1. Heaven and Earth Society originated in the reign of Kangxi. This statement was clearly put forward by William Stanton, an Englishman, in his book Trichord. The main basis is that there is a legend in the secret documents of the Heaven and Earth Society about the expedition of Shaolin Temple monks to the west foot during the reign of Kangxi. The general idea of the legend is: During the reign of Kangxi, West Road invaded the Central Plains, and in desperation, the civil servants and military commanders of the Qing court issued a list to collect warriors to defend against the enemy. After hearing the news, the monks from Shaolin Temple in Fujian rushed to Beijing overnight and invited them to the west foot. With the help of "six men and six women", they defeated Xi Lu. After returning to Beijing, he didn't want to be an official or be rewarded. He still owed the Shaolin Temple a clean-up and was later framed by traitors. The Shaolin Temple was burned by Xiaoting, and most monks died tragically. Five surviving monks, including Cai Dezhong, fled to Changyao Temple in Huizhou, Guangdong, and met heroes, Zhu and others. Together, the two became sworn brothers, determined to "fight against the Qing Dynasty and regain sight", so the "Heaven and Earth Society" appeared. Later, Hirayama Zhou's Secret Social History of China and Tao's Textual Research on the Origin of the Church also used this theory. After the Republic of China, books such as Liu Hanquan's History, Under the Sea, Records of Hong Men and History of Hong Men further enriched the content of this statement. In 1934 Luo Ergang's "Water Margin and Heaven-Earth Society", it is more clearly stated: "According to the legend of Hong Men, the age when Heaven-Earth Society was founded started from Jiayin in the 13th year of Qing Emperor Kangxi (1674)." One of his important bases is that Sun Yat-sen described the background of the establishment of the Heaven and Earth Society in the General Plan for the Founding of the People's Republic of China as follows: "Hong Men was founded in the Ming Dynasty and began in the Kangxi era. Before Gai Kangxi, the martyrs, loyal ministers of the Ming Dynasty, tried hard to save it, vowed to be unclear, sacrificed their lives for justice, and went to fight with Lu many times; However, the pawn did not save the demise of the Ming Dynasty. By the time of Kangxi, the Qing dynasty had flourished and the loyalty of the Ming dynasty had also disappeared. Seeing that the general trend has gone, it is irreversible to pass on the roots of nationalism to future generations. Therefore, with the purpose of anti-Qing and regaining sight, it became a group for future generations to borrow as subsidies. This is the original intention of Hong Men. " Luo Ergang's recognition of speculation and Sun Yat-sen's extremely brief and thorough hints are indispensable for studying the World Association.
Second, Heaven and Earth Society was founded in Yongzheng. In the article "A Textual Research on the Origin of the Heaven and Earth Society", Xiao Yishan thought that the establishment date of the Heaven and Earth Society should be the twelfth year of Yongzheng, according to the narrative legend of the earlier original manuscript in London, thus denying the former statement. However, he inferred from the historical background of the Kangxi period that the Heaven and Earth Society was organized by the mastermind of the Zheng family, and therefore further proposed that the Heaven and Earth Society had existed in the Kangxi period, and it was not until the reorganization at the end of Yongzheng that it was more closely organized (hence the name "Reviving Heaven and Earth Society"). It is good to say that the Heaven and Earth Society began in the last years of Yongzheng, and it is also necessary to say that the Heaven and Earth Society began in the Kangxi era. It is obviously wrong to talk about it in the 13th year of Kangxi, because Zheng was still in Taiwan Province Province.
Third, the Heaven and Earth Society originated in the Qianlong period. Since the founding of the People's Republic of China, some scholars have inferred that the Heaven and Earth Society was established in the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty, but the exact time of its establishment is different: Cai introduced the process of the Qing government seeking the roots of the Heaven and Earth Society during the Taiwan Province Forest Uprising, and concluded that the Heaven and Earth Society originated in Zhangzhou, Fujian in the 26th year of Qianlong (17665438). The social origin of the Heaven and Earth Society was that there were a large number of bankrupt farmers and salt people in Zhangzhou during the Kangxi period of the Qing Dynasty. They urgently felt the need to support each other, and thus the heaven-earth meeting came into being.
According to the archives of the Heaven and Earth Society preserved in the First Historical Archives of China, Qin Baoqi and Liu Meizhen held that the Heaven and Earth Society was founded in the middle of Qianlong period, when a large number of secret societies appeared. Its founder or one of its founders was Tixi, the second highest monk in Zhangpu County, who was discovered by the Qing government during the Qianlong period. They also pointed out that the preface to Xilu was not finalized until the sixteenth year of Jiaqing, which was very different from the common manuscripts in later generations. Therefore, it is not reliable to use the preface to Xi Lu, which was gradually formed after Jiaqing, as evidence to prove that heaven and earth were founded in Kangxi or Yongzheng years.
In addition, Dai Xuanzhi, a scholar from Taiwan Province Province, proposed in the article "The Origin of Heaven and Earth Society" 1936 that the origin of Heaven and Earth Society should be studied according to the official history. He believed that the Heaven and Earth Society was founded by two monks, Hong Tixi, and was formally established in the thirty-second year of Qianlong. As for other related legends, they are all "myths" or "fantasies" and are not sufficient. Mainly based on the confession of Xu Asu, a member of the Heaven and Earth Society, Sun Shiyi, governor of Guangdong and Guangxi during the Qianlong period, believed that the Heaven and Earth Society would be in Qianlong for 32 years, and the Emperor Qianlong also believed it. The imperial edict said, "The Heaven and Earth Society has been famous all over the world for thirty-two years."
Fourth, the Heaven and Earth Society originated in the late Ming and early Qing Dynasties. He Zhengqing and Wu Yannan think in the article The Origin of Heaven and Earth Society that from the ideological origin of Heaven and Earth Society, it seems to have originated in the late Ming and early Qing Dynasties, because Heaven and Earth Society was greatly influenced by Taoism, and it was at this time that Taoism had a great influence. Judging from the social conditions, the Ming Dynasty already had the conditions to produce such a social organization as the Heaven and Earth Society. As for the specific time of the establishment of the Heaven and Earth Society, they think it should start from the Ming and Qing Dynasties. The reason is that it took a long time to form the heaven and earth society. As early as the Ming Dynasty, the prototype of the Heaven-Earth Society appeared, and it has been a long time from the Wanli period of the Ming Dynasty to the early years of the Qing Dynasty. But also in the criminal law of the early Qing Dynasty. For example, in the early years of Shunzhi, the criminal law only "flogged brothers with different surnames for 100 times", and in the eighteenth year of Shunzhi, it was changed to "who made an alliance with blood and burned the table to become sworn brothers"; During the reign of Emperor Kangxi, the Laws of the Qing Dynasty made stricter provisions on this. Therefore, the Heaven and Earth Society originated in Shunzhi and Kangxi years. Its origin was not limited to Sichuan or Jiangnan, but appeared in many places in the north, south, east and west of China at the same time.