Rocking Wall (RW) can absorb and dissipate the kinetic energy of controlled structures through its own rocking and achieve self-center capacity through its rocking structure. In order to speed up the popularization and application of RW systems in seismic resistance and shock absorption of engineering structures, this study reviewed the development history of RW, summarized the main classifications and characteristics of RW systems, and then elaborated on the progress and shortcomings of research on the seismic performance of RW and rocking wall-controlled structure (RW-CS) from four aspects, including the experimental research, numerical analysis, theoretical analysis and design methods. Finally, the future development direction of RW and RW-CS was given. The results show that, compared with the free RW and controlled RW, the energy dissipation rocking wall system (ERWS) can obtain better anti-seismic redundancy and damping robustness by introducing additional energy dissipation devices, which is a hot research topic at present. The existing findings on the seismic performance of RW and RW-CS are still insufficient to support their optimal design and practical application. The mechanisms of rocking, energy dissipation and self-center of ERWS and ERWS-CS are still unclear under variable frequency and amplitude excitation. Thus, the balance of supply and demand of these three mechanisms is the focus of future research. Moreover, the seismic design methods of RW and RW-CS have also undergone the development process from ultimate load-based to performance (displacement)-based design methods. The performance-based design methods still need to be verified and developed in complex ERWS and ERWS-CS. © 2024 Science Press. All rights reserved.