Smart agriculture is not only an important way to achieve agricultural and rural modernization，but a key lever to comprehensively promote rural revitalization as well.This article reviews the policy evolution of smart agriculture development in China in the context of rural revitalization.The transmission mechanisms of smart agriculture development empowering rural revitalization are explained.The key issues in the current development of smart agriculture are analyzed. Suggestions for path optimization are proposed based on the analyses mentioned above.Results showed that smart agriculture mainly empowered rural revitalization from five aspects including stimulating industrial dynamics，helping talent cultivation，enhancing cultural confidence，improving ecological environment，and optimizing the governance of grassroots.At present，the development of smart agriculture in China still faces key issues including imperfect policies with mid-term of long-term goal，shortcomings in key core technologies，unsound guarantee mechanisms of investment，low levels of data collection and management and utilization，and weak willingness of business managers to participate. In order to better play the role of smart agriculture in promoting rural revitalization，this article proposes corresponding countermeasures and suggestions including formulating mid-term and long-term refined policy planning，winning the battle for key core technologies，improving guarantee mechanisms of investment，uplifting the level of data collection and management and utilization，and building a team of talent with high-quality.