Soil organisms are the essential part of biodiversity on the Earth. Soil organisms could drive soil organic matter decomposition, nutrients cycling, pollutants transformation and degradation, and the emission and consumption of greenhouse gases, which is important for global food security, environmental protection, and climate change response. The discipline of soil biology is to study soil biodiversity and distribution, soil biological processes and functions, and the regulation and application of soil organisms. Since the 21st century, the breakthrough of molecular biological technologies and the widely application of ecology theories have greatly advanced the development of soil biological study. This article reviewed the development history of soil biology, introduced the recent progress of soil biology in details, proposed the development trend of soil biology in terms of theory and application, and further figured out the future development direction of soil biology. With the multidisciplinary integration and the advances in technology, soil biology enters a new period of development. Soil biological studies have obtained great achievements especially in soil biological resources digging, time-spatial distribution patterns, ecosystem services functions and the regulation of biology, which will be beneficial to the soil health, plant health, and the health of human being and our planet.