Abstract: The cultivated land quality protection stands as a fundamental prerequisite for safeguarding national food security, ecological safety, and sustainable development. Establishing a systematic evaluation framework for cultivated land quality lays the cornerstone of effective land conservation efforts. By reviewing the advances in this domine and descerning its research priorities and future trajectories, we can furnish theoretical underpinnings for the preservation of cultivated land in China. This study employed literature review and summarization methods to delve into the connotation of cultivated land quality. It analyzed the evolution, indicator framework, and methodological models applied in evaluating cultivated land quality. Key foundings included: 1) cultivated land emerges as a human land nexus, shaped by the interplay of natural and human activities, primarily designated for crop cultivation and frequently subjected to agricultural practices such as tilling, raking, leveling et al. The quality of cultivated land is a hostic manifestation encompassing production management, economic vitality, and ecological integrity. It includes five dimensions: soil quality, spatial quality, ecological quality, management quality, and economic quality. 2) The assessment of cultivated land quality serves as an pivotal metric, gauging both the current state of cultivated land and its alignment with demand. This assessment has evolved from qualitative to quantitative analysis, from singular to multifaceted objectives, and from single-scale to multi-scale, high-precision evaluations. The integration of geographic information systems, remote sensing, global positioning (the "3S" technology) with mathematical models, machine learning algorithms, and other evaluation methodologies continues to advance, enable precise evaluations of how various factors influence cultivated land quality. 3) The agricultural and rural departments nationwide ascertain the weights of each evaluation factor by combining the Delphi method and analytic hierarchy process proposed, as outlined in the “Quality Grades of Cultivated Land” (GB/T33469-2016). Through membership functions, the degree of membership function for each evaluation index is calculated, followed by computation of a comprehensive index for cultivated land quality, culminating in the determination of its land quality level. Looking ahead, it is imperative to incorporate farmers' cultivation cultivation practices into the evaluation factors of cultivated land quality. Additionally, a system of evaluation indicators tailored for medium and low-yield cultivated land quality should be established, with a particular emphasis on scientifically connecting cultivated land quality evaluation across different spatial scales.