The invention relates to a rare earth / ionic liquid luminescent soft material and a preparation method thereof, belonging to the field of rare-earth functional materials. The luminescent soft material comprises the components of ionic liquid, rare-earth ions and organic ligand which have the mole ratio of 1:3:1.5-6; wherein the ionic liquid is ionic liquid (I) or ionic liquid (II) which has the above structural formula, wherein X=Br, (OTf), BF4, PF6 or NTf2; in the (I), R is alkyl containing 2-6 carbons, and n=2-5; in the (II), n1=2-5, and n2=2-5; the rare-earth ions are Nd, Sm, Eu, Gd, Ho, Er, Yb, Tm or Dy; and the organic ligand is one or a mixture of two in Bipy, Bath, Phen, TTA, PM, PT, PC and PF. The rare earth compound / ionic liquid material has rich luminescent colors, high color purity, long fluorescence service life, high quantum efficiency as well as strong heat stability and light stability, so as to be an optical soft material of great value, thus being widely applied to the fields such as display, optical waveguide amplification, solid-state lasers, medical science, biological marker, anti-counterfeit technology, etc.