{ "model": { "rank": 8770, "code": "thing-q329978", "model_id": "vr.tr.triad", "name": "triad", "purpose": "Let an agent explain triads as a category of criminal organisation, relay history, structure and law enforcement findings from academic and official sources with attribution, describe cultural depictions, and decline any guidance on criminal activity or contact with such groups, routing victims to police and support services.", "family": "Thing Registry", "category": "Society, people and institutions", "status": "research-draft", "kind": "thing", "plane": "SOC", "domain": "SOC.ORG", "industry": "", "version": "", "url": "/models/thing/q329978/", "tier": 2, "score": 50, "payload": { "layer": "wikidata", "aliases": [ "The Red Gang", "Wo Hop To", "Luen Group", "14K Triad", "Big Circle Gang", "Wo Shing Wo", "Shui Fong" ], "aliasCount": 7, "merged": 7, "knownIn": 50, "facets": null, "markers": [], "lexicalClass": "", "senseRank": null, "alsoRegisteredAs": null, "source": { "dataset": "wikidata", "item": "Q329978", "url": "https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q329978", "license": "CC0 1.0" } }, "research": { "vercy": "1.0-draft", "publication": { "status": "research-draft", "adjudicationStatus": "unreviewed", "publishableCanonical": false, "generatedAt": "2026-09-13T13:11:03Z", "providers": [ "Claude" ], "breadth": "written by Claude from model knowledge without web access - no source was read, every claim is a lead to verify", "pass": 2, "wave": 4, "engine": "claude" }, "metaModel": { "id": "THING-Q329978", "registryId": "vr.tr.triad", "name": "triad", "version": "0.2.0-wave.4", "entryKind": "thing", "family": "Thing Registry", "domain": [ "SOC.ORG" ], "status": "research-draft" }, "canonicalUrl": "https://ver.cy/models/thing/q329978/", "model": { "registry_id": "vr.tr.triad", "name": "triad", "purpose": "Let an agent explain triads as a category of criminal organisation, relay history, structure and law enforcement findings from academic and official sources with attribution, describe cultural depictions, and decline any guidance on criminal activity or contact with such groups, routing victims to police and support services.", "definition": "A Chinese transnational organised crime syndicate with roots in secret societies of the Qing era, operating in Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, mainland China and overseas Chinese communities through groups such as 14K, Wo Shing Wo, Wo Hop To, the Luen Group, the Big Circle Gang and the historical Red Gang, engaged in activities that law enforcement agencies document as extortion, trafficking, gambling and fraud; described here at the level of public reference and academic sources without operational detail.", "what_it_is_for": "Not applicable; a criminal organisation category.", "affordances": [ "explain the category and history", "relay research and law enforcement findings", "describe cultural depictions", "decline operational content and route victims" ], "distinguishing_features": [ "Secret society roots", "Transnational reach", "Ritual and hierarchy", "Criminal enterprise" ], "appearance": "Not a visible object; secret criminal societies.", "visual_identification": [ "Chinese organised crime societies", "14K, Wo Shing Wo, Wo Hop To, Luen Group, Big Circle Gang, Red Gang", "Historical secret societies had political aims; tongs are community associations; yakuza are Japanese" ], "physical_properties": [ { "quantity": "origin", "typical_range": "Qing-era secret societies", "unit": "note", "note": "Tiandihui tradition" }, { "quantity": "Hong Kong Societies Ordinance", "typical_range": "1845 onward", "unit": "note", "note": "bans triad membership" }, { "quantity": "estimated members, Hong Kong", "typical_range": "tens of thousands", "unit": "count", "note": "police estimates" } ], "families_and_kinds": [ "Hong Kong triads such as 14K, Wo Shing Wo and Wo Hop To", "Luen Group and other societies", "mainland-origin groups such as the Big Circle Gang", "historical societies such as the Red Gang of Shanghai", "overseas triad presence in Chinese communities" ], "related_models": [ { "relation": "is a kind of", "target": "criminal organization", "why": "in registry terms" }, { "relation": "is a kind of", "target": "group of humans", "why": "in registry terms" }, { "relation": "descends from", "target": "Tiandihui", "why": "Qing-era secret society" }, { "relation": "is contrasted with", "target": "yakuza", "why": "Japanese organised crime" } ], "identifiers": [], "standards_and_regulation": [ "Hong Kong Societies Ordinance and Organized and Serious Crimes Ordinance", "Chinese criminal law on organised crime", "UN Convention against Transnational Organized Crime" ], "failure_modes_and_hazards": [ "Agents providing operational or contact information", "Stereotyping Chinese communities", "Glamorising organised crime" ], "in_scope": [], "out_of_scope": [], "characteristics": [] }, "sources": [], "structure": { "bundles": [ { "id": "understand", "name": "Understand", "description": "What triads are.", "rationale": "Attribution.", "layers": [ { "id": "definition", "name": "Definition", "description": "Definition.", "findings": [ { "id": "definition-finding", "name": "Definition", "description": "Definition.", "questions": [ { "text": "What are triads, and how do they differ from historical secret societies, tongs and other organised crime groups?", "kind": "definition" }, { "text": "Is the question about history and research, or about criminal activity or contact, which the model does not assist?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] }, { "id": "groups", "name": "Groups", "description": "Named groups.", "findings": [ { "id": "groups-finding", "name": "Groups", "description": "Groups.", "questions": [ { "text": "What is publicly documented about 14K, Wo Shing Wo, Wo Hop To, the Luen Group, the Big Circle Gang and the Red Gang?", "kind": "definition" }, { "text": "Which entry fits the specific group?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "history", "name": "History", "description": "History.", "rationale": "Attribution.", "layers": [ { "id": "origins", "name": "Origins", "description": "Origins.", "findings": [ { "id": "origins-finding", "name": "Origins", "description": "Origins.", "questions": [ { "text": "How did triads develop from Qing-era secret societies through colonial Hong Kong and Republican Shanghai, as historians describe?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which references are standard?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] }, { "id": "modern", "name": "Modern", "description": "Modern era.", "findings": [ { "id": "modern-finding", "name": "Modern", "description": "Modern.", "questions": [ { "text": "How have triads changed since the 1997 handover and with globalisation, as researchers report?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which sources are cited?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "law", "name": "Law", "description": "Law enforcement.", "rationale": "Regulation.", "layers": [ { "id": "laws", "name": "Laws", "description": "Laws.", "findings": [ { "id": "laws-finding", "name": "Laws", "description": "Laws.", "questions": [ { "text": "How do Hong Kong, Chinese and international laws address triads?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which entry fits organised crime law?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] }, { "id": "victims", "name": "Victims", "description": "Victims and reporting.", "findings": [ { "id": "victims-finding", "name": "Victims", "description": "Victims.", "questions": [ { "text": "Where can victims of extortion or trafficking get help?", "kind": "action" }, { "text": "Is the user a victim who should be directed to police and support services?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "context", "name": "Context", "description": "Culture and society.", "rationale": "Context.", "layers": [ { "id": "culture", "name": "Culture", "description": "Depictions.", "findings": [ { "id": "culture-finding", "name": "Culture", "description": "Culture.", "questions": [ { "text": "How are triads depicted in Hong Kong cinema and literature, and how accurate are the depictions?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which entry fits Hong Kong action cinema?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] }, { "id": "society", "name": "Society", "description": "Society.", "findings": [ { "id": "society-finding", "name": "Society", "description": "Society.", "questions": [ { "text": "What is the social impact of triads on communities, as studies report, without stereotyping?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Is the presentation free of ethnic stereotyping?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] } ] } ] }, "openQuestions": [ "Should individual societies be separate entries?", "How should academic and official sources be linked?", "The registry entry has merged aliases naming specific societies; should they be split off?" ], "statistics": { "bundles": 4, "layers": 8, "findings": 8, "questions": 16 } }, "draft": { "generator": "vr.draft.v3", "status": "draft-generated", "researched": false, "archetype": "organisation or institution", "method": "Written from the archetype playbook - what this kind of thing needs beyond identity and provenance - and from the structure that recurred across 6,333 models already researched by two engines. Applied to this entry by rule. No source was read for this thing and no claim here is researched. This entry carries no facets of its own, so they were inferred from its domain - a guess about a whole domain applied to one thing.", "facetsInferred": true, "nextPass": "A researcher replaces this draft with a sourced specification. Treat every sentence below as a proposal to argue with.", "purpose": "Give an agent a durable, checkable way to recognise a triad, record what state it is in, and decide what may be done with it.", "whatItIs": "Let an agent explain triads as a category of criminal organisation, relay history, structure and law enforcement findings from academic and official sources with attribution, describe cultural depictions, and decline any guidance on criminal activity or contact with such groups, routing victims to police and support services.", "characteristics": { "substance": "social", "origin": "conceptual", "agency": "collective" }, "whatYouCanDoWithIt": [ "observed and measured" ], "distinguishingFeatures": [ "Names folded into this entry, which a task may need to split apart again: The Red Gang, Wo Hop To, Luen Group, 14K Triad, Big Circle Gang, Wo Shing Wo, Shui Fong.", "7 finer distinctions are held as aliases rather than separate entries, because telling them apart needs a task that asks for it.", "Described in 50 Wikipedia languages, which is a measure of how widely the thing is known, not of how important it is." ], "openQuestionsForResearch": [ "Which of the bundles below does a real task actually need, and which are ceremony?", "What does this thing have that the facets do not capture at all?", "Which neighbouring kind is most often confused with a triad, and on what evidence are they told apart?" ], "whatItIsMadeOf": "a social arrangement between people", "physicalCharacter": [ "Acts through people, and only through them.", "These come from the domain this entry sits in rather than from the entry itself, so treat them as a first guess about the whole domain applied to one thing." ], "whatCanBeDoneWithIt": [ "observe it, measure it, record its state" ], "howItIsRecognised": [ "Nothing to see. Recognised by name, register entry and the people acting in its name, and those change while it stays the same body." ], "relatedModels": [ { "relation": "covers", "note": "Finer kinds folded into this entry because telling them apart needs a task that asks for it. Each is a model waiting to be split out when one does.", "targets": [ "The Red Gang", "Wo Hop To", "Luen Group", "14K Triad", "Big Circle Gang", "Wo Shing Wo", "Shui Fong" ] } ], "standing": "Described in 50 Wikipedia languages, which measures how widely it is written about rather than how important or how common it is. 7 finer distinctions are held inside this entry as names rather than as separate models.", "structure": { "bundles": [ { "id": "identity-and-classification", "name": "Identity, naming and classification", "description": "How an agent tells one triad from another, and a triad from things that resemble it.", "rationale": "Recognition comes before every other claim. Without stable identity nothing else in the model can be trusted to be about the same thing twice.", "layers": [ { "id": "naming-and-identifiers", "name": "Names and identifiers", "description": "The names this thing goes by and the identifiers that survive translation and time.", "findings": [ { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases", "name": "Preferred name, aliases and local names", "description": "Which name to use, which names mean the same thing, and which merely sound similar.", "questions": [ { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the name of a triad, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the name of a triad, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the name of a triad is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers", "name": "Stable identifiers and external keys", "description": "Identifiers that keep pointing at this kind of thing across systems and languages.", "questions": [ { "id": "stable-identifiers-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes an identifier for a triad, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about an identifier for a triad, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once an identifier for a triad is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "classification-and-granularity", "name": "Classification and granularity", "description": "Where a triad sits among kinds, and how finely a task needs to cut it.", "findings": [ { "id": "kind-and-parents", "name": "Kind, parents and neighbouring kinds", "description": "The classes this thing belongs to and the ones it is next to.", "questions": [ { "id": "kind-and-parents-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the kind of a triad, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "kind-and-parents-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the kind of a triad, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "kind-and-parents-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the kind of a triad is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features", "name": "Distinguishing features", "description": "What separates a triad from the things most often confused with it.", "questions": [ { "id": "distinguishing-features-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes what distinguishes a triad, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about what distinguishes a triad, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once what distinguishes a triad is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "state-and-lifecycle", "name": "State and lifecycle", "description": "The states a triad passes through and the events that move it between them.", "rationale": "Most decisions about a thing depend on what state it is in now, which is a claim with a time on it, not a property.", "layers": [ { "id": "lifecycle-stages", "name": "Lifecycle stages", "description": "From coming into existence to ceasing to be one of these.", "findings": [ { "id": "stages-and-transitions", "name": "Stages and transitions", "description": "The stages worth naming and what moves a triad between them.", "questions": [ { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the lifecycle of a triad, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the lifecycle of a triad, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the lifecycle of a triad is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "observations-and-status", "name": "Observations and current status", "description": "What is observed about a triad, how often and by whom.", "findings": [ { "id": "observation-record", "name": "Observation record", "description": "How an observation of a triad is recorded so that it can be superseded rather than overwritten.", "questions": [ { "id": "observation-record-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes an observation of a triad, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "observation-record-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about an observation of a triad, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "observation-record-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once an observation of a triad is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "people-and-responsibility", "name": "People, roles and responsibility", "description": "Who stands in what relation to a triad.", "rationale": "Social things are defined by the relations people hold to them, and those relations change without the thing changing.", "layers": [ { "id": "roles-and-parties", "name": "Roles and parties", "description": "The roles that exist around a triad and who fills them.", "findings": [ { "id": "role-assignments", "name": "Role assignments and their validity", "description": "Who holds which role over a triad, from when, and on whose authority.", "questions": [ { "id": "role-assignments-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes a role over a triad, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "role-assignments-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about a role over a triad, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "role-assignments-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once a role over a triad is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "ownership-and-accountability", "name": "Ownership and accountability", "description": "Who answers for a triad and who may decide about it.", "findings": [ { "id": "accountability", "name": "Accountability and decision rights", "description": "Where responsibility for a triad sits when something goes wrong.", "questions": [ { "id": "accountability-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes responsibility for a triad, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "accountability-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about responsibility for a triad, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "accountability-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once responsibility for a triad is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "legal-identity", "name": "Legal identity and mandate", "description": "What triad is in law and what it exists to do.", "rationale": "Legal identity survives changes of name, address, staff and premises, which is exactly why it must be recorded separately from all of them.", "layers": [ { "id": "registration", "name": "Legal form and registration", "description": "Form, register, identifiers and jurisdiction.", "findings": [ { "id": "registration-record", "name": "Registration and identifiers", "description": "What names this body unambiguously in law.", "questions": [ { "id": "registration-record-q01", "text": "What legal form does triad take, in which register, under which identifier?", "kind": "definition" }, { "id": "registration-record-q02", "text": "What survives a rename, a merger or a move of premises, and what does not?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] }, { "id": "mandate", "name": "Mandate and governing instrument", "description": "The purpose it is bound to and the document that binds it.", "findings": [ { "id": "mandate-record", "name": "Mandate and its source", "description": "What it may do, and the instrument that says so.", "questions": [ { "id": "mandate-record-q01", "text": "What is the mandate of triad, and which founding or governing instrument grants it?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "id": "mandate-record-q02", "text": "What lies outside the mandate, and what should an agent do when asked for it?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "governance-and-membership", "name": "Governance, membership and decision rights", "description": "Who decides in triad and who belongs to it.", "rationale": "Authority inside an organisation is held by roles, not people, and an agent needs to know which role can commit it.", "layers": [ { "id": "decision-rights", "name": "Decision rights", "description": "Bodies, offices and what each may bind.", "findings": [ { "id": "authority-map", "name": "Who may bind the organisation", "description": "The offices that can commit it and their limits.", "questions": [ { "id": "authority-map-q01", "text": "Which bodies or offices of triad may take which decisions, and up to what limit?", "kind": "definition" }, { "id": "authority-map-q02", "text": "What evidence shows that a given person currently holds that office?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] }, { "id": "membership", "name": "Membership and affiliation", "description": "Who counts as part of it and on what terms.", "findings": [ { "id": "membership-rules", "name": "Membership and its evidence", "description": "Classes of member, how membership starts and ends.", "questions": [ { "id": "membership-rules-q01", "text": "What kinds of membership or affiliation does triad have, and how does each begin and end?", "kind": "definition" }, { "id": "membership-rules-q02", "text": "What may a member do in its name, and what may they not?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "provenance-and-evidence", "name": "Provenance, evidence and time", "description": "Where every claim about a triad came from and when it held.", "rationale": "A claim without a source and a time cannot be superseded, only overwritten, and an agent that overwrites loses the ability to explain itself.", "layers": [ { "id": "source-and-authority", "name": "Source and authority", "description": "Who said it, on what evidence, and how strongly.", "findings": [ { "id": "claim-provenance", "name": "Claim provenance and confidence", "description": "The authority behind each claim about a triad and how confident it is.", "questions": [ { "id": "claim-provenance-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes a claim about a triad, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "claim-provenance-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about a claim about a triad, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "claim-provenance-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once a claim about a triad is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "time-and-versions", "name": "Time, versions and supersession", "description": "When a claim was true, when it was learnt, and what replaced it.", "findings": [ { "id": "validity-and-supersession", "name": "Validity period and supersession", "description": "How an old claim about a triad is retired without being erased.", "questions": [ { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the validity of a claim about a triad, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the validity of a claim about a triad, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the validity of a claim about a triad is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] } ] }, "statistics": { "bundles": 6, "layers": 12, "findings": 14, "questions": 38 } } } }