This article reviews the research history of Chinese Paddlefish Psephurus gladius in the late Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China, and also simply reviews the early ichthyology history of China. In the period of late Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China, the ichthyology research of China has undergone the transformation from Western to China, and the research of Chinese Paddlefish also has undergone this process. In this period, Chinese Paddlefish was a kind of common species in the Yangtze River, and is well known by the Western for its particular appearance and large bodily form. Because China did not start ichthyology research in the period of the late Qing Dynasty, the western researcher first conducted the morphology, taxonomy, and anatomy researches of Chinese Paddlefish, meanwhile, some westerners who came to China also described the Chinese Paddlefish in their travel notes, leaving us a number of important document literature. In the Period of the Republic of China, China established The Biology Laboratory of Science Society of China and the Natural History Museum of Academia Sinica, initiated native ichthyology research. These two institutions also first conducted domestic research on Chinese Paddlefish and had indelible contributions to protecting national rights and promoting national status. During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, these two institutions relocated to the Beipei in Chongqing and continued ichthyology research behind the frontline, which also included some surveys about Chinese Paddlefish. After the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, the ichthyology research of China entered a new stage and the research into Chinese Paddlefish had become more deeply.