The invention discloses a method for preparing carbon nano particles and carbon dots by using activated carbon as a precursor. The method is characterized by comprising the following steps: taking theactivated carbon, performing drying, and performing grinding to obtain powder; adding the powdery activated carbon into an oxide aqueous solution, performing stirring at room temperature, performingheating to temperature of 30-130 DEG C, and performing a reaction for 12-48 h; allowing the obtained material to stand, extracting the supernatant part, adding deionized water, performing concentration for 5-10 times, and performing dialysis by using a dialysis membrane with 100-500 D; mixing an aqueous solution containing the carbon nano particles and a compound containing amino or other functional groups by using deionized water as a medium, performing heating, and performing a heat induction reaction to obtain a crude product of carbon nano particles with a modified surface containing an organic passivation layer; and performing post-treatment to obtain the carbon dots. According to the method disclosed by the invention, the prepared carbon nano particles can be used for functional fillers such as conductive materials, nucleating agents, nano carriers and the like, and the prepared carbon dots can be used as a fluorescent marker, a sensing or detecting probe, and a photocatalyst andused in photoelectric conversion devices such as LEDs.