Протестантские миссионеры о китайских тайных обществах начала XIX века

Восток. Афро-азиатские общества: история и современность. 2023. № 2. С. 215–222.

Stezhenskaya L.

The paper examines the earliest European materials on the functions and practices of Chinese secret societies – traditional public organizations that have played a significant role in the history of China and continues to be a phenomenon of public life in China and abroad. By analogy with the “colonial school” of the studies on Chinese secret societies, the author suggest to single out the earliest period of Protestant historiography on this issue, tentatively designating it as a “missionary school”, represented by William Milne and Robert Morrison. Certain amendments are made to the available bio-bibliographic data on Milne’s publications in The Indo-Chinese Gleaner. The authorship and dating of the reports on secret societies in China delivered by R. Morrison at the Royal Asiatic Society are clarified. Milne’s reports indicated that the secret societies were anti-government in nature, and some of them were anti-Qing. However, he failed to notice their requirements to restore the late Chinese Ming dynasty. The purpose of the Qing dynasty’s overthrow is directly expressed in the materials by R. Morrison, where the hope for help from the spirits of the Ming emperors was also noted. It is pointed out that the ‘Mason paradigm’ of the study of secret societies proposed by W. Milne was based on the similarity with the practice of the Freemason Society in Great Britain, found in some aspects of the Chinese societies’ formal practices. At the same time, W. Milne indicated the differences in the social status and social role of such societies in Europe and in China.

Keywords: историография, historiography, китаеведение, Chinese studies, синология, Sinology, secret societies, тайные общества, Protestant missionaries, W. Milne, R. Morrison, миссионеры протестантские, У. Милн, Р. Моррисон