[Background] Soil erosion is most serious in China, soil and water conservation plays an important role in the protection and using of land and water resources. Preventing soil erosion,maintaining healthy ecosystem are key parts of the construction of ecological civilization and ecological security of land. With the growing importance of the construction of ecological civilization, and the implementation of national and local major function-oriented zoning planning, preserving and enhancing functions of soil and water conservation has become one of the working direction of soil and water conservation in the new era, the study on function of soil and water conservation is also more and more. Combined with the national planning of soil and water conservation, function of soil and water conservation has profound significance. [Methods] From the concept, principles for determining types of soil and water conservation functions, evaluation index system and methods of soil and water conservation functions were set forth. The principles of determination include direct relevance, comprehensiveness and single function. Ten basic functions of soil and water conservation were determined as water resource conservation, soil conservation, water storage and conservation, sand fixation, ecological maintenance, disaster prevention and reduction, farmland protection, water quality maintenance, sand barring and reduction, living environment maintenance, and the qualitative and quantitative indicators of each function were assessed and graded. As an example with the eastern hilly region of Taihang mountain, process and the results of the water and soil conservation function evaluation were illustrated. [Results]Through case studies and statistical analysis, evaluation methods and the important role of the water and soil conservation function is clear, and distribution of functions and main direction of soil and water conservation work are proposed for eight first-grade regions. According to the area distribution of basic functions of soil and water conservation in third-grade regions, soil conservation and ecological maintenance as the basic function of third-grade regions have the largest area, the results show that the main work of soil and water conservation in China is still based on land resources protection and ecosystem maintenance. Respectively, from eight first-grade regions to see, the main functions of black soil region in Northwest China are soil conservation, ecological maintenance and water resource conservation, the main functions of north sandy region are farmland protection, sand fixation, ecological maintenance, the main functions of soil-rock mountain region in North China are soil conservation, water resource conservation, farmland protection, the main functions of the Loess Plateau region in Northwest China are soil conservation, water storage and conservation, sand barring and reduction, the main functions of south red soil region are soil conservation, living environment maintenance, water resource conservation, the main functions of purple soil region in Southwest China are soil conservation, ecological maintenance, water resource conservation, the main functions of karst region in Southwest China are soil conservation, water storage and conservation, ecological maintenance, the main functions of Tibetan Plateau region are ecological maintenance, water resource conservation. [Conclusions] Proposing water and soil conservation function, especially basic function is one of the innovations of the soil and water conservation planning, which inevitably has some guidance to national and regional soil and water conservation.