Abstract:

The history of the term “Xi Xue Dong Jian”, which means eastward spread of western learning, dates back to 1905 or earlier, while previously 1915 was widely accepted by scholars as the earliest year when this term appeared. “Xi Xue Dong Jian” was created through combining two historical Chinese terms “xi xue” and “dong jian”, which was similar to many terms in the form of “×× dong jian” in the end of the Qing Dynasty. In the modern literature since the late Qing Dynasty, “Xi Xue Dong Jian” appeared in different contexts which was related with social linguistic phenomena and could not be treated the same. The term has been widely used since the end of the Qing Dynasty, which should be attributed to the characteristics and relative advantages of this term and some external factors.

Key words: eastward spread of western learning, Yung Wing, Yun Tieqiao, the end of the Qing Dynasty