Page:1902 Encyclopædia Britannica - Volume 27 - CHI-ELD.pdf/63

 history] CHINA 37 Other vested interests felt themselves equally threatened. The it appears to have been in the first instance a secret association priests, whose temples were to be alienated ; the military man- of malcontents chiefly drawn from the lower classes. Popular darins, who were led to believe that the army was going to be disaffection in China generally assumes some such shape, and •handed over to foreign instructors ; and, above all, the imperial there can be little doubt that with the waning prestige of the clansmen and bannermen, the eunuchs, and other hangers-on of dynasty, undermined by the Japanese war and foreign encroachthe palace, whose existence was bound up with all the worst ments, not less than by the family feud between the emperor traditions of Oriental misgovernment, were all equally alarmed, and the dowager-empress, a dangerous spirit of unrest was abroad and behind them stood the whole latent force of popular supersti- amongst all classes. The Tsing dynasty was reaching what tion and unreasoning conservatism. would seem to be the allotted span of Chinese dynasties, its The dowager-empress saw her opportunity. The Summer tenure of power having already lasted longer than that of any of Palace, to which she had retired, had been for some time the the last twenty dynasties, excepting its immediate predecessors, The coup cePt:re resistance to the new movement, and in the the Mings, and neither omens nor predictions were wanting to foreshadow its downfall. Whether the empress Tsu Tsi and her rd’itat middle September a report became current that, in of order to put an1898 end to the obstruction which Manchu advisers had deliberately set themselves from the beginhampered his reform policy, the emperor intended to seize the ning to avert the danger by deflecting what might have been a reperson of the dowager-empress and have her deported into the volutionary movement into anti-foreign channels, or whether with interior. Some colour was given to this report by an official Oriental heedlessness they had allowed it to grow until they were announcement that the emperor would hold a review of the powerless to control it, they had unquestionably resolved to take foreign-drilled troops at Tientsin, and had summoned Yuan Shih- it under their protection before the foreign representatives at kai, their general, to Peking in order to confer with him on the Peking had realised its gravity. Yii Hsien, one of its earliest necessary arrangements. But the reformers had neglected to patrons, had indeed been recalled on their representations from secure the goodwill of the army, which was still entirely in the Shantung, where he had given open support to the Boxer organizahands of the reactionaries. During the night of the 20th of tion, but only to be loaded with honours by the empress and September the palace of the emperor was occupied by the soldiers, transferred to the province of Shansi. The outrages upon native and on the following day Kwang Su, who was henceforth virtually Christians and the threats against foreigners generally went on a prisoner in the hands of the empress, was made to issue an increasing. The Boxers openly displayed on their banners the ■edict restoring her regency. Kang Yu-wei, warned at the last device : “Exterminate the foreigners and save the dynasty,” yet moment by an urgent message from the emperor, succeeded in the representatives of the Powers were unable to obtain any escaping, but many of the most prominent reformers were arrested, effective measures against the so-called “rebels,” or even a definite and six of them were promptly executed. The Peking Gazette condemnation of their methods. announced a few days later that the emperor himself was dangerFour months (January-April 1900) were spent in futile interously ill, and his life might well have been despaired of had not views with the Tsung-Li-Yamen, who, encouraged, no doubt, by the British minister represented in very emphatic terms the the fact that the Russian minister for a long time n. omac serious consequences which might ensue if anything happened to held conspicuously aloof from the protests of his aD,P^ y him. Drastic measures were, however, adopted to stamp out the colleagues, treated the remonstrances of the Powers bay‘ reform movement in the provinces as well as in the capital. The with growing contempt. In May a number of Christian reform edicts were cancelled, the reformers’ associations were dis- villages were destroyed and native converts massacred in the solved, their newspapers suppressed, and those who did not care neighbourhood of the capital, and Mgr. Favier, the venerable to save themselves by a hasty recantation of their errors were head of the Roman Catholic missions in China, described the imprisoned, proscribed, or exiled. In October the reaction had situation as the gravest within his long memory. On the 2nd already been accompanied by such a recrudescence of anti-foreign June two English missionaries, Mr Robinson and Mr Norman, feeling that the foreign ministers at Peking had to bring up were murdered at Yung Ching, 40 miles from Peking. The whole guards from the fleet for the protection of the legations, and to country was overrun with bands of Boxers, who tore up the raildemand the removal from the capital of the disorderly Kansu way and set fire to the stations at different points on the Pekingsoldiery which subsequently played so sinister a part in the troubles Tientsin line. Fortunately a mixed body of marines and of June 1900. But the unpleasant impression produced by these bluejackets of various nationalities, numbering 18 officers and incidents was in a great measure removed by the demonstrative 389 men, had reached Peking on 1st June for the protection of the reception which the empress Tsu Tsi gave on 15th October to legations. The whole city was in a state of turmoil. Murder the wives of the foreign representatives—an international act of and pillage were of daily occurrence. Prince Tuan and the courtesy unprecedented in the annals of the Chinese court. Manchus generally, together with the Kansu soldiery under the One of the most significant features of the coup d’6tat of 1898 notorious Tung-fu-hsiang, openly sided with the Boxers. The was the decisive part played in it by the Manchus, whose ascend- European residents and a large number of native converts took anc in the British legation, the largest and most central Maacbu more y an the councils of the dowager-empress became refuge compound in the foreign quarter, where preparations were hastily ascendd more marked. Manchus were substituted ancy. ^or Chinamen many of the higher of the made on all sides in view of a threatened attack. On the 11th state, and even in Li Hung-Chang’s positionoffices was shaken. the chancellor of the Japanese legation was murdered by Chinese Though he was the only prominent Chinese statesman who had soldiers. On the night of the 13th most of the foreign buildings, actively supported the empress, he was temporarily removed from churches, and mission houses in the eastern part of the Tartar city the capital, under pretext [of a special mission to inspect the were pillaged and burnt, and hundreds of native Christians course of the Yellow river in Shantung. The reactionary tide massacred. The work of destruction continued for days unchecked continued to rise throughout the year 1899, but it did not appear by any Chinese authority, and on 20th June the German minister, materially to affect the foreign relations of China, the dilatoriness Baron von Ketteler, was murdered whilst on his way to the and ill-will exhibited by the Tsung-Li-Yamen with respect to the Tsung-Li-Yamen, and there is little doubt that the same fate had punishment of the murderers of Mr Fleming and to other anti- been prepared for all the other foreign representatives, who were foreign outrages amounting to little more than the usual practice expected to visit the Yamen, as negotiations were proceeding of the Chinese Government in such matters. On 21th January with regard to a summons sent to them on the previous day to 1900 the Peking Gazette published an imperial edict appointing leave Peking within twenty-four hours. At 4 p.m. on the afteras heir-presumptive to the throne Pu Chiin, a son of Prince noon of the 20th the Chinese troops opened fire upon the legations, Tuan (himself son to Prince Tun and grandson to the emperor and the eight weeks’ siege began which will remain memorable in Tao-kwang), which was generally regarded in China as a pre- history as one of the most splendid instances of what the heroism liminary step to the formal deposition of the emperor Kwang Su. and intelligence of a handful of Europeans can achieve against Influential memorials from Chinese officials deprecating any such Asiatic hordes. measure would seem to have deterred the empress from following Meanwhile Peking had been completely cut off since the 14th up her original intention, but the choice of two rabid anti-foreign from all communication with the outside world, and in view of officials as tutors to Pu Chiin, together with the prestige conferred the gravity of the situation, naval and military forces. upon Prince Tuan, one of the most reactionary of the Manchu were being hurried up by all the Powers to the gulf fJ?** princes, afforded a startling indication of the spirit which already of Pe Chili. On 10th June Admiral Seymour had ” a prevailed in court circles. already left Tientsin with a mixed force of 2000 ° A few weeks earlier the brutal murder of Mr Brooks, an English British, Russian, French, Germans, Austrians, Italians, Americans, missionary, in Shantung, had compelled attention to a popular and Japanese, to repair the railway and restore communication The Boxer Inove ment which had been spreading rapidly through- with Peking. But his expedition met with unexpectedly severe ov move^ Province and the adjoining one of Chih-li resistance, the line was torn up in its rear, and, unprovided with ment. with the connivance of certain high officials, if not transport or supplies, it had great difficulty in making good its nnder their direct patronage. The origin of the retreat after suffering heavy losses. Great anxiety prevailed for Boxer ) movement is obscure. Its name is derived from a some days as to its fate, and no definite tidings of its whereabouts literal translation of the Chinese designation, “The fist of were received until it had fought its way back to within a day’s righteous harmony.” Like the kindred “Big Sword” Society, march of Tientsin. When it reached Tientsin again on 26th