1
L.F. Comber, Chinese Secret Societies in Malaya: A Survey of the Triad Society from 1800 to 1900 (New York, 1959), p. 270; Schiffrin, Sun Yat-sen, p.358. According to Comber, a secret society also called T 'ung-meng-hui was formed in Singapore in 1885 by the overseas Chinese. It was granted registration under the Societies Ordinance of that year as a "friendly" society. The last heard of it was at the end of the century. Comber thinks it likely that there was some connection between the Singapore T 'u n g -meng-hui and the one Sun Yat-sen founded in 1905.
2
Before Sun went to Japan in the summer of 1905, he met a group of Hupeh students "exiled" to Europe because of their revolutionary activity in Wuchang. Chu Ho-chung, their
leader, disagreed with Sun's strategy of counting on the secret societies. To Sun's argument that neither the intellectuals nor the army could make a revolution, Chu presented the facts of the subversive movement in Wuhan and the failure of T'ang Ts'ai-ch'ang in 1900. The secret
societies were merely interested in plunder, Chu maintained, and they had lost their influence since new-style armies were
150
Another interesting feature of the T'ung-meng-hui is that almost all its members in the years 1905-1906 were
students from every province of China, except Kansu which had not yet sent any student abroad. According to its official record, the membership for these years stood at 960, which included only those who had returned the membership oath
statements to the Tokyo headquarters. Of the 863 members who joined in Japan, 106 were from Hupeh compared with 157 from Hunan, 112 from Kwangtung and 43 from Kwangsi. The 18
students who joined in Europe were all natives of Hupeh.'*' Indeed, the T'ung-meng-hui was a student-intellectual m ov e me n t .
Although Hupeh students in Japan contributed
considerably to the founding of the T ’ung-meng-hui, very few of them, whose names were registered in the Tokyo
headquarters during the period 1905-1906, were known for
playing a leading part in the Hupeh revolutionary movement in the following years. One of the few exceptions was Liu Ching-an whose name appeared on the registry as Liu Chen-i. Since Liu had never been to Japan, he probably joined in Wuchang and sent his oath statement to Tokyo. Most of the Hupeh members
2 (continued from p . 14 9)
created. After arguing for "three days and nights", Sun finally agreed to give equal attention to the secret societies and intellectuals. See Chu Ho-chung, "Ou-chou t 'ung-meng-hui", KMWH, II, 116. However, Sun remained more interested in the Triads over whom he could always exert influence. On July 18, 1905, at a meeting with Huang Hsing, Sung Chiao-jen and others to discuss the founding of the T'ung-meng-hui, Sun again developed his thesis on the secret societies. Though Sung Chiao-jen and the others had
convinced him that intellectuals should be leaders of the revolutionary movement, the secret societies continued to be the operative force in Sun's strategy. See Sung Chiao-jen, Wo-chih jih-chi , p p .68-69; also Hsüeh, Huang H s i n g , pp. 40-41; Schiffrin, Sun Yat-sen, p.357.
1
151
stayed on in Jap an, and most of those who later returned to China carried out subversion in other provinces.'*'
Thus, for some years until the fall of 1908, the revolutionary movement in Hupeh was led by indigenous elements who had not been overseas. The man who tried to revive subversion after the setback of the K'o-hsüeh pu-hsi- so was Liu Ching-an. Although Liu was a traditional scholar steeped in Chinese classics, he was influenced by
Christianity and became a convert at a very young age. When he grew older, he took an interest in China’s future and
lost his confidence in the Manchu government. In 1901 he enlisted under the false name of Liu Ta-hsiung and was, early in 1904, promoted to be secretary to Li Yüan-hung, commanding officer of the force later known as the 21st Mixed-Brigade. Liu was one of those in attendance at the May meeting and a key figure in the K'o-hsüeh pu-hsi-so. After the abortive Changsha revolt, he was forced to resign from the army
because Li YUan-hung suspected him of being a revolutionary after reading an "unusual letter" addressed to Liu from a Mr Chang Shou-jen, who was believed to be Huang Hsing. Liu then took refuge in the American Episcopal Church in Wuchang, the head of which was the Reverend Hu La n - t ’ing, a liberal- minded man, who some time before had also given shelter to Ts'ao Ya-po, the K'o-hsüeh pu-hsi-so propaganda chief. The experience in the church taught Liu that a foreign church, because of its independence from the Chinese government, was the sort of institution that could be used to cover and
protect revolutionary activity. After attempting to win over Hu Lan-t'ing, Liu obtained Hu's permission to convert the
library of the church into a centre for revolutionary activity.2
1
One notable example was Chiang Tso-pin, a military cadet who returned to North China to carry out revolutionary
activity in the new-style army. See Chiang Tso-pin, Chiang Tso-pin hui-i-lu (Taipei, 1 967), p p . 29-30.
2
This biography of Liu Ching-an is based on C C L , p p . 73- 7 7 ; KMIS, II, 62-66; and also Fan T'eng-hsiao, "Hsin-hai shou-i c h 'ien-hou" , HHSIHIL, III, 64-65.
152 This library was called Jih-chih-hui (The Society for the Daily Increase of Knowledge), which originated as a newspaper and periodical reading-room founded by the former church minister, the Reverend Huang Chi-t'ing. There were reading-rooms of this kind and also known by the same name in the Episcopal churches in Changsha, Hankow and Kiukiang. It is not true that the Wuchang Jih-chih-hui was already a
revolutionary body when Ts'ao Ya-po took refuge there in the winter of 1904. The library assumed a new character only when it was taken over by Liu Ching-an in 1905. In order to conceal its revolutionary purpose, Liu kept its name intact and maintained its appearance as an ordinary reading-room.^
In late January or early February 1906 Liu proclaimed to his comrades that the Jih-chih-hui had been transformed into a revolutionary organization. At its inaugural meeting, he made the following speech:
Wake up China! Wake up China! Foreigners want to partition our Great China. Our compatriots will have to be slaves of a lost country again. The Manchu Nara always says that she prefers to give China to foreigners rather than to household
slaves. The Manchus have admitted that China will be extinguished again. Many of us, the four
hundred million Chinese, have not yet realized that we are being oppressed and hoodwinked by the Manchus. Disaster is pending before [our] eyes.
[We] ought to wake up and be disillusioned and immediately seek a solution to save [ourselves] from being slaves, cows and horses for ever. This is [our] anxious hope. Some time ago comrade
Ts'ao Ya-po returned from Hunan, and discussed expanding the Jih-chih-hui with Mr Hu Lan-t'ing and me. Ts'ao has left for Japan to carry out activity there. Now we have formed our new Jih- chih-hui with regulations and a proclamation at hand. An executive board, consisting of comrades from the military and intellectual circles, will be set up. Henceforth, it is [our] duty to
enlighten [our] people's minds, to save China from danger and extinction and transform it into a New
1
See Yang Tuo, "Wu-ch'ang ke-ming chen-shih chih shang- ch'üeh", Chiang-su po-wu-kuan yüeh-k'an, II, no. 1, pp.5-6. The author is uncertain about the date of publication because he only consulted the off-print in the Kuomintang Archives.
153 China so that the offspring of Huang-ti will no
longer remain slaves of a destroyed country. [If we can do this], it will be fortunate not only for our comrades but also for the four hundred million Chinese compatriots. 1
The theme that China had been lost to the Manchus and was about to be lost to foreigners, the charge that the Manchus were "enslaving" the Chinese, the warning that national regeneration required immediate attention, all echoed the refrain of the student writings of the time. The idea of revolution was implicit in the call for the creation of a New China, the most important part being the stress on the
leading roles of the military and intellectuals.
The executive board of the new Jih-chih-hui was divided into four sections: general affairs, administration,
secretariat and social relations. There was a total of some twenty men in charge of it, Liu Ching-an being the chief
executive. A board of commentators was said to have been set up as well, but there is scant information concerning it. The society was financed by its members. Wu Lu-chen
contributed one month's salary towards the cost of its
formation, while others contributed at their own discretion ranging from one to five dollars each. Supporters who had not paid subscription fees or signed the membership roll were
2 also regarded as comrades.
Membership of the Jih-chih-hui was much larger than that of the K'o-hsüeh pu-hsi-so. One account listed 118 names of
3
which 18 were former K'o-hsiieh pu-hsi-so members. Another reported 200-odd, most of them being soldiers and the
1
Quoted in Ts'ao Ya-po, I, 13-14. According to Ts'ao, who was not present at the meeting, this speech was recorded by Chang Han-chieh, secretary of the meeting. However, it cannot be found elsewhere.
2
Fan Hung-hsün, "Jih-chih-hui", HHSIHIL, I, 76-77; Ts'ao Ya- po, I , 10 .
3
154
remainder students, scholars and journalists. The number of comrades from religious circles stood at four, which
indicated that religious elements were negligible in the movement. There were also several junior army officers, and they were admitted to the society probably because they were too enthusiastic to be excluded.'123'
Under the protective umbrella of the church, the Jih- chih-hui embarked on an extensive propaganda campaign.
Besides influencing those who came to use the library, public lectures on Chinese political affairs were organized every weekend in the Wen-hua College, a missionary school belonging to the church. These lectures were sometimes supplemented
2