Provided are a method and a system for the production of calcium carbide. The method comprises mixing powdery carbon-containing raw material with powdery calcium-containing raw material; directly heating the mixture by combusting a part of carbon-containing raw material in an oxygen-containing atmosphere to produce calcium carbide. The carbon-containing raw material can be coal, semi-coke or coke, the calcium-containing raw material can be calcium carbonate, calcium oxide, calcium hydroxide or carbide slag. The provided system for the production of calcium carbide comprises a raw material preheating unit and a reaction unit. The preheater of the raw material preheating unit can be fluidized bed or entrained flow bed, the reactor of the reaction unit is entrained flow bed. The provided can overcome the disadvantages of high energy consumption and high pollution of the prior art for the calcium carbide production, and has advantages of having wide range for selecting raw materials, high energy utilization ratio, continuous operation, and large producing ability. By using the combustion of the by-product CO produced during the production of calcium carbide or auxiliary fuel in the air to preheat the raw materials to 500-1500 DEG C, the carbon consumption and the oxygen consumption for the calcium carbide production can be reduced, thus process energy consumption is further reduced.