Abstract: In the 1960s, facing the five severe problems of population, ecology, resources, environment and food all over the world, Odum and other scientists put forward the theory of ecological engineering on the basis of ecosystem theory. Domestic researchers generally regarded the four-word principle of "integrity, coordination, circulation and regeneration" proposed by ecologist Ma Shijun in 1979 as the beginning of China's ecological engineering theory, but other scholars have different narrative ways. This different historical narration of scientific events is a phenomenon worthy of attention and research.