In the early years of the Republic of China, problems such as ethnic crisis, rural bankruptcy, and separation of education and life were prominent. Tao Xingzhi, from the perspective of saving the nation through education, realized the value of labor education and constructed the connotation of labor education from the angle of "adding mental labor to physical labor", and put forward the essence, purpose, content and methods of labor education. He pays special attention to the practical dimension of labor education, actively promotes and popularizes labor education by school offering courses, building labor campus, holding sports meetings and writing poems, and quantifies the evaluation criteria for labor education. Tao Xingzhi's theoretical construction and practical exploration of labor education provide inspiration for higher education, middle and primary schools to fully understand the value of labor education, develop labor education according to local conditions and improve the practice system of labor education.