In this paper, we present a δ¹³C record that covers the past 750 years at a resolution of 2 - 3 years which was preserved in a precisely dated stalagmite (DY-1) obtained from the Dayu Cave on the south flank of the Qinling Mountains in central China. Between 1249 AD and 1800 AD, climate-induced vegetation changes appear to have been the primary control on δ¹³C values at a centennial scale. Variations in precipitation amounts control the residence time of seepage water and may have affected the dissolution of bedrock, prior carbonate precipitation in the unsaturated zone above the cave, and the degassing of CO₂ within the cave. These hydrogeochemical processes are likely to have been the most important controls on δ¹³C levels over annual to decadal scales, and may also have influenced centennial-scale variations. The reduced δ¹³C value of atmospheric CO₂ since the Industrial Revolution may have caused the decreasing trend in δ¹³C values seen in stalagmite DY-1 after 1800 AD. Increased visitor numbers in the unventilated Dayu Cave over time produced a large amount of CO₂, and maintained a raised level of pCO₂ in the cave air. This artificially enhanced pCO₂ may have decreased the fraction of CO₂ degassing, and hence carbonate precipitation, which could partly cause the decreasing trend in the stalagmite δ¹³C seen over the past 200 years.