假使有一個中國帝國末期的地方社會可以來代表符合新儒家原則的社會轉型，那就會是徽州了。徽州因而代表了一種特別有趣的測試案例，從徽州的案例中可以探知這些原則實際上是如何的深入社會內部的運轉，以及其他的宗教型式又在什麼樣的程度上被邊緣化。筆者仰賴田野調查來試圖回答這個問題。儘管表面上比起中國其他地方，（徽州的）僧尼和道士的確較常處於社會的低階層，但是社會對於他們的儀式的依賴似乎與他處一般的普遍。即使堂皇的祠堂在村落的建築中占據了主要的地位，社會作為一個整體依然持續的環繞着村廟而建構。同時，水口的位置對於建構村落空間也和南中國其他地方一樣的重要。

If any late imperial Chinese local society can be thought of as representing the transformation of society in accord with the neo-Confucian principles, Huizhou would be it. It therefore represents a particularly interesting test case of how deeply these principles actually reached into the inner workings of that society: to what extent were other religious forms marginalized? The author relies on fieldwork to try to answer this question. While it would appear that Buddhist and Daoist specialists did frequently have a lower social status than in other parts of China, reliance on their rituals would seem to have been just as widespread as elsewhere, and the society as a whole continued to be structured around local temples, even if magnificent lineage halls came to play a dominant role in village architecture. Also, the place of the shuikou in structuring village space was just as important as in other parts of South China.