Abstract: The paper approaches the impacts of the state policies adopted since 1949 on rural development from the viewpoint of economic history. Before China introduced the policy of reform and opening-up, many state policies, such as urban and rural policy, rural economic policy, population policy and regional development policy, had bad effects on rural development to a certain degree, making the poor rural area poorer; after that, although the state policies mentioned above have been greatly changed, their bad effects can not be overcome immediately and still have a strong restriction on rural development.