五口通商初期上海地區暴亂事件所反映秘密會社之生機及適存環境

The study of modern Chinese history during the last seventy years is characterized by immense interest in the developments in diplomacy and revolution. Any study on revolution, however, will inevitably touch on issues relating to the secret societies, which is worthy of independent study. Ever since the founding of the Republic, historians have been exploring the significance of secret societies from two points of view: their role in national revolution and their, relationship with peasant revolt. While this approach has its merits, it tends to neglect some of the key questions, such pertaining to their survival and social function. This becomes clear when we examine the causes leading to two riots in Shanghai during the early period of treaty-port trade. Shanghai was opened up to the world as one of the five treaty ports on 17th November 1843. After four years, on 8th March 1848, three British missionaries, when distributing religious tracts in the Ch'ing-pu region of Shanghai, were beaten up and robbed of their valuable by a large mob of unemployed canal labourers. This incident led to a Sino-British confrontation, with the British Ambassador to China, Rutherford Alcock, threatening to detain the Chinese grain ships as a retaliation. It was finally peacefully settled by severe punishments handed down to the assailants and more compensations. This incident, often misleadingly described as the ＂Ch'ing- pu anti-missionary incident＂, in fact had nothing to do with religion. What caused the incident was the restlessness of the large number of canal labourers, mostly natives of Shantung, who were unemployed. Owing to the negligance in canal management in the Tao-kuang period, grain from South China could only be shipped as far as Shanghai where they had to go by sea to Tungchou in the proximity of Peking. When grain ships were unloaded, all sailors, helmsmen, boat-pullers, and coolies were at a loose end. Jobless and in straitened circumstances, they put the blame on sea transport in Shanghai and looked for chances to create trouble to relieve their boredom. It was at this juncture that the three missionaries came on the scene, and a Sino-British confrontation was thus engendered with the attack on them by the canal labourers. Since the Early Ch'ing dynasty, the canal transportation of grain from south to north was the economic activity which demanded the greatest attention in the maintenance of law and order. Leaving aside the huge organizxation and the large number of government departments involved in this undertaking, the fleets alone amounted to more than 120, whose members organized their labour union the An- Ch'ing Society＂ or simply the ＂Ch'ing Society＂. This society had more than, one hundred subdivisions, each bearing its own name and banner. Compulsory member- ship was enforced for everyone working in canal transportation. Unique in its membership and well organized, the ＂Ch'ing Society＂ was co-operative with the government in normal times. But the sudden shift to sea transport dealt its members a severe blow and they were quick to vent their grievances. The above incident was but a reflection of the state of mind they were in. Another incident took place ten years after the opening of the Shanghai treaty- port. On 7th September 1853, members of the Small Sword Society, an organization centred outside the walls of the city of Shanghai, broke through the eastern gate. entered the city, killed the magistrate, and hoisted their own banner. They occupied Shanghai and fought against the Ch'ing army for one and a half year. It was not until 17th February 1855 that the Ch'ing army, with the support of the French Ambassador in Shanghai, was able to recover the city, and most of the leaders of the Small Sword Society were arrested and executed. The Small Sword Society, a branch of the ＂Hung Men＂, was a clandestine organization which originated from South China. Most of its members involved in this Shanghai incident were natives of Fukien and Kwangtung, mainly consisting of junk owners, with cargo freights as their major source of income. After the opening of the five treaty ports, steamers from Britian and America replaced junks and they were gradually forced out of business and their employees out of a job. These labourers who stayed temporarily in Shanghai grouped themselves together through the fellow provincials' associations whose leaders in turn persuaded them to join the Small Sword Society. Incidentially, the Shanghai magistrate Wu Chien-chang was himself a Cantonese who worked formerly for a foreign firm. After the Taipings occupied Nanking, he enlisted about a thousand labourers from Fukien and Kwangtung and made them the mainstay of regional defence. Later, they were again dismissed and made jobless. Contrary to the original intention which was to make them a force to protect Shanghai, these people were chiefly held responsible for riots, which finally ended up in the occupation of the city, the killing of the magistrate and his staff, and the looting of the government repository, taking Shanghai under their control. Both the ＂Ch'ing Society＂ and the ＂Hung Men＂ were large organizations belonging to two different streams of the Chinese underworld. They differed in back- ground, in organizational structure as well as in the process of evolution. But they shared the common feature of being a social organization made up of labourers of lower social stratrum and not of peasants. And they were also organizations whose membership was restricted to male adults. Their banding together was grounded cn the need for security in life and employment forming a labour union which had no political ambitions. But once they were infused revolutionary thinking by their leade they became rebellious. That accounts for the preconceived idea that the nature of 'he sacret societies was intrinsically anti-government, an idea which fails to take into account other important functions of these organizations.

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