Study On The Case Of Henan’s "Mohouyizhaojiao" In Late Qing Dynasty

The "Mohouyizhaojiao" was a popular sect founded by Wang Jueyi in 1877. It is the predecessor of "I Kuan Tao", which had been spread across the countrywide in the Republic of China.The "Mohouyizhaojiao" case occurred at the end of the year 1881. It was an important case of popular sect in Henan in late Qing Dynasty. The official hearing lasted three years (1881-1884). Not only Runing Prefecture (now Zhu Madian region) and Nanyang Prefecture (now Nanyang region) in Henan Province, but also other provinces like Hubei, Anhui and Jiangsu had been involved in this case.The case has a complicated background and originated in civil disputes. Empress Dowager Ci’an was died in March 1881. And in June, the comet appeared. Xiao Fengyi disseminated rumors by this chance to incite people to join them. Sheng Hongxi, a former Yong Ding in Ruyang County, had conflicts with Guo Zhenqing. He wanted to delate rebellion of Guo to win honors, which leading to the occurrence of this event. Officials of Runing Prefecture eventually concluded that Wang Jueyi absorbed Xiao Fengyi, Zhang Huaisong and Wu Heshi into his cult. They three are main leaders of "Mohouyizhaojiao" in Runing Prefecture and plotted to attaek the city at the first day of the twelfth lunar months in 1881.Hearing of the case was influenced by the double impacts of political situation changes in Henan province and popular sect revolts of outside the province. Considering this case is important, it was transferred to the Legal Investigative Bureaus in Kaifeng. During the hearing of recent two years, the suspects’confessions were overturned, because they claimed that they had to confess to false charges under torture. During handling this case, Nanyang "Wang Shuwen" case was identified as injustice case made by officials, which making the Li Henian and Wang Zhaolan be dismissed. This case continued to be trailed by Lu Xiangyue, and It was gradual identified as a "calumniation" case. At the same year, attempted rebellion of "Mohouyizhaojiao" was happened in Jiangsu and Hubei province, which challenged the conclusions got by Henan. In the debate of "rebellion" or "calumniation", the conflict between Zhou Guan with Lu Xiangyue and Lu Chuanlin escalated, and eventually he was ousted. But Zhou Guan countered them by appealing to the ministry of penalty and reported their corruption and malfeasances, so the hearing of this case was influenced again by the local political environment of Henan province.As it is complicated, the government dispatched imperial commissioners, Sun Yuwen and Wula Bu, to Kaifeng to conduct this case. They both made a conclusion that Lu Xiangyue and Lu Chuanlin were not malfeasance, but people involved in the " Mohouyizhaojiao " of Runing Prefecture just propagated cult, not to rebel.From more than 150 statements and other related archives, both the first hearing officer and review officer were unable to determine clearly whether the case was a case of rebellion. Justice of the Qing Dynasty traditional lay emphasis on the confession, which making subjective judgments of officials play a decisive role in cases. Specifically, in the first hearing, under the dominant of Officers’ideas of rebellion, all the evidence pointed to the rebellion of "Mohouyizhaojiao", and different confessions were "making" into the systematical plan of rebellion by the official "discipline". But after Henan Wang Shuwen case, officials from the governor of Henan to local magistrate were dismissed, which influenced the hearing of the case. During the time of rehearing, the officials gradually constructed a "calumniation" mode. All the perpetrators of confession was again "unified" and claimed that "never changed". Thus, the two judges "making" the confessions by themselves and got opposite conclusion in the end.Then, how the "rebel" mode and "calumniation" model generated? This thesis argues that this question need be analyzed from two levels:religious group and government. From the cults themselves, in addition to extremely devout believers, they not only tempted people by persuading beneficence and seeking blessing, but also intimidated them by disseminating catastrophe. From the " Mohouyizhaojiao " case, both of above two are all used, but the latter was more obviously. So, although believers of this cult did various good deeds, they still been falsely accused and identified as rebellion if they disseminated catastrophe and made rumors according to the astronomical phenomena. From the theology, " eschatology is the mother of all" cults which disseminating doomsday would be suppressed, and they can never be out of this fate. From the government’s perspective, the judgments of officials were affected by the complex socio-ecological and political environment of that time. The turbulent social environment made Zhou Guan know that he must take high-handed policies. But he still had no sufficient evidences to identify that they were kind of rebellion. Investigating cases is to safeguard court decree, and also it made a platform that officials maintained their interests. Debate of Rebellion or false not only related to the safety of country, but also evolved into a wrangling of local leaders for future.The case was changed from the civil disputes to popular sects’ rebellion, and was characterized as only spreading cults, not rebellion. This process highlights the complex characteristics of popular sects’ cases. And also it reminds us that we should careful handle other folk religious group cases in the history and rethinks the method of writing about history of Chinese folk religion.