In fact European sinologists in the early nineteenth century had previously paid attention to ancient Chinese astronomy and tried to trace its origins to Babylon, Arabia, India or Iran. But there were also scholars who were open enough not to exclude the possibility that it was a home-grown Chinese phenomenon.
事實上，歐洲漢學界在十九世紀已經注意到中國古代天文學，並且試圖推測來源：巴比倫、阿拉伯、印度、伊朗，都在列下，當然也有學者萬分慷慨地不排除源自中國本土的可能性。