Real Crime/Paranormal/Conspiracy Theories Book III

The Boxer Rebellion: The Righteous Harmonious Fists

In 1895, despite ambivalence towardtheir heterodox practices, Yuxian, a Manchu who was then prefect ofCaozhou and would later become provincial governor, cooperated withthe Big Swords Society, whose original purpose was protection againstbanditry, to fight bandits. The missionaries of the German Societyof the Divine Word had built up their presence in the area, partiallyby taking in a significant portion of converts who were "inneed of protection from the law". On one occasion in 1895,a large bandit gang defeated by the Big Swords Society claimed to beCatholics to avoid prosecution. "The line between Christiansand bandits became increasingly indistinct", remarks PaulCohen. Some missionaries such as George Stenz also used theirprivileges to intervene in lawsuits. The Big Swords responded byattacking Catholic properties and burning them. As a result ofdiplomatic pressure in the capital, Yuxian executed several Big Swordleaders, but did not punish anyone else. More martial secretsocieties started emerging after this.

The early years saw a variety ofvillage activities, not a broad movement with a united purpose.Martial folk religious societies such as the Baguadao (EightTrigrams) prepared the way for the Boxers. Like the Red Boxing schoolor the Plum Flower Boxers, the Boxers of Shandong were more concernedwith traditional social and moral values, such as filial piety, thanwith foreign influences. One leader, Zhu Hongdeng (Red Lantern Zhu),started as a wandering healer, specializing in skin ulcers, andgained wide respect by refusing payment for his treatments. Zhuclaimed descent from Ming dynasty emperors, since his surname was thesurname of the Ming imperial family. He announced that his goal wasto "Revive the Qing and destroy the foreigners" ("扶清滅洋fu Qing mie yang").

The enemy was foreign influence. Theydecided the "primary devils" were the Christianmissionaries, and the "secondary devils" were theChinese converts to Christianity. Both had to recant or be driven outor killed.

Causes of conflict and unrest

The combination of extreme weatherconditions, Western attempts at colonizing China, and growinganti-imperialist sentiment fueled the movement. First, a droughtfollowed by floods in Shandong province in 1897–1898 forced farmersto flee to cities and seek food. As one observer said, "I amconvinced that a few days' heavy rainfall to terminate thelong-continued drought ... would do more to restore tranquility thanany measures which either the Chinese government or foreigngovernments can take."

A major cause of discontent in northChina was missionary activity. The Treaty of Tientsin (or Tianjin)and the Convention of Peking, signed in 1860 after the Second OpiumWar, had granted foreign missionaries the freedom to preach anywherein China and to buy land on which to build churches. On 1 November1897, a band of armed men who were perhaps members of the Big SwordsSociety stormed the residence of a German missionary from the Societyof the Divine Word and killed two priests. This attack is known asthe Juye Incident.

When Kaiser Wilhelm II received news ofthese murders, he dispatched the German East Asia Squadron to occupyJiaozhou Bay on the southern coast of the Shandong peninsula. InDecember 1897, Wilhelm II declared his intent to seize territory inChina, which triggered a "scramble for concessions" bywhich Britain, France, Russia and Japan also secured their own sphereof influence in China. Germany gained exclusive control ofdevelopmental loans, mining, and railway ownership in Shandongprovince. Russia gained influence of all territory north of theGreat Wall, plus the previous tax exemption for trade in Mongolia andXinjiang, economic powers similar to Germany's over Fengtian, Jilinand Heilongjiang provinces. France gained influence of Yunnan, mostof Guangxi and Guangdong provinces, Japan over Fujian province. Britain gained influence of the whole Yangtze River Valley (definedas all provinces adjoining the Yangtze river as well as Henan andZhejiang provinces), parts of Guangdong and Guangxi provinces andpart of Tibet. Only Italy's request for Zhejiang province wasdeclined by the Chinese government. These do not include the leaseand concession territories where the foreign powers had fullauthority. The Russian government militarily occupied their zone,imposed their law and schools, seized mining and logging privileges,settled their citizens, and even established their municipaladministration on several cities, the latter without Chinese consent.