The Boxers Declare War on the “Foreign Devils”

Following the Guangxu Emperor’s optimistic but unsuccessful attempt to modernize China during the Hundred Days’ Reform period of 1898, a local martial arts organization in Shan­dong village, the Society of Righteous and Harmonious Boxers, emerged as a violently antimodern, anti-Western, and anti-Christian force. Encouraged by the Qing government and eschewing modern military techniques, the Boxers killed thousands of foreign and Chinese Chris­tians and in 1900 laid siege to the area in Beijing where foreign officials were quartered. A multinational force, including both Western and Japa­nese troops, ended the siege within two months, and the resulting Boxer Protocol of 1901 forced the Qing government to pay war reparations. The proclamations here outline the Boxers’ beliefs and their exhortations to Chinese citizens.

The Gods assist the Boxers,

The Patriotic Harmonious corps,

It is because the “Foreign Devils” disturb the “Middle Kingdom” [China].

Urging the people to join their religion,

To turn their backs on Heaven,

Venerate not the Gods and forget the ancestors.

Men violate the human obligations,

Women commit adultery,

“Foreign Devils” are not produced by mankind,

If you do not believe,

Look at them carefully.

The eyes of all the “Foreign Devils” are bluish,

No rain falls,

The earth is getting dry,

This is because the churches stop Heaven,

The Gods are angry;

The Genii [minor spirits] are vexed;

Both come down from the mountain to deliver the doctrine.

This is no hearsay,

The practices of boxing1 will not be in vain;

Reciting incantations and pronouncing magic words,

Burn up yellow written prayers,

Light incense sticks

To invite the Gods and Genii of all the grottoes.

The Gods come out from grottoes,

The Genii come down from mountains,

Support the human bodies to practice the boxing.

When all the military accomplishments or tactics

Are fully learned,

It will not be difficult to exterminate the “Foreign Devils” then.

Push aside the railway tracks,

Pull out the telegraph poles,

Immediately after this destroy the steamers.

The great France

Will grow cold and downhearted.

The En­glish and Rus­sians will certainly disperse.

Let the various “Foreign Devils” all be killed.

May the whole Elegant Empire of the Great Qing Dynasty2 be ever ­prosperous!

Attention: all people in markets and villages of all provinces in China — now, owing to the fact that Catholics and Protestants have vilified our gods and sages, have deceived our emperors and ministers above, and oppressed the Chinese people below, both our gods and our people are angry at them, yet we have to keep silent. This forces us to practice the Yike3 magic boxing so as to protect our country, expel the foreign bandits and kill Christian converts, in order to save our people from miserable suffering. After this notice is issued to instruct you villagers, no matter which village you are living in, if there are Christian converts, you ought to get rid of them quickly. The churches which belong to them should be unreservedly burned down. Everyone who intends to spare someone, or to disobey our order by concealing Christian converts, will be punished according to the regulation when we come to his place, and he will be burned to death to prevent his impeding our program. We especially do not want to punish anyone by death without warning him first. We cannot bear to see you suffer innocently. Don’t disobey this ­special notice!

The Society of Righteous and Harmonious Boxers, “The Gods Assist the Boxers” in the Peking and Tientsin Times, May 5, 1900. “Attention” in Ssu-ya Teng and John K. Fairbank, eds., China’s Response to the West (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1954), 190.

READING AND DISCUSSION QUESTIONS