A pot experiment in greenhouse was carried out to study the effect of soil drying on CH₄ flux from rice paddy soil.The soil drying practice was performed two times from 43 and 102 days respectively after rice transplanting, and the soil drying periods were 28 and 113 hours respectively. The results showed that a large amount of methane emitted to the atmosphere during 16 and 42 hours after the soils fell dry,and an emission peak occurred quickly after the soils fell dry when the soils was dry and soft. As soil dying continued, the soils began to crack and CH₄ emissions decreased to nil. Soil drying accelerated the release of soil-entrapped methane. CH₄ emissions during soil drying accounted for 5.960%-10.05% of the total seasonal emissions.Although soil drying increased CH₄ exmssions by 9.68%-145.94% during soil drying,CH₄ emissions from the soils once imposed by soil drying decreased by 21.59%-54.45% during the period flooded after soil drying,compared with that from the soils flooded continuously.Considering overall CH₄ emissions during soil drying and the period flooded again,soil drying reduced CH₄ emissions by 17.7-43.91 percent.