Abstract: Meiyu front rainstorm is the main meteorological disaster over the Yangtze River basin during summer, which has always been a hot topic and difficult problem in meteorological research. Since the 1930s, Chinese meteorologists have paid attention to it and conducted many researches on Meiyu front rainstorm, including the concept, structure, large-scale circulation field, climatic characteristics, multi-scale features, thermal and dynamic formation mechanism of Meiyu front, and so on. These studies provided theoretical guidance and scientific understanding for routine forecast of Meiyu front rainstorm. This paper mainly introduced the concept of MeiYu front and its research history, which emphasized on the structure, properties and formation mechanism of an equivalent barotropic type Meiyu front rainstorm. Then, we summarized the classification, structural characteristics and environmental conditions of meso-scale convective systems that caused the Meiyu front rainstorm in recent years, and the influence mechanisms of terrain on MCS, and the dynamic excitation mechanism of MCS.