Abstract: To grasp the historical evolution, logical structure, creative transformation and innovative development of Confucian people-oriented governance is the basic clue to analyze Chinese traditional social governance culture. The Confucian people-oriented thought constructs three core contents from ontology, axiology and methodology, namely, “people-oriented”, “supporting the people” and “meritocracy”, which correspond to the core value, legitimacy foundation and participation mode of ancient Chinese social governance respectively. It is of great theoretical and practical significance for China’s current cultural construction and governance to grasp the conflict and reconstruction between the people-oriented thought and the reform of modern Chinese political system, clarify the dialectical relationship between the creative transformation and innovative development of the people-oriented social governance concept, and promote the transformation of the connotation of Chinese excellent traditional culture from value judgment to fact demonstration.