Both the blue-chip CSI300 index and the Shanghai Composite Index fell 0.4 percent, reaching 3,162.03 points and 2,946.67 points, respectively.
Investors are getting increasingly nervous about China's debt market, which has witnessed a slew of defaults this year.
Risks are also building in China's commodities market, where feverish trading in products such as rebar - a reinforcing steel bar used in concrete - led regulators to crack down on speculation.
Jian Yi, executive partner at fund manager Winsor Capital, told a conference in Shanghai he feared there could "be a negative chain of reaction that threatens to trigger a spasm of liquidity and destruction in value."
The energy sector was the only sector that ended the session in positive territory on Monday. (Reporting by Samuel Shen and Pete Sweeney