In ancient Chinese books, people generally refer to people, such as "Guanzi·Seven Laws": "people, birds, beasts, grass and trees"; it also refers to civilians, common people, and ordinary people, such as "Book of Zhou·Guan Ji" "Da Situ": "He is in charge of the map of the birthplace of the founding of the country and the number of its people." In ancient Greece and Rome, the concept of people was also used in the works of Plato, Aristotle, M.T. Cicero and others, but it referred to slave owners and free people, excluding slaves who accounted for the majority of the population.

After modern times, the concept of "people" has been widely used, but it is often mixed with words such as citizens and nationals, and generally refers to all members of society. Of course, more like "people", their meaning becomes very vague, and the meaning in which they are used depends entirely on the needs of the people who have the right to use it.

The people is a political concept that is different from the enemy. In the concept of popular sovereignty, the people are the masters of the socialist country. The people is a collective noun, consisting of electors and electees. People come from citizen groups and are social groups that participate in political activities. These groups are divided into ruling classes and non-ruling classes.

In China, according to Mao Zedong Thought, the people at this stage refer to all socialist workers, builders of the socialist cause, patriots and supporters who support the Communist Party of China and socialism with Chinese characteristics Patriots for the reunification of the motherland.