A soil culture experiment was conducted to study the effects of 1, 2, 4-trichlorobenzene (TCB) at different levels on the grain yield and physiological characteristics of rice plants during grain filling period. Two cultivars, Ningjing 1 (TCB sensitive) and Yangfujing 8 (TCB tolerant), were planted in soils containing 0 (CK), 10, 20, 40 and 80 mg TCB per kg soil. Significant differences were determined in the effects of TCB levels on the grain yield and physiological characteristics during grain filling period between the two cultivars. With the increase in TCB level, the yield of Ningjing 1 was reduced gradually and the yield of Yangfujing 8 was increased at the two low TCB levels of 10 and 20 mg/kg and significantly decreased at higher TCB levels. At the medium and high TCB levels (40 and 80 mg/kg), the panicle number per pot, grain number per panicle and seed setting rate of Ningjing 1 decreased significantly, with decrements significantly bigger than Yangfujing 8, while there was no significant difference in 1000-grain-weight between TCB treatments. The plant height and dry biomass weight of Ningjing 1 were reduced at higher degrees than those of Yangfujing 8. At the low TCB level (20 mg/kg), chlorophyll content, root activity and soluble protein were significantly decreased in the leaves of Ningjing 1and slightly increased in the leaves of Yangfujing 8. The activities of superoxide dismutase (SOD), peroxidase (POD) and catalase (CAT) of the leaves of two cultivars in leaves were increased at low TCB levels and decreased at high TCB levels. At the low TCB levels of 10 and 20 mg/kg, the activities of antioxidant enzymes in Yangfujing 8 were significantly higher than in Ningjing 1. At the highest level of 80 mg/kg, the activities of antioxidant enzymes were significantly lower as compared with the control, with bigger decrements than those in Yangfujing 8. The content of MDA in leaves of Ningjing 1 increased more remarkably than that in Yangfujing 8, indicating that lipid peroxidation was more serious in Ningjing 1. Our study indicated that low TCB levels slightly promoted rice yield, biomass weight, chlorophyll content, protein content and the activities of antioxidant enzymes of the leaves of Yangfujing 8. TCB at the medium and high levels had more inhibitive effects on Ningjing 1 than on Yangfujing 8. Compared with Ningjing 1, Yangfujing 8 was more resistant and adaptable to TCB at different levels.