The relationship between the Green Gang and the Taoist Friends Association, who created the Green Gang
The Green Gang: A 300-year-old secret society The Green Gang is a secret society organization that has existed for more than 300 years in Chinese history, originating during the Qing Dynasty. The early organization of the Green Gang originated from the Qing Dynasty Caoyun sailors and aimed to provide mutual aid in nature.
Their base is located at the major wharves along the Grand Canal, which are also key points for transshipment of grain.
Every year, the Qing court collected land taxes (grain) from Shandong, Henan, Jiangsu, Anhui, Jiangxi, Zhejiang, Hunan and other provinces, and then transported the grain to Beijing through the Grand Canal.
This mode of transportation is called "Caoyun", which means that the grain is transported through the waterway, and the grain transported is called "Caoliang". The grain is mainly used for court consumption, paying salaries and military expenses, and partly for the regulation of people's food.
Every year, the Qing court transported more than 4 million stone of grain from the canal to Beijing, more than 12,000 ships, 100,000 sailors, and a total of about 230,000 people.
In order to effectively manage these ships and sailors, the Qing court set up a "Caoyun Governor" and divided the Caoyun organizations in various places into many guards, offices, and associations, with the lowest organization being the gang.
This whole set of organizations is collectively known as the "Grain Gang" or "Grain and Rice Gang". Each guard and institute has a specific name, such as Su Songwei, Hangzhou Wei, Yanzhou Institute, Jinqu Office, etc., each guard, all a garrison, a gang has a thousand general, and the ship has a bannerman.
The grain gang is based on grain ships and gangs in various places, and each gang has a specific number of grain ships. For example, Jiangsu Province has 21 gangs with a total of 1,638 grain ships; There are 21 gangs in Zhejiang Province, with a total of 1,538 grain ships; There are 16 gangs in Anhui Province, with a total of 1,258 grain ships.
Adding up these gangs and grain ships, there are a total of 128 half-gangs and 9,999 half-grain ships. The main members of the grain gang were sailors, who were mostly landless peasants and unemployed craftsmen at the lowest level of society.
To protect their interests, these sailors established secret societies. This kind of organization appeared in the early years of Yongzheng, although the influence at that time was not great, but in the fifth year of Yongzheng, the Qing court already had a case file to ban the secret association of sailors.
In the Jiaqing period, the grain gang sailors in Anqing independently established a secret society, called the "Anqing Daoyou Association", referred to as "Anqing Daoyou", "Anqing Gang", and "Qing Gang".
The structure of this organization is relatively sound, and their leader is called the head of the house, the ** old man. They set up a "Buddha Hall" in a nunnery near the river bank or on a boat, and enshrined the patriarch's tablet, which was called "Xiangtang".
They developed rules and regulations, and invented many hidden words, hand forms, and ciphers to serve as secret traffic signs for their insiders, which were called "cuts", "lingzi", etc.
Later, the Anqing Taoist Friends Association gradually united other local grain gang secret societies into its own organization. In the first year of Tongzhi, Bian Baodi, the superintendent of Zhejiang Province, said: "There are many bandits in Jiangbei, and there are Anqing Taoist friends, most of whom are Andong and Qinghe nomads, and they are privately married to party henchmen, known as master and apprentice. ”
Around the Guangxu period, the secret societies of the grain gangs in various places were unified by the Anqing Taoist Friendship Association, and their momentum grew day by day. The name was also changed from "Anqing Daoyou Association", "Anqing Gang" and "Qing Gang" to "Anqing Daoyi Association", "Anqing Gang" and "Qing Gang".
"Qing" is changed from the sound of "Qing", and it also contains the meaning of "Fuqing" and "Helping Qing". They wanted to gain recognition from the imperial court and thus move from illegal to legal.
The name "Qing Gang" first appeared in the "Investigation of Xu Huaili Report" in the 26th year of Guangxu, which recorded that "there have always been two kinds of gangsters, Qing gang and Wei gang, and Qing is an Qing Daoyou." ”
However, why was the Qing Gang called the Green Gang later? There are a few different ways to say it. One of them believes that in order to be on a par with the Red Gang (Hongmen), they adopted the equivalent name, that is, the Qingbang - the Red Gang, or the Qinghong Gang for short.
Another theory is related to the emergence of the Qingpi Party at that time, which was a group of salt lords with deep capital and tight organization, and their leader was called Qingpi. The Qingpi Party was active in the Lianghuai Salt Works and along the shores of their sales, and formed an indissoluble bond with the grain ship sailors.
They used grain ships to smuggle, and Qingpi and others pretended to be sailors on the boats, or pretended to be staple fibers on the shore. In 1853, the Taiping army entered the south of the Yangtze River and cut off the canal, and all the grain in Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces was changed to sea transportation, and all the grain in Hubei, Hunan, Anhui and Jiangxi was converted into silver.
After 1855, the river transportation of grain was completely abolished, and the sailors of grain ships facing unemployment joined the Qingpi Party in large numbers, so that the grain gang and the Qingpi Party were merged. The Youth Gang organization quickly spread to the towns and villages along the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River.
Soon, the Qing Gang was renamed the Qing Gang. Speaking of which, we haven't mentioned who the founder of the Green Gang is. In fact, before the Anqing Daoist Friendship Association, there were various groups of sailors formed on the basis of the grain gang in various places, and these secret organizations were also one of the sources of the later Qing Gang.
However, under the banner of the Green Gang, the local Youth Gang organizations still maintain relative independence, with different factions, mentors, and cuts. The various versions of the cheats circulated by the various factions within the Green Gang, namely "Tong Cao", are chaotic and compiled for each need.
However, when mentioning the origin of the Green Gang, without exception it is said that its founders are Weng Yan, Qian Jian, and Pan Qing. The three of them founded the Green Gang"Gang Kuang Cao"。
On the Qingbang Xiangtang, the spiritual positions that are worshiped are different, but the spiritual positions of Weng, Qian, and Panzu are indispensable. Weng, Qian, and Pan existed historically. In the 33rd year of Qianlong (1868), Cui Yingjie, the governor of Fujian and Zhejiang, mentioned in the "Capture of Zhu Guanghui and Other Trials of Luojiao's Nunnery": There are Miyun people surnamed Qian and Weng, and Songjiang Pan surnamed San** live in Hangzhou, and jointly prosper Luojiao, that is, build a nunnery in the place, worship Buddha statues, eat vegetarian scriptures, so there are names of Qian'an, Weng'an, and Pan'an.
The place where they lived was at Gongchen Bridge, which was very close to the dock where the grain ships were moored"The grain ships and sailors are all the people of Shandong and Beizhi, and there is nowhere to stay when they return to the air, and there is nowhere to bury them when they die of disease, so they create various nunnery. "When the grain ship returned empty, the sailors stayed in the nunnery and listened to the teachings.
As a result, Weng and the other three organized the believers into a religious group, which was later transformed into a secret society of sailors. Weng Yan, Qian Jian, and Pan Qing are the real ancestors of the Qing Gang, the so-called "Later Three Ancestors", and they are Lu Kui's apprentices.
What is the origin of Weng Yan, Qian Jian, and Pan Qing? Why is it recognized as the ancestor of the founding of the Green Gang? One of the legends is as follows: in the third year of Yongzheng in the Qing Dynasty (1725), in order to strengthen the organization and management of "Cao Yun", the list was recruited.
Weng Yan, Qian Jian, and Pan Qing unveiled the list of the Henan Fu Bureau. At that time, Futai, Henan Province was Tian Wenjing, a native of Hangzhou. Tian Wenjing and Cao Du reported to Yongzheng for approval of their rectification of the Cao Yun method, and allowed them to open a gang to collect apprentices in order to unify the grain affairs.
Weng Yan, Qian Jian, and Pan Qing are the real ancestors of the Qing Gang, the so-called "Later Three Ancestors", and they are Lu Kui's apprentices. So, what is the origin of Weng Yan, Qian Jian, and Pan Qing?
Why is it recognized as the ancestor of the founding of the Green Gang?
The Youth Gang organization was founded in the early years of Yongzheng in the Qing Dynasty and was born to carry grain. In order to highlight its long history, the Qinggang people regarded Weng, Qian, and Pan as the "last three ancestors", Jin Youzi of the Ming Dynasty as the first generation of patriarchs, Luo Qing as the second generation of patriarchs, and Lu Kui as the third generation of patriarchs, these three people are the "first three ancestors".
In order to better reflect the "ancient" of the Green Gang, the Dharma advocated by the first generation patriarch Jin Youzi was enshrined as the ancestor of the Green Gang. The introduction of the Qinggang is as follows: Jin Youzi, named Bifeng, was born in the sixth year of Emperor Yuan Shun (1346 AD), and served as a scholar of Wenyuan Pavilion when he was Zhu Di of Ming Dynasty.
When Zhu Di personally conquered Liaodong, Jin Youzi was ordered to supervise the transportation of imperial grain. Soon tired of the red dust, resigned from the official position to worship Wutai Mountain, worshiped the 36th Goose Head Zen Master as a teacher, named Qingyuan, and then practiced in Zixia Cave, and died a few years later.
The second generation patriarch is Luo Qing, named Jingqing, a native of Luojiazhuang, Dongxiang, Weiqing County, Lanzhou Prefecture, Gansu Province. At the age of 17, he was admitted to the Ming Jiajing Enke Examination, and later gave him a Jinshi background, and was promoted to supervise the imperial history and the household department.
He led his troops to fight against Turpan and returned with a complete victory. On the way back, we passed through Wutai Mountain, visited the relics of Qingyuan Zen Master, and were guided by the abbot of the North Temple, Hate Xiu Zen Master, and took out the classic relics of Jin Youzi from the Buddha shrine.
Immediately, Luo Qing was led by the hated Zen master to the tower of Jin Youzi and worshiped Jin Youzi as his teacher. Later, Luo Qing was plotted by Yan Song's father and son, imprisoned for 12 years, and was released during the Wanli period, and spent the rest of his life practicing in Ziyun Cave in Qixia Mountain.
The Qinggang organization originated in the Ming Dynasty and has a history of hundreds of years.
Luo Qing was the founder of Luojiao, and his Wuwei teachings were similar to Buddhism, but they were considered heretical by Orthodox Buddhism and the ruling class, so they could only be secretly spread among the people.
According to the "Zangyi Sutra", Luo Qing served as a grain transport officer when he was alive, and Luo Jiao was very popular among grain transporters and had many followers. He also set up a nunnery in Hangzhou to preach to the sailors.
Initially, Luoism was mainly spread among the boat gangs in Jiangsu and Zhejiang. In the fifth year of Yongzheng, Li Wei confiscated the scriptures and Buddha statues of Luojiao in various nunnery halls in Zhejiang. In the 33rd year of Qianlong, the authorities simply bulldozed the nunnery and dispersed the sailors, which prompted the gradual dilution of Luojiao, which became an important turning point in the evolution of the Qing Dynasty's grain ship sailor sect to the Qing Gang.
During the Daoguang period of Jiaqing in the Qing Dynasty, the social influence of "Anqing Daoyou" gradually expanded, expanding in Anhui, Jiangsu, Zhejiang and other vast regions, and gradually unifying the sailor organizations including Luojiao.
The third generation patriarch Lu Kui, the word Daoyuan, is a Dantu from Zhenjiang Prefecture, Jiangsu. Since childhood, he practiced martial arts, served as the right general soldier of the Ming army, and lived in seclusion in Maoshan in Jiangsu Province after the death of the Ming Dynasty, and went to Wutai Mountain to seek Taoism because of his admiration for Luo Qing.
At the beginning of the Qing Dynasty, he traveled to Xinjiang and Gansu, and when he saw frequent ethnic conflicts and armed fights, he presented a statement to the Qing court, suggesting that the policy of religious probation be adopted for ethnic minorities, which was adopted by the Kangxi Emperor and awarded him the title of "Master Xuanhua of Northwest China".
Emperor Kangxi once promised to ** Houlu, Lu Kui refused, and asked to learn the Tao, so Emperor Kangxi named him "Yasukuni Zunren", and crowned his teacher Luo Qing as "Yiqing Buddha".
In his later years, Lu preached in Liu's Nunnery in Baohua Mountain, outside the Wulin Gate in Hangzhou, and listened to many people. Among his disciples are Weng Yan, Qian Jian, and Pan Qing. Lu Kui gave each of them a name, Weng Yan was called "Dehui", Qian Jian was called "Dezheng", and Pan Qing was called "Delin".
Lu Kui died in the seventh year of Yongzheng (1729).
Weng, Qian, and Pan founded the Green Gang, set up an office for Caoliang, formulated gang rules, and established a family tree. Weng and Qian went to Qinghai and Mongolia to make pilgrimages to Buddha, and Pan Qing took over the help.
Wang Dechuan took over the affairs of the Youth Gang and continued to formulate gang rules. The Green Gang later developed rapidly and became the largest force in the *** faction, with far-reaching influence.
Tianjin, a major industrial and commercial port in northern China, has developed rapidly since modern times. In the early 20s of the last century, Li Dasen, a big figure of the Green Gang, came to Tianjin from Jinan and established a faction here, which made the Green Gang rise rapidly.
The leaders of the Green Gang, Yuan Wenhui, Ba Yanqing, Liu Guanghai and others became the representatives of Tianjin. The Jinan Youth Gang was also an important force at that time, and most of the porters were members of the Green Gang, which was difficult for outsiders to touch.
* In the early years, Zhang Xingheng, Bai Jinzhang and others, leaders of the transportation industry, became the big leaders of the Jinan Youth Gang. In addition, the Qinggang is also quite active in Nanjing, Zhenjiang, Hangzhou, Ningbo, Nanchang, Jiujiang, Anqing, Wuhu, Wuxi, Yangzhou and other cities along the canal and the Yangtze River.
With the forced opening of ports in Shanghai and Tianjin, the establishment of foreign concessions, and the prosperity of industry and commerce, many influential figures emerged in both places, and the social influence was extensive.
Elsewhere, however, the Green Gang did not have the same prominent figures as Shanghai and Tianjin. Some of the above content** are from the Internet or illustrations, and will be deleted if they are infringing.