晚清经世致用思潮的社会大浪潮下涌动着史学经世的思潮,在经世致用思潮中颇为活跃的桐城派相当程度上也以史学经世的方式加入到经世致用的浪潮中。经世思潮初兴时,桐城派学人将笔触逐渐转向现实、经世与夷务,这种转换使嘉道时期的桐城派诸人与同时代的经世史家站到了同样的历史高度。洋务思潮是经世致用思潮在新的时代背景下的直接延续,作为洋务的倡导与实践者,“中体西用”的文化观深刻地渗透到桐城派学人的历史观中,并成为他们剪裁西方历史、文化的重要标准;他们借助古文笔法对西方历史、文化的介绍,为国人打开了一扇了解真实西方的窗户。 In the late Qing Dynasty, the social trend of applying the trend of thought to the world was surging forward with the trend of historiography and the Tongcheng School, which was quite active in the thought of using the society, also joined the society through the historiography In the wave. At the beginning of the world trend of thought, Tongcheng sent scholars to gradually turn their brush strokes to reality, and through the world and the barbarians, this conversion made the Tongcheng people in the Jiajian period stand in the same historical high as the classics historians of the same era. The thought of Westernization is a direct continuation of the trend of the worldly use of thought in the context of a new era. As a advocate and practitioner of Westernization, the cultural view of “Western Learning and Western Learning” profoundly permeates into the historical viewpoints of Tongcheng scholars, And became an important criterion for them to cut Western history and culture. They used the ancient writing style to introduce Western history and culture and opened a window for people to learn about the real West.