With the frequent earthquakes in recent years, bridge piers, as the weak link in the seismic resistance of Bridges, have attracted extensive attention from scholars at home and abroad. In this context, combined with the summary of the seismic damage mechanism of reinforced concrete bridge piers in many major earthquakes at home and abroad, with reference to the study of domestic and foreign scholars on the seismic behavior of reinforced concrete bridge piers, a systematic analysis is carried out. The reasons and process of three forms of damage of reinforced concrete bridge pier under earthquake action are obtained, and the advantages and disadvantages of existing seismic reinforcement measures and the applicable conditions are summarized.