[Objectives] Small and medium-sized soil animals are important components of soil fauna in terrestrial ecosystems. Research shows that there are many biotic and abiotic factors that affect soil fauna diversity in anthropogenic ecosystems such as paddy fields, and anthropogenic disturbance factors such as planting methods play the most obvious role. Chongming Island is an important agricultural planting area in Shanghai. The influence on ecosystem of rice farming is the focus in the rice production process. At present, although there have been some reports on the community structure and diversity characteristics of soil animals in paddy fields under different planting methods, these studies have not yet covered the three rice planting methods of conventional, organic and ecological (rice-fishing) in the same area. Therefore, the present study investigated the differences in the diversity of small and medium-sized soil animals under three rice cultivation methods. [Methods] This study set up three sample plots, which are all located on Chongming Island. The three plots are mainly cultivated with rice, and their natural vegetation and production background are basically the same. Their farming patterns were conventional planting, organic planting and ecological planting (Table 1). According to different rice growth stages, this study investigated the small and medium-sized soil animals in paddy fields in January, March, June and October, 2020, with a total of 4 samples. Small and medium-sized soil animals were separated by Tullgren method, and one-way ANOVA and Kruskal-Wallis H method were used to test the significance of differences. [Results] The results showed that a total of 449 small and medium-sized soil animals were obtained, belonging to 2 phyla, 5 classes, and 8 orders (Table 2). The dominant group was Collembola, accounting for 82.18% of the total catch. Among the three planting methods, Symphyla are only found in the soil of conventional paddy fields, Rosette is only found in the soil of organic paddy fields, and Hemiptera and Orthoptera are only found in the soil of ecological paddy fields. The community structure of small and medium-sized soil animals were significantly different in paddy fields under three planting methods, the density difference of small and medium-sized soil animals in different plots were significant, and the density of organic paddy fields was higher than the others (Fig. 1). The vertical distribution of small and medium-sized soil animal communities showed surface clustering characteristics, and the number and density of groups showed a downward trend (Fig. 2). There was no significant difference in the number of groups of small and medium-sized soil animals in different soil plots. The richness index, diversity index, and evenness index of small and medium-sized soil animals in ecological planting paddy fields were the highest, and the dominance index of organic planting paddy fields was the highest (Fig. 3). Three different planting patterns showed moderate similarity between any two groups. [Conclusion] Compared with conventional and organic planting patterns, ecological planting pattern is more conducive to improving the diversity and evenness of small and medium-sized soil animals and promoting the stability and healthy development of the paddy ecosystem. It is of significance to the sustainability of rice planting and as the indicator of agricultural non-point source pollution. At the same time, there are many factors affecting the community structure of small and medium-sized soil fauna in paddy fields, we suggest that further studies can be performed with the correlation among climate factors, physical and chemical indexes, and soil fauna community.