The other day I came across an insightful passage in an article about Amazons. It went something like this: Amazons exist at the juncture of myth and history. That my friend is a cause of fascination if not celebration. There is much debate about whether Amazons, you know those androgynous creatures said to have cut off their right breasts to titillate, actually did exist. The debate is moot but unnecessary. If Amazons do not exist historically, they, like dragons, need to be created. Some things which do not exist need to be invented. Historians to the contrary, once an entity has been invented, it exists. What in the world is so necessary about Amazons? What in the world can it be?
The difficulty necessarily lies in the concept of necessity. Amazons fill a void. They are there so that we can discuss the battle of the sexes without actually having to go to war. Once the battle lines have been drawn, we can get down to business.
I did not come here today, to speak to you about Amazons. I have stumbled across another entity that lies at the junction of myth and history. It is an entity that does its best to become invisible and uses secret ritual to do so. This entity arose in China, over three hundred years ago. At the time there was a dastardly attack on a monastery by Qing soldiers who tried to burn it down. Eighteen monks survived under a tapestry that fell off the wall and protected them from the flames. However thirteen later succumbed. The surviving five became what is reverently known as the First Five Ancestors.
This is where the folklore begins. All that the Five Ancestors could find to quench their thirst was dew in the petals of lotus flowers. They fled to the great sea and collapsed on the sand from hunger. They dreamt that the sand was edible. They awoke and satisfied their hunger. That is when they encountered an incense burner which contained a prophecy concerning the end of the Qing dynasty and the resurrection of the Ming.
More magic is in store. The First Five Ancestors were suddenly surrounded by Qing soldiers but managed to escape by having a sacred sandal turn into a boat. The First Five Ancestors were helped by the Second Five Ancestors. The rest is steeped in legend.
This folklore was eventually transformed into what Martin Booth, author of The Dragon Syndicates, says is an amalgam of documented events, known participants,legend, magical parable and folklore. Today, this group known as Triads are so successful that they have become the largest perpetrators of illegalities in the world. Interpol needs to engage itself at the heart of the action. There is only one thing wrong with that concept. There is no heart. Triad societies learned long ago that to be centralized leads to defeat.
