Wu Chongqing, Ph.D. (1991), Sun Yat-sen University, is Professor in the Department of Philosophy at that university, Director of South China Rural Research Centre, and Editor-in-Chief of Open Times. He has edited Mapping China: Peasants, Migrant Workers and Informal Labor (Brill, 2016).

• Preface: A Village Path alongside China’s Highway of DevelopmentList of Illustrations1 Intermarriage Spheres and Affinal NetworksPart 1: Intermarriage Spheres: Social Change and the Expansion and Contraction of Intermarriage RegionsThe Rural Social Space of Sun VillageThe Situation of Intermarriage and Its Revision of “Common Sense”Why the Distance of Intermarriage is ShrinkingPart 2: Affinal Networks: Continuity and Transformation in the Conventions of Marriage and Affinal RelationsOld Conventions in the Mao Era: Protecting Traditional Core Values of Marriage and the Family “Walking Rites”: The Goodness of Uniting Two SurnamesChanging Conventions in the “Era of Black Marriages” and ThereafterConclusion: From “Many Branches” to “Deep Roots”2 The Realms of Yin and YangPart 1: Synchronic Communities: Gods, Ghosts, and People in a Post-revolutionary Era From the Imperial to the Post-revolutionary Era“We are Both Wretched Vagabonds in a Strange Land”“Fallen to the Earth and Crushed to Dust, Only the Fragrance Remains”When the Boundary between Yin and Yang is Breached: The Persistence of Affective Bonds between Ghosts and the LivingSynchronic CommunitiesAppendix to Part 1 of Chapter 2part 2: Efficacy Depending on Faith: The Scope and Cycles of Tongji PowerThe Vast Distance between Heaven and the Living“My Identity as a Woman”Preference for Secular over Supernatural Decision-MakingThe Authority of Each Medium Lasts Two or Three YearsPart 3: Pretending that Gods Exist: Relations between People and Gods in Collective RitualsBlock DivinationYuanxiao at Yongjin Temple Welcoming the Gods“Going Out to Run around the Territory”“Running Across the Arena” and “Calming Down to Dismount”“Selecting the Next Year’s Ritual Heads”Distributing “Boy Biscuits”The Utilitarianization of Supernatural Relations in Collective RitualsPart 4: A Thin Interface: The “Balanced Rationality” among Gods, People, and HorsesKeeping Pace to Entertain Gods: From “Using Horses for Work” to “Using Horses for Ritual”The Tracks of a Thousand Troops and Ten Thousand Horses: “Horse Agents” and “Horse-Leaders”In the Spring, Hooves Gallop Gaily: Horse-Leaders, Horse Markets, and Clients during YuanxiaoThose on Horseback Cannot See the Situation on the Ground: Horse-Leaders, Horses, and GodsSociety and Culture as Matrix3 Building Roads: “The Cultural Nexus of Power”Accounting and the StateThe Weakening of Popular Authority before 1949Political Consolidation and the Resurgence of Religious Authority (1949–1985)The Interaction between Popular Authorities and State Brokers (1986 to the Present)4 “Beyond the Boundary”: A Countermovement to the Hollowing-out of Rural ChinaSocial Networks in a Peripheral RegionFrom Periphery to Center: The On-site Concentration of Dajin ResourcesGaining the Upper Hand through Hometown-Based Economic Networks The Mutual Activation of Rural Social Resources and Tongxiang Tongye Economy A Countermovement against the “Hollowing-Out” of Rural ChinaAppendix: A Micro-History of Rural Society: Sun Village before and during the Revolutionary Periodi Livelihoodii Epidemicsiii Clansiv Water Resource Managementv “People’s Schools”vi “Able-Bodied Men”vii “Personages”viii Modern Schoolsix Banditsx Land Reformxi “Fording the Famine”xii The “Socialist Education” Campaignxiii The Cultural RevolutionPostscriptBibliography