Seven terraces of upper Weihe River in the Longxi Basin on the north flank of the Qinling Mountains are capped with a succession of loess units and paleosols that correlate with the standard marine isotope chronology. Based on fieldwork and terrace ages, which were determined using loess-paleosol stratigraphy, paleomagnetic, optical stimulated luminescence (OSL) and radiocarbon dating, the results show that the fluvial fills were deposited during marine oxygen isotope stages (MISs) 22, 20, 18/16, 12, 6, 4 and 2, respectively, whereas terracing occurred during glacial–interglacial transitions. This, in turn, points to eccentricity-related climatic changes that may have driven recurrent incision and aggradation processes and significantly influenced the formation of staircase terraces of Weihe River, through the direct and indirect influence of both temperature and precipitation on fluviatile activity. On the basis of terrace ages and its heights, incision rates were enhanced from 865 to 412ka (∼0.27m/ka), decreased from 412 to 128ka (∼0.09m/ka), and increased from 128ka to present (∼0.32m/ka).