Big Sword Society
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The Big Sword Society originated as a secret vigilante group of southwestern Shandong after the Second Sino-Japanese War when the countryside was in anarchy and rife with banditry. The Big Swords supposedly protected lives and property, in their own way. During the Warlord Era the movement again gained strength in the 1920s as a rural self defense movement.
Big Sword Societies were local groups of small-holders and tenant farmers organized to defend villages against roaming bandits, warlords, tax collectors or later the Communists and Japanese. Because of a large immigration to places like Northeast China to escape the chaos in North China they were also active in Manchuria. In 1927 the Big Swords had spearheaded an uprising triggered by the collapse of the prevailing Feng-Piao paper currency. During the rebellion the Big Swords were respected by the peasants because they did not harm or plunder the common people, but resisted the officials of the warlord Zhang Zuolin. They also formed part of the Anti-Japanese Volunteer Armies resisting the Japanese establishment of Manchukuo in 1932.
The large numbers of men from the Manchurian countryside inspired to take up the fight against a foreign invader under the traditional and quasi-religious Big Sword Society were of a unique character. Members of the brotherhood placed their faith in rustic magics and belief in the righteous character's Heavenly reward. Big Sword braves were described as claiming they lead charmed lives and were immune from bullets due to a combination of deep breathing exercises, magical formulas, and the swallowing of charms.
