1 Renmin ribao (People's Daily, RMRB), 22 January 1949.

2 “Xibeiju guanyu kaizhan fandui Yiguandao huodong de gongzuo zhishi” (“Directive of the North-west China Bureau on the initiation of the anti-Unity Sect campaign”), Dang de wenxian (Documents of the Chinese Communist Party), No. 4 (1996), pp. 11–13.

3 DeGroot, J.J.M., Sectarianism and Religious Persecution in China, 2 vols. (Taipei: Literature House Ltd., 1963 [1903]), esp. ch. 2Google Scholar.

4 Overmyer, Daniel, Folk Buddhist Religion: Dissenting Sects in Late Traditional China (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1976), pp. 38–52CrossRefGoogle Scholar. For other millenarian rebellions such as the Eight Trigrams, see Naquin, Susan, Millenarian Rebellion in China: The Eight Trigrams Uprising of 1813 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1976)Google Scholar.

5 Lieberthal, Kenneth G., Revolution and Tradition in Tientsin, 1949–1952 (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1980)Google Scholar.

6 Strauss, Julia C., “Paternalist terror: the campaign to suppress counterrevolutionaries and regime consolidation in the People's Republic of China, 1950–1953,” Comparative Studies in Society and History, Vol. 44, No. 1 (2002), pp. 80–105CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Kuisong, Yang, “Reconsidering the campaign to suppress counterrevolutionaries,” The China Quarterly, No. 193 (2008), pp. 102–21Google Scholar.

7 RMRB, 24 July 1950.

8 “Zhonggong zhongyang guanyu zhenya fangeming huodong de zhishi” (“Directive on the suppression of counterrevolutionary activities by the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party”), in Zhonggong zhongyang wenxian yanjiushi, (ed.), Jianguo yilai zhongyao wenxian xuanbian, Vol. 1 (Important Documents since the Founding of the Nation) (Beijing: Zhonggong zhongyang wenxian chubanshe, 1992), pp. 420–23Google Scholar.

9 Shiyu, Li, Xiandai huabei mimi zongjiao (Secret Religions in Modern North China) (Shanghai: Shanghai wenyi chubanshe, 1990 [1948]), pp. 32–130Google Scholar. Xisha, Ma and Bingfang, Han, Zhongguo minjian zongjiaoshi (History of Chinese Folk Religions) (Shanghai: Shanghai renmin chubanshe, 1992), pp. 1092–167Google Scholar.

10 Li Shiyu, Secret Religions, pp. 45–55.

11 Ma and Han, History of Chinese Folk Religions, pp. 1150–67.

12 For a brief biography of Zhang Tianran, see Li Shiyu, Secret Religions, pp. 48–50. See also Jordan, David K. and Overmyer, Daniel L., The Flying Phoenix: Aspects of Chinese Sectarianism in Taiwan (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1986), pp. 213–17Google Scholar.

13 Guangyu, Song, “Yiguandao de zuotian, jintian he mingtian” (“The past, present and future of the Unity Sect”), Lianhe yuekan, No. 10 (1982), p. 75Google Scholar.

14 See, for example, the Shanghai municipal government's pre-1949 orders to ban the Unity Sect, Shanghai Municipal Archives (SMA), Q6-10-413; Q155-4-33.

15 “Jianjue qudi Yiguandao” (“Determine to ban the Unity Sect”), RMRB, 20 December 1950.

16 Song Guangyu, “The past, present and future of the Unity Sect,” p. 75.

17 Zedong, Mao, “Guanyu zhenya fangeming” (“On the suppression of counterrevolutionaries”), in Mao Zedong wenji (Collected Writings of Mao Zedong), Vol. 6 (Beijing: Renmin chubanshe, 1999), p. 119Google Scholar.

18 RMRB, 30 September 1949.

19 “Zhonghua renmin gongheguo chengzhi fangeming tiaoli” (“Rules to punish the counterrevolutionaries, the People's Republic of China”), RMRB, 22 February 1951.

20 Neibu cankao (Internal References, NBCK), 25 September 1950, p. 145.

21 Qinggeltu, , “Jianguo chuqi Suiyuan diqu qudi Yiguandao de douzheng” (“The ban of the Unity Sect in the Suiyuan areas during the early People's Republic”), Neimenggu daxue xuebao (Journal of Inner Mongolia University), Vol. 33, No. 3 (2001), p. 45Google Scholar.

22 “Jingjiao qudi Yiguandao gongzuo zongjie” (“A summary of the ban of the Unity Sect in the suburbs of Beijing”), Beijing Municipal Archives, 1-14-165.

23 “Directive of the North-west China Bureau on the initiation of the anti-Unity Sect campaign,” p. 11.

24 Jiping, Feng, “Jixu gaijin shoudu de shehui zhixu” (“Continue to improve the public order in the capital”), in Beijingshi dang'anguan, and Zhonggong Beijing shiwei dangshi yanjiushi, (ed.), Beijingshi zhongyao wenxian xuanbian, 1951 (Selected Important Documents of Beijing, 1951) (Beijing: Zhongguo dang'an chubanshe, 2001), p. 55Google Scholar.

25 NBCK, 25 September 1950, p. 145.

26 “A summary of the ban of the Unity Sect.”

27 “Beijingshi gong'anju guanyu qudi Yiguandao gongzuo de qingkuang ji jingyan jiaoxun de baogao” (“Report on the experience and lessons of the suppression of the Unity Sect by the Public Security Bureau, Beijing”), in Beijingshi zhongyao wenxian xuanbian, 1951, p. 262.

28 “A summary of the ban of the Unity Sect.”

29 Ibid.

30 Gao, James Z., The Communist Takeover of Hangzhou: The Transformation of City and Cadre, 1949–1954 (Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 2004), p. 142Google Scholar.

31 “A summary of the ban of the Unity Sect.” Lieberthal, Revolution and Tradition, pp. 108–09.

32 “Zhonggong zhongyang pizhuan Zhongyang gong'anbu ‘Guanyu quanguo gong'an huiyi de baogao’” (“Report on the national conference on public security,” issued by the Ministry of the Public Security and transmitted by the Central Committee of the Party), in Important Documents since the Founding of the Nation, Vol. 1, p. 444.

33 Luo Ruiqing, “Zuo hao jin dong ming chun de zhenfan gongzuo” (“Do everything right to suppress the counterrevolutionaries this winter and the early spring of next year”), in Ruiqing, Luo, Lun renmin gong'an gongzuo (On the People's Public Security Work) (Beijing: Qunzhong chubanshe, 1994), p. 147Google Scholar.

34 Zedong, Mao, Jianguo yilai Mao Zedong wengao (Mao Zedong's Manuscripts since the Founding of the People's Republic of China), Vol. 2 (Beijing: Zhongyang wenxian chubanshe, 1988), p. 71Google Scholar.

35 “Report on the experience and lessons of the suppression of the Unity Sect,” pp. 259–60.

36 “Cuihui fandong tongzhi, jianli renmin zhengquan” (“Smash reactionary rule, establish the people's regime”), in Beijingshi dang'anguan, and Zhonggong Beijing shiwei dangshi yanjiushi, (ed.), Beijingshi zhongyao wenxian xuanbian, 1950 (Selected Important Documents of Beijing, December 1950) (Beijing: Zhongguo dang'an chubanshe, 2001), p. 130Google Scholar.

37 “Beijingshi renmin zhengfu bugao, yanli qudi Yiguandao” (“Proclamation of the Beijing People's Government to sternly suppress the Unity Sect”), RMRB, 19 December 1950.

38 “A summary of the ban of the Unity Sect.”

39 “Report on the experience and lessons of the suppression of the Unity Sect,” p. 260.

40 Mao Zedong, “On the suppression of counterrevolutionaries,” p. 121.

41 Ibid. p. 117.

42 “Kaizhan zhenya fangeming qunzhong yundong de xuanchuan yaodian” (“Key propaganda issues in launching the suppression of the counterrevolutionary mass movement”), SMA, A22-1-14.

43 RMRB, 7 March 1951.

44 Ruiqing, Luo, “Zhonggong zhongyang zhuanfa Luo Ruiqing guanyu qudi fandong huidaomen qingkuang de baogao” (“Luo Ruiqing's report concerning the suppression of reactionary sects, transmitted by the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party”), Dang de wenxian, No. 4 (1996), p. 18Google Scholar.

45 Quoted in Yuqiang, Guo, “Jianguo qianhou qudi Yiguandao de douzheng” (“The fight in the banning of the Unity Sect before and after the founding of nation”), Zhonggong dangshi ziliao (Sources on the History of the Chinese Communist Party), No. 60 (December 1996), p. 129Google Scholar.

46 “Proclamation of the Beijing People's Government to sternly suppress the Unity Sect.”

47 “Yancheng huebuquan de huidaomen shoue” (“Severely punish obdurate and irredeemable sect leaders”), RMRB, 19 January 1951. See also Guangming ribao (Enlightenment Daily, GMRB), 19 January 1951.

48 RMRB, 19 January 1951.

49 GMRB, 19 February 1951.

50 GMRB, 26 March 1951.

51 NBCK, 31 August 1951, p. 107.

52 GMRB, 19 January 1951.

53 GMRB, 23 May 1951.

54 “Determine to ban the Unity Sect.”

55 Guo Yuqiang, “The fight in the banning of the Unity Sect,” p. 126.

56 Luo Ruiqing, “Do everything right to suppress the counterrevolutionaries,” pp. 145–49.

57 Ruiqing, Luo, “Sannianlai zhenya fangeming gongzuo de weida chengjiu” (“The great achievements of the campaign to suppress counterrevolutionaries in the past three years”), RMRB, 29 September 1952Google Scholar.

58 Luo Ruiqing, “Qudi fandong huidaomen gongzuo chujian chengxiao” (“The initial success of the suppression of reactionary sects”), in Luo, On the People's Public Security Work, pp. 169–173. See also Guo Yuqiang, “The fight in the banning of the Unity Sect,” p. 124.

59 Yang, “Reconsidering the Campaign,” p. 120.

60 Luo Ruiqing, “Zai Zhongyang renmin zhengfu Zhengwuyuan zhengwu huiyi shang guanyu zhenya fangeming gongzuo de baogao” (“Report on the work carried out in the zhenfan campaign at State Administrative Council meetings in the Central People's Government”), in Luo, On the People's Public Security Work, p. 98.

61 GMRB, 15 May 1951; 1 October 1951.

62 Luo Ruiqing, “The great achievements of the campaign.”

63 Siegelbaum, Lewis H., Stakhanovism and the Politics of Productivity in the USSR, 1935–1941 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988)Google Scholar.

64 Strauss, Julia, “Morality, coercion and state building by campaign in the early PRC: regime consolidation and after, 1949–1956,” The China Quarterly, No. 188 (2006), p. 898Google Scholar.

65 Mao Zedong, “On the suppression of counterrevolutionaries,” p. 120.

66 Shaoqi, Liu, “Guanyu kaizhan fandui Yiguandao huodong gei Xibeiju de xin” (“A letter to the North-west Bureau concerning the launch of the anti-Yiguandao activities”), Dang de wenxian, No. 4 (1996), p. 10Google Scholar.

67 NBCK, 26 June 1950, p. 97.

68 GMRB, 26 March 1951.

69 Luo Ruiqing, “Luo Ruiqing's report concerning the suppression of reactionary sects,” p. 19.

70 “A summary of the ban of the Unity Sect.”

71 Ibid. See also GMRB, 9 June 1950.

72 Gao, The Communist Takeover of Hangzhou, pp. 42–68.

73 “Report on the experience and lessons of the suppression of the Unity Sect,” p. 260.

74 “Zhenya fangeming xuanchuan gongzuo de xiaojie” (“Summary of the propaganda campaign to suppress counterrevolutionaries”), SMA, A22-1-14; “Guanyu quanguo qudi fandong huidaomen gongzuo zhong xuanchuan gongzuo de tongzhi” (“Circular of the propaganda work in the nationwide suppression of anti-revolutionary sects”), SMA, A22-1-93.

75 “Report on the experience and lessons of the suppression of the Unity Sect,” p. 260.

76 Peng Zhen, “Gong'an gongzuo yao yikao qunzhong” (“Public security work relies on the masses”), in Peng Zhen, Peng Zhen wenxuan, p. 253.

77 David Holm, Art and Ideology in Revolutionary China (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1991).

78 “Directive of the North-west China Bureau on the initiation of the anti-Unity Sect campaign,” p. 12. See also Beijingshi dang'anguan, and Zhonggong Beijing shiwei dangshi yanjiushi, (ed.), Beijingshi zhongyao wenxian xuanbian, 1948.12 –1949 (Selected Important Documents of Beijing, December 1948–1949) (Beijing: Zhongguo dang'an chubanshe, 2001), p. 739Google Scholar.

79 Ibid.

80 Hung, Chang-tai, War and Popular Culture: Resistance in Modern China, 1937–1945 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1994), pp. 221–69Google Scholar.

81 Yiguan hairen dao (A Reactionary Sect), a film produced by Zhongyang dianyinju, Beijing dianying zhipianchang (Beijing Film Studio, the Central Film Bureau), 1952.

82 Fang Cheng, “Dianchuanshi” (“Unity Sect instructor”), RMRB, 4 August 1955.

83 Tian Zuoliang, “Xianban,” RMRB, 9–12 May 1951.

84 “Guanyu benshi guanche zhenya fangeming yundong de xuanchuan gongzuo tongzhi” (“Proclamation of the city's implementation of propaganda work to suppress counterrevolutionaries”), SMA, A22-1-93.

85 GMRB, 17 May 1951.

86 RMRB, 26 December 1950.

87 Zhizhong, Geng, “Wo zenyang tuichu le Yiguandao” (“How I withdrew from the Unity Sect”), RMRB, 24 December 1950Google Scholar.

88 Ibid.

89 Zhongguo geming bowuguan, (ed.), Jiefangqu zhanlanhui ziliao (Materials on the Exhibitions held in the Liberated Areas) (Beijing: Wenwu chubanshe, 1988), preface, p. 1Google Scholar.

90 “Ji Yiguandao zuizheng zhanlan” (“On the exhibition of the criminal evidence against the Unity Sect”), RMRB, 3 March 1951.

91 GMRB, 18 January 1951; RMRB, 3 March 1951.

92 “On the exhibition of the criminal evidence against the Unity Sect.”

93 Shanghaishi renmin zhengfu gong'anju (ed.), “Qudi fandong huidaomen xuanchuan gongzuo shouce” (“Propaganda handbook to ban reactionary sects”), SMA, A22-1-93.

94 Qinggeltu, “The ban of the Unity Sect in the Suiyuan areas,” p. 47.

95 For some names of public trials, see Xinhua yuebao (New China Monthly, XHYB), Vol. 4, No. 1 (25 May 1951), pp. 19–21. See also GMRB, 27 March 1950.

96 Wood, Elizabeth A., Performing Justice: Agitation Trials in Early Soviet Russia (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2005)Google Scholar.

97 GMRB, 25 March 1951; XHYB, Vol. 4, No. 1 (25 May 1951).

98 “Proclamation of the city's implementation of propaganda work.”

99 “Summary of the propaganda campaign to suppress counterrevolutionaries.”

100 XHYB, Vol. 3, No. 6 (25 April 1951), illustrations.

101 GMRB, 18 January, 1951; 18 May 1951.

102 GMRB, 18 May 1951.

103 GMRB, 22 May 1951.

104 Ibid.; GMRB, 23 May 1951.

105 Conquest, Robert, Harvest of Sorrow: Soviet Collectivization and the Terror-Famine (New York: Oxford University Press, 1986), p. 295Google Scholar.

106 XHYB, Vol. 4, No. 1 (25 May 1951), p. 19.

107 GMRB, 22 May 1951.

108 “Wei shenme yao qudi fandong huidaomen” (“Why must reactionary sects be outlawed”), SMA, A22-1-93.

109 Ibid.

110 Shaoqian, Feng, “Wo jianju le yeye” (“I report my grandfather's offences to the authorities”), RMRB, 17 April 1951Google Scholar.

111 XHYB, Vol. 4, No. 1 (25 May 1951), p. 19.

112 NBCK, 20 June 1951, p. 64.

113 Yang, “Reconsidering the campaign,” p. 113.

114 Luo Ruiqing, “Luo Ruiqing's report concerning the suppression of reactionary sects,” p. 19.

115 NBCK, 12 April 1951, pp. 67–68.

116 NBCK, 25 June 1951, p. 85.

117 NBCK, 20 June 1951, p. 64.

118 NBCK, 12 June 1954, p. 68.

119 XHYB, No. 7 (1954), p. 25.

120 Guo Yuqiang, “The fight in the banning of the Unity Sect,” pp. 134–35.

121 Weller, Robert P., Alternate Civilities: Democracy and Culture in China and Taiwan (Boulder, CO: Westview, 1999), pp. 92–93Google Scholar.

122 Potter, Pitman B., “Belief in control: regulation of religion in China,” The China Quarterly, No. 174 (2003), pp. 317–37Google Scholar.

123 Chen, Nancy N., “Healing sects and anti-cult campaigns,” The China Quarterly, No. 174 (2003), p. 513Google Scholar.

124 Arendt, Hannah, The Origins of Totalitarianism (New York: World, 1972), p. 430Google Scholar.