Abstract: From the perspective of constructing the independent knowledge system of Chinese economics,this paper retrospects the development process of financial foundation theory in different historical periods in China.During planned economy period,“theory of state distribution” is main finance theory of our country.With the formation and development of the socialist market economy,two forms of “theory of public finance” appeared.One is the liberal public finance theory,which advocates that public finance should be based on the principle of market failure and the function of finance is limited to overcoming market failure.The other is the theory of socialist public finance with Chinese characteristics,which argues that in addition to overcoming market failures,public finance also assumes the fundamental function of serving the national strategic needs and carrying out the purpose of socialist production.There is an ongoing debate between these two versions of public finance.The Third Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee proposed that “finance is the foundation and an important pillar of national governance”,which pointed out the direction for the development of financial basic theory.Since then,the socialist public finance theory with Chinese characteristics has become the mainstream theory.The evolution of China’s financial basic theory is a typical case of the development of independent knowledge system of economics,which contains the general significance of building China’s independent knowledge system for reference.