The modern history of China refers to the period from the Opium War in 1840 to the founding of People's Republic of China (PRC) in 1949. During this period, the main contradictions in China society were complicated, namely, the contradiction between the international colonial powers and the Chinese nation, and the contradiction between domestic feudalism and the people. From the perspective of cultural conflicts and cultural exchanges, we can feel a historical trend of "Western learning spreading to the East". A careful summary of this period of history plays an extremely important role in understanding and grasping the laws of cultural and educational exchanges and communication between China and foreign countries. First, the historical process of "Western learning spreading to the East" in modern China. With the development of modern world history, there is an obvious cultural potential difference between western learning and middle school, which is manifested as follows: middle school is still based on feudal production relations, while western learning is based on capitalist production relations; Middle school is still in the stage of agricultural civilization, and western learning is already in the stage of capitalist industrial and commercial civilization; Middle schools still focus on the Confucian "Four Books" and "Five Classics", while western learning has focused on science and technology. The inheritance of middle school is still centered on traditional school education and imperial examinations, while the spread of western learning is based on new school education. So at this time, the objective situation of "western learning spreading to the east" was formed. From 65438 to 0840, with the eastward invasion of western colonialists, Western learning began to attack ancient China, which had been isolated for a long time. The conflict between middle school and western learning began with the Opium War. This historical process: At first, some enlightened managers and literati held the purpose of saving the nation and maintaining the feudal rule of the Qing Dynasty. At this time, the scale and influence of "western learning spreading to the east" are mainly limited to military industry and civilian industry, and its level only stays at the surface of cultural-material level. Then, democratic reformists and revolutionaries successively stepped onto the stage of modern China history, and advocated the realization of constitutional monarchy or democratic harmony in western countries in China, so as to achieve the goal of transforming society. At this time, the introduction of western learning has penetrated into the middle layer of culture-the institutional level. During the New Culture Movement, democratic thought and scientific spirit were vigorously publicized, which was the deep layer of cultural thought and its scale expanded to a wider field. China people's choice of Marxism–Leninism is determined by the hard practice of seeking truth from the west for more than half a century, and it is also the inevitable result of the historical process of "Western learning spreading to the east" in modern China. As an important aspect of social life, education has a relatively independent relationship with politics, economy and culture in modern China. Therefore, in the historical process of "Western learning spreading to the East" in modern times, educational thoughts often played a starting role, or accompanied by ideological and cultural enlightenment thoughts, which promoted the reform of the political and economic system. The Westernization Movement promoted the spread of western learning to the east and made the feudal education reform move from discussion to implementation. It began to imitate western countries to establish new schools and conduct overseas education, and finally established a semi-colonial and semi-feudal education system under the impetus of westernization education. Along with the Reform Movement and the Revolution of 1911, reformist educational thoughts and democratic educational thoughts came one after another, becoming pioneers of the Reform and Revolution. The New Culture Movement is not only a new cultural trend of thought, but also a new educational trend of thought. In the way of social education, we should publicize the theory of democratic science, criticize the old feudal culture, education, thought and morality, and enlighten the youth. After that, there were controversies such as populist education, work-study education and experimental education, which made the cultural and educational circles have an unprecedented active situation. Second, the historical characteristics of "Western learning spreading to the East" in modern China. If the history of China's modern history is sketched by the wars of aggression and anti-aggression, it is the first opium war-the second opium war-the Sino-French war-the Sino-Japanese Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895-War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression. In this sense, the modern "Western learning spreading to the East" was launched under the special historical background that the western powers invaded China continuously and the people of China stubbornly resisted the aggression. On the one hand, the settlement of western learning in China is an inseparable part of the political, economic and military aggression of western powers, accompanied by China's transformation from an independent sovereign country to a semi-colonial and semi-feudal country; On the other hand, it is inseparable from the efforts of people of insight in China to strive for national survival, safeguard national sovereignty, seek the truth of saving the country from the West and promote China's modernization. They are intertwined, forming a very complicated social phenomenon in the historical process of "Western learning spreading to the east" in modern China. Why is this happening? From the perspective of China, it is mainly due to cognitive and institutional reasons. In terms of understanding, after the Ming and Qing Dynasties, China has been closed to the outside world for a long time, with a long history and a sense of superiority in cultural tradition, which makes China people often pretend to be "superior to China" and form the traditional concept of "preventing summer". The prestige of the Manchu Dynasty was destroyed as soon as it met British guns, the eternal superstition of the Chinese empire was broken, and the state of barbarism, isolation and isolation from the civilized world was broken and it began to contact with the outside world. This change has produced a number of advanced figures such as Lin Zexu, Wei Yuan and Yao Ying, which have opened the world's eyes. 1844, Wei Yuan published "Sea Country, Map Records". Although his views on the world situation and "learning from foreigners" are very powerful, they are very utilitarian and China-centered. 1849, Xu Jishe published A Brief Introduction to Yinghuan, and he introduced western countries with a more sincere and objective attitude. Unfortunately, the influence of Ying Huan Zhi Lue is not as great as that of Guo Hai Tu Zhi, which may explain the general acceptance psychology of China people at that time: in the eyes of most China people, westerners are still foreigners, and the key to the problem is how to "respect foreigners" and "control foreigners in Shi Yang". For example, "middle school is internal learning and western learning is foreign learning;" Middle school masters body and mind, and western learning should deal with the world. "This is their understanding of the respective status and functions of Chinese and Western cultures. In terms of system, Jurchen nobles inherited the Ming Dynasty system and established a relatively complete feudal dynasty after entering the customs. Judging from the general trend of world development, even the "prosperous period of kanggan" in the Qing Dynasty was a mistake in its development direction, because it not only failed to keep up with the pace of the world industrial revolution, but ran in the opposite direction. Therefore, the feudal system established in the Qing Dynasty was the most autocratic and conservative system in the history of China. This system itself lacks openness and inclusiveness in foreign exchanges. In addition, after modern times, several emperors in the Qing Dynasty were mediocre and incompetent, and Empress Dowager Cixi listened to politics for more than 30 years. As the highest level of the feudal ruling class, the Qing Dynasty always passively studied and accepted Western learning. This further shows that the Qing Dynasty and its feudal autocratic system in the late Qing Dynasty always played an obstacle role in the historical process of "Western learning spreading to the east" in modern times. Through the historical investigation of China's "western learning spreading to the east" in modern times, we can see the general characteristics of cultural and educational exchanges and dissemination of different natures: first, cultural creation comes first, with a tendency of priority; The second is cultural inheritance, which has a constant source and a tendency of inheritance; The third is the introduction of culture, which is inclusive and has the potential to save; Fourth, the trend of cultural absorption, optimal combination and integration; Fifthly, cultural collision brings out the best in each other and tends to be reconstructed; Sixth, cultural exchange, timing and efficiency. These characteristics are not only obvious in the historical process of "Western learning spreading to the East" in modern China, but also universal and objective in the history of cultural and educational exchange and communication in the world, so they can also be called the law of cultural and educational exchange and communication. Thirdly, the influence of "Western learning spreading to the east" on China society. Modern western learning, guided by capitalist civilization, is a brand-new "culture with higher potential energy" as a whole. Therefore, in the modern history of China, the spread of western learning to the east is a mainstream trend, which has influenced China society in many ways. The first is the technical impact. From the first Opium War in 1840 to the second Opium War in 1860, under the theory of "learning from foreigners to control foreigners", western weapons and equipment were initially introduced, and some books on western weapons manufacturing and offensive and defensive tactics were also published. The Westernization Movement, which started at 186 1, took "learning from the west" as the theoretical guidance, imitated the methods of western countries on a large scale, manufactured new guns and ships, trained new army and navy, organized modern military and civilian enterprises, mined mines, built railways, set up posts and telecommunications and set up schools, and set off an upsurge of learning from the west to run Westernization. Secondly, institutional influence. As far as the political system is concerned, in the process of "Western learning spreading to the East" in modern times, there are generally three systems introduced into China: the first is the constitutional monarchy advocated in the Reform Movement, the second is the democratic and harmonious system established after the Revolution of 1911, and the third is the socialist system implemented after the founding of the People's Republic of China. The new educational system, cultural system, economic system and financial system have been introduced into China one after another, which constitutes the modern history of China. The third is the influence of ideological education. Under the influence of western learning, China had at least three major social ideological updates in modern times. The first time was during the Westernization Movement, which set off the Westernization trend of thought, thus impacting the stale traditional ideas. The second time was during the Reform Movement of 1898 and the Revolution of 1911. The western democratic system and civil rights ideas have been widely spread, making democracy and ideas deeply rooted in the hearts of the people. The third time was during the New Culture Movement, with the introduction of western political theory as the main content, and a heated discussion was held on how to transform China and society. It is precisely because of the renewal of social concepts with democracy and science as the main content that an active situation will appear in the field of culture and education. "Western learning spreading to the east" and its educational thought constitute a main line of social change, and have played a great role in promoting social change at various stages. These educational thoughts are independent from the static point of view and interrelated from the dynamic point of view, thus forming a magnificent historical picture of China's modern "Western learning spreading to the east" and educational thoughts and social changes. Today, we must learn from the west, and this tendency must be overcome. We must look at different cultures from a strategic perspective. We should not only pay attention to some concrete and practical things, but also pay attention to profound and time-tested things. Only in this way can we improve on the basis of study and make great strides on the basis of improvement.