過去將科學視為一種知識體時，存在著兩種有關儒學與科學間關係的爭議：一是從現代科學發展的觀點，認為儒家的特性與現代科學不合；另一則基於延續儒家文化的觀點，從格物致知傳統來容納現代科學。本文的主旨不在解決上述兩種觀點間的爭議，而試圖從科學史的觀點，也就是將科學看成歷史研究的對象，認為科學知識是在歷史文化與社會歷程中形成的或建構的，於是提供了一個新觀點來探討儒學與科學間的關係。 以明末清初儒學與科學間關係的轉變為例，它主要地涉及到理學中朱熹與王陽明，和以利瑪竇等耶穌會士傳入的西方科學。過去的研究多著重去問：究竟是朱學還是王學有利於（傳入的西方）科學發展？本文則從歷史研究的取向，來看利瑪竇切入理學中格物窮理論題，借用了相似的部分，將西學引入成為一種格致學，而改變了當時儒學與科學間的關係。

　　　　　Science has been regarded as a body of knowledge. According to this view, there are two approaches toward the relationship between Confucianism and science: one is the subalternation of science of Confucianism, the other Confucianism is of no advantage to the development of modern science. The purpose of this paper is not to solve the disputation between these two approaches, but to take the history of science as a new approach to the problem of the relationship between Confucianism and science, since the history of science has expanded the domain of science by including its socio-cultural process. As far as the transmission of western learning (including scientific knowledge) into China by Jesuits in late Ming and early Qing dynasties is concerned, by taking Neo-confucianism's position, recent scholars usually asked: whether the learning of ang Yang-ming and his followers or that of Chu His and his followers was in favor of the transmission of western scientific knowledge? In this historical study the author finds that: if one can follow Jesuits' position, he will comprehend that in the True Meaning of the Lord of Heaven (天主實義) Matteo Ricci not only introduced scholastical philosophy by means of Neo-Confucian's them-Ke-Wu quong-li (格物窮理), but also change the relationship among Wang, Chu, and western scientific knowledge.