Abstract: The Community Surveillance System ( baojia) was the institution through which the Qing exercised control over grass roots society. It was also the main avenue through which national power penetrated into village society. However, the baojia System which was meant to be a potent tool for the government repression of cults, in fact, became the tool with which some evildoers racketeered and exploited their fellow villagers. In nature, village society was based on custom, not law. The existence of cults reflected the deep source of the opposition between the government and the people: the contradiction between the custom and the law.