After the Opium War with the gradual elimination of the social basis for the existence of Wushu the traditional Wushu was beginning to be changed, which concentrated on the "Chinese martial art reform" at the end of the Qing Dynasty and the beginning of the Republic of China.

After the Opium War, with the loss of the extraterritoriality, the development of the international prison-reforming movement and the collision and fusion of the Chinese and Western law thoughts, the modern prison-reforming thoughts that took the bourgeois reformists as the representatives came into being.

Till early years of the 20~(th)century,in the promotion of an opera reform movement the opera was endowed with important tasks of enlightening masses and reforming society,thus giving more prominence to its social critical character.