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Human capital plays an important role in preventing the intergenerational transmission of poverty. The study aims to examine in detail how human capital impacts the intergenerational poverty transmission in China based on nationwide rural household survey. The research results are: (1) the improvement of individual human capital significantly reduces the risk of intergenerational poverty transmission in rural China; (2) in comparison to individual educational level, parents' educational level may not effectively decrease the risk of intergenerational poverty transmission; (3) the impact from human capital on the risk of intergenerational poverty transmission has relatively lower effectiveness on female than male in rural China; (4) human capital of Western China area generates more impact on reducing the risk of intergenerational poverty transmission than that of the central and eastern regions. In approach to improve the role of human capital in preventing intergenerational poverty transmission, the following policy implications should be considered, such as improving the rural education conditions and mechanism, encouraging self-improvement rather than parents dependency, and supporting rural female education. • Education may alter the status quo of the rural relative poverty in China. • To crawl out relative poverty, improving education is significantly effective. • Education benefits males more than females in rural China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]