Abstract: In the deep mining, the occurrence of rock burst has been greatly threatening the safety of underground personnel and equipment and material. It becomes more and more important to predict the rock burst. On the basis of summarizing domestic and foreign scholars research results in rock burst, the mechanism and the commonly used criterion of the rock burst were studied to indicate that the current criterion of rock burst was substantially focusing on three aspects, namely the physical and mechanical properties of rock mass, strained condition and the energy storage condition. With the limitation of using a single evaluation index to predict rock burst, a variety of evaluation indexes for the prediction of rock burst should be considered. In the end, several common methods used in rock burst prediction and prevention techniques in an actual mining were discussed, which had a guiding significance for the prediction and prevention of rock burst.