As one of the most abundant biomass resources in nature, lignin has not been fully utilized, which has become a challenge to the development of biochemical industry. As an important strategy to achieve high-value utilization of lignin, grafting modification of lignin has been paid much attention. Ring-opening polymerization is a mild and efficient polymerization method, which can introduce aliphatic polyester segments into lignin. Compared to the pristine lignin, graft polymers show improved solubility, compatibility and degradability. This paper focuses on the progress of grafting modification of lignin via ring opening polymerization by using varied catalysis. Lactide, caprolactone and other cyclic monomers are summarized. The performance and applications of lignin grafted polymers are discussed as well as the challenges and opportunities.