This is a personal reflection on how Professor G. William Skinner’s scholarship has deeply influenced generations of academics who are interested in state agrarian societies and their modern transformations. I juxtapose his regional systems analysis with the work of Maurice Freedman,Arthur Wolf,Myron Cohen,barbara Ward,James Watson,and David Faure to highlight their perspectives in explaining unity and diversity in Chinese culture and history and in understanding ”the original trans-local society and its modern fate”.