Abstract: The cultivated land quality protection serves as a fundamental prerequisite for safeguarding national food security, ecological safety, and sustainable development. Establishing a systematic evaluation framework for cultivated land quality forms the cornerstone of effective land conservation efforts. By reviewing the advances in this domain and discerning its research priorities and future trajectories, we can provide 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 findings 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, and so on. The quality of cultivated land is a holistic 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 a 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, enabling 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 as proposed, as outlined in the “Cultivated land quality grade” (GB/T 33469—2016). Through membership functions, the degree of membership 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 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.