A Study On The Chinese Science And Technology Award System(CSTAS)

This paper systematically collects , exhumes and textually researches the materials related to the science and technology award(for short: STA) in "The Chronological Books of Chinese History" and other materials concerned. Then based on the above work the paper overall and systematically describes and reviews the STA activities and theories from the very beginning of Chinese civilization to the present time, in an attempt to draw the outline of the development venation of STA in all ages, and reflect the status and characteristics of STA in every historic stage from the slavery to feudality to socialism in China, evaluate the status and the functions of the STA in China by briefly comparing the STA of China with that of the other countries and supply contemporary STA with historic and present use for reference. The paper's main purpose is to discuss the characteristics and functions of STA in different ages in the process of evolution, and deepens the cognition and the understanding to the S&T progress through the development of STA.The paper describes the history, concludes the characteristics and reviews the functions of CSTA in each stage according to the different history periods. The main work in each chapter is as follows .Chapter one : This chapter describes and reviews the evolution of the Chinese science and technology award (for short: CSTA )from the ancient time to the Ming dynasty. The earliest activities of STA was derived from the award to political and military achievements. The award to "Gezhixue"(the knowledge of understanding the thing by contact it) and technological accomplishment developed rapidly during the Spring and Autumn (770-476 B.C.) and Warring States (475-221 B.C.) periods, and the award was enlarged from astronomy and medical science to agriculture, the military science and technology, architecture and so on. The scholars in that time dissertated the functions of the award a lots and sublimed the award theories to some degree. Those theories have great impact on current CSTA and positive use for reference in nowadays.Chapter two : This chapter describes and analyzes the venation, a turn and the characteristics of STA in the Qing dynasty(1616～1911).The Qing dynasty was the turning period of CSTA from non-institution to institution. The turn partly owed to the latter-days western science and technology diffusion in China, and also reflected the consciousness of Chinese people with the thoughts of strengthening the nation and saveing the nation by science. Despite the institutionalized STA which was founded on the patent system, it played a positive role on the latter-days western science and technology diffusion, science and technology development in China, and pushed the technical product imitation forward to renovation.Chapter three: This chapter describes the venation of STA and reviews the characteristics in the Republic of China(1911～1949). Firstly this chapter finds that before the Anti-Japanese War the STA presented a new characteristics for science and technology rapid development and emergence of research institutes in the latter days. The new characteristics is that the government of the Republic of China, the research institutes and the association set up different types and different level of STA. Secondly the chapter discusses the emphasis of the STA of the government of the Republic of China during the Anti-Japanese War, such as the STA was mainly awarded to practical technology and substitutes, and the basic researches hardly got the awards. Finally the paper reviews the characteristics of STA and its influence in the border area where was governed by the Communist Party of China.Chapter four: This chapter discusses and analyzes the STA system of the People's Republic of China. The STA of our country entered into a new stage after the foundation of the P.R.C. The author compartmentalizes the STA into five stages and dissertates characteristics in each stage. Then the author mainly analyzes the status and characteristics of the State Preeminent Science and Technology Award, the State Natural Science Award, the State Technology Invention Award, the State Scientific and Technological Award, and International Scientific and Technological Cooperation Award of the People's Republic of China, and the STA in each province ,autonomic regions, the cities directly under the control of the central government, and the non-governmental STA after the reform of the STA system in our country in 1999. Finally, the author briefly sums up the functions of the STA at the present stage.Chapter five: This chapter compares the STA in China with that of the other countries. The author reviews the history of the STA in the western countries and mainly describes the venation of STA in 20^th century in the first part of this chapter. Then the author compares the recommendation form, the appraisement procedure, the changes in the quantity in the prize, and the factors affecting the reputation of the STA of China with those of other countries based on the cultural background and the regime, and specially analyzes the STAS of USA-the developed country and India-the developing country in contrast with that of China. Finally the author describes the characteristics of the STA in other countries in the present time and evaluates their uses for reference for our country.The author introduces and reviews the overseas theories of STA in recent 100 years in appendices, such as the relationships among the genesis of STAS, patent institution and the STAS, the relationship between the STAS and science fund, and encouragement psychology.The work and the research results in this paper are as follows:The author systematically and over-all researches the genesis and evolution of CSTA, exhumes the abundant historic materials relatived to STA from the vast and numerous literature and data, tidies up and concludes the dissertations and theories on the STA of ancient scholars and analyzes the characteristics of STA in different historical periods. Moreover, the author first compares the appraisement and award quantity of STA of China in the present time with that of other countries, and meanwhile compares the STAS of China with those of USA and India, and analyzes the difference of STAS between China and other countries, points out the shortages of the CSTA, and presents the contents of STAS of other countries for the use of reference.