_YU HSIEN APPOINTED GOVERNOR OF SHANTUNG, REMOVED BY BRITISH DEMANDS,
ONLY TO BE REWARDED—YUAN-SHIH KAI SUCCEEDS HIM—CAUSES OF HATRED OF
CONVERTS BY PEOPLE AND BOXERS—THE BOXERS AND THEIR TENETS—THE EMPRESS
CONSULTS ASTROLOGERS_
[Illustration: HSU CHING CHENG
Ex-minister to Germany, member of Tsung-li-yamen. Beheaded Aug. 9, for
favoring peace.]
WITH the appointment of the Manchu Yu Hsien as Governor of Shantung
province, to be the successor to the anti-foreign Li Ping Heng,
whose removal the Germans had succeeded in effecting, commenced the
governmental recognition of the Boxers’ society as an agent to expel
missionaries, merchants, and diplomats alike. This man, whose hatred of
foreigners exceeded that of his predecessor, was no sooner in office
than he caused the _literati_ all over the province to revive among the
masses the “Great Sword” and “Boxer” organizations, which had been a
bit shaken by the removal of their encourager, Li Ping Heng.
The foreign residents of Shantung, who had hoped the new government
would be an improvement over the old, soon found they were worse off
than before. The native Christians were persecuted most bitterly by
their heathen neighbors, and their complaints at the yamens treated
with disdain.
Yu Hsien did his work thoroughly and rapidly, knowing the foreign
power which had compelled the removal of Li Ping Heng would also cause
his removal. But as he was only placed in Shantung for the deliberate
purpose of making trouble, his removal would mean for him a better post
as the reward of his success.
This came when the “Boxers” of Chianfu prefecture attacked and murdered
a young missionary of the Church of England named Brookes, who was
traveling from Chianfu city to his station of P’ingyin.
The British government demanded his removal from office, and the
Chinese government acquiesced; but their treatment of him upon his
arrival in Peking alone would have sufficed for an intelligent observer
to make clear the policy of the Empress without any other confirmatory
evidence, abundance of which, however, was not lacking.
Instead of being reprimanded, we find him granted immediate audience
with the Empress, and the next day’s Court Gazette informed an
astonished world that the Empress had written with her own brush the
character “Fu,” happiness, and conferred it upon him publicly. Then
followed his appointment as Governor of Shansi, a rich mineral province
in which the “Peking Syndicate,” an Anglo-Italian company promoted by
Lord Rothschild, held valuable concessions. In this province, too,
were the long-worked missionary establishments of the American Board
(Congregationalist) and the China Inland Missions.
The Chinese all understood this as an appreciative approval from the
Empress, and so, too, did all the older foreign residents; but the
diplomatic corps, beyond a feeble remonstrance from the British and
United States ministers, did nothing. So, to-day Yu Hsien is pursuing
in Shansi the same policy he did in Shantung, the results of which must
turn out similarly.
The Empress appointed as successor to Yu Hsien the man who had turned
traitor to the unfortunate young Emperor, Kuang Hsu, Yuanshih Kai.
This man is well known to foreigners. He was formerly Chinese resident
at Seoul, and it was largely due to him that the China-Japan war
occurred. After the war he was made commanding-general of a force of
foreign-drilled troops stationed at Hsiao Chan, south of Tientsin.
Yuan is one of the shrewdest and most unscrupulous men of China, and
the Empress, in rewarding him by this appointment for his service to
her in making known the Emperor’s purpose to send her into captivity,
gave power to a man who would desert her, when it suited him, as
quickly as he had the weak, but well-meaning, Emperor.
Yuan, upon his arrival in Shantung, found himself in a difficult
position. If he encouraged the Boxers he would make enemies of the
foreigners. If he was severe with the Boxers he would be removed by the
Empress, influenced as she was by General Tung Fu Hsiang and his cabal.
Being a man of great wealth and having a perfect knowledge of the
situation, he steered a course that would obviate his striking on
either rock. He subscribed to the Boxer organizations where they
obeyed him, and punished them where they were refractory, and soon had
Shantung, which was in a ferment when he took charge, fairly well in
hand.
He gave it to be understood that they would, in time, be able to
exterminate foreigners; but they must patiently drill and practice
gymnastics until such time as he considered that they had reached
perfection, and must not on any account injure a foreigner too early,
as it would bring down trouble before the government was prepared to
meet it. At the same time he allowed them to pillage and murder the
native Christians freely, well knowing this would please the Court, and
would not be actively taken up by the foreign powers as an infringement
of treaty-rights, which it certainly was.
Evidently his idea was, too, that Tung Fu Hsiang’s plan to drive out
and exterminate all foreigners was an entirely impossible one, and that
if he could keep his province from committing any overt act that would
lead to a foreign war, for a year’s time, the Chihli authorities, all
the Manchus, and Tung Fu Hsiang himself would have brought on the war
and ruined themselves, while he, Yuan, would then have a chance to cut
loose from the conservatives, and come to the front in the new regime,
which must come, as a reformer. That he will do this I fearlessly
prophesy.
The Boxer organization was not started by Tung Fu Hsiang, but was,
by his advice, given imperial sanction and infused with new life and
activity. A similar organization, known in olden times in China under
the same name, was a volunteer militia for national defense. The recent
revival has not only been for defense, but to exterminate the Christian
religion and the people who brought it.
[Illustration: A MONGOLIAN LLAMA
Great learning is possessed, according to the Chinese standard, by
these priests. The young student or candidate on the left is receiving
instruction.]
That the Chinese people have much to complain of from the aggressive
attitude of many native Christians, and particularly the Roman Catholic
Christians, no sane man will deny. For years it has been the practice
of the priests and of many of the Protestant missionaries to assist
their converts in lawsuits against the heathens, and to exert an
unjust influence in their behalf. To “get even” with an enemy it is
only necessary for a convert to tell his priest or pastor that he has
been persecuted in some way for his religious belief, to induce the
missionary to take up the cudgel in his defense. I have heard heathen
Chinese often assert that these men (converts) appear good enough to
their priests, who see very little of their ordinary behavior, but
behind the father’s back they are overbearing and malicious to all
their neighbors, who hate them because they fear them.
After years of residence in China, I have come to the conclusion
that it has been a mistake of the Powers to insert in their treaties
provisions making the preaching of Christianity a treaty-right, in
spite of Chinese objection. Nearly all of the riots in China have come
from attempts to force the Chinese officials to stamp deeds conveying
property to missionaries for residences or chapels. The animosity
incurred in forcing a missionary establishment upon an interior city,
town, or village is not obliterated in a lifetime. It may be barely
tolerated in time of peace, only to be demolished when the country
is disturbed. This applies to the China that has been—barbarian,
uncivilized China.
Should the reformers come into power, and religious toleration be
granted as the result of civilization, then there would be no reason
why the missionaries should not work in the more remote parts of the
empire; but China, as it has been and is, would be much more peaceful
for all concerned if the proselyting work was carried on only in the
treaty ports. I don’t expect any of the missionary body to agree to
this statement, but doubtless many of their supporters, thinking
people, who will take the trouble to reason it out, will believe it,
supported as it is by the testimony of all the residents of China
acquainted with the problem. There are many reasons for the Chinaman’s
hatred of the foreigners, but his religion is the chief one.
In the late riots the railways have been attacked and destroyed, but
that came only after a half-year’s successful campaign against the
converts had led them to want to root out the people who brought both
the religion and the railways. While I am a Christian myself, and
would gladly see China a Christian nation, I cannot help seeing that
the policy which has been pursued in forcing Christianity upon the
Chinese, in the aggressive manner we have, practically at the point
of the sword, has not been a success, and has given to such men as
Tung Fu Hsiang a powerful argument with which to persuade his ignorant
followers to exterminate alike the foreigner and his converts.
[Illustration: INDIVIDUAL EXAMINATION ROOMS FOR CIVIL SERVICE DEGREES
A remarkable feature of Chinese social and political customs is the
method of selection for public office. The candidates for examination
are installed in the little rooms or houses shown in this picture;
a supply of water is placed in the large jars at the entrance, and
the candidate is expected, regardless of the pangs of hunger, to
remain constantly in this little room until he shall have passed this
examination, which sometimes lasts two or three days.]
The Boxers are principally of two sorts: the ignorant villager and
the city loafer or vagabond. The first easily becomes a fanatical
enthusiast; the latter has joined simply to obtain loot. When it
became an assured fact that the Empress sanctioned the movement the
ranks were rapidly filled, because rewards and preferment were held out
as inducements to serve, and the majority of China’s population, being
poverty-stricken in the extreme, would join any movement that promised
an increased income. The Boxer headquarters was the palace of Prince
Tuan in Peking. From this place emissaries were sent with instructions,
first into Shantung and afterward throughout Chihli, to coöperate with
the already-existing secret societies, as well as to organize new
companies. Every city, town, and village was visited, the head men
consulted, and the young men and boys enrolled.
Their gymnastic exercises, from which they derive their name, were
taught them, and they were promised that when they had attained
perfection they would be given service under the Empress with good
pay and rapid promotion. They were told that if they would go
regularly through the ceremonies prescribed every day, in from three
to six months they would acquire indomitable courage, and would be
invulnerable to bullets and sword-cuts, and that the youngest child
would be a match for a grown man of the uninitiated. That thousands
believed this nonsense there is no doubt; and thousands of little boys
from ten years of age upward eagerly enrolled. The exercise consisted
of bowing low to the ground, striking the forehead into the earth
three times each toward the east, then south, then throwing themselves
upon their backs and lying motionless for several minutes, after which
they would throw themselves from side to side a number of times, and,
finally rising, go through a number of posturings, as though warding
off blows and making passes at an enemy. As a uniform they were given a
red turban, a red sash to cross the chest, and red “tae tzio,” or wide
tape, to tie in the trousers at the ankle.
The time set for their uprising was fixed for the Chinese eighth moon,
seventeenth day, being two days after the annual “harvest festival,”
or pa yueh chieh. The premature explosion of the movement was not
anticipated by those who originated it, but it is largely due to
its going off at half-cock, so to speak, that enabled the Powers to
combat it so readily after they were aware of its existence as a real
government agency.
Doubtless the government intended before that time to give arms and
ammunition to all grown men; but, in the first place, they were to arm
themselves with swords and spears only. They were told, among other
things, that at the time of their uprising myriads of regiments of
angelic soldiers would descend from the skies to assist them in their
righteous war against foreigners.
The Empress herself believed this story as well as the possibility
of their being invulnerable to foreign bullets. She is exceedingly
superstitious, and in the early part of May consulted the Chinese
planchette to read her destiny. Two blind men, holding the instrument
under a silk screen, wrote in the prepared sand underneath the
following message from the spiritual world:
“Ta Chieh Lin T’ou
Hung Hsieh Hung Liu
Pai Ku Ch’ung Ch’ung
Chin Tsai Chin Ch’in
Tan Kan
T’ieh Ma Tung Hsi Tscu
Shui Shih Shui Fei
Ts’ai pai shiu.”
The interpretation of this would read in English:
“The millennium is at hand;
Blood will flow like a deluge;
Bleaching bones everywhere
Will this autumn time be seen.
Moreover, the iron horse
Will move from east to west;
Who’s right and who’s wrong
Will then be clearly established.”
The millennium is used by the Chinese as a critical period in a
cycle of years. The iron horse is supposed to mean war. The Empress
understood this to mean that in the war which she intended to commence
it would be clearly shown by her success that she was right.
[Illustration: A GROUP OF PROMINENT CHINESE OFFICIALS
These men are connected with the Tsung-li-yamen.]
The Boxers, however, completely spoiled all her plans by their
eagerness to obtain loot. Being promised the spoil of the foreigners
after the contemplated uprising in the eighth moon, they regarded the
property of the Christians and their teachers as already mortgaged to
them; and, fearful lest the government troops would acquire some of
it, they commenced the campaign themselves before the appointed time.
How the government at first made feeble efforts to restrain them, and
afterward completely gave in and joined with them is now a matter of
history.
The monumental idiocy of the idea that China could successfully defy
the whole civilized world was only possible to such brains as those
possessed by the densely ignorant Manchus who surrounded the Empress
as her cabinet. Several of the tsung-li-yamen ministers, like Prince
Ch’ing and Liao Shou Heng, weakly tried to reason them out of it, and
were promptly given back seats.
Of the others remaining in the tsung-li-yamen after their retirement,
none dared say anything against the movement for fear they also would
be shelved. But as they were not strong enough to please the Empress
in her final dealings with the foreigners, she, a few days before
the commencement of the siege, appointed Prince Tuan as head of the
yamen, in place of Prince Ch’ing, and at the same time appointed two
fire-eating foreign-haters, Chi Shui and Na T’ung, to seats in that
obstructive body. These men, with Tung Fu Hsiang and the cabinet, must
be held responsible for the murders of Baron von Ketteler, F. Huberty
James, David Oliphant, H. Warren, Ed Wagner, and the other civilians
and guards killed during the siege, as well as for many missionaries in
the province that have doubtless perished, but of whose fate we, being
besieged, had no certain knowledge.
That the Powers, in the settlement of their crimes, will treat them as
murderers, as they are, we can scarcely doubt, and we hope none of them
in any way implicated will be allowed to escape capital punishment.