Soil moisture is an important component of soil, and plays an important role in materials and energy exchanges between earth and atmosphere. It is also the basic parameter of crop growing and crop yield forecast. With the features of observing large area synchronously, timely, and economically, remote sensing technique makes dynamic soil water monitoring possible. This paper briefly summarizes the up-to-date progresses on the developed principle algorithms and methodologies for remote sensing of soil water content, including thermal inertia approach, crop water stress index method, normalized vegetation index scheme, ATNDVI, crop water deficit index method, vegetation condition index scheme, temperature condition index method, temperature/vegetation dryness index approach, hyper spectral remote sensing based algorithm, and microwave remote sensing orientated methodology. The features and feasibility of every discussed algorithm or approach are systematically analyzed, and the future possible prospect of the developing trend on soil moisture monitoring by remote sensing is reviewed.