{"id":11566,"date":"2025-05-25T11:47:29","date_gmt":"2025-05-25T03:47:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bukitbrown.com\/main\/?page_id=11566"},"modified":"2025-10-16T22:38:17","modified_gmt":"2025-10-16T14:38:17","slug":"16-lu-shang-lian","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/bukitbrown.com\/main\/wayfinder\/16-lu-shang-lian\/","title":{"rendered":"16 LU SHANG LIAN \u5415\u4e0a\u6190"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0The Little Dagger Society\u00a0<\/b><\/h3>\n

LU SHANG LIAN \u5415\u4e0a<\/span>\u6190<\/b>\u00a0 (Unknown –1856)\u00a0 Ancestry:\u00a0 Unknown<\/span><\/p>\n

The Little Dagger Society was one of many secret societies dedicated to the overthrow of the Qing Dynasty,\u00a0 to restore the Ming (\u660e)\u00a0 – the last regime led by Han Chinese and overthrown\u00a0 by the Manchu in 1644.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>Tan Keng Chin, one of Lu’s eight sons, died at just 22 years old. Within a week of leading a successful incursion against the Qing, he was captured and imprisoned. <\/span>\u00a0<\/span>Unwilling to give up, he pronounced his status as a British (Singapore) subject.\u00a0 The British Consul tried to intervene but did not succeed and Tan\u00a0 died\u00a0 in Qing custody soon after.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

His death caused a Sino-British diplomatic row at a time when the Qing\u2019s\u00a0 ruling classes was deeply convulsed after losing\u00a0 the first Opium War (1832-1842) arising from a trade deficit with Britain.\u00a0 Britain struck a body blow at China\u2019s\u00a0 polity, wounding\u00a0 its pride with its superior weaponry and military strategy. The price of defeat was China had to cede the territory of Hong Kong to the British Crown, open treaty ports\u00a0 granting foreigners with special rights to operate them.\u00a0 To add insult to humiliation, regional rebellions caused by misgovernance such as the one led by Tan in the Little Dagger society\u00a0 began to sprout in various parts of China. <\/span><\/p>\n

The largest\u00a0 uprising was the Taiping Rebellion\uff08\u592a\u5e73\u5929\u56fd\uff09 in 1850 and lasted for 14 years but\u00a0 not before establishing its capital in Nanking (the second capital of China after Beijing). <\/span>In 1853, Tan\u2019s successor Ng Wei leading a few thousand men succeeded in occupying Amoy for several months. But the\u00a0 lack of provisions and food forced a retreat which took the defeated rebel army to Singapore and Semarang.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Where ever\u00a0 they landed, they were\u00a0 likely to have reconnected with secret societies who supported the overthrow of the Qing.\u00a0 Could they have had connections to this River House in Clarke Quay believed to have served as an unofficial headquarters of a prominent secret society.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

The River House circled in an aerial view of old Boat & Clarke Quay, G.P. Reichelt Collection<\/em>, courtesy of National Archives of Singapore reproduced from The House of Ripples.<\/p><\/div>\n

You can read more about how the story unravels in tracing the various owners of the property and an introduction into Teochew style architecture\u00a0 in\u00a0 The House of Ripples<\/a><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

by Fabian Tee<\/strong> and Raymond Goh<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Further Readings:<\/strong><\/p>\n

https:\/\/biblioasia.nlb.gov.sg\/vol-14\/issue-3\/oct-dec-2018\/the-house-of-ripples\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0The Little Dagger Society\u00a0 LU SHANG LIAN \u5415\u4e0a\u6190\u00a0 (Unknown –1856)\u00a0 Ancestry:\u00a0 Unknown The Little Dagger Society was one of many secret societies dedicated to the overthrow of the Qing Dynasty,\u00a0 to restore the Ming (\u660e)\u00a0 – the last regime led by Han Chinese and overthrown\u00a0 by the Manchu in 1644.\u00a0\u00a0Tan Keng Chin, one of Lu’s eight sons, died at just 22 years old. Within a week of leading a successful incursion against the Qing, he was captured and imprisoned. \u00a0Unwilling […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1489,"featured_media":0,"parent":11412,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-11566","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"yoast_head":"\n16 LU SHANG LIAN \u5415\u4e0a\u6190 - Bukit Brown: A World Monuments Watch Site in 2014<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/bukitbrown.com\/main\/wayfinder\/16-lu-shang-lian\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"16 LU SHANG LIAN \u5415\u4e0a\u6190 - Bukit Brown: A World Monuments Watch Site in 2014\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"\u00a0The Little Dagger Society\u00a0 LU SHANG LIAN \u5415\u4e0a\u6190\u00a0 (Unknown –1856)\u00a0 Ancestry:\u00a0 Unknown The Little Dagger Society was one of many secret societies dedicated to the overthrow of the Qing Dynasty,\u00a0 to restore the Ming (\u660e)\u00a0 – the last regime led by Han Chinese and overthrown\u00a0 by the Manchu in 1644.\u00a0\u00a0Tan Keng Chin, one of Lu’s eight sons, died at just 22 years old. 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