Boxer Rebellion Yìhétuán Yùndòng 义和团运动

◀ Boxer Protocol (Xinchou Treaty) Comprehensive index starts in volume 5, page 2667.

The Boxer Rebellion of 1899–1900 was a bloody uprising against Western imperialism in north China. The Boxers, a group known for their expertise in the martial arts, targeted both foreigners and Chinese Christians. For- eign troops were sent in to put down the rebellion, resulting eventually in even more foreign control over the Chinese government.

he Boxer Rebellion broke out in Shandong Prov- ince in 1899 and spread across much of north China before it ended in 1900, resulting in the deaths of hundreds of foreign missionaries and thousands of Chinese. In its aftermath foreign powers greatly increased their control over the Qing dynasty (1644– 1912) court, and the partitioning of China seemed a real possibility. Boxers on trial before the High Court, China. The rebellion began in western Shandong among secret societies. As elsewhere in China commoners in Shandong often looked to secret societies and sectarian unhappiness with the increasing power of Christian mis- groups for mutual aid, religious and magical services, and sionaries, especially German Catholics in Shandong, but martial arts training, the latter causing these groups to be above all because of the drought, floods, and growing labeled “Boxers.” The Boxers most prominent in the re- famine in north China. As the rebellion spread it be- bellion were the Boxers United in Righteousness (Yihet- came increasingly violent and led to a number of attacks uan), who drew members from various groups, including against Christian missionaries and Chinese Christians. the Small Sword Society (known for its invulnerability Traditional policy for dealing with peasant rebellions magic—the belief that potions, charms, and martial-arts called for executing the leaders and encouraging the fol- rituals would protect them against bullets), and the Spirit lowers to return home. In this case the policy merely en- Boxers, who provided techniques for mass spirit posses- couraged the spread of the rebellion and made it more sion. The rebellion grew rapidly in part because of local diffuse. By late 1899 the rebellion was spreading rapidly. 197 T © 2009 by Berkshire Publishing Group LLC 198 Berkshire Encyclopedia of China 宝库山中华全书

The court was divided on the issue of the Boxers, with some officials favoring support because the Boxers’ slo- gan, “Support the Qing, destroy the foreign,” suggested that the Boxers’ popular antiforeignism could be used for the court’s benefit.

Foreign Guards Sent In As the situation became increasingly chaotic, foreign countries sent guards to their legations in Beijing. In June 1900 the Boxers cut the railway line between Tianjin and Beijing, and a force of 2,100 foreign troops was sent from Tianjin to protect the legations in Beijing. This expedi- tion was turned back by the Boxers, convincing some officials at the court, including the empress dowager, Cixi (1835–1908), that the Boxers could in fact defeat foreign troops. Although the empress dowager apparently did not believe in the invulnerability magic that the Boxers Company of Boxers, Tien-Tsin, China. claimed to have, she was impressed with their ability to Stereographic Print, c. 1901 by B. L. Singley. rally mass support. On 21 June the court declared war on all Western powers, seeing the movement as a way to retaliate against increasing foreign Imperialism. This official Qing backing led the rebellion to spread rapidly across north China, but many provincial officials re- mained skeptical of the Boxers, and most of them made Firing a volley from shelter of bank—Chinese no effort to attack foreigners or to encourage the rebel- soldiers at Tien-Tsin, China. Stereographic lion. Many foreigners and thousands of Chinese Chris- print, c. 1900 by B. L. Singley. tians were killed during the summer, mostly in Shanxi, Zhili, and Inner Mongolia. On 4 August twenty thousand foreign troops, including British, French, American, Russian, and German, and with more than half of them from Japan, began marching toward Beijing. They had already taken the city of Tianjin back from the Boxers and Qing troops after heavy fight- ing, and they drove quickly toward the capital, where the foreign legations had been under siege since June. Foreign troops entered Beijing on 14 August, and members of the court fled disguised as commoners. The Box- ers in the countryside dispersed rapidly, in part because the rebellion had been defeated and in part because the drought had ended. The foreign troops looted the city and launched a series of punitive expeditions into the countryside. The German troops, whose minister had been killed, were particularly interested in extracting revenge and teaching the Chinese a lesson—the two main pur- poses of the punitive expeditions.

In the aftermath of the rebellion the Chinese were Boxer Influence forced to agree to the Boxer Protocols. These required China to pay the Western powers affected by the upris- The Boxers influenced China and its relationship with the ing an indemnity of 450 million taels of silver (although outside world long after they had been dispersed. Foreign- some governments later refunded some of the money), ers continued to refer to the danger of “boxerism” (wild, to destroy all the forts between Beijing and the sea, to irrational violence) as a justification for foreign power allow the stationing of foreign troops along the route to inside China. Chinese views of the rebellion were more the capital, and to agree to the creation of a permanent le- mixed, with the anti-imperialist May Fourth reformers gation guard. A number of officials were to be punished, seeing the Boxers as an example of the feudal backward- including Prince Zhuang, who was ordered to commit ness that was weakening China, and the Communists see- suicide. The civil service exams were to be suspended for ing the Boxers as an example of the power of the aroused five years inforty- five cities where the Boxers had been masses and proof of the Chinese peasantry’s innate hatred active. These provisions were important steps toward of imperialism. foreign control over China. The indemnity, plus inter- Alan BAUMLER est, was a huge drain on the government, making it even more dependent on foreign loans. The demands for the Further Reading punishment of officials and the suspension of exams were more intrusive involvement in the government of China Bickers, R., & Tiedermann, R. G. (Eds.). (2007). The Box- ers, China and the world. Lanham, MD: Rowman and than foreigners had ever demanded before, and after the Littlefield. rebellion foreign consuls exerted even more control over Brandt, N. (1994). Massacre in Shansi. Syracuse, NY: Syra- the Chinese government. The Russians had taken ad- cuse University Press. vantage of the rebellion to move into Manchuria, and al- Cohen, P. A. (1997). History in three keys: The Boxers as though pressure from the other powers eventually forced event, experience and myth. New York: Columbia Uni- Russia to leave after the rebellion, the partitioning of versity Press. China—or “carving the melon,” as Chinese nationalists Esherick, J. (1987). The origins of the Boxer uprising. Berke- called it—seemed a real possibility. ley and Los Angeles: University of California Press.

Boycotts and Economic Nationalism ▶