Social credit is playing an increasingly vital role in human society and serves as an important basis for its healthy development. From the perspective of its connotation, social credit is not only a social relationship es? tablished by mutual agreement between different individuals or organizations during social practice, but also a generally binding ethical code reached between its subject and object. It is also a social norm which unifies selfinterest and altruism through institutional form, or a prior restraint on future behavior on the basis of mutual trust. From the perspective of its structure, it can be divided into social credit subject, object and intermediary based on its component. From the perspective of its internal level, it includes the credit in verbal, institutional and moral level. From the perspective of time dimension, social credit includes synchronic and diachronic credit, etc. From the perspective of value, social credit is the very premise of normative life that facilitates social jus? tice, reduces cost for social operation and enhances effectiveness in this regard, which is of great significance in enhancing the efficiency of state governance.