everything is interrelated to some degree. It is with this in mind that they have been included here.