The relationship between living pattern and subjective well-being of the elderly is an important issue in family research.Based on the data of China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Survey (CHARLS) in 2013,this paper investigates the effect of living patterns such as “living with children”,“separating without leaving” and “separating and leaving” on the subjective well-being of the rural elderly and its heterogeneity and impact path.The results show that the relationship between intergenerational living distance and depressive degree and life satisfaction of rural elderly is positive “U” shape and inverted “U” shape respectively.The elderly has the highest level of subjective well-being when living in the same village but not together with their children,especially for the elderly who are women,relatively young and who have high-leveled self-care ability.From the perspective of the impact path,“separating without leaving” affects the subjective well-being of the rural elderly mainly by increasing the economic support from children,improving intergenerational relations and raising the participation level of the elderly in social activities.Among them,the improvement of intergenerational relations has the most significant impact on the subjective well-being of the rural elderly.