Background, aim, and scope Radiation research is essential for better understanding past climate change, and in various climatic factors, the amount of radiation is also an important indicator of the growth of trees. However, involving the tree-ring data and radiation changes in the research results are still relatively rare. Tree-rings have been considered as one of the best known archives in the past climate research with their features such as strong continuity, high resolution and easy access to duplicate. Materials and methods Employing the standard methods sponsored by the International Tree-Ring Data Bank (ITRDB), 44 Chinese pine tree (Pinus tabulaeformis Carr.) cores were collected from 22 trees in Mt. Xinglong in north-central China (103°50′104°10′E, 35°38′35°58′N, annual average radiation is 5122 MJ ·m~(-2)) during November 2016. In the laboratory, the standard dendrochronological processes were employed, and the ring-widths of each core were measured with a precision of 0.001 mm. After cross-dating, the COFECHA program was used to control the quality of cross-dating. Three tree ring chronologies (STD, RES and ARS chronologies) were carried out with the ARSTAN program. To clarify the climatic conditions in our study area, the total annual radiation data from 1960 to 2016 were extracted from the Yuzhong station (104.15°E, 35.87°N, 1875 m a.s.l.). The treering widths and the total annual radiation were compared by Pearson correlation analysis to preliminarily identify their relationship. The changes of tree-ring chronology and total radiation were also explored by sliding correlation analysis. Based on the correlation analysis, multivariate regression analysis was used to establish the conversion equation of the annual total radiation of the STD chronology. And the conversion equation was used to reconstruct the annual total radiation from 1640 to 2015 in the historical period. Results In the sliding correlation analysis, 11-year is chosen for the sliding window. Since the solar sunspot activity period is 11 years, if the sunspots are relatively large, the sun activity will be more intense, the radiation sunshine hours and the solar radiation all will increase. Therefore, the sliding correlation coefficient calculated by the 11-year sliding window can better represent the effect of radiation intensity on tree-ring width. The correlation coefficient r (r0 = 0.338, p < 0.01, n = 57) between tree-ring width and annual radiation in the region from 1960 to 2016 is tested by the confidence degree <0.01, indicating that the total annual radiation and the tree-ring width have a more significant positive correlation. The sliding correlation coefficient shows that the relationship between tree-ring width and total annual radiation is always positive correlation between 1970 and 2016. The positive correlation in 1970 1991 reaches the significance level of 0.05, and the positive correlation is significant, which shows that the change of total annual solar radiation is always the main factor affecting the variation of tree-ring width. From 1992 to 2016, the sliding correlation coefficient fluctuates between 0.3 0.5 and tends to be stable.