【Objective】Soil erosion resistance is one of the main factors affecting development of soil erosion. As the Loess Plateau is one of the most severe soil erosion areas in China, it is especially important to characterize the soil erosion resistance of the region to management and control of soil erosion on the Loess Plateau. Soybean, high in drought resistance, is one of the major crops commonly grown on the Loess Plateau, and the one that grows in the season when heavy rain showers occur frequently, and consequently soil erosion tends to take place in the region. Therefore, a field experiment was conducted to determine characteristics of the erosion resistance of the soil and their relationships with soybean root system relative to growth stage of soybean.【Method】Soil anti-scourability and anti-erodibility are two important parameters to evaluate soil resistance. This study determined the soil anti-erosion ability characteristics based on soil anti-scourability and anti-erodibility. Based on the determination of the two indices, soil anti-scourability and anti-erodibility, soil erosion resistance was characterized. As soil anti-scourability index and soil disintegration rate can well reflect characteristics of soil anti-scourability and anti-erodibility, these two parameters were selected to evaluate soil anti-scourability and anti-erodibility.Soil anti-scourability index refers to the time it takes for rain water to wash off a gram of soil (min g^-1), and soil disintegration rate to the amount of soil disintegrated within a set unit of time (g min^-1). The effect of soybean roots enhancing soil erosion resistance is evaluated by measuring how much soil anti-scourability and soil anti-erodibility is enhanced by the root system of soybean at different growth stages of the crop. 【Result】 Results show that soil anti-scourability and anti-erodibility varied with the crop growing, showing a similar trend.Soil anti-scourability index increased significantly from the seedling stage to the pod bearing stage of the crop, peaked at the initial grain forming stage, and then decreased somewhat from the initial grain forming stage till the grain filling stage, while soil disintegration rate decreased significantly from the seedling stage to the pod bearing stage, dropped to the bottom at the initial grain forming stage and then rose a little bit from the initial grain forming stage till the grain filling stage. With the crop growing, soil erosion resistance displayed a decreasing order of initial graining forming stage > grain filling stage＞pod bearing stage＞ blooming stage＞ branching stage＞ seedling stage. At the seedling and branching stages, soil erosion resistance was the highest in the 0~5cm layer and the lowest in the 10~20 cm layer, but during the period from the blooming stage till the grain filling stage, it was the highest in the 5~10 cm layer and the lowest in the 10~20 cm layer was worst from blooming stage to seed-filling stage. However, soybean roots could significantly strengthen soil erosion resistance. The effect was the lowest at the seedling stage and the highest at the initial grain forming stage. Soil erosion resistance was significantly and positively related to root weight density, root volume, root surface area and total root length. Therefore, soybean root system plays a key role in soil and water conservation and prevention of occurrence of soil erosion. Therefore, root weight density, root volume, root surface area and total root length can also be used as the parameters to evaluate soil erosion resistance.【Conclusion】Soil erosion resistance varies with the crop growing and depth in soil profile. It is quite low at the seedling and branching stages and in the 0~5 cm soil layer. It is, therefore, recommended that measures be taken to strengthen soil erosion resistance in the early growth period of the crop. Meanwhile, some rational agronomic management measures, like mulching, use of cultivars that tend to have developed root systems, could also be adopted to improve soil erosion resistance of soybean fields.