Cardiac rehabilitation can safely and effectively improve the quality of patient's life and reduce readmission rate and mortality after cardiac surgery. Early cardiac rehabilitation after cardiac surgery is an indispensable part of cardiac rehabilitation. It can speed up the recovery of patient's exercise endurance, prevention of postoperative complications, shorten the time of returning to the family, increase the confidence of sustained rehabilitation, and lay foundation and set rehabilitation targets for the later stage of cardiac rehabilitation. This paper reviews the development history of early cardiac rehabilitation after cardiac surgery, and summarizes the current status, problems and outlook of rehabilitation management in China.