We investigated the relationship between teachers' emotional intelligence (EI) and self-efficacy, and tested whether this relationship was mediated by teaching performance. Participants were 467 Chinese middle school teachers (312 women; 66.8%). They completed 3 questionnaires relating to EI, self-efficacy, and teaching performance. The results showed that the total effect of EI on self-efficacy was .61, indicating that higher EI is positively correlated with a higher level of self-efficacy. This relationship was partially mediated by teaching performance. In the mediating model for teaching performance, the direct effect of EI on teachers' self-efficacy was .23 and the mediating effect of teaching performance on the relationship between EI and teachers' self-efficacy was .45. In addition, both the direct and mediating effects were invariant across gender and teaching experience. These results indicate that an increase in EI largely enhances teachers' self-efficacy only when emotional skills are successfully used to improve teachers' performance. ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR