Hydraulic fracturing is common technique to break the rock mass down under high water pressure. In this paper, the tensile failure of double symmetric radial perforations emanating from circular hole under far-field compression and high water pressure is studied. And the existing theoretical model does not consider the unequal water pressure applied on the surfaces of perforation and circular hole, it also neglects the effect of T stress, so the maximum tangential stress (MTS) criterion could be revised with considering T stress. Firstly, considering the unequal water pressure on the perforation surfaces and circular hole, the stress intensity factors (SIFs) are derived with conformal mapping method and compared with the semi-analytical solution. Secondly, the terms of T stress are derived by analogy to the open-crack under high water pressure. On this basis, the revised MTS criterion is obtained, and its validity is verified with model tests. Finally, the effects of the lateral pressure coefficient k, minimum horizontal principal stress σh(σh/σH remains constant), radius of circular hole a, hydraulic coefficient λ and radius of process zone rc on the initiation angle −θc, critical water pressure Pc and SIFs are analyzed respectively. It is found that −θc always increases firstly and then decreases with increasing the inclination angle α, whereas Pc firstly decreases and then increases as a/(c-a) varies from 0 to 1 and increases as α increases in the range of a/(c-a) = 1∼+∞. Then −θc increases with increasing σh and k, whereas Pc can intersect each other with increasing k and increases with increasing σh. As c-a remains constant, −θc increases firstly and then decreases with increasing the ratio a/c, whereas Pc keeps decreasing. Also −θc and Pc increase with decreasing λ. As rc increases, −θc decreases and Pc increases. As for SIFs, when α increases, KI decreases and KII increases firstly, then decreases. As α remains constant, KI increases firstly, then decreases with increasing k and KII keeps increasing. In the range of a/(c-a) = 0 ∼ 1, KI decreases with increasing a, and KII keeps increasing. Within the range of a/(c-a) = 1∼+∞, KI increases firstly, then decreases with increasing a, the increment of KII is not obvious. And KI decreases with decreasing λ.