Abstract: At present, rural settlement reconstruction has already become an important way to balance urban and rural development, and an inevitable trend of modern rural development, shouldering the historical mission of ecological civilization construction. Promoting rural settlement reconstruction has become a social consensus. However, the performance of different patterns of rural settlement reconstruction is still subpar in practice. Therefore, the purpose of this article was to enrich the domestic study on the theory of the governance path of rural settlements reconstruction, and to explore choices and directions for the governance path on the basis of the recognition of different rural settlements reconstruction patterns, and to promote governance performance of rural settlement reconstruction. Established in the background of the transformation of government governance, promotion of market governance, and innovation of social governance proposed in the third plenary session of the eighteenth Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC), this article follows a logical thread of 'pattern recognition, theoretical research, and empirical comparison'. 1)Based on an existing literature review, this article points out that different reconstruction patterns should be chosen based on the demand of different shapes and layout of the rural residential areas. Three kinds of typical patterns of the current rural settlements reconstruction, 'demolition', 'constructive', and 'reserved' types are recognized distinctively by the comparative analysis on the differences between the characteristics of the rural settlement reconstruction. 2) In a brief review of Williamson's governance structure of spectrums, and Ladder's model of public participation, a new analysis framework of spectrum-the Ladder governance model has been built by introducing the farmer collective as another subject in terms of the reality of China's rural settlement reconstruction, which elicits that the governance paths of rural settlement reconstruction mainly includes three paths: the market-oriented path, the government-leading path, and the farmer collective-leading path. 3) In accordance with the different reconstruction pattern, three typical examples which were not completed and have outstanding characteristics in the Liuzhou city were chosen for comparative study focusing on the advantages and disadvantages of performance in the different governance paths on account of the recognition of different patterns and identification of the optimal governance path under the correction expectation of the optimal governance path. The conclusion of this article was that different reconstruction patterns are relatively suitable for the specific governance paths, and should take the matching degree of subjective and objective conditions into consideration, reflecting polycentric governance by the government, the market, and individuals. In addition, based on the condition of the current reality of China, promotion of the government market, the allocation market, and the farmers' willingness should all be causes of concern and policy support. Government guidance and supervision should be strengthened in order to improve the utility of rural settlement reconstruction. Only in this way, can farmers really become the main body and beneficiary in refactoring activities, making the governance effect of rural settlement reconstruction optimal, realizing large-scale and intensive land use, and laying a solid foundation to promote agricultural production, increase farmers' income, and facilitate rural prosperity.