The ecological distribution and activities of soil microbes can refl ect the infl uence of environmental factors on microbes andchanges in soil fertility. Understanding the community structure of the soil microbes is of great importance to maintaining soilhealth in ancient mulberry plantation ecosystems. In this study, the population structure of soil microorganisms in diff erentages of mulberry plantations was analyzed using high-throughput sequencing technology. A total of 1616, 1568, 1379 and1477 operational taxonomic units were acquired from samples of 3Y (3-year-old), 35Y (35-year-old), 200Y (200-year-old)and 600Y (600-year-old) soils, respectively. The results exhibited that the highest community diversity was found in 35Ysoil, followed by 200Y soil, and showed that the stand age strongly infl uenced the community structure of soil bacteria. Atotal of 23 phyla were detected in 12 samples, and the genus of bacteria that predominated the diff erent stand ages mainlyincluded; Phenylobacterium , Cohnella , Lactococcus , Sphingomonas , Bacillus , and Microbispora . The relative abundanceof Phenylobacterium accounts for 22.6–53.5% of the total abundance. This study showed that the richness and diversity ofthe soil bacteria decreased as the stand age increased in ancient mulberry plantations.