Abstract: Chinese traditional population economic thought involves a wide range of contents, which is characterized by the fact that from the perspective of national economic development and increasing national fiscal revenue, it emphasizes the balance between the population and the cultivated area of land and the ecological environment, and the administrative intervention in maintaining the reasonable proportion between the population and the means of production and living. The view of encouraging population growth in Chinese traditional population economic thought dominated before the Song Dynasty, and mostly appeared after the war and at the beginning of the founding of the dynasty; The view of population control mostly appeared in the peak period of social stability and economic development. After the Song Dynasty, it gradually became the mainstream. The enlightenment left by Chinese traditional population economic thought is that there should be different population goals and different policy means in different periods, and the adjustment of population policy and population structure should keep pace with the times.