Abstract: Southern Jiangsu faced serious natural calamities in the first half of the nineteenth century; meanwhile，there werealso abuses in the land tax system that contributed to social conflict．Thus，both administrators and local societyimplemented some new measures to relieve people from natural calamities and replace the former social securitysystem．On the side of local society，gentry and merchants constructed many lineage-organized facilities for disasterrelief that dominated the rural relief system．On the other hand，government officials constructed charitable granaries creating a new type of social security granary system．These new granaries were based on the contribution of land andfunds from local gentry who suffered under the existing land tax system but found opportunities to reduce tax liabilities under the new system．The establishment of charitable granaries reflected the complicated relationship among government and different local interest groups in mid nineteenth-century Suzhou．