魏源的“师夷长技”主张是以儒家传统的“夷夏之辨”为其思想范式,而这一主张的产生,则导源于“以夷制夷”的策略需要。在《道光洋艘征抚记》中,魏源说:“为购洋炮洋艘,练水战火战之用,尽收外国之羽翼为中国之羽翼,尽转外国之长技为中国之长技,富国强兵,不在一举乎?”可见,所谓西方的“长技”,在他看来,不过是用于“水战火战”之具——轮船火炮而已。魏源确实认识到了中国的刀剑戈矛决非西方的坚船利炮的对手这个浅显道理,但他没有也不可能对除坚船利炮之外的西方的“长技”有更深的体认。这是因为,历史还没有赋予魏源、林则徐等“经世”派改革家以较深层次地了解西方的使命。“天朝之国”的迷梦和传统“夷夏”观念的浸润,使得魏源等人仅仅是“开眼”看世界,远谈不上“走向”世界。魏源曾有过几句赞美西方民主制度的话语,认为这种制度“可垂奕世而无弊”, Wei Yuan’s theory of “learning from the barbarians and promoting the barbarians to develop the science and technology” is based on the Confucian tradition of “discrimination between Yi and Xia” as its ideological paradigm. The origin of this proposition results from the strategic needs of “controlling the barbarians against the barbarians.” Wei Yuan said in the “Diogangchaiyan Recorder” that “for the purchase of foreign artillery vessels, the war for water and naval warfare should be used to make the foreign feather wings the wings of China and to make the foreign long skills the long skills of China ”We can see that the so-called“ long-term technology ”in the West is, in his view, nothing more than a ship-to-ship artillery used in“ water-warfare and fire-fighting. ” Wei Yuan did realize the simple truth that the sword of China, Spear Spear, was not the rival of the West’s gunboat but he could not and could not have a deeper understanding of the Western “long-skill” except for the fortifications and artillery. This is because history has not given Wei Yuan, Lin Zexu and other “Shi Shi” reformers a deeper understanding of the Western mission. The infiltration of the dream of “Heavenly Kingdom” and the traditional concept of “Yixia” made Wei Yuan and others just “open their eyes” to see the world, far from being “going” to the world. Wei Yuan once had a few words praising the Western democratic system and argued that such a system “can go down without harm”