Low frequency uniaxial cyclic loading and unloading experiments on red sandstone were carried out to study the fatigue deformation，damage characteristics and energy evolution of red sandstone by using RYL-600 microcomputer controlled shear rheometer. The experiment results are as follows. The threshold value of fatigue failure stress of the red sandstone is between 75% and 85% and the fatigue life decreases sharply with the increase of upper stress. Under the condition of low-frequency uniaxial cyclic loading and unloading，the axial deformation of red sandstone is divided into three stages. In the initial stage，strain is small but grows rapidly; in the stable stage，strain gradually increases slowly; in the near failure stage，strain and strain increment increases rapidly. In the three stages，the density of hysteresis loop presents the characteristics of sparsity - density - sparsity. The shape of a single hysteretic loop shows the development rule of "fat - thin - fat". The area of a single hysteretic loop increases with the increase of upper limit stress. The damage development process is divided into initial stage，steady expansion stage and accelerated damage stage. The higher the upper limit of stress is，the faster the damage develops. In the three stages，the accelerated failure stage，which occupies the smallest part of fatigue life，produces the majority of damage increment. The number of elastic energy cycles first increases and then remains stable. However，it decreases with the decrease of material elasticity in accelerated damage stage. The initial value of dissipated energy is large，and then it decreases with the increase of cycle number and then tends to be stable. When it is close to failure，it increases sharply by nearly 4 times，indicating that the rock failure must be accompanied by the sharply increase of dissipated energy. The internal stress adjustment of rock is reflected in the evolution of hysteretic loop. The larger the hysteretic loop area is，the larger the single plastic deformation is，the higher the damage degree is，and the more serious the energy dissipation is.