A pot experiment was conducted, using the soil from a pot that had been planted with winter wheat, to investigate availability of residual fertilizer nitrogen (N) from the winter wheat season applied in combination with inorganic and organic fertilizer (IOF) to the rice(O.sativa L.cv. Wuyujing 7) following the winter wheat. Results show 1) the residual N effect was significant on growth of the rice. Treatment IOF was 49.3% and 14.9% higher than Treatment IF (inorganic N fertilizer) in grain yield in clay loam and clay, respectively; 2) compared with Treatment IF, Treatment IOF maintained a higher mineral N content in the soils. Treatment IOF significantly increased the ratio of organic-fertilizer-sourced ¹⁵N /inorganic-fertilizer-sourced ¹⁵N in mineral N at the heading stage in clay loam and at tillering, jointing and heading stages in clay, and it also increased significantly the percentage of organic-fertilizer-sourced ¹⁵N in microbial biomass N (MBN) at the tillering and jointing stages, and that of inorganic-fertilizer-sourced ¹⁵N at the tillering, jointing and heading stages; 3) compared with Treatment IF, Treatment IOF increased the relative distribution of inorganic-fertilizer-sourced ¹⁵N in the reproductive organ (by 60% in the clay loam and by 52.6% in the clay), while decreased that in the vegetative organs (by more than 30% both in the clay loam and clay); compared with Treatment OF (organic fertilizer N), Treatment IOF decreased the relative distribution of organic-fertilizer-sourced ¹⁵N in the reproductive organ (by 20% in the clay loam and by 22.7% in the clay), while increased that in the roots (by 90% in the clay loam and by 240% in the clay); and 4) in comparison with both Treatment IF and OF, Treatment IOF increased residues of inorganic-fertilizer ¹⁵N in the soils, and also the recovery rate of organic fertilizer ¹⁵N in both plant and soils. As a result, the fertilizer ¹⁵N loss rate (NLR) decreased correspondingly during the rice season (by 17% and 16% for inorganic fertilizer ¹⁵N, and by 15% and 56% for organic-fertilizer ¹⁵N in the clay loam and clay, respectively). In a word, Treatment IOF reduced fertilizer N loss from the winter wheat-rice rotation system by increasing N recovery rate in the soil-plant system.