The invention provides a novel color-developing agent luminosity analytical method for measuring hydrogen cyanide content in mainstream smoke quickly, which comprises the following steps of: pretreating a sample in which hydrogen cyanide in the mainstream smoke is collected, adding a color-developing agent, and quantifying by a luminosity analytical method, wherein the color-developing agent is 4-nitrobenzaldehyde and o-dinitrobenzene; preparing potassium cyanide (KCN) solution which is added with the color-developing agent and has different concentrations to make a standard curve; and quantifying the standard curve by an external standard method, adding the color-developing agent in a cigarette absorption liquid sample, and performing photometry detection at wavelength 533 nm by an ultraviolet spectrophotometer. In the method adopting the color-developing agent containing 4-nitrobenzaldehyde-o-dinitrobenzene, the selectivity and sensitivity are high, a reaction is completed instantaneously and the interference resistant capacity is high. In addition, the method is simple in operation, cigarette sidestream smoke can be detected, the HCN in smoke environment also can be analyzed qualitatively and semiquantitatively, and the method is also suitable for field detection.