Abstract: Based on the literature on Lu Xun research over the years, this paper examines the various influences that Lu Xun received during the period from his study in Japan, his abandonment of medicine and his turn to literature, to the emergence of his “national character” thought, and analyzes the differences between Lu Xun’s thoughts on Chinese “national character” and Japanese “national character”. According to historical materials, Lu Xun was deeply influenced by the research on “national character” in Japan at that time. Moreover, the origin of Lu Xun‘s attention to the issue of “national character” was to a large extent due to the influence from Japanese culture, especially from the Japanese cultural atmosphere during his stay in Japan. Yaichi Haga’s Kokuminsei Jyuronn (Ten Essays on National Character) especially inspired Lu Xun to establish his concept of “national character”. However, the reason why the title of this paper is “Lu Xun‘s Criticism of ‘National Character’ and Its Japanese Influence and Cultural Transcendence” is mainly because Lu Xun, through his own digestion and transformation, injected new concepts and new ideas, including “national character”, into his works. His concept of “national character” is actually an reverse use of Yaichi Haga’s thoughts on Japanese “national character”, thus achieving a transcendence of Japan‘s “national character” research. That is to say, Lu Xun’s use of the concept of “national character” was not a copy of Yaichi Haga‘s original meaning, but rather a reversal of it. From Yaichi Haga‘s praise of his Japanese “national character”, he made a profound criticism of our nation‘s “national character” based on the actual national spirit of our country at that time. Today, we reexamine the origin and development of Lu Xun’s fierce criticism of “national character”, and use it as a starting point for further research, and conduct more indepth academic exploration and discussion.

Key words: Lu Xun, Japanese culture, national character, tracing