By Lin Yeoh

... The history of the Triads is in many ways the history of modern China. Popular myth holds that the Triads originated as a resistance movement against the Ching dynasty after it descended from Manchuria to seize the capital of Peking by force. When faced with a rebellion in the Fukien province, the Ching dynasty recruited an order of warrior monks who were later deemed expendable by the Emperor and all but exterminated.