Abstract: Lytton Strachey, a key member of the Bloomsbury Group in England, had a keen interest in Chinese culture. He discovered in the ancient Chinese poetry an aesthetic sensibility and a concern with the theme of sublimated friendship, which conform to his own concepts of aesthetics and ethics as a liberal humanist. In his melodrama, A Son of Heaven, Strachey further reflects on the fate of the ancient Chinese civilization against the impact from a new world order and the modern Western civilization. Strachey’s examination of and reflection on ancient China not only show how China casts some light, like a mirror, on his confusion and crisis, but also reveal England’s liberal cultural elites’ own conflicting position and dilemma at the beginning of the 20^th century.

Key words: Lytton Strachey, A Son of Heaven, Liberal Humanism, ancient Chinese civilization, the Bloomsbury Group