Community assembly has long been an important issue in community ecology. By quantifying the influence of habitat filtering, competitive exclusion, and random community assembly on the phylogenetic and functional traits, ecologists would gain a deeper understanding of community construction. In this study, based on the datasets of three 5.2 hm² permanent plots at different successional stages (i.e., a Populus davidiana-Betula platyphylla secondary forest, a secondary conifer and broad-leaved mixed forest, and a Primary Tilia amurensis-Pinus koraiensis forest), we established the phylogenetic trees according to the Angiosperm Classification System (APG Ⅲ) and seven functional traits (i.e., leaf area, specific leaf area, leaf thickness, leaf nitrogen content, leaf phosphorus content, nitrogen-phosphorus ratio, and maximum tree height). We correlated the phylogenetic trees with the environmental variables to examine the patterns of the phylogenetic and functional structures of the forest communities at different successional stages in Changbai Mountains of China. The results showed that:(1) at each successional stage, significant phylogenetic signals were found for all seven functional traits, indicating that the functional traits were influenced by the phylogenetic history. (2) Both the phylogenetic and functional structures were non-random at all successional stages and stem classes. The phylogenetic and functional structures changed from "clustered" to "overdispersed" during the succession of forest community. Meanwhile, the degree of phylogenetic and functional clustering decreased with an increase in diameter class, indicating a significant increase in competitive exclusion with the succession of forest community. (3) The phylogenetic and functional turnovers were non-random, and the explanatory ability of the factors to interpret the phylogenetic and functional turnover was different. In the early succession stage, the spatial distance explained more than the environmental distance, indicating the importance of habitat filtering in community assembly. However, in the late succession stage, the environmental distance explained more than the spatial distance, indicating the importance of dispersal limitation in community assembly.