The aim of this research is to reveal changes in soil microbial community structure and metabolic function in forested land after planting Panax ginseng. This study used high-throughput sequencing technology to analyze the soil microbial community structure and metabolic function of forested land and forested land cultivated with ginseng for 3 and 4 years. The results showed that Proteobacteria, Actinobacteria, Acidobacteria, Verrucomicrobia, and Chloroflexi were the dominant phyla. After ginseng was planted, the relative abundance of Actinomycetes and Verrucomicrobia significantly increased while the relative abundance of Acidobacteria significantly decreased. Overall soil bacteria diversity also significantly decreased. Detrended correspondence analysis (DCA) showed significant differences in soil bacteria community structure of ginseng across different cultivation years. The relative abundance of metabolism of terpenoids and polyketides and signal transduction significantly decreased, while the relative abundance of membrane transport significantly increased. Canonical correspondence analysis (CCA) and the Partial Mantel Test showed that potassium availability, total potassium content and soil pH were key factors affecting soil microbial community structure. The results show that soil microbial community structure, diversity and metabolic function changed significantly after planting ginseng in forested land. This work has important theoretical significance for the prevention and treatment of ginseng continuous cropping obstacles.