Abstract: The traditional Chinese family ethics was rich in the "duty-kindness" spirit, stressing the ethical norms of fathers being kind and sons being dutiful.From the middle 19th century, the traditional family ethics experienced a painful historical transition.And after the new China was founded, the Chinese government sought to promote the construction of the new-style family ethics politically, systematically, and economically.The great Cultural Revolution brought a severe attack to the family ethics in China and the reform and opening in China paid too much attention to the development of economy and ignored the positive construction of family ethics, thus putting the family ethics in China in a collision between modernity and tradition.In today's construction of family ethics, the traditional "dutiful-kind" spirit should be used as a helpful ideological source, making new contributions.