Abstract: The South Yellow Sea is a polycycle basin surperimposition forming on the pre-Sinian metamorphic rock basement of the Lower Yangtze Platform. The complex geotectonic features occur in the sea, and the proto-type basins can not been found after multiple-period tectonic reformation. Based on the data of new seismic profiles, wells, adjacent lands and the research of different periods dynamic systems, tectonic movements as well as deformation characteristics, the tectonic evolution of the South Yellow Sea can be divided into four principal stages: the Paleozoic-Triassic marine basin, the Mesozoic land basin, the Paleocene-Middle Miocene fault basin and regional depression since the Late Miocene. The south margin of the Lower Yangtze Platform linked with the South China Folded Belt during the Caledonian Movement, and the stable and wide Post-Caledonian Platform was formed. The Sulu Orogenic Zone raised between the Lower Yangtze Platform and the southeast margin of the North China Platform during the Indosinian-Early Yangshanian Movement. The Huangbei Foreland Basin was formed between the south side of the Orogenic Zone and the Central Uplift, and the Huangnan Fault Basin on the south of the Central Uplift.