1937—1939年留学北京期间，竹内好切实体味到了“文学”在日本侵略者“政治”暴力下的无力感。与此同时，他在与周作人的交往过程中，加深了对其人和思想的理解。竹内好对“政治与文学”之关系的理解，对东亚民族性、文化主体性和现代化的看法都受到了周作人影响。“竹内周作人”最终成为了通往“竹内鲁迅”的一座思想桥梁：用“鬼”和“东洋人的悲哀”联结周作人与鲁迅，反映了经历了北京时代的竹内好对东亚民族性与现代化关系的反思；小品文和“隐逸”这两个周作人思想的关键词也被竹内好吸收进自己的理论体系中，扮演了“内部否定者”的重要角色，成为日后建立“回心”论的思想基点；周作人关于文学“无用之用”的看法和沉默的文化抵抗方式则被竹内好视为“文学者的态度”，影响了“竹内鲁迅”中“政治与文学”间矛盾对立统一关系的建构。

From 1937 to 1939, Takeuchi Yoshimi studied in Beijing as an overseas student. During this time, he had a developed deep understanding of literature’s inefficacy when confronted with Japanese invaders’ political violence. At the same time, through befriending Zhou Zuoren, Takeuchi was deeply affected by him, especially regarding his views on the relationship between literature and politics, national character, cultural subjectivity, and modernization of East Asia. In the end, Zhou Zuoren became a bridge for Takeuchi Yoshimi to Lu Xun. By using the two key words, “ghost” and "sorrow of the East Asia people”, to connect Zhou Zuoren and Lu Xun, Takeuchi expressed his reflection on the relationship between the nationality of East Asia and its modernization. The other two key words from Zhou Zuoren’s thought, “essay” and “hermit” had been absorbed by Takeuchi to play a crucial part as an “inner naysayer”, which became the foundation of his theory of “repent”. Zhou Zuoren’s view about the use of the useless in literature and his silent cultural resistance was also seen as an “attitude of litterateur” to Takeuchi, which influenced the unity of opposites between literature and politics, which Takeuchi Yoshimi built in his interpretation of Lu Xun.