UNIVERSITY OF DELHI

JANKI DEVI MEMORIAL COLLEGE

Core Paper: History of Modern China (c. 1840-1950s)

Internal Assessment
( Presentation write-up)

Topic :- The Boxer Movement (1899-1901)

Group Number - 4

Submitted to: Submitted by:

Prof. Natasha Nongbri Prachi Gupta

Department of History B.A. (H) History
Janki Devi Memorial College Semester : V
University of Delhi Roll No : 20/1234
 ORIGIN OF THE MOST HEROIC BOXING ON EARTH

The Yi Ho Tuan (Society of Righteousness and Harmony), a Patriotic Anti-

Imperialist Uprising, arose and grew in Shantung Province which had suffered
the most from the incursions of the foreigners. The place of origin was no
accident which started from 1899 and continued till 7 September 1901 , one
year 10 months 20 days approximately. A folk song praising this great
revolutionary movement spread among the local people:

The Yi Ho Tuan
Stood up in Shantung
Heroes they are
Protecting the Nation

It was the climax of the Chinese people’s struggle against aggression and
partition following the Sino – Japanese war of 1894. The process had started in
1895 with the Japanese Assault on Weihaiwei, and no sooner had the people
recovered from the invasion that the Germans were scrutinising he coastline for
a suitable harbor for themselves, a search which ended in 1898 with the
occupation of Kaichow and the acquisition of Railway Rights. Then it was the
turn of Weihaiwei once more, this time to pass into British hands as a Naval
Base. With all this, it is no wonder that Shantung began to have a reputation for
xenophobia, though there were some odd features about the way in which the
resentment manifested itself. However, in 1899, the most active of all the
brotherhoods spawned by the movement – A group which form a ritualistic
cultivation of arts of pugilism and the sword staff soon acquired the name of
“Boxers” – who became the loyal subjects of the Empire and their assembly met
under a banner inscribed ‘Support the Dynasty, Destroy the Foreigners. “Boxers"
was the name given by foreigners to a Chinese secret society called the I-ho
ch'uan, or the "Righteous and Harmonious Fists,” since members of this
organization practiced old-style calisthenics.

STAGES OF BOXER MOVEMENT

INITIALLY IT WAS AGAINST THE WAS AGAINST THE FOREIGNERS

QING- -
"OVERTHROW THE MING AND "SUPPORT THE MING AND
DESTROY THE FOREIGNER DESTROY THE FOREIGNERS"
 SIGNIFICANCE

Some scholars considered Boxer rebellion as a “ patriotic outburst” and “ the

birth of nationalism in the History of China.” Schur Mann and Schell,
represented Boxer movement as a fusion of two distinct currents of 19th century
China:
1) Humiliation by the west
2) Decline within
Whereas in the opinion of G. Dunstheimber, the boxer movement was on the
dividing line between two historical era:
1) The Chinese Middle Ages
2) Modern Times.

HISTORIOGRAPHY

Western Assessment of the Boxer Movement:

• Victor Purcell (1896-1965), author of the best English language book

written so far on The Boxer Uprising, mentions in the opening paragraph
of his book: "To the West in general the Boxer Uprising of 1900 is a half-
forgotten episode in the history of China's resistance to progress; to the
historians of People's China, it is the heroic resistance of the Chinese
peasantry to foreign imperialism.
• Preceding Purcell's work were two serious studies in English which had
their Chinese connections. The first modern research work on the Boxers
in English is George Nye Steiger's China and the Occident: The Origin and
Development of the Boxer Movement.
• Mention should also be made about a commemoratory volume o Victor
Purcell edited by Jerome Chen and Nicholas Tarling, entitled Studies in
Social History of China and South-East Asia (Cambridge - 1970).

Chinese Assessment of the Boxer Movement:

• Yi Ho Tuan and its Chinese version, as we have seen, have given a

refreshing account of the Boxer Movement with a clear perspective. For
instance, The Rise and Fall of the Yihetuan, by Hu Sheng gives a deep insight
in China's modern development and have made it a very scholarly and
weighty document for the boxer Movement.
• Another Chinese communist commentator of the Boxer Movement
similar to Hu Sheng was Fan Wenlan whose unfinished book on History of
Modern China has an important chapter on the Boxer Movement.

Victor Purcell and Hu Sheng respectively represent the mainstreams of

Western and Chinese scholarly assessments of the Boxer Movement. It is
interesting to compare them.

WESTERN
The Western mind is objective and
compromising, trying to sail away
from the age-old Sinophobia and
keep a balance between the
diametrically pitched Occidental
and Oriental prejudices.
CHINESE
Chinese scholarly view on the
subject as represented by Hu
Sheng. Fan Wenlan and Yi Ho Tuan
are also strongly affected by
revolutionary passion, with
empathy for the unknown Boxer
heroes on the one hand and hatred
for China's foreign aggressors as
well as her own decadent rulers on
the other.

While Victor Purcell, Jerome Ch'en, Chester Tan and George Steiger have
excelled in interpretation, their studies lack the clear-cut perspective as shown
in Fan Wenlan's chapter, Hu Sheng's article and Yi Ho Tuan's text.

CONTROVERSY- YI HE TUAN or YI HE QUAN

The origin of the controversy, one might say, lies in the last syllable of the name
Yihetuan. The complexity of the Quan-tuan transformation has been
compounded by the varying references to the Boxers in contemporary records,
both Chinese and Western. Steiger has fallen a victim of this archival confusion.
Purcell, however, has sorted out the mess and proved that the earliest
references to the Boxer organizations in imperial documents in May 1898 gave
the name Yihequan, while the name of Yihetuan appeared in Chinese, and
Western records dating from October 1898 to the later years. Whereas
according to Steiger, the name Yihetuan appeared before that of Yihetuan, and
the correct name of the Boxers was Yihetuan, "Righteous and United Band" or
"Militia" while its variation, Yihequan "Was simply a pun which was perpetuated
by its opponents."
FOREIGNERS

Now directing its spearhead against the foreigners, the Boxers called foreigners
"Primary Hairy Men" (Ta Mao-tzu), Chinese Christians and those engaged in
foreign matters "Secondary Hairy Men" (Erh Mao-tzu), and those who used
foreign articles "Tertiary Hairy Men" (San Mao-tzu). According to them, all,
"Hairy Men" were subject to extermination.

***Composition of Rebellion, Rising of rebellion , Suppression of rebellion,

Aftermath, Debate on the nature of the Rebellion – These subtopics are done by
other group members ***

CONCLUSION

Centering around the Boxer Movement there took place the unprecedented
demonstration of xenophobia by Chinese people on the one hand and
Sinophobia by the Western powers on the other. The world-shaking Yi Ho Tuan
Movement is the glory and pride of the Chinese people. It laid a cornerstone for
the great victory of their revolution 50 years later. It gave the invaders a taste of
the people's heavy fist and shattered their fond dream of partitioning China. To
the Chinese people the Yi Ho Tuan Movement brought a better understanding
of imperialism. Whereas on the other hand, the Chinese historians, after
highlighting the vital shortcomings of the Boxer Movement have not lost sight
of the greatness of the Boxer uprising. Further, the Yi Ho Tuan Movement
exposed the treasonous character of the Ching government. It both weakened
the feudal ruling power and precipitated the subsequent growth of the
revolutionary movement. These great and historic merits of the Yi Ho Tuan can
never be obliterated.

SOURCES

• The Modern History of China by Henry Mcaleavy.

• Modern China by S. Kadhirvel.
• Triton and Dragon ( Studies On Nineteenth-Century China and
imperialism) by Tan Chung.
• The Rise of Modern China by Immanuel C. Y. Hsu.