The adsorption and desorption characteristics and influencing factors of cadmium and arsenic were investigated in paddy soils derived from six typical parent materials from Hunan, using single element equilibrium method. The studied six materials were eel clayey soil, red clayey soil, alluvial sandy soil, granitic sandy soil, sour purple sandy soil and grey clayey soil. The results showed that the isothermal adsorption curves of cadmium and arsenic in paddy soil were nonlinear. The relationship between the concentration of cadmium or arsenic in the solution and the adsorption amount of cadmium or arsenic in the soil was significantly fitted by Langmuir, Freundlich and Temkin models, and the determination coefficient(R2) was 0.842-0.994. Among them, the fitting of Langmuir equation(R2 mean value 0.964) was better, but the optimal equations of different elements in different paddy soils were different. The cadmium in the grey clayey soil and the arsenic in the sour purple sandy soil were better fitted by the Temkin equation. The arsenic in the eel clayey soil, red clayey soil and alluvial sandy soil were better fitted by the Freundlich equation. The adsorption capacity of cadmium in soil was greater than that of arsenic. The Langmuir fitting equation showed that the maximum adsorption capacity(Xm) of cadmium in different paddy soils was the highest in the grey clayey soil(1379.9 mg/kg) and the lowest in the sour purple sandy soil(527.8 mg/kg); and that of the arsenic in red clayey soil(587.4 mg/kg) was the largest and that in grey clayey soil(266.6 mg/kg) was the smallest. The desorption amounts of cadmium and arsenic in soil increased with the increase of the adsorption amounts of cadmium and arsenic. The desorption rates of cadmium and arsenic were 23.2%-93.8% and 0.5%-44.2%, respectively. The cadmium desorption rate of sour purple sandy soil was the highest(mean 83.9%), while that of grey clayey soil was lowest(mean 43.7%); and the arsenic desorption rate of sour purple sandy soil was the highest(mean 20.3%), while that of red clayey soil was lowest(mean 7.2%). Correlation analysis showed that soil pH value and free ferric oxide content were the main factors affecting the maximum adsorption capacities and average desorption rates of cadmium and arsenic, respectively. Among the six parent paddy soils, the partition coefficients(Kd) and retention factors(K0) of Cd were the highest in the grey clayey soil(5.86-11 557.25, 0.08-387.37 L/kg), and the lowest in the sour purple sandy soil(1.89-2765.17, 0.02-47.31 L/kg). The Kd and K0 of arsenic in red clayey soil (6.17-406.29, 0.31-770.85 L/kg) were the highest, and the lowest in sour purple sandy soil(2.34-22.51, 0.05-3.50 L/kg).