When Chinese people came into contact with Westerners at the turn of Daoguang and Xianfeng in the late Qing Dynasty, most people did not pay attention to or even rejected the existence of Western learning. There were only a few knowledgeable people such as Lin Zexu, Wei Yuan and others. , began to notice that Western learning had its advantages, but basically they still did not regard Western learning as an academic culture equivalent to middle school. Judging from Wei Yuan's famous saying "Learn from the foreigners and develop skills to conquer the foreigners", Western learning can only It is "Yi studies". Although there are merits in it, its status is far inferior to that of Chinese academic thought.

In the early days of the Westernization Movement, most people still had this similar view. However, with the increase in contact with the West, the term "Western Studies" gradually replaced "Yi Studies", and many officials and intellectuals Political elements began to look squarely at Western learning, regarding it as an academic thought comparable to that of middle school, and began to explore how to integrate the advantages and disadvantages of the two to help China become prosperous and powerful. Zhang Zhidong, who had an important position in politics and academia at that time, proposed " "Chinese learning is the body, Western learning is the application" has become the most typical view of Western learning among modern intellectuals in the late Qing Dynasty. They believe that Western learning is worse than middle school in terms of utensils and systems, but inferior to China in basic ideological, moral and humanistic aspects.

Such a view of middle school and Western learning once allowed this generation of intellectuals in the late Qing Dynasty to temporarily obtain a model of learning Western learning with peace of mind. However, in the last ten years of the late Qing Dynasty, it began to be challenged. By the early years of the Republic of China, , when more people were dissatisfied with traditional culture and began to regard Western learning as "new learning" and believed that Western learning was superior to middle school and should replace middle school, this triggered further debates.