ABSTRACT
Only a few individual nien groups inherited the practices of the White Lotus Society. The words of Ch'a K'uei that "the places where they gathered were known as nien-tzu" and those of T'ao Chu, "each group is called a nien-tzu," point out that nien referred to an organizational structure. The term Nien Army is definitely not reflective of a proletarian position, but is an incorrect suprapolitical and supraclass objectivism. One comrade has stated, "On the basis of field investigation, Erh-lao Yuan have ascertained that nien-tzu was the name by which the Nien Army members referred to themselves; they therefore have reason to term the rebellion the Nien Army." Erh-lao Yuan know that the reason the people called them nien-tzu was because the Nien Society called their form of organization nien-tzu. The local people are strong and violent. They gather into groups to plunder.
