This article discusses the transformation in ”self-image” of modem Chinese intellectuals. The author finds that from the late Ch'ing on, there was a tendency by elites to relinquish the traditional idea that ”literati” (shih) always led the social hierarchy composed of four main ”classes,” or the Four-People (ssu-min:, farmer, artisan-worker, and merchant). What's more, they downgraded their own status to become lower than workers, some even reproaching themselves, ”Why am I still not a worker?” I term this development the ”self-marginalization” of modem Chinese intellectuals.