Eight trigrams sect (Pa-kua-chiao 八卦教) was the most popular religious secret society in north China through the Ch'ing dynasty, and in the process of its expansion we can often find a lot of boxing training by its members. In this paper we will consider the relationship between the Eight trigrams sect and boxing training such as I-ho-chuan (義和拳), etc.. Eight trigrams sect is said to have been founded by a man called Li Ting-yu (李廷玉) in either the Shun Chih (順治) or Kang Hsi (康煕) reign periods at the beginning of the Ch'ing dynasty. It was organized according to the principle of the division into eight trigrams, and also divided into a "Wen" (文) or literary sect, and a "Wu" (武) or military one which had widely developed itself ; the society consisted of four "Wen" trigrams and four "Wu" trigrams. The combination of Eight trigrams sect and boxing training had already taken place in early Yung Cheng (雍正) period. In the Wang Lun (王倫) rebellion (1774), which was raised by a society called Ching-Shui-Chiao (清水教), a branch of the Eight trigrams sect, the boxing styles used inside the sect had been Pa-kua-chuan (八卦拳, Eight trigrams boxing), Chi-hsin-hung-chuan (七星紅拳 Seven star red boxing), and I-he-chuan (義合拳, Righteous harmony boxing). From this we can see that the I-ho-chuan was the same as the White Lotus religion or more precisely as the boxing which had combined with the military sect of Eight trigrams sect, Ching-Shui-chiao. From the incident of the I-ho-chuan in 1778, 1783 and 1786, we can guess that the I-ho-chuan had close relationship with the Li (離) trigram, a branch of the Eight trigrams sect. In 1813, Eight trigrams sect raised an uprising. A careful examination of the materials on the boxing in this uprising such sources as those on general leader of the military sect, Feng Ke-shan (馮克善), the group members led by Sung Yueh-lung (宋躍〓) and the case of Ke Li-yeh (葛立業) who learned and practiced I-ho school boxing (義和門拳棒), show that I-ho school boxing had been practiced inside Sung Yueh-lung's group in the Chili-Shantung boundary area, and that this group belonged to the chain of Li trigram. Hence we can easily identify the I-ho school as one of small regional group in the Li trigram in Eight trigrams sect. It becomes clear that the reason why boxing was combined with the Li trigram, representative of Wu trigrams, depends on the principle of organization. The boxing practiced in the Eight trigrams sect had been influenced by its religious thought, and came to have incantationary-religious characteristics, The I-ho-chuan and Eight trigrams sect in Chin-hsiang (金郷) county seem as though they were in conflict, but this example proves that there was a close relationship between the two. It is clear that historically boxing such as the I-ho-chuan, Pa-kua-chuan, etc., expanded widely in the north-west Chili-Shantung boundary area and south-west region of Shantung, by maintaining continuous relationship with Eight trigrams sect. Another phenomenon, however, also appeared. Social disturbance and confusion after the late Tao-Kuang (道光) period, brought about a wide expansion of the boxing training that was not directly related with Eight trigrams sect. The boxing which had combined with Eight trigrams sect, though taking on religious character, gradually started to secede from it, was accepted as a function of violence or defence in rural society. In the Hsien-Feng (咸豊) and Tung-Chih (同治) Periods, boxing which had permeated into rural society gradually came to be related to "Tuan militia" (団) and the "Allied village societies" (lianzhuanghui 連荘会) coexisted with the order of rural society, and built up the social foundation for the organization of I-ho-chuan society. Eight trigrams sect, not only scattered widely in this way, but also combined forces with bandits in the process of the mutual permeation with

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