Origin of the Chinese Triads

Although in modern times, the Triads are mostly associated with criminal activity, they originated as mutual support organizations for people at the bottom of the social hierarchy and to defend the common people from those of positions in power "to offer unacquainted people the kind of protection and mutual aid normally afforded by family members" (Murray 178). How they began has been agreed back and forth for many years and lots of theories have come up. However it is generally accepted that the Triads were established during the fall of the Ching dynasty, even thought there are some that argue that the Triads date as back as the Han dynasty. It is also accepted that it was the Chinese who developed the Triads to rebel against the Manchus and foreign traders from Europe.

The Mandate of Heaven is an important tradition that dates back to the Chou dynasty who established this concept to justify their hostile take over of the Shang dynasty. When all was at peace and China was prospering, the people recognized that the Emperor held the Mandate of Heaven, during this time secret societies like the Triads were not needed and dramatically lost power. However, as the dynasty progressed and the Emperor¡¦s rule lessened and corruption increased, support for the secret societies increased until it got so big that revolts occurred the eventually the former dynasty was ended and a new one formed in its place.

Predominately, two theories have stuck out from the rest as the most likely theories of the rest. One theory is that they were secret organizations established by radical Chinese who recognized that the Ching was losing the Mandate of Heaven and so they organized rebellions against the Ching. The other theory states that it was the survivors of a massacre organized by the Ching Emperor, five disgruntled Shaolin monks that went into hiding and established several secret societies to rebel against the Ching (Liu 20).

As Manchuria was not part of China, when they took over the Ming dynasty and established the Ching dynasty, many Chinese resented them because they were foreign and also because their standard of living is higher than that of a common Chinese family (wReflexes). Another reason that the Ching rulers were looked down upon was because during Ching rule, a lot of foreign powers came into China and because China wasn¡¦t as technologically advance...

... middle of paper ...

...that the triads were established by angry Chinese who were unhappy with the Manchurian rulers and wanted to restore the Ming rulers. The second theory was that the surviving monks from the Shaolin monastery were betrayed by the Ching, who had their monastery destroyed and fellow monks killed. Between the two theories there are some similarites such as their development and time period. After considering all the data, it is evident that the more popular theory is the radical Chinese theory as the Shaolin theory suffers a flaw, in that they had once volunteered to help the Ching and only went against them when the Ching killed their brothers and burned down the monastery. It was purely retaliation not spite for the Mancus rulers, in which the first theory had plenty of.

WORKS CITED

Chinese history - mandate of heaven. -1 2003. About.com. 16 May 2005. .

Liu, Benjamin. The Hong Kong Triad Society. Hong Kong: Net e-Publishing Ltd, 2001.

Murray, Dian H. and Baoqi Qin. The Origins of the Tiandihui. Standford: Standford University, 1994.

Storyline .:. Organisations .:. Triads .:. History. 27 Dec. 2003. wReflexes .. 6 May 2005. .

The Chinese Triads. -1 2003. Able2Know.com. 16 May 2005. .