The study on the temporal and spatial distribution characteristics of hourly precipitation and short-time heavy precipitation in Jiangxi Province can provide the climate change background of precipitation and short-time heavy precipitation, and lay a foundation for further application. Based on the hourly precipitation data from 86 national meteorological stations of Jiangxi Province from March to November during 1979-2019, the diurnal change characteristic of ratio and frequency of hourly precipitation and short-time heavy precipitation in Jiangxi Province were analyzed. The results are as follows: (1) The diurnal variation of ratio and frequency of hourly precipitation and short-time heavy precipitation in Jiangxi Province shows an obvious bimodal characteristics. One of the peaks occurs from 15:00 BST to 20:00 BST and another occurs from 05:00 BST to 10:00 BST. (2) The daily maximum values of ratio and frequency of hourly precipitation and short-time heavy precipitation are high in the south and low in the north of Jiangxi Province. The spatial distributions of daily minimum value of ratio and frequency of hourly precipitation and short-time heavy precipitation are complementary to the daily maximum value. The daily maximum value of hourly precipitation ratio in most areas of Jiangxi Province appears from 15:00 BST to 20:00 BST, while the daily minimum value mainly appears from 20:00 BST to 03:00 BST the next day. (3) The diurnal distribution of precipitation ratio in southern Jiangxi presents single peak pattern, the maximum value appears from 15:00 BST to 20:00 BST, while that in northern meteorological stations are mainly double peak pattern, the first peak appears from 05:00 BST to 10:00 BST and another peak appears from 15:00 BST to 20:00 BST, but it at meteorological stations around the Poyang Lake is single peak pattern, and the maximum value appears from 05:00 BST to 10:00 BST. (4) The diurnal variations of ratio and frequency of precipitation in different seasons are slightly different. The bimodal structure of ratio and frequency of precipitation began in late-April, but the precipitation ratio ended in early-June and the precipitation frequency ended in mid-June. The unimodal structures are dominant in other periods. The peaks from March to mid-April and from late-September to November appear from 00:00 BST to 10:00 BST and 05:00 BST to 10:00 BST, respectively, while from late-June to mid-September they mainly appear from 15:00 BST to 22:00 BST. The diurnal variations of ratio and frequency of short-time heavy precipitation are unimodal structure from March to early-April, and the peaks mainly occur from 00:00 BST to 10:00 BST. From mid-April to mid-July, they are mainly bimodal structure, and the peaks mainly occur from 05:00 BST to 10:00 BST and 15:00 BST to 20:00 BST. From late-July to mid-September, they turn into a single peak pattern, and the peaks mainly occur from 15:00 BST to 20:00 BST.