To meet the requirement of environment, economy and safety, advanced high strength steels including dual phased (DP), complex phased (CP), transformation-induced plasticity (TRIP) and twinning-induced plasticity (TWIP) steels are widely used for automotive steel. Among them, high manganese TWIP and TRIP steels are particularly appealing due to their outstanding tensile strength and elongation. In contrast to high manganese TWIP steel, high manganese TRIP steel exhibits higher strength and work hardening rate due to strain induced martensitic transformation. The enhanced mechanical properties of high manganese TRIP steel are determined by both the stability of the retained austenite (γ ) and the initial microstructure. Strain induced martensitic transformation and subsequent reversion from deformed martensite to γ during annealing is often applied as one of the most effective methods for microstructure improvement. Microstructure and texture characteristics of high manganese TRIP steel during cold rolling together with the reversion of deformed bcc martensite (α'-M) at high temperature were investigated. It is shown that the γ was almost completely transformed into α'-M at medium cold rolling reduction. And a higher reduction after α'-M saturation resulted in dominantly the deformation of α'-M, hence thin laths paralleled to the rolling direction (RD) were obtained. The main components in α'-M were {113}<110>, {554}<225> and rotated cube ({001}<110>) textures at medium cold rolling reduction, which are the typical phase transformation textures. The {113}<110> texture rotated toward a more stable orientation {223}<110> and led to a strong cold rolling texture (<110>//RD) with increasing reduction. The reversion of martensite and recrystallization of γ proceeded at temperature ranging from 650 ℃ to 850 ℃. The reversion of α'-M proceeded in a diffusional mechanism, accompanying with the redistribution of Mn and Al between γ and α'-M. Deformed α'-M was merged by the adjacent γ , and columnar γ grains with a large amount of subgrains were obtained. The texture of reverted γ was approximately the same as that of the deformed γ , this phenomenon called texture inheritance was formed by the direct growth of γ . Subsequently, recrystallization of γ grains occurred by sub-grain coalescence and the columnar γ grains were instead by equiaxed γ grains.