CHINESE RELIGION AND RURAL COHESION
43
46 Chiang, ibid., p. 17.
47 Ibid., pp. 45-47.
48 Hsiao, op. cit., p. 233.
49 The White Lotus certainly appears to have been a sect, or rather the name taken by certain sects of Hsien-t'ien Ta Tao at times when they engaged in militant activities, rather than a secret society. See "The Great Way... op. cit., p. 386ff for evidence connecting the White Lotus with Hsien-tien sects.
50 See for example G. Schlegel, Thian Ti Hwui, The Hung League or Heaven-Earth-League (Batavia, Lange & Co., 1866).
51 Freedman, Lineage Organization, ..., op. cit., p. 121.
52 It might be noted here, and also in respect of the discussion on p. 35 on religious qualifications and military efficiency that some Hsien-t'ien sects were organized into what they termed Yin and Yang affairs. The nature of these "affairs" is somewhat obscure but sects often changed names when performing activities under one or other of these terms, this being one reason for the multiplication of sect names (see "The Great Way.. op. cit., p. 378 and p. 384). The introduction of such divisions may have been an attempt by sects to organize themselves for practical affairs, including rebellion, as well as religious matters. Yin "affairs" might perhaps have dealt with esoteric religious matters (Yin dark, obscure) and Yang with secular matters, and perhaps they had more practical men to organise them. It is interesting to note that the main organisers listed by De Korne for T'ung-shan She in his The Fellowship of Goodness (T'ung Shan She): a study of contemporary Chinese religion (Grand Rapids, Mich., private publication, 1941, mimeo) does not include the patriarch himself who is hardly mentioned by him. Organisers were all practical men of affairs. The man given by De Korne as main organiser appears, in fact, on records of this sect (which is actually an off-shoot of Hsien-t'ien Ta Tao) in Singapore, as only one of the five top-ranking administrators. It may well be then that in seeking to engage in practical affairs (T'ung-shan She was involved in political machinations in this century although not actual rebellion) the religious leaders were sometimes kept in the background and other kinds of persons were in de facto charge.
53 Hsiao, op. cit., p. 309.