Soil organic carbon (C)influences soil physical, chemical and biological properties that control nutrient cycling and consequently have important impacts on forest productivity and sustainability. Due to the important role of soil organic C in nutrient cycling of forest ecosystems and global C balance, there has long been an interest in understanding the effects of vegetation types and forest soil management on soil C pools. Four types of forest vegetations, including evergreen broad-leaved forest, Masson pine (Pinus massoniana), Chestnut (Castanea mollissima) forest and Phyllostachys praecox forest, on Linglong mountain located in Lin'an county, Zhejiang Province, China, were selected to study the distribution and chemical composition of soil organic C using chemical analysis and solid-state ¹³C nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy. The results showed that the contents of soil organic C in the 0-20 cm soil layer under different forest types decreased in the order: Phyllostachys praecox forest >evergreen broad-leaved forest >Masson pine forest >Chestnut forest. Content of soil organic C under Phyllostachys praecox forest was significantly higher than that under other three types of forests. However, there were no significant differences in content of soil organic C content among other 3 types of forests. The proportion of C combined with coarse-sand fraction was the greatest in the soils under evergreen broad-leave, Masson pine and Phyllostachys praecox forests, while the soil under Chestnut forest contained a larger proportion of C combined with clay and silt fraction. The ¹³C NMR spectra showed that alkyl C had the highest intensity among the four C functional groups in the soils under the evergreen broad-leave and Masson pine forests, while O-alkyl C was the predominant organic C in soils under Phyllostachys praecox and Chestnut forests. These results indicate that forest management practices can affect chemical composition of soil organic C. The ratios of alkyl C/O-alkyl C (A/O-A) and Hydrophobic C/Hydrophilic C, and alkyl-C content increased, but the O-alkyl-C content decreased, with the decrease in soil particle-sizes. In other words, the finer particles (e.g., silt and clay) contain more stable soil organic C than the coarse particles (e.g., coarse and fine sands) do. However, relationship between aromaticity of soil organic C and soil particle size fractions was not consistent in soils among four forest types. There were significant differences in aromaticity, A/O-A and Hydrophobic C/Hydrophilic C between Phyllostachys praecox forest and other forests. Content and stability of soil organic C appeared to be closely related to the contents of silt and clay in soils. Therefore, soils with high content of silt and clay can potentially build up greater amount and more stable soil organic C. In conclusion, vegetation type, management practices, and soil tillage could significantly affect the distribution and stability of organic C in different particle-size fractions as well as the contents of organic C of forest soils.