Source # 1 - Map showing the areas of China controlled by foreign powers.
Source # 2 - Cartoon showing European powers dividing China.
Source # 3 - Cartoon showing how the foreign powers controlled China.
Source # 4 - Map showing the region of China affected by the Boxer Rebellion.
Biography - Empress Dowager Tsu Hsi
Tsu Hsi was born to a noble family in China in 1835. Very little is known about her childhood because the Imperial Chinese policy forbade the publication of personal details of the Imperial family. When she was fourteen she was chosen to be the emperor Xianfeng’s concubine (she was the emperor’s official mistress). Xianfeng had one empress (Niuhuru), two consorts, and eleven concubines. In 1856, Tsu Hsi gave birth to a birth to a boy named Zaichun. Zaichun was the emperor’s only son. The emperor died shortly after European soldiers looted and burned the Summer Palace during the Second War without naming an heir. Tsu Hsi made sure that her 5-year-old son was named the new emperor. At this point, Tsu Hsi became the Empress Dowager (which means that she inherited power by being the widow of the emperor) because she was given power to assist the child emperor. However, she shared this power with several government ministers. Several of these ministers opposed Tsu Hsi and tried to take away her power. Tsu Hsi turned the imperial family against these ministers and had them beheaded.
At this point, Tsu Hsi effectively became the leader of China by ruling in the name of her son. This was a hard time for China because it was forced to pay the Europeans for the cost of the Second Opium War (which it had lost) and putting down the Taiping Rebellion, which was being fought in southern China. Tsu Hsi lead the Chinese government through these problems. Then in 1875, the 18-year-old emperor died without an heir. Tsu Hsi chose her sister’s 4-year-old son to be the emperor Guangxu and she continued to rule in his name.
In 1887, Guangxu took power as emperor, but he ruled under Tsu Hsi’s supervision. Guangxu wanted to reform the Chinese government and modernize it following the model of how Japan modernized during the Meiji Restoration. After China lost to Japan in the Sino-Japanese War in 1894, Guangxu began to enact his planned reforms. These reforms resulted in many government officials losing their jobs. These officials turned to Tsu Hsi to help in blocking the reforms. In 1898, Tsu Hsi, with the support of these officials and the army, removed Guangxu from power, but kept him as emperor. Tsu Hsi again ruled China.
In 1900, the Chinese people rose in the Boxer Rebellion against the Europeans who had take control across many parts of China. The Boxers attacked Europeans across China and any Chinese person who had become Christian. Tsu Hsi supported the rebellion when they attacked Europeans living in the capital of Beijing. In response to the rebellion, the Europeans invaded China with an army which captured Beijing. Tsu Hsi fled Beijing dressed as a peasant. However, she quickly made peace with the Europeans and returned to rule in Beijing in 1902. After this she tried to start the process of reforming China following the Japanese model. This was a case of too little too late. In 1908, Tsu Hsi died one day after Guangxu died and the two-year-old Puyi became emperor. Three years later, in 1912, the Chinese imperial government was overthrown in the Xinhai Revolution.
Source # 5 - Empress Dowager Tsu Hsi statement in support of the Boxers:
The present situation is becoming daily more difficult. The various Powers cast upon us looks of tiger-like voracity, hustling each other to be first to seize our innermost territories. . . . Should the strong enemies become aggressive and press us to consent to things we can never accept, we have no alternative but to rely upon the justice of our cause. . . . If our . . . hundreds of millions of inhabitants . . . would prove their loyalty to their emperor and love of their country, what is there to fear from any invader? Let us not think about making peace.
Source # 6 - Photograph of the Boxers.
Source # 7 - Photograph of Boxer women.
Source # 8 - Boxer song:
Divinely aided Boxers,
United-in-Righteousness Corps
Arose because the Devils
Messed up the Empire of yore.
They proselytize their sect,
And believe in only one God,
The spirits and their own ancestors
Are not even given a nod.
Their men are all immoral,
Their women are truly vile.
And if you don’t believe me,
Then have a careful view:
You’ll see the Devil’s eyes
Are all a shining blue.
No rain comes from Heaven.
The earth is parched and dry.
And all because the churches
Have bottled up the sky.
The gods are very angry.
The spirits seek revenge...
En masse they come from Heaven
To teach the Way to men.
Gods come down from the hills,
Possessing the bodies of men,
Transmitting their boxing skills.
When their marital and magic techniques
Are all learned by each one of you,
Suppressing the Foreign Devils
Will not be a tough thing to do.
Rip up the railroad tracks!
Pull down the telegraph lines!
Quickly! Hurry up! Smash them—
The boats and the steamship combines.
The mighty nation of France
Quivers in abject fear,
While from England, America, Russia
And from Germany naught do we hear.
When at last all the Foreign Devils
Are expelled to the very last man,
The Great Qing, united, together,
Will bring peace to this our land
Source # 9 - Fei Ch'i-hao was a Chinese Christian. This is part of his description of the events he saw during the Boxer Rebellion of 1900.
The people of Shansi are naturally timid and gentle, not given to making disturbances, being the most peaceable people in China. So our Shansi Christians were hopeful for themselves, even when the reports from the coast grew more alarming. But there was one thing which caused us deep apprehension, and that was the fact that the wicked, cruel YU Hsien, the hater of foreigners, was the newly appointed Governor of Shansi. He had previously promoted the Boxer movement in Shantung, and had persuaded the Empress Dowager that the Boxers had supernatural powers and were true patriots...
...The wicked Governor, Yü Hsien, scattered proclamations broadcast. These stated that the foreign religions overthrew morality and inflamed men to do evil, so now gods and men were stirred up against them, and Heaven's legions had been sent to exterminate the foreign devils. Moreover there were the Boxers, faithful to their sovereign, loyal to their country, determined to unite in wiping out the foreign religion. He also offered a reward to all who killed foreigners, either titles or office or money. When the highest official in the province took such a stand in favor of the Boxers, what could inferior officials do? People and officials bowed to his will, and all who enlisted as Boxers were in high favor. It was a time of license and anarchy, when not only Christians were killed, but hundreds of others against whom individual Boxers had a grudge.
Crowds of people kept passing our mission gate to see what might be happening, for the city was full of rumors. "The foreigners have all fled."
"Many foreigners from other places have gathered here."
"A great cannon has been mounted at the mission gate."
"The foreigners have hired men to poison wells, and to smear gates with blood."
I was staying in the compound with the Prices, inside the west gate of the city, and Mr. and Mrs. Atwater, with their children, Bertha and Celia, lived near the east gate. On the 28th of June all day long a mob of one or two hundred roughs, with crowds of boys, stood at the gate of the Atwater place, shouting:
"Kill the foreigners, loot the houses."
Fei Ch'i-hao described how the Governor Yü Hsien allowed the foreign Christian missionary families to leave the city escorted by soldiers. He then reported on the fate of the foreign missionary families:
The sun had risen when I opened my eyes in the morning. I forced myself to rise, washed my face, and asked for a little food, but could not get it down. Sitting down I heard loud talking and laughter among the guests. The topic of conversation was the massacre of foreigners the day before! One said:
"There were ten ocean men killed, three men, four women, and three little devils." Another added, "Lij Cheng San yesterday morning came ahead with twenty soldiers and waited in the village. When the foreigners with their soldier escort arrived a gun was fired for a signal, and all the soldiers set to work at once."
Then one after another added gruesome details, how the cruel swords had slashed, how the baggage had been stolen, how the very clothing had been stripped from the poor bodies, and how they had then been flung into a wayside pit.
"Are there still foreigners in Fen Chou FuT' I asked.
"No, they were all killed yesterday."
"Where were they killed?"
"In that village ahead-less than two miles from here," he said, pointing as he spoke. "Yesterday about this time they were all killed."
"How many were there?" I asked.
He stretched out the fingers of his two hands for an answer.
"Were there none of our people?"
"No, they were all foreigners."
My heart was leaden as I rode on the cart, with my face turned toward Fen Chou Fu. It was eight when the carter drove up to an inn in the east suburb of Fen Chou Fu, and I walked on into the city. Fortunately it was growing dark, and no one saw my face plainly, as, avoiding the main street, I made my way through alleys to the home of a Mr. Shih, a Christian who lived near the mission. When I knocked and entered Mr. Shih and his brother started up in terror and amazement, saying:
"How could you get here?"
We three went in quickly, barring the gate, and when we were seated in the house I told my sad story. Sighing, Mr. Shih said:
"We knew when the foreigners left yesterday that death awaited them on the road. Not long after you had gone the Prefect and the Magistrate rode in their chairs to the gate of the mission, took a look inside without entering, and then sealed up the gate."
Source # 10 - Photograph of Imperial Chinese soldiers.
Source # 11 - Photograph of one soldier from each of the foreign Allied Armies that were sent to China to put down the Boxer rebellion.
Source # 12 - Colliers was a popular American magazine at the time of the Boxer Rebellion. This is the cover of the magazine reporting on the Rebellion.
Source # 13 - Yao Chen-Yuan was a Chinese Christian. This is an excerpt from his book My Adventures During the Boxer War (1900)
During the night, a crowd passed by, led by a woman Boxer---a member of the Society of the Red Lantern---who asked me my name, my business, and where I was going. As I seemed to satisfy them with my answer, they went about their business, which was the destruction of a Catholic village, and the murder of the Christians. The next morning I continued on my way, being early joined by a Boxer who invited me to dine with him, after which we separated. That night I heard the keeper of the inn at which I stopped say to a Boxer, "We have no Christians here," and I spent the night in peace. The following day a child warned me not to go through a certain village, saying that the Boxers were taking every one they suspected, and I saw the fire kindled at which they burnt twenty Christians, while I at the same time thanked the Lord for putting it into the mind of a child to warn me, and thus save me, and perhaps the people of the Legation, from a like horrible fate. The country was flooded. I was compelled to wade through water the depth of which I knew nothing about, and I was wet and discouraged. I had just emerged from the water when a man with a gun on his shoulder called out to me in a loud voice "Where are you going?"
"I am going to Tientsin," I answered. "What for?"
"To find the head of a flower establishment in which I was employed before this trouble broke out." The readiness of my answer seemed to satisfy him, and he allowed me to continue on my way. At the next village a shoemaker informed me that the road was dangerous, being crowded with Chinese troops; a thing which I soon found to be true by being made prisoner and having my money taken from me. My money being all they wanted, the soldiers at once set me free, and I in turn complained to the officer that I had been robbed by his troops. "Wait," said he, "until I see who did it." "No, no," said I, "do not let me trouble you to that extent; the day is far spent, and I should like to spend the night in your camp." "With pleasure," said he. So I spent the night in the protection of my enemies.
"Please search me," said I in the morning, "to see that I have taken nothing, and I will proceed on my way." He returned my money, warning me not to go on the Great Road lest I fall into the hands of the foreign troops and suffer at their hands. "I understand," said I, with a meaning which he did not comprehend, and I left. When I came to the river, I noticed a boatman and accosted him as follows "Will you take me to the Red Bridge in Tientsin?" "We do not dare to go as far as the Red Bridge," he answered, "the Japanese soldiers are there, and they will shoot us." "You need not be afraid," said I, "I can protect you from Japanese soldiers."
On hearing this he readily consented, but he put me off some distance from the bridge. I saw the soldiers in the distance, but waved my handkerchief as a token that I was a messenger, and thus encountered no danger. They escorted me to the Foreign Settlement and then left me to go alone, but the Russians refused to allow me to pass and I was compelled to return to the Red Bridge. I took one of the letters out of the hat and showed it to three Japanese officers who happened to be passing. "Where do you come from?" they asked.
"From Peking."
"Were you not afraid of the Boxers?"
"No."
"You are a good man; wait till I give you a pass." While he was writing, it began to rain, and they took me to their headquarters, where I saw a high official, dined with him, and related all my adventures by the way as well as the condition of affairs in Peking; all of which he wrote down, and then sent four of his soldiers to accompany me to the British and American Consulates. When I saw the American Consul, I burst into tears and told him of all that the people in Peking were suffering; how the Boxers were firing on them from all sides and trying to burn them out; how each man was limited to a small cup of grain a day, while at the same time they were compelled to labor like coolies, under a burning sun, in employments to which they were not accustomed, and I urged him to send soldiers at once to relieve them.
Source # 14 - Boxer who has been take prisoner by Japanese soldiers.
Source # 15 - Captured Boxers awaiting execution.
