Soil compaction is one of the problems of farmland soil degradation. Straw returning is an important measure to increase soil organic matter content and improve the soil. However, the effects of straw returning and soil matrix potential on soil compaction are still unclear. The experiment set three treatments with straw addition amount of 0, 3 and 5 g /kg, and three soil matrix potential treatments of 1 000, 100 and 10 kPa. The compression curves of different treatments were measured by the consolidation test and the compression and resilience characteristic indexes were calculated. The results showed that the effects of straw returning, soil matrix potential and their interaction on maximum curvature, pre-compression stress, compression index and resilience index reached significant levels. Pre-compression stress, compression index and resilience index all increased with the increasing of straw addition, while the maximum curvature showed the opposite trend. Soil matrix potential had a positive correlation with the maximum curvature, pre-compression stress and the compression index. With the increasing of soil matrix potential, resilience index decreased first and then increased. Straw addition could improve soil resilience and compression resistance.