Earthquake-induced soil liquefaction is one of the leading causes of significant earthquake damage worldwide. It is also a complicated phenomenon of long-standing interest in the geotechnical earthquake engineering community. Assessment of soil liquefaction potential is an essential task in engineering practice. This paper provides an overview of the development and evolution of the procedures for evaluating soil liquefaction triggering during the last five decades. The focus here is on the more recent advances in the simplified procedures for soil liquefaction potential evaluation from both deterministic and probabilistic analysis perspectives. Over the past two decades，these simplified procedures have been advanced，especially in two aspects：(1)advance in both quantity and quality of the databases of case histories，in which sites were characterized by one or more in situ tests(such as the standard penetration test，the cone penetration test，the shear-wave velocity measurement，and the dynamic cone penetration test)，and(2)recognition of various uncertainties and development of probabilistic evaluation procedures. Insights are provided herein through a critical review of these advances. Discussions are also extended to a few correction factors that relate to the cyclic stress ratio and the cyclic resistance ratio in situ tests under a set of reference conditions. Cross-comparisons are made among selected representative methods of liquefaction potential evaluation，and issues encountered in these evaluations are discussed. Lessons learned from decades of research，development，and practice of soil liquefaction potential evaluations，as summarized in this retrospective review，offer a prospect for next-generation liquefaction triggering evaluation procedures.