To perform the smooth gradation display of an AC surface discharge type PDP and to stabilize discharge.

In a SUS21 period, driving is performed by the discharge mainly of an externally supplied voltage and the discharge is grown. In a SUS23 period, the discharge mainly of the external applied voltage and the discharge mainly of a wall electric charge are used together. A SUS22 period gradually causes self elimination discharge and achieves the role of smoothly connecting the SUS21 period and the SUS23 period. That is, by applying pulses of the intermediate level of the pulses in the SUS21 period and the SUS23 period to the row electrodes Xi and Yi and turning the output terminal of the driving circuit of a column electrode Wj to a high impedance state, a self elimination discharge amount is controlled. Also, the potential of the column electrode Wj is turned to 0 V in the middle of the SUS23 period and the light emission of different intensity is generated. By respectively controlling the number of times of the two light emission of the different light emission intensities, the smooth gradation display is obtained.