Abstract: The past over 30 years has witnessed Chinese reform. However, the debate on the reform has never stopped up to now. This is mainly because different people understand reform in different ways. The ultimate goal of theoretical study is to make the society reach a new consensus in the understanding of reform. However, in recent years, Chinese academic circle tends to overgeneralize Chinese reform with labels such as “Chinese mode” and “Chinese way”. This results in some deviations in understanding the complicate social practice of Chinese reform. China's reform is an innovative process of system transition, which involves lots of issues, including the relation between knowledge stock and knowledge increment, methods of institutional innovation and its efficiency, and the adjustment of social interests. Therefore, we should understand Chinese reform from three dimensions: knowledge, institution and interest. Certainly, to understand the reform is not just to summarize the experience and lessons, but to help Chinese society to understand better the significance and urgency to deepen reform.