Taking the Yingxiu section of the Longmenshan fault zone as the study area, a 2D vertical-profile viscoelastic finite element model is constructed. The model fully considers the vertical stratification and lateral heterogeneity of the medium in the study area. Based on the slip-weakening friction law, numerical simulations are carried out for the entire periodic spontaneous rupture process of thrust earthquakes, covering three key stages: interseismic, coseismic, and postseismic stress adjustments.The results show that, on the premise that the simulated interseismic velocity field is in good agreement with the pre-earthquake GPS observations of the Wenchuan earthquake, the difference between the static and dynamic friction coefficients exerts a significant control on the coseismic surface displacement. The optimally fitted static and dynamic friction coefficients are 0.35 and 0.23, respectively. The simulated maximum coseismic slip on the fault plane during a single earthquake is approximately 7 m. Since the postseismic deformation simulation in this study only considers the viscoelastic relaxation effect of the middle and lower crust without incorporating postseismic afterslip, the simulated near-field postseismic deformation is lower than the observed values, while the far-field simulation results agree well with the observations. Under the computational parameters and assumptions adopted in this study, the recurrence interval of the Wenchuan earthquake is simulated to be approximately 700 to 770 years, which is generally consistent with estimates based on the deep detachment layer locking model for the Yingxiu section of the Longmenshan fault zone.