Page:American Diplomacy in the Orient - Foster (1903).djvu/433

 of Righteous Harmony," or "The Fist of Equality," had existed in the province of Shantung for many years, and so long ago as 1803 it had been prohibited by the government. It seems to have had as its object mutual benefit and support, mixed with patriotic and religious ideas and the practice of mysticism and magic. One of the best informed writers on Chinese affairs says the organization "remains and perhaps will continue to remain to a large extent a mystery to Occidentals." The events following the war with Japan gave to it increased activity, and, instigated and supported by the mandarins and literati, it rapidly spread through the province. With the cry of "Drive out the foreigners and uphold the dynasty," it entered upon its self-appointed work of the expulsion of all foreigners from China, which culminated in the siege of the legations and the occupation of Peking by the armies of the treaty powers.

The immediate cause of the "Boxer" uprising was the antipathy to foreigners and foreign ways, a feeling which prevails throughout the entire population of the empire, with very rare exceptions. The foreigners in China may be divided into three classes,—the missionaries, the merchants, and the public officials of other nations; and the lines of foreign activity are three,—missionary, commercial, and political.

The missionary movement in the interior of China