Abstract: This paper attempts to make a comparison between the traditional approach to language in China and discourse semantics as practiced by James Martin in systemic functional linguistics.The author first introduces the Chinese concept of grammar briefly, then goes on to discuss the traditional Chinese approach to language study in terms of the structural theory of Qi Cheng Zhuan He and the theory of thesis.Finally, he turns to Martin's discourse semantics in some detail, and points out the similarities between his theory and the Chinese linguistic tradition.