A stele newly found in Qin'an, Gansu Province, which is named "Zhuyizi shiming," was presumably made in the Northern Zhou dynasty between the Baoding era and the third year of the Jiande era (561—574) . As it was constructed by various members of the community working in unison, research of this site provides valuable information about the organization of the community. The recording of different surnames, in cluding Quan, Lü and Wu, reflect that various peoples lived together in the villages of the Northern Zhou. A word from the stele's inscription, "head of the community," has given new direction for studying Buddhist communities-this paper attempts to correlate inscriptions from relevant Buddhist steles with this new term.
