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This article presents research on popular cults and ancestral sacrifice from the Fuzhou region in order to reflect on James Watson's theories of orthopraxy and standardization. It argues that substantive standardization and adherence to orthopraxy should be distinguished analytically from claims to standardization and adherence to orthopraxy, that the historical sources sometimes indicate the latter rather than the former, and that the distinction between the two limits the theories' capacity to fully account for social and cultural integration in late imperial China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]