Abstract: Low-temperature stress is a common adverse condition in oil tea cultivation during winter and spring, which greatly impacts plant photosynthesis. The investigation found a close correlation between low temperature injury and the temperature return rate after low temperature relief. The sharp rise in temperature after low-temperature is often accompanied by serious low temperature injury. In this study, the effects of low-temperature stress and different temperature return rates on the activity of photosystem I (PSI) and photosystem II (PSII) of Camellia oleifera were investigated. 2-year-old potted seedlings of Camellia oleifera ‘Changlin40’ were used as the test material. After being stressed at low temperature (−5 ℃) for 24 hours, the temperature was heated to room temperature(25 ℃) at rates of 30, 5, 2.5 ℃/h. The rapid induction kinetic curves of chlorophyll fluorescence and the redox kinetic curves of P700⁺ were determined, and the chlorophyll fluorescence was quenched. After 24 hours of low-temperature stress, photoinhibition of PSⅡ and PSⅠ activities of Camellia oleifera leaves occurred to different degrees. In the recovery stage, both PSII and PSI activities are sensitive to the return temperature rate, and PSII activity accelerates with the increase in the return temperature rate. At the same time, PSI activity recovers slowly at the fast return temperature rate(30 ℃/h) and faster at the slow return temperature rate(2.5 ℃/h). Rapid temperature rise promotes the recovery of linear electron transfer rate in Camellia oleifera leaves. The faster the temperature rises, the more electrons are transferred from PSⅡ to PSⅠ during the recovery process. The excessive number of electrons decreases the oxidation level of P700, which further intensifies the photoinhibition of Pⅰ. In the recovery process of Camellia oleifera under low-temperature stress, the acceleration of PSII activity recovery at a faster temperature return rate will lead to an increase in photosynthetic electrons flowing to PSI, further aggravating the mismatch between PSII and PSI activities. Measures should be taken to prevent the temperature from rising too fast after the occurrence of low temperature in production, to facilitate the protection and repair of Camellia oleifera photosystem.