Ch 30 - The Last Hope for Freedom

The Boxer Uprising

The deep resentment against foreigners in China erupted in outright rebellion. With the secret patronage of the Empress Dowager T'zu-hsi and support from the Qing court and Manchu leaders, the secret society known as the Boxers became an uncontrollable force in China.

In a competitive arena of capitalistic imperialism, China became "the backyard of European politics" in the years following China's ignominious defeat by Japan in the Sino-Japanese War. Burdened by massive debt, foreign loans to pay postwar indemnities and faced with foreign encroachments in Manchuria, the Liaodong Peninsula and Shandong Province, the situation in China deteriorated rapidly. Long-harbored resentment against foreigners became more overt, particularly among the various "secret societies" that found strong support among Chinese peasants.

The White Lotus society, led by Wang Lun, a master of martial arts and herbal medicine, emerged in the late 18th century as an inspired anti-Manchu movement to overthrow the Qing dynasty and restore the glory of the Ming Dynasty. The movement got its start in central China as a tax protest against the extortion of local officials. It rapidly gained popular support and sympathy from a broad cross-section of Chinese. As the White Lotus grew in both numbers and power, it became a real concern for the Qing government. The Qing quashed the rebellion in 1804, with heavy losses on both sides. Less than a decade later, in 1813, the Qing government suppressed an uprising by the Heavenly Reason Society, an offshoot of the White Lotus. The ill-organized rebels frequently defeated corrupt, inefficient imperial forces and effectively destroyed the myth of the Manchu's military superiority.

In the late 1890s, the White Lotus reappeared as a serious anti-foreigner rebellion in response to the humiliations suffered by China during and after the Sino-Japanese War. The anti-Qing movement remained active in China's northern provinces under a variety of names, such as the Eight-Diagram Sect, the Red Sun Sect and the China Glory Sect. The most conspicuous of these groups was the I-ho Chuan, or the "Righteous and Harmonious Fists." The I-ho Chuan focused their gathering resentment against the Manchu dynasty, not just because it was foreign itself, but because it could not protect China from intrusive Westerners. The I-ho Chuan's main objective became the overthrow of the "foreign" Manchu Qing dynasty and the restoration of the Chinese Ming dynasty.

Chinese who sensed the inevitable encroachment of foreigners on their territory and independence began displaying hostility to all things foreign, and westerners frequently provided them with ample justification for their hatred. For example, there was the legendary sign that appeared in a Shanghai park near one of the European compounds that read, "No dogs or Chinamen."

The I-ho Chuan attracted Chinese from all walks of life, from aristocrats and landlords to dispossessed peasants, criminals and the dregs of Chinese society. Manchu rulers had hoped that the movement would come to be led by members of the gentry and landlord class, a group they could trust, but there was no central planning or central organization to the I-ho Chuan. Anyone who was anybody could give orders.

The I-ho Chuan never received military training and shied away from the use of modern weapons such as guns. Insteadthey relied on old-style swords and lances and a combination of martial arts and folk superstition. The sight of members practicing old-style calisthenics and martial arts wearing shorts led to foreigners living in China giving the group their nickname, "the Boxers."

A basic feature of the Boxers' regimen, and one of the principle appeals to the local populace, was their practice of magic arts. They claimed to be immune to bullets and, with enough training, held the power to fly. Recruits eagerly signed on to the movement after a few dramatic demonstrations of immunity to bullets and swords that were achieved by slight of hand.

The ruling Manchus were sitting on a social powder keg. One the one hand, they faced the potential partitioning of China by foreign nations, while on the other hand they had a growing internal problem in the form of an anti-Qing uprising. Well aware of their own "foreign" status, the Qing government's greatest concern was for its own survival. The greatest danger to China came from the gradual encroachment of imperial powers, not from the Boxers, but the I-ho Chuan could not be allowed to grow beyond their control. Empress Dowager Tz'u Hsi astutely realized that the only way to maintaina Manchu emperor on the throne was to flirt with the Boxers and turn this anti-Manchu movement into an anti-foreign movement, led by her and the Manchu princes.

With remarkable duplicity, the hard line Manchu officials who were supposed to rein in the seditious Boxers, began aiding and abetting them. In their ardent desire to put an end to foreign domination, they cautiously manipulated Chinese anti-Christian sentiments to redirect the venom of the Boxers away from the Qing and against "foreign barbarians." Thus, what began as a Chinese reaction to the "arrogance and callousness" of foreign missionaries, became an anti-foreign movement driven by the Manchus themselves.

Manchu Empress Dowager T'zu-hsi and her imperial court cleverly exploited and manipulated nationalistic sentiments against the foreigners. They calculated that if the Boxers ever became a threat to the survival of the Qing dynasty, Japan and the western nations with vital interests in China would realize the privileges they enjoyed under the Qing might evaporate in a wave of fervent Chinese nationalism under the Boxers. Wrose, the Boxers might one day seek to unravel the entire unequal treaty system.

The frightening prospect of a massive Chinese uprising against all foreigners would serve to intimidate the West and Japan, loosening their grip on not only China, but on the Qing dynasty. The Qing court believed that pitting the Boxers against foreigners would ultimately exhaust and demoralize the occupiers, who would then see the advantages in dealing with the weak Qing dynasty they knew rather than with the Boxer nationalists they feared.

By the late 1890s the Boxers had become strongly supportive of the ruling Manchu dynasty and vigorously anti-foreign. In Shandong Province, where they were particularly active, they operated under the name of the "Big Sword Society" and received secret support and encouragement from Shandong's reactionary conservative governor Li Ping-heng. Well-aware of the Qing government's aversion to all secret societies, the Boxers were careful to outwardly profess great loyalty to the throne. The I-ho Chuan's original objective to "remove the Qing and restore the Ming" became, "exalt the Qing and destroy the foreign barbarians."

With Chinese nationalistic pride and resentment of foreigners intensifying, the slightest incident would be sufficient to ignite widespread violence. On November 3, 1897, two German Catholic missionaries from the Divine Word Mission, under German protection since 1890, were found murdered. On November 7, before the Chinese government learned about the murder, Admiral von Diederichs, commander of Germany's East Asian Squadron, received orders from Kaiser Wilhelm II to occupy Kiaochow Bay on the Shandong Peninsula. The Germans refused to withdraw. Negotiations with the Qing government settled the missionary incident by January 1898, but that was not the end of the matter.

In March 1898, Germany negotiated a 99 year lease of Kiaochow from the Qing government, through which the Chinese gave up all sovereign rights within the leased territory (except for the city of Kiaochow), including a 50 km wide security zone. Areas beyond the security zone came under German influence and within a month the area was officially put under "German protection." In addition, the Germans got concessions to build two railway lines and to mine local coal deposits. This was the beginning of further concessions to Russia, Great Britain and France.

In response to pressure from Germany's foreign minister, the Qing government dismissed Governor Li Ping-heng. His replacement, Yu-hsien, was every bit as anti-foreign as his predecessor and continued to support the Boxers. He ordered his local administrators to openly disregard any complaints from missionaries and converts as a waste of time. Under his aegis, including financial subsidies and encouragement to expand their training facilities, the Boxers took up the banner of support for the Qing dynasty and vowed to exterminate the foreigners.

Socially and economically, worsening conditions of drought, famine and crop failures made China a fertile breeding ground for Boxer recruits. The importation of foreign cotton and oils adversely affected local industries and drove unemployment steadily upward. The increased use of railroads and shipping put cargo handlers and boatmen out of work. Heavy rains in 1898 pushed the Yellow River out of its banks and triggered widespread flooding that killed or financially ruined millions of Chinese peasants. Many despondent, destitute, desperate, restless Chinese willingly joined the Boxers.

China had long tolerated the presence of Christianity within its empire, but the numerous humiliations China had suffered since the middle of the 19th century gave rise to anti-Christian sentiments that were directed against the behavior of Christian missionaries and their Chinese converts. Humiliating treatment from German troops in the Kiaochow area and persistent rumors that German mining and railroad construction had disturbed ancestral graves compounded the growing anger. The growing anti-foreigner attitudes taking hold northern China quickly turned toward Chinese Christians, whose loyalties became highly suspect. The more conservative Chinese derided them as "Rice Christians," implying they had become Christian only to enjoy the protection of the white man and to escape the jurisdiction of Chinese law.

Chinese village life was anchored to the Confucian tradition of filial piety and the various festivals connected with ancestral worship. Everyone in the village contributed to such events;  everyone, that is, except Chinese Christian converts. Christian missionaries considered ancestral worship to be idolatry and blasphemy. Chinese Christians no longer took part in the traditional processions held in honor of Chinese deities, nor did they contribute to the upkeep of shrines and temples, which shifted a heavier financial burden on others. In some cases, Chinese Christians even destroyed temple idols and ancestral tablets. This perceived defiance of tradition gave rise to deep feelings of indignation and anger. Their behavior shook the very foundation of more than two millennia of Confucian tradition and belief. The blame for this "religious treason" was placed squarely on the heads of foreign missionaries. By October 1898, the Boxers were attacking Chinese Christians in earnest.

The Manchu Empress Dowager Tz'u Hsi, a strong-willed and capricious woman who leaned sympathetically toward the ultraconservative elements in her government, had to constantly deal with two powerful political factions in Beijing:  the progressives, led by Prince Ching and the conservatives led by Jung Lu. She felt the progressives had already had their day in the sun and that all their plans for China had failed. In her mind, all they had accomplished was peace, but always at the price of lost territory. She decided to take a more hard line approach. There would be no more ports lost and foreign encroachments would be resisted to the death.

Empress Dowager T'zu-hsi appointed the anti-foreign Li Ping-heng, former governor of Shandong Province, to the post of Commanding General of China's military forces in the Yangtze region. Jung Lu remained in Beijing as commander of China's military forces in Chihli Province, including the ships and men of the Northern Squadron. She then appointed Kang Yi, yet another conservative Manchu who was every bit as anti-foreign as Li Ping-heng, to inspect China's land defenses and to raise vast sums of money for the country's depleted treasury.

The Empress Dowager had already steeled herself to go to war with the West if need be, not for conquest, but for self-preservation;  not for glory, but for home;  not to thwart a taunting neighbour, but to repel a "ruthless invader." Having refocused the Boxers' hatred on westerners instead of the Qing dynasty, she made the fatal mistake of depending upon them for her salvation. She mistakenly believed that the Chinese could withstand thousands, even tens of thousands, of intelligent, well-led and well-armed soldiers from the West.

Neither she nor her closest confidants and advisors realized what a double-edged sword the Boxers could be. Trying to keep this superstitious rabble of undisciplined Chinese at a fever pitch against foreigners while also keeping them under control proved as dangerous as riding a hungry tiger. Sooner or later, someone was going to fall victim to its appetite.

Throughout most of the 19th century, China's ruling viceroys and governors met international disputes with the expectation that a solution could be "amicably arranged." When hostilities erupted, they inevitably found themselves unprepared to handle foreign aggression. No more. The Empress Dowager T'zu Hsi, in a daring move to change the mindset of Manchu officialdom, issued a secret edict on November 21, 1899, to her viceroys, governors, Manchu generals, and provincial military commanders-in-chief. The edict set out in no uncertain terms just how they were to think and act with regard to foreign disturbances or aggressive acts. She decried the mentality of appeasement and declared it would be severely censured.

In a dramatic change of direction, the empress acknowledged that western nations "cast upon us looks of tiger-like voracity, hustling each other in their endeavors to be the first to seize upon our innermost territories." She stated that the West thought a weak China would never risk a war with them and that they failed to understand there were certain things to which China could never consent and, if pressed, would present a strong united defense to protect. The edict commanded every high official in the empire "to present a combined front to the enemy, exhorting and encouraging their officers and soldiers in person to fight for the preservation of their homes and native soil from the encroaching footsteps of the foreign aggressor."

At the end of her famous edict, she made that case that China would no longer weakly yield to territorial demands from the European powers. "Never should the word 'Peace' fall from the mouths of our high officials, she said, "nor should they even allow it to rest for a moment within their breasts." At the end of her decree, she stated, "Let no one think of making peace, but let each strive to preserve from destruction and spoliation his ancestral home and graves from the ruthless hands of the invader."

Backing up the strong tone of the empress' decree, the Tsungli Yamen issued its own decree to the viceroys and governors:

"This yamen has received the special commands of her Imperial Majesty the Empress Dowager, and his Imperial Majesty the Emperor, to grant you full power and liberty to resist by force of arms all aggressions upon your several jurisdictions, proclaiming a state of war, if necessary, without first asking instructions from Peking;  for this loss of time may be fatal to your security, and enable the enemy to make good his footing against your forces."

The Boxers rapidly increased their numbers with their avowed aim to eradicate Roman Catholic priests and converts. To the Boxers, Chinese converts were all "secondary devils," only slightly more obnoxious than the pure foreigner. In 1899, Boxers attacked the Catholic converts at Li-lien-yuan, in Shandong Province, the site of a former temple that had been bought by the Church and replaced with a chapel. Many had their homes burned and their possessions confiscated. In short order, Chinese Protestant converts suffered the same fate.

Towards the end of 1899, the Boxers began spreading their anti-Christian violence into neighboring Chihli Province. Foreign ministers and missionaries had been anxiously monitoring the Boxers for some time and when word reached Beijing that an English missionary had been murdered, British Minister Sir Claude MacDonald immediately demanded that the murderers be executed, the officials involved be punished and the Boxer society be suppressed. In addition, there were repeated requests to the Qing government to remove Shandong's governor, Yu-hsien.

In December 1899, the Chinese government responded to the mounting pressure by announcing that the two men who actually murdered the British missionary had been beheaded and that several lesser provincial officials had received reprimands. Governor Yu-hsien, the main patron of the Boxers, was officially recalled to Beijing and replaced by General Yuan Shih-k'ai.

Empress Dowager Tz'u Hsi received Yu-hsien in a royal audience in Beijing, where he praised the Boxers' dependability and condemned any suppression of their activities as detrimental to China's interests. She conferred additional honors on Yu-hsien and appointed him governor of Shanxi Province, where he found ample opportunity to encourage the Boxers. The Empress issued an edict that ordered the suppression of seditious societies, carefully noting however, that not all societies were harmful. In effect, her edict actually exonerated the Boxers from blame and encouraged their continued growth.

Publicly, Empress Dowager T'zu-hsi was adamantly "anti-Boxer." Privately however, she found the anti-foreign character of China's elite dovetailed perfectly with the militant and fanatical nationalism of the Boxers. Prince Tuan, Prince Chuang and the Grand Secretary Kang-yi were quite impressed with Governor Yu-hsien's support for the Boxers and collectively recommended to Empress Dowager T'zu-hsi that she use them.

The people of Shanxi Province were, by their nature, not given to disturbing the peace. Chinese Christians living in the region felt hopeful even in the face of alarming reports describing Boxer uprisings near the coast. The situation changed dramatically in March 1900, when a virulent strain of anti-foreign violence took hold in Shanxi Province. The Boxers spread like a pestilence throughout the province, stepping up their attacks on foreign missionaries and Chinese converts alike. Local officials were powerless against the sword-wielding Boxers, who constantly threatened Christians scattered about the countryside. The Boxers were not above using printing presses to publish huge numbers of leaflets spreading their propaganda accusing the Catholic Church of abusing Chinese women and children.

Rioters burned churches and homes, raped women and murdered whole families, usually by beheading. Fresh reports arrived almost daily in the foreign legations describing the destruction of religious missions and attacks on Chinese Christians. On May 19, the Roman Catholic Bishop of Beijing, Pere Favier, reported to French foreign minister Stephen Pichon that he considered the situation to be extremely serious. The London Mission at Kungtsun, just 40 miles southwest of Beijing, had been destroyed and numerous Christians in the Diocese of Baoding had been murdered. By early June, with persecutions moving closer by the day, the situation worsened in Beijing and surrounding towns.

Bishop Favier warned that the Boxer uprising would ultimately spread to Beijing, where first the churches and then the Legations would be attacked. He also asked Minister Pichon to send troops to protect Beijing's Peitang Cathedral, headquarters of the Roman Catholic Church. Minister Pichon forwarded the bishop's warning to the other legation ministers, who addressed a strongly worded joint note to the Tsungli Yamen demanding the suppression of the Boxers and the restoration of order in the countryside. In response, the Chinese claimed they regarded the Boxers as rebels and outlaws and were taking all possible measures to put down the uprising. They assured the foreign ministers that the safety of the legations was a paramount responsibility of the Qing government.

The United States, Great Britain, Russia, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, and Austria-Hungary all had interests in China and all of them maintained legations in Beijing's Legation Quarter. The city's population swelled as hundreds of foreign missionaries and Chinese Christians fled to the foreign Legation Quarter for protection. Anti-foreign placards and pamphlets were already appearing across the city with more appearing everyday. The following Boxer pamphlet was tossed into the London Mission in Tianjin:

"We Boxers have come to Tientsin to kill all foreign devils, and protect the Manchu dynasty. Above, there is the Empress Dowager on our side, and below there is Junglu. The soldiers of Yulu and Yuhien [governors of Chihli and Shandong] are an our men. When we have finished killing in Tientsin, we shall go to Peking. All the officials high and low will welcome us. Whoever is afraid let him quickly escape for his life."

The Qing government issued yet another decree that cautioned provincial officials not to attack the Boxers indiscriminately, a decree that had the effect of further encouraging the Boxer movement. The growing popularity and aggressiveness of the Boxers prompted frustrated and fearful foreign officials in Beijing to cable their home governments alerting them to the rising tide of anti-foreign activity in China. Almost immediately, the Americans ordered Rear-Admiral Kempff to take a naval squadron from the Asiatic Station to Taku, China.

Emboldened by Governor Yu-hsien's support, the secret patronage of the Empress Dowager and the support of the imperial court, the Boxers quickly became an uncontrollable force in China.