When Si Zheng, the Shaanxi regional military commissioner, was a young man, he organized many young men of ill repute into a “righteous brother-hood.” If one member was attacked, they would combine forces and take revenge. Zheng had beaten to death a man at a singing loft in the provincial capital.1 The owner was powerless to apprehend him, and Zheng escaped. They seized a certain Mr. Liu, …