The History Book Club discussion

This is the thread to discuss The Boxer Rebellion.

The Boxer Rebellion, also called The Boxer Uprising by some historians or the Righteous Harmony Society Movement in northern China, was a proto-nationalist movement by the "Righteous Harmony Society" (義和團 - Yìhétuán), or "Righteous Fists of Harmony" or "Society of Righteous and Harmonious Fists" (known as "Boxers" in English), in China between 1898 and 1901, opposing Western imperialism and Christianity.

The uprising took place in response to European "spheres of influence" in China, with grievances ranging from opium traders, political invasion, economic manipulation, to missionary evangelism. In China, popular sentiment remained resistant to Western influences, and anger rose over the "unequal treaties" (不平等條約), which the weak Qing state could not resist.

There existed growing concerns that missionaries and Chinese Christians could use this decline to their advantage, appropriating lands and property of unwilling Chinese peasants to give to the church. This sentiment resulted in violent revolts against Western interests.

The Boxers called foreigners "Guizi" (鬼子), a deprecatory term, and condemned Chinese Christian converts and Chinese working for Westerners. By 1898, spurred on by state fiscal collapse and natural disasters, the Boxers emerged out of Shandong, violently targeting Christian mission compounds. Initially, they were suppressed by the Qing Dynasty, but the two sides reconciled and attempted to expel foreign influence from China, fighting under the anti-imperialist slogan "扶清灭洋" ("Support Qing, destroy the Western").

The Boxers were only lightly armed, claiming supernatural invulnerability towards blows of cannon, rifle gunshots, and knife attacks.

In June 1900 in Beijing, Boxer fighters theatened foreigners and forced them to seek refuge in the Legation Quarter. In response, the initially hesitant Empress Dowager Cixi, urged by the conservatives of the Imperial Court, supported the Boxers and declared war on foreign powers.

Diplomats, foreign civilians and soldiers, and Chinese Christians in the Legation Quarter were under siege by the Imperial Army of China and the Boxers for 55 days. The Chinese government equivocated between destroying the foreigners in the Legation Quarter and extending olive branches.

Clashes were reported between Chinese factions favoring war and those favoring conciliation, the latter led by Prince Qing. The supreme commander of the Chinese forces, Ronglu, claimed three years later that he acted to protect the besieged foreigners. The siege was raised when the Eight-Nation Alliance brought 20,000 armed troops to China, defeated the Imperial Army, and captured Beijing.

The Boxer Protocol of 7 September 1901 ended the uprising and provided for severe punishments, including an indemnity of 67 million pounds (450 million taels of silver), more than the government's annual tax revenue, to be paid as indemnity over a course of thirty-nine years) to the eight nations involved.[1]

Perceptions and judgments of the Boxers among 20th century Chinese intellectuals and scholars remain complex, and contentious. The failures of the Boxer Rebellion initially humiliated educated Chinese nationalists, who disdained them for their superstition and aggression. Sun Yat-sen "[praised] the Boxers for their spirit of resistance" but called the Boxers "'bandits', as many educated Chinese of his generation did." Students of the era shared an ambivalent attitude to the Boxers, stating that while the uprising originated from the "ignorant and stubborn people of the interior areas", the beliefs were "brave and righteous", and could "be transformed into a moving force for independence".[2]

Some Western intellectuals remained sympathetic to the Boxers. Mark Twain said that "The Boxer is a patriot. He loves his country better than he does the countries of other people. I wish him success."[3]

After the fall of the Qing dynasty, nationalist Chinese too became sympathetic to the Boxers. Chen Duxiu forgave the "barbarism of the Boxer... given the crime foreigners committed in China", and contended that it was those "subservient to the foreigners" that truly "deserved our resentment".[4]

Source: Wikipedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boxer_Re...

I've moved this across from the general thread:

One book that I enjoyed on a single event in China's history was Diana Preston's book; "A Brief History of the Boxer Rebellion: China's War on Foreigners, 1900".

by Diana Preston
Reviews:
"With meticulous research and passionate style, Diana Preston recreates the tragedy that consumed China a century ago." - Iris Chang, (author of The Rape of Nanking)

"Fascinating... penned with an obvious addiction to the delicious little details of history: whimsical, outrageous, and macabre." - Washington Post

"Outstanding... first-rate historical research." - Booklist

I have not read this book but I have heard that it offers a very decent account of the origins of the Boxer Rebellion; "The Origins of the Boxer Uprising" by Joseph Esherick.

by Joseph W. Esherick
Description:
In the summer of 1900, bands of peasant youths from the villages of north China streamed into Beijing to besiege the foreign legations, attracting the attention of the entire world. Joseph Esherick reconstructs the early history of the Boxers, challenging the traditional view that they grew from earlier anti-dynastic sects, and stressing instead the impact of social ecology and popular culture.

Reviews:
"A superbly researched book. . . . Not only do we get the Chinese (and Boxer) side of the story for the first time, we also get a much more complex view of the relations between the foreign powers, the missionaries and the Chinese court during the last years of the 19th century." - Prasenjit Duara, (International History Review)

"Joseph Esherick has succeeded . . . in both describing and analyzing the Boxer movement in a much more complete and satisfactory manner than anyone else." - David D. Buck, (The Historian)

"With this outstanding volume, Joseph Esherick has repaired one of the most glaring omissions in the scholarly canon. . . . [A] solid and provocative inquiry into this critically important event." - William T. Rowe, (Journal of Asian History)

One older book that I have in my library (unread) covering aspects of the Boxer Rebellion is; "The Siege at Peking: The Boxer Rebellion" by Robert Fleming

by Robert Peter Fleming
Description:
On June 20, 1900 the foreign legations at Peking were attacked by Boxers and Imperial Chinese troops, with the equivocal support of the Empress Dowager, Tz'u Hsi. The ensuing siege was to last for 55 days, and the news of it shook the world.

The Siege of the Legations was a landmark in the development of Modern China. It brought to a head the crisis in the Celestial Empire's relations with the outside world. Its outcome exacerbated the decline of the Empire and the Manchu dynasty which had ruled China since 1644.

Peter Fleming, epitome of the enlightened gentleman explorer, traveled extensively in China and Central Asia as a correspondent of The Times (London) early in the 1930s. He interviewed survivors of the siege, and his report is as vivid today as when first published.

History in Three Keys: The Boxers as Event, Experience, and Myth
by Paul A. Cohen

Synopsis
Harvard historian Cohen presents a comprehensive and enlightening look at the Boxer Rebellion of 1898-1900, a bloody uprising in north China against native Christians and foreign missionaries. The rebellion resulted in a rescue by eight nations and then the conclusion of a peace treaty. Cohen offers excellent insight into the idiosyncratics of the Boxer movement, including its ideas, origins, rituals, and development. He successfully examines and discusses the uprising in terms of its historical narrative, the participants' experiences, and the literary myths to which it gave rise. Cohen also distinguishes between historians and mythologizers.

The Righteous Fists of Harmony commonly known to history as the Boxers,resented the influence being forced upon China by the western powers and the Boxer uprising began. Although they had no chance in overcoming the Western presence, the rebellion was an indication of things to come in China.

The Boxer Rebellion and the Great Game in China

by David J. Silbey(no photo)

Synopsis:

The year is 1900, and Western empires are locked in entanglements across the globe. The British are losing a bitter war against the Boers while the German kaiser is busy building a vast new navy. The United States is struggling to put down an insurgency in the South Pacific while the upstart imperialist Japan begins to make clear to neighboring Russia its territorial ambition. In China, a perennial pawn in the Great Game, a mysterious group of superstitious peasants is launching attacks on the Western powers they fear are corrupting their country. These ordinary Chinese—called Boxers by the West because of their martial arts showmanship—rise up seemingly out of nowhere. Foreshadowing the insurgencies of our recent past, they lack a centralized leadership and instead tap into latent nationalism and deep economic frustration to build their army.

Many scholars brush off the Boxer Rebellion as an ill-conceived and easily defeated revolt, but in The Boxer Rebellion and the Great Game in China, the military historian David J. Silbey shows just how close the Boxers came to beating back the combined might of the imperial powers. Drawing on the diaries and letters of allied soldiers and diplomats, he paints a vivid portrait of the war. Although their cause ended just as quickly as it began, the Boxers would inspire Chinese nationalists—including a young Mao Zedong—for decades to come.

Thanks Jill

You are most welcome.

One of those "little wars" that had world-wide ramifications for the future of China.

The Boxer Rebellion

by Lynn Bodin (no photo)

Synopsis

In the year 1900, an unprecedented co-operation occurred between the eight major military powers of the world. For more than a year military and naval personnel from Austria-Hungary, France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Japan, Russia and the United States fought together against a common enemy. That enemy was a society whose goal was the extermination of all 'foreign devils' in China – the I Ho Ch'uan, or Righteous Harmonious Fists, better known to the West as the Boxers. This engaging account, packed with original photographs and full colour artwork, tells the story of this unique occurrence in military history.

One more historian takes on the history of the Boxer Rebellion

The Boxer Rebellion

by Henry Keown-Boyd (no photo)

Synopsis:

The author explains the story behind that puzzling affair, a bizarre mixture of farce & tragedy which captured the world's headlines in the summer of 1900. The Boxers (a nickname derived from their official title, The Fists of Righteous Harmony) were a fanatical secret organization who had been incited by anti-foreign elements in the Chinese Government to commit wide-scale depredations against foreign missionaries & their Chinese converts. As the Dowager Empress Tzu Hsui stoutly maintained that the Boxers were beyond her control, matters came to a climax with the siege of the Peking Legations which lasted 55 days & the taking of Peit'ang Cathedral which lasted even longer. Troops from Russia, America, France, Japan, & Britain assembled for the relief of Peking. Here is a witty and shrewd analysis of the whole episode, which ended in total humiliation for the Chinese.

The life of an American missionary in China during the Boxer Rebellion. A little different look at that uprising.

William Scott Ament and the Boxer Rebellion: Heroism, Huberis and the "Ideal Missionary



Synopsis:

In 1900 in China a peasant movement known as the Boxers rose up and tried to destroy its Western oppressors. The culminating event of the Boxer Rebellion was the siege of the Western legations in Peking. In isolated Peking, a horde of brightly dressed, acrobatic, anti-Western and anti-Christian Boxers surrounded the fortified diplomatic legation compound, and rumors about the torture and murder of 900 Western diplomats, soldiers, and missionaries swirled throughout the foreign media. Scholars agree that animosity toward Christian missionaries was a major cause of the Boxer Rebellion, but most accounts neglect the missionaries and emphasize instead the diplomats and soldiers who weathered the siege and defeated the Chinese in battle. This book gives equivalent attention to the missionaries, their work, the impact they had on China, and the controversies arising in the aftermath of the Boxer Rebellion. It focuses particularly on one of the most distinguished American missionaries, William Scott Ament, whose brave and resourceful heroism was tarnished by hubris and looting.

The history of the British citizens trapped in the British legation in Peking during the Boxer Rebellion.

Peking 1900: The Boxer Rebellion

(no image) Peking 1900: The Boxer Rebellion by Peter Harrington (no photo)

Synopsis:

Osprey's study of the violent Boxer Rebellion, which swept northern China in 1900. The Boxers were a secret society who sought to rid their country of the pernicious influence of the foreign powers who had gradually acquired a stranglehold on China. With the connivance of the Imperial Court they laid siege to the legation quarter of Peking. Trapped inside were an assortment of diplomats, civilians and a small number of troops. They were all Sir Claude Macdonald, the British Minister in Peking, had to defend against thousands of hostile Boxers and Imperial troops. It would now be a race against time. Could the rag-tag defenders hold out long enough for the gathering relief force to reach them? This book describes the desperate series of events as the multinational force rushed to their rescue.

Thank you Jill

It is an interesting period in Chinese history.