The history for the development of chiral phos- phorus ligands in catalytic asymmetric hydrogenation is briefly highlighted. This review focuses on the recent ad- vances in the synthesis of the monodentate phosphorus ligands and their applications in catalytic asymmetric hydrogenation. The examples highlighted in this article clearly demonstrated the importance and advantages of monodentate phosphorus ligands, which had been ignored for 30 a and experienced arenaissance at the very beginning of this millennium, particularly in the area of asymmetric hydrogenation.
