The Origins of the Tiandihui by Dian Murray Qin Baoqi

Author:Dian Murray,Qin Baoqi
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780804766104
Publisher: Stanford University Press
Published: 2013-05-28T16:00:00+00:00

The Fact and Fiction Behind the Legend

It is clear from a comparative analysis of the various versions of the Xi Lu Legend that it can no longer be regarded as a contemporary or authentic record of the Tiandihui’s formation. Thus, to use this document as the foundation for a historical account of the society’s origin is to do history backwards. This is not to say that the legend should be dismissed out of hand. If one turns the tables, so to speak, that is, begins by learning the Tiandihui’s history as recounted in archival documents, and then moves on to the legend, it is possible to find there glimmerings of real history intertwined with fiction.

We can see, for example, that there is a connection to reality in the figure of Wan Yunlong, who, on the basis of the Yao Dagao and Yang family registers, can now be identified as Monk Wan Ti Xi, the historical founder of the society. From the later versions of the legend, we can also see how this link between Wan Ti Xi and Wan Yunlong, so explicitly stated at the outset, was lost. Unfortunately, those versions were the first to come to the attention of scholars, giving rise to the long series of speculations regarding Wan Ti Xi’s historical identity discussed above. Now, however, we can abandon further attempts to identify him with either Zheng Chenggong or any members of the “Wan as surname” brotherhood.

Archival documents and the testimony of Yan Yan make brief references to a developmental stage of the Tiandihui in Sichuan, where a monk, Ma Jiulong, gathered forty-eight monks to practice expelling ghosts and other kinds of magic techniques. The monks then went their separate ways and at some point probably ran into such sojourners from Fujian as Ti Xi, Zhu Dingyuan, Li Amin, and Tao Yuan, taught them their secrets, and then died off, until only thirteen remained to transmit the teaching in all directions. It is possible that this historical episode was part of the inspiration for the diaspora of the handful of surviving Shaolin priests recounted in the Xi Lu Legend. (For more details see Chapter i.)

Despite the appalling geography manifest in the legend, where places that should have been in Fujian often turn up in Guangdong or even farther afield, it is clear that many of the sites mentioned were actual places in the vicinity of Gaoxi. From this, we can probably assume that the authors of the early legends incorporated familiar place-names into their yarns without knowing exactly where these sites were. (Completely absent from all the versions, though, are sites that can even be remotely identified with Taiwan, sites that one could fairly expect had the legend commemorated either Zheng Chenggong or the anti-Qing resistance conducted from his island headquarters.)

The legend’s glimmerings of real history flash by quickly, however, and what emerges even more strikingly is its potpourri of elements drawn from several dimensions of popular culture, including literature, theater, religion, and perhaps even the local messianic beliefs that prevailed in southeast China.

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