See China Mission Year Book, 1896, p. 43.
[852] For some account of them, see Stanton, The Triad Society, White Lotus Society, etc., 1900, reprinted from China Review, vols. XXI, XXII, and De Groot, Sectarianism and religious persecution in China, vol. I. pp. 149-259.
[853] The Republic of China has not changed much from the ways of the Empire. The Peking newspapers of June 17, 1914, contain a Presidential Edict stating that "the invention of heretical religions by ill-disposed persons is strictly prohibited by law," and that certain religious societies are to be suppressed.
[854] See, for an account of such a reformed sect, O. Francke, "Ein Buddhistischer Reformversuch in China," T'oung Pao, 1909, p. 567.