A general introduction is given to trend of the research in the world on soil quality guidelines/standards,and the principle as well as application function,and several suggestions for amendment of the existing soil environmental quality standards in China.Derivation of risk-based soil quality guidelines/standards has been an international trend,which takes into consideration land uses,and settings of generic exposure pathways,exposure scenario(e.g.exposure period and frequency) and critical receptors associated with various types of land uses.Risk-based soil quality guidelines/standards are mostly applied to risk management,serving as crit ical values for identification of contaminated sites/soils.To amend the existing soil environmental quality standards in China,it is essential to take into consideration function and objectives of the standards,methodologies,land uses,effect of the transport of soil contaminants on other environmental media,and categories of soil contaminants.The standards are to be amended to set up "soil environmental and healthy quality guidelines/standards" for protection of the ecology and human health,which will serve for risk identification and comprehensive management of contaminated sites,and meanwhile to set up "soil native quality guidelines/standards" for protection of soil resource.