Just as Hegel said that “Every individual is a child of his time,” Chinese criminal jurisprudence is undergoing an era of intellectual transformation. Any criminal law scholar reviewing the development of criminal jurisprudence in the last 40 years will appreciate that this is an era of a dramatic transformation of criminal law knowledge. This creates a binding condition from which every criminal law scholar and their works in this era cannot escape. One of the fundamental features of the transition is the introduction of foreign knowledge and methods of legal dogmatics of criminal law and their rapid development within domestic academia in the context of academic opening. Understanding the trajectory of development and the problems encountered by legal dogmatics of criminal law in China is an important tool for comprehending the transformation of criminal law knowledge in contemporary China. Based on the general position and methodology of legal dogmatics, this article reveals the history and current situation with respect to the development of legal dogmatics of criminal law in Chinese criminal law academia, outlines the depth of the transformation of criminal law knowledge in contemporary China, and thus reflects the difficult but rewarding struggle of Chinese criminal law scholars during the process of this transformation.