Righteous Harmony Society
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The Righteous Harmony Society (traditional Chinese: 義和團; simplified Chinese: 义和团; pinyin: Yìhétuán), or Boxers, was a village sect founded in the Northern Shandong province of China that spread to many parts of North China and executed the unsuccessful Boxer Uprising in the closing years of the 19th century. Westerners came to call well-trained, athletic young men "Boxers" due to the martial arts and calisthenics they practiced. Despite the obvious differences between Chinese Wushu and Western pugilistic boxing, the training for unarmed combat took on the same name to the Europeans. The Boxers believed that they could, through training, diet, martial arts, and prayer, perform extraordinary feats, such as flight and could become immune to swords and bullets. Further, they popularly claimed that millions of "spirit soldiers," would descend from the heavens and assist them in purifying China from foreign influences. Eventually forces from the West marshaled as the Eight-Nation Alliance ended the rebellion and destroyed the short-lived Society. [1]
[edit] Notes
- ^ "Sects, Boxers, and Popular Culture," Joseph Esherick, The Origins of the Boxer Uprising (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1987): 38-67.
[edit] External links
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