A Hundred-Year History of the Hua-Long Hui

This article is an entry in the Animalia citizens' encyclopedia, the Animalopedia. Years follow the Official Chronicle. For the organization's current status, see the Hua-Long Family.

The Hua-Long Hui (Fā-long-fēi; Hua Long Hui) is one of the Five Great Families of the metropolis of Animalia. Based in the Chinatown that formed during the "Second Migration Wave" of AE 13, it dates its founding to the AE 15 merger of the Vigilante Watch and the Incense Hall. Known as a militant house whose banner reads "If you would walk the path of conquest, walk it with us," it is also an infrastructure provider that underwrites Animalia's late-night economy through its jiangshi-dispatch business 〔TMA Times, November AE 95: "The Sleepless Workers Who Keep the Sleepless City Moving"〕.

Portions of this section are edit-protected. A total of 17 reverts occurred between Hua-Long-aligned editors and editors of religious studies over the wording on the "Incense Hall" doctrine (see Talk:A Hundred-Year History of the Hua-Long Hui/Archive 3).

Overview

The Hua-Long Hui is reputed to be the most "war-loving" of the Five Families, yet from the standpoint of family history it is also the house that has most vividly preserved "the shape of an immigrant community." It possesses a clear geographic cradle in Chinatown, and within the Tenryū Gate the Hui's own justice is said to take precedence over the city's courts even today 〔citation needed〕 (→ Justice in Animalia). Its organizing philosophy—the fusion of traditional Taoist sorcery and cutting-edge technology—derives from the very confluence of its two founding bodies at its formation: the martial Vigilante Watch and the sorcerous Incense Hall.

Prehistory and Founding (AE 1 to the 30s)

• AE 13 — The "Second Migration Wave" brings a surge of migrants from the East. Chinatown takes its earliest shape, and that same year the migrants erect the Tenryū Gate, inscribed with their gratitude at safe arrival (→ Official Chronicle §2). The dragon carvings on the gate are said to have been fired from clay mixed with a handful of soil carried from the homeland 〔Chinatown Gazetteer, Vol. 1〕.
• AE 13–15 — In the Animalia of the early Founding, Chinatown was the ward most vulnerable to raids. The young migrants organized a Vigilante Watch that patrolled by night with staves, while the elders ran the Incense Hall, which venerated the founding masters and dealt in medicinals and sorcery. The division of labor: "by day the Incense Hall heals; by night the Vigilante Watch guards."
• AE 15 — In the wake of a large-scale raid (popularly called "the Lantern Burning," though no such incident appears in police records 〔citation needed〕), the Vigilante Watch and the Incense Hall merged, and the Hua-Long Hui was founded. The apothecary of the Incense Hall, Hong Tianyou, was chosen as its first Dragon Head. That an apothecary, rather than a fighter, stood at the head is taken to embody the founding principle that "the Hua-Long Hui's strength exists to guard what lies within the gate."
• AE 24 — The Great Fire of Broken Burrow. The Hua-Long Hui aided the stricken with medicinals and medicine, and was the only one among the precursor organizations of the Five Families to win the standing of a power-broker through "healing."
• AE 30s — The prototype of the Starfrost Market springs up in Chinatown's back alleys. Trade in Taoist-sorcery catalysts grows into an important source of the Hui's revenue.

Its Role in the Decade of Blood (AE 38–50)

The Wharf War of AE 38 began as a clash between the Ninkyou faction and the northern order (→ the Ninkyou-gumi / the Tundra Syndicate), but the Hua-Long Hui—by then tightening its grip on the rights to waterway shipping—was drawn in early. If the cargo on the Veil Waterway stopped, Chinatown's medicinals would run dry: the second Dragon Head, Guan Bailong, declared "a war to guard the gate," and over the ensuing Decade of Blood the Hua-Long Hui is said to have earned the most battle honors and suffered the most dead of any of the Five Families 〔both are the Hui's own claims; no verifiable statistics exist〕.

• Early AE 40s — In this period the three-role system was established: the Red Pole (enforcer), the White Paper Fan (strategist), and the Straw Sandal (liaison). Forged amid chaotic fighting, this wartime formation—separating "the one who strikes, the one who thinks, and the one who connects"—settled into place as the organization's present-day structure.
• AE 42 — The Silent Purge. The Hua-Long Hui's Red Pole lineage was singled out in concentrated crackdowns, and its fighting strength was greatly cut down. The lopsidedness of the arrests was whispered about even then: "someone is leveling the battlefield" (→ the Animalia City Police).
• AE 45 — The Hua-Long Hui was the first of the Five Families to pay official respect to the "no-shooting crossroads" custom of the neutral market at Neon Crossroads. Its festival-loving streak did not vanish even amid the war.
• AE 47 — The Theater Massacre (→ the Rosso Family). Amid the eruption of public outrage over the deaths of civilians, the second Dragon Head, Guan Bailong, had the code "Face is life; a kindness is repaid twofold; a betrayal haunts three generations" carved into the wall of the Incense Hall, and at the same time appended the rider "never strike first." It was in this year that this house of vengeance made "the second strike that lands first" (go no sen) its family law.
• AE 49–50 — The de facto end of the war. On the Memorial Wall, the names of the Hua-Long Hui's dead are said to form the longest column of all 〔citation needed〕.

Development Under the Accord (AE 51–110)

The Hua-Long Hui had no hand in drafting the Five-Family Accord (Pax Animalia), yet it was the first house to sign it. The second Dragon Head, Guan Bailong, is said to have remarked that "drafting is work for scholars; signing is work for warriors" 〔Chinatown Gazetteer, Vol. 3〕. To the Fifty Seats of the Grand Alliance (The Mafia Animals), founded the same year, it has sent officers from the very start (the seat order is undisclosed. → the Grand Alliance).

• AE 52 — Performs the dragon dance at the first Balance Festival. From then on it becomes, alongside the Lunar New Year dragon dance, one of the Hui's two great public events.
• AE 58 — Co-funds the founding of Nightfall Academy. The lectern of its foundational Taoist-sorcery course is held exclusively by the Hua-Long Hui's White Paper Fans (→ Education in Animalia).
• AE 60s — The third Dragon Head, Mei Xiulan, takes office—the first female Dragon Head in the Hui's history. An era of "Commercial Restoration," in which she modernized the medicinal trade and made the Starfrost Market a permanent fixture.
• AE 89 — The Burrow Panic. Its commitment to hard goods (medicinals and spices) served it well, so its losses were light; it seized post-panic logistics and grew in influence. It is remembered as the house that balked, to the very end, at joining the Goldfist clearing network (→ the Goldfist Family).
• AE 95 — Jiangshi dispatch becomes the standard infrastructure of the late-night economy (→ Official Chronicle §5). "The workers who never tire" met strong public aversion at first, but a record of dramatically lowering the accident rate for late-night cargo handling overwrote the prejudice. That the architect of this enterprise was the current officer Xiao is well known today.
• AE 100 — The Founding Centennial. For the first time, jiangshi officially joined the dragon dance that runs from the Tenryū Gate to Hua-Long Castle, and as a spectacle that split opinion it stole the biggest headlines of the centennial 〔TMA Times, AE 100 Special Edition〕.

The Modern Era (AE 111–121)

The current Dragon Head is the fourth, Lei Zhenhai. The interest of the street, however, gathers almost entirely around Xiao (a panda), the youngest officer ever and the first in history to hold the roles of White Paper Fan and Red Pole in a single person. It is an open secret that the Council of Elders calls him both "the strongest weapon" and "the biggest headache" (→ the Hua-Long Family).

Concerning the sightings in the Glitch Zone from AE 108 onward (→ Official Chronicle §6), the Hua-Long Hui is rumored to be the only one of the Five Families conducting "an independent investigation from a sorcerous standpoint," though the Hui neither confirms nor denies it 〔by whom?〕.

The Line of Leaders (Dragon Heads)

Origins of Custom and Code

• The code "Face is life; a kindness is repaid twofold; a betrayal haunts three generations" — The saying itself is a folk proverb predating the migration, but it was carved into the wall as family law only in AE 47 (the year of the Theater Massacre). The proper reading, it is held, pairs it with the rider added at the same time: "never strike first."
• The Incense Hall induction rite (three sticks of incense; an oath to the founding masters and the Thousand-Year Tree) — Its origin lies in the AE 15 merger, when the vigilantes were inducted according to the Incense Hall's own rites. It is a ceremony that re-enacts, each time, the confluence of martial force and sorcery.
• The offering of talismans to the Thousand-Year Tree — The custom of dedicating a talisman of thanks after a great working of sorcery. Its origin is said to lie with the White Paper Fans who shielded their comrades with sorcery during the Decade of Blood and began the practice, claiming to "return the power they had borrowed" 〔citation needed〕. Even Xiao never skips this one.
• The Lunar New Year dragon dance — Its origin is the AE 13 festival for the raising of the Tenryū Gate. The current form, in which jiangshi join the procession, dates from the AE 100 centennial.
• The internal rules for operating jiangshi — A dispatched jiangshi must always wear a bell (so its presence is never concealed). This was laid down when the business was formally sanctioned in AE 95, in deference to public sentiment. The sound of bells at night is now part of Animalia's soundscape (→ Deep Lore §2.2).

Family Chronology (Abridged)

Anecdotes and Controversies

• The "Lantern Burning" historicity debate — The raid said to have triggered the merger has no corresponding entry in police records. The "it happened, but the police never logged it" camp and the "a retroactive legend to justify the merger" camp are at odds, and this passage of the article is rewritten an average of 4.2 times a year (see Talk:A Hundred-Year History of the Hua-Long Hui/Statistics).
• The claims of "most honors" and "most dead" — The Hua-Long Hui's war record in the Decade of Blood rests on the Hui's own claims alone; no verifiable statistics exist. One could settle the matter by counting the names on the Memorial Wall, but the very act of "counting names before the wall" is deemed irreverent, and no one has ever done it.
• The urban legend of the bells — A ghost story circulating since the AE 110s holds that if, late at night, you hear the bells ringing "a beat out of sync," something that is not a jiangshi has slipped in among them. The Hui waves it away as "poorly maintained bells" 〔TMA Times, August AE 118, Occult column〕.
• The order of signing — There is a blunt account that the Hua-Long Hui signed the Five-Family Accord "first" in AE 51 only because the Council of Elders, loath to be seated last, dispatched its representative before dawn 〔citation needed〕.