Cognitive Poetics is a newly-developed literary theory since the seventies the 20th century. With the development of the cognitive science worldwide, its theories have infiltrated into other fields of studies. Cognitive science is combined with literary criticism in an effort to form a new theory: cognitive poetics. It is an outstanding achievement of interdisciplinary study. This paper explores the origin, evolution and the status quo of cognitive poetics studies in the west. It analyzes systematically Reuven Tsur’s contribution to construction of the theory as the origin of the study and introduces the theorists, such as Stockwell, Gavins, Semino, and Culpeper, of same area in the UK and the USA relating to the development of cognitive poetics. Simultaneously, the paper advances the hypothesis that the newly developed paradigm of literary study should be regionalized and be endowed with Chinese characteristics.