Abstract: Within the course of social history research, local practices normally do not extend beyond the loca l environment in which they arise and they can only survive at the basic level where they originate .This paper finds that from 1900 to 1901, in drought- stricken Shanxi, although the very active power of charity famine relief ( yizhen) originated in the local clans of Jiangnan, this type of relief did broke out of its local origins and became a national institution of famine relief .This case not only shows a rarely noticed face of local practice, but also expands the approaches to local history.