In the mid-19th century, under the background of the expansion of western marine civilization to the east, China had to submit to its powerful maritime military force. Faced with the invasion of Western forces, Wei Yuan, as a representative of the school of Confucianism, compiled the book Haiguo Tuzhi in the face of the current situation, and extended his vision to the world beyond the sea. Wei Yuan realized that after the Opium War, the ocean could not be used as a natural barrier for external defense as in the past. Faced with the western marine aggression, especially its colonial activities in Southeast Asia, Wei Yuan deeply realized that China would surely fall into a more terrible situation than the Opium War if it did not “master the skills of the barbarians” and pursue the development of the sea. Therefore, he further put forward the idea of building coastal defense, developing maritime military strength and even building the Chinese navy. At the same time, Wei Yuan advocated and actively participated in it in his early years. In the reform of maritime transport, it is suggested that commercial transport should replace official transport in water transport to develop maritime merchants, whose understanding of the ocean is far beyond that of other people of the same era. From defense to development, from safeguarding maritime rights to ocean construction, Wei Yuan formed his own ocean consciousness, which was inherited and developed by the later “Advocates of the westernization movement”.

19世纪中叶，在西方海洋文明向东方扩张的背景下，中国不得不屈服于其强大的海上军事力 量。面对西方势力的入侵，作为经世学派代表人物的魏源面对时势编撰出《海国图志》一书，把目 光扩展到中国近海以外的世界。魏源认识到鸦片战争之后，海洋已不能像过去一样作为对外防御的 天然屏障。面对西方的海洋侵略，尤其是其在东南亚的殖民活动，魏源深刻的认识到若不“师夷长 技”，向海洋谋求发展，中国必将陷入比鸦片战争更可怕的境地，因此他进一步提出了构建海防， 发展海洋军事实力甚至是构建中国海军的想法，而这实际上已经涉及到了对中国海洋权益的关注和 保护。同时，魏源早年提倡并积极参与海运改革，建议漕运由商运代替官运，发展海商，其对海洋 的认识远远超越同时代的其他人。从防守到发展，从维护海权到海洋建设，魏源的海洋认识开始吸 引中国人把目光从陆地投向海洋，转变了过去中国人对海洋固有的认识。同时，他的海洋认识为之 后的“洋务派”所继承和发展，对推动中国的近代化改革具有重要的影响。