Chapter 13 Section 3 Anti-Western Religion Movement
Christianity is different from Islam and Judaism. The latter came to China mainly as immigrants in the early days, forming small autonomous communities, and did not preach to the outside world. However, the missionaries of Christianity came to China for the purpose of preaching, so they are different from traditional Chinese thoughts and beliefs. , customs, and habits directly conflict.In the late Ming and early Qing Dynasties, Matteo Ricci and others came to China to preach. They tried their best to reconcile the contradiction between Christianity and Confucianism, and catered to the rulers and scholar-bureaucrats in order to open up the missionary situation.Until the anti-Catholic treatises of Huang Zhen, Shen (氵麺) and others appeared, the voice of exorcism gradually spread to the people.The kind of public opinion and actions that maintain Confucian orthodoxy and resist the spread of Western "cults" cannot be resisted by Confucianization of doctrine.The Nanjing teaching case during the Wanli period of the Ming Dynasty, and several major teaching cases in the Kang, Yong, Qian, and Jia dynasties of the Qing Dynasty are manifestations of this conflict.The introduction of Protestantism was against the background of the invasion of China by Western powers.After the Opium War, Western powers repeatedly invaded Chinese territory with gunboats in an attempt to carve up China.Relying on the protection of unequal treaties, and backed by gunboats, missionaries from various countries came in droves with political, economic, and military goals, forming a large-scale missionary movement.Missionaries went deep into the interior, disregarded Chinese laws and acted arbitrarily, built churches in remote areas, and threatened to conquer China with Christianity.The feudal officials and gentry were worried that the spread of Christianity would cause a "great change in the hearts of the people" and disrupt the existing ruling order. Therefore, they mostly denounced Christianity as heresy and tried their best to maintain the spiritual rule of the feudal ethics over the people.Missionaries attempted to change traditional Chinese customs, opposed worshiping ancestors and worshiping heaven, slandered Buddhism and Taoism, which have penetrated into the lives of the masses, and interfered with old customs such as the folk god-welcoming games, often causing conflicts between people and religions.When the Western powers intensified their aggression, the activities of foreign missionaries aroused uneasiness and resentment from all walks of life. The local officials and gentry actively launched and organized the struggle against foreign religions, and many lower-level people also actively participated.
Since the "Sino-French Treaty of Beijing" stipulated "returning churches" in 1860, Catholic missionaries have falsely accused temples, guild halls, government offices and private houses in various places as old church properties and forced them to return them.At the same time, taking advantage of the privilege of "renting and buying land and building freely", they seized public property, forcibly bought private land, forced contracts, and forced donations, resulting in frequent negotiation cases.When Western missionaries preached in various places, they regarded themselves as victors, intervened in local political affairs, despised local officials, and monopolized lawsuits, intervening in everything from human life cases to civil disputes.Relying on the influence of the church, a small number of religious people ran rampant in the countryside, and even hijacked the government, bullying the weak, venting their anger and resenting their grievances.When civil and religious disputes arise, foreign consuls and missionaries don't care about the right and wrong, but just try to protect the religious people and priests.Officials in the Qing Dynasty did not dare to offend foreigners, and always favored the teaching and restrained the people. "When there is a battle between the people and the religion, the people will keep singing and the people will always win. The more the people are angry, the more angry the people will be." British journalist Mi (mi Mi) Ke once pointed out: "In the matter of preaching, the plan is not worth it. , and sent them to the Chinese state with a strong military force, ashamed of their subjects. After signing a covenant to protect the religion, this matter became more and more a medium of resentment, and the sect of the Jesus religion became the anger of the whole country."
Against this background, from the Xilin teaching case in 1856 to the Feicheng teaching case in 1899, for more than 40 years, there were teaching plans almost every year and everywhere, and an anti-foreign religious movement participated by people from all walks of life was formed across the country.The whole movement can be roughly divided into three stages according to its development process.
The first stage started from the Xilin teaching case in 1856 and ended with the Tianjin teaching case in 1870.The unequal treaties signed after the Opium War stipulated that foreigners could "build churches to worship in the five treaty ports, and never cross the border to preach".However, missionaries sneaked into the interior illegally in violation of the contract, causing civil and religious disputes, such as Huangzhuqi in Fuzhou (1848), Qingpu in Jiangsu (1848), Dinghai in Zhejiang (1851), Nanchang in Jiangxi, and Poyang (1855). , while the Xilin lesson plan had a greater impact. In 1853, Ma Lai, a missionary of the Foreign Missionary Society in Paris, sneaked into Guizhou from Hong Kong to carry out activities. In 1855, he went to Xilin, Guangxi to "make a visit" and aroused the fear of local officials.Ye Mingchen, governor of Guangdong and Guangxi, said: "The chaos has spread to several provinces for years, and it started from the Guangxi God's Church, which is another name for Catholicism." In 1856, Zhang Mingfeng, the newly appointed county magistrate of Xilin County, arrested Ma Lai and his followers 25 people, and executed Ma Lai and two believers.Taking this as an excuse, the French government jointly provoked the second Opium War with Britain, forcing the Qing government to sign the "Sino-British Treaty of Tianjin" and "Sino-British Treaty of Beijing."These included the dismissal of Zhang Mingfeng, the magistrate of Xilin County, who will never be employed again; foreign missionaries can freely enter the interior to preach; and the return of previously confiscated religious properties such as Catholic churches, schools, tombs, fields, and house corridors.The Xilin Missionary Case set a precedent for the great powers to use force to protect missionaries and seize other rights and interests in China.
Since then, the missionaries have had no fear and acted as they please. In March 1861, Hu Fuli, the bishop of Guizhou vicarious pastor of the Paris Foreign Missionary Society, rode in a big purple sedan chair with a purple belt on his shoulders, and was surrounded by more than 100 believers. , to protect the "legitimate" rights of the Catholic Church in Guizhou.From 1756 to 1860, there were 16 teaching cases in Guizhou, and the anti-foreign religion sentiment among the masses was very high.Guizhou Governor He Guanying and Admiral Tian Xingshu jointly sent a letter to officials in the whole province, denouncing Catholicism as heresy.Alternate Dao Miao Huanzhang wrote and engraved "Salvation Sermon", advocating the expulsion of Catholicism. In June, under Tian Xingshu's order, Tuan Wu Dao Zhao Weisan led the regiment to burn down the major seminary of Yaojiaguan Catholic Church in Qingyan, and arrested and killed four believers in July.The French minister forced the Qing government to send a commissioner to Guizhou with 20 copies of the "Sino-French Treaty of Tianjin" and "Sino-French Treaty of Beijing" to post, but the new governor Han Chao refused.In February of the following year, Dai Luzhi, the magistrate of Kaizhou (now Kaixian, Sichuan), executed the French missionary Wen Naier and three believers who instigated the people to disobey the etiquette and customs and refused to pay the dragon lantern donation; officials in Xingyi, Pu'an, Yongning and other places also heard the news response.The French envoys, together with the envoys of Britain, the United States, and Russia, demanded compensation for all losses, executed Tian Xingshu, Dai Luzhi, and Zhao Weisan, and severely punished relevant officials who were not effective in protecting education or investigating and punishing them. In 1863, the Qing government succumbed to the threat of force from France, handed Han Chao over to the Ministry of Discipline, Tian Xingshu was dispatched to Xinjiang, the admiral's office was allocated to the church, and Miao Huanzhang never used it. Compensation for 12,000 taels of silver.
The anti-Catholic struggle in Guizhou quickly spread to Hunan, Jiangxi, Sichuan and other provinces. In 1862, the Hunan gentry held a public discussion that "those who live in [bi coin] houses will be fired; those who tolerate strange things will be held; those who practice their teachings will be despised by the clan, and their children will never be allowed to take the exam."He also issued a provincial public call, calling for the expulsion of Catholic priests.The call to action was introduced to Jiangxi, and Roan Dang, a missionary from the French Mission, was claiming religious assets in Nanchang, and forced local officials to post missionary notices.The students who gathered in the provincial capital for the examination joined forces with the former Hanlin Academy to review Xia Tingju [juju], Liu Yuxun, a registered official in Gansu Province, etc., rushed to print tens of thousands of copies of the Hunan Public Notice overnight, posted them all over the thoroughfare inside and outside the provincial capital, and announced the action plan Uncover posts.As a result, many churches, nursery halls, priests' and parishioners' houses were destroyed in Nanchang, Jiangxi, Xiangtan, Hengyang, Qingquan, Hengzhou and other places in Hunan.
Fan Joseph, bishop of Chuandong of the Paris Foreign Missionary Society, forcibly demolished temple halls in Chongqing, occupied private houses, and built a church. The church was destroyed by the masses in 1863.Fan Joseph used the Chongqing teaching plan to claim the right to build churches in eastern Sichuan.The missionaries organized Christian armed forces in Youyang and other places, ran rampant in the villages, and oppressed the people. In 1865, with the support of Youyang rich gentry Zhang Peichao and others, Liu Shengchao led the crowd to demolish the Catholic Gongxin Church (mansion). Wait for the ground to respond. In 1868, Youyang religious people bullied non-religious people, forced them to divorce, plundered family property, burned down houses, and aroused public anger.He Cai, a member of the regiment, led the crowd to burn down the church, killing French missionary Li Guo and 39 members of the church, and 68 members of the regiment were also killed and injured.Taking advantage of the disbandment of the militia, Qin Fuchen, a Chinese Catholic priest, commanded the church to shoot and kill 145 people, wound more than 700 people, and set fire to houses.During this period, Zunyi, Yongning, Guizhou, Fengshan, Taiwan, Yangzhou, Jiangsu, Anqing, Anhui, Tianmen, Hubei, Fuzhou, Zhangpu, Luoyuan, Fujian, Leizhou, Guangdong, Guixi, Dingnanting, Luling, Zhili Yongnian and other places Incidents of anti-religious demolition occurred.The anti-foreign religious sentiment in the whole country was rising day by day. In 1870, the Tianjin religious incident that shocked China and the world finally broke out.
In 1860, France forcibly occupied the former site of Wanghailou Palace in Tianjin as its consulate.French missionaries took the opportunity to build the Hall of Mercy in the east of Tianjin. In 1869, they forcibly occupied the former site of the temple next to the consulate to build the Hall of the Holy Mother of God (commonly known as the River Tower Church), and asked Chinese officials to attend the opening ceremony.In the following year, there was widespread rumor in Tianjin that some children were drugged and abducted. Dozens of children in the Hall of Mercy died.The public suspected that missionaries were responsible for these incidents of child trafficking and abuse, and the arrested abductors also confessed that they were instigated by church gatekeepers and that they were involved with nuns.As a result, the gentry gathered, the academies were suspended, the crowd was indignant, and the voice of anti-foreign religion was loud. On June 21, Tianjin officials escorted the abductee to the church for inspection and confrontation, but was obstructed by the French consul in Tianjin, Feng Daye.In the afternoon, the crowd gathered in front of the church to protest, and sent representatives to find Feng Daye to reason.After Feng Daye's request to send troops to suppress the bullet failed, he broke into Chonghou's official office with guns together, roared like thunder, and shot Chonghou twice and missed.On the way home, he shot at Liu Jie, the magistrate of Tianjin County, and hit one of his attendants.Secretary Simon shot at the crowd.The angry crowd was so furious that they beat the two to death on the spot.Afterwards, the gongs were played and the crowd burned down the French Consulate, the Helou Church, the Hall of Mercy, and four small churches in Britain and the United States. They killed one French consul, three attendants, twelve priests and nuns, two French residents, and three Russian residents. . On June 24, envoys from France, Britain, the United States, Russia and other seven countries sent a joint note to the Qing government to protest and dispatched warships to intimidate them with force.Although the Qing government knew that the case was "a sudden and sudden change by Consul Youfeng", it still insisted on "severely punishing the murderer, punishing the instigators, suppressing the scholars and the people, and comforting the intentions of all countries."In the end, 20 people were sentenced to death, 25 people including prefectural and county officials were exiled into the army, and more than 500,000 taels of silver were compensated. Chong Hou was sent to France to apologize, and the case was closed.
Most of the anti-foreign religious struggles at this stage were aroused by missionaries relying on foreign aggression and rampant lawlessness.The core incident is the use of "returning the court" to forcibly buy or rob real estate, or to arrange lawsuits, violating China's judicial power.Local officials and gentry, either openly called, or secretly commanded, mobilized the people to destroy churches, mainly targeting the Catholic forces in France.The Qing government had an ambiguous attitude at the beginning, and hesitated a lot in negotiations, but under the pressure of foreign invaders, they compromised and "killed the people to thank the enemy."
The second stage was from the Tianjin teaching case to the anti-foreign religious struggle in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River in 1891.The anti-imperialist and patriotic spirit spontaneously erupted by the Tianjin people in the teaching case forced the foreign invaders to restrain their arrogance and made the Qing government feel the seriousness of the teaching case problem.Prince Gong Yixin said: "If we don't plan to deal with the aftermath, the arrogance in the church will increase, the resentment of our people will accumulate, and the disaster will never end." The Missionary Regulations were submitted to the ministers of various countries for comments in February 1871, in an attempt to impose some restrictions on missionaries.In this regard, France arbitrarily rejected all the provisions, and other countries also expressed their opposition to the Charter.
In the Qing government, some bureaucrats advocated, "It is right to fake the anger of the people and discuss the withdrawal of the missionary policy, so as to strengthen the hearts of the people in the world." France, which is bound to undergo drastic changes, first make peace with Absolute, and show a little punishment."The real power faction "knowing that this matter is related to the customs and people's hearts, and it is not in harmony with the good people in the mainland, when the four parties are troubled, and the peace agreement has been agreed, they have to deal with it on an equal footing, hoping that there will be no trouble." It is difficult to manage it properly, and it will cause troubles."However, after the Tianjin religious incident, the vast number of handicraftsmen and urban and rural poor became more and more involved in the anti-foreign religious movement, including small and medium-sized gentry. In the summer of 1873, Fan Joseph, bishop of Eastern Sichuan of the Paris Foreign Missionary Society, sent missionary Zhang Zilan to Qianjiang County, Sichuan Province to build a church to preach. Priest Yu Kelin and others posted notices, many of which contained injustice and rude words, which aroused public indignation and led to Sichuan’s rebellion. The teaching trend is revived.Churches in Nanchong, Yingshan, Neishan and other counties were destroyed one after another. In 1876, the people of Linshui, Jiangbeiting, and Fuzhou burned churches and houses of the church under the initiative of the gentry.At the same time, in Yanping, Jianning, and Fuqing in Fujian, and Jianping, Ningguo, and Guangde in Anhui, the gentry and the people opposed forced preaching, and incidents of destroying churches and beating priests occurred successively.Non-religious trends initiated by gentry all over the country came and went one after another.
After 1880, due to the French invasion of the southeast coast and southwestern border, the wave of anti-religion surged again.Teaching cases occurred in Qingyuan, Huaxian, and Dapu in Guangdong, Fu'an and Zhao'an in Fujian, Jinan in Shandong, Nanning and Wuzhou in Guangxi, Pu'an Office in Guizhou, and even Hulan in Heilongjiang. In 1881, the masses in Sanyan, Sichuan killed the Catholic priest Mei Yulin. In 1883, the Tuanmen in Langqiong County, Yunnan Province besieged the church and killed the French priest Zhang Ruowang, who "did all kinds of evil", and several believers.Villagers in Yongping County, who had been oppressed by the church, also "retaliated."The gentry in Longyan, Fujian drew up regulations, strictly prohibiting "traffic bandits, tending to heresy and cults".The public posted a notice in the name of "Ping Yi Fan Ju": "Those who can win the head of the fan will be rewarded with two hundred taels of silver." In 1884, the French army attacked Keelung and attacked Majiang. The people of Taiwan were outraged and seven churches were destroyed. . "The righteous people in eastern Guangdong regard all legal persons as enemies. They want to embarrass the priests and businessmen, even the churchmen will not let them stay in the country for a moment." Taojinkeng Catholic Church outside the north gate of Guangzhou and the tombs of French consuls and priests All destroyed.Although the Qing government issued an edict to protect the "officials, businessmen and people" of various countries, it was still of no avail.Churches in dozens of counties in Guangdong, Guizhou, and Sichuan were destroyed, and many priests and parishioners were expelled.Foreign churches in Dongxiang, Yangzhou, Jiangsu, and West Street, Wenzhou, Zhejiang, were also burned overnight.
After the Sino-French War, the wave of anti-foreign religions in the Yangtze River Basin further increased. In 1886, Wutong in Chongqing demolished the Methodist hospital and school, and then the civilians took action one after another. "The group beat teachers everywhere" and burned down the house of the British Inland Mission, the French church and the British consular office.Villagers in Dazu County smashed churches year after year. In 1890, there was a "hundreds of miles of turmoil" and three churches in Longshui Town, Mapaochang, and Qiangjiaba were burned down. teach uprising.The upsurge of anti-foreign religion in Jiangnan also began to brew at this time. In 1891, a large number of anti-foreign religious books, poems, lyrics, images, postings, etc. appeared in Hunan, such as "Follow the Holy Order to Avoid Evil", "Optimus Prime", "Troublesome Articles", "Ghosts Call Damn", " There are hundreds of titles such as "Song of Exterminating Ghosts", "Reporting to the Cult of God", and 800,000 copies of "Ghost Calling Damn" alone were published in Hunan.These anti-religious propaganda materials "spread all over the provinces", among which popular pictures of anti-religious religion overprinted in Zhu and ink published by Hunan gentry Zhou Han were widely circulated among the people.Zhang Zhidong, governor of Huguang, said: "Severely ordered the banning in the northern and southern provinces repeatedly, and spared no effort. The old version was destroyed, and the new version was revealed." These propaganda materials played a huge role in agitating the struggle against foreign religions in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River. In May 1891, two children were adopted by Chinese nuns of the Jesuit Society in Wuhu. They were rumored to be "abducting children and gouging out their eyes for medicine". More than 5,000 people, holding small flags, rushed into the church, burned the church, the nursery and the priest's residence, and stormed the customs house and the British Consulate Office.The Qing soldiers fired threats, but the masses "still gathered everywhere."After the Wuhu incident, the struggle against foreign religions quickly spread to the whole province and Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Zhejiang, Hubei and other places.Crowds in Anqing, Danyang, Wuxi, Jinkui, Yanghu, Rugao, Jiangyin, Jiujiang, Hangzhou, Guangji, Yichang and other places set fire to churches and priests' residences. "In one county, several places were burned." In June, Guo Liushou of the Gelaohui in Guangji County, Hubei led more than a thousand people to besiege the Evangelical Church of the British Tudao Church in Wuxue Town, killing the British missionary and the customs bellman, and destroying nearby churches in Huangmei and Puqi. In September, the Yichang Franciscan Church of Our Lady bought abducted children. The family members went to the church to claim them back, and the residents gathered outside the church to judge.An Anglican priest fired into a crowd, injuring one person, sparking public outrage.Thousands of people rushed into the Anglican Church and burned the church, and then went to Notre Dame Church to rescue dozens of young children, burned the church, and injured many nuns.In addition, the River Street Catholic Church, British residences and the British Consulate Office under construction were also destroyed.On both sides of Wuhan, "foreign streets and foreign halls, everyone is at risk."Even the Shanghai Concession and the Xujiahui area also appeared anti-religious postings.U.S. Minister Tian Bei reported to the U.S. State Department: "Riots have occurred in almost all the treaty ports on the Yangtze River" and "no city is safe, including Shanghai."All the warships in China were dispatched to Wuhan and other places to demonstrate, the ministers of various countries jointly protested, and the Qing government carried out bloody suppression of the masses.The aftermath of the struggle continued until 1893.
The wave of anti-foreign religion in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River has been spreading to northern China. In November 1891, Yang Yuechun, the leader of Chaoyang Jindan Daoist Association in Rehe, and others launched an armed uprising, and Guo Wanhuang (chun lip), the leader of Lijiao, led the crowd to respond. , many of them come from all over the south of the Yangtze River.Wherever the rebel army went, they burned churches and exterminated churches, and swept away church forces in Chaoyang, Pingquan, Jianchang, and Chifeng counties, and their influence spread to Kaiping, Luanzhou, Qian'an, Yongping, and Jinzhou.In the end, it failed under the brutal suppression of the Qing army.
The struggle against foreign religions further expanded with the deepening imperialist aggression against China.The area of struggle stretches from Heilongjiang in the north to Guangdong in the south, from the coast in the east to the frontiers in the west, almost all over the country.Most of the teaching cases are caused by the adoption of young children by Catholic nursery schools and the purchase of land by Protestants in the Mainland to build churches and expand their bases.The sharp edge of the struggle not only pointed to the Catholic Church, but also swept to the Anglo-American Protestant sects.In the early stages of the struggle, the gentry played a leading role, and the militias were the backbone of anti-religion.After the Sino-French War, a large number of lower-class working people joined the movement, and civil society parties became increasingly active and became the core force of the struggle.The form of struggle has also developed from burning churches to rioting on a large scale.Officials and gentry withdrew from the struggle one after another, while the Qing government stood with imperialism and used bloody means to deal with patriotic people.
From the struggle against foreign religions in the Yangtze River Basin to the outbreak of the Boxer Rebellion is the third stage.The anti-religious riots led by the Communist Party made the Qing government feel in danger.On the one hand, they repeatedly issued notices strictly prohibiting party activities, and resorted to violent suppression; on the other hand, they also tried to find ways to restrain priests and religious people. In May 1892, Li Hongzhang, governor of Zhili, proposed "On Modification of Educational Affairs" and "Ten Prohibition Agreements for Churches", which included: prohibiting priests from defaming Confucianism; and the number of sick and dead babies; the church only adopts children under the age of 12; as agreed, the church has a tax deed from local officials, and registers its location and reports to the local record. ; Priests must restrain the parishioners; the Pope sends archbishops to Beizhili to directly discuss with local officials about educational affairs, without the care and protection of France.However, when imperialism stepped up to carve up China, the Qing government was too busy to take care of itself, and the "prohibition treaty" proposed could not be implemented at all.The struggle against foreign religions in various places developed rapidly at the critical moment of national survival.
In 1893, the people of Songbu, Macheng, Hubei Province opposed the Swedish Protestant Church and killed the preacher Mei Baoshan Hele.In August of the following year, when Jilin Lianjun passed through Liaoyang, he destroyed the Scottish Presbyterian Church. Priest Li Yagu was beaten and seriously wounded to death. In April 1895, a post appeared in Chengdu, expressing indignation at Britain and the United States for helping Japan invade China. On the Dragon Boat Festival on May 28, the missionaries actually took the children who quarreled with them into the church, which sparked a riot. The priest's residence and the church medical center were burned that night.The next day, they burned down three American Methodist Churches, British Inland Missions, French Catholic Churches, an Infants' Hall and a Medical Center, and wounded French Bishop Duhan.Incidents of beating teachers occurred one after another in dozens of prefectures, departments, and counties in western and southern Sichuan.The warships of the United States, Britain, and France cruised the Yangtze River, and "the ministers of various countries jointly protested."The Qing government succumbed again and dismissed Liu Bingzhang, the governor of Sichuan, Zhou Zhenqiong, the alternate Taoist minister, Tang Chenglie, the prefect of Chengdu, and the county magistrates of Huayang, Leshan, Guanxian, Dayi, Mianning, and Xinjin. Six people were killed, and 17 people were exiled into the army , shackles and rod punishment.Liu Bingzhang was the highest official dismissed in the teaching case.
Simultaneously with the Chengdu teaching case, there was the Fujian Gutian teaching case.After the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895, Gutian Zhaihui repeatedly mobilized the people to resist donations and taxes and prepare for armed uprisings.Gutian, a British missionary, reported to the Qing government after detection. In August 1895, Liu Xiangxing, the leader of the Zhaihui, led more than 100 people to kill 11 people including the British missionary Shi Luo [Luo Luo] and his wife, and burned two houses.After the incident, warships from the United Kingdom and the United States went to Fuzhou to threaten, and organized an investigation team to go to Gutian, and the consuls of Britain and the United States participated in the interrogation.Gutian magistrate Wang Rulin was dismissed, 26 people including Liu Xiangxing were executed, 17 were sent to the army for life, and 5 were imprisoned for life.
In 1896, anti-foreign religious incidents occurred successively in Cao County and Shan County in Shandong, Feng County in Jiangsu and Dangshan in Anhui. In April, French missionary Deng Yuhan was killed in Guangxi. In November, the German missionaries Neng Francis and Han Li were killed by the Broad Sword Society in Juye, Shandong.At the same time, in Shouzhang, Jining, Shanxian, Chengwu and other prefectures and counties, incidents of destroying churches and beating priests and religious people also occurred.Germany took the opportunity to invade and occupy Jiaozhou Bay under the pretext of the Juye teaching case, and the entire Shandong province became Germany's sphere of influence. In the spring of 1898, Yu Dongchen of Dazu, Sichuan staged an armed uprising again, calling for "successful Qing and destroying foreigners" and "elimination of religion and peace of the people".Gelao associations in Hubei, Guizhou, and Yunnan became mobilized upon hearing the news, gathering crowds to destroy the halls.Under the policy of "suppression and appeasement" by the Qing army, although the uprising finally failed, the impact of the Dazu religious case spread throughout the country.In April of the same year, priest Su Anning of the Paris Foreign Missionary Society and three others were killed in Yong'an, Guangxi. In October, Shen Dehui, another missionary of the Foreign Missionary Society, was killed in Boluo, Guangdong. In November, people in Guiyang killed Ming Jianguang, a missionary from the British Inland Mission. In December, Badong County killed Franciscan priest Dong Ruowang and others.During the anti-foreign religious struggle in various parts of Shandong, the secret associations of the people developed rapidly, and the Daohui and Boxing Boxing (later changed to Boxer) became the core of organizing the masses to fight against foreign religious. At the beginning of 1898, Plum Blossom Boxing organized villagers to burn down the Catholic Church in Liyuantun, Guan County, and Boxer Boxing opposed missionary work in Rizhao, beating German missionary Xue Tianzi. At the end of 1899, the Daohui was brewing an uprising in Pingyin County. After hearing the news, Anglican Missionary Burkes rushed back from Tai'an Prefecture to stop it, and was killed by the Daohui in Feicheng.In the same year, peasants in Haimen, Zhejiang launched an uprising to "protect the country and eliminate religions", which quickly spread to Huangyan, Taiping, and Linhai counties, and the villagers immediately demolished all the local churches.
The struggle against foreign religions at this stage was more intense than before due to the increasingly serious crisis of carve-up of China by the powers, the rising patriotic enthusiasm of the people, and the increasing number of participants. , and more widely, organized and planned armed struggles led by the party have emerged.The Qing government adopted a policy of supporting education and suppressing the people, and together with imperialism brutally suppressed the Chinese people. In March 1898, the Qing government promulgated the "Regulations on the Reception of Priests by Local Officials", which actually recognized the political status of bishops as governors, vice-bishops and presidents, and missionaries.Therefore, the conflict between people and religion became more and more acute, and the people's spontaneous anti-imperialist patriotic sentiment continued to rise.On the basis of the anti-religious struggles organized and launched by Boxers and Broad Swords, the large-scale Boxer Movement finally broke out in 1900.
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