The vertical changes of textural layers along profiles in alluvial soils are a very complicated problem.The vertical changes can be described only qualitatively but have not been quantified for a long time past The characteristics of combination of textural layers in soil profiles greatly influence water transport and solute movement in the soil, so the quantitative description is a foundation for more accurate quantification of water transport and solute movement in field soils.Markov chain theory can be used to characterize the state transition of a dispersed state sequence changing with time (or space).This work used it to study regulations of vertical changes of textural layers along profiles in alluvial soils.The results showed that the vertical changes of textural layers along profiles had Markov characteristic in an alluvial soil region and that its transition probability matrix (TPM) was nearly stable.Meanwhile, the features of combination of soil profile textural layers in the study region were studied by TPMs, entropy group values and similarity measures.Among soil textural layers in the study region, clay layers were predominant, then came sand soil layers, sand loam layers, medium loam layers, light loam layers and heavy loam layers in proper order.The combination patterns of textural layers in soil profiles are mainly clay-sand, sand-clay, clay-sand-clay and sand}lay-sand.