The characteristics of bed load motion is special, which makes the research on bed load transport one of the difficulties and focus in field of the River dynamics. Both Chinese and overseas scholars are very concerned about the study on bed load transport. The characteristic of the bed load movement is expounded succinctly in the article, and the role in riverbed deformation, sand wave, bending river evolution and the influence to the engineering of the bed load movement are discussed. In addition, the history and latest study development of the bed load on theoretical analysis, experimental research and prototype observation in natural river are discussed separately from three periods, comparative analysis about the bases of different theories, research methods and experimental observation techniques are also made in the article, and some suggestions are proposed. The broadening of research perspective and improvement on research method and observation instrument must be considered in deepening the research of bed load transport.