许多研究者在使用科幻小说这个概念时常有含混或者是互相矛盾的地方，追根溯源是因为科幻小说在刚刚传入中国的时候被命名为“科学小说”。因此，从发生学的角度，对晚清“科学小说”这一名称的诞生与发展的过程进行一个梳理和还原，将是亟待进行的，非常值得做，也非常有意义的工作。论文第一章探索“科学小说”这个词诞生的源流。在“科学”出现以前，是“格致”这个词基本上指代着科学技术的意思。不过，只有“科学小说”却几乎没有“格致小说”，原因在于人们对“科学”的认识逐渐深化，意识到“格致”与“科学”的不同。 第二、三章分析“科学小说”在晚清时的使用情况。在理论与翻译界的代表人物有梁启超、鲁迅和周桂笙三人，他们或大力提倡翻译科学小说，或自己亲自动手翻译科学小说。而在创作领域，主要代表是小说《生生袋》以及两位作者徐念慈和包天笑。通过分析这些作品和他们的论述，我们会发现他们对于“科学小说”的认识和主张有很大的区别。第四章在前三章分析的基础上，总结出当时中国“科学小说”发展的三种类型，即“哲理型科学小说”、“科普型科学小说”和“理想型科学小说”。这三种“科学小说”各有缺陷，随着时代的发展逐渐走向衰落，或失去所依凭的外在环境而消失，或被其他文类所吞噬。第五章分析“科学小说”这个概念的种种矛盾，内部有内容上对“科学”的误读，形式上类型理论的缺乏，再加上外部环境的影响，总的来说，从诞生到1912年为止，“科学小说”都还没能获得一个明确而独立的分类标准。

Many researchers often have vague or contradictory place while using the concept of science fiction, it is because when science fiction was introduced to China it was named "scientific romance". Therefore, from a genetic point of view, sorting out and restoring on the name of the birth of late Qing "scientific romance" and the process of development will be carried out urgently, very worthwhile and very meaningful. The first chapter explored the origins of the word "scientific romance". Before the advent of the word "science", "Ge Zhi" basically referred to the meaning of science and technology. But there was "scientific romance" almost no "Ge Zhi novel", because people’s understanding of "science" gradually deepened and they had been aware of the differences between "Ge Zhi" and "science". The second and the third chapters show the usage of "scientific romance" in the late Qing. The representatives in theory and translation fields were Liang Qichao, Lu Xun, and Zhou Guisheng. They vigorously advocated the translation of "scientific romance", or they translated "scientific romance" on their own. In the creative fields, the main representatives were The Life Bag, Xu Nianci and Bao Tianxiao. Through analysis of these works and their discussions, we will find their knowledge and ideas of "scientific romance" were quite different. Chapter IV based on the analysis of the first three chapters, summarized three concept of development of China’s "scientific romance". They were "philosophy-type" "scientific popularization-type" and "ideal-type". The three kinds of "scientific romance" had their own defect, they were on the wane, disappeared through the lost of dependable external environment, or devoured by other genres.Chapter V analyzed the various conflicts in the concept of "scientific romance", there were misunderstanding of "science", lack of genre theory, together with the impact of external environment. Over all, "scientific romance" had not been able to obtain a clear and independent classification from birth to 1912.