The development of geotechnical plasticity is reviewed and some problems of applying the classic plastic mechanics to geomaterials are analyzed, and then its three hypotheses not fit for the deformation mechanism of geomaterials are pointed out. By giving up the three hypotheses, a generalized plastic potential theory can be obtained from solid mechanics directly, and then the traditional plastic mechanics can be changed to a more generalized plastic mechanics, namely generalized plastic mechanics (GPM). The GPM adopts the component theory as theoretical base, so it can reflect the influence of transition of stress path. The unreasonable phenomena such as excessive dilatancy caused by adopting the normality-flow law can be avoided, and the error caused by the arbitrary assumption of plastic potential surfaces cannot be produced. The yield surface theory, hardening laws and stress-strain relations of GPM are given, and a GPM including the rotation of principal stress axes is also established. It is pointed out that the yield condition is a state parameter as well as a test parameter, and it can only be given by test. After the practical application, it is shown that the GPM can not only be applied to the modeling theory of geomaterials but also to other fields of geomechanics, such as limit analysis.