Study On Bandits In Gannan During The Late Qing Dynasty

During 1920's-30's, the Communist Party of China launched the AgrarianRevolution taking Gannan as the center, which had had profound influence on China'srevolution. The reason for choosing Gannan as the center had close relation withGarman's social structure.During the late Qing Dynasty, bandits run amuck everywhere in Gannan areawhile gambling and smoking (opium) existed side by side and played a part together.Meanwhile, many secret societies such as Tian Di Hui and San Dian Hui with largescale were existing in Gannan, and their activites were extremely frequent. The secretsocieties worked hand in glove with bandits day by day. People of Gannan usuallylived with their clan. Some powerful clans could not only take bandit activity with theentire clan but also utilize all resource to fight against bandits' attack.Due to the frequent activity of bandits, the degeneration of social moral, theextremely strong power of clans and secret socities and the weak strength of thegovernment authorities, Gannan became an outer fringe of civilization and presentedsome feature of peripheral situation.In order to strengthen the rule of government authority and eliminate all banditsin Gannan, the government authority took the following measures: eliminating banditsthrough prohibition of gambling, dealing with members of secret societies and banditsin different ways, utilizing strength of clans, tracking down bandits in mountains andsuppressing bandits through uniting neighbouring provinces. However, the effect wasnot certainly remarkable.The strong power of bandits, secret societies and clans made local powerstructures pluralistic. Then, the Communist Party.of China got involved in Garman,took the land as the summons, and initiated the Agrarian Revolution.