The 1890s White Lotus and Eight Trigrams millenarian prosecutions

Record summary

Late Qing authorities continued to prosecute groups described under broad labels such as White Lotus or Eight Trigrams, often involving prophecy, possession, secret scriptures and expectations of regime transformation. These cases are relevant to comparison because official reports frequently translated complex local religious practices into categories of sedition and heterodoxy. The better-known Eight Trigrams rebellion occurred in 1813, but nineteenth-century prosecutions and sectarian continuities preserved related traditions. A researcher should isolate a named case file, leader or county rather than treating “White Lotus” as a single organization.