Liang Rengong once said: The ancient history is China in China, the middle history is China in Asia, and the modern history is China in the world. His so-called modern history refers to the history after the last years of Qianlong. That is to say, from the second half of18th century, the history of China is the history of China's relations with other countries in the world. In all fairness, from a specific point of view, Liang's statement has a clear and certain generality. In modern world history, there are many similarities between China before 1840 and Japan before 1853. Among them, the most important point is that they are all in the era when the western bourgeois revolution was successful, the commodity economy flourished, the world market gradually formed, and the wave of colonialism swept the world. In this era, it is impossible for all countries to live in isolation. For various reasons, the rulers of China and Japan still pursue the policy of closing the country to the outside world. The gates of China and Japan were blasted by western artillery. In China, its symbol is the Opium War. In Japan, its symbol is that Perry, commander of the American East India Fleet, led the fleet to knock east. In the following period, many problems faced by China and Japan were similar. Meiji Restoration and the Reform Movement of 1898 were also movements to save the nation and survive. They are of great significance in the history of both countries. However, their actual influence on the history of the two countries is not the same.

Even a cursory glance reveals that there are many similarities between the Reform Movement of 1898 and the Meiji Restoration. These similarities are not so much a historical coincidence as a result of the general trend of the world and the social nature of the two countries themselves, as well as the historical problems facing China and Japan at this time. In a word, these similarities are formed by history.