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Text: Su Qing
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introduction
In the last year of the 19th century, in Tianjin, Hebei, and Shandong, there was a movement against the division of mainland territory by the great powers. Less than a year later, the Qing government exterminated the Boxers.
But its sphere of influence is wide, and it makes people realize that even those at the bottom of society can raise a big knife...
1. Stormy Storms: The Background of the Boxer Rebellion
We all know that in the late Qing Dynasty, the ruling class was already rotten and unable to protect the territorial integrity of the country, which led to the continuous occupation of mainland territory by foreign powers, and the Qing government was forced to sign a series of treaties that humiliated the country, ceded land and paid compensation, and lost a lot of silver.
(Qing Dynasty officials sign unequal treaties with foreign powers)
In 1842, the Treaty of Nanking was signed with Britain, and an indemnity of 21 million silver dollars was paid.
In 1860, the Treaty of Beijing was signed with Britain, France and Russia, and 8 million taels of silver were compensated.
In 1895, the Treaty of Shimonoseki was signed with Japan, and an indemnity of 200 million taels of silver was paid.
This series of land cession has humiliated the whole country, and the silver that has been forced to pay compensation has all been extracted from the people, and the people have suffered many unprovoked disasters.
(Comic book "The Boxers")
Originally, the common people could only rely on farming and farming to live, and the land rent to be paid was enough. In order to extract more silver, the Qing government pumped more taxes from the common people.
The excessively heavy oppression made many people angry, hating both the incompetence of the Qing government and the shamelessness of foreigners.
As a result, a group of brave people emerged, under the slogan of "helping the Qing Dynasty to destroy foreigners," and engaged in activities to crack down on foreigners.
(About the painting of the Boxers, women also participated in the Boxers)
These people were originally a group that practiced Boxerboxing, later called the "Boxers", who burned down the churches of foreigners in Tianjin to resist the spread of Christianity by foreigners on the mainland.
In June 1901, the Empress Dowager Cixi, who was still in power at the time, issued an edict allowing the Boxers to enter Beijing. Many ordinary people were also encouraged to take the initiative to join the Boxer Rebellion, and the number even exceeded 100,000 at the peak, which shows how much people hated foreigners at that time and wanted to get rid of them as soon as possible.
(Black and white photo of Cixi)
At that time, the Eight-Nation Coalition was still in Beijing, and the Boxers were fighting the foreigners in Beijing. In 1900, the Boxers fought against the British and the Japanese, destroying enemy communications and besieging enemy embassies.
During the entire Boxer Rebellion, about 1,000 soldiers of the Eight-Nation Coalition were eliminated.
This has made many people realize that foreigners are no longer omnipotent, they are only flesh and blood, and if they dare to invade our country, we will make them pay.
These patriotic acts of the Boxers invisibly inspired those who wanted to defend the country.
2. Blood is extinguished: why the Boxers were killed
It's a pity that the vigorous Boxer Rebellion did not sweep the whole country and kill all foreigners as people expected at that time.
In just over a year, it was exterminated by the Qing government, and even if there were people who escaped, they could no longer have a large-scale organization as before.
Why is that?
This brings us to the composition of the Boxer Rebellion. In the beginning, the Boxers were a secret group that opposed the Qing Dynasty and engaged in daily activities to fight against Qing rule.
(Tianjin Yihetuantangkou)
Later, when the foreign powers invaded the mainland and the nation was in danger, they realized that they should first eliminate the foreigners rather than eliminate the Qing government, and then slowly pointed the finger at the foreigners.
Many other secret civil organizations, in order to obtain legal status, also claimed to be the Boxers, and the original names of these organizations were the Dadaohui, Shenquan, Plum Blossom Boxing, Red Lantern Zhao, and so on.
The members of these organizations are mostly farmers, craftsmen, vagrants, etc., and many of them are people from the bottom of society.
They themselves were oppressed by the Qing government, and even if they regarded foreigners as their main target for a while, the contradictions between them and the Qing Dynasty were not eliminated, so they also fought with the Qing army from time to time, which made the Qing army always want to find an opportunity to exterminate them.
(Statues of Boxer members in the hall)
In addition, the Boxer Rebellion was not an organization, but a common name for multiple organizations, they did not have a unified leadership, did not have a unified discipline, even if there were some rules and regulations in the organization, such as "no greed for money, no lust, no offense against the court" and so on, but the members could not strictly enforce it.
By the end of the movement, the Boxer Rebellion had more and more members, became more and more complex, and the management became more difficult. Even if there are regulations, they cannot be followed by everyone.
As a result, discipline began to loosen, and there were such incidents as harassing innocent people, robbing people's finances, and burning people's houses.
(Boxer members under the old lens)
At that time, the Boxers hated foreign religions and hated those who worshiped them. In addition to the foreign missionaries, they also destroyed the innocent people who entered the church.
This not only caused many innocent people to lose their lives, but also made more people who originally believed in the Boxers fearful of the Boxers, and the Qing government was of course among them, so it continued to send troops to exterminate the Boxers.
(Boxer members under the old lens)
Objectively speaking, the original intention of the Boxer Rebellion was to be patriotic and to defend the country from being invaded by foreigners. At the same time, it also has a negative impact, that is, lax discipline and indiscriminate killing of innocents.
3. Light in the Darkness: The Positive Influence of the Boxers
Although the Boxer Rebellion was not so widespread and ended in failure, their courage to resist and exterminate the foreigners was like a glimmer of light in the darkness, but it inspired people in other places, and its influence spread throughout the country.
Influenced by the Boxer Rebellion in Tianjin and Beijing, many Boxer members also quietly appeared in Jilin and Heilongjiang in the northeast, and they dared to raise their broadswords to resist the Russian invasion.
In Yunnan, Sichuan, Guizhou, and other places, some people even raised the banner of "opposing the Qing Dynasty and exterminating the foreigners" in order to eliminate the incompetent Qing government and crack down on foreigners. In other provinces in the southwest and south-east, many similar activities have sprung up.
(Boxer members after being captured)
This shows that in the environment at that time, people were extremely eager to overthrow the rotten rule and drive out the invaders. Although their strength is limited, and although the weapons in their hands are backward, they cannot extinguish their desire to fight for freedom and protect the country.
This shows that the Boxer Rebellion was recognized by the people. At that time, and for a long time afterward, many literary and artistic works showing the Boxer Rebellion emerged among the people, including novels, storytelling, comedies, etc.
Writer Feng Ji has a novel, "Divine Whip", and Lao She wrote "Divine Fist".
(Boxer members after being captured)
In a speech in 1955, Premier Zhou praised the Boxer Rebellion as "one of the cornerstones of the great victory of the people."
However, there are also those who hate the Boxers, that is, the decadent ruling class and the foreigners who invaded the mainland.
After the invasion of China by the Eight-Nation Alliance, in order to appease the anger of the foreign powers, the Qing government pushed the Boxers to the front as scapegoats and maliciously smeared the Boxers, which was the most shameless appearance of the Qing rulers. It was also a turning point in the chaos and decline of the Boxers.
Even today, some foreign people still have no bottom line to belittle our country and the positive role of the Boxers.
While looking at history objectively, let us always remember the original intention and courage of the Boxers to resist aggression.
Resources:
.Boxer Rebellion[M].China Social Sciences Press,1982.
LIU Tianlu. Qing government policy and the rise of the Boxer Rebellion[J].Journal of Chinese People's University, 1991(4):9.)