The Great Way of Former Heaven: a group of Chinese secret religious sects

Marjorie Topley

doi:10.1017/S0041977X00064727

The Great Way of Former Heaven: a group of Chinese secret religious sects

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 December 2009

Marjorie Topley

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This paper discusses certain aspects of an esoteric, secretly organized, religion in China called Hsien-t‘ien Ta-tao (or Hsien-t‘ien Tao) ‘The Great Way of Former Heaven’ (or ‘The Way of Former Heaven’). It is based mainly on material discovered in Singapore during 1954–5.

The name Hsien-t‘ien Tao has been recorded elsewhere as that of a Chinese ‘sect’. Evidence suggested that it might have links with several other groupings but the exact nature of connexion was obscure.

Type: Articles
Information: Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies , Volume 26 , Issue 2 , June 1963 , pp. 362 - 392

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0041977X00064727 [Opens in a new window]
Copyright: Copyright © School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London 1963

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^{page 362 note 1} Chinese characters are incorporated into the text only when they are book-titles, connected with the argument, or when romanization makes for ambiguity. Other characters for terms which may be unfamiliar, are given in a list at the end.

^{page 362 note 2} See Groot, J. J. M. de, Sectarianism and religious persecution in China, 2 vols., Amsterdam, 1903'4, i, 195 f., 197, 199Google Scholar.

^{page 363 note 1} The results of this study appear in an unpublished Ph.D. thesis: The organization and social function of Chinese women's chai-t‘ang in Singapore (University of London, 1958).

^{page 363 note 2} A preliminary investigation in 1952 led me to believe that all vegetarian halls in Singapore were Buddhist. See my ‘Chinese women's vegetarian houses in Singapore’, Journal of the Malayan Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, XXVII, 1, 1954Google Scholar. The external appearance of both Buddhist and sectarian halls is similar and at this stage of contact members did not reveal their true affiliations.

^{page 363 note 3} The experience of de Groot provides a notable exception. The heightened campaigns against sects in Fukien actually aided him in documentary investigation. A leader of one sect gave him documents for safe-keeping at this time having previously denied that any such material existed; op. cit., i, 173.

^{page 363 note 4} With the exception of newspaper reports. See below, pp. 390'1.

^{page 363 note 5} These are cited as relevant. All interviews were conducted by me in Cantonese and translations from documents are my own.

^{page 364 note 1} The name of this sect has been recorded. For example, de Groot, op. cit., II, 563. There is an additional P‘u-tu sect in Singapore which I contacted but it provided no information relevant to this paper.

^{page 364 note 2} They are differently organized from the sect of this name described by de Groot, op. cit., I,176–96. There is another vegetarian sect of the religion in Singapore which provided no material for this paper. It is named after its nineteenth-century founder, Ch‘ên Tso-mien and claims to be reformed. It has abandoned ranks and degrees, while still retaining administrative positions and titles of address originally going with these ranks. These positions and titles of address are used by other sects in Singapore which retain ranks.

^{page 364 note 3} Karl Ludvig Reichelt gives the name of this sect in Religion in Chinese garment, trans. Tetlie, Joseph, New York, 1951, 165Google Scholar.

^{page 364 note 4} This sect has been described for China by John C. De Korne in a privately published fulllength work, The Fellowship of Goodness (T‘ung Shan She): a study of contemporary Chinese religion, Grand Rapids, Mich., 1941 (mimeo.). He regarded it as a new religion and was unaware of certain structural and ideological details which now enable identification with the Great Way.

^{page 364 note 5} Another sect said by informants to exist in Singapore is Lung-hua Men ‘Dragon Flower Sect’. Unlike the sect of this name described by de Groot it is said to be non-vegetarian. Cf. de Groot, op. cit., I, 196–241.

^{page 364 note 6} See below, p. 388, for evidence on one China sect supporting this claim.

^{page 364 note 7} See below, pp. 387–8.

^{page 364 note 8} See below, p. 370.

^{page 365 note 1} Some sects abandoned the patriarchal system after division. See below, pp. 368–9.

^{page 365 note 2} Patriarchal records are kept in head vegetarian halls of sect branches in Singapore. My sources on P‘u-tu sects were either these original records or copies of them. Generally copies had less details than original records: for example, they did not give alternative names of leaders, their fate (original records show that many came to a violent end), and the divine status which some were believed to have had (see below, pp. 376–7). I have in all cases included the fullest material.

Leaders with divine status are listed in a later note. Considerable time-gaps exist between some patriarchs. It may be in some areas campaigns against sects were stronger and some records were kept verbally for periods during which details were forgotten, or that minor leaders have been omitted. I am told that some leaders' names were struck from records because they engaged in activities disapproved by the sects. It is possible some newly formed groups of independent origin wished later to claim connexion with Great Way and faked records of descent omitting some leaders through lack of information. My main source on descent of Kuei-ken Men and T‘ung-shan She was a book written by the leader of the former sect, Ts‘ai Chao-yün (writing under the name of Ts‘ai Fei), San Lung chih lu-pei ‘Three Dragon [Flowers] point out the road’, Penang, reprint, 1951. The title relates to Great Way cosmology, see below, p. 373. The book was written in connexion with the campaign of reamalgamation of Inner sects he was conducting at the time of study.

^{page 365 note 3} Kuei-ken sect also records a mythological line of descent up to the Ch‘an patriarchs in China. Teaching, like that of traditional Chinese systems of thought, is traced through a line of sage-kings. A deluge is then recorded after which teaching temporarily stops. This is the Hsient‘ien ‘Former Heaven’ period. Teaching resumes again with the Chung-t‘ien ‘Middle Heaven’ period, and continues through a line of philosophers down to Mencius. It ends temporarily in China. Meanwhile, the records state, it had been taught in India by a line of Buddhas and afterwards passed to the Ch‘an school. It was brought back to China by Bodhidarma. See below, p. 373, for meaning of terms Former and Middle Heavens in the religion.

^{page 365 note 4} T‘ung-shan She is the only Inner sect claiming no connexion with Ch‘an. It gives another name for the seventh patriarch, recording Pai-ma ‘White Horse’ as the name of a religious establishment with which he is supposedly connected. This is of course the name of the Loyang monastery said to have housed sūtras brought from India on the back of a white horse.

^{page 365 note 5} The two seventh patriarchs are identified with a layman and monk mentioned in the Hui Nnêng sūtra. Hui Nêng is supposed to have said that seventy years after his death they would preach contemporaneously, transmitting doctrine to numerous ‘prominent successors’. See Mou-lam, Wong, The sutra of Wei Lang (or Hui Neng), revised ed. by Christmas Humphreys, London, 1953, 119Google Scholar. The sects say Pai, the layman, received the insignia from Hui Nêng when he saved his life.

^{page 366 note 1} Details of his life are given by de Groot, op. cit., I, 179 ff., and II, 193 f., also by Edkins, J., Chinese Buddhism, London, 1890Google Scholar, ch. xxiii.

^{page 366 note 2} The sūtra is referred to in a work of criticism written by a P‘u-tu sect leader in Singapore, T‘ung têng chüeh lu ‘Advancing together on the road to perception’. He writes under the pseudonym Chung-ho T‘ang (this in fact is the name of a branch Triad society but it may be coincidence). The book was privately published in Singapore, 1953, and privately circulated. I have not seen the Māhayāna sūtra.

^{page 366 note 3} See also below, p. 375.

^{page 366 note 4} See below, pp. 376–8, for discussion of Wu-kung rank which was later reintroduced.

^{page 366 note 5} Yung-hsi, Ko-t‘êng chi ‘Collected problems’, Singapore, 1955. His sources are not disclosed.

^{page 367 note 1} Ma was a monk. In the T‘ung-shan She only, the seventh patriarch's name is given as.

^{page 367 note 2} Yang Shou-i and Hsü Chi-nan were appointed jointly in place of Chang Kung by the XII patriarch. Both were executed.

^{page 367 note 3} The five leaders at the Han-yang meeting were:

(all of whom were executed within 2 years)

^{page 367 note 4} This sect was known by various names, Shou-yüan 1865–72, Kuei-ken 1872–96, Fu-ming 1896–1914, Kuei-ken 1914 onward.

^{page 368 note 1} Chung-ho T‘ang, op. cit.

^{page 368 note 2} The gap between dates for the eighth and ninth patriarchs is explained in terms of Lo's immortality. When he left earth he is said to have made frequent visits and continued to head the religion from above until a suitable successor was found.

^{page 368 note 3} See below, p. 385.

^{page 368 note 4} Internal division was largely a result of the state's vigorous attempt to destroy unorthodox religions and capture their leaders. Leadership problems arose as a result of capture of head men and those in line for office, and quarrels among contenders for position. It is believed that at the same time a battle over leadership took place among divine beings in heaven (affairs of heaven and earth are believed to parallel each other: a disturbance on one plane affects events on the other).

^{page 368 note 5} Wu-kung rank had by now been reintroduced.

^{page 368 note 6} T–ung-shan She is said to have been founded in Peking in 1917; De Korne, op. cit. It based its teaching on that of a Szechuanese named P‘êng. According to Ts‘ai Chao-yün, Kuei-ken sect's leader in Malaya, P‘êng is recognized as sixteenth (and present) patriarch of T‘ung-shan She. It may be that P‘êng was originally head of another group which merged with, and perhaps became overshadowed by T‘ung-shan She. P‘êng is hardly mentioned by De Kome and was not among the list of main organizers he gives. The man thought by De Korne to be main organizer is Yao Chi-tsang. Ts‘ai Chao-yün names this man as one of the five top rank-holders (Wu-hung) in the sect at present. There is a further possibility. P‘êng claimed incarnate Buddha status. It may be that he was in fact an important organizer but owing to his divinity was kept in the background for safety.

^{page 368 note 7} Its present patriarch is said to be ‘somewhere in China’.

^{page 368 note 8} See below, pp. 383–4, for discussion of vegetarian halls in administration.

^{page 369 note 1} After Lan Leng-san, there were no further patriarchs, only Family Heads.

^{page 370 note 1} One appears to have been Yao-ch‘ih Men. See below, pp. 388–9.

^{page 371 note 2} See below, p. 387.

^{page 371 note 3} Information on P‘u-tu sub-sects without branches overseas conies from Ts‘ai Chao-yün, op. cit., and in interview.

^{page 371 note 4} See also p. 384.

^{page 371 note 5} The Three Flowers were in charge of administration in:

(i) Yunnan and Kweichow

(ii) Kiangsu and Kiangsi

(iii) Chekiang and Szechuan.

The Latter Three Flowers worked in:

(i) Szechuan, Kan si, and Shensi

(ii) Kiangsu, Kiangsi, Chekiang, Hunan, Kwangsi, Kwangtung

(iii) Yunnan, Kweichow.

The sect then appears to have operated on a fairly wide scale.

^{page 371 note 6} Not to be confused with the ‘tongs’ (t‘ang) of secret societies of the Triad type.

^{page 371 note 7} The master-disciple system is discussed on pp. 382–3.

^{page 372 note 1} Obtained partly from Ts‘ai Chao-yün, op. cit., and partly in interviews with various sect leaders.

^{page 372 note 2} Kuei-ken sect takes its name from the concept of Returning to the Void.

^{page 372 note 3} It might be noted that in Taoism, Tao ‘the Way’ is sometimes referred to as ‘Mother’. See, for example, Tao tê ching, ch. xx, in Waley, Arthur, The Way and its power, London, 1949,169Google Scholar.

^{page 372 note 4} Petitions asking for instructions must be correctly addressed or they cannot reach Mother. Each sect claims its rivals' activities are in vain because they use wrong titles. The name change thus prevents unorthodox sects from drawing on Mother's powers. According to Ts‘ai Chao-yün, Mother was originally simply called Lao-mu ‘Venerable Mother ’; after the twelfth patriarch her title changed to Lao-shêng Mu ‘Venerable Sainted Mother ’; after the thirteenth, to Yao-ch‘ih Chin-mu ‘Golden Mother of the Yao Pool’. P‘u-lu sects still use this name. After the fourteenth, Kuei-ken sect says, she became Wu-shêng Lao-mu ‘Unbegotten Venerable Mother’. This sect also claims its own fifteenth patriarch received a message to change the name to Wu-chih Shêng-mu ‘Sainted Mother of the Void’, the title it uses to-day.

^{page 373 note 1} This legendary Chinese hero is given this role also in popular mythology.

^{page 373 note 2} Compare with a Taoist theory that rules only came into existence when men lost ‘the Way’. In Graham, A. C., The book of Lieh-tzŭ, London [1961], 4Google Scholar. The sects say that Ch‘an only came into existence as ‘organized’ Buddhism, when Sākyamuni left the earth and Truth became distorted. See below, pp. 371–2.

^{page 373 note 3} Great Way theory of teaching-cum-world-development periods is based on a synchronization of two Māhayāna Buddhist concepts: cycles of teachings, and kalpa. A convenient reference for the Buddhist theories is Soothill, W. E. and Hodous, L., The dictionary of Buddhist terms, London, 1937Google Scholar.

^{page 373 note 4} Not to be confused with Amitābha: the Light Buddha.

^{page 374 note 1} See below, pp. 376–7.

^{page 374 note 2} Those who have developed strong magical powers can build their own Cloud Cities rather as Buddhas in Pure Land Buddhism build their own Pure Lands.

^{page 374 note 3} Told to me by the leader of the sect in Malaya, in interviews.

^{page 374 note 4} See pp. 386–7, below.

^{page 375 note 1} The Great Way concepts of Former, Middle, and Latter Heavens, then, differ from the traditional concepts which are connected with the divinations of Fu Hsi, Shên Nung, and the Yellow Emperor. See Kan Pao in his ‘Commentary on the Chou Li’.

^{page 375 note 2} There is a similar myth of Buddhist derivation. Cf. Buddhist texts through the ages, ed. Edward Conze and others, Oxford, 1954, ‘Devas repeople the Earth’, 283–5.

^{page 375 note 3} Dīpaṃkara is said to have saved 200,000 in the first cycle; Sākyamuni saved another 200,000. Maitreya will save the rest.

^{page 376 note 1} Dīpaṃkara presides at the first, assisted by T‘ai-shang Lao-chün, a Taoist deity; at the second Sākyamuni is assisted by Amitābha; at the third Maitreya is assisted by Confucius. Maitreya is chief organizer of all meetings.

^{page 376 note 2} A lung-hua meeting I attended in a female hall in Singapore consisted of a mass for the dead held in the Mother shrine-room. Cooked rice was offered up and secret sutras were read silently by certain rank-holders. Members came up in turn to place incense sticks in a bowl on the altar. Each member of Great Way pantheon (which apart from Mother consists of a number of generally popular Chinese deities, Buddhas, and Bodhisattva) is worshipped in the sects with a particular number of incense sticks.

^{page 376 note 3} In the sixth century A.D. Buddhist monasteries in China apparently also washed images and formed ‘lung-hua congregations’ to prognosticate the advent and birth of Maitreya. The dates for holding these congregations differed from those of the lung-hua meetings of the sects. Cf. de Groot, op. cit., i, 198.

^{page 377 note 1} When a new member wants to join a sect a petition is burnt to Mother informing her of the name, age, sex, and place of birth of the candidate. In T‘ung-shan She two pieces of paper are placed on the altar for the candidate to choose from. One is blank and ‘permission’ is written on the other. Selection of the blank paper means permission to join is refused. The candidate gets another chance at a later date. The paper must be selected with the left hand.

^{page 377 note 2} An idea from Ch‘an Buddhism.

^{page 378 note 1} The preliminary methods for soul-cultivation described for the ‘Golden Elixir of Life religion’ (Chin tan Chiao ‘Golden Pill Sect’) by Eichard Wilhelm and C. G. Jung appear to be similar in important respects to those for members of Inner sects. See The secret of the golden flower, trans. Baynes, Cary F., London, 1947, p. 34Google Scholar ff. See also below, p. 389.

^{page 378 note 2} Some of the sūtras studied and used in worship are of Buddhist and Taoist origin. Among the esoteric sūtras, those held in common by Inner sects are ‘Golden Mother sūtra’, ‘Māhayāna sūtra’, and another whose name I do not know which lists all spiritual beings attending heavenly lung-hua meetings. Additionally sects have their own independent sūtras. Kuei-ken sect has ‘Ten Commandments’, ‘The Patriarch and Common People are One’, ‘Return to Rurality’, and the ‘Secret True Occult’. The latter is written in a code style in which parts of characters have to be removed in reading to reveal a hidden meaning. The ‘Occult’ is said to give all names of patriarchs of the past and future. Since so many characters are surnames, different interpretations of this work are possible. It is said to have been written by Bodhidarma and ‘made public’ to members by the twelfth patriarch. It also contains some code poems by the fourteenth patriarch. Other sects are said to have their own versions of the ‘Occult’ but I have seen only that of Kuei-ken Men. Other works which may be held in common and are certainly used by Kuei-ken Men are ‘The Thousand Lotuses of the same Origin’ (by the twelfth patriarch), ‘The Revelation of Ch‘ien Lung’, ‘The Orthodox Doctrine’, ‘The North Pole's Occultness’, ‘The Sūtra Cycle’ (written by one of the patriarchs) and ‘Patriarch Liu's Instructions’. I have copies of some of these sūtras published by Kuei-ken sect. They are mostly in very esoteric language and still await translation.

^{page 378 note 3} The rank-name Shih-ti derives from Buddhism in which it refers to one of the sets of ten stages of progress of the Bodhisattva (bhūmi).

^{page 378 note 4} The Malayan leader of Kuei-ken claimed this ability but did not demonstrate.

^{page 379 note 1} This might be compared with the method of the Esoteric Sect of Buddhism in which a special connexion may be established between an individual and a particular Bodhisattva resulting in temporary identification. See, for example, Blofeld, John, The jewel in the lotus, London, 1948, 154 fGoogle Scholar.

^{page 379 note 2} Above, p. 367.

^{page 379 note 3} Patriarchs recorded as having incarnate status are: the tenth, incarnation of the Bushel Mother (a Taoist deity); Yang Shou-i, one of the thirteenth patriarchs, incarnation of Kuan-yin; Hsü Chi-nan, the other thirteenth patriarch, incarnation of Maitreya; Chou I-lun, who was struck from the records for starting a rebellion, incarnation of Maitreya; T'ung-shan She's sixteenth patriarch, incarnation of Dīpaṇkara, later of Maitreya; Kuei-ken sect's sixteenth possessed an element of Maitreya; its seventeenth possessed an element of Dīpaṇkara. Its present patriarch as we saw is incarnate Maitreya.

^{page 379 note 4} An account of the five elements and their relation to history is given in Yu-lan, Fung, A history of Chinese philosophy: the period of philosophers (from the beginnings to circa 100 B.C.), trans. Derk Bodde, Peiping, 1937, 159 f.Google Scholar

^{page 380 note 1} Kuei-ken sect has incorporated South East Asia into its administration. It has not fitted it under the administration of the Fire Lord of the South but under that of the Water Lord of the Centre. The man with this rank is living in Malaya and it was apparently more convenient that administration there should come under his control. With arrests and exiling of leaders it is unlikely that the theory of Elements and their areas of control worked very effectively.

^{page 381 note 1} De Korne in discussing rank in T'ung-shan She confuses it -with titles of address, giving only the latter; op. cit.

^{page 381 note 2} This happens in P'u-tu sects in Malaya and to an even greater degree in Borneo which comes under supervision from Singapore. Restrictions on travel to Malaya and in some cases a complete break in communications with the head of the sect has meant few high ranks have been bestowed in recent years overseas. Many halls, therefore, are run by persons of lower rank, even those of T'ien-ên.

^{page 382 note 1} Kuang Yeh lao-jên, Kuei-yüan pao-fa ‘Reverting to the precious raft’. First published in the 1860's.

^{page 383 note 1} See chart 2, p. 366, n. 3.

^{page 383 note 2} See chart 2, p. 366, n. 3. It will also be noted that the organizers of P'u-tu sect III (chart 3, facing p. 368) all had the middle name of Tao.

^{page 384 note 1} This principle in Chinese religious organization is referred to also in my ‘The emergence and social function of Chinese religious associations in Singapore’, Comparative Studies in Society and History, III, 3, 1961, 289–314.Google Scholar

^{page 385 note 1} op. cit., I, 200.

^{page 385 note 2} It might be noted, however, that in urban Singapore and Hong Kong vegetarian halls which are residential sometimes consist of rooms in private residential-type accommodation or even a section of a private house. Members rent premises from the owner who is often also a member. It is possible that sometimes this was also done at Amoy.

^{page 385 note 3} op. cit., I, 201.

^{page 385 note 4} Miles, George, ‘Vegetarian sects’, Chinese Recorder, XXXIII, 1, 1902, 1–10.Google Scholar

^{page 386 note 1} Lo Religion. See below, p. 389. In Singapore and Malaya many female halls take in outsiders who are destitute or elderly. I am told this would not have happened in China owing to the risk that outsiders might inform on the sects.

^{page 386 note 2} In Malaya and Singapore, where there is no suppression of religions, all halls are residential.

^{page 386 note 3} op. cit., II, 308.

^{page 387 note 1} Work to be performed at any time and its secret name are both decided by Mother who reveals it to the patriarch either during his meditations or in seances conducted with a planchette (characters are drawn in sand spread out in a tray), at lung-hua meetings.

^{page 387 note 2} See above, p. 373.

^{page 387 note 3} op. cit., II, 472.

^{page 387 note 4} Ibid., 540.

^{page 387 note 5} Ibid., 504.

^{page 387 note 6} Ibid., 507.

^{page 388 note 1} Ibid.,443.

^{page 388 note 2} See general index, Ibid., 586 f.

^{page 388 note 3} Ibid., 419.

^{page 388 note 4} Ibid., 541.

^{page 388 note 5} Ibid., 443.

^{page 388 note 6} Ibid., 419.

^{page 388 note 7} Ibid., 541.

^{page 388 note 8} Ibid., 290.

^{page 389 note 1} In 1748; Ibid., 285.

^{page 389 note 2} The term I-kuan is probably taken from the Confucian ‘Analects’, bk. IV, no. 15: Wu too I, I-kuan chih ‘My doctrine is that of all-pervading unity’. All-pervading unity being, in the religion, syncretism.

^{page 389 note 3} ‘I-lcuan-tao ni tsuite’ —, Tōyō Bunlca Kenkyūjo Kiyō (Tokyo), No. 4, 1953, 173–249. I-kuan Tao here, is referred to as a secret society. The terms ‘sect’ and ‘society’ are often used interchangeably in the literature. I think it less confusing if the term sect is reserved for groupings which attempt their own ideological synthesis, which are oriented directly to spiritual ends (although they may have intermediary ends which are secular), and have their own priesthood, and the term society is reserved for other types of groupings which may use religious elements, but do not attempt a new synthesis of ideas, have no priesthood, and are not directly orientated to religious ends. These differences are brought out clearly if we compare the Triad society with Great Way sects.

^{page 389 note 4} It worships Mother, using the term Wu-shêng Lao-mu. We saw (p. 370, n. 4) that this is the term said by Kuei-ken Men to have been introduced after the fourteenth patriarch.

^{page 389 note 5} See p. 370, n. 4, on the names of Mother.

^{page 389 note 6} George Miles, op. cit.

^{page 390 note 1} See Porter, D. H., ‘Secret sects in Shantung’, Chinese Recorder, XVII, 1, 1886, 3.Google Scholar

^{page 390 note 2} op. cit., II, 419.

^{page 390 note 3} Described in part by Edkins and romanized by him as Kin-mu; Chinese Buddhism, 377 f.

^{page 390 note 4} op. cit., i, 184. See also pp. 192–5.

^{page 390 note 5} See Chan, Wing-tsit, Religious trends in modern China, New York, 1953, 158–61Google Scholar.

^{page 390 note 6} op. cit., II, 543.

^{page 390 note 7} The former had an elaborate system of ranks different from that of the Inner sects I have described. The latter, according to de Groot, was a domestic religion with no rank hierarchy. It claimed to be reformed but had teachers referred to as Hsien-shêng. There is no mention in de Groot's description of these two sects of any ‘Mother’ worship.

^{page 390 note 8} In ‘Rakyo ni tsuite’ , Tōyō Bunka Kenkyuūjo Kiyō (Tokyo), No. 1, 1943, 441–501.

^{page 390 note 9} It does not appear to worship Mother.

^{page 390 note 10} See Sidney Gamble, ‘Ting Hsien’, a North China rural community, New York, 1954, 415, 416Google Scholar f.

^{page 391 note 1} op. cit., i, 153; ii, 475. He identifies it with the White Lotus, White Yang, Pure Tea, and other sects.

^{page 391 note 2} op. cit., II, 386. It had an incarnate Maitreya.

^{page 391 note 3} See p. 388, above, on I-kuan Too. De Korne sees a possible link between the emergence of T‘ung-shan She and the rise to political power of Tuan Ch‘i-jui after the brief period in 1917 when the Manchus were reinstated. T‘ung-shan She was opposed to Kuomintang ideals. It was proscribed in 1927 and went underground after the Nationalists moved north in 1926–8. De Korne, op. cit., 18 f., 73 ff. Now the Communists are in power, the Singapore branch of T'ung-shan She is pro-Kuomintang and anti-Communist in its homeland political interests.

^{page 391 note 4} No. 106, Vol. 9, No. 2 (in Chinese).

^{page 391 note 5} See above, p. 372.

^{page 391 note 6} No. 117, Vol. 9, No. 13.

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