Germplasm resources are the genetic basis of breeding and resolution of complicated quantitative characters, and the evaluation of germplasm resources can guide the selection of excellent parents in breeding practice to improve the exchange and accumulation of excellent genes and the efficiency of new varieties breeding. In this study, 340 spring soybean germplasm resources from Northeast China and Inner Mongolia area during 1923-2010 were selected as experimental materials. Based on the comprehensive identification of 12 phenotypic traits in Mudanjiang area, we evaluated the genetic variation of the population and screened out some excellent germplasm resources. The results showed that: (1) There was abundant phenotypic variation in spring soybean germplasm resources in Northeast China. Most traits showed significant differences between different varieties and years, and the same trend was observed in two years in addition to growth period. The maximum variation was the effective branch number, followed by the number of effective pods per plant, grain weight per plant and plant height, which had great selection potential, the variation range of quality traits was smaller than orther traits and the selection potential is limited. (2) The frequency distribution of phenotypic traits was in accordance with the normal distribution, Growth period of the northern breeding varieties is earlier than the southern for different latitude breeding units and breeding target. The northern breeds showed smaller nutrients, shorter plants, less effective nodes and higher fat content than the southern in Mudanjiang ecological area.(3) The results of comprehensive evaluation of principal component analysis showed that the ZF value of Jiyu 71 was the highest, and the comprehensive character was the best than the others. The correlation analysis between phenotypic traits and ZF value showed that seven traits, including growth period, plant height, number of main stem nodes, aboveground biomass,harvest index, number of pods per plant and number of pods per plant, could be used as a comprehensive evaluation index of spring soybean germplasm resources. It is concluded that soybean breeding should attach importance to the utilization of the genetic resources with genetic diversity, and simultaneously, also pay great attention to the use of the parents with excellent comprehensive performance and complementary breeding traits in breeding parent selection to improve genetic of varieties.