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SECRET SOCIETIES THE TAIPINGS. 161
societies, which are maintained from generation to generation. For here nearly
the whole nation is influenced and guided by the action of these social unions. In
all the towns nearly every person, rich or poor, belongs to one or other of the
numerous brotherhoods, which are either publicly constituted, or else secretly
organized. The very mendicants, or " children of the flowers," as they are
Fig. 69. ROUTES OP THB CHIEF MODERN EXPLORERS IN CHINA.
Scale 1 : 25,000,000.
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called, have their associations, with their statutes, special code, feasts, and
gatherings.
The late civil war has shown the great influence of the secret societies, and has
also made it evident that the " sons of Han " are by no means a stagnant people
hopelessly wedded to the old ideas, as is so often asserted. The common error of
confounding the Chinaman and the Mandarin has been rudely dispelled by recent
events, and Confucius himself had long ago said that the " Law of the Great
Philosophy is to renovate mankind." The Ta'ipings represented a fresh departure
in the national development, and if they were not upheld to the end by public