This paper deals with the spectral characteristics of main types of soils in southern China. Meanwhile, using methods of principal component analysis (PCA) and fuzzy category, 33 samples are classified according to 10 spectral character indexs. The results are compared with traditional soil classification and Chinese Soil Taxonomic Classification. The relationships between the spectral characters and physical and chemical proparties of the soils have been also investigated. The results show that different soil groups give different spectral reflectance curves, including flat type of latosels developed from basalts, slope type of the paddy soils and steep type of red soils and yellow soils sequences; the suitability between soil spectral character classofication and parent material types is very high L and by the method of PCA, it can be found soil spectral classification is identical to traditional soil classification in some senses. Then, as paddy soils and andosols are deeply affected by natural zonal factors, they can be sorted into different groups of zonal soils. Using soil spectral characteristic indexes and other classification indexes (e.g. clay SiO₂/Al₂O₃ of subsoil, CEC, coarse silt/clay, etc.),the soils can be classified effectively, the results are consistent with those obtained based on Chinese Soil Taxonomic Classification. The soil spectral characteristic indexes is especially suitable to be used for the division of soil genus, and the suitability between soil spectral characteristic classification and soil genus classification is more than 83 percent.