ABSTRACT
Anyone acquainted with nineteenth-century Chinese history must be impressed by the complacency with which the bulk of the Chinese scholar-officials greeted China’s unprecedented external crisis. There was, to be sure, ample resentment among the Chinese who came to be aware of the facts of Western encroachment. But even among those who were so aware, cultural conditioning made them slow in arriving at ideas of innovation and reform that were necessary for coping with the new challenge. By contrast, the Japanese developed a sense of crisis as soon as they were apprised of Western power. The Japanese, besides being of warrior background, were open-minded enough so that even their long and rigid self-training in Confucianism did not prevent them from seeking new ways to meet the challenge of the West.
