「中學為體，西學為用」簡稱「中體西用」。對這個問題的認識與探討，可以說是困擾中國近代百餘年間思想界的一大癥結所在。1949年以後，史學界曾經就此問題發表過一些論述。但由於眾所周知的原因，論述之淺近既不可免，教條主義的研究方法又極大地阻礙了對這一問題的深入探討，致使對中國近代史上的這一重大問題的研究創獲未深。本文參考近人對此問題的論述，並詳細探討這個問題。

The comprehension and exploration of the concept of “Chinese Substance and Western Function” is a problem that has confused modern China since the turn of the twentieth century. Some historians have published a few discourses about this question, but for some well-known reasons, these discourses are inevitably superficial. Besides, the dogmatist methodology has fouled any penetrating research and has limited the achievement. The writer will investigate this issue with reference to the discourses of modern historians.