In the past century since the founding of the Communist Party of China, rural teachers’ incentives have gone through five stages: initiation and infancy, exploration and transition, reform and development, sustainable development, and deepening and innovation. The evolutionary logic of rural teachers’ incentives manifests four aspects. The incentive policies have gradually developed from general to systematic; the incentive objectives have gradually changed from focusing on increasing the quantity of rural teachers to giving consideration to both quantity and quality of rural teachers; the incentive contents have changed from unitary to diversified and comprehensive; and the incentive methods have gradually changed from superficial diversification to substantial multi-channel consideration. In view of these, the incentive policies for rural teachers should be further optimized, focusing on the stability of the rural teaching workforce and the high-quality development of rural education, targeting the wishes of rural teachers, implementing accurate and differentiated incentives, and giving consideration to fully stimulating the “endogenous motivation” of rural teachers.