Since the Opium War all Chinese advanced individuals have believed that China must learn from the West in order to rejuvenate China. However, the key questions are what and how to learn. China's most recent, and also most successful, round of learning from the West started after the end of the Cultural Revolution under Deng Xiaoping's leadership. This paper traces the development of Deng's thought about learning from the West during the 2-3 years after he reassumed power in 1978. During such a short period, Deng made a great progress in his thought about what and how to learn from technological import and capital attraction to market-oriented institutional reforms.