Most studies on urban strikes and riots of craftsmen during the late Ming and early Qing period by scholars both in Mainland China and Japan have focused on the relationship between proprietors and their workers or craftsmen. By three approaches, this paper enquires into these workers' or craftsmen's collective actions of protest in Suzhou city during this period. First, by comparing the price fluctuation and craftsmen's wages, I try to explain why the demonstrations and protests happened. Second, by using the "collective actiion" theory of historical sociology I analyze the important elemens in craftsmen's collective action, that is, organization, mobilization, protest rituals, collective mentality, and forms of collective violence, etc. By the late Ming, craftsmen seemed to have developed a prototype of their form of organization which was further to develop into unionlike organization in the Qing period. Although craftsmen were prohibited by the local governments from establishing their guilds, their union-like organization had effect on mobilizing craftsmen for collective protests. The craftsmen's protest rituals represent a symbol of their discontent while also reflecting their transformation of traditional "high" culture into one of their own. With respect to the forms of protest, a significant trend of transformation seems to have taken place, i.e. moving away from violence towards legal expression. Third, most Mainland Chinese scholars take the view that whenever there were conflicts between employers and craftsmen, the authorities invariably sided with the employers, condemning any form of protest. However, this paper presents a different interpretation. It emphasizes the role the government played as an important coordinator in solving the conflicts between employers and craftsmen.