In this paper, water controlling experiment was used to measure the physiological responses of Ardisia violacea. The results show that: with the prolonged drought stress, the soil water content decreased gradually. There are four stages of A. violacea's response to drought stress, including adaptation period, mild drought stress period, moderate drought stress period and severe drought stress period. Under adaptation period and mild drought stress period, the content of free proline and soluble sugar stabilized at a low level while the soluble protein content decreased and then increased rapidly, and the membrane systems and antioxidant enzyme systems can conduct physiological regulation. Under moderate drought stress period, malondialdehyde and membrane permeability increased rapidly, and membrane system was damaged. The content of free proline and soluble sugar increased remarkably, which act as a key role in resist drought stress. Photosynthetic pigments including hlorophyll a and chlorophyll b significantly increased during the mild and moderate drought stress periods in order to resist drought stress. Under serve drought stress period, the membrane systems, SOD, free proline and soluble sugar increased, but MDA decreased, which means the plant reached the tolerable limit and no more membrane lipid peroxidation. In summary, 49.94% of RWC is the turning point of membrane system, antioxidant enzyme systems and osmotic adjustment substances. The active adaptation of osmotic adjustment and antioxidant enzyme systems is the main mechanism of its drought tolerance. A. violacea has strong drought resistance.