1 Book Reviews T’oung Pao 102-1-3 (2016) 1-8 The Order of Places: Translocal Practices of the Huizhou Merchants in Late Imperial China. (Sinica Leidensia vol. 119.) By Yongtao Du. Leiden: Brill, 2015. viii + 269 p. Ill. Yongtao Du’s recent monograph on Huizhou merchants offers a dynamic picture of social mobility and its implications in late imperial China. By studying how “local” sites of community and state organization were transformed into “translocal” networks in this period, Du proposes new dimensions to several established modes of scholarship on late imperial China. First and foremost, he offers a new approach to the local history perspective by recognizing that mobility in late imperial China led to a more complicated notion of place, and by trying to articulate how connec- tions between individuals existing in different locales developed. Second, he pro- poses to understand the often urban focus of studies on commerce and mobility within the context of rural place ties, rather than in contrast to them. Third, he of- fers a perspective on lineage history and development that emphasizes its translo- cal nature by looking not only at the lineages’ local strategies, but also at their attempts to make connections and draw upon resources beyond their home locale. In combination, these modifications to our understanding of Chinese social networks in the late imperial era yield what Du proposes to consider as an interme- diary stage between the local activism of earlier periods and the national commu- nity of the modern age: he offers a vision of late imperial activism that is framed by locale, but not confined to a single space or strictly defined community. Du begins the book by offering in the Introduction critical institutional back- ground on the spatial organization of the late imperial empire and a theoretical framing of “translocal” involvement. This is followed by a treatment of the forma- tion of Huizhou native identity in the Song and Ming in chapter one, and of the expansion of Huizhou merchant activity in chapter two. In chapter three Du offers three concrete examples of Huizhou merchants’ translocal public projects from the eighteenth century forward. This is followed in chapter four by a long-term study of the Suzhou-based branch of an established Huizhou lineage from the sev- enteenth to the nineteenth centuries. The fifth chapter presents a detailed history of Ming and Qing reforms concerning the system of household registration. The last chapter offers some general thoughts on the portrayal of spatial order in mer- chant handbooks (noting that many of these were produced in Huizhou). The different levels and subjects of focus in each chapter allow a multi-dimen- sional and often rigorous perspective on several aspects of the “translocal” activi- ties of Huizhou merchants in the Ming and Qing. But the overlapping and often inverted chronological arrangement sacrifices a birds-eye perspective of the truly sweeping scope of the monograph in favor of a more intimate thematic approach. Therefore, in order to highlight the compelling large-scale story of mobility and complexity offered by Du’s research, in my own summary I will eschew the author’s original organization. The story begins, both chronologically and in the original order of the book, with the Song dynasty shift from regional bases of power and administration to a © Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2016  DOI: 10.1163/15685322-10213P13 T’oung Pao 102-1-3 (2016) 1-8 ISSN 0082-5433 (print version) ISSN 1568-5322 (online version) TPAO International Journal of Chinese Studies/Revue Internationale de Sinologie 15685322_Dykstra_Du Yongtao_102_01-03_s013_text.indd 1 7/1/2016 12:12:59 PM