A method using high performance liquid chromatography with diode array detection coupled with fluorescence detection was applied to determine four polycyclic aromatic hydro carbons in anthracene oil for toys. This method showed good abilities of the baseline separation and high sensitivity under the optimized analytical conditions. The limits of the fluorescence detection were 0.5 - 1000 microg/L, while the limits of the diode array detection were 0.5 - 1 000 mg/L. The precisions of the method were 0.7% - 8.8%. The recoveries of the standard samples were 70.0% - 120%. The limits of detection (LOD) of anthracene, pyrene, phenanthrene and fluoranthene were 0.1, 0.1, 0.2 and 0.3 microg/L, and the limits of quantitation (LOQ) of the four substances were 0.4, 0.2, 0.5 and 0.8 microg/L, respectively. In comparison with other methods, the method has higher detection speed and lower detection limits, which is useful to analyze rapidly those four polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in anthracene oil for toys.