The invention discloses a method and a system for controlling the position of a leveling cylinder piston at the stating stage of a paver. The method comprises the following steps of: 10) prestoring a corresponding relationship table of the paving thickness and the target position of the leveling cylinder piston; 11) according to the paving thickness demanded at present, obtaining a corresponding target position of the leveling cylinder piston from the corresponding relationship table; and 12) controlling the oil path of the leveling cylinder so as to enable the piston to reach the corresponding target position. According to the system and the method, by pre-storing the corresponding relationship table of the paving thickness and target position of the leveling cylinder piston, the position of the leveling cylinder piston can be automatically adjusted according to the change in demand on the paving thickness, so that an ironing plate is positioned in an optimal position, and the expected paving requirements on the paving thickness are met. Compared with the conventional manual adjusting mode of adjusting during the pavement, the system and the method can be used for remarkably improving the paving evenness; and no manual judgment is desired, the adjustment precision is high, and the operation strength and requirements on operation personnel are also reduced.