Abstract: During the Anti-Japanese War (1938-1945),Chinese people’s national consciousness began to strengthen with the intensifying national crisis.From the point of self –defense of a nation,many Chinese intellectuals changed their attitude toward national tradition.They thought that if a nation was to survive,its symbol,the national tradition,should be kept,thus they arrived a conclusion to make new by going back to tradition.However,they met a dilemma which had puzzled Chinese since the late period of Qing dynasty.In other words,if they changed the pragmatic factors in Chinese tradition,the new ethos would be non-tradition,or was even against tradition;and if they followed the pragmatic ones,there would be no transition in Chinese ethos.In this sense,the modernization of Chinese ethos was not successful until the end of the Anti-Japanese War.

Key words: ethos, national consciousness, making new by going back to tradition, scienticism