Abstract: The development of digital humanities is in the ascendant, but the basic problems such as its subject structure, research boundary and development mode need to be further sorted out. On the basis of theoretical analysis, this paper establishes a four-area research framework according to the digital level and humanistic level, and further analyzes the related problems. It is found that digital humanities is a secondary discipline group under several different primary disciplines, and methods and technologies are common to all digital humanities, with the research content dependent on the first-level discipline. digital humanities expands the research of traditional humanities. The development model of digital humanities includes traditional growth model and digital breakthrough model. The former is slower but has better research quality, while the latter is faster but has lower research quality. We should choose our own development model according to different situations.