In 1897, a powerful force rose in Shandong, and that was the Boxer Rebellion.
Their origins are quite complex, which goes hand in hand with the diversity of their members. It is generally believed that the Boxer Rebellion originated from the White Lotus Cult, and its uniqueness lies in the fact that it gave everyone the opportunity to experience the mystical power of divine possession. This is very different from the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, because in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, the possession of gods is the privilege of the upper class, and ordinary people cannot reach it.
The Boxers, on the other hand, did not have a unified leader, which allowed everyone to claim to be a member of the Boxers and even try to possess the gods. Almost every small group has a psychic elder brother, and the atmosphere is a bit like the difference between Catholicism and Protestantism. The Catholic Church is tightly organized, forming a bureaucratic ladder structure, from the pope to the bishops at all levels, to the priests at the grassroots level. Protestantism, on the other hand, encourages everyone to communicate directly with God without going through intermediaries such as bishops.
The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom is like a towering pyramid of Catholicism, with clear layers and top-down. The Boxers, on the other hand, were like scattered sand and stones, each in its own formation, gathering spontaneously. Exactly"Sand and gravel"The general distribution characteristics made the background of the members of the Boxer Rebellion complicated and mixed, and some scoundrels also took the opportunity to mix in. So,"True group"with"Fake group"The distinction has become a distinction between later generations and the Boxers. In terms of propaganda, on the one hand, the Boxers relied on the divine power of local religions, such as inviting Guan Erye, Sun Wukong, Jade Emperor and other gods to possess them, so as to show their vast magical powers;On the other hand, they vigorously promote the evil deeds of foreigners, portraying foreigners as demons and monsters, and even rumored that they will make young children into pills and gouge out their hearts and eyes. At first, the scale was still small, but after the Yellow River burst in 1898, the Zhili area of Shandong suffered from floods, and the following year there was a drought and insect plague, and the people were hungry and cold, and they joined the Boxer Rebellion, which greatly increased its momentum.
Scholars have believed that the rise of the Boxers was born out of superstition, but this is not the whole truth. Which feudal dynasty did not have superstitions?Why is it that only the Boxers can unite the people?The point is their deep hatred of foreigners. This kind of hatred may be the real reason why the Boxers were able to sweep the land. In fact, these two points may not have touched the root of the problem. Hatred and superstition are only appearances, they are both spiritual needs;And the real reason is likely to be material needs – hunger, which is the underlying human need. As depicted in the movie "Nineteen Forty-Two", when there is a famine, the hungry people will gather and discuss to find food. In the end, the only choice was to go to the big eater. This is also easy to understand, if it is a year of famine, the family can't open the pot, and your wife and children are looking at you, you may also join some gang to grab food from everyone, which is also a helpless move.
Therefore, the Boxers were essentially no different from the hungry people of all dynasties. In fact, the hungry people of the past dynasties also often believed in religion, such as the Yellow Turban Army at the end of the Han Dynasty and the Mingjiao uprising at the end of the Yuan Dynasty, but this time they just chose to target the religious people. Why did you choose to attack the big parishioners?Because at that time, cracking down on parishioners and foreigners was the most politically correct behavior. Among them, I have to mention the contradictions between the parishioners, the commoners and the ** at that time. These contradictions are like undercurrents hidden under calm waters, and when the time is right, they will cause an uproar. The Boxer Rebellion was one of the results of the intensification of these contradictions, revealing the injustice and suffering of the society at that time, and also reflecting people's desire for survival and helplessness for power.
After the end of the Opium War, the imperial court was afraid of foreigners, while the common people were afraid. This situation was seen through by the perceptive common people, who chose to join the foreign religion one after another and seek refuge from the foreigners. In those years, when natural disasters were frequent, the church often reached out to help and carried out relief work, which also made many disaster victims choose to join the church. They realized that joining the church would not only get food, but also the protection of foreigners.
On one occasion, 18 villages surrounded the church with the surname Pang, who presented the priest with a list of 4,000 people asking to join the church. Their condition was that they hoped that the priest would intervene in the yamen and release the imprisoned chief of Pang. At the same time, some lawless people also saw the power of the church and joined in one after another, acting recklessly under the banner of the church.
By 1900, there were 7 million Catholics in China. These believers, under the protection of foreign missionaries, gained a privileged position, causing discontent among the common people. In the end, a situation was formed in which the people of the church bullied the commoners and the foreigners bullied the people. **Their dislike of foreigners is increasing day by day, while the common people are deeply disgusted with the parishioners. Stimulated by natural disasters and hunger, the expansion of the power of the Christians also led to the simultaneous expansion of the Boxers.