Taking the representative cultural relics of Yangshao Culture, Western Zhou Dynasty, Warring States Period, Qin, Western Han, and Tang Dynasties collected by Shaanxi History Museum as examples, the paper ains to sort out and analyze traditional Chinese design culture as well as explore the causes and evolution of ancient Chinese artifact design from history, culture, technology, and art through literary analysis, cultural relics comparative research, material science, and processing technology analysis. We obtained the design characteristics and development context of artifacts in various periods of Chinese history. The design culture is more reflected in the relationship of "Tian, Di, Ren", reflecting the ancient" You Qi Zhi Dao (learning rules from specific things)" and "Ge Wu Zhi Zhi (gaining knowledge by studying the principles)" creative ideas.The result proves that China has had designs with its own characteristics since ancient times, and its design ideas such as Learn From Nature, People-oriented, Universal Love, and Thrift still have reference value for contemporary design. Each era has its own design characteristics, and the idea of keeping pace with the times runs through the design process of ancient China.The inheritance of design culture is not retro, but innovative. It is not only the inheritance of "Qi" or "Ji" but also the inheritance of design ideas. Chinese design is constantly developing in the cycle of "Ge Wu Zhi Zhi (gaining knowledge by studying the principles)" and "You Zhi Ge Wu (learning rules from specific things)".