The Study On Secret Societies In Southern Hebei During The Period Of The Republic Of China

Since Eastern Han Dynasty,the secret society has been an anti-government forces for a long time.although the rulers of the past had taken thehard measures to put down the secret society, but it still was difficult to eradicate. During the Republic of China.it gradually undergo a metamorphosis, the folk sects,one of the two systems of the Secret Society,growed into superstitious sects and secret societies.Superstitious sects and secret societies developed quickly because the government was weakened. some of superstitious sects and secret societies behaved in public as the social benefit groups or charities,,Others that had arm forces became the ruler in the local political forces and had a tremendous impact on social politics, military fairs, etc.Southern Hebei was located among the border area of Shanxi,Hebei,Shandong and Henan provinces.Government control is weak in the border areas, which was leading to bandit become furious in Southern Hebei, Western Shandong, Northern Henan,the folk sects act frequently. The folk sects of Southern Hebei has a long history.Many kind of folk sects birthed and act in the area, which often caused several outbreaks of armed revolts against government. The war breaked out constantly in the Republic of China, the control of government was weaken and society was unstable. Face serious banditry, the local gentry of southern Hebei orgnized militia to defend against bandits.A large part of militia in (?)m tranformed from the secret (?)ieties in arm,which became a powerful tool to maintain rule to rural.The paper will take Superstitious sects and secret societies for example to show the different development of secret societies according to the four stages of the Republic of China. During the period of Northern warlord government,as warlords fighted mutually and bandits rised up,so that the armed force of Superstitious sects and secret societies was used primary to resist bandits. During the Northern expedition, as the Manchurian warlord taxed the people to the bone, under the guidance of the Communist Party, Superstitious sects and secret societies set out to fight against the excessive taxs and overthrow the warlords.It played a supporting role to support the activities of the National Revolution Army.During Nanjing National Government, with the relative stability of society, anti-government activities of superstitious sects and secret societies became quiet. Armed activities was lowered,and charity-based activities of the new secret societies growed dominating. During the Anti-Japanese War, for the Japanese invasion, the societyl went out of control again. Superstitious sects and secret societies rised up secondly,which emerged at almost all villages and formed a powerful civil armed forces. Communist Party, the Kuomintang, Japanese and puppet troops took different measures for superstitious sects and secret societies. Facing the different political forces, superstitious sects and secret societies was cause an unprecedented division.Some became a tool of Japanese invasion, and some turned into a instrument against Communist party, some under the leadership of the Communist Party became the anti-Japanese armed force. In the liberation war, Superstitious sects and secret societies almost paid their pattion to the KMT primarily, regarded the CCP as enemy, carried out various sabotage activities, but they were attached fiercely by the Communist Party,became weak gradually with the Kuomintang retreat tends. After the founding of the PRC, due to the different interests and the dangers of superstitious sects and secret societies against the new regime, the Chinese Communist regime took steps to ban superstitious sects and secret societies of Southern.