Abstract: Chinese scientific trend in the 1920s and 1930s has been determined as the scientism,which is doubtless.But it is not true.Actually Chinese scientific trend has relations and similarities with the occidental scientism.But it came into being in the period of national jeopardy and was influenced by traditional practicality philosophy and lacked scientific spirit and practice,so it was not really the scientism,but the pre-scientism.It had strong society utility,for example,it ever filled up the vacancy of metaphysics in the May 4 period.It had been more strongly ideologized after the May 4 period.The Chinese scientific trend did not shorten the gap between China and the occident,but became the block of modernization.

Key words: scientism, pre-scientism, modernity