This paper is concerned with the stability of the rarefaction wave for the Burgers equation{ ut+f(u)x=μtαuxx, μ＞0, x∈R, t＞0, (Ⅰ)u|t=o = u0(x) →u± , x →∞ ,where 0 ≤α＜ 1/4q (q is determined by (2.2)). Roughly speaking, under the assumption that u- ＜ u+, the authors prove the existence of the global smooth solution to the Cauchy problem (Ⅰ), also find the solution u(x, t) to the Cauchy problem (Ⅰ) satisfying sup |u(x, t)-x∈RuR(x/t)| → 0 as t →∞, where uR(x/t) is the rarefaction wave of the non-viscous Burgers equation ut + f(u)x = 0 with Riemann initial data u(x, 0) ={u_,x＜0, u+, x＞0.