THE
DEVIL DOCTOR:
The Early History of Fu Manchu
By Dennis
E. Power
By the 1830's,
the English
had become the major opium trading nation the world. Growing opium in
In March of
1839 Lin Tse-hsü was appointed the new
Imperial Commissioner at
The English,
despite Lin's
eloquent letter, refused to back down from the opium trade. In
response, Lin
threatened to cut off all trade with
One of these opium/tea traders who, although not a Sinophile, at least had some positive feeling for the Chinese people was Dirk Struan. [2] Struan was a Scotsman who had been in the Chinese trade since 1810 and had risen from a cabin boy to the master of his own vessel to head of the one of the largest trading companies involved in the Chinese trade. He was tall, strongly built and had arresting emerald green eyes. He was also known to deal more fairly with the Chinese than other of the traders and he had a penchant for taking Asian mistresses.
It was a little kept secret that he also had a few offspring from such pairings. Although he generally did not formally acknowledge such offspring in any legal or formal manner, he did provide financial support and felt paternal at times towards them.
Shortly after Chinese junks attempted to turn back English merchant vessels in November of 1839, Struan's beautiful young daughter, Ling Ju Hai was kidnapped by what he thought were Chinese bandits with the intention to hold her for ransom but he soon discovered that they had a more insidious purpose.
Struan learned that his daughter’s kidnappers were the agents of a man named Lo Pan. He had been searching for several years for a Chinese girl of marriageable age, a Chinese girl with green eyes. Struan’s enemy, Tyler Brock had steered Lo Pan’s men towards Ling ju Hai.
The marriage of Lo Pan to Hai was not entirely objectionable to Struan since Struan desired some financial or social gain from the marriage of his daughter, and Lo Pan was a wealthy man who was said to have a veritable kingdom within the Chinese Empire. However stealing his daughter without compensation was objectionable to Struan.
Struan was determined to get his daughter back
so a
marriage contract could be negotiated. Since the majority of his men
were
engaged in overcoming the blockade of
As Struan
and Clayton picked up the trail Hai’s
kidnappers they
learned some very disturbing information. The marriage of Hai
was to be to a pagan god, Ching Dai and
the nuptials
would take place in the
Struan and Clayton rescued Hai from the cultists who had kidnapped her. Struan saw his daughter for the first time in four years and realized she had grown into a great beauty. He was determined more than ever to make her marriage an asset. He knew that Clayton had a reputation as a ladies man but failed to see the looks exchanged between Clayton and Hai.
It was William Clayton who came up with the plan to go around the Chinese blockade by going overland although he credited Struan with the idea. For this Struan insisted that Clayton take a small percentage in Struan and Company.
Clayton became involved in the actual military engagement of the Opium War and so was not aware of what transpired in the Struan family. Dirk Struan had begun arrangements for his beautiful daughter to marry a rich older merchant. Because of her half Chinese heritage, she would become his third wife but because of her great beauty he would pay a good bride price and his trade would further diversify Struan and Company’s investments. However Hai informed her father that she was no longer a maiden and she was with child.
Struan at first believed that her kidnappers had disobeyed the edict that she should remain a maiden and had raped her. He discovered however that William Clayton had taken advantage of his status as a rescuer to take advantage of his daughter. Although in fact it had been more her idea than Claytons, she knew that the loss of her virginity would make she would not be a target for Lo Pan’s designs.
Struan was however not in a mood to her
logical
explanation and began to rage at her and Clayton for ruining her and
ruining Struan’s plans for her. Struan
knew that Clayton had just become betrothed to the daughter of a Dutch
trader
and so had not ever considered Hai
marriageable. Struan angrily declared he
would have Clayton killed and Hai as well
for dishonoring him. Spies for Brock learned of
this and believed that they could blame Struan
for
the death of a hero of the
William Clayton’s junk was set upon by assassin hired by Lyle Brock but who claimed to have come from Struan. To demoralize Clayton they informed him that Hai and their unborn child had been killed by Struan. They were to kill Clayton and leave evidence blaming Struan and Company.
Clayton fought off his attackers in a battle on a junk which could have been a scene from the Douglas Fairbanks movie, The Black Pirate.[3]
Clayton’s first impulse was to confront Struan directly in a duel but Struan refused to see Clayton. Struan’s guards and the Struan’s military escorts made certain Clayton kept his distance. Struan was insulted that Clayton believed that he would actually send assassins after him or would kill his own daughter. Struan refused to acknowledge Ling Ju Hai's whereabouts. There were great political implications to be considered and despite the bad publicity of being involved in the opium trade was considered unseemly for the, Struan and Company did wield a lot of influence with the British government, especially since Struan's plan had won the Opium War. Yet Clayton's heroic actions in the Opium War could not be overlooked. So efforts were made to keep the war hero and the head of the largest trading house from killing one another.
Ling Ju
Hai had been sent to
She chose a
man in his
late twenties named Shan who was both the scion of a Manchu family and
a member
of Mandarin class. Shan's family had been sent to "administer" Tongking, although Tongking
was
part of the Empire of Annam, the Chinese
Empire still
claimed sovereignty over it, although this claim was unrecognized by
any nation
other than China. Shan's father died and Shan gained control of the
family
fortune and suffered great losses. His administration of his province
was a
failure and Shan had become an opium addict. Because of his connection
to the
Imperial family the price of his failure was exile to
Ling Ju
Hai seduced Shan and convinced him of her
love for
him and further convinced him that her prayers had created a miracle,
she was
bearing his child. Whether Shan truly believed this or merely wished to
believe
it is unknown but he was elated and made arrangements to buy Ling Ju Hai from her
father. Under her
guidance, Shan freed himself of opium addiction and became involved in
various
mercantile ventures while strengthening his familial ties to the
administrators
of
Shan was pleased that when Ling Jui Hai delivered that she gave him not one but two sons. The boys were quite fortunately mostly Asian in appearance but both possessed Ling Ju Hai’s striking green eyes.
Struan was more than happy to make the arrangement and so his anger towards his daughter cooled; however he remained angry with Clayton because he still felt that Clayton had dishonored his daughter and also Clayton had dishonored him by believing him to be an assassin. His new son in law turned out to be quite an asset, he often made canny investment advise which he offered to Struan and Company for a percentage. It would be years before Dirk Struan realized that his daughter was directing Shan's fortune. When he did he knew that his grandsons, having his blood, her blood and Clayton's blood would be men to be reckoned with, great men of intellect and ambition.
Ling Ju Hai was one of those individuals who saw the merits in both tradition and modernization. She made certain that her two sons were well educated by western standards. They were encouraged by their mother to get as much Western education as possible without losing their Eastern values. Ling Ju Hai was not alone in these sentiments. This was the essence of the Self Strengthening Movement which would influence Chinese culture during the next decade. [4] Shan Ming Fu was educated at the western Universities of Heidelberg, the Sorbonne and Edinburgh and Shan Lan Fo was educated at the Western Universities of Edinburgh, Christ College and Harvard. Although a pragmatist, she an idealistic vision of a strong, modernized China competing and winning against the Western Powers.
Ling Jui Hai and her two sons were watched carefully the mysterious man known as the Lord. The Lord was wealthy and powerful and wished to elevate the nations of the Eastern hemisphere to the same level of power and technological advancement as the West
While the two Shan brothers were at the University of Edinburgh they were approached by an agent of the Lord. This agent was also a member of one of the Tongs to which the Lord had connections. The agent convinced the idealistic young men that the rumors of their criminality were western propaganda, they wished for China to compete in the modern world, compete and ultimately win out. Since this philosophy echoed the one promulgated by their mother, they were amenable and became members of this Tong.
The two brothers studied much the same disciplines at their respective colleges but differed greatly when it came to their ultimate career choices. Shan Ming Fu chose to serve the people of China through its government system and Shan Lan Fo chose to serve the people of China through science and medicine. He became a noted physician in Peking but was also took and taught western science and medicine to the outlying areas of the Chinese Empire. He was also a naturalist and explorer, a proto-archaeologist interested in tracing China’s past history of greatness. These explorations often took him outside of the Empire into areas once ruled by China or connected to China through lore and legend.
Shan Ming Fu used his westernized knowledge of science and philosophy to further the Self Strengthening movement. It is not known what positions he held but it is generally believed that he served as the advisor to the Governor-General of the provinces of Honan from 1864-1871. It was probably during his sojourn in Honan that he studied various martial arts and made contacts among the various orders and monasteries studying these arts since that province was well known for such.[5] Shan Ming Fu arrived during the end of the Taiping Rebellion and the bandit rebellion or Nien rebellion which ended in 1868. The Nien rebellion was led by members of the White Lotus Society, an anti-Manchu society which had a wide membership in Honan. To Shan Ming Fu's shock and dismay, he learned that the White Lotus Society was connected in some manner to the Sublime Order of the White Peacock, the Tong to which he belonged.
After his initial disappointment Shan Ming Fu examined what this connection entailed and why there might be a connection between these two secret societies with outwardly different goals. He realized that the plans that The Sublime Order of the White Peacock were convoluted but had logic to them. By giving financial and material support to a group whose aim was to topple the Manchu dynasty, The Sublime Order was forcing the Imperial government to take active measures to quell the rebellion and hopefully bring about reforms that would lead to a modernized China. Since the Nien rebellion's leadership was so fragmented and the rebellion’s membership was scattershot enough that they did not stand a chance to succeed. The Sublime Order was backing group foreordained to fail but whose actions could prove useful to the larger plan.
By 1870 Shan Ming Fu began to realize that the Self Strengthening plan was doomed to fail. The Imperial government exerted little central control and most of the actual governance, military commands and financial requirements of China were done by the Governor-General's of the Provinces. Although they all claimed fealty to the Imperial government in essence these Provinces were autonomous states. China's government and thereby its efforts for modernization were diffuse and did not have any coherent program. Shan Ming Fu saw the problem would escalate and China would become a collection of smaller states that could more easily taken over by the Western nations. So while the Self Strengthening movement seemed the most likely movement to bring China equal to the western nations, it would ultimately cripple China and hand it over the very enemies it had been designed to defeat. Shan Ming Fu began to wonder if the Self Strengthening movement had been corrupted and influenced by Western influences, since despite its façade of uplifting China it was dragging it down to ruin through the old adage of Divide and rule.
Shan Ming Fu composed a document that outlying a plan to salvage the Self Strengthening movement and provide the Imperial government with the wherewithal to consolidate its power and still adhere to the principles of the self-strengthening movement. However the Imperial government not only failed to act on his plan but the governor-general of Honan took offense at the document and had him dismissed from his service.
Shan Ming Fu was both humiliated and angered by his abrupt dismissal by a petty minded power hungry official. He was contacted by a member of his Tong and asked to work directly for them for a generous remuneration with a possible reinstatement to government service. He had been chosen for this task for his recent plan to reform the government. He was told have a bright future in The Sublime Order of the White Peacock.
In 1871 he was sent to Tibet where he entered the monastery of Rache Churan along with another member of the Sublime Order of the White Peacock student called Fo-Hi. It was here that Shan Ming Fu learned the basic techniques of hypnosis, telepathy and other mental disciplines that would aid him in the years ahead.
Having sufficiently achieved a great degree of mental discipline within two years of study Shan Ming Fu was given more responsibility within organization of The Sublime Order of the White Peacock.
A faction within The Sublime Order of the White Peacock agreed that their efforts and the efforts of other groups in China alone could not hold back the ever encroaching tide of western imperialism much less turn the tide. It was decided to begin negotiations with other organizations outside of China that not only had a reason to turn back western imperialism but were also willing to do what ever measures need to accomplish this task.
Over the next two years after careful negotiations seven groups from throughout the East formed an organization which would be known as the Si-Fan. Shan Ming Fu observed the creation of the Si-Fan with some curiosity. There was an underlying pattern in the creation of the Si-Fan. Although many of the most astute minds in the East were among the members of the organizations that comprised that Si-Fan, no one seemed to realize that they were being encouraged and guided into creating the Council of Seven.
Through diligent, pain staking and careful research, Shan Ming Fu was able to discern who had been doing the manipulating. Rashiel, the advisor to the Wadi of the Assassins. Rather than being angered or frightened by Shan Ming Fu's discovery of his role in the creation of the Si-Fan, Rashiel was quite pleased.
Rashiel slowly began to take Shan Ming Fu into his confidence, as the early confederation of the Si-Fan began to take shape. One of the Si-Fan's long range plans to end Western dominance began with a strong China as one of its immediate goals. One goal was to influence the Imperial family to provide strong leadership and assert more centralized control over the provinces.
As part of their reaching out to organizations outside of China they accepted the offer from an Englishman to form an alliance of intelligence and trade. Shan Ming Fu was judged suitable to carry out this delicate mission for the Sublime Order of the White Peacock. Under the guise of getting another academic degree from an occidental university, he was sent to England to make contact with a westerner whom the Sublime Order felt could be a good ally in their plans. Enrolling in Cambridge under the name Ch'ing Cheng-Fu he soon made contact with the westerner his superiors in the Sublime Order had asked him to contact.
To all outward appearances the westerner was a Professor of Mathematics of good birth but with a bit of a tarnished reputation for past scandals. What was not generally known was that the Professor was conversant with the English underworld. It was in this last capacity that the Sublime Order wished to utilize the Professor's services. He was currently working on his great work, The Dynamics of an Asteroid while supplementing his income as a consulting criminal. In the course of his research for his mathematical paper he had in 1871 traveled to Siberia needing to verify some information in the Tunguska region.[6] During this Siberian trip, Moriarty had discovered an artifact in a cairn, it was six rings all interconnected and with a Chinese ideogram on each. He kept the small object in a brass and enamel box. When he made inquiries as to its possible origin and meaning in London's Limehouse district, he was shortly thereafter contacted by the Sublime Order of the White Peacock.
Although the object was seemingly worthless the Sublime Order believed it had a great religious significance and offered to buy it for a large sum of money. Rather than sell it James Moriarty instead proposed an alliance between the Sublime Order and his nascent organization, if only for purposes of intelligence and trade.
The Sublime Order may not have known that James Moriarty had been recruited by the British Secret Service during his college days [7] or that he was a servant of the Nine.[8] However they did know through one source that Moriarty was one of the last of the Capellean adoptees [9] and so may have had access to technology not readily available to most organizations.
The alliance between Moriarty and the Sublime Order was named The League of Dragons.
This alliance was nearly ended before it began as the brass and enamel box was stolen from Shan Ming Fu's possession with evidence left behind that Moriarty had stolen it back yet he claimed not to have done so. Shan Ming Fu did not believe that Moriarty was involved in the theft. Yet Shan Ming Fu could not be involved in attempting to retrieve the box since it would alert either his superiors or the Moriarty organization that the box had been stolen. Shan Ming Fu hired a fellow Cambridge student with a gift for deductive reasoning and investigative abilities to find the brass and enamel box and inform him who had actually stolen it. The student was Sherlock Holmes as related in The Musgrave Version and The Adventure of the Celestial Snows. [10]
Although Holmes and his companion traveled to Krakow to retrieve the object, they decided to return it to where Moriarty had discovered it. Shan Ming Fu was forced to dispatch agents to Siberia to recover the object and take Holmes and his companion into custody. Shan Ming Fu returned to China and in Shan Ming Fu's brother's house he put Holmes and Musgrave to the question to discover what they knew about the object. At Rashiel's suggestion they used the appearance of these Englishmen to further their plans with the Imperial family. They used Sherlock Holmes unbiased observations of the Imperial Court combined with his deductive reasoning abilities as part of a psychodrama in which the Si-Fan would expose traitors at the Dowager Empress' court. Shan Ming Fu required Holmes to solve a puzzle for him before he and his friend Musgrave would be allowed to leave. Rashiel posed as Ali al-Salaam an Arab in Ch'ing Chuan Fu's employ. He also told Holmes and Musgrave that he was a spy for the British and was keeping the British apprised of their situation.
Although Holmes solution to the puzzle did not really have any bearing on their pre-determined outcome, Holmes was more perceptive than they had believed. Holmes correctly ascertained that the Empress Dowager did not have China's best interests at heart and that she would ultimately destroy her dynasty.
Shan Ming Fu ordered them disposed but they escaped. However the threat of their execution and the relative ease of their escape point to this incident being but one of the many ploys of Shan Ming Fu.[11]
The alliance with Moriarty fell through and although some of Shan Ming Fu's superiors at the Sublime Order of the White Peacock were not happy with this and blamed Shan Ming Fu, others applauded the failure of this alliance. Some believed that the foresighted Shan Ming Fu had sabotaged the proposed alliance because by so closely allying with a Westerner, this would further erode Eastern strength and possibly lead to the Tong being dominated by a Westerner.
The Si-Fan influenced the imperial family to hold onto and reclaim lost provinces whenever possible. These policies were probably necessary for China's resurgence however the timing was ill advices. The core structure of Chinese society and culture was weak and decentralized from the corruption and weakness of the Imperial family under the Dowager Empress and so was unable to implement them in a constructive fashion. While the Chinese members of the Si-Fan probably recognized this factor, they ignored it out of blind loyalty to the Imperial house. Following these policies without a modern army or a centralized command structure to enforce their Imperial claims would prove disastrous. These led to the conflicts that China would have in Annam and Korea.[12]
Shan Ming Fu was chosen to represent the Si-Fan in Annam, post he held starting in 1880 as an advisor to the Governor-General of the disputed territory of Tongking, the broken empire of Annam still claimed it, as did the French.
The Governor-General's of Tongking refused to follow Shan Ming Fu's advice and win over the people of Tongking, who had strong cultural ties to China and slowly win over the province. Instead more and more Chinese troops were brought into Tongking. Since this province was also claimed by France, this massive troop build up and a failure of diplomacy was one of the main causes of the Sino-French War of 1882-1884. The end result was that France would hold dominion over all of Annam.
During his tenure in Honan Shan Ming Fu also carried out a mission for the Lord for six months in 1880. Shan Ming Fu taught the man known as Muhammad Ahmad some of the techniques that Shan Ming Fu had learned at Rache Churan. With these techniques in hand Muhammed Ahmad was able to garner a great following which he used to foment revolt against the British in Sudan.
Shan Ming Fu left his position as the advisor to the Governor-General of Tongking in 1883. It was probably in this period that he was approached by the Nine to join them but he refused. He devoted the next few years to research an elixir of life. The clue that the nectar of a certain bee and a certain flower were the key ingredients he began looking into the various interactions between animals and plants. These studies led him gaining an almost encyclopedic knowledge of the pharmacology of plants and animals, of the various compounds that could be created from them. He thought that the drug used by the Voodoo practioners to create zombies might be related to mummification. Suspended animation he thought might be one method of slowing down the aging process.
In 1885, Shan Ming Fu was sent to dispatch the Mahdi. The official story is that the Mahdi died of typhus. While Shan Ming Fu was in the area he also visited Egypt as part of his chemical research. In his absence his primary wife had finally produced a son which he named Shan Shilin (intellectual) Li (strength). Although Shan Ming Fu never publicly or even privately stated so, he had doubts about his parentage of the child.[13]
In the 1890's the Si-Fan arranged for Shan Ming Fu to become the governor of the Honan province replacing the governor who had fired him. Although deeply entrenched in the affairs of the Honan province, Shan Ming Fu was a situation developing in Korea could be used to send a strong message to the West that China would no longer be the sick man of Asia, that it would no longer concede to any demands. Yet agents of the Dowager Empress acted precipitously and assassinated a pro-Japanese Korean official. A popular peasant uprising in Tonghak was the excuse that the Japanese needed to send in troops to quell the insurrection. In August of 1894 war was declared between China and Japan, much too soon for Shan Ming Fu and the Si-Fan to have prepared adequately. Even after 30 years of Self-Strengthening, China was soundly beaten on land and sea. China was forced to recognize the independence of Korea, cede Taiwan, the Pescadores and Liaotung Peninsula to Japan and allow the Japanese to open manufactories in China.
The Triple Intervention: Russia, Germany and France ‘advised’ Japan to disgorge Liaotung as a consequence the Japanese influence over Korea weakens. Yet in retaliation the Japanese Minister to Korea launches a coup in Seoul, and murders the Korean Queen. The Korean King fled to Russia. Russian troops enter Korea and pro-Japanese ministers were executed. Russia dominates Korea to 1898.
In 1895, while
Shan Ming
Fu was the governor of the Honan Province,
he was
given a pleasant assignment by the Si-Fan.
In the
1880's, Fo-Hi, Shan Ming Fu's comrade in
the Si-Fan and fellow student at Rache
Churan, was in India running the Thugge
cult of Kali-Thanos. Fo-Hi
met and romanced a female Russian agent by the name of Sonia Omanoff. She had
borne him a girl child possessing the same yellow colored eyes as Fo-Hi. Fo-Hi had obtain some very good intelligence from Sonia and
he knew
that she had no love for the Russian government. Although she worked
for
Russian Intelligence, this was a choice made to avert being sent to the
mines
in
Shan Ming Fu
was offered
the opportunity to meet with Sonia. Through her he is able to discover
Russian
long term plans for the Korean peninsula. The 1896 agreement of
Their mutual
arrangement
of passing information was agreeable to both Shan Ming Fu and Sonia
since they
felt that in doing so they were both aiding their countries achieve
mutual
goals. This changed after 1897 when
Sonia had failed to inform Shan Ming Fu of the impending attack by Russian troops. He viewed this as betrayal of their agreement. He believed that she had supplied the Russian troops with military intelligence that allowed them to defeat the Chinese troops. He poisoned her. This was attributed to Buburi’s heir. Shan Ming Fu took his daughter.
In addition to
his
intimate, information exchanging interludes with Sonia Shan Ming Fu
also had to
deal with internal troubles in
A peasant
revolt broke out
in 1898 against Manchu misrule in the
Shan Ming Fu
as the
governor of the
Shan Ming Fu
was able to
damper much of the anti-Manchu sentiment of the popular rebellion and heighten the anti-Westerner hatred. Like a cat
with nine
lives however the Dowager Empress once again managed to turn this
circuitous
attack on her position to her personal advantage. However this
rebellion and
the Empress tacit support of it would be to the great detriment of
At the close of the Boxer rebellion and after the Boxer Protocols had been enacted, Shan Ming Fu was designated as one of the Mandarins to be executed for their part in the Boxer rebellion. Leaving his post as Governor-General of Honan to avoid being arrested by Imperial troops, Shan Ming Fu barely escaped with his life but his wife and son were not so lucky. They were shot down by the Chinese army.[15]
Shan Ming Fu
was pegged as
one of the scapegoats of the Boxer Rebellion. To keep his protégé safe
from
harm, The Lord provided him with missions outside of
While avoiding
arrest Fu
Manchu discovered that his brother had been killed at his home in
The Si-Fan were interested in recruiting these Burmese assassins to work for their organization since they were so skilled at finding their prey and departing without being seen. The Si-Fan agreed that Shan Ming Fu should take vengeance upon the killers of his brother but to recruit some of the others if he could.
The assassins were from the group of people called the Tschao-Tschao.[17]
In 1902 Shan
Ming Fu
traveled to the plateau of Sung in
The Tschao-Tschao thought that Shan Ming Fu was Shan Lan Fo returned to life through the power of Lloigor and Zhar. Shan Lan Fo had been held captive by the Tschao-Tschao for three years and subjected to temptation and torture. The Tschao-Tschao wished Shan Lan Fo to be the second High Priest of the Tschao-Tschao. An odd twist to their belief system was that only outsiders could be the vicar of the gods. E-Poh was the vicar of Lloigor and E-poh claimed to be some seven thousand years old. The vicar for Zhar had escaped from the Tschao-Tschao several years before. He was thought to be dead but E-poh stated that Zhar still felt a connection to him. [18]
Shan Ming Fu
demanded the
lives of those who dared strike him down and this boon was granted. His
vengeance on his brother achieved Shan Ming Fu turned his mind to the
other
task, turning the Tschao-Tschao people to
work for
the Si-Fan. He pretended to go along with
their plans
to make him the Vicar of Zhar until he was
taken to
the tunnel beneath the Tschao-Tschao's
city of
Using his brother's translations of the pictoglyphs, Shan Ming Fu learned that the Twins were of alien origin and had been placed in the caverns beneath the Plateau of Sung long before the advent of Mankind. When mankind did appear and became aware of the Great Old Ones, they either worshipped or shunned them. The bonds placed upon the Great Old Ones by the Elder Gods had begun to weaken eons ago and a sect of priests from Lemuria took the up took up the vocation to make certain that the Twins remained imprisoned and somnolent. Yet the Twins were able to influence and corrupt these human beings to do their bidding. This corruption manifested physically in the dwarfed and twisted forms of the Tschao-Tschao people. Blood sacrifices made by the Tschao-Tschao continually eroded the bonds laid upon Lloigor and Zhar, it was not the physical deaths but the psychic frenzy of the worshippers and psychic agony of the sacrificial victims that fed the Twins.
Shan Ming Fu realized that the Twins had nearly achieved enough power to become freed. When this happened they would literally devour everything in their path. He turned his genius to finding a solution for this problem rather than leave it to grow beyond all hope of stopping. Shan Ming Fu studied the remnants of ancient Lemurian tablet and tableaus, which the debased Tschao-Tschao could no longer read.
As Shan Ming
Fu studied
the ancient texts preparatory to becoming the voice of Zhar,
the Tschao-Tschao people captured an
American
expedition to
Shan Ming Fu discovered a possible way to not only stop Lloigor and Zhar from awakening and consuming the world but also to destroy them. It would entail great personal risk to [19] himself and to Eric Marsh but he deemed the possible outcome worth the risk. It would also entail the sacrifice of several members of the Tcho-Tcho people, something that did not bother Shan Ming Fu in the slightest.
Shan Ming Fu underwent the ceremony to become the mouthpiece of Zhar. This involved the sacrifice of several Tcho-Tcho and the torture of Eric Marsh. Shan Ming Fu's consciousness was opened to receive the thoughts of Zhar. Yet the combination of Shan Ming Fu's training at Rache Curan and the narcotic effects of the juice of a certain orchid plant prevented Zhar from seizing his mind. Shan Ming Fu was instead able to convince Zhar that the Elder Gods were communing with him and were about to attack him. In his panic Zhar made mental contact with Lloigor. Shan Ming Fu seized upon this opportunity. Using the full force of his mental abilities, Shan Ming Fu convinced Zhar and Lloigor that the Elder Gods were attacking them. They struck back and began to devour the flesh of their attackers. Shan Ming Fu's stratagem caused Zhar to attack Lloigor and vice versa. The Twins tore each other's physical forms apart until it could no longer contain their lives. Their earthly physical forms died and they were partially freed from their eternal imprisonment but where as their consciousness had been trapped in their bodies in Aloazar, they also had other forms scattered throughout time and space. Freed from Earth their consciousnesses became trapped on Arcturus in another prison of physical form.[20]
The deaths of
their deities
left the Tcho-Tcho people devastated as
the purpose
of their culture evaporated in an instant. They split into many
different
groups. Some stalwarts remained behind, worshipping the dead husks of
their
gods, some traveled to live with their fellow Tcho-Tcho
on the plateau of Leng or in the Andaman
Isles,
Shan Ming Fu's mentor Rashiel, the Lord was immensely intrigued by Shan Ming Fu's tale of these malevolent beings from outer space, although he admitted to Shan Ming Fu he was not certain why this story struck a chord with him.
According to
Philip Jose
Farmer, Shan Ming Fu was crippled sometime before 1906 and became the
criminal
known by
"Hanoi Shan was a tall, good looking man with a
kindly
character who as governor of a province in Tonkin-China. Whiles
supervising the
round up of wild elephants, he was smashed against a tree by one of the
beasts
and almost died in a
From a likable and virtuous man he changed from a
bitter and
evil person. He disappeared from the hospital and was not heard from
again
until the thieves and murderers he had been organizing began operating.
The discrepancy between Ashton-Wolfe's crippled Hanoi
Shan and
Rohmer's straight-backed Fu Manchu is easily explained. In the twelve
years
between Hanoi Shan's adventures in
Ashton-Wolfe said that Hanoi Shan returned to the East, from which a rumor years later claimed that Hanoi Shan had died. This rumor was of course originated by Hanoi Shan himself." [22]
There are however certain flaws in both the H. Ashton-Wolfe and Philip Jose Farmer theories concerning Hanoi Shan, although in essence they were both correct but both also contained some misinformation.
Farmer's theory relied too heavily on H. Ashton-Wolfe's account for the origin of the criminal mastermind Hanoi Shan. Ashton-Wolfe in turn had relied on information on another Asian criminal with similar physical traits. By the 1880s Fu Manchu was already working with the recently formed organization the Si-Fan, he was conducting research on the drug that would become f. katalepsis and so was traveling around the world. Although it is true that he was in Tongking in the 1880s this was prior to the Sino-French War in the early part of the decade. He was also directly involved in the Boxer Rebellion of 1900. This does not quite jibe with the idea that he was a likable and virtuous man.
Ashton-Wolfe
and Farmer both errored in placing Fu
Manchu in Tongking or
This seems to
have been
one of H. Ashton-Wolfe's exaggerations of fact, I believe that the
general
account of being crippled by a elephant was
true but
that it occurred in 1905. The person involved was not the Governor of
the
province nor was it Fu Manchu, nor was it "Hanoi Shan" despite the
fact that it may have occurred near
There is also
the time
element involved, Mr. Farmer appears to
have derived
his twelve year gap between Hanoi Shan and Fu Manchu from the
publishing date
of The Insidious Dr. Fu Manchu in 1913. Although the first
appearance of
Hanoi Shan in
The Boxer Rebellion failed spectacularly and the retaliation of the Western Powers manifested in the Boxer Protocols of 1901. "European powers got the right to maintain military forces in the capital, thus placing the imperial government more or less under arrest. The Protocols suspended the civil service examination, demanded a huge indemnity to be paid to European powers for the losses they had suffered, and required government officials to be prosecuted for their role in the rebellion. In addition, the Protocols suspended all arms imports into the country"[24]
One of these
government
officials prosecuted for his participation in the Rebellion was Shan
Ming Fu
a.k.a. Fu Manchu. He was beaten severely and exiled to the
The severe beating had broken Shan Ming Fu's neck and back, which healed crookedly. However Shan Ming Fu the brilliant surgeon designed and built a device, a neck and back brace that would straighten his neck and back. However it would take a couple of years to do so. The device gave him the appearance of a hunchback.
With Si-Fan
aid, Shan Ming Fu escaped from
Although
Philip Jose Farmer
was correct when he put for the theory that Fu Manchu was Hanoi Shan he
was
incorrect so far as his theory Fu Machu being
crippled and then having his back repaired. However
this was not his fault since his major source was H. Ashton-Wolfe. When
H. Ashton-Wolfe
was writing Warped in the Making, he filled in the scant
information
that the Parisian police had on Hanoi Shan with the information
released about
Dr. Sun Ah Poy, an Asian villain recently
captured in
the
Dr. Sun Ah Poy was stated to have been a Chinese living in
In The
Insidious
Dr. Fu Manchu there was a member of the Council of Seven of the Si-Fan who had befriended the Reverend Daniel Eltham, a former missionary to
According to The Return of Fu Manchu Yen-Sun-Yat's betrayal of the council of the Si-Fan
was discovered and he was executed. What may have happened was
that he
was still considered a valuable asset and removed from power but used
as an
agent in French controlled
Dr. Sun Ah Poy was outwardly a pro-French Annamese
of Chinese descent yet underneath the pro-French exterior he worked
diligently
for a resurgent
After the events of The Fires of Fu Manchu,[27] the organization of the Si-Fan was in shambles. Fu Manchu blamed Dr. Sun Ah Poy and others like him who had worked at cross purposes to him for the destruction of the Si-Fan.
Shortly before
Armistice
was signed Dr. Sun Ah Poy went on an
elephant hunt. An elephant driven mad by a
narcotic concoction of Dr. Fu Manchu's
attacked Dr. Sun Ah Poy. While Fu
Manchu would
have been pleased to eliminate Dr. Sun Ah Poy,
having
him maimed and crippled for life was just as satisfying. Dr. Fu Manchu
left
clues that blamed the French for the attack on Dr. Sun Ah Poy.
Dr. Sun Ah Poy began a more aggressive
campaign in
He became
enamored of one
of the temple dancers, a Caucasian girl who had been a foundling raised
by the
Priests. She however fell in love with an American traveler and left
with him.
Dr. Sun Ah Poy pursued them to
It was during
Shan Ming
Fu's stay in
After 1908,
the
After his back and neck had recovered in 1908 Shan Ming Fu left the Hanoi Shan identity far behind him and adopted the name by which he became notorious, Dr. Fu Manchu. In 1908 The Emperor died and the Dowager Empress had a three year boy appointed to succeed him, planning once again to continue ruling as a regent. However the Dowager Empress died a day later.
The Si-Fan
were not however in the position to seize
control of
the Chinese Empire or unite the fragmented country. However they did
all they
could to minimize and eliminate western control while pushing for
reforms that
would unite the nation. As part of the effort to eliminate western
influences
and modernize
Once of the
members of the
Si-Fan council was named Kathulos. He
pitted himself
against Fu Manchu in a war of subterfuge, designed to make Kathulos the
leader
of the Si-Fan. In addition to sabotaging
Fu Manchu's
operations through 1911 Kathulos encouraged and then revealed the
perfidy of
the Council of Seven member who was codenamed Yen-Sun-Yat.
This increased the instability of Si-Fan
but Fu
Manchu was able to use the removal of Yen-Sun-Yat
from the council to put on his own man, codenamed Ki-Ming
as Yen Sun Yat's replacement. Ki-Ming
had established Si-Fan dominance over all
Asian
connected crime in
In The Hand of Fu Manchu, Dr. Petrie was kidnapped and drugged. He was taken before an old Chinese Mandarin who spoke to him in French. This French speaking Mandarin told Dr. Petrie that a schism existed in the Si-Fan and that Dr. Fu Manchu was operating on his own. The Si-Fan planned to deal with Dr. Fu Manchu with extreme prejudice. Dr. Petrie was then once again drugged and released near his apartment.
Dennis Nayland Smith was suspicious of the meeting between Petrie and this Mandarin, he immediately suspected that the Mandarin was telling a lie. Inspector Smith's suspicions were seemingly proven correct when Dr. Petrie responded to a post-hypnotic suggestion and tried to shoot Dennis Nayland Smith.
However Smith was not entirely correct and given the fact that Dr. Petrie had been repeatedly drugged and hypnotized the fact that his account is incomplete is entirely understandable.
The French speaking Mandarin that Petrie first encountered was not Ki-Ming as Smith supposed. Petrie had actually never seen the mandarin but rather talked to him through a screen. This mandarin was the man codenamed Yen-Sun-Yat whom Fu Manchu had stated was dead. This was wishful thinking on Fu Manchu's part, Yen Sun Yat was under a sentence of death by the Fu Manchu faction of the Si-Fan just as Fu Manchu was under a sentence of death by the Yen Sun Yat faction.
There was actually no trickery involved in this meeting despite Dennis Nayland Smith's suspicions. Yen Sun Yat apparently told Petrie this information about Fu Manchu to gain western allies. Yet after Petrie was released from the hands of Yen Sun Yat and placed before his house, he was kidnapped by the Fu Manchu faction who further drugged him and took him before Ki-Ming. Ki-Ming hypnotized Petrie and planted deep post hypnotic suggestions in him. Petrie's confusion and session of hypnosis conflated the two meetings into one.
Later Petrie witnessed the trial of Fu Manchu before the Si-Fan but could not understand the proceedings. He saw that Fu Manchu had convinced many of the members of the correctness of his path and Petrie witnessed one of Fu Manchu's most audacious acts. This was to put forth is own daughter as the incarnation of the Lady of the Si-Fan.
Finally, there is a persistent tradition
through-out the
I was past greater amazement; but- "This lady can be no longer young, then?" I asked. "On the contrary, Petrie, she remains always young and beautiful by means of a continuous series of reincarnations; also she thus conserves the collated wisdom of many ages. In short, she is the archetype of Lamaism. The real secret of Lama celibacy is the existence of this immaculate ruler, of whom the Grand Lama is merely a high priest. She has, as attendants, maidens of good family, selected for their personal charms, and rendered dumb in order that they may never report what they see and hear." [32]
It was when the other members of the Si-Fan council discovered that the woman whom Fu Manchu claimed to be the reincarnated, immortal Empress of the Si-Fan was in fact his own daughter that the alliance of the Council of Seven broke apart. This was seen, quite correctly, as Fu Manchu's blatant attempt to rule the Si-Fan by placing his daughter as the titular ruler of the Si-Fan.[33] The Si-Fan remained shattered for many years.
Fu Manchu had demonstrated the seeming triumph of his faction over that of Sen Yat Sun when he entered the room where the meeting of the Si-Fan was taking place. "Fu-Manchu was greeted by a universal raising of hands, but in complete silence. He also wore a cap surmounted by a coral ball, and this he placed upon one of the black cushions set before a golden stool. Then, resting heavily upon his stick, he began to speak--in French!" [34]
This action
demonstrated
to the members present that Sen Yat
Sun had been ousted from power and that Fu Manchu was assuming his
place, with
the approval of the Lady of the Si-Fan. Sen Yat Sun had
fled
However a police raid upon the Si-Fan meeting had interrupted the Lady of the Si-Fan's giving Fu Manchu leadership of the Council of Seven. The shrill police whistles broke the spell of illusion and hypnotism that Fu Manchu had created. In the aftermath of the police raid many members of the Si-Fan realized that they had been duped. They were extremely displeased with Dr. Fu Manchu. It was not merely to escape police scrutiny but also to evade the Sen Yat Sun faction and the other factions of the Si-Fan that he had angered that Dr. Fu Manchu and his group hid in the secret chapel underneath Sir Lionel Barton's estate as described in the latter part of The Hand of Fu Manchu. While regrouping his plans from this debacle Dr. Fu Manchu planned to fake his own death on the yacht S.Y. Chanak-Kampo."
The failure of Fu Manchu's plans in 1914 and his apparent death brought disgrace upon Ki-Ming and he stepped down from leadership. Ki-Ming still had influence enough to have Fo-Hi named as head of the Order of the Sublime White Peacock and placed in charge of European operations. Fo-Hi continued to carry out Fu Manchu's policies. Yet Fo-Hi had a rival in Kathulos. Kathulos, had grown in power and influence among the various organizations comprising the Si-Fan but taking advantage of the growing disenchantment with Fu Manchu and the deep dissension within the Si-Fan. His research of expanding the potency and capabilities of the black lotus juice, scorpion venom and other obscure chemical agents made him seem much more suitable a leader than Fu Manchu.
After the disbandment of the Si-Fan Fu Manchu and Fo Hi quickly moved to fill the power vacuum before Kathulos could take advantage of the situation. Fu Manchu and Fo Hi formed a new organization led by the Order of the Sublime White Peacock. Because of Fu Manchu's earlier failures, Fo Hi was titular head of this organization. In essence however The Order of the Sublime White Peacock continued with Fu Manchu's far ranging plans.
Kathulos however was able to gather followers from tongs, triads and other organizations and folded them into the allied yet separate organization known as the Chang Li.
In 1915 When Fo-Hi died[35]
Kathulos was able to seize control of both organizations. Fu Manchu's
failed
plan in 1917[36]
left him in disgrace. Rashiel was able to
mitigate Fu
Manchu's sentence for failure to exile to
From Peking Fu Manchu worked to remove Kathulos from power but in the end it was Kathulos own arrogance that displaced him as the head of the Order of the Sublime White/ Chang Li alliance. Rashiel, the Lord encouraged Fu Manchu to also work more diligently on his longevity serum since Fu Manchu was not getting any younger.
Fu Manchu
often had the
habit of jobbing out so to speak various scientific and research
projects due
to time constraints, because they lie outside his areas of expertise or
because
he realized that two people can often arrive at different solutions to
the same
problem. These projects were given to other brilliant men, most of whom
he had
arranged for their “deaths” that is placing them in a catatonic state
and then
kidnapping them when everyone believed that they were dead. These
captured
scientists then worked for Fu Manchu willingly, either of their own
volition or
through hypnotic compulsion. The elixir of youth was also one such
project that
had several people working on it. However one of the people whose
research Fu
Manchu followed and aided was Sherlock Holmes the consulting detective
who was
also an accomplished chemist. By providing him with various clues and
access to
plants, insect and animal secretions that he would not normally have
had access
to, Sherlock Holmes succeeded in creating an Elixir of Life where
others
failed. Holmes successfully created something that not only prolonged
life but
restored youth. This substance was the royal jelly secreted bees which
had only
been fed certain rare plants and herbs in exact proportions. The main
problem
with this elixir vitae was that many of the
plants
that comprised the bee food were very rare, slow growing plants and had
to be
grown under exact conditions. Since only a small amount of bee feed was
available the resulting royal jelly was proportionally small, therefore
only a
very select few people could receive this mixture. Holmes gave it to
his friend
Watson, his brother Mycroft and to certain people whom Mycroft believed
were essential to
Dr. Fu Manchu
received his
sample of Holmes royal jelly version of the elixir vitae in 1921 and
instructions on how to make it while he was in exile in
This took
longer than he
had anticipated Since Kathulos had been effectively toppled from power
by his
own actions and those of “Steven Costigan and John Gordon during the
debacle of
1921[37]
Fu Manchu’s exile to
After aiding Solar Pons and the British government in the case of Praed Street Irregulars?, was able to gain more access to Holmes notes and begin working in earnest on the rejuvenation aspects of the elixir vitae. Fu Manchu found this to be frustrating for duplicating the necessary enzymes without triggering his allergies proved to be elusive. None of these elixirs were effective on Fu Manchu’s mentor and friend, Ras Al Ghul either. Ras Al Ghul encouraged Fu Manchu to explore other avenues, including those those using what some believed to be magic or arcane lore but was probably based on advanced scientific principles that certain people had stumbled onto the mechanics but not the operating theories. Magic or sorcery it was called by most.
Ras al Ghul let Fu Manchu know about a secret process by which it was rumored the supposed vampire Vlad Tepes kept himself young. Ras al Ghul remembered that Dracula had existed in Atlantis, he had in fact been rivals with Kathulos, Dracula had a method of creating what he called Soul Clones. Since this was a rather risky procedure, Dracula used it sparingly. While Dracula often drained his victims of blood, when he created a soul clone he would literally drain a suitable victim of its life's blood while at the same time exerting all of his psychic powers to literally consume the life essence, i.e. the soul of the person. When the body was a husk drained of blood and soul, Dracula would transfuse half of his blood into the husk while as the same time infusing the husk with his soul. Time was critical, he had to animate the corpse in a few split seconds and he had to stop pouring his mind essence into the corpse when it became animated lest the husk drain Dracula of life and soul.
This was possibly a
technique employed
by the legendary person called the Face Dancer. (See Mollet’s
article). Ras al Ghul believed that he remembered that certain of his
fellow
energy beings had been able to do something similar to this but he
could not
recall the circumstances or the outcome.
However Ras al Ghul had a price for this knowledge. He wanted an heir, one of Fu Manchu’s children, whom he believed would have the intelligence and forebearance to carry on Ras al Ghul’s work should he die. Fu Manchu told Ras that he did not have any male children just worthless females who would not be suitable to inherit Ras al Ghul’s empire. Ras al Ghul told Fu Manchu that he seriously underestimated the female character and that could be one of his greatest failings. One of Fu Manchu’s female children would be quite suitable.
In return for giving Ras al Ghul a newly born daughter from one of his concubines, Ras Al Ghul gave to Fu Manchu his copy of Annotations by Herr Doktor Theophagus Kraft on Praetorius’ The Filtration of Nature and Effects of Homunculi Distillation. This described Dr. Praetorious creation of a Draculan soul clone by artificial means using what was called a Star Stone. Ras Al Ghul believed that this was either a meteorite or else Pretorious had discovered some of the Atlantean/Lemurian power crystals and had used them in this process.
Fu Manchu spent a couple of years acquiring the correct type of meteorite or star stone as described by Theophagus Kraft. During this time he experimented with creating the homunculi as described by Praeotrious. He had many failures. His first successful experiments yielding tiny, short lived humanoid creatures. (origins of the homunculi coprolites described in Fu Manchu)
In early 1932, he was successful in growing a homunculi that was his genetic duplicate, this homunculi was, using the process described by Herr Doktor Kraft, forced into maturation from embryonic state to mature adult in less than a years time. Due to its forced maturation it was mindless which was the state that Fu Manchu desired, since he desired to imprint his own mind upon the younger body. Using the starstone and one of the Lemurian power crystals and applying the psychic techniques taught to him at rache churan, Fu Manchu poured his consciousness into the empty vessel that was the homunculi. Yet rather than the new vitality of a new life, he felt himself fading, the world going black as his consciousness, his very being seemed to evaporate. Fu Manchu pulled back from his attempt to transfer his consciousness into the new body. Fu Manchu fell into a coma.
As Fu Manchu slept his duplicate awoke. This process had not led to the transferal of Fu Manchu’s consciousness into a new body nor had had created a satellite body that shared Fu Manchu’s consciousness as did Dracula’s soul clones, but rather Fu Manchu’s process imprinted Fu Manchu’s personality and memories upon the younger body yet incompletely. Either due to some imperfection in the process, the unfinished transference or some flaw in the homunculi body, the double’s personality was less forceful and hesitant about making decisions. It also had less intelligence than Fu Manchu and could not fully use its wide assortment of knowledge. However for some reason its ability to use the psionic training learned at rache curan was much greater than Fu Manchu’s. The duplicate also aged rapidly, about one year per month and so had to be given the elixir vitae to stay alive. The less forceful personality and the need for the elixir vitae made this duplicate of Fu Manchu made him subordinate to the original one. To tell them apart, the duplicate adopted the so called Fu-Manchu moustache and beard ascribed to Fu Manchu in most pictorial representations. He was named Tzing Jao but went by the code name the Yellow Claw.[38]
Once Fu Manchu awoke from his two week coma, he vowed never to try that procedure again.
However his double did try this procedure once, believing that with his greater command of psionic power, he would succeed where Fu Manchu failed. Following the same procedure a homunculi was made from the blood, tissue and semen of Yellow Claw. When the transference into the younger body was attempted, the result was nearly the same as with Fu Manchu’s attempt. However since this homunculi was the homunculi of a homunculi and since the personality and memories were also second hand this was an extremely flawed copy of a copy. The second hand duplicate needed to keep the power crystals and Star Stone used to create him within his proximity or he would sicken and die. To solve this dilemma the star stone and power crystals were set into many rings which the soul clone wore. This duplicate of Fu Manchu was given the code name The Mandarin.[39]
[1] () paraphrased from Hooker, Richard Ch'ing China: The Opium Wars <http://www.wsu.edu:8080/~dee/CHING/OPIUM.HTM>
[2] () Dirk Struan's early career is depicted in Tai-Pan by James Clavell
[3] Farmer, DSHAL pg. 218.
[4] Hooker, Richard Ch'ing China: Self Strengthening http://www.wsu.edu:8080/~dee/CHING/SELF.HTM
[5] Many disciplines of the martial arts including Gung Fu as practiced by the monks of the Shaolin temple had their origin in the Honan province. See Shaolin Gung Fu Institute
[6] It was during this period that Moriarty impregnated a Russian woman, who gave birth to the child who would eventually be known as Grigori Rasputin. That Rasputin was the son of Moriarty was established in, John T. Lescroart, Rasputin's Revenge Donald I. Fine, Inc., 1987.
[7] Moore, Alan, and Kevin O’Neill. The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Volume 1, No. 5. America's Best Comics, 2000.
[8] As established in Philip José Farmer’s Lord of the Trees, New York: Ace, 1975.
[9] As established in Philip José Farmer’s The Other Log of Phileas Fogg, New York: Daw, 1973.
[10] The Musgrave Version and The Adventure of the Celestial Snows are two variations of one incident recounted by Reginald Musgrave. These two accounts vary widely in detail. The Musgrave Version appeared in Sherlock Holmes in Orbit, Daw, 1996. The Adventure of the Celestial Snows appeared in My Sherlock Holmes, St. Martins Press 2003
[11] For more details on this particular incident please see the article The Problem Of The Reginald Musgrave Or the Version Of History by Dennis E. Power
[12]
The French-Indochina war of 1882-83 and
the Tonghak Rebellion of 1894.
Neither conflict ended
well for
[13] This child would eventually become known as the renown detective Charlie Chan. Many people have expressed doubt that Charlie Chan was Fu Manchu's son considering the differences in their height and general body structure. However it seems that Charlie's height was determined by his mother's side of the family and his weight was the result of overeating rather than an inherited glandular condition.
[14] Sonia Omanoff was also the mother of the noted adventurer Princess Yasmini, part of whose life was chronicled by Talbot Mundy as seen in Guns of the Gods, Winds of the World, King of the Khyber Rifles. Sonia’s relationships with Fo-Hi and Fu Manchu were speculated upon by Wold Newton scholar Rick Lai in Sirens of the Si-Fan, Nemesis Incorporated, No. 20 August 1985 and in the article Partners in Crime: Fu Manchu and Carl Peterson
[15]
Shan Ming Fu's son survived his shooting and made his across
[16]
The Genoyosha Society would eventually
reveal that their
promotion of Pan-Asian ideals was to lay the foundation of an
[17]
The Tschao-Tschao people or as they are
most often
rendered in the compendium of occult lore known as the cthulhu
mythos, the Tcho-Tcho are a people legended to have been created by the
interbreeding of
humans and monsters. According to the mythic accounts a Mythos deity
named Chaugnar Faugn
created a race of
dwarves called the Miri out of the flesh
of reptiles.
These Miri interbred with humans and
created the Tcho-Tcho people. They spread
out across the globe and some
pockets of them are still said to reside in
[18] This vicar of Zhar or Voice of Zhar became the renowned occult detective Anton Zarnak.
[19] This connection between Fu Manchu and the Tcho-Tcho People was first speculated at by Rick Lai in his Fu Manchu Vs. Cthulhu article
[20] The confrontation between Fu Manchu and the Twin obscenities was first speculated upon by Rick Lai in his Fu Manchu Vs. Cthulhu. Although I differ in some specifics I do agree that Fu Manchu was instrumental in removing the threat of the Twin Obscenities. The story of Dr. Fo-Lan and his involvement with Eric Marsh and the Tcho-Tcho people was first told in Derleth, August “The Lair of the Star Spawn” Weird Tales, August 1932
[21]
Ashton-Wolfe, H. Warped in the Making
[22] Farmer, Philip Jose Doc Savage: His Apocalyptic Life, Bantam, 1973 Pg. 219-220
[23] As so clearly demonstrated by Cay Van Ash in "A Question of Time", Rohmer Review, No. 17, 1977.
[24] Hooker, Richard Ch'ing China: The Boxer Rebellion, 1996
[25]
Dr. Sun Ah Poy's visit to
[26] Quinn, Seabury "The Lost Lady" Weird Tales, January 1931
[27] The events of the Fires of Fu Manchu took place in 1917 according to the research of Fu Manchu scholar Cay Van Ash. Cay Van Ash wrote a novel which was based on this 1917 Fu Manchu plot. Van Ash, Cay The Fires of Fu Manchu (1987)
[28] As depicted in Quinn, Seabury "Satan's Stepson" Weird Tales, September, 1931
[29] Rohmer, The Insidious Dr. Fu Manchu, Chapter 1
[30] Mr. King was a legendary figure in the Limehouse district.. He was a Chinese gentleman of unknown origin. According to some of Sax Rohmer's accounts, Mr. King was the partial inspiration for Fu Manchu. After Fu Manchu had disappeared in 1914 and was presumed dead Sax Rohmer wrote a novel with a mysterious Mr. King as the villain. The identity of Mr. King was never revealed although it was hinted. Rohmer seems to have suspected that the rumors of Fu Manchu's demise were greatly exaggerated. Rohmer also based the novel on an incident that had occurred circa 1910 despite setting the novel in 1915. Rohmer also seems to have some inkling of the connection between Mr. King and Fu Manchu and Ho-Pin and Fo-Hi.
[31] This was established by Rick Lai in The Brotherhood of the Lotus and also in Partners in Crime.
[32] Rohmer, The Hand of Fu Manchu, Chapter IV
[33]
It is unknown what would have been the reaction among the Si-Fan
if they had known about one of Rashiel and
Fu
Manchu's operations in 1901. Rashiel had
used the
existing legend the reborn queen to unify
the Si-Fan not realizing that there was
truth in the legend.
Manchu and Rashiel had learned that Leo Vincey and Ludwig Horace Holly had learned the
whereabouts
of the reincarnated Ayesha. This was in a lamsary in
[34] Rohmer, The Hand of Fu Manchu, Chapter XXXII
[35] As related in Rohmer, Sax The Golden Scorpion, 1916
[36] The Fires of Fu Manchu by Cay Van Ash
[37] As depicted in Skull Face by Robert E. Howard.
[38]
The Yellow Claw was used as Fu Manchu’s spearhead against the
[39] The Mandarin became best known for his forays in the late Fifties and early Sixties against the institutions of American capitalism and economic expansion. His most renowned opponent was the man known as Iron Man, whose self appointed mission was to fight against the foes of capitalism and the expansion of American business into the global market. Many however consider Iron Man to have been a stooge for the Hughes Corporation since he was not so quick to spring into action when rivals of the Hughes Corporation were targeted by such terrorists as the Mandarin.