Abstract: Previous qualitative or quantitative research on the grain price reporting system in the Qing dynasty and the reliability of the price data have only used materials from the central archives，mainly consisting of the grain price memorials and the enclosed grain price lists at the prefecture level．The limitations of the materials have prevented us from appropriately understanding the real meaning of the data and also evaluating the reliability of the prefectural grain prices. This article first employs the documents from the Palace Archives and Grand Secretariat Archives to shed light on the establishment of the reporting process and some details of the district grain price report in practice Secondly，it unravels the relationships between the price data of the district and prefecture level，by making a comparison of the grain price data from both local and central archives．This article clarifies the summarizing methods that the officials applied to produce the grain price lists from district level data and helps us to have a more precise understanding of the real meaning of the grain price data，which enables us to properly evaluate the reliability of the grain price data．