Abstract: Residual mineral nitrogen (Nmin) is an important nitrogen resource in soils. A field experiment was carried out to study the effects of different nitrogen application rates (0, 80, 160, 240 and 320 kg/ha) on soil NO3--N accumulation, nitrogen balance and use efficiency and yield of summer maize in soil with high residual nitrogen. The results indicate that soil NO3--N accumulation are increased with the increase of nitrogen application rates.NO3--Naccumulations of the nitrogen treatments are significantly higher than that of the nonnitrogen treatment. The highest NO3--N accumulation appears at 0-60 cm soil layers. The NO3--Naccumulations are decreased at first, and then increased with the depth of soil profile. The residual Nmin of the nonnitrogen treatment is high as 378 kg/ha after summer maize harvest. With the increase of nitrogen application rates, the residual Nmin and nitrogen apparent loss are increased significantly. There are positively correlation between crop nitrogen uptake, nitrogen apparent loss and total nitrogen input. As total nitrogen input is increased by 1 kg, crop nitrogen uptake and nitrogen apparent loss are increased by 0.156 and 0.369 kg, respectively. Nitrogen fertilizer application rates must be controlled strictly in high residual nitrogen soils to avoid the waste of nitrogen resources. With the increase of nitrogen application rates, grain nitrogen uptake of summer maize increases, while the nitrogen harvest index decreases. Nitrogen fertilizer agronomic efficiency, physiological use efficiency, and nitrogen use efficiency are the highest in the treatment of N 80 kg/ha, and they decrease with the increase of nitrogen application rates. The nitrogen application reduces the yieldincreasing effect and nitrogen utilization in high residual nitrogen soils. In view of the yield, nitrogen utilization and environmental benefit, N 80 kg/ha is the reasonable nitrogen application rate in soils with high residual nitrogen.