The study of the history of astronomy has a long tradition in China. In the twenty-four histories, there are parts describing the history of astronomy in astronomical calendars. Famous astronomers in China have done a lot of research on the development of astronomy in China. After the founding of New China, the professional team of astronomy began to form. Many astronomical institutions have personnel engaged in this work. In the past 30 years, many achievements have been made in the study of the history of Chinese astronomy.

Both Da Liyan Yi in Tang Dynasty and Li Yi in Yuan Dynasty discussed in detail the evolution of ancient astronomy in China from the perspective of calendar. This tradition was greatly developed in the Qing Dynasty. In Qing Dynasty, Qian Daxin, Li Rui and Gu Guangguang made great contributions to the collation and research of astronomical historical materials. Ruan Yuan's Biography of the Universe collected a great deal of historical materials from astronomers and mathematicians in China, which provided convenience for future generations to further study. From the May 4th Movement to the founding of People's Republic of China (PRC), Zhu Wenxin and others have done a lot of research on the history of astronomy.

China is one of the countries with the earliest development of astronomy in the world, and has accumulated a lot of valuable astronomical data for thousands of years, which has attracted the attention of astronomers all over the world. As far as the number of documents is concerned, astronomy can be juxtaposed with mathematics, second only to agronomy and medicine, and it is one of the four most developed natural sciences in ancient China. China ancient astronomy sprouted in primitive society, and after the Warring States, Qin and Han Dynasties, it formed a complete system centered on calendar and astronomical observation. Calendar is the main part of ancient astronomy in China. It is not only the work of compiling calendars, such as calculating new moons, 24 solar terms, arranging leap months, etc., but also a series of topics in azimuth astronomy, such as calculating solar eclipses and planetary positions, which are similar to compiling the current astronomical almanac. Astronomical observation is another main content of ancient astronomy in China, which includes methods, instruments and records of astronomical observation. China's ancient astronomical observation instruments were mainly armillary sphere, which was different from the ecliptic instrument used in Greece. China always used the ecliptic instrument. For more than 2,000 years, the rich records of solar eclipse, lunar eclipse, occultation, sunspot, meteor, comet and nova preserved in China are important reference materials for modern astronomy.

Over the past decades, China has established radio astronomy, theoretical astrophysics, high energy astrophysics and space astronomy from scratch, filled the gaps in the compilation of astronomical almanac and the manufacture of astronomical instruments, and established its own time service system, latitude and polar shift service system, which has made many important achievements in world time measurement, the manufacture of photoelectric astrolabes, satellite orbit calculation, the observation and theory of stars and the sun, some theories and high energy astrophysics topics, and the study of the history of astronomy. Since the 20th century, European and American countries have fully studied the history of European astronomy from ancient Greece to19th century. In recent decades, the history of astronomy, early American astronomy, modern astronomy and archaeoastronomy in some Asian and African countries have attracted more and more attention. At present, there is a astronomy history group in the International Astronomical Union, which holds international academic conferences every year.