Abstract: To improve the rationality of parent matching of lentils in breeding, using correlation analysis and path analysis method, the author studied the correlation of various characters of the local lentils from Nantong and evaluated their correlation degree. The results showed that the variation coefficient of plot yield was higher than that of the other 9 major agronomic characters, reached 44.62%, while the variation coefficient of days from sowing to first harvesting stage was only 3.15%. 4 pairs of the traits, such as hundred-grain weight and seed length etc. showed highly significant correlation. 7 pairs of the traits, such as hundred-grain weight and seed width etc. had significant correlation. The direct path coefficient of seed numbers of per pod to plot yield was the biggest (P＝0.7054) among 10 characters, so the direct selection of seed numbers of per pod was an effective method for high yield breeding of Lablab purpureus. The plot yield was negatively affected mostly by pot width. Therefore, to select smaller pot width during the breeding process was beneficial to obtain high yield. Meanwhile, if the pod width was too small to reduce seed numbers of per pod, the yield would be affected.