The present invention relates to A drying process for drying lignite by swashing dust collection and washing, comprising steps of: conveying wet powdered coal into a dryer by a feed belt so as to be dried; introducing hot steam for drying via a rotary joint at an outlet end of the dryer and into a heat exchange tube via a steam chamber; having the wet powdered coal contact and heat exchange with a steam pipe and dried; discharging the dried coal from an discharge port and conveying the dried coal to a subsequent station by a discharging belt; introducing condensed water resulted from steam heat exchange into a condensate pot via a rotating joint and then conveying the condensed water to a next station via a condensate pump; performing a primary dust collecting in a bin at a tail end of the dryer on waste gas produced during the drying process, discharging the waste gas from a top end of the bin and the introducing the waste gas into a swashing dust collector; discharging waste liquid resulted from washing the waste gas from a bottom of the swashing dust collector, conveying the waste liquid discharged from the swashing dust collector via a waste liquid pump. In the present invention, lignite is dried with steam latent heat, and the dried waste gas is washed by a gravity settlement and swashing dust collection so as to assure that the waste gas is discharged after reaching a standard value and avoid the risk of taking fire and explosion occurred in a dry-type dust collecting way.