There are sentient and righteous bridges underneath, and ruthless and unrighteous knives die.
One worships heaven as the Father, and the second worships the earth as the Mother;
Three worship days as brothers, four worship the moon as sisters-in-law;
Five worship five ancestors, six worship Wan Yun Long big brother;
Seven bye Mr. Chen Jinnan, eight bye brothers and Shun
......
Friends who have watched the Hong Kong-made movie "Fang Shiyu" believe that they are not unfamiliar with the name Chen Jinnan. In the play, he is the founder of the Heaven and Earth Society, and also the benefactor of Fang Shiyu, and the object of protection by many members.
So, in the real history, is the founder of this secret group that advocates anti-Qing and restoration of the Ming Dynasty Chen Jinnan?
Through repeated research on the secret books of Hongmen and many official investigations, it was learned that in real history, the founder of the Heaven and Earth Society should be a monk from Yunxiao Gaoxi in Fujian Province, that is, the Hong'er monk Zheng Kai. About this person, all this has to start from the legend of the Shaolin Temple monk Zheng Xilu.
During the Kangxi Dynasty, the imperial court was helpless against the problem of Xilufan's invasion of the Central Plains, and in the face of the continuous intrusion of foreign enemies, it could only list Naxian, hoping to find a hero and good man in the country to help the imperial court defeat foreign enemies. As a result, 128 monks voluntarily gathered in the capital to ask for orders to recruit foreign enemies.
In the end, with the support of the imperial court, they successfully annihilated the enemy army of Xilu and returned triumphantly. For the feats of these Shaolin heroes, the Kangxi Emperor was ready to give rewards, but the monks did not have any nostalgia for the rewards, and eventually returned to the Shaolin Temple to continue their practice. During the Jia Yin period, Kangxi listened to the monks' accusations of collaborating with the enemy and treason, and without saying a word, he sent troops to the Shaolin Temple, burned and destroyed the temple, and brutally killed the monks, of which only eighteen people escaped.
However, on the way to escape, these eighteen people were killed by the Qing soldiers thirteen more, and the last five monks fled to the Huizhou area of Guangdong. Later, these five people became acquainted with Wan Yunlong, Zhu Hongzhu, and Chen Jinnan, and worshipped them as brothers, and at the same time, honored Wan Yunlong as the eldest brother, and from this, the Heaven and Earth Society was born.
So, who is this Wan Yun Long, and why is he unanimously respected and become the ancestor of the entire gang?
From the relevant secret books of Hongmen, we know that this WanYun Dragon is actually just a law number or a Dao number, and it is not a real name at all. According to the records of the relevant list texts, this person is actually Wanti Xi. Of course, in the official books, there are also relevant records of the origin of the Heaven and Earth Society. In 1786, the Lin Shuangwen Rebellion broke out in Taiwan, and subsequently, Tiandi was discovered by the Qing government.
In the first month of the fifty-second year of Qianlong, Yang Zhenguo was captured by the Qing court, and as the deputy marshal of Lin Shuangwen's rebel army, he made the following confession: "Regarding the origin of the church, it was said by Yan Yan that the root of the Heaven and Earth Society was founded by a monk from Guangdong with the surname of Hong. This man was named Hong Erfang, and there was a man surnamed Zhu who founded the church with him. ”
However, Yang Zhenguo's description of the two is not very accurate, and there are obvious traces of false rumors, and the credibility is not too high. Not long after, the previously mentioned Yan Yan was also arrested by the Qing court and confessed: "The Heaven and Earth Association was established by two people surnamed Zhu and Li. However, Yan Yan only said the names of the founders, and it is not known where they were born, where they eventually went, and when the church was officially founded.
Although the credibility and completeness of the content of the confessions of the two people mentioned above are not strong, they still provide a very important clue for the Qing government to investigate the Heaven and Earth Society.
However, as of this point, we still have not figured out who the founder of the Heaven and Earth Society really is, until the fifty-third year of Qianlong, when The disciple Chen Wang was captured by the Qing court, that the Qing court had a major breakthrough in the study of the beginning and end of the establishment of the Heaven and Earth Society.
According to relevant sources, after King Chen was arrested, he confessed that the founder of the Heaven and Earth Society was the monk Tixi, and gave a detailed explanation of his place of origin and the place where he lived. Subsequently, the Qing government sent troops to arrest people according to the place of the confession, but found nothing, it turned out that this Tixi had already died, and he was only forty-four years old when he died.
However, although these historical materials all mention the person of Tixi, it is still difficult to determine who the founder of the Heaven and Earth Society is based on these alone. It wasn't until 1986, in the Foreign Book, which was stored in the First History Museum of China, that we found the answer. Originally, after a detailed investigation by the Qing court, it was clear that the Heaven and Earth Society was founded by Tixi.
Ti Xi was a monk whose common name was Zheng Kai, also known as Tu Xi, and the nickname of Hong Er's monk. That is to say, from the previous Yang Zhenguo, to Yan Yan, to the later Chen Wang, the people mentioned in their mouths are actually the same person, but the names they call out are different. In addition, the relationship between zhu and li surnames and the ten thousand monks is also explained here.
In fact, Li, Zhu, and Hong are all Tixi's brothers, and it is precisely because of their Taoyuan jieyi that the Heaven and Earth Society can be produced, which also deciphers the verse "Three surnames jie wan Li Tao Hong, Nine Dragons born Li Zhu Hong", indicating the true meaning of the origin of the Heaven and Earth Society.
In addition, combined with the content of the "Yan Yan Confession", we can analyze that "Li Taohong" shows that the worship of Wan Tixi and others was in the season when Li Tao became red, and after the death of Ma Jiulong, the Heaven and Earth Society was mainly headed by Hong Er monks, Li Shaomin, and Zhu Dingyuan.
Through the comprehensive study of official books, confessions, poems, archives and other materials, we further confirm the fact that the Heaven and Earth Society was indeed created by Zheng Kai, a monk from Fujian.
After entering the Republic of China, most of the domestic Heaven and Earth Association organizations became tools for a small number of people to fight for power and profit or to oppose the revolution for the reactionary ruling class and suppress the people's accomplices. Most of the overseas Hongmen organizations continue to exist as an important link to unite overseas Chinese, and only a few have become gangster organizations.
The modern triad was born out of the former Heaven and Earth Society, but today it has degenerated into a triad organization.
Resources:
【Foreign Book", "Yan Yan Confession"】