User:Madalibi/The Boxers

The Boxers, first known as the "Yihequan" or Boxers United in Righteousness (sometimes translated as Fists or Righteous Harmony), and from October 1899 onward as the "Yihetuan" or Militia United in Righteousness, were...

Features: rituals of invulnerability, mass spirit possession, centered on boxing grounds or altars established in temples, composed of young men (young peasants, agricultural workers, boatmen out of work, drifters), practiced martial arts.

Name and translation
Yihequan / Yihetuan. Create redirects at: Fists of Righteous Harmony, Fists United in Righteousness, Boxers United in Righteousness, Militia United in Righteousness, Militia of Righteous Harmony, Righteous Harmony Fists, Righteous and Harmonious Band, Righteous Harmony Boxing, Righteous Fists of Harmony, Righteous and Harmonious Fists...

Chinese writers hostile to the Boxers have called them "boxer (or boxing) bandits" (quanfei 拳匪). Others have opted for the more neutral "Boxers (or Militia) United in Righteousness", which the Boxers themselves used.

"Boxers"
The term quan (or ch'üan 拳; literally "fist") is also found in the name of many styles of Chinese martial arts, such as Taijiquan, Wudangquan, or Nanquan.

Yihe
"Righteous and Harmonious Fists" (Hsu 1980, p. 117) was once the conventional translation. Joseph Esherick

Explanations of the name at Esherick 1987: 154-5, 377n63; Cohen 1997: 16-17, 22-3.

Yihe as "United in Righteousness"
 * , pp. 154-5
 * , p. 16
 * , p. 22: "Boxers United in Righteousness"
 * , p. 12: "Boxers United in Righteousness"
 * , p. xxv, note 2: "militia united in righteousness"
 * , p. 35: "Militia United in Righteousness", "Boxers United in Righteousness" (though he also gives "Righteous Fists of Harmony")

George Steiger's China and the Occident: The Origin and Development of the Boxer Movement (1927), which historian Joseph Esherick considers "the first serious scholarly work" on the Boxers in English, called the group the "Righteous and Harmonious Band". The Boxer Uprising: A Background Study (1963), by Victor Purcell, had "Righteous Harmony Boxers", whereas Chester Tan opted for "Righteous Harmony Fists" in The Boxer Catastrophe (1971).

The name "Yihequan" is first documented in 1774 in the aftermath of Wang Lun's failed rebellion (1774) inspired by the popular religious teachings of the White Lotus. That year, government investigation discovered a man from En County (恩縣) in northwest Shandong – just north of the areas where Wang Lun had been active – who had taught pupils in a group he called "White Lotus" and "Yihequan". In 1778, a man accused of ties to Yihequan he explained that he had first heard of that martial arts group around 1768 in Guan County, one of the regions where the Boxers would emerge from in 1898. Because of the name Yihequan, because the 1774 uprising was grounded in martial arts and White Lotus teachings, and because Wang Lun's followers claimed immunity from weapons, historians long postulated that the Boxers emerged from White Lotus sects in northwest Shandong.

The name "Boxers" by which Westerners referred to the uprising.

Big Swords Society
The Big Swords Society flourished in southwestern Shandong (mostly Caozhou prefecture), at the confines of the three provinces of Shandong, Henan, and Jiangsu.

The group was founded and led by Liu Shiduan (劉士端), from Shan county in Caozhou. Liu had learned martial arts from a man surnamed Zhao in the 1880s. Zhao transmitted to him a technique called the "Armor of the Golden Bell" (jinzhongzhao 金鐘罩), a form of kung fu or "hard" qigong breathing exercise which, it was claimed, could protect adepts against blades and bullets as if a large bell was covering their body. The Golden Bell was Probably in the early 1890s, Liu started teaching it to his own disciples. The Golden Bell would become the Big Swords' most important ritual of invulnerability.

The Big Swords originally aimed to protect property from the rampant banditry that plagued the area. Their role became more important after the local Qing forces left the area in 1894 to participate in the Sino–Japanese War. The Society's members – landlords, peasants who owned some land, and tenants – had to buy their own weapons, mostly spears and swords.

Unlike the later Boxers, this technique of invulnerability did not come from possession by gods.

Juye Incident