Based on the daily precipitation data of 108 national meteorological observation stations in Shanxi from 1979 to 2018, the percentile method is adopted to define extreme precipitation events, and methods such as climate trend coefficient and Mann-Kendall (M-K) test are used to study the characteristics and variation patterns of extreme precipitation in Shanxi. The results are shown as follows. (1) The extreme precipitation in Shanxi occurs between March and October and is distributed more in mountainous areas and less in basins, while the average intensity is small in the central and northern areas and large in the southern areas. (2) The extreme precipitation in Shanxi mainly lasts 1 d with apparent regional characteristics, and the probability of large-scale extreme precipitation events is low. (3) Over the recent 40 years, the number of extreme precipitation events in Shanxi shows a significantly increasing trend, the range of impact continuously enlarges, the intensity slightly increases, and there are no abrupt changes. For each area, the variation of extreme precipitation over a long time span differs greatly; in the northern areas, the intensity significantly increases, the range markedly expandes, and abrupt changes occurred in 1986; in the central areas, the days of extreme precipitation present significant increase with the intensity notably enhanced, and abrupt changes occurred in 2001 and 1992, respectively; the variation trend of extreme precipitation in the southern areas is weak.