
we need words to talk about things words are models

(some) differences academic vocabulary, regular
language and labels
◦ words are determined by the group within which we use
them (per discourse)
◦ words are approximations
◦ academic vocabulary=> definitions made explicit and
negotiated explicitly
◦ regular language=> definitions implicit and negotiated
through actual usage
◦ labels=> usually pejorative meanings attached to
vocabulary which one is not allowed to alter or negotiate
2
3
Implicit meaning
explicit meaning
observations,
fears, ideas,
etc.
gender,
age, social
group,
political
views,
custom,
etc.
analytical
theory,
questions,
etc.
filter
filter
names
definition by use
labels
definition fixed
definition
negotiable
academic
terms
4






assumption of free academic intercourse
◦ Karl Popper
◦ only partially true (teacher-pupil networks, veneration of older
teachers, control over publishing venues, etc.)
label 標籤/簽
◦ “blacks”, “niggers” (vs Afro-American)
◦ Miao 苗 minority ~ proper name
◦ Yellow Danger
◦ feudal superstitions 封建迷信
stereotype 刻板印象
◦ Dutch & Scots are misers, all Wenzhounese are good tradespeople
◦ all Chinese eat rice
◦ ethnic minorities more romantic
autonym自稱
◦ 中國：中華人民共和國
appellation
◦ China
does it matter?
◦ pejorative language does not belong in academic discourse
◦ terms & names organize data, labels too, but incorrectly
5
6



we always need to combine detailed historical
research with attention to the growing of
discourses
deconstructing labels is not a popular task!
source analysis
◦ who is talking/judging
◦ layers of translation (from 白/ 方言 /口語 to 文)
7
8

traditional characteristics of the so-called White Lotus
Teachings
◦
◦
◦
◦
◦

start rebellions
millenarian and messianic beliefs
rumours
magical techniques
dubious relationships between male and female (男女混雜，
夜聚曉散)
traditional “historical” development of the White Lotus
teachings
◦
◦
◦
◦
◦
start southern Song Mao Ziyuan 茅子元 (1086-1166)
late Yuan rebellions 韓山童, 明王, 彌勒
late Ming rebellion 徐鴻儒
mid-Qing rebellions
new religious movements
9
永樂18年：唐賽兒
general stereotype
White Lotus rebellion around 1800
10

my hypothesis

test (falsification)
◦ WLT not an analytical term and not an autonym
◦ label used by officials and literati
◦ White Lotus movement (白蓮社/會) of Southern
Song and Yuan periods
◦ late Yuan rebellions (background 韓山童 rebellion
in particular)
◦ when and why does term White Lotus Teachings
(白蓮教) become a label
◦ autonyms of new religious movements
◦ what kind of new phenomena do we see after
recognizing the labelling process
11




founder: Mao Ziyuan 茅子元 (1086-1166), near Lake
Dianshan 澱山湖
spread during Song and Yuan (see Map)
autonym: White Lotus
Idealtype (Max Weber ‘s Idealtypus):
◦
◦
◦
◦
◦
◦
◦
◦
◦
◦
lay believer central
private residences as halls 堂
married state, children, inherited halls
religious affiliation characters 普覺妙道
titles 道人
charitable activities (bridge building & road, free tea
and hot water, free rituals, etc.)
daily rituals to recite name of Amitabha, sutra’s,
worship Guanyin
publication project of Buddhist canon
self-awareness as a regional movement
apologetic activities
12
13

Pudu 普度 1255-1330

Precious Mirror of the Lotus tradition from Mount Lu 廬山蓮宗寳鑑
◦ White Lotus movement family background
◦ prominent monk, directly connected to then White Lotus movement
◦ polemist together with the Wanshou Hall 萬壽堂 in Jianyang at the time of
1310 temporary) prohibition
◦ in defense of the White Lotus movement as a general Pure Land movement
◦ deals explicitly with limited mistakes in his own tradition
◦ one chapter deals with all distortions of Pure Land believes, e.g.
 visions just before dying (attested in Pure Land and Daoist texts)
 prognostication through twitching of body (attested in Dunhuang texts)
 popular version of Huiyuan 慧遠 ‘s biography (attested in Transformation
Text from Dunhuang)
 inner cultivation techniques ([mis]understood as sexual) (attested in Daoist
texts)
 out of circa 20 sections one brief and unclear reference to Maitreya beliefs

editions
◦ 1310, 1429 reprint (still includes “White”)
◦ Jiaxing canon reprint (drops “White”)
14

crucial rebellion of the Red Turbans in Huai region
original leader Han Shantong 韓山童
1351辛卯prophecy: 天下大亂，彌勒下生，明王出世
In 1355 his son declared 小明王
use military force, assistance by “foreign” forces
no known self-appellation or autonym=> not an organized
movement
◦ outside appellations (~labels?): Red Turbans 紅巾, Incense
Army香軍
◦ Han’s grandfather had been banished for 白蓮會, no further
context known
◦
◦
◦
◦
◦

rebellion Xu Shouhui 徐壽煇
◦ some followers carried religious affiliation character 普 and
title 道人=> link White Lotus movement
◦ in separate mentions reference to Maitreyism
15

the sources of the Red Turban prophecy

the White Lotus connections, if any:
◦ tradition of the Classic /Amulets of the Five Lords 五公經
/符
◦ elements current at the time: belief in Luo Ping 羅平,
catastrophes in yin or mao 寅卯 year, Luminous King,
demonological view of end of times, aid by foreign army
◦ widely attested oral and textual traditions since late 9th
until the late 20th century
◦ grandfather (not Han himself!), atypical mention 白蓮會
◦ other Yuan rebellion may have had White Lotus movement
members ≠ White Lotus movement as a whole changed
◦ White Lotus connection of the Red Turbans first made in
late sixteenth century!
16

incorporation name White Lotus into Ming law on religious
activities
◦ 凡師巫假降邪神書符咒水扶鸞禱聖自號端公太保師婆及妄稱彌勒佛白蓮社
明尊教白雲宗等會一應左道亂正之術或隱藏圖像燒香集眾夜聚曉散佯修善
事扇惑人民。。。
◦ White Lotus Society implicitly distinguished from Maitreya worship
and two other types of movement/group that were now prohibited
◦ Ming law systematizes individual prohibitions from the preceding
Yuan period

White Lotus movement (i.e. the Pure Land movement) still
exists, invisible after ca. 1400
not yet a label, just another prohibition of the PL
movement
 very broad, and inapplicable law: true impact unclear
 negative connotation White Lotus in widely available
document

17
Local histories:
 Red Turban rebellion (1355) relabelled White Lotus rebellion, connected
a.o. to Zhang Jue’s Great Peace rebellion of 184
 Tang Saier 唐賽兒 (early 15th century) relabelled White Lotus Teachings
Veritable Records:
 Li Fuda 李福達 (early 16th century) relabelled in 1560s
Private accounts
 Xu Daoren 許道人 (1454) relabelled White Lotus by the late sixteenth
century
And so forth (migrants to the Mongols accused of magic, rumours of flying
objects, and so forth)
=>crucial points are:
 similar dates of relabeling, not so of the much earlier events
 diversity of religious phenomena
 irrespective of sources: officials and elites
18

groups explicitly rejecting the term White Lotus
Teachings
◦ proclamation by people involved in the rebellion led by Xu
Hongru 徐鴻儒
◦ Proclamation by people involved in the so-called White
Lotus rebellion (1796-1804)

examples of autonyms

caveat:
◦ late 16th century movement centred on Zhejiang/
Fujian/Jiangxi: 無爲教，大乘教，龍華會 and others
◦ Wang Sen movement (origin Xu Hongru) (network survived
early 17th-early 19th century): 大乘教 (autonym), 焚香教/聞香
教 (labels)
◦ Unity Way 一貫道
◦ same autonym not necessarily same (type of) group
◦ different autonym maybe same (type of) group
19

one label with numerous stereotypes
◦ WLT causes violent rebellions (no investigation
real/deeper causes)
◦ messianic/millenarian beliefs lead to violence/rebellion
(manifestly untrue: only one specific demonological
messianic tradition often connected to violent action)
◦ high position of women (usually fictive: tendency to
invent female roles with magical abilities, e.g. Red
Lantern women from Boxer rebellion!)
◦ ascribing magical techniques (karma mirror, paper
cuttings)
◦ 男女混雜 & 夜聚曉散 (Tang origins!)

always search for confirmation of stereotype
20

“White Lotus Teachings” in this sense is an
elite phenomenon from fear and
misunderstanding
◦ proclamations (Xu Hongru and WLT rebellions) show
some non-elite awareness of the stereotype
◦ phenomena labelled as such not necessarily
“popular”, if anything: local!
◦ stereotypes largely elite-creations

I leave applying these notions to the modern
age to the students themselves
21
22

term itself curious

maybe just a sound?




◦
◦
◦
◦
usual trsl. Elder Brothers Society
real meaning: Elder Brothers and Elders Gathering
no connection to anything with the gangs labelled as such
refers to gangs in Hunan/Hubei regions late 19th -early 20th
century
◦ sounds similar to ethnonym *Klau; Gelao 犵狫
◦ sounds similar to 咕嚕 bandits Sichuan
label to point to local gangs that seemed to
cooperate beyond their locality
explanation for 1891 Lower Yangzi riots
~ Sichuanese paoge 袍哥
eventually reappropriated as positive nickname
23



19th century term
introduced to our field by G. Schlegel and adopted by
W. Stanton
Stanton plagiarized by Hirayama Shū
◦ translated in Chinese reprinted in 1911 平山周
◦ seen as reliable source
 supposed revolutionary experience
 contacts Sun Yatsen 孫中山
 very little real knowledge
◦ introduced Western term “secret societies” to Chinese
discourse

label:
◦ lack of clear criteria for applying the term
◦ suggests more structure than there really is
◦ suggest secrecy, conspiracy
24
◦ “revolutionaries” late 19th and early 20th century
tended to overestimate potential help
◦ pasted on the White Lotus narrative by modern
scholarship since the 1920s
◦ inherited by modern labels such as xiejiao etc.
25
26

only brief at this point, to make a point for later
◦ word shaman potential analytical term, usually applied
without reflexion or definition=> label
◦ 巫 also used as a label
 religious specialists one disapproves of
 presumed to be “popular”
 different types of mediators between human and
extrahuman world
 usually excludes spirit writing in Chinese context (not
“popular”)

distinction with medium
◦ shaman as analytical term: keeps his/her and journeys
to other world
◦ medium as analytical term: vessel for extrahuman being
◦ Chinese terms may vary, forms may vary
27