"FISTS OF RIGHTEOUS HARMONY"
The people of China have suffered much at the hands of foreigners,
and, in their ignorance of everything beyond their own line of vision,
imagine many grievances that really do not exist. Once China was the
foremost nation of the earth in arts, literature, commerce, and all that
goes to the making of what we call civilization. She invented, used, and
forgot a thousand things that the Western world is only now discovering.
She was sufficient unto herself, and desired only to be let alone.
But the Western nations would not let her alone. They insisted upon
forcing their unwelcome trade into the country; and, moreover, upon
conducting it themselves, according to their own ideas. When she
resisted their demands they took possession of her seaports, destroyed
her forts and war-ships, placed their own steamers, protected by
gun-boats, on her rivers, monopolized her coasting trade, and even
appropriated as their own, large slices of her territory.
Thus, while England holds the island of Hong-Kong, together with
two hundred square miles of the opposite mainland, Shanghai, and
Wei-hai-Wei, besides controlling the trade of the great Yang-tse
Valley, Russia, on the north, has seized Manchuria, Germany occupies
the province of Shan-tung, Portugal has for three hundred years been
established at Macao, and France, the chief aggressor, already in
possession of Anam and Tonquin, is making insidious but certain progress
northward through Yunan, with covetous eyes cast in the direction of
Canton, where she already has gained a foothold. Japan owns the great
Chinese island of Formosa, and only awaits a favorable opportunity for
seizing the opposite mainland province of Fu-Kien, while even Italy has
laid claim to a Chinese port and "sphere of influence."
All these foreign nations, together with Americans and Belgians, are
building, or are proposing to build, railways in China, and all of them,
with the further additions of Canada and Sweden, are overrunning the
bewildered country with missionaries of clashing denominations, each
one of which teaches that it only is right, while all the others are
wrong. Some of these foreign teachers even go so far as to interfere
with local governments, taking upon themselves the office of magistrate,
administering the laws according to their own interpretation, and always
in favor of their own converts, and at the same time demanding to be
accorded all outward forms of respect due only to mandarins.
On the other hand, the great mass of Chinese, groping in the darkness
of the Middle Ages, burdened by densest ignorance, steeped in
superstition, robbed by their rulers to the extreme of poverty, and
forced to unceasing toil from long before daylight until long after dark
every day of the week throughout every year of their joyless lives, are
taught by their priests, and by others of their own race to whom they
look for guidance, that all their sorrows, including floods, famines,
and plagues, are caused by the foreigners who are spreading over their
country with the ultimate intention of seizing it and subjecting its
people to their own barbarous customs. They are told that these same
foreigners sweep the rain-clouds from one portion of the sky to cause
droughts, and gather them at another to produce devastating floods, and
that they poison wells to bring on plagues. They are made to believe
that the "foreign devils" collect Chinese children in asylums, homes,
and hospitals for the sole purpose of extracting their eyes, to be
used in enchantments; that every railway-sleeper, and the foundations
of every Christian edifice, are laid upon living human bodies; and a
thousand other tales, equally monstrous but equally terrifying.
To remedy these evils the people are invited to form themselves into
associations, and thus gain strength for the destruction of the hated
foreign devils, or at least to drive them back into the sea, whence
they came. For the benefit of those who can read, pamphlets setting
forth these views are written, printed by the million, and distributed
throughout the land; while the minds of the more ignorant are inflamed
by pictured posters illustrating the horrors perpetrated by foreigners,
and posted broadcast in every direction.
To these invitations a Chinese readily responds; for there is nothing in
which he more greatly delights than to belong to an association of any
kind or for any purpose. Thus societies for the exclusion of foreigners
have sprung up like mushrooms, especially in those coast provinces
where foreign influences are most noticeable; and strongest of them
all is the great I-Ho-Chuan, or "Fists of Righteous Harmony" Society,
sometimes called "The Great Sword Society," but known to the world at
large as "Boxers," a name first used by the missionary correspondent of
a foreign journal. The motto of this society, as borne on its banners,
is, "Protect the empire! Exterminate foreigners!"
During the initiation of its members they fall into trances, and believe
that, while in this state, the spirits of departed heroes enter their
bodies. After that they are pronounced invulnerable to sword or bullet,
and are declared to be possessed of magic charms that no enemy may
withstand.
In 1898 the Boxer movement was checked by the sudden declaration of
China's young emperor, Kuang Hsu, in favor of sweeping reforms based
upon Western ideas. These he proceeded to carry out with unsuspected
energy, deposing corrupt officials in all parts of the empire, and
replacing them with others who had been educated abroad. He issued
edicts intended to revolutionize the army, the navy, the time-honored
but senseless methods of literary examination, and the manner of
collecting taxes, which, if obeyed, would place his people upon the
upward path of progress so recently and so successfully trodden by
Japan. There is no doubt that the Emperor was sincere in his avowed
determination to lift his distressed country from the depths to which
it was sunk; and had he remained in power the awful Boxer uprising of
two years later never would have taken place. But his enemies were
too strong; and, after a few months of praiseworthy effort, the young
reformer was overthrown by a powerful palace clique, headed by his great
aunt, the Empress Dowager, and composed of the high officials whom he
had removed from office. They forced him to sign a decree announcing his
own abdication of the throne, and again the Empress Dowager, China's
worst enemy, assumed the reins of power.
At once all reform decrees were repealed, the old order of things was
restored, and hatred of foreigners was preached more loudly and more
bitterly than ever. A new life was infused into the Boxer movement,
which from that moment spread like wildfire over the northern provinces,
until in the summer of 1900 it reached its height. During that dreadful
summer mission stations everywhere were looted and destroyed, while
their unfortunate occupants were driven out to be killed or cast into
loathsome prisons, from which death was their only release. Christian
converts were massacred by scores and hundreds, railroad property was
destroyed, and railroad employés suffered the fate of missionaries. A
rumor to the effect that all foreigners, including members of legations,
had been driven from Pekin, was generally believed; as was another,
stating that every foreign resident of Tien-Tsin had been killed. Above
all, it was understood that the Empress Dowager was in full sympathy
with the movement to rid her kingdom of foreigners, and would render
every assistance in her power to those engaged in the effort.
Such was the condition of affairs in north China when, in the early
summer of 1900, the young American, Rob Hinckley, on a peaceful mission
to Pekin, suddenly found himself deserted and alone in the presence of
a mob of crazed fanatics, intent upon taking his life. Our lad did not
know why they wished to kill him; for, since leaving the Yang-tse River,
he had found an ever-increasing difficulty in comprehending the dialect
spoken by the common people, until at length it had become wholly
incomprehensible. Thus he knew almost nothing of the Boxer movement, nor
of the awful state of affairs existing in the country between him and
Pekin.
He, however, instantly recognized the danger of his present position,
and, clapping spurs to the jaded pony he was riding, he dashed away in
the direction of the nearest city gate, with the mob in full cry at
his heels. The distance was short, and Rob was within fifty feet of
the outer gate, with a good lead of his pursuers, when all at once it
occurred to him that he was about to jump from the frying-pan into the
fire, since once within the city walls his enemies could close all exits
and hunt him down at their leisure. With this he pulled his pony so
sharply to one side that the animal, already exhausted to the point of
dropping, stumbled and fell, flinging Rob to earth over his head. As the
lad scrambled to his feet he was amazed to hear in English a shout of--
"Keep on to the gate! It's your only chance!"
Although he could see no one in that direction, the voice seemed to come
from the gateway itself; and, as his madly yelling pursuers were now
close upon him, Rob accepted the advice so strangely given and darted
forward on his original course.
[Illustration: "HIS MADLY YELLING PURSUERS WERE NOW CLOSE UPON HIM"]
A few minutes earlier a young Chinese, clad in the uniform of an officer
of imperial troops, stood at a narrow loop-hole in the watch-tower above
the city gate, gazing listlessly outward over a vast expanse of flat,
parched, uninteresting country. He had carelessly noted the approach
from afar of Rob's little party, whom he supposed to be ordinary native
travellers, and had only been aroused from his apathy by the yells of
the rain-dancers, as they raised the cry of, "Death to the foreign
devil!"
"They must be mistaken," thought the officer, "for there can't be any
foreigners left in this part of the country." He watched Rob's flight
with ever-growing interest, and was about to descend from the tower so
as to meet him at the gate when the young American attempted to change
his pony's course. Then the watcher uttered the surprising call
that again altered Rob's determination, and in another moment he was
springing down the flight of stone steps leading to the outer gateway.
As he reached it, Rob had just entered, and was starting across the
barbican towards the inner gate.
"Stop!" shouted the young Chinese. "Come here quick and help me!"
Rob hesitated only the fraction of a second and then did as he was
bidden. The Chinese was straining at one of the two massive, iron-bound
doors of the gateway, and in another moment Rob was adding every ounce
of his own strength to the effort. It yielded slowly, and its hinges
creaked rustily as it swung heavily into place.
"Now the other, quick!" exclaimed the stranger, and with an effort that
nearly started blood from their swelling veins the two young fellows
closed the great valve in the very faces of the frantic outside mob that
flung themselves bodily against it mad with baffled rage. They could not
open it, for a stout iron bolt had dropped into place as the gate was
closed, and nothing short of a cannonade could now force an entrance.
"Follow me!" said the Chinese, huskily, and panting from his recent
exertion, at the same time turning up the narrow stairway leading to the
watch-tower, and Rob obeyed.
The latter was full of perplexity at finding in this out-of-the-way
place a Chinese who not only spoke English, but apparently was willing
to endanger himself to rescue a foreigner from a mob. So quick had been
all their movements since he darted through the gateway that he had not
yet obtained a view of his rescuer's face, and, of course, had not been
able to question him.
In the tower, at the top of the stairway, he found his strange companion
taking a quick view of the raging mob below. As he stepped to his
side, the young Chinese turned and stared him full in the eyes. For a
moment they regarded each other in amazed silence. Then a simultaneous
exclamation burst from their lips:
"Rob Hinckley!"
"Chinese Jo!"