The invention provides a fault line selection method for a resonant grounded power distribution system by pattern spectrum. When the resonant grounded power distribution system has a single phase fault, the zero sequence current of each line can be increased suddenly; and at the instant of the fault, the direction of the zero sequence current of a fault line is opposite to that of a perfect line; therefore, the zero sequence current of each line is subjected to multi-scale morphological operation firstly, and then the pattern spectrum of the zero sequence current is derived; after the fault line has a fault, the pattern spectrum of the first-half wave zero sequence current is mainly distributed in the positive scale, while after the perfect line has a fault, the pattern spectrum of the first-half wave zero sequence current is mainly distributed in the negative scale; therefore, positive scale spectral values and negative scale spectral values of the pattern spectrum of the zero sequence current of each line are respectively summed, and then a ratio of the sum of the positive scale spectral values to the sum of the negative scale spectral values of the zero sequence current of each line is respectively calculated; and a line with the maximum ratio is the fault line, otherwise, the bus fault is judged. The method has strong antijamming capacity, is not influenced by fault close angle and transition resistance, has low requirement on sampling frequency of signals, and has the advantages of convenient realization and low cost.