Hot deformation behavior and processing parameters of the cast Mg-6Zn-1Mn alloy were investigated. The uniaxial compression tests on Gleeble-1500 thermal simulation test machine were conducted at the temperature ranging from 250 to 450°C and strain rate ranging from 0.01 to 10 s-1. The constitutive equation of the plastic deformation of Mg-6Zn-1Mn alloy at elevated temperatures was obtained by introducing Zener-Hollmon parameter. According to the experimental results, the hot processing map based on the dynamic materials modeling was drawn. The results show that the dynamic recover and dynamic recrystallization occur obviously during hot compression of Mg-6Zn-1Mn alloy. The flow stress increases with the increase of strain rate and decreases with the increase of temperature. The flow stress of Mg-6Zn-1Mn alloy predicted by the proposed models well agrees with experimental results. The obtained processing map presents two unsteady zones while a steady zone with peak efficiency of power dissipation occurs in the temperature range of 325~425°C and the strain rate range of 0.01~0.365 s-1 which is the most favorite deformation domain. © 2013, Northwest Institute for Nonferrous Metal Research. Published by Elsevier BV. All rights reserved.