Chinese Secret Societies. Volume 1, General Introduction

Author: Qin Baoqi
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2002-10-01
Features: The book China's Secret Societies is divided into seven volumes, and this volume is the Volume General Theory. The General Theory primarily presents our views on some important theoretical and controversial issues related to China's secret societies. These issues include the positioning of the two major systems of China's secret societies—secret religious sects and secret societies (hui gong)—such as whether secret religious sects should be positioned as "religious groups" or "secret folk associations"? Whether they originated from the Taiping Dao and Wudoumi Dao of the late Eastern Han Dynasty or from the heretical Buddhist sects since the Northern and Southern Dynasties? From their development trends, are secret religious sects inevitably destined to evolve into mainstream religions, or will they inevitably decline as folk secret associations? Are secret societies (hui gong) "anti-Manchu" groups established by Ming Dynasty loyalists in the early Qing Dynasty to restore Ming rule, or are they folk secret associations formed by the lower classes for mutual aid and resistance against oppression? Are secret religious sects and secret societies (hui gong) "revolutionary organizations" representing the interests and demands of the lower classes, or are they primitive and backward organizations created by some rebellious-minded individuals in the lower society to achieve certain political or economic goals? What positive and negative roles have they played in history, and what positive and negative impacts have they had? What governance measures have successive governments taken toward secret societies? How should these measures be viewed and evaluated? These issues involve the fundamental perspectives of researchers on China's secret societies and are the main problems this book aims to address.