Having made tremendous achievements to eliminate rural poverty since foundation,China is universally acknowledged as the most significant country in the campaign of povery alleviation. This is irrefutably attributed to the government’s formulation and implementation of scientific and rational anti-poverty policies. Based on the analysis of rural anti-poverty policies since the foundation of PRC,this paper finds that:(1) Three layers of policy consist of the overall structure,namely the economic development policy of macro level,poverty alleviation policy of median level,and social security policy of micro level,which are differentiated in fields of content,objective,target,and function. (2) Five evolutionary stages have unfolded successively in the practice of poverty alleviation,namely the social relief,the institutional reform to accelerate poverty alleviation,the standardization and specialization of poverty alleviation,the development-oriented poverty alleviation and the targeted poverty alleviation to crack the nut. The study of the hierarchical structure and historical changes is expected to facilitate people’s understanding of rural anti-poverty policies,and then to promote the further development of rural anti-poverty cause.