Abstract: The author points out that modern China is facing a challenge that has never been for thousands of years. It is in fact a serious crisis of traditional politics and conventional culture. Solution to this problem lies in moderniztion. The author holds that Yan Fu made great contribution in this respect. Yan Fu resorted to science, democracy and freethinking advocated in the west to explain how conventional culture and traditional politics had accunted for China’s poverty. Based on this reasoning, he suggested that China should attempt to strengthen the peopli’s power, enlighten the people’s mind, and renew the people’s morality in line with the theory of evolution, This preliminary measure he proposed initiated a wave of moderniztion of the Chinese culture that lasted for over a hundred years.

Key words: Yan Fu, Chinese culture, modernization

摘要： 近代中国面临数千年未有之变局,其实质是传统政治、文化遇到严重危机,解决的办法是使之现代化。严复是第一位由此双重危机的层面认识这个问题的。他借用西方科学、民主、自由思想,揭示中国传统文化与传统政治相为表里为中国贫弱之源;以进化论为据,主张鼓民力、开民智、新民德以治本,初步提出了更新中国文化的思路,启动了其后百余年间中国文化现代化的思潮。

关键词: 严复, 中国文化, 现代化