Where there is a learning, there is a learning motivation. Why learn ”legal history”? What is the controversy of the name? How does the nature of this subject position be defined in the whole legal system? For a 2 or 3 thousand year Chinese legal history, which stage shall it start with? What and how does it discuss? Which topics need to be included in the core of lectures?Especial importantly, ”knowledge must begin and end in method”. Investigation of an academic subject, how to access from pure ”knowledge” to ”wisdom”, in virtue of which the gain and loss approaches can be apprehended, it needs to profoundly accumulate over a long period of time.Having engaged in legal history studies over 30 years, this article provides my responses to the above-mentioned doubts. Discussing fundamental concepts of Chinese legal history for teaching and research, not only is the first lesson of legal history, but also shares my personal bits and chunks of perceptional experiences.