本文摘录自作者所著的《化学是什么》一书，该书由北京大学出版社出版。介绍中文“化学”一词是谁首先使用及其含义;介绍化学是从三个方面研究化学物质的科学: 一是物质的组成和结构,二是物质的合成制备,三是阐明和控制化学反应的过程。介绍化学出现的许多分支学科。

 This article is extracted from author’s book—What is Chemistry. In this article, the origin of the Chinese word “Chemistry” is introduced. For example, the first people who defined the word, as well as the meaning of this word. It also demonstrates that chemistry involves the research of chemical substance from three aspects: the component and structure of substance, the synthesis and fabrication of substance, also the description and manipulation of chemical process. The various branches of chemistry are also presented.