Referring to the definition of agricultural field N2O emission factor by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the main controlling factors climate and cropping system were introduced to estimate the chemical fertilizer N-induced direct N2O emission from China agricultural fields in 1991-2000, and a spatial inventory with 10 km x 10 km resolution was developed by dint of GIS framework. The results indicated that there was an increasing trend in the annual direct N2O emission, due to the increasing input of chemical fertilizer N. The mean annual emission in 1990s was estimated to be 204 Gg N2O-N, ranging from 159 to 269 Gg N2O-N, and the lowest and the highest emission occurred in 1992 and 1998, respectively. The uncertainty of the estimation was quantified to be about 23%. The spatial distribution of N2O emission was characterized by higher flux in eastern China and lower flux in western China, which was mainly attributed to the application rate of chemical fertilizer N and precipitation.