The Qinling is a composite orogen which experienced three different developmental stages under distinct tectonic regimes. The main stage (Neo-Proterozoic Middle Triassic) of the orogenic evolution is a prolonged and complicated process, and characterized by subduction and collision "along two suture zones between three plates. The details of the orogenic processes, such as transition from rift system to plate-tectonic regime, from drifting to subduction and collision, and especially from point-contact initial collision through linear-contact collision to fully collisional orogeny, demonstrate that the Qinling was built up by dispersion, integration and accretion of a number of crustal blocks in Tethy'an domain, and evolved under the influence of variation in coupling relationship between both ancient and modern mantle dynamics and lithosphere. rift tectonics, plate tectonics, continental tectonics, orogenic process.