The invention provides a resistive variable material and a resistive variable memory based on a silicon oxycarbide thin film. A silicon oxycarbide thin film resistive material, its molecular formula is SiCxOy, where x=1.21~0.21, y=1.45~2.01, and x and y are negatively correlated; the film thickness is below 50nm. A resistive variable memory, comprising a top electrode, a resistive medium layer, a substrate and a back electrode, characterized in that the resistive medium layer is the aforementioned silicon oxycarbide film. Materials such as Ag and Al can be used for the top electrode. In the present invention, materials compatible with the COMS process are selected to prepare the resistive variable memory. The preparation process mainly adopts physical deposition thin film equipment without high-temperature process, thereby reducing energy consumption. By controlling the gas ratio, silicon oxycarbide films with different defect concentrations can be obtained. For the SiC0.21O2.01 material, its on-off ratio reaches 500, which can fully meet the actual needs (greater than 10). At the same time, the resistive memory based on the silicon oxycarbide material has a self-rectification effect, which is helpful for simplifying the design of the external circuit. Significance.