Lodging affects the production and transportation of photosynthetic products, molding and germination of seed, which aggravates the occurrence of diseases and insect pests, and reduces the quality and yield of grains. Usually, lodging resistance is influenced by plant height, stem structure and cultivation conditions. ‘Yuenong Simiao’, a main rice variety with good quality, has strong lodging resistance and can adapt to simplified cultivation pattern. However, the main factors of lodging resistance are still unclear. In this research, the plant height, breaking-resistant strength of individual plant and of basal internode, and the stem structure of rice ‘Yuenong Simiao’, ‘Xiangya Xiangzhan’, and the F2 population of ‘Yuenong Simiao’ × ‘Xiangya Xiangzhan’ were analyzed. The results showed that the shorter basal internode, the thicker wall and the higher substantiality of the stem were the important structural basis of lodging resistance of ‘Yuenong Simiao’ in comparison to ‘Xiangya Xiangzhan’. In the F2 populations, internode resistance, internode length, internode diameter, and stem wall thickness of N2 internode may be controlled by QTLs. The lodging resistance was weakly correlated with plant height and panicle length, but significantly positively correlated with stem diameter and wall thickness, and negatively correlated with internode length. The lodging resistance is mainly depended on the internode length, thickness and wall thickness. This study provides an important basis for revealing the internal factors of lodging resistance of rice ‘Yuenong Simiao’.