The spirit that animated these fanatical devotees with their blind belief in incantations and charms[[5]] was also at work in the more enlightened Kwang-hsu. China was being dismembered. Germany had practically occupied Shantung. Russia possessed Liaotung. Japan held Formosa by right of treaty. And the Powers were coolly discussing "spheres of influence." They understood the temper of the Chinese as little as the Chinese had understood that of the foreigners. The young Emperor and his advisers realised something of the power of knowledge. And as a result of that Reform Edict the eyes of Young China were turned from the contemplation of a dead past to the quickening study of all that was best and living in the colleges of the world. The coup d'état of September 22, 1898, for a time put back the hands of the clock of progress, and the Empress-Dowager entered upon her reactionary career. The Boxers, every one of them, had for their objective the expulsion of the Tartar Dynasty, and the putting of a Chinese emperor on the throne. Adroitly the clever Empress laid hold of their "patriotic" desires and turned the machinations of the secret societies against the Government into a conspiracy for the utter extermination of the foreigner in China. Wiser counsels had for a time prevailed, and at the commencement of Boxerism the Imperial troops in Shantung had kept the "patriots" in order, overcoming by force of arms a party led by an abbot. Although several of these fanatics were shot, and others executed by the military commander, thus proving their "vulnerability," the Government was not disposed to do other than to accept such seemingly powerful allies. "They may be useless as a fighting force, but their claims to magic will dishearten the enemy, whilst their enthusiasm will inspire the soldiers of the regular army." Such was the subtle reasoning of the astute Empress. The die was cast, and she threw in her lot with those who had but a few short months previously been thirsting for her own blood.
Such heroes as Jung-Lu, Yuan-Ch'ang, and Hsu-Ching-Cheng tried in vain to turn the infatuated ruler from her fatal policy. The two latter saved the lives of many a foreigner—that of the writer amongst them—by substituting the ideograph meaning "Protect" for the one meaning "Slay" in the Imperial Edict telegraphed all over the Empire, but suffered the extreme penalty themselves when the Empress found out what they had done. "Their limbs should be torn asunder," she screamed, "by chariots driven in opposite directions. Let them be summarily decapitated."
So the Boxers were let loose upon Chinese Christians and foreign missionaries alike. Killing, looting, burning went on apace; but perhaps the most tragic scene of the horrible time was that enacted at Taiyuenfu, in the yamen of Yu Hsien, the Nero of Shansi, who himself helped to do to death fifty-five missionaries—men, women, and children—on July 9, 1900.
In North China and Manchuria, to say nothing of isolated instances south of the Yangtze, over two hundred missionaries, Protestant and Roman Catholic, were massacred, while several thousands of Chinese Christians followed their foreign pastors to the death.
The events that led to the collapse of the movement need but a passing mention. They are matters of history but recently in the minds of all. The Taku forts capitulated to the little foreign gunboats, the army of the allies captured Tientsin, and a composite force, fifteen thousand strong, marched on Peking. In less than a fortnight the work was successfully accomplished; and on the 14th of August the foreigners, with their Legations, which had been besieged by a savage horde of Boxers and Imperial troops since the 20th of June, were relieved. Peking was taken by assault, and China's Imperial Court fled by the "Victory" Gate in three common mulecarts for Sianfu, in far-away Shansi. The movement ended in a failure as lamentable as its inception had been a mistake. It was conceived in no spirit of mere thirst for blood. People and Court believed that the foreign Powers were "swallowing up" China, and in a moment of mad frenzy believed that the only way of escape for themselves and salvation for their country lay along the line of utter extermination of the foreigner and all that belonged to him.
This rapid survey—touching upon the salient features of each of these great heart-throbs of the nation—shows us the main contributory factors of the People's Revolution of 1911-12.
THE CHILD-EMPEROR OF CHINA.
Last of the Manchu Dynasty, that was overthrown by the Revolution.