Taoshan granite is characterized by high silica and alkali, low calcium and magnesium, and metaaluminous nature. The chondritenormalized rare earth element (REE) pattern shows slight light rare earth elements (LREE) enrichment relative to heavy rare earth element (HREE), with a gently rightoblique LREE pattern and a relatively flat HREE one, which constitute a seagulllike curve with strong Eu negative anomaly. In primitive mantlenormalized trace element (TE) spider diagram, the granite displays features of enrichment of highfield strength elements (HFS) such as Zr and Ga, and depletion of Ba, Sr and Eu, which are similar to those of Late Permian  Early Jurassic syenogranites and alkali feldspar granites in the Yichun area. Cathodoluminescence (CL) images of zircons from this granite indicate that zircons are mostly composed of inherited cores and crystalline rims. The contents of the REE and TE in the zircon cores are changed greatly, but the overgrowth rim's still very constant according to Sensitive HighResolution Ion Microprobe Mass SpectrometerReverse Geometry (SHRIMPRG) analyses，reflecting some cores were affected by late tectonothermal event and happened in Pb losses while the overgrowth rims were products of dissolutionreprecipitation of inherited cores, implying that they were crystallized from the granite magma. Even though, both the inherited cores and rims were forming in a continental crust not in an oceanic crust. Zircon SHRIMP UPb dating on the zircon cores yielded two weighted mean ages of 2540±10 Ma and 2471±12 Ma, respectively, whereas the zircon rim gave a weighted mean age of 1821±10 Ma. Based on CL images and REE and TE characteristics, we propose that the protolith of the Taoshan granite has an age of 2.54Ga, undergoing a tectonothermal event at 2.47Ga and an anatexis event at ~1821 Ma. Therefore, the area where the Taoshan granite occurs is an ancient microcontinent in Precambrian.