The Origins of the Boxer Uprising

by Joseph W. Esherick

In the summer of 1900, bands of peasant youths from the villages of north China streamed into Beijing to besiege the foreign legations, attracting the attention of the entire world. Joseph Esherick reconstructs the early history of the Boxers, challenging the traditional view that they grew from earlier anti-dynastic sects, and stressing instead the impact of social ecology and popular culture.

Genres: History, China, Nonfiction, Religion, Politics

472 pages, Paperback

First published July 19, 1988

About the author

Joseph W. Esherick is an emeritus professor of modern Chinese history at University of California, San Diego. He is the holder of the Hwei-chih and Julia Hsiu Chair in Chinese Studies.

Reviews

[Brian · Rating 4 out of 5]

Arguing against previous attempts to genealogically link the Boxers of the anti-colonial 1898 uprising to earlier organizations on the tenuous basis of nomenclature or ritual similarity, Esherick instead locates the genesis of the Boxer movement in the popular culture and social structure of the north China plain where it appeared in its distinctive form. There, oppressed by conditions of poverty perpetuated by ecological disasters both natural and human-created, the population had long found outlets for its malaise in banditry and revolutionary millenarian religious sects, both of which were alternately assisted and opposed by practitioners of various indigenous martial arts schools, themselves often utilizing protective rituals derived from the region's folk magic. The unique innovation of the so-called "Spirit Boxers" came in structuring this martial tradition of communal defense through a form of deity possession - itself a feature of several rebellious uprisings of the more or less distant past - featuring the warlike gods and deified heroes of vernacular literature and theater.

This complex of factors may have never produced the Boxers, however, had the Christian missionary presence in their territory not insistently cast itself as a foe which could not be ignored. Seen by their colonialist sponsors as the key by which China would be opened to European culture - and hence, European merchandise - the missionaries used the full diplomatic and military support of the European states to the legal and economic benefit of those Chinese who agreed to convert, and to the detriment of their non-Christian neighbors. Outrage at Christian abuses was yet another, albeit essential, element of the Boxers' socio-cultural matrix. Neither a sectarian conspiracy nor initiatory lineage, Esherick reveals the Spirit Boxers as an organic reaction to the pressure of external forces and internal inspirations peculiar to their particular place and time in history.

[Song · Rating 5 out of 5]

作为获得美国中国历史研究最高双重奖项，费正清奖和列文森图书奖的本书，周锡瑞先生这部作品自然不同凡响。其主旨在于细究义和团运动的起源与发展，他在前言里开宗明义，研究目的并不在于评价义和团运动到底是进步的民众反抗，还是落后的排外守旧，而是厘清义和团运动本身的起源和发展问题，是一种相当中立和求真的研究态度。

他的研究方法初看有点类似于辩证唯物主义，因为通篇都在讨论义和团运动起源地的地理，经济，政治，外交和宗教问题。但仔细辨别起来，周先生的研究方法与辨证唯物主义最根本的区别是，这本书无意于探究历史必然规律或者评价历史意义，而是采用年鉴学派的研究方法，用一种全景式的角度，从多个方面来全面探究义和团运动的起源问题，就是回答那个大哉问：中国为什么会在1900年发生义和团运动？

读下来讨论过程相当令人信服，周先生对史料的运用既有正统的书面记录研究，更有走访当地，实地采访当事人后裔或者同乡，借助个人记忆口述的方法。读完全书，对义和团运动的起源可以有相当清晰的了解，几乎有着教科书一般的权威和信服。

[Kyle Fiske · Rating 4 out of 5]

A bit dry, but extremely well-researched. I appreciated the author's very in-depth analysis of the social/economic/cultural conditions on the Chinese side, and in particular the distinction between martial arts organizations, religious movements and social classes--and how they occasionally intersected and overlapped to form the "Boxer" movement. Of course there's no condoning the murderous xenophobia of the Boxers, but neither is there much moral justification for the predations of the Western imperial powers towards China at the time. It's a fascinating and tragic episode in world history.

[Matthew · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic history. Thus commenceth the China deep dive.

[WaldenOgre · Rating 4 out of 5]

义和团运动究竟是一场反帝爱国的群众运动，还是一次愚昧迷信的底层贫农的狂热爆发？其实这种分歧的背后，一边是权力对于历史叙事的操纵，一边则是我们这个时代的问题意识的体现。

然而，这本书的可贵之处在于，它让我能够比较切身地理解当年鲁西地区的农民在日常生活中的纷争何在，他们又为何易于接受这么一种运动模式。甚至我也逐渐理解了彼时的清廷为何会选择这样一种在此时的我们看来极度愚蠢的应对策略。

既不是为了迎合当下既有的观点和立场，更不是为了向现实权力效犬马之劳，而是为了帮助后人尝试理解时空远隔的另一些人的处境与思考模式，我觉得这才是历史学家和历史著述的真正使命。这本书做到了。

顺便，个人觉得，先读本书，再读柯文的《历史三调》，应当是一个更为完善的次序与组合了吧。

[AskHistorians]

contra popular belief, the Boxer Uprising was neither a cult nor a rebellion, but rather a mass movement centered around Shandong that combined separate strains of vigilantism, anti-imperialism, shamanism and the Chinese theater.

[Paulina · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent piece of scholarship, extremely well-researched. A must-read.

[Scott · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the classic introduction to the Boxer Rebellion. It's depth and insights are indispensable for understanding the role martial arts have played in creating modern China.

[Jessica Zu · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is certainly one of the best books on the Boxer uprising. For the first time we have a full account on the Chinese side of the story and the views of the peasant boxers are revealed to us through careful examinations of oral history.
I must read for any students of China studies (in 19th-20 th China)

[Pj Mensel · Rating 4 out of 5]

great to finally read a book about the Boxer Rebellion that focuses on the true history in China, not the PR Western sources put out.

[Janie Collins · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book about 5 times for my Master's Thesis on the same subject. It is THE definitive academic work on the Boxer Uprising and an engaging read at that. Impeccably researched.

[Josephine E · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fairly dense, but a good read for basic understanding of the Boxer uprising from the perspective of the Boxers, albeit the authors wasn’t a Boxer himself.

[Reader2007 · Rating 3 out of 5]

Modern Asia--paper topic