Abstract: Since modern times, the Chinese view of Japan is evolving with the increasing frequency of exchanges and confrontations, especially the reversal of the comparison of national strength. Xu Zhaowei, a gentleman frombsouth of the Yangtze River, lived in a period of great changes in modern Sino-Japanese relations. Xu Zhaowei wroteba diary for nearly half a century. The diary contained many contents related to Japan, which provide important historical data for scholars to study Xu's view of Japan. The failure of the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895 had a great impact on Xu Zhaowei. Consequently, he analyzed Japan's successful experience in order to seek a strategy to save China. More and more people demanded to learn from Japan with the victory of Japan in the Russo-Japanese War and the promotion of the New Deal in the late Qing Dynasty. Therefore, Xu Zhaowei went to Japan to study the advanced civilization. Since then, Japan's ambition to invade China has been continuously highlighted, especially after the outbreak of the overall anti-Japanese war. Xu Zhaowei recorded the Japanese atrocities in south of the Yangtze River. The evolution of Xu Zhaowei's view of Japan in his personal life history is also the epitome of SinoJapanese relations during this period.

Key words: Sino-Japanese Relations, Xu Zhaowei, view of Japan