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Rebels Between Rebellions—Secret Societies in the Novel, P'eng Kung Au

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 March 2011

Jerome Ch'en
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Abstract

This is a study of the social and economic functions of Chinese secret societies between the age of rebellions, 1850–1878, and the Boxer Uprising. The rebellions and their ensuing peaceful reconstruction of Chinese society brought important changes to both the secret societies and Chinese society at large. These are analyzed in detail in this essay. By so doing, the essay attempts to throw some light on the mechanism and processes of the structural changes of Chinese secret societies. It also attempts to correct some methodological defects which seem to exist still in the study of Chinese secret societies. One of these is that historians tend to focus their attention only on rebellions while neglecting the activities of the rebel elements in peace time; another is the reluctance to make better use of popular literature as a reliable source of historical information. Widi emphasis on the social and economic functions of these societies in peace time, the essay also helps to dispel the belief that all Chinese secret societies came from one mother body—a monistic myth created by the nationalist revolutionaries of the 1900's.

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Articles
Information
The Journal of Asian Studies , Volume 29 , Issue 4 , August 1970 , pp. 807 - 822
Copyright
Copyright © The Association for Asian Studies, Inc. 1970

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References

1 “Kung-an hsiao-shuo” (Stories of trial cases) in the Wen-hsüeh p'ing-lun (Literary criticism), 1964, no. 2, 51Google Scholar. The first edition of the SKA is entitled Shih An Ch'i-wen (Strange cases of Shih), whose 1824 impression still extant.

2 According to Liu Shih-teh and Teng Shao-chi (ibid., 51), as early as 1824 the Peking opera troupe, Ch'ing-sheng-p'ing Pan, had these items in its repertoire:

3 Chung-kuo t'ung-su hsiao-shuo shu-mu (A catalog of popular Chinese novels) (Peking, 1932) chüan 6, 178.Google Scholar

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5 Modern editions have Li-chiang Temple.

6 Op. cit., 50.

7 Because of this lack of literary value, both the author of P'eng P'eng's biography in Hummel and James J. Y. Liu in his study of knight-errantry attach litde importance to it.

8 Op. cit., chüan 6, 278Google Scholar. The following is a list of the sequels to the novel as given by Cheng:

All printed lithographically by Wen-hui Shu-chü, Shanghai, loc. cit., part 4, 78a–b.

9 I have tried to restore the order of the sequels in vain. The present editions are divided into four parts—100 chaps.+80+80+81. Either the first or the second 80 are the sequel referred to by Sun K'aiaiti, and the 81 chapters are the additional sequel referred to by him. Beyond this, no other conjecture is possible. Some chapters are introduced by a poem; others are not. But this does not fall into any pattern indicative of their authors.

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20 Described in the Shantung t'ung-chih, chüan 117Google Scholar, military affairs 2, 53a–b.

21 Chū-hsien, Wei, Chung-kuo ti pang-hut (Chinese secret societies) (Chungking, 1949) 85–6Google Scholar, and Liu O, Lao-ts'an yu-chi (Lao-ts'an's travels) (Shanghai, 1922 ed.) I, ch. 7.Google Scholar

22 For example, Huang San-t'ai'in chaps. 17, Li Yü in ch. 19, Chang Ch'i ch. 26, Liu Shih-ch'ang in ch. 49, and Sheng Ying in ch. 82.

23 Tuan-liu, Yang, Ch'ing-tai ho-pi chin-yung shih-kao (A draft history of money and credit in the Ch'ing) (Peking, 1962) 129 and 132.Google Scholar

24 PKA, chaps. 143 and 148. Manchuria, like Inner Mongolia and Sinkiang, was a traditional haven of refuge for members of secret societies.

25 After almost as many twists and turns in his argument as P'eng's progress to Sinkiang, Shuai Hsüeh-fu [Ch'ing-hung shu-yüan, The origins of the Ch'ing-men and Hung-men, (Taipei, 1962) 68Google Scholar] arrives at the conclusion that Pai Ch'i-ko is none other than the Tsar of Russia! Although his logic is difficult to follow, the way he distorts what seems to be history to fit a specific political background is revealing. His pliability in matters of secret society's political conviction and history is nothing new. In the 1900's beliefs and history were remoulded to serve Sun Yat-sen's ends—the unification of all the secret societies for his nationalist revolution; in the 1950's and '60's they are stretched to serve anti-communist and anti-Russian ends.

26 Such as in Kwangsi 1832, in Hupei 1842, in Hunan 1843, in Kwangsi 1845, in Hunan 1847, and Hunan again 1849, the last of which was the last recorded T'ien-ti-hui uprising in that province. See Hsin-hai ke-ming wu-shih chou-nien chi-nien lun-wen chi (Essays commemorating the 50th anniversary of the 1911 revolution) (Peking, 1962) I, 118 and 168Google Scholar and Erh-kang, Lo, T'aip'ing Tien-kuo shih-shih k'ao (Studies in some historical events of the T'aip'ing Kingdom) (Peking, 1955) 40.Google Scholar

27 Lo, ibid., 56.

27a Ibid., 62–3.

28 Based mainly on Chung-kuo Shih-hsüeh-hui (ed.), Nien-chün (the Nien Army) and recently published works on Sung Ching-shih. In my essay, “The origin of the Boxers” (published in Studies in the Social History of China and South-East Asia, ed. by N. Tarling and myself, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press) I have discussed these points in greater detail.

29 Loc. cit., in Nien-chün, I, 20.Google Scholar

30 The prohibition decrees were issued in 1674 and 1792, quoted from the Ta Ch'ing lü-li (Statutes of the Ch'ing), by Hsüeh-fu, Shuai, op. cit., 57.Google Scholar

31 See Hunan chin-pai-nien shih tzu-liao (Historical materials of Hunan in the past hundred years), I, 94–5.Google Scholar

32 About the Hunan Army and the Ho-ti-hui, see also T'ao Ch'eng-chang's essay in the Hsin-hai ke-ming (The 1911 revolution), ed. by Chung-kuo Shih-hsüeh-hui, (Shanghai, 1957) III, 105Google Scholar. Both the Ko-lao-hui yü Ch'ing-pang kai-k'uang (An outline of the Ko-lao-hui and Ch'ing-pang), ed. by Hsi-pai Yen-chiu-she, (n.p., 1941) 1 and Ch'u-ch'i Nien-chün shih lun-ts'ung (Essays on the early history of the Nien Army) by Chiang Ti, (Peking, 1959) 3Google Scholar, among several other sources, say that the Ko-lao-hui was organized in the K'ang-hsi and Ch'ien-lung periods, but they do not give any evidence to support their view.

33 Deceased Masters Worshipped by T'ien-ti-hui, Ko-lao-hui, and Ch'ing-men:

See I-fan, Ch'en, Ch'ing-men k'ao-yüan (Origins of the Ch'ing-men) (Peking, 1933) 32–3, 38, and 49–50Google Scholar; Lin, Chu, Hung-men pang-hui-chih (The societies of the Hung-men) (Taipei, 1960) I, 17Google Scholar; Lieh, Fei, Hung-men sou-miGoogle Scholar (Searching for the secrets of the Hung-men), n.p., preface dated 1956, 11; Chü-hsien, Wei, op. cit., 55Google Scholar; Yen-chiushe, Hsi-pai, op. cit., 100–101Google Scholar; and Shunkichi, Baba, Shina no shimitsu ketsusha (China's secret societies) (Tokyo, 1933) 25–6.Google Scholar

34 To identify the Hung-pang with the Hungmen was yet another attempt made by the revolutionaries in the 1900's to foster the myth of unity and to daub a veneer of respectability on the essentially disrespectable Hung-pang.

35 Li Wen-chung-kung ch'üan-shu (Complete works of Li Hung-chang), letters to friends and colleagues, XII, 29b.Google Scholar

36 Chu, T'ao, T'ao Wen-i-kung chi, chüan 24, 3a.Google Scholar

37 Anhwei shih-hsüeh t'ung-hsün (Communications on the history of Anhwei), 1959, no. 6, 9.Google Scholar

38 Ibid., 10.

39 Ibid., 20–1 and 32.

40 K'o-sheng, Ch'ien, Ch'ing-hung-pang chih he-mo (The dark deeds of the Green and Red Gangs) (Shanghai, 1929) II, 23–6Google Scholar. The Hung-pang identity card bears this name.

41 T'ao, , op. cit., 3a.Google Scholar

42 Ch'ien, , op. cit., IV, 62–6.Google Scholar

43 Ch'ien, ibid., IV, i; T'ao Ch'eng-chang, in Hsin-hai ke-ming (III, 21), seems to me completely wrong.

44 I-fan, Ch'en, op. cit., 205.Google Scholar

44a Ch'ien, , op. cit., IV, 1.Google Scholar

45 Hence the praise of upright officials is considered as dangerously reactionary in the People's Republic of China.

46 See Shantung chün-hsing chi-lüeh (A brief account of the war in Shantung), chüan 21Google Scholar in the Nien-chün, IV, 409.Google Scholar

47 For instance, the government report at the fourth session of the National Conference, 12 May 1931, in Ke-ming wen-hsien (Documents on the revolution), XXV, 180–1.Google Scholar

48 Min, Ch'en, Hou-t'ien-tao ho t'a ti 'hung-ti' (The Latter-day Way sect and its “emperor”) (Liaotung, 1951) 25Google Scholar and Ch'un-yang, , l-kuan-tao shih shen-mo tung-hsi? (What is I-kuan-tao?) (Peking, 1951) 20–1.Google Scholar

49 See Lieh, Fei, op. cit., 29Google Scholar and Chu-hsien, Wei, op. cit., 12Google Scholar. I have discussed this point more fully in my paper mentioned above.

50 The unemployed included transport workers, lumpen proletarians, displaced peasants, and army deserters. See Hsin-hai ke-ming wu-shih chou-nien chi-nien lun-wen chi, I, 199.Google Scholar

51 “Green Forest” means a lair of bandits. The earliest reference to this I can find is a memorial by the censor-at-large of Shunt'ienfu, Liu Yin-tung, dated Shun-chih first, the eighth month, the thirteenth day (13 September 1644) which says: “A verdant green forest is usually a lair of bandits. Lately, local bandits, especially in Pa county, have been looting everywhere, making themselves a great nuisance for the people.” (Ming Ch'ing shih-liao, Historical materials of Ming and Ch'ing dynasties), III, 5th pen. SKA uses the term “Green Forest” frequently to mean people of secret society membership. But the Ming dynasty novel, Water Margin, does not use it at all; instead, it uses “lo-ts'ao” (to fall among the grass) to mean that one has become an outlaw.

52 In the SKA, Huang T'ien-pa makes the same decision as Li's but suffers from a bad conscience in several chapters (cf. SKA chaps. 35, 64–7, and 117). In the case of Li there is no such recurrence of guilty conscience, probably due to a general relaxation in the discipline of the secret societies.

53 The city lies at the foot of Mount Laot'ieh in south Manchuria. It is recorded in the Sheng-ching t'ung-chih, and Professor Hornada began his investigation of this ancient site in 1910 to be followed by his excavation in 1912. His report was published in 1931. See the Tung-fang k'ao-ku-hsüch ts'ung-k'an, vol. II.Google Scholar

54 Cf. Lieh, Fei, op. cit., 29–30Google Scholar; Chin-pu-huan (or Hung-men mi-chi, The secret document of the Hung-men) (Nanning, 1947) 4Google Scholar; and Erh-kang, Lo (ed.), T'ien-ti-hui wen-hsien lu (Documents of the T'ien-ti-hui) (Kowloon, 1942) 5–6.Google Scholar