Abstract: Lv Simian began to come into contact with the materialist conception of history in the early 20th century and expressed his agreement no later than 1920s. Especially, he advocated and performed the practice of explaining social and historical phenomena in terms of economic elements. However, differing from other materialist historians at that time, he refused to regard economic elements as the only factors and reduce all issues to them, let alone distort historical facts to adapt to a certain doctrine of historical evolution in explaining Chinese history. This bottom line of his advocating and applying the materialist conception of history was also used in his criticism of the “excessive believers of the materialist conception of history”. Such bottom-line has been not permitted in the academic and ideological situations since 1950s. In his old age, Lv seldom talked about the materialist conception of history. However, it is the fact that he adhered to the materialist conception of history in his whole life.