Researches on ouxi (puppet play) by scholars of former and present time are many, however there still lacks a thorough examination of related literature and documents. This article does a complete investigation of the Chinese puppet play, drawing merits from existing scholarships and adding my own views with documents and materials through the ages as major basis. It views the route of historical developments of puppet play and attempts to reasonably resolve certain controversial issues. The three types of Chinese puppet play in time sequence are kuilei xi (puppet show), yingxi (shadow show) and budai xi (sack figure show), respectively. Judging its origin and forming, the earliest appearance was the wooden figures buried with the dead in funerals during early Qin dynasty (221-207 B.C.). During the Han dynasty (206 B.C.- 220 A.D.) puppets were used not only in funeral music continuing the previous practice, but also in singing and dancing on auspicious occasions with a rough shape of “plays.” After the Northern Qi (557-581), puppets were lead into performing singing, dancing and vaudeville with a comical tone, thus the era of puppet variety show. This phase reached a peak at the “Shuishi” (water ornament) during the reign of Emperor Yang of the Sui dynasty (r. 605-617), entering the era of puppet play with stories performed. Concerning legends about the origin of puppets, either the “Secret Scheme” theory that Chen Ping (?-178 B.C.) in early Western Han used puppets to disguise as female musicians, believed by the Tang (618-907) people, or the King Mu of the Zhou dynasty (c. 1027256 B.C.) “Cease Army” theory recorded in Liezi forged by the people of Western Jin (265-317), judging from the making techniques of the puppets both theories are plausible. During the Tang dynasty, puppets further became the basis of speaking and singing, performing plays and operas “exceeding variety show.” The Song dynasty (960-1279) saw the summit of puppet play. Other than water puppets (shui kuilei) and hanging silk puppets (xuansi kuilei) from the preceding dynasties, there added cane top puppets (zhangtou kuilei), flesh puppets gunpowder (roukuilei huoyao), and medicinal initiated puppets (yaofa kuilei). Except the last item all could toy with variety show and performing plays and opera. In Song there was also “shadow show” with its origin not yet settled in argument, possibly directly imitating the painting scrolls in the Tang dynasty Buddhist temple “story telling” and the puppet show used in prosimetric performances during the Tang. The Yuan dynasty (1260-1368) puppet master Zhu Ming with such artistic cultivation reached the stage of unification of himself and the puppet. During the Ming dynasty (1368-1644) the hanging silk puppets were divided into different roles and the palace water puppets, besides performing variety show, featuring one person holding a gong by the side announcing dialogue and theme, applauding puppets’ staging performances. The “Grand Stage Palace Play” (datai gongxi) of the Qing dynasty (1644-1911) replaced water puppets with cane top puppets. Shadow show of the Yuan contained paper shadow and it was called lantern show during the Ming. In the Qing dynasty, due to the various princes and generals’ liking of shadow show it was very prosperous and spread to a wide area. As for the origin of sack figure show, reasonable situation should be that during the Qianlong reign (1736-1796) the “Shoulder Load Show” (jiandan xi) of Fengyang in Anhui was introduced into Yangzhou in Jiangsu. With its wide spreading, those who moved to Quanzhou in Fujian, for the sake of its “toying cleverly in a palm,” called it “show in a palm” commonly called “sack figure show.”