Abstract: Based on the Anderson model, this paper constructs a configuration analysis framework for the three levels of influencing factors: objective needs, promoting resources, and tendency characteristics. The dynamic QCA method is used to collect the sample data from 31 provinces in China from 2012 to 2021, with a total of 310 cases. It explores the configuration path to improve the minimum living guarantee level in rural China from the vertical time dimension and horizontal regional dimension. The findings show that there are three main paths that affect the minimum living guarantee level in rural China, namely, the three models: demand-dominant, demand-characteristics, and demand-resources. There is a substitution effect in the path of improving the minimum living guarantee level in rural China, which can be further targeted by adjusting the subjective controllable factors such as the Engel coefficient, rural policy guarantee supply, and rural housing average price. The overall consistency in the time dimension is high, indicating that the impact of various factors on the level of living security is stable. On the regional dimension, there are certain differences in the configuration preferences among different regions. The East China, South China, and Central China regions tend to be demand-dominant, while the South China, North China, and Northeast regions tend to be demand-characteristics, and the Northwest region tends to be demand-resources.

Key words: rural minimum subsistence level, dynamic QCA, synergistic path, regional differences