The Boxer Rebellion, formerly known as the Boxer Rebellion, is one of the many secret folk organizations that have been popular for a long time in Shandong and Zhili (now Hebei). Although this secret association focused on "boxing" rather than "teaching", the Qing government banned it in the name of "boxing" and it was difficult to develop. After the Sino-Japanese War, Germany occupied Jiaozhou Bay and forced Shandong Province to become its sphere of influence. Foreign churches have also expanded their influence in Shandong, conniving at and sheltering illegal "parishioners" (that is, Christians in China). In cases involving religious affairs, they often intervene and coerce local officials to favor and suppress the people and make unfair judgments. The masses accumulated hatred for the church, and the anti-religious struggle followed. The Boxer Rebellion became an important organizational form to resist foreign aggression.

From 1898 to 10 (September 24th year of Guangxu), the Boxer Rebellion in guanxian, Shandong Province, led by Yan, joined forces in Zhili and wei county. And gathered people to burn down the Red Taoyuan Church and occupy Liyuan Village, which shook the neighboring areas of Shandong and Zhi Zhi provinces and became a signal of the rise of the anti-imperialist struggle of the Boxer Rebellion. In June 5438+the following year 10, the Boxer Rebellion headed by Zhu and Ben Ming fought against local camps in Gangzi Lizhuang and Senluodian of Pingyuan County, which promoted the rapid development of anti-aggression struggles in many counties in Shandong Province. In 65438+February, in Zaoqiang County, South Zhili, the Boxer Rebellion led by Wang Qingyi was launched. Monks practicing martial arts at Kaiyuan Temple in Jizhou also led the masses to burn churches such as Sujiazhuang in Jingzhou. The anti-teaching struggle in the adjacent areas of Shandong and Zhili is linked together.

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.

Boxer fighter

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 past peasant uprising, 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) play the most important role ("Zhong" font size appears in some places), but there is no unified organization and centralized leadership above each font size and itself. 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 people who participated in the Boxer Rebellion were farmers, followed by craftsmen, old-fashioned transport workers, monks, scholars and stragglers, and a few feudal intellectuals, small and medium-sized landlords and officials, as well as local ruffians and hooligans also participated. 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, they also believe in 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.