Abstract: Over the last one hundred years, education researchers have been interested in the modernity of moral education. Through the normative research, this article discusses the three modernity-oriented transformations China’s moral education has experienced under the wave of modernity. The first transformation, triggered by "moral revolution", not only changed the nature of the moral education, but also the content of moral education. Since then, moral education in China gradually shifted from content acquisition and filial piety towards freedom, equality and democracy. The second transformation was caused by the socialist moral reconstruction. In the process, political purpose served as the primary pursuit of moral education and moral education tended to be politicized. Industrial and commercial ethics reform led to the third transformation. Moral education was not only controlled by political education, but also by generalization of the ideological education and psychological health education, democracy and legal system education, atheism education, adolescent education, etc. Moral education acted as a tool. The three transformations have made the moral education in China rather pan-political and instrumental. To improve the modernity of moral education, this study proposes a critique of modernity. It argues that modernity is still an unfinished programme, so the project of moral education modernity in Chinas needs to undergo internal criticism and correction. On the one hand, it’s important to recognize the established basic values of modern moral education; on the other hand, it’s necessary to keep a constant criticism of the tendency of being pan-political and instrumental in the transformation of modern moral education.