This article examines the relation between market towns and villages in modern Jiangnan delta. Using Fengjing Township as a case study, this article compares maps surveyed and drawn during the Republican period with the description of space found in local gazetteers. It would seem that Fengjing Township as recorded in the town gazetteers might have evolved from the districts previously under the jurisdiction of the subordinates of county magistrates or prefects. Villages under the township have been copied from the county gazetteers and other sources without on-ground surveys, and their number far exceeded from what is shown in the maps. There exists cases of duplication of names, multiple names given for the same place and the failure to delete records of villages that were burnt or abandoned. This reveals to us that there is a need to rethink the studies on the density of settlement and development of villages and townships based on records in gazetteers.