The embryonic form of the underworld The earliest underworld in China can be traced back to the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period. Its main leader is Mozi, a famous representative of Mohism. Mozi was born in poverty, claiming to be inferior, and took a completely grassroots line. Mozi also studied Confucianism when he was young, but he soon felt that this etiquette was too complicated, especially the rules of burying the dead, which made the poor harm others and waste them in a big mess, which made Mozi very disgusted. So Mozi gave up Confucianism and replaced Zhou Dao with Xia Zheng. He founded Mohism and established the earliest underworld in the history of China. Mozi's underworld has a complete organizational system, political program and declaration of action. The leader of its highest authority is called a "giant" and has absolute authority. Mozi's organization had great influence throughout the Warring States period, with thousands of people at its peak. The picture comes from Mozi's disciples on the Internet, who are collectively called "Mohists", also known as short-sleeved gangs. Most of them come from the bottom of society. Wear short-sleeved sandals and smell chickens dancing on weekdays. "Take pleasure in suffering. When a weak country is in trouble and the people are in trouble, they will immediately go to the rescue and go through fire and water. So it is completely different from today's evil underworld, even on the contrary, Mozi's underworld is a group that benefits the people. They should love each other, help each other and sabotage the war, which is also the common feature of the early underworld in China. It can be said that Mozi's "underworld" is based on the idea of * * * to draw members together and form an organization.

2. The development of the underworld After more than a thousand years of development, the underworld formed another distinctive organization in the late Northern Song Dynasty: Liangshan Heroes.

Before this, including a period of time later, "underworld" existed in the form of rivers and lakes. Rivers and lakes originally talked about rivers and lakes. Later, those who didn't have a fixed job wandered around and formed gangs, calling their social system Jianghu, also called Greenwood. During the Northern Song Dynasty, Liang Shanbo's heroes, led by Song Jiang, were mostly dissatisfied with the rule of the feudal government at that time and were forced to embark on the road of the underworld. Another reason why they can maintain unity is that they have formed a well-organized "brotherly" system with "loyalty" as the link. There is no blood relationship, not born in the same palace, but the middle of blood is called brother, and even the older one may be called the younger one. Why? There is a simple reason. Their system is to win positions in the organization according to merit, and generally respected members will occupy a leading position in the organization. In order to strengthen this brotherly relationship, it established quasi-consanguineous relationship through blood alliance. At that time, the rivers and lakes have begun to deviate from the right path and go downhill. The picture comes from the internet. During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the underworld flourished. Large underworld organizations such as Heaven and Earth Society, White Lotus Society, Red Flower Society, Gelve Society and Taiping Heavenly Kingdom have emerged. Many people think that the Heaven and Earth Society was formed during the reign of Kangxi, but I think that the Heaven and Earth Society was not formed at that time, but in the middle of the Qing Dynasty. At first, most of the Heaven and Earth Societies were farmers or small handicraftsmen, small traders, transport workers along land and water transportation and other vagrants without fixed jobs. In the future, the composition is more and more complex, but it is still dominated by the poor at the lower level. The slogan of the Heaven-Earth Society is "Anti-Qing Dynasty and Restoration of Vision, Doing Heaven, Robbing the Rich and Helping the Poor", which reflects the national concept of ordinary people at that time and their demands against class oppression. Later, due to the repeated repression of the Qing court, the anti-Qing color gradually became strong. During this period, some descendants of the Ming Dynasty and nationalists of the Han nationality joined in, making it develop into an anti-Qing organization that our descendants will remember. Anti-Manchu content was added in the late Qing Dynasty. In order to cope with the suppression of the Qing court, it is convenient to absorb the congregation and constantly create new names, which has become a secret association system with dozens of names. Because the organizations are scattered and there is no unified leadership, organizations in the same area are not affiliated with each other. Moreover, the Heaven and Earth Society has no fixed doctrine and object of worship, but it has strict rules. Later, it developed into thirty-six vows, requiring the congregation to be loyal to the vows and strictly keep secrets.

3. In the heyday of the underworld in modern China, the nature of the whole society changed due to the rise of the bourgeois revolution and the establishment of Chiang Kai-shek's national government. Therefore, the underworld in China also colluded with the state, government and parties, forming a relatively mature underworld, such as the society in green gang and Sichuan since the Republic of China. As far as green gang is concerned, how did it grow and develop? At the end of Qing Dynasty, some people in green gang became more and more powerful through robbery. The most typical one is a man named Xu Baoshan in Yangzhou. Later, he took part in the Revolution of 1911 and finally became the Yangzhou overseer in the early years of the Republic of China. This is a typical example. During that period, many gangster gangs became the rulers of the country because they participated in the revolution. So what is the second reason? In the early years of the Republic of China, politics was very chaotic. Today is Yuan Shikai, tomorrow is Duan, and the day after tomorrow is Cao Kun. What do these warlords need to compete for power and status? They need the support of gangs, which become their tools for political struggle, and gangs need the support of warlords as their backers. The two hit it off, so many gangs in the early years of the Republic of China became tools of warlords and bureaucrats and gradually transformed into underworld. A sign of the official transformation is the green gang, which was established in Huang in the 1920s and 1930s. 1927, Chiang Kai-shek launched a coup on April 12th. He used green gang to slaughter a large number of workers in Shanghai and wiped out the * * * production party that influenced his dictatorship. In this way, green gang made great contributions to the Kuomintang, and the Kuomintang gave each of the three gangsters a rank of Major General. The gang combined with political forces and became a triad. Later, under the protection of the Kuomintang, he constantly set foot in all walks of life, obtained various titles, and dominated one side. Such a green gang leader, from a gang leader, gradually became a so-called party-state figure, mastered the actual power of Shanghai and became the actual ruler of Shanghai, including the concession. The picture comes from the internet.

4.65438-0949, after the founding of New China, China adopted the policy of resolutely cracking down on and suppressing underworld organizations, and combined with the movements of clearing bandits against hegemony, suppressing counter-revolution and banning drug prostitution, it dealt a devastating blow to underworld organizations. From 1953 to 1978, underworld crime has disappeared as a social phenomenon in Chinese mainland. From the end of 1970s to the end of 1980s, the number of crimes increased, and so did the number of criminal gangs. Some criminal gangs have developed into underworld organizations.

After the reform and opening up, underworld organizations have shown a new development trend:

(1) From loyalty to seeking economic goals, to strengthening and expanding social control.

(2) From cold weapons to hot weapons to more advanced weapons.

(3) From wooing officials into the water to triad leaders seeking political recognition in person, and then to triad leaders influencing the promulgation of policies and laws and the appointment and dismissal of personnel.

(4) The forms of underworld organizations are changing from illegal to legal, and legal activities are intertwined with illegal and criminal activities.

(5) Violence is becoming more and more hidden.

(6) Capital, violence and power are intertwined to form a combination of interests.

(7) Underworld organizations are combined with those in other parts of China and other countries in the world.

5. At present, it is an inevitable form of existence for the underworld to develop into a fraud group or organization. In the final analysis, the underworld still exists for the benefit, from the original loyalty to killing rivers and lakes to an interest group with the purpose of collecting money. It's just that the current law and environment determine that the traditional underworld can't survive at all. Therefore, from the perspective of keeping pace with the times, underworld organizations can only survive through transformation. Turn the sword of killing into a gentle knife of fraud, and turn bullying into a sweet-talking fraud. Nowadays, online fraud, credit card fraud, rural water purifier fraud, health care products fraud, etc. are actually a way of life after the transformation and upgrading of underworld organizations.