Abstract Chemical core literacy had triple implications of "chemical" literacy, "core" literacy and "human" literacy. Based on the concept analysis and hierarchy analysis, this paper proposed four-dimensional structure model of chemical core literacy. Among the four dimensions, "chemical basic concepts" was fundamental, "the process of chemistry" and "the applications of chemistry in life" were two activated dimensions while "the attitude towards chemistry" was the dynamic dimension. Chemical core literacy had laid the foundation for the development of academic chemistry literacy and life-oriented chemical literacy. Grasping the differences in the structure and the specific dimensions of the three kinds of chemical literacy could help to understand the connotation of chemical core literacy, and also help to grasp the teaching orientation of different modules in the high school chemistry curriculum.