Abstract: There are disclosed an image compression method, device, and compression/decompression system, the image compression method including: receiving an input image; encoding the input image by utilizing n stages of encoding unit connected in cascades to produce an output image, where n is an integer greater than 1, wherein an input of an i-th stage of encoding unit is an i-th stage of encoding input image and includes mi?1 image components, an output of the i-th stage of encoding unit is an i-th stage of encoding output image and includes mi image components, and the output of the i-th stage of encoding unit is an input of a (i+1)-th stage of encoding unit, where 1?i<n, m is an integer greater than 1; wherein the output image includes one image component as a reference image of the input image and mn?1 image components corresponding to the input image.