Tiandihui
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Tiandihui (Chinese: 天地會; pinyin: tiāndìhuì; Yale Cantonese: tin1 dei6 wui2; literally "Heaven and Earth Society") is a fraternal organization that originated in China. The Hongmen grouping is today more or less synonymous with the whole Tiandihui concept, although the title "Hongmen" is also claimed by some criminal groups.
As the Tiandihui spread through different counties and provinces, it branched off into many groups and became known by many names, including the Hongmen (Traditional Chinese: 洪門; Simplified Chinese: 洪门; pinyin: hóngmén; Yale Cantonese: hung4 mun4; literally "Hong Gate," "Vast Gate," or "floodgate") and Sanhehui (Chinese: 三合會; pinyin: sānhéhuì; Yale Cantonese: saam1 hap6 wui2), literally "Three Harmonies Society".
When the British ruled Hong Kong, all Chinese secret societies were seen as a criminal threat and together defined as "triads", although the Hongmen might be said to have differed in its nature from others. The name of the "Three Harmonies Society" (the "Sanhehui" grouping of the Tiandihui) is in fact the source of the term "Triad" that has become synonymous with Chinese organized crime.
Because of that heritage, the Tiandihui/Hongmen is sometimes controversial and is illegal in Hong Kong.
In the West, the Tiandihui/Hongmen has sometimes adopted the name "Chinese Freemasons", on the basis of the strong superficial parallels between the two; both have quasi-religious aspects, make use of esoteric symbolism, and include many factions. However, they have different ethical systems, different origins, and different purposes.
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[edit] History
According to Kelvin Bechkam Chow, a member of the Tiandihui/Hongmen, the Tiandihui was founded during the reign of the Emperor Kangxi (1654—1722). However, independent research concludes that the Tiandihui was founded in the 1760s.
The founders of the Tiandihui—Ti Xi, Li Amin, Zhu Dingyuan, and Tao Yuan—were all from Zhangpu in the prefecture of Zhangzhou in Fujian, on its border with Guangdong. They left Zhangpu for Sichuan, where they joined a cult, which did not go well. Ti Xi soon left for Guangdong, where he organized a group of followers in Huizhou. In 1761, he returned to Fujian and organized his followers into the Tiandihui.
A century earlier, the Qing Dynasty made membership in such societies illegal, driving them into the arms of the anti-Qing resistance, for whom they now served as an organizational model. The 18th century saw a proliferation of such societies, some of which were devoted to overthrowing the Qing, such as the Tiandihui, which had established itself in the Zhangpu and Pinghe counties of Zhangzhou Prefecture by 1766. By 1767, Lu Mao had organized within the Tiandihui a campaign of robberies to fund their revolutionary activities.
The Tiandihui/Hongmen began to claim that their society was born of an alliance between Ming loyalists and five survivors of the destruction of the Shaolin Temple—Choi Dakjung (蔡德忠), Fong Daaihung (方大洪), Mah Chiuhing (馬超興), Wu Dakdai (胡德帝), and Lei Sikhoi (李式開)—by the Qing forged at the Honghua Ting (Hung Fa Ting, Vast or Red Flower Pavilion), where they swore to devote themselves to "fan Qing fu Ming" ("fan Ching Fook Ming", "overthrow the Qing and restore the Ming").
During the late 19th Century, branches of the Hongmen were formed by Chinese communities overseas, notably the United States and Australia.
Following the overthrowing of the Qing Dynasty of China in 1911, the Hongmen suddenly found themselves lost without purpose. They managed to miss out on the opportunity to participate in the actual uprising. From then on the Hongmen diverged into two different groups. One group, with its membership base outside China itself, debatably became a Freemasonry-like fraternity, hence the term "Chinese Freemasons". The other group, which was based within China, could no longer rely on donations from sympathetic locals; being unable to resume normal civilian lives after years of hiding, they turned to illegal activities - thus giving birth to the modern Triad gangs.
[edit] The Hongmen today
Today the Hongmen is an illegal society in Hong Kong, because of its links with the Triad gangs, perceived or real.
In Taiwan, by contrast, the Hongmen is not only legal, but politically influential; this came as no surprise, since Dr. Sun Yat-Sen, who founded the Republic of China, was, as mentioned before, a senior figure within the Hongmen, as was nationalist leader Chiang Kai Shek. Moreover, the Kuomintang, or Chinese Nationalist Party, was formed from the Xingzhonghui and Guangfuhui, groups not unlike the Hongmen.
In the People's Republic of China, the Hongmen is known as the Zhi Gong Party (致公党), a political party which participates in the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference.
The Hongmen continues to exist within numerous overseas Chinese communities (where it is sometimes known as the "Chinese Freemasons"), albeit with rapidly aging memberships; its main purposes today are to act as fraternities amongst overseas Chinese, and to participate in charitable activities. The organisation also has business interests, and is reportedly trying to open a Kung Fu school in Taiwan.
Under the influence Chiang Kai Shek, the Honmeng attempted to remain secretive (although not exactly secret), but in recent years the organisation's activities have been more open.
The Hongmen is believed to consist of about 300,000 members worldwide, concentrated in Taiwan, with other members tending to be found in China or the Chinese overseas communities. Membership is overwhelmingly ethnically Chinese (including Taiwanese) but there are also Japanese members and a few white American members. The Hongmen is divided into branches, of which there are believed to be approximately 180. The largest of the branches, Wu Sheng Shan, consists of perhaps 180,000 members. Membership is said to be primarily working class, and is also said to include a considerable membership in the armed forces of the Republic of China (Taiwan).
Hongmen members worldwide continue to observe certain common traditions: they all stress their patriotic origin; they all revere Guan Gong, a historic Chinese figure; and they all share certain rituals and traditions (debatably "Freemasonry-like") such as the concept of brotherhood (hardly restricted to Freemasonry) and a "secret handshake".
