The transformation of modern Chinese society under the impact of capitalism in imperialism period attracts the attention to outsiders and the outside world. It is dominantly embodied by that in the context of West Learning, the narrative and interpretation of “capitalism” contains the anxiety concerning resolving internal crises and exploring the way. By sorting out people’s articles between 1890s and 1940s, this paper firstly discusses the dual narrative of painfully feeling underdeveloped capitalism and criticizing capitalism in progress dimension; secondly, it analyzes the concept, origin and nature of capital from the perspectives of production and profits; thirdly, it discusses the social construction of capital and labor from a perspective of value creation; fourthly, it differentiates capital, capitalists and capitalism. Viewing the concept application of capital and internal logic is good to the understanding of the idea and path of social transformation in the process of modernization. It is important to eliminate the misconceptions of capitalism and unnecessary obstacles to actually respond to the challenge of universal discourse of capitalism and construct autonomous path interpretation and development theory.