The Heaven and Earth Society and the Red Turban Rebellion in ...

secret societies tended to come directly from those classes of society conspicuous for their poverty, their
despised occupation and their inferior inscriptive status, which also implied an absence of effective kinship
ties. For this drifting population most of whom were likely to be men of an economically lower status, secret
societies were sometimes explicitly political tools, to be wielded against the local authorities or even the
dynasty, either for reform or –more likely—rebellion. Table 1 presents information on the occupational
background of thirty-four major rebel leaders. Over eighty percent of these leaders were from the rootless
sector—disbanded soldiers, strolling player, local toughs, vagrants, etc. 79
Table 1: Occupation of the major Red Turban leaders in Guangdong, 1854-1855 80
Occupation Names Number
Artisan
Zhu Hongying 朱 洪 英英
2
Chen Jingang 陳 金 剛
Bandits
Chen Songnian 陳 松 年
6
Gao Mingyuan 高 明明 遠
Chen Liangkang 陳 娘 康
Fan Yayin 范 亞 音
Chen Zhiguang 陳 志 廣
Liang Peiyou 梁 培 友
Boxers
Chen Kai 陳 開
5
Di Huagu 翟 火 姑
Huang Zhenshan 黃 鎭 山
Zhang Jiaxiang 張 嘉 祥
Yao Xinchang 姚 新 昌昌
Fortune Teller Gu Shengyang 古 聲 揚 1
Low Degree Holders
Wu Lingyun 吳 凌 雲
2
Zhou Yingnian 周 永 年
Monks
Heshang Neng 和 尚 能
2
Seng Liang 僧 亮
Not Known
Yin Changying 尹 昌昌 英英
4
Zou Xinmao 鄒 新 茂
Deng Xingque 鄧 興 雀
Liang Xianfu 梁 獻 甫
Servant
Su He 蘇 賀
2
Lu Cuijin 翠 晉晉
Soldiers
Guan Ju 關 鉅
7
He Mingke 何 名 科
Huang Jinliang 黄 金 亮
He Wan 何 晚晚
Zhang Gaoyou 張 高 友
Huang Dingfeng 黄 鼎 鳳
Feng Liu 馮 六
Strolling Player Li Wenmao 李 文 茂 1
Toughs
Tanya Erman 覃 亞 兒 滿
Li Shibao 李 石 保
2
Many rebel followers were famine refugees, another fruitful source of recruits when they failed to
find work at the end of their wanderings. What most characterized these rebels was their landlessness. The
imperial forces. See Wang Tianjiang 王 天 奖 , “19shiji xiaban de zhongguo di mimi shehui 19 世 纪 下 半 的
中 国 地 秘 密 社 会 ,” Lishi Yanjiu 历 史 研 究 (Beijing, 1963) no. 2, p. 83.
79 See Table 1. See also Feiling Davis, Primitive Revolutionaries of China: A Study of Secret Societies in
the Late Nineteenth Century (Honolulu: University Press of Hawaii, 1971), 93. Feiling includes the
following list of 39 Guangzhou Tiandihui leaders which was confiscated by officials in 1855: Number of
Salaried Workers – 10, of Small Traders [Peddlers?] – 8, of Farmers – 6, of Fishermen – 5, of Artisans – 5,
of Mendicants –2, of Smugglers –1, of Minor government employees –1, of Gentry –1, and of Total-39.
80 Source: Lu, Liang’guang de Tiandihui, 134-142.
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