Li Hongzhi’s Falun Gong is only the latest quasi-religious movement to scare the Chinese leadership over the centuries. Mysticism and religion have often led to rebellion. 1796: The White Lotus Society was China’s most active secret society before the Ching dynasty. The Buddhist sect mobilized peasant revolts. An uprising in 1796 weak-need Ching dynasty rule.
1662-Present:The Triad Society stemmed from clandestine Ming dynasty loyalists, who wanted to topple the Ching court. Its offshoots engaged increasingly in crime, but also took part in the revolts that mushroomed at the turn of the 19th century.
1850-1865:The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom uprising left at least 20 million dead. The million-strong Taiping rebels were led by Hong Xiuquan. Hong believed himself to be Jesus’ younger brother, destined to bring about paradise on earth. The Taiping rebellion exploded as China’s imperial court was humiliated by Western powers in the wake of the Opium War. The failed revolt was the beginning of the end of China’s imperial era.
1900: As the decadent Ching dynasty teetered toward collapse, quasi-mystical secret societies arose. The “Boxers” killed foreign missionaries and Chinese Christians, and in 1900 laid siege to the foreign legation quarter in Beijing. Foreign soldiers forced the Ching court to pay indemnities.
1951: The “Way of Unity” sect grew from the secret societies in the Ching dynasty. In crackdowns in 1951 and the late 1970s, communist officials charged that followers called party members “devil people” and socialism “a realm of evil.”
1966-1976:Many Chinese consider the Cultural Revolution an era of mass psychosis brought on by the cultish adulation of Mao Zedong. Red Guards rampaged nationwide, persecuting Mao’s rivals.
1997-1998:The leader of the Christian-influenced “Supreme Spirit” sect, Liu Jiaguo was sentenced to death in July for stealing members’ fees, proposing to raise arms for an antigovernment rebellion and raping women recruits.
1992-1999: Li Hongzhi preaches “cosmic law” and, by his account, draws some 100 million followers. The government outlaws the movement in July 1999.
