Introduction : two stories joined in the Chengdu Plain -- A public execution -- A local band of the Gowned Brothers -- Spirituality and customs -- Secret codes and language -- Disciplines and dominance -- A tenant farmer and Paoge master -- Entering the Paoge -- The decline of power -- A family crisis and a rural woman's fate -- Fall of the Paoge -- Looking for the storyteller -- Untangling Paoge myth -- Appendix 1 : Paoge ranks -- Appendix 2 : Lei family tree -- Appendix 3 : selected ritual/festival events -- Appendix 4 : Chinese texts of sayings and poems -- Appendix 5 : brief comments on texts, myth, and history
Summary
This is the first book-length treatment of the Paoge--a violent secret society located in a rural village near Chengdu, China. The book uses a filicide within the society as a starting point to examine the environment, history, culture, and organization of the Paoge and the structures of local power in 1940s rural Sichuan
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references and index
Notes
Online resource; title from digital title page (viewed on March 30, 2018)
