An 8-week feeding experiment was conducted to investigate the effects of dietary graded level of taurine supplementation on growth performance, intestine structure and resistance to acute crowding stress of juvenile black carp (Mylopharyngodon piceus) (initial mean body weight 5.90±0.03 g). The diet containing 20% fish meal was set as the control group. All the other groups contained 10% fish meal and were supplemented with 0% (I₀), 0.05% (I_0.05), 0.1% (I_0.1), 0.2% (I_0.2) and 0.4% (I_0.4) taurine, respectively. Each diet was randomly fed to triplicate groups of 30 fishes per tank (300 L). After the feeding experiment, according to growth performance, a 24 h acute crowding stress was conducted in 4 group (the control, I₀, I_0.1, I_0.4, and the density is 100 g/L. The results showed that the weight gain rate (WGR) of black carp in I₀ group was significantly lower than that in the control group (P<0.05). At the lower fish meal level, WGR of black carp first rose and then decreased with increasing dietary taurine supplementation level, and the maximum value was found in 0.1% group (P<0.05), who had no significant difference with the control group. Compared with the control, the villus height of the I₀ group were higher, crypt depth and number of goblet cells of the I₀ group were smaller; At the lower fish meal level, all fish fed the diets with dietary taurine supplementation had a greater crypt depth, goblet cell and lymphocytes number. Moreover, a lower villus height, villus height, crypt depth, goblet cell and lymphocytes number of intestine in the I_0.1 group were significantly higher than the control group (P<0.05). As the growth of the crowded stress time, cortisol, blood glucose (GLU) and lysozyme (LSZ), complement C3, superoxide dismutase (SOD) and glutathione (GSH) all had a trend of first rose and then decreased, and the maximum were found at 2 h and 8 h. There were different increase of these indexes among dietary treatments. The serum glucose and cortisol of fish fed the diet with 10% fish meal level were significantly higher than those in the other group (P<0.05), but serum LSZ, complement C3, SOD and GSH in I₀ group lower than those in the other group (P>0.05). These results suggested that dietary taurine supplementation can enhance growth performance of black carp, improve intestine structure, and increase the ability of black carp's resistance to acute crowding stress.