Abstract After 30 years of development, the work of Chinese ancient villages protecting and utilizing has made positive progress, meanwhile, serious problems of destruction that come from protection and utilization have appeared. This paper tries to make detailed inquiries about the causes of these serious problems by cutting in from the revised definition of ancient villages, and find that the ancient village is a cultural complex consisting of four levels: materials, behavior, systems and spirit. These four levels are interrelated, closely integrated and influenced by each other. Among them, the materials culture is the "body" of ancient villages, without "body" there's no medium of cultural expression and succession; on the other hand, the behavior, systems and spirit culture is the "soul" of ancient villages, without "soul" are ancient villages only a lifeless puppet. Only when "soul" meets "body" can ancient villages get a real sense of development. Moreover, the ancient villages are also a cultural ecosystem with self-organization, which consists of people, the achievement of creativity and the environment. In this system, the environment is the base of the village development. Historical environment, ecological environment and villages texture decide together the characteristic and the individuality of ancient villages; people, namely the residents in the villages, are the core of the system operation, the main body of villages development and construction and the creators and successors of culture; the structures in villages are not only the symbol of individuation, but also the vehicle of particular production and living style; the production and living activities, festivals, games, beliefs, and language etc. which are in the continuation of the village living community, are the essence and the particular cultural attraction of ancient villages. Any destruction of this culture ecosystem could lead to a paradox phenomenon in protection and utilization. At last,this paper moves further to analyze the causes of the Chinese paradox from the levels of social and cultural environment, the cognition of concepts, the administrative mechanisms and the development mode.
2012, Vol. 27 
