Abstract: With the accelerating speed of urbanization in China, the construction of small towns has ushered in new development opportunities. In the context of cultural renaissance, promoting excellent traditional culture with contemporary value and leading the development of small towns with culture are of great significance to the inheritance and development of traditional culture, which also has a significant impact on the planning and construction of small towns. Under the background, this article explores the differences in the spatial development of small towns due to the different ways of using historical and cultural resources, and proposes three spatial development modes of cultural-led small towns. Combined with the research and analysis of the planning practice case of Lingshan Town in Quyang County, it demonstrates the inheritance and development of Dingci culture in the planning of Lingshan Town. Through the integration of regional cultural resources, it explores the spatial development model and planning strategy that meet the characteristics of Lingshan Town. The article proposes to build a two-level cultural value system of ‘core value+expansion value’ and a three-level spatial planning strategy of ‘regional synergy-core leading-project-driven’ to promote the overall promotion of small towns' cultural value improvement and spatial transformation development.