To investigate effects of tillage pattern on soil respiration in dry cropping farmlands in purple soil hilly region in Southwest China, an LI6400-XT portable photosynthesis measurement system equipped with a soil respiratory chamber (6400-09) was used in an experiment conducted in the experimental field of the Southwest University in Beibei, Chongqing. Respiration and hydrothermal factors of the soils under the same wheat/corn/soybean triple intercropping system, but different tillage patterns were measured and analyzed during the crop growing period. The tillage patterns or treatments were coded as T (traditional tillage), R (ridge tillage), TS (traditional tillage + straw mulching), RS (ridge tillage straw mulching), TSD (traditional tillage straw mulching decomposing inoculants), and RSD (ridge tillage straw mulching decomposing inoculants) and each had 3 replicates. Results show that soil respiration rate varied significantly with the season and from treatment to treatment as well. The daily mean soil respiration rate under wheat and soybean in the wheat-soybean row was 1.53 μmol m^-2 s^-1 and 4.10 μmol m^-2 s^-1, respectively and varied between treatments, displaying an order of T < R < TS < TSD < RS < RSD. In the blank-corn-black row, the daily mean soil respiration rate of the soil under corn reached 2.56 μmol m^-2 s^-1, ranging between those under wheat and soybean, and varied between treatments, displaying an order of R < T < RS < TS < RSD < TSD. The total soil respiration rate of the field under the intercropping system was 1.54～2.13 g m^-2 and varied between treatments, displaying an order of T < R < RS < TS < TSD < RSD. The experiment also shows that soil temperature and soil moisture content were the two major factors affecting soil respiration, explaining 28.9 %~53.7 % and 13.7 %~42 % of its seasonal variation. Regression analysis of the relationship between soil respiration and soil hydrothermal factors reveals that exponential equation (R_s =0.311e ^0.095T) fits well the relationship between soil respiration and soil temperature at 10 cm in soil depth and the temperature sensitivity index (Q10) of soil respiration was 2.25~2.69. However, the relationship between soil respiration and soil moisture content can be best described with a parabolic function. The threshold of soil moisture soil respiration responds to was 14.94%. In short, the findings may serve as reference to the study on rules of the variation of soil respiration in the farmland ecosystem and mechanisms for controlling its affecting factors, and are of some important significance to global carbon budgeting and assessment of regional carbon sources and pools.