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ship or admission. It seldom attracted the intellectual, and although as the author points out, for their members 'their rites, secrets, oaths of initiation . . . made a powerful contribution towards the consolidation of (an autonomous) order', the ultimate goal was the establishment of new political leadership rather than a new political order. Many of these groups, notably the Triad, were also involved in the offensive as well as defensive art of 'boxing' and would appear to be perhaps more suited to militant and military pursuits. These groups had no millennial dreams, their ultimate objective was the overthrow of the Ch'ing in later traditional times, and Sun Yat-sen used them for just this purpose.
All this is important if we are also to understand differences today between different kinds of secret or semi-secret organizations found in places like Hong Kong. And what the author fails to mention is that the messianic groups may still be studied, and their investigation is relatively more easy than that of the non-messianic groups which are generally illegal. The messianic groups still attract intellectuals, and still retain their long-ranged goals: the millennium. They do not accept the new 'millennium' of present-day China although some leaders are conscious of similarities with their own independent goals. All this again could do with closer investigation. They still take in the aged and poor and in terms of Hong Kong and other overseas societies often perform useful services. For here is a paradox: in dealing with 'contradictions' at certain times and in certain conditions, the messianic organizations have done much to absorb the discontented and provide alternative satisfactions. And a point connected with this: messianic groups were not always concerned with radical change, even in traditional times, and were not always living in a state of emergency. To some extent this latter point also applies to the non-messianic groups too. The Triad for example appears to have provided mutual aid of an economic and social kind to its members, and we still await more precise information on the particular circumstances as well as processes by which the militant banner was raised by both kinds of group. Groups like the Triad however, have at any rate gradually lost their religious motivations and rituals in contemporary society. With the achievement of their grander political aim they have lost their common purpose and deteriorated into protection rackets, albeit still occasionally with mutual aid facilities for members. But they have only immediate ends in view. It is true and important as the author