[Objective] The research progress of carbon cycling in domestic and abroad was reviewed to provide bases for the ecological restoration of degraded land and the environmental protection. [Methods] The paper summarized the main approaches of soil organic carbon cycling, including laboratory culture method, isotope tracer technique, modeling and computer simulation, etc., and their characteristics and existing problems were elucidated from several aspects. The mechanism of soil organic carbon cycle and the main factors affecting soil organic carbon cycle were analyzed. [Results] There are big differences between the estimation method, data base, results of soil organic carbon pool and model of soil organic carbon cycle, which often bring certain difficulties to study soil organic carbon cycle research. Changes in land use and land cover are the immediate anthropogenic factor, which affect terrestrial soil organic carbon changes and recycling. [Conclusion] In the future, we should pay attention to role of land use and land cover in soil carbon cycle and the status. And we need to set up model of soil carbon cycle for China's national conditions. The future soil carbon cycle research should explore the standard, high precision of organic carbon storage estimation method.