張之洞的《書目答問》很容易被認為是粹開列書單給諸生。然而，本文採取數學社會的進路，分析本書所推薦的「天文算法」書目以及所推舉的「算學專門家」，我們發現張之洞利用本書的知識分類架構為算學所安排的位階，卻清楚地反映了晚清算學逐漸專業化學趨勢。不過，由於本書未收西方格致與醫學書目，而且體例一仍「四庫」舊貫，因此，它的貢獻較多在於總結一個源遠流長的學術傳統，對於２０世紀的中國學術發展，似乎就少了前瞻性的規範作用了。

　　　　　The Shumu dawen, a bibliographic rimer written by Zhang Zhidong in 1875, can easily be seen as simply an assigned reading list for students of traditional academies in the late Qing period. Nevertheless, b taking a socio-historical approach in analyzing the mathematical treatises recommended and the mathematicians esteemed therein, it can be seen that the rankinf og mathematics in Zhang's system for classifying knowledge reflects the gradual specialization of mathematics in the late Qing. Nevertheless, the Shumu dawen failed to include important Chinese translations of Western works on science, technology and medicine, and followed the outmoded format of the Siku quanshu. For these reasons, the Shumu dawen was more indicative of the condlusion of a long academic tradition than it was of the opening of the new era of Chinese lerning in the 20th century.