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NOTES AND QUERIES
IV. EFFECTS OF SUPPRESSION ON SECT ORGANIZATION
One effect of campaigns against the Hsien-t'ien sects was to create leadership problems. Patriarchs were sometimes put to death before any successor could be appointed, sometimes several of those likely to succeed to office were put to death simultaneously too, and there was no precedent for electing a leader from among the remaining rank-holders. This led to further splintering into sub-sects: new off-shoots appeared headed by various of the remaining men of top rank.
An effect of all this on the sect which concerns us here was to cause it to abandon the patriarchate entirely and also do away with the next highest places which were occupied by five men known as the "Five Elements". Leadership was handed over to men of the rank immediately below these five who became known as "family heads" (chia-chang), and were placed in charge of groups of vegetarian halls occupied by his "kinsmen".
Another effect was on the establishment of vegetarian halls themselves. In some cases members met in their own homes when campaigns against the sects were at their highest, or non-residential halls were established in the towns where they could pass as shop-houses. Sometimes only the "family head" and other top rank-holders lived in residential halls and these were built in lonely places difficult of access.
But the banishment of leaders also brought the sects down to the south of China: to places where they were exiled. Previously their strongholds appear to have been Szechuan and Anwhei provinces. They were strong also in the Hanyang region. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries they began to spread into Hong Kong and to other places overseas: Singapore and Malaya, Thailand, Indonesia, and Borneo. For instance, during our visit we were told that there are currently 100 halls of the Hsien-T’ien Tao sect in Thailand and on the walls of several of the halls visited we were shown photographs said to be those of halls there and in Singapore.
V. VEGETARIAN HALLS AND THE Hsien-T'ien SECT IN HONG KONG
At the present time we have only fragmentary information on the Hsien-t'ien sect in Hong Kong. The sect appears to have reached here, however, sometime in the late nineteenth century: it will
140
NOTES AND QUERIES
IV. EFFECTS OF SUPPRESSION ON SECT ORGANIZATION
One effect of campaigns against the Hsien-t'ien sects was to create leadership problems. Patriarchs were sometimes put to death before any successor could be appointed, sometimes several of those likely to succeed to office were put to death simultaneously too, and there was no precedent for electing a leader from among the remaining rank-holders. This led to further splintering into sub-sects: new off-shoots appeared headed by various of the re- maining men of top rank.
An effect of all this on the sect which concerns us here was to cause it to abandon the patriarchate entirely and also do away with the next highest places which were occupied by five men known as the "Five Elements". Leadership was handed over to men of the rank immediately below these five who became known as "family heads" (chia-chang), and were placed in charge of groups of vege- tarian halls occupied by his "kinsmen”.
Another effect was on the establishment of vegetarian halls themselves. In some cases members met in their own homes when campaigns against the sects were at their highest, or non-residen- tial halls were established in the towns where they could pass as shop-houses. Sometimes only the "family head" and other top rank-holders lived in residential halls and these were built in lonely places difficult of access.
But the banishment of leaders also brought the sects down to the south of China: to places where they were exiled. Previously their strongholds appear to have been Szechuan and Anwhei pro- vinces. They were strong also in the Hanyang region. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries they began to spread into Hong Kong and to other places overseas: Singapore and Malaya, Thailand, Indonesia, and Borneo. For instance, during our visit we were told that there are currently 100 halls of the Hsien-T’ien Tao sect in Thailand and on the walls of several of the halls visit- ed we were shown photographs said to be those of halls there and in Singapore.
V. VEGETARIAN HALLS AND THE Hsien-T'ien SECT IN HONG KONG
At the present time we have only fragmentary information on the Hsien-t'ien sect in Hong Kong. The sect appears to have reach- ed here, however, sometime in the late nineteenth century: it will
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