Phoebe bournei (Hemsl.) Yang requires higher soil moisture, in order to improve the survival rate of afforestation.The aim of this research was to investigate the drought tolerant of the P. bournei. The experiment was conducted to determine the changes of proteome, and physiological and biochemical indexes of P. bournei under different drought stress durations (7 d, 14 d drought treatments and 7 d after rewatering restoration) to reveal the molecular mechanism. Results showed that: (1) fiftyone differentially expressed proteins were founded in the P. bournei leaves by using twodimensional electrophoresis (2DE) under different drought stresses. Fortyfive differentially expressed proteins were successfully identified by MALDITOF/TOF. These identified differential proteins are closely related to some processes of physiological metabolism, including photosynthesis, carbohydrate and energy metabolism, stress response and defense, posttranslational modifications, protein conversion and molecular chaperone functions. (2) At the same time, we found that the main trend of the content of MDA involved in membrane lipid peroxidation, the activities of SOD, CAT, POD associated with defense, and the activities of PFK, AGPase, PK and the content of PDH related to sugar metabolism were declined and significantly changed (P<0.01) in the leaves of P. bournei under 14 d continued drought stress. Reduced photosynthesis，plant defense systems，as well as energy and sugar metabolism under drought stress may be the physiological and biochemical reasons that the species was not a drought tolerant plant. The present study provided a theoretical basis for the molecular breeding of droughttolerant P. bournei in the future.