The book "The Spirit of the Chinese" is mainly about introducing the cultural qualities of traditional Chinese to foreigners.

     Since Gu Hongming is a representative of the traditional literati class, he has to say that many of his remarks today seem to be feudal backward thoughts and defenses for the maintenance of traditional ethics. The interpretation of feudal traditions such as "Zhongjun" and "three from four virtues" made me intolerable. He said that the value of a woman is to sacrifice and sacrifice her happiness to make her husband a family. These ideas are all negation of women's independent personality.

      But on the other hand, even though Gu Hongming’s thoughts are somewhat feudal, he defends the traditional Chinese culture. In the era of eagerness to learn from the West, almost all foreign intellectuals advocated “westernization” as a Qi Hongming, who is in the West, knows the profound connotation of Chinese culture. Perhaps he knows that his defense cannot achieve any results, but he knows that without him as a defender of Chinese traditional culture, the real Chinese culture will never be presence.