中国是世界文明发达最早的国家之一,中国已有了将近四千年的有文字可考的历史。上古和中古时代我国常常出现光辉的地质思想的萌芽。近古以来,宋明理学盛行,儒家定于一尊,早期出现的可贵苗头,得不到应有的发展。不但地球知识毫无进展,整个自然科学也一蹶不振,长期以来,处于混沌状态。相反,西方在古代漫长黑夜之后,到了十六世纪,所谓“宗教改革”特别是影响深远的“文艺复兴”,为学术的大步前进开辟了道路。从那时起,欧洲很快就超过了长期领先的中 As one of the earliest developed countries in the world, China has had nearly four thousand years of written history. In the Middle Ages and in the Middle Ages, the seeds of glorious geological thought often appeared. Since ancient times, Neo-Confucianism became prevalent in the Song and Ming dynasties. Confucianism was set at a respectable early stage and could not be properly developed. Not only has there been no progress in the knowledge of the Earth, but also the entire natural sciences have been sluggish. For a long time, it has been in chaos. On the contrary, in the sixteenth century, the so-called “religious reform”, especially the far-reaching “Renaissance”, started in the 16th century by the West after the long night of ancient times and opened the way for the great strides forward in the academic field. Since then, Europe soon outgrown the long-term leader