Previous literature on audit failure focuses mostly on audit clients，auditors and regulations，ignoring the relation between audit standards and audit failure.Using the sample of CSRC sanctions against individual auditors and audit firms over the period 2000 to 2014，this paper investigates the relation between specific audit standards and audit failure.I find that，among all of the audit failure cases，Audit Evidence and External Confirmations are the two standards most frequently violated，and other standards following the two are Related Parties and Transactions，Quality Control for Audits，Analytical Procedures，Related Parties，Financial Statement Audit，Audit Procedures on Assessed Risk of Material Misstatements，Considerations of Fraud during Financial Statement Audit，Audit Reports，and Audit Documentation.The above findings hold both before and after the new audit standards system issued in 2006，and the same is true for both large and small audit firms.These highly vulnerable audit standards I disclosed should be taken seriously by the standard setting and regulation agencies concerned.