Yan Fu’s translation of Theory of Natural Selection had caused the prevalence of contest evolutionism among Chinese society, especially after China’s fiasco in the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895 and the shock resulting from it. The theory of contest evolutionism provided the reformists a basis to develop their international competition ideas, which had been spurring Chinese people to campaign for the survival of their country. However, the outbreak of the World War I changed the attitude of Chinese intellectuals. They ascribed the reason for the world war to contest evolutionism, announcing that the domination of mutual-aid evolutionism, instead of contest evolutionism, have to take place to avoid wars. This historical milieu dissolved, more or less, the state conception which Evolution and Ethics had helped shape, and led to the resurrection of Great Harmony thoughts.