十九至二十世紀初，航空氣球的發展日益進步，但人們不以此滿足，進而發明能快速飛行的飛機，這不僅出於挑戰天空的雄心，更有高度軍事與商業價值的誘惑。是以世界各國競逐發展航空相關的科學知識與技術，如有機化學、材料科學、流體力學、機械學等。當時中國對西方航空科技的認識，仰賴聘請外籍教員或翻譯書籍，但外籍教員未必盡心，翻譯書籍內容多有簡略、失真、過時的問題，這些二手資訊轉傳使中國學習的速度緩慢。因此，內容即時且充實的航空知識書籍，在當時更顯得彌足珍貴。高魯 (1877-1947)是中國近代最知名的天文學家與外交官，他在 1905-1909年留學比利時布魯塞爾大學，課餘期間觀看飛行演示、蒐集航空書籍後編作為《空中航行術》，是第一手取得的航空知識。是書不僅收錄歐美各國發展航空的歷史與製作方法，亦收錄當時最新的各式航空器，為中國引介專業的航空科技。每種航空器都附上圖片，並附上中西文對譯表，讓讀者能深入理解相關知識及其來源。然而，或因高魯在天文學與外交工作的耀眼影響，此書鮮少受到航空史研究者的關注，實為航空史研究的遺珠。因此，本文擬運用清代檔案、民初航空書籍與報刊，考述作者的生平，再透過解析書中內容，了解近代中國如何透過科學書籍認識西方航空科技，尤其是航空氣球的運用，希冀藉此增補甲午戰後至民國建立前的中國航空史研究。

From the 19th century to early 20th century, aviation balloons were rapidly progressed. People were not satisfied and they wanted to develop even faster airplanes. The desire to fly was not just fueled by people's ambitions to challenge the skies, they also wanted to use the technology for military or commercial purposes.As a result, many countries tried to develop technologies and knowledge for aviation, such as organic chemistry, material science, fluid mechanics, and mechanical engineering. At the time, China depended on foreign teachers or translated books to introduce western aviation knowledge. However, these teachers might not be competent and translated books could be abridges, incorrect, or outdated. Lack of first-hand source of knowledge slowed down China's progress in aviation science. China desperately needed updated and detailed books about aviation. KAO Lu (1877-1947) was one of China's most famous astronomers and diplomats. He studied at Catholic University of Brussels, Belgium from 1905 to 1909. During his off hours, he would see airplane shows and study aviation books. The book Aeronautics (Kongzhong Hangxingshu空中航行術 ) that he authored was full of first-hand aviation knowledge that he had learned. This book introduced the history and steps for the making of airplanes. It also introduced to the Chinese latest airplanes. Each aircraft had its pictures with a bilingual glossary so the readers could go deeper and access the sources of information. However, KAO's brilliant achievements in both astronomy and diplomacy probably eclipsed the book's deserved fame. This paper would review Qing archives and early-Republic aviation books and news coverage to learned more about KAO's life. Then by analyzing the book's contents, we shall know more about modern China's learning of aviation technologies, especially the use of balloon, through books. We hope this could enrich the study of China's aviation history from the end of the First Sino-Japanese War (1894) to the founding of the Republic of China (1912).