Sect Initiation Ritual

The actual structure of a sect initiation: the disciple writes a petition (baishitie) → three bows → offers tea on his knees → the master returns a disciple's letter → the disciple is given a name. The split function of the three cups is the key visual signal: the first cup, the "thinking" tea (the master takes it but does not drink = not yet accepted), the second, the "passing" tea (the master sips = formally accepted), the third, the "trust" tea (the master dots tea on the disciple's body = a bond of faith is established). Viewers can read consent or refusal straight off whether the master drinks the second cup.

The sect works as a triple analogy: school + family + political organisation. The master teaches skills but also carries parental responsibility; the titles of senior and junior disciple mark both entry order and intimacy; the sect has its own rules, interests and inherited feuds. It protects its disciples, but it can also demand that an individual be sacrificed for the group. Being expelled is not losing a job — it is losing identity, family and moral belonging.

Cross-read with the kowtow grades: the three bows in an initiation are graded kneeling applied to a specific scene. The person being knelt to is not an emperor or a power-holder but someone about to take on parental duty. The obligation runs both ways — the disciple obeys, the master protects.

Evidence level: B (ritual sequence is citable; first-person overseas reactions are thin).