Contents -- List of Tables, Figures, Illustrations, and Maps -- Terms for Measures and Money -- Acknowledgements -- Part One Introduction -- Chapter One Confucian Rituals in Late Imperial Chinese State and Society -- Commoners, Confucian Rituals, and Neo-Confucianism -- The Appropriation of Confucian Rituals -- A Social History of Rituals in Sibao -- Principal Themes -- Sources -- Chapter Two History at the Periphery: Tingzhou and Sibao -- Tingzhou: Banditry, Ethnicity, and the State -- Sibao: Making a Center out of a Periphery -- Part Two Lisheng as Cultural Mediators -- Chapter Three Who Are Lisheng? -- Lisheng: An Overview -- Lisheng in the Imperial State -- Lisheng in Late Imperial and Modern Chinese Society -- Lisheng and Sibao Society -- A Summary of Rituals in Sibao -- Who Are Lisheng? -- Chapter Four Lisheng and Their Rituals -- Lisheng and Sibao Rituals -- Ritual Formats -- Lisheng in Action -- Manuals of Sacrificial Texts -- A Summary of Manuals of Sacrificial Texts -- Who Wrote the Texts? -- Part Three Lineage, Ritual, and Corporate Estates -- Chapter Five The Creation of a Lineage Society -- Lineage Building -- The Mas of Mawu -- The Zous of Wuge -- The Yans of Yanwu -- Ancestors, Genealogy, and Lineage Building -- Chapter Six Rites, Land, and Lineages -- Ancestral Rites -- Land, Lineage, and Local Elite -- The Limits of Lineage Building -- Part Four A Strange Community Compact? -- Chapter Seven Community Compacts, Village Rituals, and Local Society -- Community Compacts in Late Imperial Sibao -- Villages and Descent Groups around Shangbao -- The Making of a Community Compact -- Shangbao Compact and Local Society -- Part Five The Worship of Gods -- Chapter Eight Gods, Ancestors, and Demons -- Zougong: A God Becoming an Ancestor -- Gods and Temples in Pre-Ming Sibao -- When a God Became an Ancestor -- The Transformation of She and Li.

Shegong in Pre-Ming Tingzhou -- Lishe Altars and Xiangli Altars Since the Ming -- Legends of Shegong and Ritual Masters -- Chapter Nine Temples, Markets, and Village Identity -- Temple Building and Village Identity -- Guandi and Village Identity -- Temples and Commerce -- Construction of the Tianhou Temple at the Laijiaxu Market -- Opening a Market in the Eighteenth Century -- The Tianhou Temple of Shangbao -- Chapter Ten Locating Rituals in Time and Space -- The Genealogy of a Grand Narrative -- Cultural Hybridization as a Historical Process -- Appendices -- Appendix One Jinshi (Metropolitan Graduates) in Late Imperial Tingzhou -- Appendix Two Lisheng and the Rituals Performed by Them in Tingzhou -- Appendix Three Fifty Sibao Jiwenben (I): Basic Facts -- Appendix Four Fifty Sibao Jiwenben (II): Breakdown of Contents -- Appendix Five Five Prohibitions of the Shangbao Compact -- Appendix Six Villages and Surnames in Sibao -- Appendix Seven Temples and Gods in the Sibao Basin -- Appendix Eight Gods and Texts Dedicated to Them in Three Sibao Jiwenben -- Bibliography -- Index.