The severe economic and disease burden caused by air pollution have become a public health concern. A great number of studies have proved that air pollution had an impact on mortality, but the association between air pollution and years of life lost (YLL) remains indistinct. The mortality data between January 1, 2008 to December 31, 2012 was collected from the China National Mortality Surveillance system to estimate the burden of disease attribute to air pollution. We used Distributed Lag Non-linear Model (DLNM) to analyze it, adjusting for long-term trend and weather confounders. Total 386,695 death was included in the study. 185,360 death was cardiovascular disease and 37,812 death was respiratory disease. The average value of air pollution index (API) was 84, average YLL for non-accidental death, cardiovascular disease, ischemic heart disease (IHD), stroke, respiratory disease, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) were 12.0, 9.8, 9.2, 9.7, 7.3 and 6.5, and daily YLL for non-accidental death, cardiovascular disease, IHD, stroke, respiratory disease, and COPD were 2540, 994, 428, 456, 150 and 60 respectively. The relative risk (RR) of API on YLL was 1.04 (95%CI, 1.00–1.07) at lag 0–2 days for non-accidental death, and 1.44 (95%CI, 1.02–2.02) at lag 0–7 days for cardiovascular disease. Air pollution had a more serious impact on the elderly and women. We found the positive association between API and YLL in Beijing. The study indicates that the government needs to develop public health policies to improve the quality of the air.