According to the Confucian ideal, the
Emperor of China rules the ‘Middle Kingdom’ through a mandate conferred by
Heaven. The eighteen provinces of China, too spread out to be effectively ruled
from a central authority, have typically been administered by outlying
representative governments, reporting back to the ‘Son of Heaven’. This
widespread network has always been open to abuse and corruption has typically
been encountered. Where marginalisation of sub-groups, or draconian provincial
measures were enforced, rebels arose in opposition.
At times, omens such as comets, famines
or plagues revealed to various individuals that Heaven had withdrawn its favour
from the Emperor and they met to form hidden cabals whose goals were ultimately
to remove the current dynasty from power. Periodically throughout Chinese
history these organisations set in motion revolts which toppled empires, only
to be themselves hunted down as bandits by the very administrations they helped
to put in place. The earliest of these secret societies was the ‘Red Eyebrows’,
identified by the peculiar habit of painting their eyebrows in preparation for
battle; but many others followed with equally colourful names such as the ‘Iron
Shins’, the ‘Copper Horses’ and the ‘Big Spears’. When not in open revolt
against their chosen oppressors, these organisations acted as ‘governments
within the government’, meting out local justice and collecting taxes that
would otherwise be sent to the capital.
During the Han Dynasty, a secret society
arose called the ‘Yellow Turbans’ led by a mystic named Chang Chueh. He brought
to the organisation a brand of Taoist magic called t’ai p’ing tao which was used to inspire courage, protect the
adherents from harm and heal everything from wounds to illness. Sect followers
wore special talismans that were supposedly able to ward off damage in battle,
a feature that resurfaced some 1,700 years later during the Boxer Rebellion. A hallmark of this
magic was the renunciation of illness-provoking sin, which largely entailed
fanatical adherence to the dogma of the sect. Chang Chueh’s stated aim for his
society was to overthrow the Han Dynasty, at which point the blue ‘Han’ sky
would be replaced by a yellow sky of heavenly approval.
The Yellow Turbans were largely successful
in laying the ground for the disintegration of the Han Dynasty (if not in
changing the colour of the sky) but lost their gains in the aftermath due to
schisms and squabbles. The defeated Han generals went underground to plan their
revenge: three of these generals – Liu Pei, Kwan Yu and Chang Fei - escaped
persecution and met again later in a peach garden where they swore a blood oath
of brotherhood to each other. Liu Pei eventually became Emperor of the Kingdom
of Shu during the Three Kingdoms period that succeeded the Han Dynasty; Kwan Yu
was killed by Liu Pei’s enemies in battle and was eventually deified as the god
of loyalty and righteousness; Chang Fei, a great general during the struggles
of the Three Kingdoms period but known for his cruel treatment of his troops,
was eventually cut down by his own men. This notion of the blood oath – while
historically not an element of the Yellow Turban’s worship per se – informed later sects and it became an essential part of
the ritual component of such groups thereafter. Interestingly, after this
period, Buddhism, which had been introduced into China by this stage, was
periodically suppressed and allowed to flourish, forcing Buddhists to join or
create their own societies: this led to the introduction of many Buddhist
rituals into later hidden sects.
The longest-running secret society in
China’s history was the ‘White Lotus Society’, also variously known as the
‘White Lily Society’, the ‘White Yang Society’ and the ‘Incense Smellers’,
which arose during the Sung dynasty (960 to 1279). They were connected to other
powerful sects of the time such as the ‘Eight Trigrams’ and the ‘Heaven &
Earth Society’ and were persecuted for practising a form of Nestorian
Christianity which been introduced at the time. This faith teaches a Manichaean
belief of opposing forces of Light and Darkness and preaches personal
redemption of a kind which prefigured the Gnostics in Europe. Elements of these
rituals and beliefs were also infused into sect structures. This secret society
was instrumental in overthrowing the succeeding Mongol Yuan dynasty (1279 to
1368) and its leader, Han Shan-tung, would have been the next Emperor except
that he and his son died before he could ascend the Dragon Throne. Instead, his
fellow rebel, a Buddhist monk named Chu Yuan-chang, became the Hung Wu Emperor
and established the Ming (or ‘bright’) dynasty; ironically, the subsequently
outlawed White Lotuses were motivated into action once more after 1629 to oust
the tyrannical Mings and pave the way for the incoming Manchu dynasty, the
Ch’ings.
At some point in the 1600s, a secret
society in the southern province of Fukien established itself but unlike other
such groups it moved deeper into the woodwork and lent its aid to other
organisations with more straightforward political goals. This was the ‘Hung
Society’ which adopted aliases (under the pressure of Imperial displeasure)
becoming the ‘Heaven & Earth Society’ and finally the ‘Three United
Society’ under which name they became known to the West as the ‘Triads’.
Similar to the Yakuza in Japan or the
Mafia in the US, the Triads were more simply predicated on the organisation of
local crime; however, they inevitably lent their support to other hidden groups
where it suited their purpose.
Structure
of the Triad Societies
The Triads had their own rigid hierarchy,
rich in numerological symbolism and strict ritual adherence. New recruits were
threatened with all manner of violence if they broke harsh laws of silence and
brotherhood and these were generally effective (not only due to the threats but
also because of the high levels of ill-feeling against the political enemies of
the secret society). The head the society was the Shan Chu and his lieutenant was called the Fu Shan Chu. After these two figures came a roll call of shadowy
office-bearers for each lodge of the Society.
Prime among these were the Heung Chu (‘Incense Master’) and the Sin Fung (‘Vanguard’): they were
responsible for the ritual and mystical activities of the society, especially
the induction of new members and the meting out of punishments. The Cho Hai (‘Messenger’) was responsible
for communications between the various lodges of the Triad and also for
collecting debts owed to the society. The Hung
Kwan (‘Red Pole’) was responsible for martial training and for leading the
warriors of the Triad into battle against rival societies, the government, or
other enemies. Occasionally there was a Treasurer known as the Cha So. Subordinate lodges to the main
society had their own leaders called the Chu
Chi and his lieutenant the Fu Chu Chi.
The rank-and-file members were called Sze
Kau.
Most sinister of all was the shadowy Pak Tsz Sin (‘White Paper Fan’) the
often anonymous adviser to the Shan Chu
often equated to the consigliere of
the Mafia organisations. His role was to advise on tactics and policy for the
Triad. The role had a significant mystical and ritual component as White Paper
Fans were often promoted to the position of Heung
Chu.
Numerology, especially derivations of the
number three, were important to the Triads. Each office bearer was known by a
numerological reduction of their title. Thus the Shan Chu was known as the ‘489’, or sometimes the ‘21’ (since
4+8+9=21); the Fu Shan Chu, the Heung Chu and the Sin Fung were all of equal rank with the designation ‘438’; the Cho Hai was a ‘432’, the Hung Kwan was a ‘426’ and the Pak Tsz Sin was a ‘415’. The ordinary
member was a ‘49’.
Initiation was a drawn-out process which
took three days. The prospective new members must first find a sponsor from
within the ranks and pay this individual a fee for the introduction. After
further payments to the Triad, the Incense Master and the Vanguard undertook
extensive checks on the nominees in order to assess their suitability. If all
went well, the initiates were dressed in Buddhist robes and brought to a ritual
room with symbolic gates on each of the four walls. There they were introduced
to the office bearers. They were made to swear an oath to the Triad and also to
the god Kwan Yu (transformed by the
Triad rituals into the god of secret oaths) and then made to suffer threats of
terrible punishments if these oaths were to be foresworn. At some point, blood
taken from all prospective members was drunk and scenes of ritual death and
injury were performed as object lessons to the newcomers. Afterwards, as new
members, the recruits were taught secret hand signals and signs that would
reveal their new status to their other associates. In a similar fashion to the
Freemasons, a Triad member could reveal his status to others in the know by the
way he held his chopsticks or by the way he paid money to a stranger.
Qing agents arresting members at a meeting of their secret society
The Triads also had their martyrs to
inspire and drive their efforts. In 1674 the Ch’ing sent a great army to the
province of Fukien to destroy a monastery of monks in the mountains there. They
lay siege to the building for several months but were repeatedly driven off by
the unarmed martial skills of the monks. Eventually, a traitor on the inside
allowed some Imperial agents into the compound disguised as coolies and a rout
began. Of the original 128 Shaolin monks, only eighteen escaped; of this
remnant, only five escaped eventual capture in the months that followed. These
five are referred to as the ‘Five First Ancestors’ in both Triad and kung fu lore and the incident served to
underscore the increasing anti-foreigner sentiment of the Triad policies and
goals.
The Society of God
Worshippers
In 1846 Hung Hsiu-ch’uan, a sickly - most
likely, mad - failed student, established his secret band of the ‘Society of
God Worshippers’. Largely supported by the local Triads, this group formed the
basis of the Taiping Rebellion which
wrought havoc across China for the next 15 years. Their battle-cry was “Defeat
the Ch’ing; restore the Ming!” and their attempts, while futile in the short
term, were to lend impetus to the defeat of the Ch’ing dynasty and the
abolishing of the whole Imperial system.
Hung Hsiu-ch’uan cobbled together his
manifesto from a poorly remembered set of Christian tutorials provided by
Jesuit teachers, mixed in with Taoist mysticism, ancestor worship and concepts
borrowed from Buddhism. Organising this system from the shadows was the hidden
hand of the Triads, with their own set of rituals and administration which lent
substance to the madness of the Taiping’s leader. His later suspected suicide
has speculatively been suggested as a convenient removal by the Triad leaders,
once his usefulness came to an end.
The Small Swords
Under the aegis of the Taiping
Rebellion a local Triad group, the ‘Small Swords’, broke out into open
revolt in the city of Shanghai. Less interested in the overthrow of the Manchus
and more keen to wrest rising industrial competence and infrastructure from the
foreign invaders, the Small Swords’ aims were only tangential to the whole
Taiping push. As part of their uprising they occupied the Old City of Shanghai,
Nantao. From this nest of tangled alleyways they sallied forth to wreak havoc
upon the foreign devils. Within the walls of the old town they held the Chinese
populace kidnapped, berating them for working with the foreigners and
attempting to weed out ‘collaborators’. As a consequence of this action, the
Chinese in the old town, along with the refugees from outlying districts who
had fled here to avoid Taiping outrages, rushed in to the foreign enclaves and
settled in the streets. Opportunistic taipans
and their compradors saw an opportunity: they bought up land in Chapei and
other local districts and subdivided their own properties in the settlement
areas. These they converted into slums for willing buyers, throwing up street
after street of lilong housing to
accommodate the displaced crowds – the property boom in Shanghai had begun.
The city’s populace decided to take
matters into its own various hands. The Shanghailanders formed themselves into
a reservist force - the Shanghai
Volunteer Corps (SVC) - and worked with other local organisations to oust
the Small Swords from the city environs. Ironically, the French Concession and
the International Settlement were assisted by two local tongs – the Green Gang initially and afterwards the Red Gang – to
put down the Triad. The Greens used the opportunity to capture the Old City as
their new headquarters, across the river from their traditional ‘turf’ of
Pootung and thus gained a valuable foothold in the criminal underworld. This
co-operation of forces helped pave the way for a tradition of ‘continued assistance
for mutual benefit’ right up until the Communist takeover in 1949, a sentiment
not lost on the two later leaders of these tongs,
‘Pockmarked’ Huang Jinrong and the sinister ‘Big-eared’ Du Yue-sheng. The SVC
itself also gained a cachet of glamour from the incident and was a feature of
Settlement life until the mid-20th Century.
The Boxer Rebellion
Perhaps the most well-known of the
Chinese secret societies was the group called I Ho Ch’uan (‘Fists of Righteous Harmony’) but known as the
‘Boxers’ to the Westerners. With the, initially, tacit assistance of the
Imperial Court, they led an uprising against the ‘foreign devils’ and besieged
the Foreign Legations in Peking for a period of 55 days in 1900.
Borrowing heavily from the t’ai p’ing tao of the Yellow Turbans,
the Boxers practised sorcery to inspire and protect their troops. Records show
instances of new Boxer recruits being shot at point-blank range with pistols,
rifles, even cannon and suffering no injuries; battlefields strewn with the
Boxer dead would miraculously be cleared by the next morning as the corpses
healed their injuries and revived overnight. The fan kuei had their own pedestrian explanations for the way in which
these miracles were accomplished but the Chinese people, even the Dowager
Empress, were largely impressed and rallied to the Boxer cause.
The
Tcho-tcho and the Triads
The degenerate peoples of the Plateaus of
Sung and Tsang have a way of insidiously infiltrating ‘normal’ society and
nowhere have they been so successful as in China. As early as the 1600s they
set about consolidating power in the new Triad societies being formed and over
time have directed and codified their beliefs and practises. Note that not much
is known definitively about the Triad organisations, given their cell
structures and ability to fade into the background; but this is also standard
practise for the Tcho-tcho wherever they choose to operate.
The ritual aspects of Triad ‘worship’ and
their secretive nature appeal strongly to the Tcho-tcho. The blood-drinking and
stylized sacrifices of the Triad ceremonies fit well with their worldview and
their profane worship and it wasn’t long before they began to exert a shadowy
presence behind the leadership of the Triad organisations. Many a Tcho-tcho
master inveigled their way into the position of White Paper Fan and from there
to Heung Chu or Sin Fung, codifying worship for their particular organisation.
The impact of these blasphemous cannibals
was seen nowhere more clearly than in the various rebellions of the Nineteenth
Century. The t’ai p’ing tao of the
secret societies became infused with the obscene magicks of the Mythos and such
spells as Blight / Bless Crops, Create Zombie, Enchant Lance and Flesh Ward began
to be seen on the battlefields against the foreign troops. The foreigners had
their own rationales to explain the incongruous events they were witnessing but
then the human mind is capable of fooling itself into believing almost
anything.
In general however, the Tcho-tcho backing
of the secret societies of China did little to consolidate their worship and
power. This is because the Tcho-tcho themselves are so factionalised and
divided between different deities, modes of worship and internecine fighting
that they couldn’t focus their resources strongly enough to make a decisive
attack at any stage.
The
Hsi Fan
The one exception to this state of
affairs was the Hsi Fan. This secret
society formed in an ancient lamasery in Tibet close to Yian-Ho and the Plateau
of Tsang. Under the aegis of powerful
though corrupt lamas, possibly informed by the teachings of the Book of Dzyan and the Ghorl Nigral, their Tcho-tcho emissaries
brought them information about the secret cabals of China and they formed their
own society. Not much is known of them apart from whispered rumours: it is said
that the lowest order of masters within the sect is composed of twelve mystics
known as the Order of the White Peacock;
the sect is said to command great power in the form of alchemical artefacts;
and Dr Fu Manchu is, at this time, one of their most loyal servants.
Triads
on the High Seas
Amongst peasant workers on the waterways
throughout China it was customary to observe a tradition called chiu chao or ‘brotherhood’; this loosely
translated as a sharing of benefits when times were hard and of watching each
others’ backs in the face of oppressive authority. A strong family feeling
suffused these connexions and entry into the clique became a difficult thing.
The tradition was particularly strong in the south of China to where many
families and peoples had been displaced due to purges enacted by the central
government. These affiliations plied the waterways and oceans of the world,
trading, fishing and salvaging. Occasionally, they indulged in a little piracy.
For piracy to be successful, there are
several things that are required: an intricate coastline with many river
entries and islands; a remoteness from organised central authority or a
fractured local government; access to established trade routes; and a jaded
bureaucracy able to be bribed. Southern China had all of these things in
abundance. Since the 1600s the South China Seas have been host to many pirates,
great and small, including Koxinga, a bastard son of the Imperial dynasty and
Ching Shih, perhaps the world’s most formidable pirate queen, who commanded
80,000 pirates in her fleet. This region is still plagued with pirates today.
Of interest especially to us however, is
the notion of family ties in sea-going communities, particularly in a country
where veneration of Nyarlathotep in his form of the Bloated Woman is relatively
common. The Cult to this excrescence is known to encourage the Deep Ones in its
rites of worship and many pirate communities arose, composed of half-Deep One
hybrids dedicated to the deity’s dark worship. Their main temple was said to be
located on a ‘lost’ island near Shanghai, hidden by silence and ancient
magicks, called Grey Dragon Island...
*****
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