The use of visualized bibliometric analysis helps evaluate objectively advancement of the research on soil erosion, which in turn promotes knowledge about frontiers of the research at home and abroad, thus pushing the research fast forwards in China. With the aid of the CiteSpace software, bibliometric analysis was performed of the data cited from the Web of Science and CNKI（China National Knowledge Infrastructure）for history of the advancement of the researches on soil erosion, both at home and abroad in the recent three decades. For the convenience of analysis, the time period set for the study was divided into three phases (1992—2000, 2001—2009 and 2010—2018). It was found that the researches on soil erosion the world over focused firstly on relationship between soil erosion and land productivity and its evaluation methods and then turned towards interactions between climate change and soil erosion, accurate estimation of soil erosion, as well as large scale macroscopic research on soil erosion during the phase of 1992—2000. As the research in the country was getting more and more policy-oriented, the phase of 2001—2009 witnessed foci of the research being shifted to laws of soil and water conservation and economic benefits-pivoted soil erosion control, and gradually towards ecological construction and sustainable development as the core issues and application of GIS and remote-sensing to the researches in this field. In the last phase of 2010—2018, eyes of the researcher focused on RUSLE and other models, especially for relationship of soil erosion with land use, slope and some other influencing factors. Finally, based on comparison between the three phases in focus and frontier of the soil erosion researches at home and abroad, the paper put forth directions for future researches on soil erosion in China.