In an era of rapid scientific advancement, China's contemporary drive for innovation is increasingly recognized not as a sudden departure from its past, but as a reawakening of deep historical currents.

In a recent interview with Science and Technology Daily, three leading Chinese scholars emphasized that the Chinese nation has long possessed a profound, resilient and distinctive tradition of innovation, which remains a source of inspiration for today's scientific and cultural endeavors.

Innovation as a core national trait

Zhu Changrong, director general and research fellow of the Institute of Historical Theory, Chinese Academy of History, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said the innovative "gene" embedded in China's fine traditional culture has often been overlooked, particularly during the time when Western-centric narratives obscured or dismissed China's civilizational achievements.

However, the Chinese civilization is the only ancient civilization in the world to have developed continuously without interruption, and innovation has always been central to its endurance.

Ancient Chinese thinkers championed renewal through ideas such as "Governing well begins with discarding the obsolete and creating the new" and "If you can improve yourself today, do so again tomorrow, and keep improving every day." This spirit manifested across three dimensions of civilization.

In material terms, China pioneered advanced systems of rice and dryland agriculture and led the world for centuries in technologies such as cast iron production, papermaking, printing, textile manufacturing, shipbuilding and navigation.It also developed comprehensive knowledge systems in astronomy, mathematics and medicine that sustained a vast population and traveled along the Silk Road to influence global development.

Spiritually, the Chinese civilization continually generated new philosophical and ethical insights amid historical change.

Sun Xiaochun, professor at the School of Humanities, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, challenged the persistent misconception that ancient China lacked science and therefore had no foundation for innovation.

He contended that while modern experimental science emerged in Europe, ancient China cultivated its own robust scientific culture grounded in empirical observation, practical problem-solving and logical reasoning.

For example, The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art, compiled during the Western Han Dynasty (202 BC-25 AD), addressed real-world problems and established a mathematical framework blending arithmetic, algebra and geometry with a distinctive combination of logical and intuitive reasoning.

Wisdom rooted in people and governance

Zhu highlighted that Chinese innovation has always been characterized by pragmatism, a people-centered orientation, and integrative synthesis.

Zhu explained that throughout history, major reforms were all driven by the need to address concrete governance challenges.

Also, technological innovation served public welfare: The Dujiangyan irrigation system, constructed over two millennia ago by legendary engineer Li Bing and his son during the Warring States period (475-221 BC), transformed agriculture and ecology in Sichuan province in southwest China. It continues to benefit local communities today, embodying the principle of "enriching the people and nurturing life."

Moreover, China's civilizational continuity was sustained through large-scale knowledge integration, as seen in encyclopedic works such as Yongle Dadia and Siku Quanshu, which systematically preserved and reinterpreted cultural heritage across generations.

Cultivating a 'Chinese heart' for modern science

Looking to the future, Zou Guangwen, professor at Tsinghua University's School of Marxism, argued that China's fine traditional culture is not a relic of the past but a living reservoir of values and wisdom essential for navigating contemporary challenges.

Core traditional concepts such as "the people as the foundation of the state," "virtue sustains all things," and "harmony between humanity and nature" offer ethical guidance for addressing modern dilemmas like AI ethics, digital inequality and ecological crisis.

He proposed leveraging modern technology to bridge tradition and innovation: using big data and AI-driven semantic analysis to systematically extract principles like "discard the old, establish the new" from classical texts, building dynamic databases of traditional innovation concepts, and employing VR, AR and virtual avatars to reconstruct historical workshops and interpret canonical works in engaging ways.

However, he also stressed the need to "discard the dross and retain the essence" by reinterpreting tradition through a modern, scientific lens.

Sun echoed this balanced perspective. He remarked that ancient Chinese thought offers a holistic, organic and relational worldview that is increasingly relevant in modern sci-tech fields.

"What we need next is to fuse scientific rationality with the soul of Chinese civilization to cultivate a 'Chinese heart' for science. Only then can our innovation be truly original and future-oriented," he concluded.