The soil health status of arable land is related to national food security and ecological security. Current research on soil health assessment faces limitations such as the unclear definition of soil health and confusion of research scales. There are also drawbacks related to mainstream technology routes abroad. Based on literature research and expert interviews, we discussed the above issues from the perspective of conceptual deconstruction and proposed a research framework to provide a reference for the soil health assessment of arable land in China. Firstly, the concept of soil health based on soil functions and threats was constructed. The soil health of arable land was deconstructed theoretically into five types of soil functions:primary productivity, water purification and regulation, carbon sequestration and regulation, provision of functional and intrinsic biodiversity, provision and cycling of nutrients. Also, the idea of management and protection of arable soil health was identified. Secondly, based on the general principles of land evaluation, the soil health of arable land was divided into spatial scales, and four levels of arable soil health management goals, including field, county, province, and country, were proposed. Finally, from the above two aspects, the whole process research framework of arable soil health assessment was formed. The research framework can be summarized by the following five points:(1) the scientific connotation and assessment framework of soil health; (2) the relationship between arable soil health with soil functions and threats, and its description; (3) soil functions characterization and soil health assessment of arable land at different scales; (4) spatial differentiation characteristics and influencing factors of arable soil health at different scales; and (5) strategies and models for the management and protection of arable soil health. Nevertheless, this study is faced with the limitations of how to (i) define and quantify the supply-demand relationship between soil health status and soil functions of arable land (dry land, irrigated land, and paddy field), and (ii) scientifically select the indicators and characterization methods of soil functions to realize the expression from soil functions and threats to arable soil health? To answer these questions, more studies are recommended in this area of research.