Abstract: China ranks among the nations globally that are prone to frequent landslide disasters. The investigation and research of landslide has always been key focuses of disaster prevention and mitigation. Slide zone soil is a crucial component of landslides. Studying slip zone soils not only deepens the understanding of landslide mechanisms but also provides strong support for predicting landslide occurrences. This paper uses citespace software to analyze keywords and graphs of landslide soil in recent 12 years, summarizing the main research directions in recent years. It then reviews and analyzes the mechanical characteristics of slip zone soils and their key role in the evolution of slip zones. Finally, the paper explores the opportunities and challenges that may be encountered in the study of slip zone soil in future, proposing that from the perspectives of landslide early warning and resilience control, combining multidisciplinary methods and leveraging new technologies such as big data mining and artificial intelligence for multi-scale (macro-micro-nano), comprehensive, and multi-temporal scientific research on landslide slip zone soils will be the main direction in the future.