十九世纪中叶,王韬在国人鲜有机会接触日本文化之际,就通过所接触到的英美新教传教士对日本明治维新有了初步的认知,成为近代中国最早关注明治维新的知识分子之一。通过对日本一百余日的访问,他对日本文化有了最直观的感受,在日本体验的基础上塑造出独特的日本形象:他一方面为找到了日本受中国文化影响的大量证据而非常自豪,另一方面对日本明治维新取得的巨大成就,产生了强烈的危机感。由于根深蒂固的大中华思想作祟,羡慕之余他对明治维新提出严厉的批评,认为日本事无巨细都盲目学习西方,其革新的步伐未免迈得太大以至于过犹不及,必将导致国家的崩溃。 In the mid-nineteenth century, Wang Tao had a preliminary understanding of the Meiji Restoration in Japan through the Anglo-American Protestant missionaries he came into contact with and had become one of the first intellectuals in the history of Meiji Restoration in modern China when the people had few opportunities to touch Japanese culture. . Through his one-hundred-day visit to Japan, he had the most intuitive feeling of Japanese culture and created a unique image of Japan based on Japanese experience: on the one hand, he found a great deal of evidence of Japan’s influence on Chinese culture, On the other hand, I feel proud, and on the other hand, have a strong sense of crisis over the tremendous achievements made by Japan’s Meiji Reform. Because of the root cause of deep-rooted Greater China, envy of the Meiji Restoration while he harsh criticism that Japan is blind and blindly learn from the West, the pace of its reform too far to go too far, will inevitably lead to the collapse of the country.