Four different vegetation communities, which represented the primary forest successional sequence in the central hilly area of Hunan Province, China, were chosen in this study. They were:Loropetalum chinense-Vaccinium bracteatum-Rhododendron mariesii scrub-grass-land (LVR), L. chinense-Cunninghamia lanceolata-Quercus fabri shrubbery (LCQ), Pinus massoniana-Lithocarpus glaber-L. chinense coniferous-broad leaved mixed forest (PLL) and L. glaber-Cleyera japonica-Cyclobalanopsis glauca evergreen broad-leaved forest (LAG). The modified phosphorus fractionation method of Tiessen and Moir, which was put forward originally by Hedley, was used to study the differences in the concentrations and composition ratios of phosphorus components at different vegetation restoration stages. The result showed that with the restoration of vegetation, the concentrations of total phosphorus (TP), total inorganic phosphorus (Pi) and total organic phosphorus (Po) increased in the same soil layer. The concentrations of NaHCO₃-Pi, NaOH-Pi, HCl-Pi and NaHCO₃-Po and NaOH-Po belonged to rapid accumulation type, and Residual-P belonged to slow accumulation type, while Resin-Pi stable type. The NaOH-Pi and NaOH-Po were the major components of the Pi and Po in different forest stands, respectively. The phosphorus pool was mainly composed of Residual-P and Po. With the vegetation restoration, the percentages of Po to TP increased gradually in the same soil layer, Pi increased first and then decreased, while Residual-P decreased gradually. The concentrations of TP and each P component decreased in the same forest stand with the increase of soil depth. With the restoration of vegetation, the changes of the diversity of community plant, community biomass, nutrients contents and quality of the litter layer significantly affected the contents of each P component in soil, and subsequently affected the composition ratios of soil phosphorus pool.