Abstract: There is a clear effect of hydro-mechanical path on the deformation of swelling rock. For the deformation behavior of compacted swelling rock under soaking-cyclicing loading and unloading, 1D swelling-circulating compression tests were conducted on Yanji swelling rock with different initial water content. On the basis of compression-rebound curves after swelling, Compression index, swelling index and their difference were obtained and the accumulative total and residual deformation rates were proposed to measure the deformation characteristics under cycling loading and unloading. The study results show that there is a significant negative liner relationship between the swelling ratio and the initial water content. The slope of loading and unloading curve is smaller with the increasing cycles, and the area of hysteresis loop decreases gradually. The compression index, swelling index and their difference increase with the growing cycles. The more the number of cycles, the less the total and residual deformation, and the accumulative total and residual deformation increase firstly, then tend to be stable. The smaller the initial water content, the larger the compression index and swelling index, and the more the accumulative total and residual deformation. The mechanical properties of specimens with different initial water content will be enhanced and normalized by the cycling loading and unloading process.