Abstract The Eastern Dabie Mountain area is a typical faultblock structure, for it is cut by NWW and NE trending faults and consists of four tectonic belts, i.e. North Huaiyang Belt, Dabie Belt, Zhangbaling Belt and Northern Yangtze Craton Tectonic Belt. It can be divided into four levels of planation surfaces from higher to lower: the Top Surface or the Unifying Top Surface, the Piedmont Surface or Joint Piedmont Surface, the Erosion Surface,and the Peneplain to Etching Plains, named as Tiantangzhai Surface, Dabie Surface, Huainan Surface and Jianghuai Surface respectively. The corresponding geomorphologic cycles are called as Tiantangzhai Physiographic Stage, Dabie Physiographic Stage, Huainan Physiographic Stage and Jianghuai Physiographic Stage. All these planation surfaces are transformed or deformed by vertical and horizontal displacement, gently fold or faulted at different degrees since the formation,which closely related to the activities of NWW and NE trending faults since the late cretaceous.