从天地会出发的哥老会——民国时期哥老会起源的文献解读

Gelaohui Starting from Tiandihui——An Interpretation of the Writings during the Republic of China about the Origin of Gelaohui

民国时期哥老会研究的重要论著大概可以划分为两种,第一种是索隐派,就是从传说和神话故事后面去寻找隐藏的历史;第二种是史料派,也就是从档案乃至其他文献中间去寻找蛛丝马迹。其实两者都指向了同一个方向,即洪门早期的这些传说和神话并不是完全没有历史资料可以佐证。实际上利用民国时期的亲历者和研究者所提供的资料和研究,从哥老会的革命叙事、民族主义叙事、会党成员的自我形象塑造、哥老会叙事的索引派和史料派等若干方面,可以进一步地理解哥老会的起源问题。这些故事的讲述,证明了在哥老会的故事中,有着大量霍布斯鲍姆概念中的“传统的发明”,但是历史显然成为他们身份认同和维系紧密关系的纽带。就这样,他们讲述的故事有多少依据固然重要,但是他们为什么要那样讲述自己的历史,却更是需要我们去认真探索的问题。

The writings of several important researchers of secret societies can be roughly divided into two types.The first is the historical metaphor school,which looks for hidden history behind legends and myths.The second is the historical data school,which looks for clues from archives and other documents.In fact,both work in the same direction,that is,these legends and myths of the early Hongmen period are not completely without historical evidence to support them.In their narratives,there is no doubt about the inheritance relationship between Gelaohui and Tiandihui.The systematic narration of the history of Gelaohui involves a long period of time,many important names,mixed with legends and myths.With so many connections,it is even more difficult to distinguish between truth and myth.The history hidden in myths and legends,alluding to real stories,can be found in many examples in Chinese history.In the narratives of secret societies,there are endless examples.Because they are metaphors,they leave a lot of room for imagination.No one can come up with an explanation that everyone can agree on.After all,there is no direct evidence.But there are traces of the relationship between Gelaohui and Tiandihui.Gelaohui played an active role in the 1911 Revolution and contributed to the overthrow of the Qing Dynasty.Therefore,the history of Gelaohui is actually symbiotic with the discourse of national revolution.Since the beginning of Sun Yat-sen's revolution,he had used the power of the secret societies to frequently contact and cooperate with Hongmen,Triad,and Sandianhui overseas.The Hongmen anti-Qing organization gradually shifted from secret to open activities.The history of the origin of the Gelaohui is closely integrated with the propaganda of the revolutionaries.From this,we can see that the national revolution was a turning point in the development of Gelaohui,revealing a very rich history about the origin of this organization.Using the information and research provided by witnesses and researchers during the Republic of China,we will further understand Gelaohui's revolutionary narrative,nationalist narrative,the self-image shaping of the members,the historical metaphor school,and the historical data school of Gelaohui's origin.Telling of these stories proves that there are a lot of“inventions of tradition”in Hobsbawm's concept in Gelaohui history writings,but the history writings have obviously become their identity and the bond of maintaining a close relationship among the members.In this way,it is important to understand how much basis of the stories they told,but why they told their history that way is a question that we need to seriously explore.