Li Hanzhang (李瀚章), the governor of Hunan in the Qing Dynasty, stated in the memorial that the Gelaohui "originated in Sichuan and Guizhou for a long time",[4] the society engaged in several uprisings across China, notably in Hunan province during 1870 and 1871.
Numerous individuals notable in late-19th and early-20th Chinese history (including Zhu De, Wu Yuzhang, Liu Zhidan and He Long) were Gelaohui members.
[5] Strongly xenophobic and anti-Manchu Qing, the Gelaohui were active in the Xinhai Revolution of 1911, as well as taking part in attacks on Catholic missions and converts in 1912.
[19] One view is that it is more likely it began as an offshoot or alternative name of the so-called "Brotherhood Clique" within the Xiang Army.
The Geolaohui became increasingly associated with the revolutionaries of Dr. Sun Yat-sen's Tongmenhui during the early 1900s, participating in the Xinhai Revolution against the Qing, and infiltrating the army and education system.
Taking the Guolu as its embryo, the Gelaohui absorbed and merged some of the characteristics of the Tiandihui and the Bailianjiao, and was a rapid development of a vagrant organization in China under specific social conditions.
[22]: 208 Beginning as an anti-Manchu organization, by 1891 the Gelaohui had grown to encompass a wide variety of revolutionary aims.
They were blamed for anti-foreign riots around the Yangtze delta, apparently in hope of provoking foreigners and damaging the Chinese government's international standing,[13] and accused of infiltrating schools to foster anti-Western sentiment.
[31] The Hunan Army was extensively infiltrated by the anti Qing Gelaohui secret society, who started several mutinies during the Dungan Revolt (1862–1877), delaying crucial offensives.
A successor to Gelaohui in Sichuan, named the Gown Brotherhood (袍哥会) permeated all forms of local government in Songpan County until the Second Sino-Japanese War.
Despite campaigns stemming from Chengdu to decrease opium production and consumption, mountainous regions in rural Sichuan which relied on trade used opium production to offset increased land taxation from the Nationalist government, of which Gown Brothers acted as security and distribution networks.
The Gelaohui then attacked the 20,000 Manchus in the Manchu quarter of the city and slaughtered the majority of them (15,000), expelling the rest.
The Manchu governor Sheng Yun flew into a rage as he escaped to Gansu and ordered Gansu Hui Muslim general Ma Anliang to lead Muslim Hui soldiers from Gansu to destroy and sack Xi'an in retaliation for the massacre of the Manchu quarter, but a messenger carried the message to Sheng Yun that the Qing court capitulated in Beijing with Yuan Shikai's agreement and Sheng Yun fell into a rage and reviled Yuan Shikai.
Ma Anliang was also approached and asked to defect from the Qing by the Hui Beijing Imam Wang Kuan who was summonsed by the revolutionaries.
Yuan Shikai, who became president after the Republic of China accepted the Qing court's abdication, sent the Shaanxi revolutionaries Henan reinforcements to press Ma Anliang into giving up.
[74] After October 1911, the Shaanxi revolutionaries were in a series of stalemates against the Gansu Qing loyalist army made out of Muslims under Ma Anliang and Manchu governor general Shengyun's command.
Both sides suffered heavy casualties but Lichuan (Li-chuan) and Qianzhou (Chien-chou) fell to the Gansu army.
[75] Ma Anliang fought in 1895 to relieve Xining with four ying of troops and served in the Gansu army under Dong Fuxiang.
The Qing governor generals Changgeng (Chang-keng) and Shengyun had close relations with the Gansu army officers under Dong Fuxiang.
The Qing ordered the Gansu-based Ma Anliang to fight against the revolutionaries in Shaanxi and the revolutionaries attacked Ningxia in Gansu and Ma Anliang recovered it, but that was the last victory for the loyalist side as the Qing abdicated and Shaanxi was not taken by the Gansu forces.
[76] Ma Anliang was ordered to attack the revolutionaries in Shaanxi by the baoyi bondservant Chang Geng and Manchu Shengyun.
[79] Yuan Shikai managed to induce Ma Anliang to not attack Shaanxi after the Gelaohui took over the province and accept the Republic of China under his presidency in 1912.
[87][88][89][90] The Gelaohui continued to exist as a broad and loosely affiliated group of hundreds of thousands well into the 1930s, though its influence was severely curtailed by the end of the Warlord Era, Chiang Kai-shek's rise to power and the ravagement of the country during the Second Sino-Japanese War and the Chinese Civil War.
Nevertheless, the society's influence remained substantial until the Communists seized power in 1949; in 1936, for example, Mao Zedong wrote an open letter to the Gelaohui declaring them legal under the Chinese Soviet government and asking for their assistance.
The Gelaohui was known for rewarding loyalty and dedication with advancement through its ranks which, according to academic Mark W. Driscoll, was the opposite of most members' prior socioeconomic experience: "relentless movement down and out.
[21]: 176–178 The eighth rank was "the holder of the spirit flag," awarded to "the champion of the common people and the destroyer of tyrants.