Abstract: This essay seeks to answer two basic questions: How did Confucian scholars respond to Western natural science and to what extent did Western learning influence Chinese academic research. T he essay notes that the influence of Western learning on traditional Chinese learning was limited to fields of astronomy, calendars, geography, mathematics, and other related fields and once again revived interest in similar traditional Chinese disciplines, like mathematics. T he theory of “Chinese origin of Western learning “however prevented Chinese scholars from further accepting Western science.