The modern Chinese poet Feng Zhi (1905-1993) was deeply influenced by the German writer Goethe. Differing from his contemporaries who fell for the young Goethe, Feng Zhi was fascinated by the old Goethe, and focused his attention on Goethe’s later writings. This paper aims to make a tentative proposal of the connection between Feng Zhi and the Goethe of his later years. It is divided into three parts: the first part discusses the discrepancies between Feng Zhi’s understanding of Goethe and the general image of Goethe in the modern Chinese context; the second part examines the main intellectual characteristics of Feng Zhi’s understanding of Goethe through detailed textual analysis; the third part explores the internal relationship between Feng Zhi and Goethe in the cultural context of the quarrel between the ancient and the modern.