Contemporary studies of Chinese family law generally follow a Western approach, viewing the family as a civil contract. This approach has several flaws. First, it cannot provide an explanation of why so much public attention has been given to family law issues. Second, it fails to understand the logic and practice of family issues in Chinese history. Third, it fails to understand the political significance of the family. This article develops a new and more comprehensive understanding of Chinese family culture and its relationship to political culture. Employing what Clifford Geertz called “thick description,” it studies how people have imagined the family-political nexus in Confucianism, socialism and liberalism as each has characterized a distinct period of Chinese history. It shows Confucian family is an ethical community of restraint of biological impulse; the socialist family is a community of sacrifice and labor; the liberal family is a community of market individuals; and the contemporary Chinese family is a combination of these three traditions. A thick description enables us to understand why there are public debates about family law. What is more, it sheds new light on why China’s march toward the rule of law has not been very successful.