I've heard and read very little about this conflict, and was curious about the difference in technology readily available. Did the Japanese have better weapons, more weapons, or both? And what was the standard set of tools and weapons they (the enlisted men) would carry?
edit: I just realized this was asking about the 1st Sino-Japanese War, not the Second! I'll keep the answer below though just for reference.
As I mention below, the ideal Chinese soldier was equipped with the Hanyang 88 rifle, derived from the German Gewehr 88 bolt-action. However, the Qing dynasty utilized several kinds of troops (for instance, Imperial Guards, Green Standard Armies, Banner troops), not all of whom were equipped well-a large amount of them were equipped with single-shot rifles, like the Martini-Henry, as opposed to the Murata (not to be confused with the Japanese word for "log") bolt-action rifle that the Japanese used. Japanese rate-of-fire, accuracy, and range was thus much improved over the Chinese.
So, while I would say that the best Chinese troops were at least on an equal footing with the Japanese, and there were certainly more weapons deployed by the Chinese, the Japanese had a larger number of quality weapons and were more uniformly equipped, giving them a huge advantage in logistics and localized firepower.
The Second Sino-Japanese War:
The trouble is the typical "Chinese" soldier varied depending on where they came from.
The National Revolutionary Army, the army of Nationalist China, was in of itself composed of several types of troops. There were the Hui Muslim Troops of the Ma clique, who typically were mounted infantry. There were the various warlord troops, such as those of Yunnan, Guangxi, Szechuan, Guangdong, and so forth, all of whom were of varying quality. Even among the NRA regulars, there were massive differences. There were two types of divisions: the pre-1930 divisions, which were roughly 5,000 troops each, and generally poorly equipped, as opposed to the ~1936, German trained divisions, of 10,000 men each, which were equipped with modern German equipment. While regular troops used the Hanyang 88, a Chinese-built version of the Gewehr 88 (which was modified twice since its introduction during the Qing Dynasty), the German-trained troops used the Chiang Kai-Shek rifle, which became more common throughout the war. The CKS rifle was a Chinese produced version of the Gewehr 98, and it was a good match for the Japanese Arisaka rifles. Another common feature among Chinese troops was the Stahlhelm, the German helmet.
For heavier small arms, the Japanese had the advantage, simply because Chinese industry was unable to handle more modern machine guns. While the German-trained divisions used the Czech Zb-26, and later in the war, US Browning machine guns, the less-well-equipped troops often ended up stealing Japanese Type 11 machine guns and turning them on their former owners.
Sources:
Harmsen, Shanghai 1937: Stalingrad on the Yangtze
Kirby, Germany and Republican China
Thanks to the Meiji Restoration in Japan, Japan had the technological advantage in weapons over the Chinese. The Japanese infantry was armed with an eight millimeter repeating rifle which was designed from European models. When fully loaded, it contains eight cartridges. Despite not having battleships and being outnumbered in terms of total navy warships, Japan's cruisers were faster and better armed. Their navy was influenced from American and British navies alike.
The Chinese Infantry on the other hand, carried older, and more outdated weapons such as: Austrian muskets, Martinis, Mausers, and Enfields. Some soldiers were even armed with bows and arrows and long spears. As for China's navy, they had about 50 steam warships and 13 torpedo boats. The pride of their navy were two German built steel turret battleships:The Dingyuan and Zhenyuan. In total, the Beiyang Fleet (China's Navy) had 78 ships in total.