本书论述一个清史研究领域的问题，即秘密为什么之于“秘密会社”重要？有学者认为秘密像血缘，捆绑住参与者。本书在此基础上加以补充：秘密与血缘有所分别，血缘不会因为扩散而冲淡，反之，秘密则随着扩散，越不秘密。因此，本书认为秘密会社不在于真正有多少秘密，而在于秘密的传播本身才是秘密会社生存的标签。

在很长的历史时期内，中国的沿海、沿江、沿湖生活着大量的水上人。这些人或被称为“疍”，或被称为“九姓渔户”，等等。这些称呼的背后往往交织着陆上人与水上人之间的权力关系。历史上，水上人往往不被允许上岸建屋居住，他们也很少掌握文字，因此撰写水上人历史的，几乎都是陆上人，采取的是陆上人的眼光。本书即试图去理解这样一个文字记录很不全面的社会历史，解读其与“陆上人”的联系与交流。

The Historical Anthropology of Chinese Society Series Although most studies of rural society in China deal with land villages, in fact very substantial numbers of Chinese people lived by the sea, on the rivers and the lakes. In land villages, mostly given to farming, people lived in permanent houses, whereas on the margins of the waterways many people lived in boats and sheds, and developed their own marked features, often being viewed as pariahs by the rest of Chinese society. This book examines these boat and shed living people. It takes an "historical anthropological" approach, combining research in official records with investigations among surviving boat and shed living people, their oral traditions and their personal records. Besides outlining the special features of the boat and shed living people, the book considers why pressures over time drove many to move to land villages, and how boat and shed living people were gradually marginalised, often losing their fishing rights to those who claimed imperial connections. The book covers the subject from Ming and Qing times up to the present.

本书从超越地方史的着眼点，来研究粤西南一带呈现的亦神亦祖的祭祀现象。作者认为，神与祖先的形象与拜祭模式，关乎在大一统的礼仪与文化推广的过程中，不同时期的地方社会如何利用国家的礼仪来塑造国家形象与表达自身认同。这个问题，既牵涉明清时国家礼仪、地方行政、经济环境的演变，也深受文字运用、科仪专家参与、建筑形制变化等因素的影响。