有「東方盧梭」美譽的中江兆民是明治時代與福澤諭吉齊名的大思想家，彼不但學貫東西 ，於文壇享有盛名。且大半生引介當時法國最新人文社會思想，為自由民權奮鬥；替社會弱勢族群仗義直言，這曾當選第一屆國會民選眾議員，一生多采多姿。而《三醉人經綸問答》則是兆民思想之代表作，亦是明治時代日本思想傑作之一。 《三醉人經綸問答》不但呈現了兆民內心三種精神、風貌，亦外在地反映了明治年代三種社會思潮，即民權思想，國權擴張主有和中道穩健路線。而且，此三種概念其後一直影響日本發展軌跡至今。 兆民秉其深厚的漢學素養，以明治代表文獻「漢文訓讀體」寫成《三醉人經綸問答》，其中所顯現的漢學內涵極其豐富，從此可一窺兆民雖以洋學聞名於世，但彼用以載道的卻是漢文。 經以翻譯《三醉人經綸問答》全文並加以考據文意為方法，發現其內容中除西洋知識、思想外，所用之單、詞彙、句型表現、典故、人物等幾乎來自中國宋代以前的之典籍、詩文。來源可分類為孔孟儒常，老莊道家思想，歷代史乘，法、陰陽等其他諸家，詩文文選等五大類。使人體認兆民雖以西學名世，但承載、包裝其西學的卻是日本士族階層之傳統教育之一－漢學，而這種可說是日本版的「中學為體，西學為用」現象，應普遍存在於十九世紀末至廿世紀初，西風東漸下的東亞知識份子身上。

Nakae Choumin, known as Rousseau of the East, we a great thinker as famous as Fukuzawa Yukichi during the Meiji period. Learned in both Eastern and Western philosophies, he was also famed in literary circles. Moreover, he introduced latest humanitarian thoughts from France. A colorful life he led, he was never afraid to speak for the marginal groups and was once elected by the people as Congressman in the first Congress. San Suijn Keirin Montou was Nakae’s representative work and also a masterpiece of Japanese thoughts of the Meiji period. San Suijn Keirin Montou not only displays Nakae’s three internal spirits but also reflects the three social thoughts-the thoughts about people’s rights, national expansionism, and the middle-way (stable) line. Furthermore, these are also the three concepts which have influenced the development of Japan so far. With his profound understanding of Sinology, Nakae wrote San Suijn Keirin Montou in the representative Meiji literary style, kanbun kundokutai. The rich contents of Chinese studies demonstrate that although Nakae was famous for his erudition of the Western studies, he preferred Sinology when expressing his thoughts. Through translating and researching the entire San Suijn Keirin Montou, I find that the contents fo San Suijn Keirin Montou is about Western knowledge and thoughts but its vocabulary, phrases, sentence patterns, allusions, characters are form the works, poetry, and prose of the pre-song dynasty in China. Its source can be categorized into five parts: Confucianism of Confucius and Mencius, Daoism of Lao Zi and Zhuan Zi, histories, yin yang and other philosophies, and literary works. This evidence proves that despite the fact that Nakae is known for his Western thoughts, what he used to convey his ideas is still Sinology, one of the traditional disciplines that Japanese gentry is trained in. This can be seen as the Japanese version of the phenomenon of “the Chinese studies as the body and the Western studies as the practice,” which was very prominent in East Asian intellectuals of the turn of the twentieth century when the Western civilization impacted the East.