Abstract: The soil nutrients and biological characteristics are important indicators of soil quality. The study on effects of water and nitrogen reduction on soil property changes and quality evaluation can evaluate the changes of soil properties and soil quality in maize tillage layer under the shallow buried drip irrigation, which is of great significance for the sustainable production of maize and conservation of arable land in irrigation areas of the Xiliaohe plain. Based on two consecutive year field location experiment, the conventional water-nitrogen treatment of traditional border irrigation (4000 m³·hm^-2for border irrigation and 300 kg·hm^-2 for nitrogen application) was used as the control, and the drip irrigation quota was used as the main treatment with three levels of drip irrigation volume of 40% (W1), 50% (W2), and 60% (W3) of the conventional irrigation volume, and nitrogen application as the sub-treatment with the conventional nitrogen application volume of 50% ( N1), 70% (N2) and 100% (N3), to explore the effects of water and nitrogen reduction on different forms of carbon and nitrogen contents and related enzyme activities in maize tillage layer under the shallow buried drip irrigation.The results showed that the different forms of carbon and nitrogen contents and related enzyme activities under shallow buried drip irrigation increased with the increase of irrigation quota and nitrogen application; the different forms of nitrogen content and soil enzyme activity W3 were significantly higher than W2 and W1, soil nitrogen content W3 increased by 13.2% and 6.43% compared with W2 and W1, and soil enzyme activity W3 increased by 8.52% and 16.9% compared with W2 and W1; the different forms of carbon content and soil enzyme activity N3 and N2 did not differ significantly, soil carbon content N3 and N2 increased by 1.40% and 0.61% compared with N1, and soil enzyme activity N3 and N2 increased by 8.17% and 3.94% compared with N1.The soil quality index was highest in W3N3 and the differences with W3N2 and W2N3 were not significant, and W3N3, W3N2 and W2N3 respectively increased by 81.2%, 68.4% and 61.5% compared with CK annually. Soil quality index (SQI) was significantly and positively correlated with soil different forms of carbon and nitrogen content and related enzyme activities, and the appropriate water and nitrogen reduction treatments under shallow buried drip irrigation maintained relatively high soil quality by increasing soil different forms of carbon and nitrogen nutrient content and related enzyme activities. Combining the results of water-saving and weight loss, soil characteristics and quality evaluation, W3N2 under shallow drip irrigation with water and fertilizer integration, i.e., 30% nitrogen reduction and 40% water reduction, can maintain relatively good soil quality in the corn tillage layer.