Listed companies received a huge amount of subsidies of Chinese Government and the amount is growing year after year, which cause extensive questions, however, present researches on governmental subsidy for the enterprises do not have consistent conclusion. Based on rational economic man theory, by considering the influence of institutional change and environment change, this paper takes 2007-2015 China listed companies as samples, and empirically tested the motivation of the government subsidy. The results show that there are two main purposes of government subsidy such as expanding employment and further promotion of economic growth by helping the company keep on the list, however, the tax increase and helping the listed companies to reach the rationed share requirement are not the main factor for government to give the subsidy to the enterprises, and that there is no significant evidence to indicate that state-owned enterprises can be easier to get subsidies than that of private enterprises. China should perfect the quitting system for capital market, enhance the investigation and supervision of the governmental subsidies, improve the resource allocation efficiency of the governmental subsidies and actively guide the subsidies to play better role in social benefit.