INTRODUCTIOK 



EX ORIEXTE LUX. 



Eveiy person who has read anything of the secret societies in] China, must have been struck 

 with the resemblance between them and the society of Freemasons. 



We believe that it was Dr. Milne who first noted this resemblance in his paper on the 

 Triadsociety. A communication in the //Münchener gelehrten Anzeigen" regarding this society, 

 impressed, forcibly, a learned mason from Zürich, Dr. Jos. Schauberg; little as was known at 

 that time about the Chinese Hungleague, yet the doctor expressedit as his conviction, that the 

 Chinese league was similar to free-masonry in its institutions. ( 2 ) 



The ample materials we now possess will, we hope, enable us to deA r elop further this in te- 

 resting point, whilst we express the wish, that the more able and learned, especially amongst 

 masons, may be induced, by the few hints we will give, to make the Chinese Hungleague 

 the subject of a more serious and extensive research. 



For those who believe in the unity of the human race, it will seem less strange that there 

 should exist a marked resemblance between both societies, and they will more readily compre- 

 hend the similarity of the symbols and institutions of these societies. If the theory of the unity 

 of the human race be the more correct one, it would be very likely that the nations, when they 

 spread themselves from the supposed cradle of mankind — the plains ofMiddle Asia, — over all 

 the world, retained the notion that they were once all brethern and formed one family. Be- 

 sides, the Chinese have not always been so exclusive as they are now; the Chinese eye-lash- 

 paint-vases, found in Egyptian tombs of the XVIIIth and XXth dynasties (B. C. 1800 — 1100.), 

 would suggest that there has existed a direct or indirect intercourse between both nations. ( 2 ) 



( a ) Nach den Münchener gelehrten Anzeigen für 1857 No. 17, haben die geheimen Gesellschaften im Iieu- 

 tigen China, welclte überhaupt in ihren Einricïdungen den Freimaurern ahnlich sind, besondere eigene 

 Erkennungszeichen und Erkennungsworte haben, und einen innigen Bruderbund bilden, den öeckigen 

 Stern rait versetzten Chinesischen Characteren zum Siegel. (Dr. Jos. Schauberg, Symbolik der Freimau- 

 rerei, Theil I, S. 178. Zürich, 1861.) 



( 2 ) Davis, China and the Chinese. 



B 



