During enacting nutrients criteria, there are five main methods such as direct observation of temporal reference state, direction observation of spatial reference state, population distribution approach, paleolimnological reconstruction, forecast and extrapolate model approach. In this paper, population distribution approach was applied to build the nutrients criteria on the case of Lake Taihu, one of the typical shallow water bodies in eastern China. Then, direct observation of temporal reference state and paleolimnological reconstruction were applied to validate the reference state value of TN and TP. Results showed that the reference state value of TP, TN in Lake Taihu was 0.03mg/L, 0.07mg/L, respectively, and the response indication of Chlorophyll-a and Sacci disk depth was 0.004mg/L and 0.70m, respectively. This study would offer the experience for enacting the criteria and standard in China, also would provide the theoretic support for eutrophication control in China.