王國維身歷清末而至民初，他遭遇的不是舊時「易鼎」而是全新「革命」，當被迫進入現代，既有價值崩毀，王國維的意義危機伴隨著他對現代體驗洶湧而至，因此本文回到1911年以前考察王國維的文、哲活動，探討他因遭遇現代而有什麼樣的中西調適與理論建構之努力。在全新的現代之大觀裡，方法上先是借助視覺理論，突出他學問裡對「觀看」的側重。從〈叔本華像贊〉裡「天眼所觀，萬物一身」的超越之道，迄於《人間詞》裡「偶開天眼覷紅塵，可憐身是眼中人」自我救贖之失敗，本文揭開王國維遭遇現代極限經驗的驚詫，「人間」兼具的煉獄與道場的意義，以及詞作中雖承襲傳統體式、充斥著古典的象徵，究其實是一種死之凝視，透出現代的斷零經驗。1911前王國維為學已然三變，然而天眼無功、抒情零星、主體飄零，已經說明他其內在其實是一個孤獨無家、懷鄉戀舊，終其一生都在追尋的現代主體，他早年的文哲活動不能單純視為傳統舊體的延續；而這樣的視覺經驗是一個孤獨先行者的容受與調適，無論結果為何，已經說明新的感知模式與世界觀的出現，這是一個全新的開始。同樣的，他日後託身於金石史地考證之學也應在這樣的現代體驗上去加以考慮。

Wang Guowei lived through the end of the Qing Dynasty and the early Republic. What he confronted in that era was not the conventional ＂dynasty change＂ but a whole new ＂revolution.＂ When he was forced to enter a modern era, he witnessed the collapse of existing values. A sense of crisis questioning ＂meanings＂ surging along as he experienced the modernity and the crisis. This paper intends to inspect Wang Guowei's activities concerning historical and geographical studies and explore his meditation between the collision of the East and the West as well as his efforts in building up theories after he confronted modernity. With the help of visual theories, this paper will make manifest Wang's emphasis on ＂seeing.＂ From a transcendent doctrine of ＂in the divine omniscient eyes, nothing distinguishes itself from others＂ to his failure of self-salvation when he claimed in his Songs of Ren-Jian -＂I climb the highest peak to glimpse the bright moon. Oh! What a pity that I am no different from the men below,＂ this paper intends to reveal the amazement of the ultimate modern experience in the eyes of Wang. That's means Ren-Jian is both a purgatory and a Bodhimaṇḍa. His poetry inherited the legacy of conventional lyrics full of classical symbols while at the same time exposed the annihilate experiences, a gaze of death. By 1911, Wang Guowei had already experienced his ＂tri-transformation.＂ However, the divine omniscient eyes were fruitless, and emotions failed to succeed, and his subjectivity wandered off. Everything indicated that he was a lonely, nostalgic modern subject in search of something throughout his life. Therefore, his early activities concerning literature and history should not be regarded as a continuation of his old subject. Similarly, one should also consider his later achievements on historical and geographical textual studies based on certain modern experiences.