The founder of the 'new sect' as opposed to the 'old sect' which embraced long accepted Chinese Muslim doctrines of accommodation to Confucian ideology. Ma taught the way of the Zahriya branch of the Naqshbandi order after he returned from pilgrimage to Makkah in 1781. Armed conflict with the old sect around Lauchou, known centre of the Chinese Muslims, took place and which merged into rebellion against Chinese rule. The militancy of the new sect showed first in Kansu and Shensi from 1862 to 1877. In the second rebellion, which racked Yunnan from 1856 to 1873, its leader Tu Wenhsiu, succeeded in establishing a separate Muslim state for sixteen years.