在一般普羅大眾的認知之下，現代性是一正面的名詞，它代表了個人自由、理性、科學與進步，而中國的現代史與現代文學，亦皆是以中國接受了現代化思潮為其開端，它意謂著一個文化從古老傳統教條式的整體性思維，徹底轉型成以個人、理性為中心開展的社會文化型態。在王德威的《被壓抑的現代性》裡，指出了晚清的文學作品已然具有現代性的特質，只是當時環境尚處於西方新思維與中國舊傳統文化磨合的階段，故一直處於被壓抑的狀態。由於「現代性」這個名詞的內容，多與「個人主義」、「欲」以及「自由」有關，故本篇文論，將試以另一個角度，去觀察晚清所謂被壓抑的「現代性」與佛教概念中的「魔」兩者之間的關係，並析論其在晚清乃至於現代中是如何發展、茁壯，最後取代了原本的社會體制的過程，希望能藉此提供另一個角度去解讀其「現代性」本質，並以此反思當前社會現代化後之利弊。

Under the general public perception, modernity is a positive term, it represents the individual freedom, rationality, science and progress, and modern history and modern literature China , all is to Chinese accepted the modernization trend of thought as its beginning, it means that a culture from the ancient holistic thinking, complete transformation as to individual, rationality as the center to carry out the social and cultural patterns. In David Der-wei Wang's " Fine-de-Siecle splendor : repressed modernities of late Qing fiction", points out that in the late Qing Dynasty literature already has modern character, when the environment is still in the new thinking of the West and the old traditional culture Chinese running in stage, it is always in the repressed state. Because the term "Modernity" content, multiple and "individualism", "desire" and "free" related, therefore this article theory, will try to another angle to observe in the late Qing Dynasty, the so-called repressed "Modernity" and the Buddhist concept of "Mara" relationship between the two. Analysis on the development and how to thrive in the late Qing Dynasty, and even in modern, finally replaced the original process of social system, hope to provide another perspective to interpret the "Modernity" of the essence, advantages and disadvantages of the current social modernization and to reconsider after.