Historical Studies (Chinese Edition)

No.1, 2018

 

The Author, Source Texts and Narrative of The History of Chinese Secret Societies (Abstract)

 

Sun Jiang

 

The History of Chinese Secret Societies (中国秘密社会史) (1912), is an important source for the study of Chinese social history and the Revolution of 1911. However, scholars have been rather unsure about it for the last hundred years, and misguided views have proliferated. Our examination of the Chinese, Japanese and English sources of the work shows that it was translated from the Japanese Chinese Revolutionary Parties and Secret Societies (支那革命党及秘密结社）（1911), which is itself based on the Japanese Chinese Secret Societies (支那の秘密结社). In composing the latter work, its author Shu Hirayama（平山周）translated and incorporated William Stanton’s The Triad Society or Heaven and Earth Association in the first three chapters, while the last two chapters and the appendix include his participation in and observation of Sun Yat-Sen’s revolution. Yamaguchi Noboru’s highly regarded report in the Japanese diplomatic archives,  The Situation in Qing China and the Secret Societies, was in fact written with reference to Shu Hirayama’s work. The History of Chinese Secret Societies has had an enduring impact since its publication because it creates a linear modern narrative of how secret societies went from rebellion to revolution.