Rocking timber frame is the main bearing system of Chinese traditional timber structure. The pseudo static test was carried out on the full-scale single-span timber frame model under three-level vertical load. The displacement and deformation characteristics of the timber frame during the test were observed. The hysteretic curve and skeleton curve of the timber frame under low cycle horizontal cyclic loading were obtained to explore its structural characteristics under different vertical loads and low cycle horizontal cyclic loading. In the loading process, the column rocks and the deformation of the column frame layer are concentrated, and the test object can return to the initial position independently in the unloading stage. The test result shows that the hysteresis loops of each stage are long, narrow and overlap. The equivalent stiffness degrades significantly, and the equivalent viscous damping coefficient is low; the residual displacement is between 0.28 mm and 2.53 mm, and the two displacement recovery coefficients are greater than 87.1%. The two type of displacement recovery coefficient does not decrease significantly with the increase of control displacement, so the displacement recovery ability of timber frame is good; the initial stiffness tends to be stable when the control displacement exceeds the yield displacement; the deformation of column frame layer is 2.95 to 86.47 times that of dougong bucket layer. The concentration coefficient of interlayer displacement is between 1.22 and 2.03, which first increases and then decreases with the increase of control displacement.