To start/shutdown modular multilevel converter smoothly and quickly, the start/shutdown control strategies applied to MMC connecting active or passive network are proposed. Every strategy can be divided into two stages:uncontrollable and controllable stage. And the controllable stage can be further divided into DC voltage and power control stage. In the uncontrollable stage, the limiting resistance is modified, and the selection principle of the discharge resistance is presented. In the DC voltage control stage, the coordination control between the sub-module capacitor voltage, switching number and DC voltage are adopted. And DC voltage drop value of start strategy and energy feedback ratio of shutdown strategy are calculated. In the power control stage, the corresponding strategy is proposed aiming at MMC connecting active and passive network. Finally, the effectiveness and correctness of the proposed start/shutdown control strategy are verified based on PSCAD/EMTDC simulation model.