Abstract: This article highlighted that theoretically there were two approaches to study Chinese coping in Chinese social background. One was based on the coping theories of the west psychology. The other should be based on the nature of Chinese culture. This article was focused on the latter. Confucian coping was proposed with consideration that Confucianism has been the mainstream of Chinese culture. Confucian coping emphasizes that adversity or stress can help individuals growing by which it is chance to develop trait and ability to become an achievement person. The features of Confucian coping are pro-frustration, spiritual, whole and developmental. On this theoretical analysis the Confucian coping questionnaire was developed. The CES-D、SAS、SWLS were chosen as index of mental health. The data of 530 participants showed there were positive relations between Confucian coping and mental health. Exploratory factor Analysis showed that the Confucian coping has 4 factors: optimism in the adversity, the viewpoints to “fate”, the responsibility as human beings, the role of adversity to individual growing. The mechanism of Confucian coping to mental health was discussed

Key words: coping, Confucianism, stress, Chinese culture, mental health