Shading is a key measure in seedling cultivation, which can change the soil carbon and nitrogen enzyme activity by affecting the release of root exudates to soil, and in turn affect the key processes of soil carbon, nitrogen cycle. However, the effect of shading on soil carbon and nitrogen enzyme activity and its relationship with seedling growth remains unclear. A pot experiments with five different light intensities (No shading (CK: 1157.82 μmol m^-2 s^-1)、30% Shading (T1: 856.31 μmol m^-2 s^-1)、55% shading (T2: 542.68 μmol m^-2 s^-1)、70% shading (T3: 382.08 μmol m^-2 s^-1)、85% shading (T4: 219.56 μmol m^-2 s^-1) were conducted by using one-year-old superior clone of Cunninghamia lanceolata 'Yang061’ seedlings to investigate the effects of shading treatments on the growth of C. lanceolata seedlings, soil organic carbon (SOC), total nitrogen (TN) content and soil carbon, nitrogen metabolism enzyme activity. The results showed that: (1) The seedling height, different organ biomass, root-shoot ratio and seedling quality index of C. lanceolata displayed first increased then decreased tendency with the decrease of light intensities. Moreover, we also found that most indexes mentioned above achieved their maximum at T2 treatment except for seedling height and root-shoot ratio which reached their maximum at T3 and T1, respectively. Additionally, a gradually decreased of ground diameter was observed with the decrease of light intensities. (2) Different responses of soil SOC content to shading were observed, the soil SOC content in T3 treatment was significantly lower than CK, while the opposite was observed in T4 treatment as compared with CK. Shading dcreased the content of TN in soil to varying degrees, but no significant difference among treatments were found. (3) The different responses of soil carbon and nitrogen metabolism enzymes to shading treatments were noticed. The soil enzyme activities were changed significantly under shading treatments as compared with CK, among which the soil cellulase (S-CL), soil sucrase (S-SC),soil acid invertase (S-AI) and soil lignin peroxidase (S-LiP) activities were highest at T4 treatment, soilcatalase(S-CAT), soilβ-N-acetylglucosaminidase(S-NAG) and soilchitinase(S-C) reached their maximum at T3 treatment, the soil polyphenol oxidase (S-PPO) activity was the highest at T1 treatment, and the soil amylase (S-AL), soil nitrite reductase (S-NiR) activity was the highest under T2. However, shading decreased the activities of soil urease (S-UE) and soil nitrate reductase (S-NR) to varying degrees. Redundancy analysis showed that soil enzyme activity explained 76.61% of SOC and TN, indicating S-LiP、S-AL、S-AI、S-PPO and S-CL had a strong positive correlation with SOC, while S-UE and S-NR had a great impact on TN. In summary, 30%-55% shading, namely light intensity between 542.68-856.31 μmol m^-2 s^-1 was suitable light condition for the growth of C. lanceolata seedlings, which is closely related with the improvement of soil carbon and nitrogen enzyme activity and ultimately the cycling of carbon and nitrogen nutrient under this circumstance.