In many pre-modern regions, local order took the form of a “village community” in which neighboring families connected and provided mutual assistance across generations in daily life and production. However, in China, where the survival of individual families was not guaranteed, it was difficult for villages to have such characteristics. This raises two questions. First, how would their living spaces be organized if villages were not self-sufficient closed groups? Second, if there were no village communities, what kind of mutual assistance relationships did they form? Section 4.1 introduces the spatial organization of people’s lives, revealing that farmers’ lives extended beyond the confines of a village to encompass a relatively large market area centered around market towns. Section 4.2 examines the nature of social relationships within this space. The predominant form of social bonding is hui 会 (associations), where individual families establish relationships through agreements with other families with the same needs. However, these agreements had a single purpose, were resolved in the short term, and did not serve as safety nets. To overcome this uncertainty, some people emphasized their shared characteristics with others (for example, the same lineage) and endeavored to forge more enduring bonds. But, it was challenging to sustain them.