Natural regeneration of forests is a complex ecological process which ensures the reproduction of the population and maintains the structure stability of forests communities. It is a hot issue of forest ecology playing an ecosystem management mode, people gradually began to emphasize the stable forest ecosystem and natural important role in forest dynamic. But with the change of forest management to multi-objectives and process, researchers began to pay attention to the natural regeneration process. In this review, we discussed the manners, and studied the effect of disturbances including fire, wood harvesting and forest gap. The most current studies of forest regeneration were based on descriptive analysis of natural regeneration from field data and phenomena, and few findings revealed the mechanisms of forest natural regeneration in terms of physiology and ecology. The research subjects mainly focused on forest types, restricted to forest gap renewal and species groups in forest communities. Insufficient attention has been paid to the regeneration of forest in frequent disturbance, and the countermeasures to promote the regeneration of natural regeneration species were insufficient. The scale of forest natural regeneration should be expanded and deepened. In studies of forest natural regeneration, researchers should strengthen the following aspects: (1) the role of various factors should be studied synthetically; (2) the scale of research should be extended; (3) the physiological mechanism and ecological function should be studied; (4) emphasis should be placed on increasing the regeneration of difficult species, the regeneration of endangered species and ecologically fragile areas; (5) physiological responses of seed seedlings to elevated CO_2 and changes in hydrothermal conditions should be carried out; (6) study on the effects of various types, intensities and frequency interference on seed seedlings should be enhanced; (7) study on the relationship between the regeneration of forest community and biodiversity to further reveal the update of forest community should be enhanced. In conclusion, this paper summarized the current situation and problems of natural forest regeneration, and put forward some suggestions for future research, which can provide the theoretical basis for forest management and ecological restoration, and provide reference for the protection of climate change, forestry production of rare and endangered plants. Meanwhile, the work has important significance on sustainable development of forests, the balance of the ecological system and the conservation of biological diversity.