Abstract: This paper uses CFPS 2010-2018 household tracking survey data to construct statistics based on the "probability of negative income growth" to verify whether there is an asset-based poverty trap in rural China. The test results show that there is no poverty trap in rural China, and the elasticity of rural household capital output continues growth and the insignificant difference in the technical level of families with different levels of wealth are the reasons why the poverty trap does not exist. When there is an asset-based poverty trap, the gratuitous aid represented by "poverty alleviation sheep" is indeed an efficient way of poverty alleviation. However, when this strategy is applied to the actual situation in rural China, under the influence of the law of diminishing marginal returns of production factors, the input of material assets will become relatively unimportant and can only show short-term effects. At the moment of the epidemic, from the perspective of curbing the return to poverty in the short term, priority should be given to increasing the production assets and self-use assets of rural households. Sustained poverty alleviation and rural revitalization also need to find endogenous causes of poverty.

Key words: Paradox of "Poverty Alleviation Sheep", Asset Poverty Trap, Rural Household Income Level, Probability of Negative Income Growth, Capital Output Elasticity, Rural Revitalization