自16世纪末开始,中日两国都相继兴起了摄取西洋文化的西学和兰学,但他们却表现出诸多的相异点。首先是中国的科举制和日本的长子继承制在客观上分别限制和促进了西学人才的增长规模。其次,西洋学在两国的普及程度相去甚远,西学基本上是限于宫廷和上层士大夫阶层,而兰学则普及到民间,形成了一定规模的兰学集团。再次,西学家是依靠传教士译介西学,而日本的兰学家则是自己直接阅读西文书籍。上述差异造成了中日两国西洋学发展水平的差距.而这种差距又是中日两国近代以来走向不同道路的重要原因之一。 Since the end of the 16th century, both China and Japan have successively raised western and orchid sciences that absorb Western culture. However, they have shown many differences. The first is that China’s imperial examination system and Japan’s eldest son inheritance system objectively restrict and promote the growth of Western talent. Second, the degree of popularization of Western learning in the two countries is very far away from each other. Western learning is basically confined to the court and upper-class literati class. However, Lanxue spread to the people and formed a certain scale of Lanxue Group. Third, Western scholars rely on missionaries to translate and introduce Western learning, while Japanese blue scholars read their own Western books directly. The above differences have caused the gap between the level of development of the oceanography in China and Japan, which is one of the important reasons why China and Japan have taken a different path since the modern times.