中外學術界過去有關王韜的研究，似乎較多注意到王韜變法思想的分析與評價。 事實上，王韜在近代思想史上的重要性，並不只因為他是變法思想的一位先驅者。他可算是 十九世紀中國較早一位親身經歷近代世界變化與中西文化衝擊的見證人。而更重要的，是他 能積極地面對這個史所未有的變局，對當時的文化變遷及時地作出應有的回應興反思。他在 中西文化交流事業上的建樹，他自己的文化觀的轉變，以及他對中西文化的內容與特質所進 行的理性的探討、比較與評估，都具有劃時代的歷史意義。一生經歷三次文化思想旅程轉變 的王韜，其晚年的中西文化觀，已更趨成熟穩重。首先，他克服了華夏文化至上論的思想格 局; 其次，他突破了中西文化道器體用的對立的解釋框架; 最後，他更提出了中西文化交融 會通是世界文化大同的前提的嶄新觀點。王韜這些文化觀，不難在其後的思想家如嚴復、康 有為、梁啟超等人的文化思想中找到承傳之跡。

　　　　　It seems that most past studies of Wang Tao 王韜 by both Chinese and Western scholars have focused on the analysis and evaluation of his views on institutional reform. In fact, Wang Tao played a much more significant role in modern Chinese history than just as a pioneer reform thinker. He was among the first of the 19th-century Chinese thinkers to witness and comprehend the transformation of the modern world and the clash between Chinese and Western cultures. Even more importantly, he was able to face these unprecedented changes with a positive attitude, and make timely and proper responses to the cultural transformations of his time. His contributions to cultural exchanges between China and the West, the transformation of his own cultural views, and his rational investigation, comparison and evaluation of the content and characteristics of the two cultures all hold epoch-making significance in Chinese history. Wang Tao's cultural views underwent three transformations during his life, becoming steady and mature during his old age. First of all, he was able to abandon the idea that Chinese civilization is paramount; secondly, he repudiated the common belief that Chinese and Western cultures are opposed to each other in that the former is metaphysical and theoretical while the latter materialistic and practical; and lastly, he proposed the ground-breaking idea that the integration of Chinese and Western cultures was a prerequisite for achieving a universal cuiture on earth. It is not difficult to find the influence of Wang Tao's cultural views in the ideas of such later thinkers as Yan Fu 嚴復, Kang Youwei 康有為 and Liang Qichao 梁啟超.