China scholar-officials did not completely reject this tradition in history. Historically, Indian Buddhist culture has deeply influenced China, but the traditional culture of China has indeed discriminated against science and technology for a long time. In their eyes, only philosophical, literary and ideological things are profound knowledge, and the manufacturing, calculation, technology and technology of natural science are not enough. A western observer pointed out in his Chronicle of the Chinese Empire: "The important and only way to gain wealth and honor and get appointed is to learn the classic norms. History, law, morality, but also to write articles, that is, beautiful writing, carefully selected wording suitable for the topic. According to these requirements, after they pass the Level 3 exam, they will become Jinshi and get government positions. Those who focus on speculative science have no hope of getting these. Since science is not the way of honor and wealth, it is no wonder that this abstract science is ignored by China people. " When building a country and governing the world, paying attention to skills is not on the agenda at all. Woren, a great scholar in the Qing Dynasty, once said: "The art of stealing the country is more important than the art of seeking. The fundamental solution lies in people's hearts, not skills. "
Therefore, most officials instinctively reject western skills. They used force against the west, invaded the border, were keen on interests, resented and despised the west, and at that time they had no conditions to learn more about the west through books and media. 1840 although the opium war was an important turning point in modern Chinese-western relations, the changes in the ideological circle were far from so fast. By the end of1870s, the basic view of the scholar-bureaucrat class regarding westerners as barbarians had not fundamentally changed.