We present a 230Th-dated stalagmite oxygen isotope (δ18O) record from Loushanguan Cave in the Yangtze River valley, China. The δ18O record, if viewed as a proxy of the Asian summer monsoon (ASM) intensity, provides an ASM history for the early Holocene with clear centennial-scale variability. A significant approximately 200-yr cycle between 10.2 and 9.1 ka BP (before present, where present is defined as the year AD 1950), as revealed by spec-tral power analyses, is of global significance and is probably forced by the Suess or de Vries cycle of solar activity. Here, we explore a physical mechanism to explain the relationship between the solar activity and the ASM. A strong coherence between the ASM and El Ni?o–South Oscillation (ENSO) has been observed by performing cross-wavelet analyses on this cycle. Our study suggests that a strong (weak) ASM state corresponds to a warm (cold) EN-SO, which is consistent with mod meteorological observations but contrasts with previous studies on regions far from the Meiyu rainbelt. We argue that the centennial fluctuations of the ASM are a fundamental characteristic forced by the solar activity, with the ENSO variability as a mediator. The relationship between ENSO and the ASM displayed spatial heterogeneity on the centennial scale during the early Holocene, which is a more direct analogue to the observed mod interannual variability of the ASM.