Page:Chinese Life in the Tibetan Foothills.djvu/88

 the country. These religious fanatics, chiao fei, have caused much more difficulty to the government than the ordinary ku-fei (嘓匪) (v. inf.) The latter rob for their sustenance, and having stolen enough they live luxuriously till there is need for another raid to get more funds. But the religious fanatics are of a very different character.

Such societies seek first by charms and vegetarian vows to win the rich and landed classes. They promise immortality as the reward of large liberality and abstinence from fornication, wine, and pork. The entrance fee is generally small, but members have only the common purse; even rice and clothing are held for the common use.

Having gained a footing among the rich, they next win over the village headmen, and finally the retainers of the district magistrate. When trouble arises, the magistrate may send to suppress it and may even raid the Society's headquarters; but care is taken that the propagandists are protected and escorted to their resorts in the southern mountains.

Such societies may differ in the charms they use and the idols they worship; but they have mesmeric hypnotism and fanatical trances as their common feature.

In this category are included the White Lotus Society (白蓮教), the Arabic (天方), the Eight-Diagram Society (八卦), the Red Lantern Society (紅燈教), the United Fists Society (義和拳), the Big Sword Society (大刀會), the Lamp-wick Society (燈花教), and others.

The many rebellious movements and rebel leaders with which and with whom these Societies are connected will be found in history.

In Ssŭch‘uan many people knew the Boxer arts before 1900, especially round such centres as Paoning (保寧), Mienchou (綿州), and Chin T‘ang hsien (金堂); but there was not enough strength or organization for a rising.

The hypnotic arts are still practised in secret in different parts of the province, but more especially in the North, their