Water absorption rate and content and ratio of endogenous hormones in seeds of Trollius farreri Stapf during seed imbibition process under light （12 h·d^-1 of illumination） and dark conditions were studied. The results show that with the increase of imbibition time， water absorption rate of T. farreri seeds under light and dark conditions shows the tendency of “dramatically increase-slowly increase-stable”. In general， ZT content shows a fluctuation change， GAs and IAA contents first decrease and then increase， and ABA content gradually increases under light condition； under dark condition， ZT content first decreases and then increases， while GAs， IAA， and ABA contents show fluctuation changes. Under light and dark conditions， ZT and GAs contents reach the highest values before germination in general， while IAA and ABA contents reach the highest values during germination. Under light and dark conditions， ZT／ABA， GAs／ABA， and IAA／ABA ratios in seeds with imbibition for 1 d decrease significantly compared with those in seeds without soaking （imbibition for 0 d）. It is suggested that initiation of germination of T. farreri seeds may be due to antagonism of ZT to ABA inhibition effect， but is not related with variations of absolute contents of GAs and ABA.