In the process of modernization and construction of the rule of law，China has absorbed and transplanted many western elements of the rule of law. The formation of the landmark system of socialist statutory law and the implementation of the case-guidance system are the products of application of western learning in China—both of them serve the general modernity purpose of constructing a nation state. However，the application of the same western legal principles and doctrines has produced different effects in China on the practice and operation of the rule of law. For example，China has accepted the concept of rights，but not that of individualism and it has advocated state responsibility，but not necessarily based on nationalism. This reflects both the family resemblance of the rule of law in contemporary China to that in western countries and its the inherent affinity to the traditional Chinese culture. This article，through the analysis of such relationships as those between rights and mediation and between filial piety and state responsibility，reveals the conflicts and entanglements between legality and reasonableness，between the West and China，and between tradition and modernity. The author of this article holds that what is wrong in contemporary China is not modernity itself and what China has negated and abandoned is not the trend of development towards modernization，but the new interpretation of the nature of modernity，which depends on whether the judgment of modernity is based on directional judgment of the strangers’ society or on that of the new acquaintance society. Adhering and mastering the latter is crucial to the construction from the inherent Chinese perspective of a legal theory with Chinese characteristics but without losing universality.