The upper reaches of the Yangtze River from Yibin to Chongqing is an important part of the Yangtze River's golden waterway,and under the combined effect of natural and human factors,the water and sediment conditions in this section has changed to some extent recently.The trend of runoff and sediment,mutability and cyclic change characteristics of the Yibin to Chongqing section of the Yangtze River are analyzed,based on the prototype observation data of runoff and suspended sediment transport from 1956 to 2020 at the Zhutuo and Cuntan stations of the Yangtze River ( abbreviated as two stations ).The results show that:1) The runoff at Zhutuo station shows an increasing trend,the runoff at Cuntan station shows a decreasing trend,but neither is significant.The sediment load at both stations show an unusually significant decreasing trend.2) Runoff and sediment load of the two stations have mutation characteristics,runoff mutation occurs from 1960 to1969,and runoff mutation also exists since 2000,and the mutation of sediment load mainly occurs from 2000 to now.3) Runoff at Zhutuo station has the most drastic cyclic oscillations under the 28 years time scale.The average cycle of runoff change is about 19 years,which is equivalent to experiencing the conversion of 3.5 water-abundance periods and dry periods.The sand content shows obvious cyclicity under the 93 years time scale,and the average cycle of runoff change is about 57 years.In the sequence of runoff at Cuntan station,the cyclic changes are more obvious under the time scales of 14,28,and 47 years,and the main cycle of the change of the sediment load at Cuntan station is about 93 years.