research

Monday 20 April 2009

Bibliography Minus Pickering and Dutch Article

Primary Sources

Schlegel, Gustav, Thian di huai: The Hung-league or Heaven-earth-league a secret society with the Chinese in China and India. Accessed at the Republic of China National Library, Taipei April 18, 2009. Microfilm MFCDS755 N6zz [199?] No. 7-1-413. Published in Bavaria Leauge 1886.

Yatsen, Sun, Memoirs of a Chinese Revolutionary, A Programme of National reconstruction for China by Sun-Yat-Sen (London: 1927): 190-192


Secondary Sources


Grasso, June M., Modernization and revolution in China: from the Opium Wars to world power (New York: M.E. Sharp, 2004)

Huang, Sandy, "Hung Men Society holds ceremony to honor new leaders." Taipei Times Feb 20, 2002, Page 2

Jordan, David C., Drug politics: dirty money and democracies (Oklahoma City: University of Oklahoma Press, 1999)

Lau, Shu Chung, Worshiping KuanTi: A study of subculture in the Hong Kong Police Force and the Triad (Hong Kong: The University of Hong Kong Dept. of Sociology, 2000)

Martin, Brian G., The Shanghai Green Gang: politics and organized crime, 1919-1937 (California: University of California Press, 1996)

Murray, Diane, The origins of the Tiandihui (Stanford: University Press Stanford, 1994)

"Sun-Joffe Manifesto." Encyclopædia Britannica. 2009. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. 20 Apr. 2009 .

Trocki, Carl A., Opium, Empire and the Global Political Economy: A Study of the Asian Opium Trade, 1750-1950 (New York: Routledge Press, 1999)


Articles

Cai, Shaoqing, "On the Overseas Chinese Secret Societies of Australia," New Zealand Journal of Asian Studies 4, 1 (June, 2002): 30-45

Damon, Allen F., "Financing Revolution: Sun Yat-sen and the Overthrow of the Ch'ing Dynasty," The Hawaiian Journal of History 25 (1991): 161-186

Fong, Leong Yee, "Secret Societies and Politics in Colonial Malaya with Special Reference to the Ang Bin Hoey in Penang (1945-1952)," The Penang Story - International Conference (2002): 1-18

Low, Cheryl-Ann, "Chinese Triads: Perspectives on Histories, Identities, and Spheres of Impacts," Singapore History Museum Journal (2002) Pages: 1-65

Marshall, Jonathan, "Opium and the Politics of Gangsterism
in Nationalist China, 1927-1945," Bulletin of Concerned Asian Scholars 8, (July - September 1976) Page 1

Shiu-Hing Lo, Sonny, "The Politics of Controlling Heidao and Corruption in Taiwan" Asian Affairs: An American Review Issue: Volume 35, Number 2 (Summer 2008) Pages: 59 - 82


Internet Resources

Black Dragon Society(Japan) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Dragon_Society

Blue Shirts Society http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Shirts_Society

Chiang Kai-Shek and the Secret Societies in Japan http://www.republicanchina.org/tragedy.html

Chinese Mafia: The Triads of China http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_F8SmorvAY

Chinese Immigration to the United States http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_immigration_to_the_United_States

Genyosha http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geny%C5%8Dsha

Guan Yu http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guan_Yu

Guanfuhui http://www.imperialchina.org/Qing_Dynasty.html#guangfuhui

Henry Liu Assasination http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Liu

Hongmen Organizational Structure http://www.chinatownconnection.com/chinese-secret-society.htm

Hongmen Organization Website http://www.hungmen.org.tw

Kongsi http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kongsi

Secret Societies in Singapore http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secret_societies_in_Singapore

Taiwan's Dirty Business http://members.tripod.com/~orgcrime/taiwansdirtybusiness.htm

The Shanghai Triad and the KMT http://www.takaoclub.com/opium/postjapan.htm

The South in Chinese history http://sunyatsenhawaii.org/english/research/kwok-south.html

Tiandihui Coinage http://ykleungn.tripod.com/pingcsp.htm

Tong Organizations in The United States http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tong_(organization)

Triad Myths http://freemasonry.bcy.ca/history/chinese_freemasons/index.html#myth

Triad Oaths http://www.illuminatedlantern.com/cinema/archives/triads.php

Triad Organizational Chart https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh302CLxrQ_VUkx2cECRSxMKI9h_fc0bnuXDXcFn-0DhwjdIZETP-9dsBlJCGUDuJUEZtQjOPdCjnLC7oRJ4MJJawh1XtYXyOSb_RB1PjHgd0X_4zB-1AtOeDpNjC3ME_e6FI_wTQh8i99m/s320/TriadChart4.JPG

University of Hong Kong Powerpoint Presentation on Triads http://www.crime.hku.hk/2ccgc/papers/peterip.ppt

Urban Dimensions of the Political Economy of Nanyang Ethnicity http://www.lewismicropublishing.com/Publications/AnthropologicalEssays/UrbanDimensionsNanyangPoliticalEconomy.htm

Wang, Hsi-ling http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wang_Hsi-ling

William Pickering http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_A._Pickering

Yale University Qing Archives http://www.library.yale.edu/eastasian/cn/archives.html

Overseas Hongmen leader present as Mao proclaims the PRC at Tiananmen square in 1949

Situ Meitang (1868-1955), a famous leader of overseas Chinese, followed Sun Yat-sen in the Xinhai revolution, lent support to the motherland in resisting Japanese aggression, supported China’s liberation cause, participated in the political consultation over building a new China, and made utmost efforts to protect the rights of overseas Chinese. He was the founder of the China Zhi Gong Dang Party which is the Hongmen's political party in Mainland China and Taiwan. He was present when Mao Zedong proclaimed the People's Republic of China at Tiananmen square in 1949. He once served in the Central People’s Government and on the standing committee of the National People’s Congress. He also served as a member of the first and secondChinese People's Political Consultative Conference and a member of the Overseas Affairs Committee of the central people’s government.





pickering book - brilliant primary source

An interesting phenomena


Both the police and triads worship the God Guan Di.

"Though by no means mandatory, most Chinese policemen worship and pay respect to him. Seemingly ironic, members of the Triad gangs and the Hung clan worship Guan Yu as well. A difference between the statues used by triad gangs and police station for the shrine are indicated by which arm holds his halberd, right for the police and left for triads. This explains in which side Guan Yu is worshiped, by the righteous people or vice versa. The state of Guan Yu's face for the Triads usually appears more sinister than the usual statue. This exemplifies the Chinese belief that a code of honor, epitomized by Guan Yu, exists even in the underworld. In Hong Kong, Guan Yu is often referred to as "Yi Gor" (二哥, Cantonese for second big brother) for he was second to Liu Bei in their legendary sworn brotherhood. Guan Yu is also worshipped by Chinese businessmen in Shanxi Province, Hong Kong, Macau and Southeast Asia as an alternative wealth god, since he is perceived to bless the upright and protect them from the crooked. Another reason being related to the release of Cao Cao during the Huarong Pass incident where he let Cao Cao and his general passed through safely. As for that, he was perceived to be able to give a lifeline to those that needed it."

http://www.filedump.net/dumped/ft1240214549.pdf More info

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guan_Yu

The "South" in Chinese History / Secret Societies

In Chinese cultural awareness, the "South" is a composite term which acquired complexities and layers of meaning as her cultural geography expanded with the movement of history. Some of these meanings and connotations may be noted for the purposes of this brief treatment of the subject.

First, north-to-south was from earliest Chinese history the principal orientation of any view of the south. Both cosmology and geography reinforce this view. While the North Polar Star serves as the guiding reference point of cosmic bearing, the Chinese compass has always been called "South-pointing needle (zinanzhen.) To the extent that early Chinese cosmology was intricately involved in conceptions and theories of kingship, often invoked to lend earthly rule cosmic sanction, the ruler on earth took on the position of the North Polar Star and was also known as the nanmianjun (south-facing ruler). The Classic of Change (Yi Jing) is a rich source for this topic. Facing south has become not only propitious in the celestial and terrestrial affairs of life itself, but also a position of enormous honor, often, in social situations, offered to the guest of honor.

Then again, tradition has it that there was a poem called the "South Wind" (Nanfeng, which may also be rendered as the "Air of the South") attributed to Yu Shun. The lyric no longer exists, but by attribution, it is a poem of the humanizing influence of the Southwind, nurturing people's sense of filiality and enriching their wealth of being.

Yet, within this Central Kingdom, there are several souths as viewed from the north. The two major ones are Jiangnan and Lingnan.

Not all connotations of the south in early lore, however, enjoyed cultural salubriousness. The notion of man, denoting barbarity, was reserved for inhabitants of the southern lands. Such a usage, in company of the yi or hu of the East, the di of the North, and the rong of the West, reflects the earlier-mentioned orientation of the five directions now coupled with cultural disposition regarding "self" and "others." Thus, in a narrow sense, the center is occupied by the Han people, arrayed on four sides by the non-Han barbarians. In the larger sense, all these peoples, Han and non-Han together form Zhongguo, the Central Kingdom.

Yet, within the Central Kingdom, there are several souths as viewed from the north. The two major ones are Jiangnan and Liagnan. The first, "south of the river," actually refers to the regions immediately north and south of the Yangzi river, the zone of transition from wheat to rice cultivation and of enormous cultural and commercial growth since the Ming-Qing period (fourteenth to nineteenth centuries) The North-South sectionalism which developed in the three and a half centuries (220-589) of division and disunion before the Tang period (seventh to tenth centuries) had produced a sense of the north as associated with nomadic incursions and warring conditions or conquest and battle, and one of the south as a reservoir of true Chinese culture. Moreover, the silken landscapes of the south, interlaced by numerous waterways, now coalesced with this sense of Chinese civilization. But this sense of the south, later on reinforced by the renewed sectionalism caused by the Northern Song and Southern Song division during the eleventh and thirteenth centuries, was that of Jiangnan, of such areas as the Grand Canal towns and West Lake environs.

The Lingnan south refers to lands "south of the Nanling Mountains" comprised principally of Guangdong Province and Guangxi autonomous area, home of the most intensive cultivation of the rice crop, fishery and marine industries, and China's most cellular linguistic communities. To this general "South" may be added the area and people of Minnan, southern Fujian province on the southeastern coast of China which is separated from the rest of China by the Wuyi Mountains and whose language is related linguistically to the speech of eastern Guangdong. This is the home of settlers of Taiwan.

The whole of the Lingnan area is home of the millions of Chinese who have become sojourners and settlers in mainland and island Southeast Asia, Australasia, North and South America, Hawaii, and the rest of Oceania. Their view of the South is naturally different from the northern prospect, if for no other reason than the fact that the history here is experienced and not viewed from the seat of power which, having brought the area into its administrative orbit, set policies for it throughout more than two thousand years of the imperial state and modern regimes.

"Put simply, China had entered a demographic change that was to outstrip any Confucian theory of the economic and fiscal management and organization of society."

..Populous as early as the Tang dynasty, the southerners (especially the Cantonese) have always referred to themselves as the Tangren (People of the Tang). Canton in the early ninth century boasted a foreign population of a hundred thousand. Thus, while the northern regard of the south views it as frontier and culturally uncouth, it has always been the China of first contact for sea-borne, non-Chinese visitors and influences, as well as the home of the Chinese civilization abroad. This sea-borne influence dates to an antiquity at least co-eternal with the start of land-borne contact made famous by the silk trade in the first century B.C.

Being farthest from imperial grace or wrath, and the closest to the sea lanes of the western Pacific and South China Sea, the people of this area possess in addition to a habitual defiance of the north a liveliness of outlook and quickness of temper and wit commensurate with their advantageous geographical location. These traits, along with their shorter, lighter wirier build, contrast tellingly with the sturdy build, steady deportment and stoic temperament of the people of the north. From early centuries these southerners and northerners worked intensively as agriculturists over a land that is over sixty percent mountainous. This has meant an ecological approach to nature and its resources that over the centuries influenced Chinese mores, values, institutions and culture.

From the rice economy of the south to the cultivation of drought resistant crops in the north, the Chinese to this day practice intensive farming. With China’s perennial population density, which is highest in the Pearl River Delta, this intensive agriculture has accustomed the Chinese to the fullest use of human labor in the closest of human association for the utmost human advantage. Yet, at best, only a marginal living was possible during "good" years in the well-watered valleys of the Yellow, Yangzi, and Pearl Rivers. The view of nature and humans fostered from this experience contrasts distinctly with that of a variegated landscape. This view deals with the foibles of nature, fortuitous or calamitous, in intimate and personal terms. From the earliest of times, the Chinese learned to live within this landscape, not to alter or to command it.

It is a special characteristic of this south that from among this intensive agrarian population were to come some of China's numerous and noteworthy seafaring personages of commerce and various enterprises. But, unlike their Western counterparts, these Chinese of Guangdong and Fujian traveled far not to "discover" other peoples and leave sagas of their voyaging adventures. Many of them left with intentions to return. There were reasons for departures and there were reasons for return.

By the end of the eighteenth century, Chinese had entered one of their great turning points within their own geohistorical paradigms of change. The alien Manchu dynasty had already enjoyed a hundred years of splendors of conquest and now faced, with no escaping, the inevitable and traditional downward sweep of the dynastic cycle - cyclical patterns of corruption, excessive taxation, natural disasters, rural unrest and banditry. For another 112 years to come, the Manchu rulers fitfully coped with these traditional causes and results of dynastic decline, without fully knowing some other fundamental factors which conspired to make the Qing the last of China's dynasties.

Put simply, China had entered a dernographic change that was to outstrip any Confucian theory of the economic and fiscal management and organization of society. The population rose from 143 million in 1741 to 430 million in 1850, a rise of 200 percent, while cultivable land increased from 549 million mu (1 mu equalling 1/6 acre) in 1661 to 737 million in 1833, an increase of only 35 percent. On a new continent, a doubling or even tripling of the population over a century would be a boon to life, but not so in an old economy of essential self-sufficiency. That marginal balance between humans and nature, so preferred in philosophy and arduously maintained in tillage, now began to tilt increasingly toward personal and collective disaster.

The Pearl River Delta area had enjoyed during the Ming and high-Qing eras a long period of economic well-being. During the Ming especially, the economy of the area, while mostly agricultural, had seen great advances in porcelain and metal crafts, silk manufacture, pond fish industries, sugar growing and milling, and other activities. The region had also come to be tied to northern areas in a rich web of inter-regional trade through numerous river valleys that penetrated the Nanling Mountains. All such economic well-being however, was not blessed by official economic policies and in the end rested upon the sufficiency of agricultural production. Demographic changes now dislocated this base.

The woes of south China increased throughout the nineteenth century. The demographic imbalance made this part of China restless and prone to foreign covetousness. Great Britain, which had been knocking on Chinese doors for about a century seeking trade, now settled upon opium to enter the China market, for it was the only commodity that the Chinese would pay for. Every vice associated with opium now exacerbated other conditions afflicting South China. The war between Great Britain and China over opium (although British reasons referred to practices of law, state and commerce), far from settling the opium issue, actually multiplied the throes of hardships attendant to dynastic decline and pressure of population on land. The opening of five ports in the 1840s (eleven by the 1860s) shifted economic activities northward along the eastern seacoast, thus adversely affecting the livelihood of boatmen, carriers, transport workers, craftsman and the like who depended on the inland interregional trade. Such a dislodgement created a drifting population in the southern river valleys to mix with the soldiers who were not formally decommissioned and demobilized after the Opium Wars. This way, a restless and floating population became armed in their discontent.

The land, however, saw increasing activities of the secret societies, known in the north as jiao and in south as hui. They provided law, stability and identity, not on the national level but meaningful on the local and sectarian level, a sign of both the problem and its partial solutions. Then again, south China absorbed all these dislocations into its existing separatism of language and peoples. The people of the Xiangshang (Fragrant Hills) district thought of themselves as the bendi (boondi in dialect pronunciation, meaning "original locals"), while a group that had settled in the East River area came to be called the kejia (Hakka in local pronounciation, meaning "guest people"). Social and economic irredentism now inflamed each other, soon to involve other nationality groups, especially in Guangxi province.
"It is no wonder that most of the great figures of reform and revolution hailed from the south of China."

These mid-nineteenth century difficulties within and without are known in Chinese parlance as neiluan waihuo (literally, "internal disorder and external disaster"). Into this midst came the Yellow River in rampant anger, breaching dikes and changing its exit to the East China Sea and causing untold hardship, with drought and famine in the wake.

All human and natural factors seemed to have converged in producing the great Taiping upheaval in mid-century. Hong Xiuquan, a Hakka and feverish after repeated failures at the imperial civil service examination which would have rewarded turn with honor and his family with status, took to rebellion as a way to redress injustice. He fancied himself as the younger brother of Christ and coupled this eclectic Christianity with an appeal to egalitarian elements in the popular Chinese tradition to win himself a following. Something of this mix must have appealed to people, for his movement to topple the Manchus became a phenomenon that covered sixteen of China's eighteen provinces and lasted fourteen years from 1850 to 1864. The Taipings (meaning "grand peace"), starting in the Canton area, passing into Guangxi province and ending with a capital at Nanking, nearly succeeded as a heavenly kingdom on earth. Many still see in this movement a revolutionary nature, although it cast itself in the rhetoric of a traditional rebellion. Its appearance at all summed up the social and economic ills of the Chinese state at the time. As a movement, it linked the Lingnan and Jiangnan areas to give the Manchu rulers a composite set of "southern" problems. The Manchus, eventually with northern and central gentry-official aid, quashed the rebellion, even though internal dissension of the Taiping movement should shoulder a good part of the responsibility for its failure and demise.

In any event, the Taiping and its suppression illustrated the premium Chinese have habitually given to internal factors of causation. The government viewed this uprising by far as a greater problem, because of its internal (nei) character, than the external (wai) challenge of the western powers. It bent its resources to cope with it, while the foreign presence continued to increase. When the movement was finally quelled in the mid-1860s, the foreign threat had consolidated and the southern element had been greatly weakened, though not necessarily appeased. The Manchu, or northern, suppression now drove many abroad. Economic distress, social disgruntlement and now political displacement moved the southern outlook overseas. Macao and Hong Kong became staging points for farther havens. Was it merely accident that the first contract for Chinese labor to come to Hawaii, for instance, dated to 1852?

Be that as it may, the Chinese exodus from this southern homeland was now in earnest. Plantation laborers and railroad workers, restaurant owners and laundry operators, small shopkeepers and creditors in several continents bore southern Chinese surnames. While these figures helped to write the history of Chinese overseas, there were also reformers and revolutionaries among them who had the home country at heart. It is no wonder that most of the great figures of reform and revolution hailed from the south of China. Among the reformers, Kang Youwei came from Nanhai and Liang Qichao from Xinhui, the former of the Hundred Days’ Reform fame in 1898, and the latter as the singlemost important publicist of new ideas in early twentieth-century China. The revolutionary Sun Wen (Sun Yat-sen as he is known to the world), born when the Taipings were quelled, came from Fragrant Hills (Xiangshang) and felt inspired by the exploits of Hong Xiuquan, perhaps a fellow Hakka. San came to Hawaii (known to China as the Sandalwood Fragrance Mountains even to this day) in the 1870S for schooling and returned to Honolulu in the mid-1890s to found the Xingzhonghui (Revive China Society), ancestral organization of modern China's nationalist revolutionary party. Sun Yat-sen enjoined the sentimentalities of the two fragrant hills, his country of birth and his overseas base of pioneer revolutionary aspirations.

With the mid-nineteenth-century emigration and Sun Yat-sen's exploits, South China came to acquire an overseas (haiwai) character. The North may persist in viewing the South as Jiangnan, Lingnan, and now haiwai, but the view of China from abroad is essentially that of this southern character of Chinese, slight of build, wiry and diligent, alert in wit and commercial acumen, restless and yet purposeful, defiant of the North and of orthodoxy of power (undifferentiated most of the time) as well as patriotic to a China of imagined unity, and resilient in every human situation.

Which is the truer China, the North which views the South in auxiliary terms, or the South which experienced the demographic realities of the mother body to produce reformist impulses, a revolutionary dedication and overseas character and credibility? History may yet produce a verdict.

1998-2001 Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Hawaii Foundation
http://sunyatsenhawaii.org/english/research/kwok-south.html

pickering - wikipedia

William A. Pickering
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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William A. Pickering (1840–1907) was the first Protector appointed (in 1877) by the British government to administer the Chinese Protectorate in colonial Singapore. He was the first European official in Singapore who could speak fluent Mandarin and Hokkien and gained the trust of many of the Singapore Chinese. His efforts went a long way towards controlling the problems posed by the secret societies then. Pickering Street in Singapore's Chinatown is named after him.

Contents [hide]
1 Background
2 Departing to Singapore
3 Arriving in Singapore
4 Larut Wars
5 Chinese Protector
6 Assignment in Negeri Sembilan
7 References



[edit] Background
Before becoming the Chinese Protector, William Pickering had previously served a 10-year term in Hong Kong's Chinese Maritime Customs Service. He could therefore speak many Chinese dialects such as Cantonese, Hakka, Hokkien, Foochew, Teochew, and Mandarin itself.


[edit] Departing to Singapore
In 1871, Singapore's Governor Sir Harry Ord, who was back in London on leave, came across William Pickering. Ord was pleasantly surprised by Pickering's fluency in essential Chinese dialects. The British Government in Singapore had been having trouble communicating with the Chinese during that time, as most officials were ignorant of Chinese culture and language. This had caused many Chinese to join secret societies in Singapore, resulting in turf wars and other disturbances that threatened the stability of the settlement. Ord thus recognised the need for an official who could communicate with the Chinese and hired Pickering on the spot. In January 1872, Pickering departed for Singapore.


[edit] Arriving in Singapore
Once in Singapore, Pickering was appalled at how Chinese dialect translations of European officials referred to judges as "demons", police as "big dogs" and Europeans in general as "red-haired demons". There were also 'post office riots' between the Hokkiens and Teochews over who had the right to send money and letters back to China. An unusual technique he employed to quell the riots was to walk up and down the streets playing his bagpipes. This unusual sight often subdued the Chinese onlookers. Pickering, with his command of dialects, would then help to sort out the differences.


[edit] Larut Wars
Pickering played a part in putting an end to the incessant troubles between the Ghee Hin and Hai San who had engaged in open warfare over the tin fields at Larut since 1861. When Sir Andrew Clarke wished to gather together the heads of both secret societies together for a peace conference he first sent Pickering up to Penang. Pickering was to behave as if he were acting on his own responsibility. The seeds of peace thus informally sowed, Clarke could then officially invite the parties to peace talks together. Around 9 January 1874, together with McNair and Dunlop, Pickering met with Capitan China Chung Keng Quee a person of considerable influence with the Hai San secret society. (Here for more about Pickering's role in the ending of the Larut Wars.)


[edit] Chinese Protector
In 1876, an official British report into secret society activities was published. One recommendation in this report was that every coolie-to-be who arrived at Boat Quay should first encounter a British official who could speak his language and let the immigrant know that "there was an officer of the Government whose special duty is to protect and befriend him". In May 1877, William Pickering was appointed for this job under the title of "Protector". His office was located in a small shophouse along North Canal Road known as the Chinese Protectorate.

In a dramatic incident in 1887, Pickering was attacked by a Teochew carpenter, Chua Ah Siok, who was sent by one of the secret societies, the Ghee Hok Society, to kill him in retaliation for Pickering's constant meddling in business. Chua coolly walked up to Pickering's desk and threw an axe at him. The butt end of the axe blade struck Pickering on the forehead, causing serious injury, but Pickering survived.[1]

Previously, Pickering had worked in the Chinese Imperial Maritime Customs in Fuzhou and Taiwan, and wrote an account of his time in Taiwan called Pioneering in Formosa.

Pickering retired as Protector in 1889, due to complications from the attack by Chua, and died on 26 January 1907.


[edit] Assignment in Negeri Sembilan
Further information: British Malaya
Pickering was sent to Sungai Ujong, Negeri Sembilan by the British in Malacca to aid a British ally. He successfully commanded 160 troops in 1874 to remove possible resistance leader in Sungai Ujong.


[edit] References
^ http://straitstimes.asia1.com.sg/mnt/html/webspecial/insidetrack/s6_6.html
"What history textbooks don't tell you". The Straits Times. 2005. http://straitstimes.asia1.com.sg/mnt/html/webspecial/insidetrack/s6_6.html.
Makepeace, Walter; Gilbert E. Brooke, and Roland St. J. Braddell (eds.) (1991). One Hundred Years of Singapore. Singapore: Oxford University Press

Sunday 19 April 2009

Sun Yatsen's Financing Revolution: Tiandihui/Tongmen

"KET ON SOCIETY (Location: Maunakea Street, Chinatown): On January 8, 1904, Dr. Sun Yat-sen was inaugurated as a member of the Ket On Society in Honolulu, which was one of the Hung Meng organizations in Hawaii. The Ket On Society kept the membership records in which Dr. Sun’s name and the day he joined the Society were recorded."


Also fundamental to Sun's support network was his relation-
ship to Chinese secret societies. The very nature of secret societies
precluded the detailed recording of events, but Sun's association
with one such organization—the Hung-men, formed in 1674 and
also known as the Triads—was so extensive that adequate records
do exist to reconstruct many of his dealings with them.
47

Suntreasured this association, for the Hung-men gave generously to
his party, and in 1911 it merged with the T'ung-meng-hui, creating
a united organization
48

Sun first became associated with the Hung-men in 1903, when
he joined the Ket On Society, the Hung-men organization in
Hawai'i. His motives were a bit devious, for though the Hung-
men was committed to the overthrow of the Manchu dynasty, it
also favored the restoration of the Ming dynasty. Sun opposed
this, but he joined the society in order to tap its financial
resources. Strategically, it was a sound move, for Hung-men
members were committed to aiding each other, and Sun took full
advantage of this.
49

In fact, Sun's stature was such that, after his
initiation into the organization, he was promoted to marshal, the
second highest position in the society.
50

In 1904, Sun sailed to San Francisco, the headquarters for the
Hung-men in America. Using the authority invested in him in
Honolulu, he convinced leaders of the society to let him rewrite its
constitution. Sun produced a constitution of 80 articles that over-
night converted the Hung-men into a revolutionary group with
goals mirroring those of the T'ung-meng-hui.

Needless to say, Sun attempted to extract money from Hung-
men members. Article 62b of the constitution stipulated that all
members had to reregister each year by sending $1.00 to the head
office. The potential contributions were enormous since the
organization had one hundred thousand members.
51

Sun's most lucrative contact with the Hung-men occurred in
Canada on the eve of the 1911 Chinese revolution. On four consec-
utive nights, Sun addressed audiences of more than 1,000. He
devised with local Hung-men members a scheme in which they
could harness this enthusiastic support and turn it into concrete
funds. They decided that Sun would give an exceptionally pas-
sionate speech at the Heng-men headquarters in Victoria and
leave the auditorium directly after finishing it. Playing on the
emotional high that Sun would have created, Hung-meng leaders
would suggest that they mortgage the society's building and offer
the money to Sun. This strategy paid off, as the organization
wholeheartedly supported the idea and agreed to give the money
to Sun.
52

Sun brilliantly manipulated this support and created a band-
wagon effect in the rest of Canada. Soon Hung-men societies in
Montreal and Toronto mortgaged their buildings, and a few
wealthy merchants donated generously to the cause. Much of the groundwork had been laid for Sun, but he certainly was the inspi-
ration that triggered this financial windfall. This effort enabled
Sun to send $70,000 to the T'ung-meng-hui office in Hong Kong,
and this money was primarily responsible for funding the revolt in
April 1911.
53

A few months after the Canadian venture, Sun devised yet
another fund-raising project through the Hung-men. With
$1,000,000 as his goal, Sun proposed the formation of a Chinese
Industrial Company and intended to sell 10,000 shares of stock for
$100 a share. He envisioned a company headquarters in San Fran-
cisco with offices eventually opening in other cities. His major
pitch was that the company would be given monopoly mining
rights in China for ten years, and therefore the stockholders
would directly benefit. Sun, however, could not convince the
Hung-men members, and without their support he could not
form the company.
54

Although Sun chose socialism as one of the fundamental princi-
ples of the Chinese future he envisioned, he readily employed the
capitalist tools such as mortgages, bonds, stocks, and loans in his
fund raising for the T'ung-meng-hui. While in the United States
he conceived a plan to monopolize the export of Malay tin. In let-
ters to T'ung-meng-hui leaders, Sun described the plan and
urged that all Chinese owners of tin mines form a syndicate to
control tin exports. Sun had arranged with a broker in New York
an import contract pending the guarantee that Malaya would sell
the United States at least half of its exported tin. It was a shrewd
plan, for it would take control of the price of tin away from the
British, who had previously administered its export from Malaya.
Not only would Sun gain a sizeable commission, but Chinese
exporters would increase their profits. The syndicate was never
formed, however, and the project had to be abandoned. The Chi-
nese exporters were vaguely ambivalent, and the T'ung-meng-
hui was unable to convince them of the monopoly's merits.
55

During the 16 years that Sun was collecting funds for the revo-
lution, the overseas Chinese, especially those in Southeast Asia,
were his most important resource.
56

Systematically declared per-sona non grata by Asian governments, Sun himself found it increasingly difficult to tap this source himself. Thus he entrusted fundraising among overseas Chinese in Asia to other T'ung-meng-hui
leaders while he traveled to the West. This was the background
that led to Sun's most ambitious and complex financial scheme.

s a result of a series of letters and meetings, Sun was united
with four very different men. Homer Lea was a Stanford gradu-
ate, military enthusiast, and a hunchback whose personality was
as unusual as his posture. Charles Boothe was a former New York
banker forced into retirement because of ill health. W. W. Allen
was a successful Wall Street financier and childhood friend of
Boothe. Last, there was Yung Wing, a Yale graduate and elderly
reformist leader living in Connecticut. Together, these men
formed an American syndicate in March 1910 and drew up a
detailed plan to overthrow the Manchus. The whole project
involved more than $10,000,000 dollars. Sun naturally took the
office of president and commanded the whole proceeding. Lea
was the "commanding general" in charge of all military opera-
tions. Boothe became the "sole foreign agent" and was responsi-
ble for much of the overall coordination of their activities. Allen
was the essential contact with Wall Street money, and Yung acted
as the mediator between the revolutionary groups in the United
States and those in Asia
57

These five men acted out an intriguing plot to finance a revolu-
tion. Offering concessions similar to those already mentioned,
Sun and his entourage came surprisingly close to pulling off this
deal. Early on, Lea had raised more than $1,000,000 dollars in
cash and had obtained promises of another $1,000,000.
58

In February 1909, Allen was confident that he had found a group that
would lend the revolutionaries the needed cash.
59

In reality, the money never materialized. Allen did meet with J. P. Morgan,
American financier, a number of times, but Morgan could not be
convinced. A Morgan representative gave at least one reason for
not offering the loan: "I am ready to do business with any estab-
lished government on earth but I cannot . . . make a government
to do business with."
60

Sun was undeniably disappointed with the outcome. He had once even told Lea that "all our hopes are pinned on the American plan."
61

Financing Revolution: Sun Yat-sen and
the Overthrow of the Ch'ing Dynasty
Allen F. Damon

http://72.14.235.132/search?q=cache:20_w57mHWYgJ:scholarspace.manoa.hawaii.edu/bitstream/10125/6572/1/JL25167.pdf+sun+yat+sen+secret+societies&cd=37&hl=en&ct=clnk

1 "Dr. Sun Advocates a Revolt in China," PCA, 14 Dec. 1903.
2 Henry Bond Restarick, Sun Yat-sen: Liberator of China (New Haven: Yale U P, 1931) 13-6.
3 Jen Yu-wen and Lindsay Ride, Sun Yat-sen, Liberator of China (Hong Kong: U of Hong Kong, 1970) 10.
4 Restarick, Sun Yat-sen 25.
5 Restarick, Sun Yat-sen 25.
6 Wang Gungwu, "Sun Yat-sen and Singapore," Journal of the South Seas Society, 15 (Dec. 1959): 57.
7 Jen and Ride, Sun Yat-sen 18.
8 Jen and Ride, Sun Yat-sen 14-5.
9 Harold Z. Schiffrin, Sun Yat-sen and the Origins of the Chinese Revolution (Berkeley: U of California P, 1968) 30.
10 Culture 6 (Mar. 1965): 22. Chun-tu Hsueh, "An Early Chinese Revolutionary Organization: Controversy Concerning Its Founding," Chinese Culture 6 (Mar. 1965):22.
11 C. Martin Wilbur, Sun Yat-sen: Frustrated Patriot (New York: Columbia U P, 1976) 13.
12 Loretta O. Pang, "The Chinese Revolution: Its Activities and Meaning in Hawaii," B.A. honors thesis, U of Hawaii, 1963, 20.
13 Pang, "The Chinese Revolution" 3.
14 Restarick, Sun Yat-sen 43-5.
15 Yen Ching Hwang, The Overseas Chinese and the 1911 Revolution (Kuala Lumpur: Oxford U P, 1976) 149.
16 See, for example, the statements cited in Restarick, Sun Yat-sen 53-4 and 60-1.
17 Thomas W. Ganschow, "A Study of Sun Yat-sen's Contacts with the United States Prior to 1922, " diss., Indiana U, 1971, 47.
18 T'ang Leang-Li, The Inner History of the Chinese Revolution (New York: E. P.Dutton, 1930) 46-7.
19 Ganschow, "A Study" 31.
20 Sun Yat-sen, "The True Solution to the Chinese Question," unpublished paper, New York, 1904, 11-2.
21 Pang, "The Chinese Revolution" 21; Diane M. L. Mark, Seasons of Light: The History of Chinese Christian Churches in Hawaii (Honolulu: Chinese Christian Association of Hawaii, 1989) 29-3o and 47-8. Damon had spent some time in China in the 1870s studying the language and culture. His wife was the daughter of missionaries to China and spoke Cantonese fluently.
22 Ganschow, "A Study" 9.
23 Pang, "The Chinese Revolution" 20.
24 Restarick, Sun Yat-sen 101.
25 Sun Yat-sen, letter to F. W. Damon, 8 Feb. 1912, C. F. Damon, Jr. Papers, HMCS.
26 Robert L. Worden, "K'ang Yu-Wei, Sun Yat-Sen, et al. and the Bureau of Immigration, Ch'ing-shih wen-t'i, 2, no. 6 (June 1971): 5-9. See, also, Restarick, Sun Yat-sen 6-9.
27 Wilbur, Sun Yat-sen 56.
28 Marius B. Jansen, The Japanese and Sun Yat-sen (Cambridge: Harvard U P, 1954) 68-74; Shelley, Hsien Cheng, "The T'ung-Meng-Hui: Its Organization, Leadership, and Finances, 1905-1912," diss., U of Washington, 1962, 28-9; Wilbur, Sun Yat-sen 57.
29 Cheng, "The T'ung-Meng-Hui" 29.
30 Jansen, The Japanese and Sun Yat-sen 117-8.
31 Cheng, "The T'ung-Meng-Hui" 164-5.
32 Cheng, "The T'ung-Meng-Hui" 333.
33 L. Eve Armentrout Ma, Revolutionaries, Monarchists, and Chinatowns: Chinese Politics in the Americas and the 1911 Revolution (Honolulu: U of Hawaii P, 1990) 162.
34 Wilbur, Sun Yat-sen 42.
35 Wang, "Sun Yat-sen and Singapore" 59.
36 Cheng, "The T'ung-Meng-Hui" 174.
37 Cheng, "The T'ung-Meng-Hui" 175
38 Wang, "Sun Yat-sen and Singapore" 62.
39 Ma, Revolutionaries 42-3.
40 Cheng, "The T'ung-Meng-Hui" 173-4.
41 Wang, "Sun Yat-sen and Singapore" 65.
42 Ma, Revolutionaries 154.
43 Wang, "Sun Yat-sen and Singapore" 62-3.
44 Wang, "Sun Yat-sen and Singapore" 62; Cheng, "The T'ung-Meng-Hui" 177.
45 Jansen, The Japanese and Sun Yat-sen 127 and 252-3.
46 New York Times, 14 Oct- 1911:2.
47 S. Y. Teng, "Dr. Sun Yat-sen and Chinese Secret Societies," Studies on Asia (Lincoln: U of Nebraska P, 1963) 84 and 86; Pang, "The Chinese Revolution" 12.
48 Cheng, "The T'ung-Meng-Hui" 196-7.
49 Pang, "The Chinese Revolution" 11-25 and 45.
50 Cheng, "The T'ung-Meng-Hui" 46.
51 Cheng, "The T'ung-Meng-Hui" 47.
52 Cheng, "The T'ung-Meng-Hui" 192-4; Ma, Revolutionaries 137-8.
53 Ma, Revolutionaries 138.
54 Cheng, "The T'ung-Meng-Hui" 196.
55 Cheng, "The T'ung-Meng-Hui" 184.
56 Cheng, "The T'ung-Meng-Hui" 163.
57 Key Ray Chong, "The Abortive American-Chinese Project for Chinese Revolution," Pacific Historical Review, 41 (Feb. 1972): 65-6; Ganschow, "A Study" 97.
58 Chong, "The Abortive American-Chinese Project" 59.
59 L. Eve Armentrout, "American Involvement in Chinese Revolutionary Activities, 1898-1913," master's thesis, California State C, Hayward, 1972, 118.
60 Chong, "The Abortive American-Chinese Project" 64 and 67.
61 Wilbur, Sun Yat-sen 71.
62 New York Times, 14 Oct - 1911:1.
63 Jansen, The Japanese and Sun Yat-sen 146 and 256.
64 Cheng, "The T'ung-Meng-Hui" 179-80.
65 Chong, "The Abortive American-Chinese Project" 68; Cheng, "The T'ung Meng-Hui" 191.
66 Cheng, "The T'ung-Meng-Hui" 15.
67 Jen and Ride, Sun Yat-sen 15.
68 Wilbur, Sun Yat-sen 40-1.
69 Cheng, "The T'ung-Meng-Hui" 189-90.
70 T'ang, The Inner History 51.
71 L. Eve Armentrout-Ma, "Chinese Politics in the Western Hemisphere 1893-1911: Rivalry between Reformers and Revolutionaries in the Americas," diss., U of California, Davis, 1977, 394.
72 Pang, "The Chinese Revolution" 21.
73 Schiffrin, Sun Yat-sen 325.
74 Wilbur. Sun Yat-sen 48.
75 New York Times, 21 July 1940:28.
76 Lyman L. Pierce, How to Raise Money (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1932) 26.
77 Pierce, How to Raise Money 29.
78 New York Times, 27 Jan. 1889:2.
79 Wilbur, Sun Yat-sen 40.
80 Pierce, How To Raise Money 108.
81 Wilbur, Sun Yat-sen 281.
82 C. Martin Wilbur, interview, Columbia U, New York, 23 Sept. 1982.
83 Wilbur, interview.
84 Sun Yat-sen, 10 Letters of Sun Yat-sen (Stanford,: Stanford U Libraries, 1942) 9.
85 Wilbur, Sun Yat-sen 289.
86 Publicity Department of the Central Executive Committee, Dr. Sun Yat-sen, His Life and Achievements (n.d., n.p.) 267; Schiffrin, Sun Yat-sen 267. Four different "dying words" have been attributed to Sun. These two sources mention these words.

On the overseas Chinese secret societies of Australia

In the period since the 19th century over 20 million Chinese have migrated overseas. Many of the earliest of these migrants worked initially as coolies in mines and goldfields, on road construction sites and plantations and pastures throughout Southeast Asia, North America, Australia and New Zealand. L.A. Mills has claimed that: “Wherever the Chinese coolie came the Hung League followed”,3 and this seems to be an accurate reflection of the situation amongst the overseas Chinese migrant communities in the 19th century.

3.L.A. Mills, British Malaya, 1824-67 (1925; reprinted Kuala Lumpur: Oxford University
Press, 1966), p. 211

Page 1

"In Australia, the majority of Chinese secret societies also referred to themselves as the “Yee Hing Company”, indicating that the League had spread there from Southeast Asia. We must conclude, therefore, that there existed two channels for Hung League expansion to Australia: one flowed directly from Mainland China; the other was by way of Southeast Asia."

Page 5

It remains difficult to establish a precise date for the founding of the Hung
League in Australia. As a secret society, the Hung League’s organisational
activities were conducted through clandestine channels and were never
disclosed to outsiders. Of one thing can we be sure, however, and that is that
the Hung League entered Australia during the Gold Rush years. During that
period of time, large numbers of Chinese came to Australia in search of gold.
As the Chinese flooded in, the Hung League followed.
During the 1850s, gold mines continued to be discovered in Australia,
and the news of these new finds spread rapidly to Europe and throughout the
rest of the world. As a result, hundreds and thousands of Chinese gold rushers
swarmed to these “New Gold Mountain” fields in Australia. Most of these
gold rushers were poor peasants or indigent labourers from the coastal areasof Guangdong and Fujian Provinces. Specifically, they were Cantonese from
the countryside around Canton and from the Pearl River Delta who arrived in
Australia via Hong Kong or Fujianese from Xiamen (Amoy).
The rapid population increase in these regions from the mid-Qing period onwards had
exacerbated the crisis in the supply of available arable land. Taking the Pearl
River Delta region as an example, the 13 counties that made up this region
occupied an area of some 20,000 square kilometres, comprising 10% of the
total territory of Guangdong Province. Yet the population reached upwards of
18 million, that is 50% of the total population of the Province.
The population density was even higher in the See Yap (Siyi) region and Chung
Shan (Zhongshan) County, with between 1,500-1,600 people per square
kilometre.15

These regions were amongst the most densely populated areas in
the world at the time. The shortage in arable land displaced from these areas
many peasants who had little or no land, forcing them into vagrancy in other
provinces and overseas. Life was far from easy for them, afflicted as they
were also by both natural and man-made disasters, and oppression at the
hands of foreigners. In keeping with their need for mutual support, their
desire for an association based on sworn brotherhood and which maintained
the principle of “All for one and one for all” was a pressing one. It was
precisely this historical context that gave rise to the Hung League. Research
has revealed that once the Hung League had been established in Zhangzhou in
Fujian Province in 26 the year of the reign of the Qianlong Emperor (1761),
16 it spread rapidly in the southern Chinese provinces of Guangdong and Fujian.
By the 1850s, the League: “had spread throughout [Guangdong] and had reached as far as Guangxi Province”, “infecting also the Wu and Chu regions”.
17

Large numbers of poor peasants and indigent labourers joined the
Hung League in order to obtain mutual aid and to safeguard their livelihoods.
Even more did the Hung League of this period speak to the needs of the
migrant Chinese communities, and it appears that it held especial attraction to
Chinese collies and workers. As large numbers of Chinese labours arrived in
the goldfields of Australia, so too did the Hung League, spreading widely throughout the Australian Chinese community. A point that very much needs to be borne in mind is that during the 1850s the Taiping Rebellion broke out in Southern China, along with the Hung League led Red Turban Rebellion. Upon the defeat of both these
uprisings, the Qing Imperial authorities launched a cruel campaign to suppress both the remnant Taiping army and the Hung League. Many of the key
leaders of these movements joined the gold rush and fled to Australia. It is recorded that in 1864, after the defeat of Taiping Rebellion, the Southern Conquering King Huang Deci(a man from Xinhui County,Guangdong Province) led his remaining soldiers and: “fleeing in dozens of boats, crossed the South China Sea, and finally arrived in Darwin Harbour in northern Australia. Their arrival coincided with the opening up of the New Gold Mountain, and thus they proceeded to this place and became gold
miners”.
18

According al so to the memoirs of an earl y overseas Chinese named Yang Tangcheng
, of the six brothers of his great grandfather Yang Shenglong’s I generation, two participated in the Red Turban Rebellion in Poon Yee (Fan’ou) County of Guangdong Province, led by Gan Xian of the Hung League. Both were executed by the Qing armies after the defeat of the uprising, and in order to avoid guilt by association, one other brother fled to New Zealand to join the gold rush. Some years later, Yang
Tangcheng’s grandfather Yang Xiongda. and two of his brothers also fled overseas. The eldest went to Australia to become a gold miner, the two other men to New Zealand and America respectively as coolies.
19

As key members of the Hung League, these men had all proved themselves to be able
organisers. It is said that once Huang Deci had established himself in the New
Gold Mountain area of Australia, he immediately established the Hung League
run “Yee Hing Company”, and that the present office building of the “Yee Hing Company” in Bendigo (on the site of a former Guan Yu Temple) was
actually built by Huang Deci.20

In my view, the course of the Hung League’s dissemination and development amongst the Chinese migrants to Australia may be broadly divided into three phases.
First Phase (1851–75): This was a period when the influx of Chinese
migrants into Australia as part of the gold rush reached a peak; it was also the
period during which the Hung League membership become widespread amongst the Chinese labourers. About 55,000 Chinese arrived in Australia during this period,
21 most of whom gathered at the gold fields of New South Wales and Victoria. At the time, the gold production of areas like Ballarat and Bendigo in Victoria led to a concentration there of Chinese people

Page 7

According to statistics, in 1853 there were 2000 Chinese labours in Ballarat;
three years later this figure had increased to 25,000, the Chinese population
comprising a quarter of the total population of the area. By 1859, the Chinese
population of Victoria had reached a total of 42,000. In New South Wales
there was a Chinese population of 21,000 Chinese in 1861, comprising 1/6 of
its total population.
22
In large groups, these Chinese crossed mountains and
forded rivers in search of gold, setting up their huts whenever and wherever
they discovered a mine. Exposed to the harsh climate and the depredations
of wild beasts, they were also subject to attack by both the aborigine
population and the white colonialists, occasionally resulting in loss of life.
Apart from relying for mutual aid on their fellow townsmen and fellow
clansmen, the Chinese also welcomed the expansion of the activities of the
Hung League, an organisation that displayed the strongest cohesive power and
which conducted most of its activities in a clandestine manner. At present it is
impossible to know the exact number of the League’s membership in this
period, but comparison with what we know of Hung League development in
Southeast Asia and North America, along with statistics from the later stages
of the development of the League in Australia does permit us to make some
conjectures. According to Victor Purcell, of the 27,000 Chinese in Singapore
in 1850, 20,000 were members of the Hung League; that is, almost 80% of
the Chinese population of Singapore had secret society affiliations.

numbers of Chinese quit mining and turned to other forms of employment,
many of them removing to the cities to take up jobs in the industrial or
commercial sectors of the economy. Sydney and Melbourne became the two
most important centres of Chinese population concentration. In 1881, the
Chinese population of Melbourne had totalled 1,057, that of Sydney, 1,321.
By 1891, however, the Chinese population of Melbourne had reached 2,143,
and that of Sydney 3,499; in other words, the Chinese populations of these
cities had doubled within the decade.
27
Chinese guild and clan halls were
established one after another within the Chinatowns of these cities. The office
building of the “Yee Hing Company” too shifted in to Chinatown. During
this period also, leadership of the Hung League in Australia was assumed by
experienced members of the League and by successful businessmen and
industrialists, such as Lee Yuan Sam
in Melbourne, Moy Sing
and James A. Chuey
in New South Wales and so on.
28
Third Phase (1901-21): This period saw an increasing sense of
nationalism within the Hung League in Australia and was a period also when
the social and political activities of the Hung League reached a high point.
Firstly, during this period, immediately after the establishment of the
Federation of Australia in 1901, the Australian Federal Government passed the
Immigration Restriction Act, an Act that served to give both systematic and
legal expression to the “White Australia Policy”.
Racist sentiment spread
throughout society and the frequency of anti-Chinese and anti-coloured
incidents increased.
Naturally, these anti-Chinese incidents could not but
serve to arouse the nationalist sentiments of both the Chinese in Australia at
the time and the Hung League.
Secondly, at the beginning of the 20
th
century a revolutionary movement to overthrow the Qing Dynasty developed
in China. The propaganda campaign on the part of the revolutionaries, led by
Dr Sun Yat-sen, encouraged Hung League members in Australia to express
widespread anti-Manchu sentiment. For the first time, they came to realise
that it was necessary to make a connection between their own fates and that of
the future of their motherland and they began to participate self-consciously in
social and political activities:
(a) They initiated a campaign against the “White Australia Policy” and
petitioned for the establishment of a Chinese Consulate in Australia.
(b)They supported Dr Sun Yat-sen’s revolutionary programme for the
overthrow of the Qing Dynasty and the establishment of a republic,
working together with the republicans to set up a Young China League and
otherwise actively seeking to raise funds for the revolutionary cause. In
1911, a sum of £1,300 was raised and sent to Dr Sun Yat-sen personally.
27
C.F. Yong, The New Gold Mountain: The Chinese in Australia, 1901-21,pp. 218-20.
28
Ibid.
Page 10
Secret Societies
39
After the Wuchang uprising, the Hung League continued to collect
contributions for the revolutionaries and in partnership with the Young
China League, the “Yee Hing Company” raised £4,700 in Melbourne,
£4,758 in Sydney, whilst £1,900 was raised from the Chinese in Western
Australia. Between June, 1912 and 1913, Chinese in Australia and
throughout the South Pacific region raised altogether the sum of £26,000
for the Nanjing revolutionary government, as an expression of their
patriotic support for the Republic.
29
(c) They actively participated in anti-Yuan Shikai activities and supported the
Northern Expedition of the Guangdong Military Government. In China,
Yuan Shikai’s usurpation of power after the 1911 Revolution sparked off
the “Second Revolution”. Apart from publishing “The China Republic
News” in order to denounce Yuan Shikai’s actions, leaders of the
Australian Chinese Hung League such as James A. Chuey, Moy Sing and
the others also enthusiastically raised funds to support the anti-Yuan ShiKai
movement in Southern China. In 1916, the Chinese Masonic Society in
Sydney established a “Hung League Fund Raising Committee”, and James
A. Chuey and Moy Sing embarked upon a tour of Victoria and Tasmania
in order to rally the support of “Yee Hing Company” members for this
cause. The sum of £2,900 was raised and sent to Dr Sun Yat-sen to
support the Southern China revolutionaries. In 1918, in order to support
the Guangdong military government’s expedition against local warlords,
the Chinese Masonic Society of Sydney raised a further £2,300.
30
(d)As social and political circumstances changed, the Chinese Hung League in
Australia also began to adapt its organisational structure and nomenclature.
Firstly, the “Yee Hing Company” began to accept membership from all
sectors of the Chinese community; rich merchants and poor vegetable
gardeners alike, carpenters as well as street vendors, all met the
requirements for membership of the “Company”. Generally, however,
although there was a higher percentage of working class members, control
of the “Company” remained in the hands of rich Chinese merchants. In
1912, the headquarters of the “Yee Hing Company” was established in
New South Wales, later on becoming the headquarters of the Aligned Yee
Hing Company, and adopting the English name: “The Chinese Masonic
Society”.
In 1914, “Yee Hing Company” in Melbourne underwent
reform and adopted the same English name. During the period 1916-18,
once the Chinese Masonic Society had opened up its activities to the public,
branches of the Chinese Masonic Society appeared throughout Australia,
29
Ibid.
30
Ibid.
Page 11
Cai Shaoqing
40
publicising their activities and membership lists in the local Chinese-
language newspapers. All these branches took their direction from the
Sydney headquarters.
Between 1918-21, the Sydney headquarters
convened four Interstate Chinese Masonic Society Consolidation
Conferences, and inaugurated its own newspaper, “The Chinese World
News” in 1921. This latter served as a forum for important political issues
and gave expression to the increasing influence of the League. The Hung
League of Australia had by now completely escaped from its clandestine
past, and its history as a secret society had come to an end.
The Nature, Characteristics and Social Role of the
Chinese Hung League in Australia
It has now been more than 150 years since the Heaven Earth League first
arrived in Australia along with the large number of Chinese labourers who
came to Australia to join in the gold rush from 1851 onwards. Although the
original slogan of the League had been “To overthrow the Qing and Restore
the Ming”, it had in essence been an association by, of and for indigent
labourers seeking mutual aid and support. Once it had commenced its
activities overseas, the entire context of these activities changed fundamentally;
no longer did it have to contend with the Qing imperial government or the
feudalistic control of the Scholar-gentry class, but rather the discrimination and
oppression of a Western colonial power. As a consequence, the Hung League
in Australia could no longer be said to be defined by the slogan “To
overthrow the Qing and Restore the Ming”, and the League’s original nature
as an association devoted to resistance to tyranny and to mutual aid came to
the fore. Large numbers of Chinese labourers, finding themselves now in a
foreign land, without relatives or acquaintances to turn to in times of need,
swore oaths of brotherhood and joined the Hung League in order to
undertake mutual aid activities to protect the economic rights and common
interests of the Chinese and to oppose the oppression and discrimination of
both the Western colonial government and the European settlers. Under
normal circumstances, the Hung League arranged jobs for them, mediated
their disputes, and assisted with the everyday difficulties of birth, old age,
sickness and death and so on. One source records that: “in their initial phases,
the “Yee Hing Companies” of both New South Wales and Victoria undertook
a great many good works on the behalf of their members. The companies
encouraged amongst their members a sense of brotherhood and helped them
find employment, all to protect the interests of members”.
31
31
Ibid., pp. 112-116.
Page 12
Secret Societies
41
During times of anti-Chinese violence, they sought legal protection for
their members through petitions and appeals to public sympathy. When a
violent anti-Chinese incident broke out in the Baklan gold fields in Victoria in
July, 1857, and the colonial government began to impose a resident’s tax of
£1 per person per month, the Chinese gold miners rallied to petition the
government of Victoria with a statement of their plight. As a result of their
efforts, the Victorian State Parliament decided to reduce this tax to £1 per
person every three months.
32
In 1861, when another violent anti-Chinese
incident occurred in the lowlands of Lanming in New South Wales, as many as
600 Chinese joined the Chinese speaking interpreter James Henley in
petitioning the colonial government for legal protection. Driven by his strong
sense of social justice, Henley presented a report to the Australian authorities
demanding legal protection for Chinese labourers.
33
In an editorial dated 2
nd
August, 1861, the Sydney Morning Herald also
expressed its sympathy for the suffering of the Chinese, stating: “In all respects,
they are excellent; one does not see them wallowing on the ground drunk; one
does not see them shabbily dressed, and nor do they make a display of their
poverty in order to gain public sympathy; they have their own broadly based
organisation to provide mutual support and help, and although they earn very
little, they still save some to send back to support their families”.
34
To my
mind, in terms of its resistance to the oppression of the colonial government
and its protection of the interests of the Chinese, the Hung League served
something of the role of an unofficial Chinese consulate.
In the course of its century or more of development, and in comparison
to similar Hung Leagues elsewhere, the Hung League of Australia, has two
obvious particularities. Firstly, in contrast to the circumstances that prevailed
in Southeast Asia and America, Australia was essentially without the type of
gang fight and Tong Wars between branches of the League which proved so
injurious to the social order of both the Chinese community and the local
society more generally. The main reason for this was because of the diversity
of the origins of the overseas Chinese communities in Southeast Asia and
America. Although the majority came from Guangdong and Fujian Provinces,
these overseas Chinese communities included also men who came from
Guangxi Province as well as ex-members of the “Three Rivers Gang” secret
society from throughout China. The communities they formed part of were
fragmented by dialect differences and, as a consequence, their Hung Leagues
too were divided.
In Malaya for example, during the 19
th
century, the Chinese community
was comprised of five main dialect groups and the Hung League there divided
32
Zhang Qiusheng, Aodaliya huaqiao huaren shi,p. 126.
33
Liu Weiping, Aozhou huaqiao shi [A History of the Chinese in Australia] (Taibei:
Xingdao chubanshe, 1989), pp. 112-16.
34
Quoted in Zhang Qiusheng, Aodaliya huaqiao huaren shi,p. 127.
Page 13
Cai Shaoqing
42
into groups like the Ghee Hin Society
, the Hai San Society
,
the Ho Seng Society ^, the Wah Sang Society
and the Toh Peh
Kong Society ..
35
Mutual misunderstanding, suspicion and hostility
often arouse between these groups as a result of differences in dialect, custom,
personality and nature of employment, occasionally resulting in conflict and
bloody strife. The secret societies played leading roles in these battles. Such
internecine struggles caused, in the case of Malaya, the two infamous Larut
Wars of 1862 and 1872.
In contrast, the Chinese in Australia, especially those who migrated
there during the gold rush period, were mainly from the Pearl River Delta of
Guangdong Province, whilst others came from the southern part of Fujian
Province. They lived in communities based upon their places of origin.
Although there is no detailed statistical record of the numbers of the earliest
Fujianese and Cantonese migrants to Australia, we can gain an impression of
the origins of these men from the existing Chinese gravestones of Ballarat.
480 of these gravestones provide clear record of origins of those buried. 250
of the gravestones record Ningyi (Xinning County) as the place of origin, this
representing over 52% of the total number. A further 123 gravestones give
Sun Hui in Gangzhou (Xinhui County) as place of origin, this in turn
representing another 26% of the total. The remaining 107 gravestones belong
to men from counties such as Tot shan (Taishan), Chang Shen (Zengcheng),
Xiangshan, Hoi Ping (Kaiping), Poon Yee (Fan’ou), Tung Kuan (Dongguan),
Soon Tack (Shunde), Ho Shan (Heshan) and so on. Not one gravestone is for
somebody from any other province.
36
The impression gained from such records is of a community which
spoke the same dialect of Cantonese and which was made up of men of very
similar physical features, ideology and character, thus reducing the likelihood
of mutual friction and conflict. With the exception of battle that took place on
Little Bourke Street in Melbourne in 1904 between the “Yee Hing Company”
and the Bo Leong Association over the profits from the opium and gambling
business, the history of the League in Australia is almost completely free of
violence or conflicts that derived from the existence of Chinese secret societies.
In fact, the reputation of the Bo Leong Association was so affected by this
fight that it was disbanded in 1912.
37
The second particularity of the Hung League in Australia was that it
became unified at an early stage, making use of English title “The Chinese
Masonic Society” to refer to the aligned headquarters of the “Yee Hing
35
L.F. Comber, Chinese Secret Societies in Malaya: A Survey of the Triad Society from
1800 to 1900,pp. 35-36.
36
Linda Brumley, Lu Bingqun & Zhao Xueru, eds., Fading Links to China: Ballarat’s
Chinese Gravestones and Associated Records, 1854-1955, Melbourne University History
Research Series # 2 (1992).
37
C.F. Yong, The Chinese in Australia, 1901-21,pp. 159-60.
Page 14
Secret Societies
43
Company”, in order that the Australian public understand the nature of the
“Yee Hing Company” and thus helping to facilitate the assimilation of the
league into Australian society. As is widely recognised, within many overseas
Chinese communities, the various secret societies were divisive elements which
inhibited any sense of unity within these communities. This remains the case
in a number of regions. The situation with the Chinese secret societies of
Australia is different. With the exception of the early gold rush period when
Hung League members were scattered throughout the various gold fields,
once the majority of Chinese had moved to live in the cities, the League too
moved the centre of it activities into the cities. By the end of the 19th century
and the beginning of the 20th century, two “Yee Hing Company” headquarters had been established; one in Sydney in New South Wales and the other in Melbourne in Victoria.
The Sydney headquarters was the first established, in Blackburn Street in 1908; this headquarters was later moved to Mary Street. The Melbourne headquarters was established in Little BourkeStreet.
The two headquarters co-operated frequently, and the connection between them was an intimate one. When the “Yee Hing Company” in New South Wales celebrated the opening of its Blackburn Street headquarters, the heads of the “Yee Hing Company” of Melbourne and Bendigo all attended the ceremony. When in 1912 the “Yee Hing Company” of Sydney adopted “The Chinese Masonic Society” as its English name, the “Yee Hing Company” of Melbourne followed suit in 1914. On the cover of the extant
Bendigo Hung League Pamphlet are written the words “Masonic Society”. In 1916, an aligned headquarters was established in New South Wales. In the same year, the aligned “Yee Hing Company” called on all “Yee Hing Companies” across Australia to become affiliated branches of the Sydney
headquarters. Between 1918-21, the Sydney headquarters convened four Interstate Consolidation Conferences of the Chinese Masonic Society and laid the foundation for a unified Australian Hung League in Australia. The change of name for the Hung League from “Yee Hing Company” to “The Chinese Masonic Society” not only won support from the Chinese community in Australia, but also facilitated an understanding of the League on the part of the Australian public, for the term “Free Mason” was one that they were familiar with. Although the Chinese Masonic Society did not undertake any of the rituals associated with the Australian Masonic Society, the sense of brotherhood and fraternity that the societies sought to foster were very similar. This served towards the greater purpose of the acceptance of the Chinese into Australian society. Apart from the similarity in the origins and backgrounds of members and a consequent reduction in the possibility of conflict, another characteristic of the League that allowed it to become unified at an early stage was to do
with its leadership. Men such as Lee Yuan Sam, Moy Sing, James A. Chuey and Lee Yuan Xing
were not only capable organisers, but they also had enormous prestige within the Chinese communities in Australia, and the trust of Australian society in general. Lee Yuan Sam whom I had occasion to
mention earlier, was born in China in 1831 and came to Australia in 1862, initially as a gold miner in Ballarat. Later on, he established a business inMelbourne. He travelled frequently throughout New South Wales, Victoria and Tasmania, and gained a lot of experience of life in Australia. He had
maintained a long-term relationship with the “Yee Hing Company” of Victoria, becoming a leader of the Yee Hing Company of Melbourne early last century. By 1911, under his leadership, the “Yee Hing Company” had attracted a membership of 3,000. He was a popular figure in the Chinese community of
Victoria and played an important role in the 1891 Revolution against the Qing Dynasty. He played a critical role in the unification of the Hung League of Australia. Moy Sing was born in the See Yap region of Guangdong Province in 1831. He migrated to New South Wales in 1852 and served as leader of
the “Yee Hing Company” there for 55 years. During his term as leader, the Yee Hing Company had a membership of 3,000. He died in 1919. James A. Chuey, who was also from the See Yap region, migrated to Australia in 1878. He settled down in Junee in New South Wales, running a wheat farm and exporting wool. A faithful follower of Moy Sing, he was a sociable, modest, honest and generous man and became one of the most popular members of the Chinese communities of New South Wales and
Victoria. He made many friends, both Chinese and Australian. W.A. Holman, an Australian who was elected as premier of New South Wales between 1913-19, was amongst his closest friends. He was one of the top leaders of the Aligned Chinese Masonic Society during the first three decades last century.
Under his leadership, the Chinese Masonic Society of New South Wales was united and became an important social and political power within the Chinese Community of the state throughout the 1920s,
39 whilst he also played an important role in the process of unifying the Chinese Masonic Society across Australia. It has now been more than 150 years since the large-scale initial wave of
Chinese migration to Australia. During this period, Chinese migrants have undertaken all kinds of work; gold mining, vegetable farming, furniture manufacturing, industrial business and city construction. Though they suffered at the hands of anti-Chinese movements and from the ill treatment and discrimination of the “White Australia Policy”, with perseverance and hard
work, they made a great contribution to the economic development and modernisation of Australia.
At the same time, their Chinese cultural background served to make Australian society more culturally pluralistic. Throughout this process, the Hung League of Australia played a very significant role in uniting the Chinese community, undertaking mutual aid measures, and promoting the integration
of the Chinese with Australian society. This circumstance needs now to bemore fully appreciated by the general public

New Zealand Journal of Asian Studies 4, 1 (June, 2002): 30-45
CAI SHAOQING
Nanjing University

http://72.14.235.132/search?q=cache:e5eaGbnk3OsJ:www.nzasia.org.nz/downloads/NZJAS-June02/CaiSahoqing.pdf+sun+yat+sen+secret+societies&cd=34&hl=en&ct=clnk

Blue Shirts Society: A secret Fascist clique inside the KMT

The Blue Shirts Society (藍衣社 in Chinese, hereinafter referred to as the BSS) also known as the Society of Practice of the Three Principles of the People (三民主義力行社 in Chinese, hereinafter referred to as the SPTPP), the Spirit Encouragement Society (勵志社 in Chinese) and the China Reconstruction Society (中華復興社 ,hereinafter referred to as the CRS in short), was a secret clique in the Kuomintang (KMT). Under the direction of Chiang Kai-shek it sought to lead the KMT and China by following the ideology of Fascism and was a secret police or para-military force.

Although in its early stage the society's most important members came from the Whampoa Military Academy, and part of it constituted the Whampoa Clique of the KMT, its influence had extended from the military to the political system, the economy and the social life of 1930s China as well. The rise and fall of the Blue Shirt Society was rapid, but obscure, and was seldom mentioned again by either the KMT or the Communist Party of China after the establishment of the People's Republic of China and the following KMT domination on Taiwan.

After the Northern Expedition, Chiang and the KMT took over most of China's territories. But the government established by the KMT was far from the republic envisioned by Sun Yat-sen. In some degree the social crisis was deepening rather than disappearing. Firstly, the tension between Japan and China increased day by day, for Japan's ambition to dominate China was never satiated with the conquest of Manchuria. Secondly, with the split of the first KMT-CPC alliance (which contributed to the downfall of the warlords), the KMT and the CPC (Communist Party of China) turned against each other. The CPC had developed its power base both in the cities and in the countryside, which was a great threat to the KMT’s governance. Finally, the KMT itself was divided into several cliques, resulting in power struggles among Chiang, Hu Hanmin and Wang Jingwei. The courage and passion previously shown in the Northern Expedition subsequently disappeared. Ordinary Chinese people and even some KMT members were disappointed to find out that, although they had brought down the old warlords, the KMT's power structure resembled that of the defeated warlords. China was still scourged by corruption, poverty, and civil wars from time to time. Chiang, the man people once regarded as their savior, did little to quell such discontent and concentrated on the power struggle.

As the base of Chiang's rule, some Whampoa graduates felt that it was time to take action. This feeling was especially strong among those who had studied in Japan but subsequently developed an intense hatred of the Japanese due to their encroachments upon China. Consequently, in July 1931, Teng Jie (滕傑) and Xiao Zanyu (蕭贊育), were sent back to China to report on the threat from Japan and the forthcoming war to KMT leaders.

When Teng and Xiao arrived in China, they were upset to find out that the KMT, the party which used to be progressive and energetic, was now gravitating toward decadence. After careful thinking, Teng designed a blueprint to reform the KMT, in which he suggested that only a great and powerful leader could save China and the KMT. The leader could rule by all means, even as a benevolent dictator. Chiang was the sound candidate and therefore the only hope in Teng’s plan. Teng decided to dedicate all his life to this grand plan. In the following months, Teng traveled around Nanjing, which was the capital of the KMT government at that time, seeking support from his Whampoa schoolfellows.

Teng was lucky to get acquainted with Zeng Kuoqing (曾擴情), who was among the first graduates of Whampoa, and later was appointed to be in charge of the Whampoa Alumni Association. Zeng showed great enthusiasm and passion for Teng's plan and spared no effort to support it. However, because the KMT banned the freedom to organize political parties, Teng and Zeng had to do this job all in secrecy. Zeng used his influence and personal relations among Whampoa graduates to organize a periodic party to discuss Teng’s plan and its enforcement. Of course, they also needed to enroll new members.

After several months of hard work, they found sympathizers who became the members of this group. Among them were Whampoa graduates, the most prominent figures were He Zhonghan (賀衷寒), who was regarded as one of The Three Most Outstanding among Whampoa graduates (the other two were CPC members Jiang Xianyun (蔣先雲) and Chen Geng (陳賡), the patriarch of the Sun Yat-sen Theory Research Group at that time; Hu Zongnan (胡宗南),the rising young general of Chiang’s army; Deng Wenyi (鄧文儀 ),another patriarch of the Sun Yat-sen Theory Research Group and a secretary of Chiang; Feng Ti (丰悌), the Commissar of the 1st Division of the KMT army. Except for these young elites of the KMT, there was one person unknown to the public, but later he became prominent and notorious as the Beria of China, his name was Dai Li (戴笠).

In September 1931, in the third meeting of this group, they decided to set up an organization to reform the KMT and fight against Japan. Under the direction of He, this group was named the Society of the Practice of Three Principles of People (三民主義力行社, hereinafter referred to as the SPTPP in short). Teng was elected General Secretary. The party also issued guidance on the establishment, discipline and organization of this group, and confirmed that its main missions were as follows:

1. using secret measures to fight against the Japanese, the CPC, other cliques of the KMT and to ensure the Whampoa clique's domination of the KMT and China;
2. using the public image of the Whampoa Alumni Association to enroll new members and to set up a formal, well-organized and highly disciplined group.

The funds were mainly raised by Deng, who could make use of his charge of a KMT propaganda tool- the Party Book Shop. Furthermore, to avoid being arrested under the KMT's ban on political organizations, members decided to keep secrets from Chiang temporarily, although they had regarded Chiang as their spiritual mentor and the leader of their group from the very beginning.

Before long, Kang Ze (康澤) joined the group. He published a newspaper China Daily with the permission of Chiang, which became the mouthpiece of the SPTPP.

In December 1931, under great pressure from opponents both inside and outside the KMT, Chiang had to resign. In his hometown in Zhejiang, Chiang began to show great interest in Mussolini's fascism. Deng then let Chiang know of the existence of their group. Chiang summoned He, Teng and Kang to meet with him. In this secret meeting, Chiang did not blame them for their secret actions, and instead expressed his support. Moreover, he announced his will to be the group's mentor and leader, and he preferred a more formal and disciplined organization like those in Italy and Germany. Thus they decided to draft specific rules and articles to guide the party as soon as possible.

With support from Chiang, these young and ambitious talents moved quickly. In writing the articles of the association, Teng designed a hierarchical organization style, the top was Chiang, and the base was the elite among Whampoa graduates. New members could only be accepted with two recommendations and approval from Chiang himself. Members were not allowed to resign unless the party itself faced dissolution. If there was any violation of discipline, members would receive severe punishment and even suffer execution.

In 1932 Chiang regained power thanks to the power struggle between his opponents. He sped up the reform of the SPTPP . In a secret meeting in February, Gui Yongqing (桂永清), a member of the SPTPP, recommended Liu Jianqun (劉健羣) to Chiang. Liu, He Yingqin’s (何應欽) secretary at that time, later contributed much to the group.

Liu was greatly influenced by the book The Truth of Fascism written by a famous liberal Italian leader, which made him the earliest member of the SPTPP to advocate fascism. Liu was in fact the most enthusiastic advocate of fascism in China. He wrote a pamphlet called Some Opinions On The Reform of the KMT. In this pamphlet, Liu proposed that the reform of the KMT be enforced by way of a group consisting of elites, which should be established and organized along the lines of Mussolini’s MVSN or Blackshirts. Members wore blue shirts to pledge their allegiance which distinguished them from others. According to the group, the leader should encourage members by his sublime and super spirit. Under the direction of the leader, all members should live in a simple and highly disciplined way as dervishes. All cadres should be treated as equally as ordinary members, whose incomes and lives should be under strict supervision. Any violation should be severely punished. Only by these measures could this group lead the people. In return, the people should entrust their property and their families to the country and the supreme leader. People had great responsibilities varying from military service to absolute obedience of orders including surveillance of their neighborhoods. In order to bring up this obedience, everyone's lives should be divided into several stages, among which he should join the child group of the BSS, when he reached youth and qualified, he became a formal member of this group. Thus, China would be turned into a militarized society by a three level organization of Leader-BSS-People.

Chiang met with Liu and appreciated his theory, this meeting made a great contribution to the evolution of the SPTPP into the BSS. In March 1932, on the cover of another existing club called the Spirit Encouragement Society (勵志社),the SPTPP walked out of the shadow and officially announced its establishment. Although Liu’s proposal that members wear blue shirts and name their society after the blue shirts was not accepted, the SPTPP was known as the BSS from then on. In this ceremony, Teng was elected General Secretary, with He, Kang as Standing Secretariat. The BSS consisted of six divisions, which were the secretariat, organization, propaganda, military, special agency and logistics. The era of the secret society in China reached its peak, and the BSS began its infiltration of the Chinese political system and even of everyday life.

[edit] Rise and Achievements

Chiang was busy carrying out his Suppression of the CPC’s Red Army in the countryside. With Chiang’s permission, the BSS took over the defense of the capital, and most of the prominent Whampoa graduates who now got promotions as commanders became BSS members. Besides increasing its influence in the army, the BSS took over the police and other security services in China's major cities. Furthermore, it recruited members in the youth leagues of the KMT too, which had great influence in labor unions, publishing houses and schools. The force of the BSS had extended to every block of all major cities in China. A new structure of power had emerged, the BSS was the core of the Whampoa Clique, it coexisted and competed with the other two cliques which had a longer history and were much well- known, the CC Clique led by Chen Lifu (陈立夫) and Chen Guofu (陈果夫),whose orbit was dealing with party issues; the Politics Research Group (政学系) led by Yang Yongtai (杨永泰) and Zhang Qun (张群), whose orbit was daily KMT government running.

Liu’s pamphlet was accepted as the guidance of the BSS, and part of it was revised to be the Regulation of Life Discipline. In accordance with this regulation, BSS members would be paid a low wage, and part of it would be donated to the BSS. Gambling and opium were banned. Anti-corruption laws and laws prohibiting male BSS members from having a mistress were strictly abided by. The practice of BSS members was quite distinct from that of other corrupt KMT bureaucrats.

After the BSS’s Organization Construction and Spirit Construction, now it was time for Action Construction. In June 1932, an anti-graft campaign was launched under the direction of BSS member, Deng Wenyi. He led the special force mainly composed of BSS members who cracked down on corrupt police officers in Wuhan. After several arrests and executions, the police force improved its working style greatly. Then Deng waged war against organized crimes such as prostitution, opium and gambling. After 3 months of hard work, the mess was cleaned up and Deng later won Chiang’s appraise. Chiang wanted this effort to be promoted around the country. Chiang later launched a campaign in Nanjing to purify the capital, although it ended with less significant success.

At the same time, the BSS played an active role in the Suppression of the CPC as well. Zeng Kuoqing using his status in the Whampoa Alumni Association, wrote a letter to Xu Jishen (许继慎), who was commander of Zhang Guotao’s 4th Red Army and a whampoa graduate also, asking Xu to defect to the KMT’ s camp. Xu didn’t reply. But when Zhang got this letter, this raised his suspicions and he decided to carry out a purge. Thousands of commanders and soldiers were tortured and executed, which greatly weakened the CPC’s resistance to KMT forces. This plot was just a warm-up for the BSS. In October 1932, Hu Zongnan led his army mainly consisting of BSS members in a cruel and decisive battle against Xu Xiangqian in Hekou Anhui. In contrast to other KMT armies, this army was fearless and picked, and it had more advanced weapons and strong support from other armies also led by BSS members such as Yu Jishi (俞济时) and Huang Jie (黄杰), Xu’s failure was unavoidable. After more than 10,000 casualties , Zhang and Xu led their army in an inner retreat. Hu and his troop kept tracking them closely. When Zhang and his army reached Sichuan and set up another base. Hu remained in Gansu nearby, and began his era as King of Northwestern China.

Coinciding With the BSS's ever-increasing power and influence, disagreements among the leaders of the BSS mounted. Chiang, only regarded the BSS as a tool for his dictatorship, hence he would not allow the BSS to be more powerful and influential than himself, so he used his usual tricks to manipulate these protégés. As a young man with high ethics and ideals, Teng couldn’t accept this fact. He preferred a government run by a political institution rather than government run by a supreme leader. The conflicts between him and Chiang were frequent. Then Teng’s sack was destined. In 1933, Chiang chose He Zhonghan to succeed Teng as General Secretary of the BSS.

In 1933 Hitler was appointed chancellor of Germany. Fascism then became popular around the world. The BSS found more room for prosperity. As a more ambitious and skilled politician, He won the power struggle with Liu Jianqun, who was regarded as the Chinese Strasser due to his power of instigation in the training of new members. Then He decided to set up a propaganda network, which was run by Kang Ze, who was regarded as the Goebbels of the BSS. And the special agency under the direction of Dai Li, who was regarded as its Himmler and his deputy Zheng Jiemin (郑介民) evolved into a network infiltrating every corner of China. The most important work of He was to extend the BSS’s influence into Northern China, which was under direct threat of invasion by Japan at that time. In 1933 the Japanese army invaded Rehe. KMT armies mainly consisting of BSS members fought against them along the Great Wall, although they suffered more than 65,000 casualties , the BSS promoted its prominence. And He made the most important decision, to change the BSS from an elite group into an anti-Japanese mass movement. He decided to send Liu to set up a Northern China division of the BSS, which was called the China Reconstruction Society (中华复兴社,hereinafter referred to as the CRS in short). Most of the members would work in the universities and student groups to enroll new members and carry out campaigns against the Japanese. In the summer of that year, the CRS had divisions in 24 provinces of China with more than 40,000 members. With the CRS controlling the political training system of the KMT, new recruits were always available. With thousands of members, political instructors and different organizations, the BSS had set up a huge kingdom under the direction of He.


Besides the achievement of setting up the CRS, the other blueprint of He was the Second Stage Revolution. First to ensure the reunification of China. The BSS used its influence in Northern and Southwestern China, to persuade local warlords to pledge allegiance to Chiang. And the reform of the KMT armies was carried out by those BSS members such as Gui Yongqing who studied in Germany to train new armies, and to establish an air force and an armored force. Along with the war against corruption, opium and poverty, the reconstruction of rural areas was undertaken, roads were wre built and bank loans were provided to peasants. The most significant part of this movement was Kang Ze’s New Jiangxi Style and Special Detachment (别动队,hereinafter referred to as the SD in short).

In 1933 during the 5th Suppression campaign against the CPC, in order to maintain law and order in the territory that used to be the CPC’s base, Chiang decided to set up a paramilitary force modeled after the SS of Nazi. Kang was appointed to lead this SD, which was the only direct military group in the BSS. At first, the SD was a copycat of the SS. Its members came from the trainees of KMT officers. It was organized like the SS and members even dressed in uniforms resembling those worn by SS members. But soon the SD had more power than its mentor, in that it was a monstrous integration of military, political, police, military police and secret policy power. At its peak it had 24,000 members and three divisions of regular troops. The SD mobilized those peasants who lived near Soviet Territory occupied by the CPC in Jiangxi and Northern Anhui to be categorized into groups and confined them in places where they had limited access to the outside world. Every family in this group that could prove itself to be made up of good citizens needed to have the guarantee of four other families, and they had to promise not to collaborate with the CPC, accommodate any suspect, or provide any support to the CPC. Once there were any violations such as not reporting on CPC actions, the whole family would be executed, and the other four guarantor families would be executed as well. The SD set up hundreds of concentration camps around Shangrao, Jiangxi, where they tortured and executed residents and CPC captives. Under this system of cruelty, the network worked quite well as a deterrence. Fewer and fewer peasants supported the CPC. Kang and his SD also crack down on the merchants who used to smuggle materials to the CPC by implementing cruel measures, and peasants were organized into groups to build roads to blockade the Soviet Territory. With the shortage of supplies, accompanied by heavy attacks from the KMT army, the CPC suffered great losses and had to launch its now-famous Long March in order to retreat.

At the same time, Kang and his SD started the New Jiangxi Style. They provided compulsory education and free medical treatment to peasants. With the effective anti-corruption campaign, they provided loans, seeds and pesticides to peasants also. When Mao Zedong led the Red Army on the Long March, spring ploughing, trade and bazaars began to flourish again in the territory that used to be occupied by them. But the other side of the story was full of blood and tears. The SD spared no effort to terminate CPC members and supporters. They had committed countless massacres in CPC occupied territories. The most extreme case occurred in Mount Dabie, which used to be the base of the 4th Red Army of the CPC in Northern Anhui. In that incident, more than half a million were massacred. At the same time, in accordance with SD and New Jiangxi Style, Kang reached the peak of his career, and he earned enough capital to challenge He as the only leader of the BSS.

Xiao Zuolin(肖作霖), one of the BSS members from the early stage, drafted a plan called the Whole New Culture Movement and proposed the establishment of an organization called the Chinese Culture Academy to increase the BSS’s influence in culture. Xiao got Deng Wenyi’s support and began to carry out his plan. By taking over several newspapers and journals, and by enrolling its members in universities ,this academy succeeded in the fields that used to be dominated by members of the CC Clique. Above all, its scheme of a new culture movement was adopted by Chiang.

On February 19th 1934, Chiang announced the start of the New Life Movement at a meeting in Nanchang, in which he planned to reconstruct the moral system of the Chinese and welcome a renaissance, and reconstruct Chinese national pride as a result. In March, Chiang issued his guidance consisting of 95 rules of the New Life Movement, which was a mixture of Chinese traditions and western standards. It was a vast propaganda movement, with war mobilization and military maneuvers seen on a scale that China had never experienced before. But because its plan was too ambitious and its dogmatism too rigid , and because its policies created too much inconvenience in the everyday lives of the people, this movement was destined to fail just like prohibition. Nearly three years later in 1936, Chiang had to accept the fact that his favorite movement had failed. Although this movement had no happy ending, the BSS showed its influence again. It took over the movement very soon. Deng, Kang and Jiang Xiaoxian (蒋孝先), Chiang’s nephew and bodyguard, also BSS members were appointed General Secretariats of this movement, and the limitations on and supervision of life styles was enforced by the BSS. By controlling the mouthpieces of the KMT, the BSS openly expressed advocacy of fascism in its publications.


[edit] Fall

As a professional politician, unlike Teng, He never concealed his ambition for power. He used his relations to foster a Hunan Clique in the BSS, which aroused the suspicion of Chiang, who was concerned that the BSS might use its abuse of power to threaten his governance one day. So Chiang decided to take action and let his protégés know that their leader was still Chiang and that nobody else was the paramount leader of the BSS. In 1934 Chiang used the excuse of corruption and malfunction of the BSS after its quick expansion to dismiss He as General Secretary of the BSS. Liu Jianqun was appointed to succeed He. With the rise of Kang and the SD , and the Southwestern Clique behind him; and the Zhejiang Clique led by Hu Zongnan and Dai Li, BSS faced the same fate as the old KMT.

At the same time, with the continuation of the New Culture Movement, the BSS spread its influence into the cultural centers of Shanghai and other major cities, which used to be the CC Clique’s power base. Though cultural conflicts occurred on paper, they were in fact bloody struggles for power. Chen was greatly irritated, but he was still waiting for a good chance to fight back.

In June 1934, the Nanchang Airport ,which was built by donations from Chinese all over the world for training the KMT air force, was burned down. The Aviation Commissioner, Xu Peigen (徐培根) ,who was also a BSS member ,was the primary suspect. Deng was sent to investigate this case. He reached the conclusion that the fire was accidentally caused by a cigarette that had been dropped by a soldier. But Chen Lifu and Yang Yongtai argued that Xu masterminded the fire to eliminate evidence of his corruption, and that Deng had colluded with Xu in the cover-up. Upon Yang's suggestion, Xu was kept in custody, Deng was sacked and all his titles were removed. The Chinese Culture Academy was banned. Dai Li was recommended by Yang to investigate this case. Dai saved no time in taking over Deng’s investigation agency and integrated it into his own special agency, which later evolved into the Military Statistical Bureau, the notorious secret police agency of the KMT. Of course, Dai left the BSS to set up his own kingdom.

Taking advantage of this heavy blow to the BSS, the Politics Research Clique began to consummate the Administrative Office System, which was to add a new level of administration offices between the provincial level and the county level although the two level system had been followed in China for more than one thousand years. With the appearance of new offices, the Politics Research Clique was able to control the county level which used to be absent. Many bureaucrats who used to be loyal to the CC Clique and the BSS defected to the Politics Research Clique. The Politics Research Clique began to take over the promotion of, Categorizing, and the Guaranteeing of Group Systems, and then the security forces, the police and the militia step by step.

Liu was replaced by Feng Ti under the excuse that he had health problems and was sent to Northern China to work with Zeng Kuoqing for the BSS there. In 1935, two chief editors of pro-Japanese newspapers were assassinated. The Japanese troops in Northern China thought that these actions were taken by the BSS. They argued that it was a violation of the Tanggu Accord between China and Japan which was signed in order to keep the status quo of Northern China. Under the leadership of Yoshijiro Umezu (梅津美治郎),who was commander of Japanese troops in Northern China at that time, the Japanese spy agency under the direction of Kenji Doihara (土肥原贤二) provided information about its Investigation of the BSS as the appendix of a memo sent to He Yingqing, who was the commander of Northern Chinese troops at that time. He agreed with all of the recommendations proposed by the Japanese in this memo, which later was called the He-Umezu Accord. According to this accord, all forces having relations with the BSS including military police, regular forces such as the 2nd Division and the 25th Division should be evacuated from Beijing and out of Hebei province. The BSS had to retreat from Beijing in humiliation.

When Feng Ti took over civilian military training for the KMT, he used this opportunity to enroll new members into the BSS. Hu Zongnan, Dai Li and other former BSS members also strengthened their grip on power by enrolling members into their own force. The pyramid of the BSS had been set up again. On the top were hundreds of whampoa graduates. below were more than 30,000 mid and low level officers, university teachers and public servants. And below them were more than 200,000 members of the CRS. At the bottom were hundreds of thousands of boy scouts. With the organization undergoing such a huge and rapid expansion, corruption and inefficiency plagued BSS divisions all over the country. Furthermore in 1935, there was a serious security leak in the headquarters of the BSS, and the BSS was involved in the assassination of Wang Jingwei, under heavy pressure, Feng Ti was sacked. And Liu Jianquan took over, then Zheng Jiemin succeeded him in turn.

In 1936 Deng Wenyi became the General Secretary of the BSS. In December 1936, the Xi'an Incident took place in this chaotic atmosphere. After Chiang was arrested and kept in custody by General Zhang Xueliang’s army, there were disagreements between KMT leaders on whether to solve this incident by peace talks or by military action. In the meeting held by the BSS, He Zhonghan and Deng expressed their determination to use military action and called for the mobilization of BSS members around the country. 176 young generals issued a statement to denounce Zhang Xueliang and announce war on his army. Under the direction of He, more than 2000 officers and BSS members held a meeting pledging their allegiance to Chiang and agreeing to mobilize military action against general Zhang. Gui Yongqing led an army of more than 12,000 men in heavily armored vehicles across the Yangtze River as avant-couriers. But this reckless action received a cold shoulder from Chen and other KMT leaders, even He Yingqing, who was in charge of the KMT military didn’t agree with the BSS’s movement and sent them no support troops.

Chiang’s wife Soong May-ling came to Xian for peace talks. Due to the efforts of the CPC delegation led by Zhou Enlai, who wanted to set up an alliance with the KMT against the Japanese, Chiang was released several weeks later. After his release, Chiang took revenge on his protégés’ for their reckless action and lack of control which might have wreaked havoc on his governance and might even have killed him in the Xian Incident. Deng was sacked with all titles removed again and he was replaced by Kang Ze.He was out of favor with Chiang and had to travel around Europe. In March 1937, Chiang issued his order that all activities of the BSS should be temporarily suspended.

With the Chinese-Japanese general war breaking out on July 7th 1937, Japanese troops conquered vast areas of China quickly. Before Nanjing fell to Japanese troops, Kang led the retreat of the BSS from its headquarters. In 1938 the BSS held its first and last national congress in Wuhan. In this congress members of the BSS and SPTPP were permitted to have their memberships automatically transferred to the KMT , members of the CRS could be transferred to the Youth League of Three Principles of the People (三民主义青年团, hereafter referred to as the YLTPP in short ). Most of the 500,000 members of the BSS and CRS didn’t transfer to the KMT, they chose the YLTPP instead, which was the basis of another new and rising force within the KMT and the reason why Hu Zongnan kept the position of Director of the YLTPP all along, and Kang only acted as his agent. But the biggest winner was Dai Li, his new spy agency, the Military Statistical Bureau was set up, and he took all the agents of the BSS, CRS and SD, which made him almost more powerful than Himmler. He kept his control over this secret empire until his death in an airplane crash in 1946, but only on the condition that Chiang never express doubt about Dai’s loyalty, otherwise he would have been purged without any mercy just like his BSS fellows.

This was the end of the BSS. But Kang still wanted to keep it alive under the cover of the YLTPP. In the following 7 years he endeavored to increase YLTPP membership from 400,000 to more than 1.5 million. Kang used the SD style to re-organize the YLTPP and turned it into a group that was much more efficient and disciplined than the KMT, which aroused Chiang’s suspicion again. Moreover, when Chiang sent his son Chiang Ching-kuo to the Soviet Union where he learned numerous CP political organization and propaganda skills, he sought to take over the YLTPP after his return home. Kang was reluctant and tried to resist junior Chiang’s efforts. Consequently, Kang’s fall was destined. In 1945 Kang was sent to Europe. During the Chinese Civil War, many members of the YLTPP were killed or captured in the battles against CPC armies. When the fall of the KMT became an undeniable fact, some YLTPP members fled to Taiwan, those left behind were purged after the establishment of the People’s Republic of China. Some of them were executed, others were thrown in jail, others were discriminated against,but few were lucky enough to survive the Cultural Revolution. Only those prominent YLTPP figures such as Kang survived the purges as the best examples of the CPC’s clemency toward successfully modified war criminals.

[edit] Legacy

The following were some of the most prominent and earliest members of BSS.

Teng was later appointed as mayor of Nanjing temporarily. He went to Taiwan with KMT troops and later retired from the position of chairman of Central Trust Bureau of KMT.

He lived in idleness for quite while and then was appointed as director of Labor Bureau. When KMT retreated to Taiwan, he was Minister of Communication and Policy Counsellor, but never gained great power as before.

Liu's wife was an agent working for Kenji Doihara, and later brought many confidential documents with her on defecting to the Japanese. Liu had to be a fugitive to escape from the hunting of his former colleague Dai Li. Liu became a monk and spent years in Guizhou before Chiang found him by chance. Chiang showed his mercy by asking Liu back to politics. Liu was once vice-speaker of the KMT Congress. When he went to Taiwan, Liu lived in poverty and unknown to outside world. Before his death in 1960's, Liu's last contribution was providing valuable details for an article on the BSS written by an American professor.

After several times rise and fall, Deng showed little interest in politics. He arrived in Taiwan and retired as Director of Political Work Bureau.

Feng Ti was appointed as commander of guard for Changsha, but was executed in 1938 as scapegoat for a big fire set by KMT force to resist the invasion of Japanese army which killed thousands of civilians.

Kang was sent to the battlefront after his return from Europe and was POW. Although KMT propaganda departments pictured him as a martyr, Kang lived well in custody and confessed to CPC.In 1963 he was released in CPC amnesty and died 4 years later.

Hu’s troops were annihilated by CPC armies. When he retreated to Taiwan, he was impeached by 46 members of Control Yuan for his incompetence in military command. Although Hu was released with no charge, he was appointed a defense commander for a little island and never returned to the central stage of political stage. After his retirement, Hu died in peace in 1962.

Zeng was a POW in the civil war, and later released by the CPC. He died in 1983.

Gui later became commander of the KMT navy, then went to Taiwan and died during his term as Chief of Staff of KMT army in 1954.

Dai Li became head of secret police and espionage of the KMT, and died in an air crash in 1946. Zheng succeeded Dai in leading the secret police for the KMT. He died in 1959 in Taiwan.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Shirts_Society