Abstract: As an important tool of the government, market, and even society for allocating resources, public finance is a main hub for connecting the economic system, political system and social system and plays a pivotal role in the process of the whole social resource allocation. Based on the definitions and functions of “visible hand” of government, “invisible hand” of the market and “the third hand” of the emerging social subject and focused on “what the public finance can do”, “what the public finance should do” and other basic questions, this paper respectively expounds the role boundaries of public finance in the relationships among the government, market and society, which is the basis and important mainstay of the national governance, and then introduces and analyses the dynamic evolution of the concept of the public finance under the socialist marketing economy system in contemporary China, based on the perspective of the multi-relationships among government, market and society, and further clarifies the orientation of the modern public finance based on promoting the national governance system and modernization of governance ability.

Key words: modern public finance, government, market, society