The Boxer catastrophe
"Based on both Chinese and Western documentation, 'The Boxer Catastrophe' is an authoritative account of the uprising of the Boxers, a fanatical sect that sought by violence to drive foreigners out of China and to eradicate Christianity. The gigantic Empire of China, virtually defenseless, was unable to halt the continued seizure of territories and concessions by Russia, France, Germany, and Britain during the nineteenth century. In the context of this rapid advance of European imperial ambitions, the Boxer movement sprang up. Professor Tan investigates the origins of the groups and follows the spread of the rebellion as it grew into a massive movement that included the landlords and scholar-gentry as well as the peasants. He documents the actions of the Chinese government and the Western powers, taking up the central question of the Imperial Court's real attitude toward the Boxers. The author discusses the Court's decision to resist Russian annexation of Manchuria, the intervention of the European powers, and China's final submission to Allied dictates in 1901--a submission that only drove anti-foreign feeling underground. He also places the uprising in the perspective of the internal struggle between reformists and reactionaries, the battle between the Emperor's and the Empress Dowager's factions over how to meet the impact of the Western advance."--Pg. [4] of cover
Print Book, English, [1971, ©1967]
W.W. Norton, New York, [1971, ©1967]