Based on the 1 101 records of fiscal balance (surplus or deficiency) in ancient China extracted from 24 books dealing with the fiscal/economic history of China, this study first established the standards of fiscal level differentiation according to wording semantics. Then, a 2130-year-long (220 BC-1910 AD) fiscal sequence with decadal resolution is reconstructed to express the phase transition of fiscal balance in China. The relationship between fiscal fluctuation and climate change is further analyzed. It is found that fiscal fluctuations during 220 BC-1910 AD in China were featured cyclical changes. Four stages of relative fiscal surplus mainly distributed temporally during 220 BC-31 BC, 441-760 AD, 961-1210 AD, and 1381-1910 AD, respectively. Three stages of relative fiscal deficiency mainly were 30 BC-440 AD, 761-960 AD, and 1211-1380 AD, respectively. Fiscal balances during warmer/wetter periods were slightly better than that during colder/drier periods. Particularly, the probability for fiscal crisis increased significantly in a cold and dry climate. Correlation analysis shows that fiscal balance was positively and significantly correlated with both changes of temperature and precipitation. The long-run trends of fiscal fluctuation were strongly influenced by long-run changes of temperature as well as precipitation. Cold climate would affect agricultural production and incidence of wars and social unrests, which directly or indirectly influenced the imperial fiscal revenues and expenditures. However, there remained many other factors that would complicate the relationship between climate change and fiscal fluctuation. The results of moving correlation analysis indicated that climate-finance association obviously displayed an anti-phase pattern for certain periods. It is worth further explorations for the complex feedback mechanism among climate, finance and other multiple factors in different temporal and spatial scales.