Great Windcatcher

Zhou Zuo-ren is a controversial figure in modern literary history. Although his identity of thinker has been affirmed by part of people, his thinking on the national character, as well as the resulting performance has not been sufficient researched and elaborated. This paper argues that the national thinking, as a major theme of this century, also occupies a great deal of weight in Zhou's thought. That is to say, sorting out and studing Zhou's thinking of national character can not only help us to restore the history of Zhou Zuoren, but also contribute to a better understanding of the mentality of modern Chinese intellectual history, and we can learn from these outstanding thinking to guide our contemporary life.This paper focuses on Zhou Zuoren's perspective of the national character as well as the transformation of the approach taken. Ever-changing background of the times, as well as Zhou Zuo-ren's own continued exploration of this thought made him show a step change from saving the country by the literature, to the social criticism and ideological revolution, and then to cultural criticism and inheritance, however, his passion of reforming the national character had not changed all the time. He always said his main task was the transformation of the national ideology, rather than the literary work which valued by others. And although he denied the utilitarian nature of literature, he still agreed the literary transference functions; even though he later abandoned the sharp social criticism, but he continued to think of the society from a cultural point of view.However, whether literary or religious, scientific knowledge, as the the production of social consciousness that is far away from the economic base, can not assume a fundamental transformation of the heavy responsibility of the national character. At the same time, the China's urgent need was political salvation, while Zhou Zuoren obviously ignored the stage of social progress as well as the tortuous nature, and he inevitably met setbacks in this process. But his passion of concerning the national, and the ideas in advance are still worthy of our research and learning.