Abstract: The rural community where clan lives together as a big family determines the clan will have a greater impact on the community governance. Reviewing the last twenty years’ research on the rural clan influence to rural community governance, we can find that the literature focus on the rural clan governing model on rural community, the positive and negative effects of the rural clan to rural community governance, and the countermeasures of eliminating the rural clan governance influence on the rural community. The research about the clan effect on community governance has obtained the huge achievement. But China has a vast territory, a large population and the situation is unsustainable. The research has the biased deficiency. No matter what, treating correctly, using the clan reasonably, eliminating its negative effects gradually should be the principle that the researchers’ should follow in order to promote the effective governance of rural communities.