History of China Source: http://content.inflibnet.ac.

in/ [Vidyamitra, Integrated e-content portal createdPage

under1National
of 18
Mission on Education through ICT (NME-ICT), MHRD
Author: Amit Bhattacharya

HISTORY

Course Name : History

(For under graduate student.)

Paper No. : Paper- VIII

History of China

Unit, Chapter : Unit- 1

Chapter- 4

Topic No. & Title : Part- 1

The Boxer Rebellion or
Yi Ho Tuan Movement 1

History of China – Boxer Rebellion I

The most important feature of China is the occurrence of

uninterrupted peasant revolts in all parts of the country.
Although most of the feudal societies of the world had
witnessed explosions of peasant fury from time to time, no
country other than China has had a more continuous tradition
of peasant revolts. These occurred both in feudal China as
also in semi-feudal and semi-colonial China into which China
was forcibly converted after the First Opium War of 1840-42.
That was the first of a series of humiliating treaties that China
was forced to sign with the Western capitalist powers.After
History of China Page 2 of 18

the defeat of China at the hands of Japan in the Sino-

Japanese war of 1894-95, imperialist intrusion into China
intensified and the resistance of the Chinese people also
gained in strength. Unlike the Reform Movement of 1898
which preceded it and was a movement from above, the
Boxer rebellion was a movement from below. It was led by
secret societies. Broadly speaking, it was a peasant
movement integrally connected with the condition of Chinese
agriculture. At the same time, it was directed against foreign
missionaries and the Chinese Christians.The rebellion was
associated with the year 1900, although it started a bit earlier
and came to an end with the conclusion of another
humiliating treaty, known as the Protocol of 1901.

Background

The anti-foreign resistance movements of the peasants that

took place in the 19th century were basically scattered in
nature and were not generally effective. In 1841, near
Canton, villagers routed a detachment of Anglo-Indian troops.
In 1884-85, the Black Flags of Tonking and the border regions
of south China raised stiff resistance against French troops.
The members of this sect were partly peasant, partly
History of China Page 3 of 18

mercenary soldiers who were influenced in their anti-foreign

movement by a kind of proto-nationalism. In the late 1890s,
the Red Beard bandits of Manchuria also effectively opposed
Russian penetration into that region during the construction
of the trans-Manchurian railway.

Equally scattered was peasant resistance to the penetration of

the Western capitalist technology and economy. In the early
days of industrialization in England, workers took to machine-
breaking or „Luddism‟(drawing its name from the name of
John Lud, the Chartist activist) as, they felt, these were
causes of unemployment. Likewise, the Chinese artisans also
indulged in machine-breaking. However, they did so not just
because these were causes of unemployment, but primarily
because these were foreign. In fact, it was a political
motivation of a nationalistic kind that impelled them to take
such steps. Modern machines for the spinning and weaving of
silk were destroyed in the rural areas near Canton in the
1880s. Peasant opposition against modern industrial
technology continued in the towns to which their misery had
driven them in search of work in the factories. Cases of
factory-smashing were reported in the 19th and 20th
centuries.
History of China Page 4 of 18

Foreign aggression and the Role of the Missionaries

In Asiatic couintries that had fallen victims to foreign

capitalist penetration, religion came side by side with foreign
political control. In China also, the picture was more or less
the same. The relations between the peasants and the
missions were very bad. The peasants detested the
Christians, particularly Catholic Christians, and the Chinese
converts who were accused of seeking cheap means of
protection against Chinese authorities in case of trouble with
the police and also as a kind of insurance against misery. The
missions were accused of kidnapping Chinese children with
the object of forcibly converting them into Christianity.

Among missionaries who committed many crimes of

aggression under the cloak of religion were, according to the
Chinese authors of the book The Yi Ho Tuan Movement of
1900, Timothy Richard of Britain, Gilbert Reid of the United
States, Alphonse Favier of France and Anzer of Germany.
Many of the missionaries--directed by their archbishops,
bishops and other higher-ups—collected intelligence, forcibly
seized farmland, put pressure of all types on the law-courts,
History of China Page 5 of 18

extorted money from the people, bought over gangsters and

other bad elements to become converts, created incidents,
intimidated and bullied the common people and committed
crimes of all types, murder included. The Manchu or Ching
officials cowered submitted meekly to foreign pressure. In
case of disputes between the people and the missionaries,
they always shielded the latter and oppressed the former.
These were the reasons why anti-missionary incidents
became frequent.

In fact, after 1860, there were an increasing number of

incidents involving missionaries, attacks on mission buildings,
the destruction of churches, manhandling of Chinese converts
and so on. In 1891, a series of anti-Christian riots took place
in several small towns and rural markets in the Yangtze
Valley. In these movements, the peasantry and the urban
poor played a leading part; besides these, the local gentry
also incited the peasants against foreigners, furnished arms
and organized popular discontent. In some cases, the secret
societies were also mixed up in these anti-Christian
outbreaks. In fact, the Boxer movement was the climax of all
these trends, of peasant hostility to Christianity on religious
grounds, of popular proto-nationalism, of secret society
History of China Page 6 of 18

activity, of „luddite‟ resistance to modern technology, and also

the anti-Western feeling of the local gentry.

By the end of the 19th century, world capitalist had entered

into the stage of monopoly capitalism—the highest stage of
capitalism i.e, imperialism. In the years after the defeat of
China by Japan—another addition to the long list of defeats at
the hand of foreign powers—in 1895 and conclusion of the
Treaty of Shimonoseki, tremendous changes took place in
China. It allowed Japanese capitalists to start factories in
China‟s trading ports which naturally served as outlets for
export of capital. The right to set up factories owned by
foreign capitalists had an important implication. It proved that
export of capital rather than the export of commodities, now
became the main feature of capitalism. That, in reality, was
the stage of the transformation of industrial capitalism into
finance capitalism. Great industrial and financial monopolies,
which had been maturing in Europe, America and Japan, were
slicing up China like a watermelon into their respective
colonial spheres of investment and exploitation. The reality is
that China at the end of the 19th century, was literally on the
verge of partition and dismemberment as an independent
History of China Page 7 of 18

nation. The privileges extracted by Japan were extracted also

by others powers under the most-favoured-nation clause.

One of the manifestations of such a situation was he setting

up of factories not just by
Japan, but also by other imperialist powers such as British,
German, American in fields
Like cotton spinning and weaving, flour-milling, oil-pressing
etc.
All these naturally
prevented the development of China‟s national industry.

However, the export of capital to China began, in fact, not

with factories but with bank
loans. Before 1895, the debt of China to foreign powers was
negligible, but in the
five years following 1895, the Chinese government had to
borrow more than 50 million
pounds to repay her war indemnity to Japan. This amount
was borrowed partly from a
Russo-French financial group and partly from an Anglo-
German group. The security
History of China Page 8 of 18

comprising of receipts from the Chinese customs—already

foreign-administered—did not
reach the Chinese government at all. In order to make up this
deficit, the Manchu rulers
increased the burden of taxation to a large extent, the main
brunt of which fell on the
common people.

Moreover, foreign diplomats began forcing railway loans on

China. The condition was
That the countries that provided loans to the Chinese
government would also provide
railway material and rolling stock, with repayment guaranteed
by a lien on railway property and income.

There is no doubt that all the imperialist powers took

advantage of the weakness of China
to interfere in her internal affairs. They got emboldened by
the defeat of such a large country like China at the hands of
such a small country like Japan. So they started slicing
up China into their respective spheres of influence. The
Germans used the assassination of two German missionaries
as a pretext to capture in November 1897 Tsing-tao port in
History of China Page 9 of 18

North China. Then they forced China to sign a treaty in March

1898 whereby they extracted the right to get „leasehold‟ on
the eastern Shantung peninsula for 99 years until
1997. Tsarist Russia followed it up with the acquisition of the
naval base of Port Arthur and the commercial port of Darien
for 25 years. Within the next few days, Britain grabbed the
naval stronghold of Weihaiwei, specifying that she would hold
it as Russia
held port Arthur. In April 1898, France got hold of the South
China Bay of Kwangchowwan.

In this way, the foreign aggressors annexed one region of

China after another and made those their respective „spheres
of influence‟. Britain took the Yangtze Valley; tsarist
Russia grabbed Manchuria and Mongolia; southwest China
came under the control of Britain and France; apan acquired
the Fukien province and Germany controlled the Shantung
province. In fact, by 1897-98, the foreign powers within a
span of a few months
created a situation which was admittedly more threatening to
the existence of China as a nation than all the defeats she
had suffered before combined.
History of China Page 10 of 18

Thus foreign aggression in North China had become

unbearable after China‟s defeat at the hands of Japan. During
the Sino-Japanese war, hostilities had spread to Shantung.
Some of the towns in the province had been occupied by the
Japanese. The people were outraged also by the German
capture of Jiaozhou Bay. The gravity of the situation can be
ascertained from a memorial written by censor Hu Fuchen on
2 March 1898 to the emperor: “ I have heard tell that in the
province of Shantung German soldiers are killing peaceful
inhabitants…Things are a boiling point everywhere, and the
people are aflame with fury”. In Chihli, as in Shantung, the
foreign powers displayed a voracious appetite. Railways were
built on foreign credits and under the supervision of foreign
technicians. With the appearance of the railways, traditional
modes of transport began to shrink, with a large number of
people—boatmen, coolies, porters, and carters—losing their
livelihood. On both banks of river Haihe, foreigners had
grabbed land, jetties, firms, banks, factories and churches.
Foreign missionaries were busy throughout the province,
converting Chinese to Christianity by blandishments and gifts.
And the newly-converted Christians, knowing well that they
would be protected by the missionaries, were at daggers
drawn with their non-Christian neighbours. S.L.Tikhvinsky
History of China Page 11 of 18

writes that the anger with foreign abuses was exacerbated by

various rumours and by anti-foreign propaganda.

In May 1895, rumours spread that foreigners were about to

attack Sichuan. This provoked a series of violence in Chendu
and the neighbouring districts. A.I.Pavlov, the Russian
representative in China, reported to hid government in
October 1898 that „more and more, absurd rumours are being
spread among the populace in the capital about…an
impending massacre of foreigners as the true culprits of
China‟s misfortunes‟. What has been described as rumours
might have been rumours; but there is no denying the fact
that the foreigners were „the true culprits of China‟s
misfortunes‟ and were bent upon capturing one part of China
after another. In fact, as various studies on insurgency would
show, rumours are part and parcel of the process that lead up
to popular outbursts of one type or another. Murder and
attacks on missionaries were reported from Fujian, Hunan,
Hupei, Sichuan, Kiangsi, Kiangsu and Shantung. Two German
missionaries were assassinated in Shantung. It provided the
German militarists with the pretext to make military invasion
in China. This resulted in the ceding of Chinese territories to
the major foreign powers.
History of China Page 12 of 18

In fact, the period from 1895 to 1899 was one of scattered,

uninterrupted violent outbursts in rural China. The attacks on
mission buildings were one manifestation of such a situation.
Banditry, famine riots, riots against taxation and forced
labour became the order of the day. There is reason to argue
that these were the direct results of the Sino-Japanese war
which caused devastation in the Northern regions and
increase in taxation to pay for the war. This specific crisis was
closely connected with the general crisis in the countryside of
China.

Nature of the crisis

Let us try to explain in some detail the nature of this crisis. In

a hundred years from the mid-18th century to mid-19th
century, the population of China increased more than two-fold
from 180 millions to 430 millions. This increase had been
arrested somewhat during 1850-77, the period of the Taiping,
Nien and other movements, which took a large toll in human
lives on both sides. However, during the late 19th century,
population increase seemed to have resumed. Between 1873
and 1893, according to the estimate provided by
A.Feuerwerker, population increased by 8% and the area of
History of China Page 13 of 18

cultivable land by only 1%. The farmland of China mainly

belonged to peasant landowners, but the size both of their
plots and plots worked by tenants grew smaller. Lack of
capital prevented the introduction of technical improvements
such as fertilizer, better tools and seed. The situation was
such that the peasants went deeper and deeper into debt and
the number of landless peasants, vagabonds, beggars and
others grew.

One of the natural routes of escape from such a condition was

migration to other areas. At the time of migration, normally
the strongest and the most enterprising peasants took part
and this often contributed to the economic decline of a
village. In reality, this was often the case in large areas of
Hopei, Hunan, Shansi, Shantung, Shensi, Kwangsi and
Yunnan. Natural disasters in successive areas devastated vast
areas at regular intervals. Between 1886 and 1897, about 60
districts were ravaged each year by floods, drought and
insects.

There is no doubt that the peasant community was shaken by

these changes. Moreover, it also felt the repercussions of the
changes in commerce and industry that were caused by the
History of China Page 14 of 18

advent of foreign imperialism. In some regions, the rise in

imports and in industrial production, particularly of cotton
yarn and cotton fabric, caused the ruin of the home
handicrafts that supplemented both farm incomes. In
addition, the development of steam navigation and railways
reduced countless numbers of porters, boatmen and
innkeepers to grinding poverty.

A growing variety and quantity of Chinese agricultural

products were exported. However, their prices rose much
more slowly than those of imported goods mainly because the
foreign powers were in control of customs tariffs. Added to
this was the fact that the Chinese market was dependent on
the world market in certain sectors which implied that the
peasants were the victims of international speculation and
fluctuations. During the years 1885-1900, the tea-growers
were most seriously affected by world market events. As for
example, the development of tea plantations in India, Ceylon
and Java led to decrease in the price of Chinese tea.

During late 19th century, public discontent and anger in

Shantung virtually reached the stage of an explosion. From
1880, the province was being ravaged every year by natural
History of China Page 15 of 18

disasters. During the Sino-Japanese war of 1894-95, there

were heavy forcible military requisitions in Shantung. In
1898, the imperial government decided that the people of
Shantung should provide 90,000 taels more every year for
the defence of the frontier. Moreover, the government forced
the people to subscribe to a domestic loan of 100 million taels
to pay off the war indemnity.

The province of Shantung had another special reason to get

aggrieved. There the missionaries and converts totalled
around 80,000 and they were justifiably accused of land-
grabbing, engaging in trade and money-lending, protecting
criminals, picking up quarrels with non-Christians, extorting
huge indemnities etc. The people of Shantung thus had every
reason to see the missions as the cause of all the evils it was
suffering from.

Yi Ho Tuan or the Boxers rise in Shantung

Between 1896 and 1898, numerous revolts, in which secret

societies played a leading part, broke out against the missions
in south Shantung. In 1896, such struggles, led by the Ta Tao
Hui(Big Sword Society), a secret society, broke out in
History of China Page 16 of 18

Tsaohsien and Tanhsien counties; in 1897 in Chuyeh,

Shouchang, Tsining, hotse, Chengwu and other sub-
prefectures and counties; in 1899 in Yichow, Pingyuan and
Feicheng.

A new organization was also active in the struggles. It was a

people‟s organization, heavily tinged with mysticism, whose
members were known for their skill in boxing and fighting
with staves.It came to be known as Yi Ho Tuan or Righteous
and Harmonious Fists or simply the Boxers. The Yi Ho Tuan
activities against the Ching rule in Shantung, Chihli(now
Hopei) and Honan provinces dated from the early 19th
century; however, the bloody suppression by the Ching
regime had failed to stop them. At the end of the 19th
century, when the imperialist aggressors penetrated deep into
China and the national contradictions sharpened as never
before, the Yi Ho Yuan became increasingly active. They
described the foreign imperialists as “ferocious tigers and
wolves”, directed the spearhead of their attack against thses
forces and changed from a secret to an open society.

In fact, within this sect, the three traditional Chinese

religions or ideologies—Buddhism, Confucianism and Taoism
History of China Page 17 of 18

co-existed in a relative peace, and in proclamations the

Boxers described themselves as follows: „Yi Ho-tuan is an
alliance in which yi stands for righteousness and ho for
restraint(both of which were traditional Confucian
virtues)…The alliance practises Buddhism”. A folk song
praising this great national revolutionary movement spread
among the local people:

The Yi Ho Tuan
Stood up in Shantung
Heroes they are,
Protecting the nation.

The Yi Ho Tuan held their gatherings at the „altars‟, which

were usually abandoned huts; instructors taught them various
exhortations and the art of Taoist gymnastics reminiscent of
fist-fighting. They held the native belief that their skill in
performing physical exercises and knowledge of a few „magic‟
words made them invulnerable to enemy bullets and shells.
And the amulets they put on made this assurance doubly
sure. Admission, which involved a prescribed mystical ritual,
was individual. Like most of the other secret societies, the
Boxers were ascetic in their ways, and admitted adolescents
History of China Page 18 of 18

and women who were organized in separate bodies. However,

the movement was above all a political one, inspired by
elementary nationalism—„Exterminate the foreigners‟ was
inscribed on its banners. Economic elements were also
present: the Boxers attacked railways, telegraph lines etc.
History of China Page 1 of 2

HISTORY

Course Name : History

(For under graduate student.)

Paper No. : Paper- VIII

History of China

Unit, Chapter : Unit- 1

Chapter- 4

Topic No. & Title : Part- 1

The Boxer Rebellion or
Yi Ho Tuan Movement 1

Summary

The Boxer Rebellion of 1900 was one of the leading peasant

rebellions in modern China. It was initiated by the secret
society named Yi Ho Tuan. The aim of the rebellion was many
folds. It was against the foreign Christian missionaries who
were converting the Chinese forcefully. It was against the
Manchu rulers who were submitting to the dictates of foreign
powers for their vested interest. Finally it was against the
introduction of foreign machinery not only because they
caused unemployment but also because they were foreign
intrusions.
History of China Page 2 of 2

China was forced to sign a series of humiliating treaties like

the Nanking Treaty and the Shimonoseki Treaty. She was
exploited by the foreign powers. China had to borrow heavily
from the Western powers to pay war indemnities. Stiff taxes
were also imposed for this purpose. Further China became an
importer of foreign goods.

Thus the rebellion was motivated by elementary nationalism.