The principle and realization of the generation of cylindrical vector beams (CVB),including radially polarized beams (RPB) and azimuthally polarized beams (APB),are presented by use of high-birefringence c-cut YVO4 crystal. The device for the production and qualitative measurement of RPB and APB is set up. The experimental results show that when the irradiation is circularly polarized beam,the output beams are cylindrical vector beams with centrosymmetrical polarization and homogeneous intensity distribution,and when the irradiation is linearly polarized beam,the polarization state of the output beam is centrosymmetrical while the intensity is of cosine distribution along the circumferential direction. The cylindrical vector beams have an broad application in many domains,such as optical manipulation,material processing and high-resolution measurement.