We developed a superheated steam distillation (SSD) strategy for the extraction of Chinese fir essential oil with Chinese fir root cuttings as raw materials. The conditions were listed as follows: feed 350 g, steam flow 650 mL/h, distillation for 4 hours, different extraction temperatures as 130 ± 5 ℃, 160 ± 5 ℃, 190 ± 5 ℃, 220 ± 5 ℃, 250 ± 5 ℃ and 280 ± 5 ℃ respectively. The results showed that the yield of superheated steam was increased 2-4 folds comparing with that of atmospheric steam distillation (SD). The essential oil of Cunninghamia lanceolata has the smell of wood and ointment. However, the compounds with low boiling point in the components of the essential oil decrease with the increase of extraction temperature. Also, acidic compounds were observed in the mixture with acidic smell. On the other hand, increasing the steam temperature led to the decrease of cedanol in essential oil from 49.99% to 25.41%, increase of α-cedrene from 16.61% to 30.14%, and increase of β-cedrene from 4.10% to 11.92%. This SSD strategy could dramatically improve the oil yield from Chinese fir essential oil. Furthermore, variation of the extraction temperature could provide the oil with different chemical components, which can meet the different needs of the product.