Aiming at the problems of complicated research topics and unclear evolution direction of China’s Grand Canal culture, this paper conducts co-occurrence analysis and social network analysis based on 784 literatures on “China’s Grand Canal Culture”. The research stage of China’s Grand Canal culture is divided into preparation stage (2010-2013), post-application exploration stage (2014-2016) and high-quality development stage (2017-present), and 176 literatures are selected to build a research system of the Grand Canal culture through rooted theories. The results show that the integration of culture and tourism, cultural communication and collaborative development have gradually become the research frontiers of the Grand Canal culture; The study of the Grand Canal culture covers a wide range, showing the trend of interdisciplinary, cross-regional and diversified methods. The research system of Grand Canal culture can be summarized into six core themes: heritage protection and utilization, cultural interpretation and dissemination, cultural and tourism integration, regional collaborative governance, ecological environment conservation, and canalology theory and technology application. Finally, on the basis of in-depth explanation of each topic, the author puts forward suggestions on the problems that need to be paid attention to in the study and development of the Grand Canal culture.