After the anti-church struggle of the Boxer Rebellion in Shandong, local missionaries demanded that the Qing government strictly suppress it. In order to control the Boxer Rebellion, Shandong Governor Zhang Rumei suggested that the Qing government change the Boxer Rebellion into Tuan Lian and rename the Boxer Rebellion as the Boxer Rebellion. After Yu Xian succeeded as the governor of Shandong Province, he attempted to disintegrate and divide the Boxer Rebellion, and adopted the method of "distinguishing the good from the bad", calling the people who participated in the Boxer Rebellion good citizens, acquiescing them to set up a factory to practice boxing, branding the rebels as "gangsters" and arresting and punishing them. Although Zhang Rumei and Yu Xian's plan did not achieve the expected goal, it was beneficial to the development of the Boxer Rebellion. Members of secret societies such as Broadsword Club and Red Boxing Club from all over Shandong and the general public have joined the Boxer Rebellion, making it a "foreign-destroying" group with a broad mass base.
The main participants of the Boxer Rebellion are the working people at the bottom of society. Poverty and ignorance make their resistance struggle only follow the way of secret association in the peasant uprising in the past, set up shrine development organizations, and practice boxing to attract the masses. The Boxer is divided into eight branches: Gan, Kan, Gen, Zhen, Xun, Li, Kun and Dui. Among them, the stem font size (marked with yellow cloth) and the ridge font size (marked with red cloth) are the strongest (the "middle" font size appears in some places). But above each font size, each font size itself has no unified organization and centralized leadership. The grass-roots organization of the Boxer Rebellion is an altar, also called an altar or boxing factory, which is a place for offering sacrifices to gods, practicing boxing, holding meetings and discussing. In some places, there are several or several altars above, which have nothing to do with each other. The leaders of the Boxer Rebellion are generally called Big Brother, Second Brother and Third Brother, and some are called General Big Brother and Founder. Each altar often carries out its own scattered struggle, but when joint action is needed, even if it is hundreds of miles away, people are sent to meet it. Most of the Boxers were farmers, followed by craftsmen, old-fashioned transport workers, monks and Taoists, stragglers, a few feudal intellectuals, small and medium-sized landlords and officials, and hooligans were also involved. The boxer movement has a strong mysticism. It mobilizes the masses with "techniques" such as chanting and asking God to possess, widely publicizes "chanting and possessing" and stimulates fighting spirit. Besides Buddhism and Taoism, there are monsters and characters in novels, operas and folk stories. Boxers distributed various leaflets and posters, and used popular and easy-to-understand language and songs to promote the expulsion of invaders and the defense of the country. At the same time, these leaflets and posts also contain superstitious and backward consciousness and blind xenophobia.
As early as 1898, when the anti-church struggle rose, the Boxer Rebellion put forward the slogan of "helping the Qing Dynasty to destroy the foreign countries". At the beginning, this slogan attracted the participation of the broad masses and strengthened the momentum of the Boxer Rebellion, but at the same time it also reflected the Boxer Rebellion's vague understanding of the Qing government. Later, it was deceived and used by the rulers and finally betrayed.