Bandits

…Both Hui and Dang mean “friends,” and originally it was simply called Hui, but since the revolutionary party led by Sun Yat-sen began to work together in the late Qing Dynasty, it came to be used interchangeably with Huidang. From the perspective of those in power, all members of anti-establishment secret societies are “bandits,” but “bandits” are broadly divided into “religious bandits” whose ties of union are religious superstition, and “social bandits” who have no religion or do not consider religion to be their main element, the latter being Huidang. In premodern times, the White Lotus Sect and other sects were almost all “religious bandits,” but the emergence of Huidang in modern times is a characteristic of the times. …

*Some of the terminology explanations that refer to "bandits" are listed below.

Source | Heibonsha World Encyclopedia 2nd Edition | Information

…会も党も“なかま”の意味で，もとは単に会といったが，清末に孫文ら革命党が合作を働きかけていらい，会党と連用するようになった。権力の側からいえば，反体制秘密結社のメンバーはなべて〈匪〉であるが，〈匪〉は宗教的迷信を結合紐帯とする〈教匪〉と，宗教をもたぬかあるいは主要な要素としない〈会匪〉とに大別され，後者が会党である。前近代には白蓮教などほとんど〈教匪〉一色だったのにたいし，近代に会党が簇出（そうしゆつ）したのは時代の一特色なのである。…

※「会匪」について言及している用語解説の一部を掲載しています。

出典｜株式会社平凡社世界大百科事典 第２版について | 情報