Yuxian (1842–1901) was a Manchu high official of the Qing dynasty who played an important role in the violent anti-foreign and anti-Christian Boxer Rebellion , which unfolded in northern China from the fall of 1899 to 1901. He was a local official who rose quickly from prefect of Caozhou (in unruly southwestern Shandong) to judicial commissioner and eventually governor of Shandong province. Dismissed from that post because of foreign pressure, he was soon named governor of Shanxi province. At the height of the Boxer crisis, as Allied armies invaded China in July 1900, he invited a group of 45 Christians and American missionaries to the provincial capital, Taiyuan , saying he would protect them from the Boxers. Instead, they were all killed. Foreigners, blaming Yuxian for what they called the Taiyuan Massacre , labeled him the "Butcher of Shan-hsi [Shanxi]".
38-626: (Redirected from Yu County ) Yuxian may refer to: Yuxian (Qing dynasty) (1842–1901), Manchu high official of the Qing dynasty Yu County, Hebei (蔚县), or Yuxian, county in Hubei, China Yu County, Shanxi (盂县), or Yuxian, county in Shanxi, China Yuzhou, Henan , formerly Yu County (禹县) or Yuxian, county-level city in Henan, China Topics referred to by
76-635: A martial artist surnamed Zhao who had come from the west, probably from the neighboring province of Zhili . Zhao taught Liu the " Armor of the Golden Bell " ( simplified Chinese : 金钟罩 ; traditional Chinese : 金鐘罩 ; pinyin : Jīnzhōngzhào ), an invulnerability technique that the rebels of the Eight Trigrams had used in 1813. This technique was a form of kung-fu or "hard" qigong breathing exercise which its adepts claimed could protect them against blades and even bullets as if
114-655: A band of armed men calling themselves the "Militia United in Righteousness" – known in English as the " Boxers " – clashed with Qing government troops at the Battle of Senluo Temple . In December, Yuxian had Boxer leaders arrested and executed, but the policy of eliminating the leaders and dispersing the followers proved ineffective because the Boxer movement was quite different in structure from
152-454: A large bell was covering their body. Practitioners chanted secret incantations – "a son does not tell his father; a father does not tell his son" – and swallowed water magically empowered by the ashes of a paper amulet . Possibly in the early 1890s, Liu started to teach the Golden Bell to his own disciples. His students were typically rich peasants and small landowners who planned to use their martial training to defend their properties from
190-669: A local temple. The celebrations were "an enormous public relations success" and confirmed the Big Swords' popularity. By then the society counted between 20,000 and 30,000 members, mostly in Shandong, but also in neighboring Henan , Anhui , and Jiangsu. Liu Shiduan was still the official leader, but the Big Swords were not linked by a tight chain of command. Just as the Big Sword Society was growing, Christian missionaries , mostly Catholic , were also taking advantage of
228-484: A village called Shaobing Liuzhuang. In his thirties, he learned a kung-fu technique of invulnerability called the " Armor of the Golden Bell " from a visiting martial artist and soon started teaching it to his own disciples. They formed the Big Swords Society in the early 1890s, sometime before 1895. Although the local government was fearful of the heterodox nature of the Golden Bell rituals, it tolerated
266-402: Is based on a detailed document first published on 29 April 1941 that purported to be by an eyewitness: a Chinese convert named Yong Zheng. Historian Roger R. Thompson has questioned this document because it appeared nine months after the events, contains an unusual amount of detail on the individual fate of each victim, and is similar in style and details to Foxe's Book of Martyrs , a book that
304-460: Is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages Yuxian (Qing dynasty) After Allied armies seized control of North China, Yuxian was blamed by both foreign and Chinese officials for having encouraged the Boxers, and at their insistence, he was beheaded. Historians have now shown that while Yuxian was strongly resistant to foreign influence, he
342-590: The Boxer Uprising that unfolded in north China from 1899 to 1901. Liu Shiduan was born in Shan County in Caozhou ( Shandong Province ). According to his descendants, he was 43 when he died in 1896, so he may have been born in 1853 or 1854. He lived in a village called Shaobing Liuzhuang ( 燒餅劉莊 ). From 7 to 20 sui Liu attended school; he tried, but failed, to pass the lowest level ( xiucai ) of
380-412: The imperial examination . Liu owned more than 100 mu of land – 50 times more than was needed in that area for one person to survive – and was chief of the most influential family in his village. After failing the examination, he lived on his estates, where he frequently entertained guests and became known for his generosity to other locals. When Liu was in his thirties, he learned combat skills from
418-431: The local gods – but also over more concrete interests like power and property. In February 1896, Liu Shiduan and his main lieutenant Cao Deli were involved in a minor conflict that started when a local man tried to collect debts from a Christian convert. That man sought the help of the Big Swords, who were happy to assist him, but the commander of the local garrison intercepted Liu's forces before they had time to confront
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#1732766005078456-399: The Big Swords Society grew dramatically and started to clash with Chinese who had recently converted to Christianity . In 1896, a land dispute erupted between two lineages in northern Jiangsu . One lineage converted to Catholicism – French Jesuits had arrived in the area in 1890 – while the other lineage called for the help of the Big Swords of Caozhou. When
494-515: The Big Swords Society that Yuxian had faced in southern Shandong. Foreign powers blamed Yuxian for continued Boxer violence against Chinese Christians, until December 6, 1899, when the weight of the protests convinced the court to remove Yuxian from his post. He was replaced as Shandong governor by Yuan Shikai , who was fiercely anti-Boxer and led his modern army into Shandong. Yuxian returned to Beijing. His presence there in early January coincided with an imperial edict dated 11 January 1900 that allowed
532-652: The Big Swords because they assisted in repressing a wave of banditry in 1895 and 1896. In early 1896, however, Liu and the Big Swords got embroiled in conflicts with local Catholic communities . Liu did not participate actively, but in June 1896 he dispatched one of his lieutenants to northern Jiangsu to help the Pang lineage in their struggle for land against a clan that had joined the Catholic Church for protection. With their ranks swollen by locals who were not members of
570-476: The Big Swords turned violent, Yuxian, who had recently become Shandong judicial commissioner ( anchashi 按察使 ), was put in charge of suppressing them. He had their leader, Liu Shiduan , and his main lieutenant arrested and beheaded, putting an end to Big Swords activity in southern Shandong. In November 1897, a group of armed men attacked German Catholic missionaries. After the attacks the German government asked
608-528: The Big Swords. Yuxian, who had recently been promoted from Caozhou prefect to Shandong judicial commissioner, was put in charge of suppressing the Big Swords. He ordered his subordinates to arrest the Society's two main leaders, Liu Shiduan and Cao Deli. The Cao county magistrate sent a militia leader who was also Liu Shiduan's friend to invite Liu to a meeting. Liu went along and was immediately arrested. Yuxian had him beheaded after interrogating him. Cao Deli
646-461: The Boxers or joined their ranks. On June 27, an English church in Taiyuan was besieged and set on fire. In the clash that followed, several Westerners burned to death, and dozens of Chinese were killed either by fire or by the firearms of the missionaries. Yuxian ordered Chinese Christians to stop associating with foreigners and tried to keep Taiyuan (the Shanxi capital) and its surroundings stable in
684-579: The Boxers to join into self-defense organizations as long as they did not break the law, a move that foreign powers interpreted as condoning the Boxers' activities. In mid-March 1900, Yuxian was appointed governor of Shanxi province . Western powers protested his appointment, but in vain. The Qing declaration of war on foreign powers on June 21 of that year allowed the Boxer movement to expand freely from Shandong into northern China. Partly under Yuxian's encouragements, in Shanxi, which had seen little Boxer activity until then, thousands of people either supported
722-634: The Catholics. By then, however, "both sides were spoiling for a fight". In 1896, a dispute for land between two lineages in northern Jiangsu caused more trouble between Catholics and Big Swords. The Pang and Liu lineages both claimed ownership of a large patch of fertile land in Dangshan County , which is now administered by Anhui province but was then in Jiangsu, just across the border from Caozhou prefecture in Shandong. To enhance their claims,
760-628: The Liu lineage converted to Catholicism – French Jesuits had arrived in the area in 1890 – while the Pangs joined the Big Swords. In June 1896, the leader of the Pang lineage, Pang Sanjie, attacked the homes of converts and vandalized Christian churches with about 60 of his men. When Pang sought the help of the Shandong Big Swords, Liu Shiduan sent him his disciple Peng Guilin, but he and Cao Deli did not participate. Pang's band looted or burned
798-704: The Qing government to remove many Shandong officials from their post (including governor Li Bingheng) and to build three Catholic churches in the area (in Jining , Caozhou , and Juye) at its own expense. Yuxian devised a line of defense to say that the missionaries had been killed by robbers. This attack, known as the Juye incident , triggered a " scramble for concessions " in which foreign powers obtained concessions and exclusive spheres of influence in various parts of China. In June 1898, Yuxian supported Shandong governor's Zhang Rumei project of integrating Boxers from Guan County,
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#1732766005078836-419: The Society, Big Swords discipline broke down as they burned the houses of local converts and looted shops that did not belong to Christians. When the local government, led by judicial commissioner Yuxian , moved in to suppress the movement, Liu was arrested and beheaded. Because they practiced rituals of invulnerability and because of their anti-Christian activities, Liu's Big Swords are considered precursors of
874-506: The bandits. In 1895, they arrested a large number of outlaws and turned them over to the authorities. Liu Shiduan himself captured a notorious bandit leader called "Rice-Grain Yue the Second" ( 岳二米子 ), earning praise from the local officials. Buoyed by government support, the Big Sword Society now grew extremely fast. In spring 1896, it held four days of festivities for Liu Shiduan's birthday in
912-643: The execution of 44 missionaries in Taiyuan, foreigners portrayed Yuxian as a "profoundly demonized villain". As early as 1902, for instance, some foreigners claimed that Yuxian had "officially started the Boxer organization". Liu Shiduan Liu Shiduan (died 1896) was the founder and leader of the Big Swords Society . It was a martial arts society whose main task was to protect the property of landowners in Caozhou prefecture (southwestern Shandong province) in late Qing China . Well educated during his youth, Liu owned about 100 mu of land in
950-634: The face of increased lawlessness and rumors that Christians were going to counterattack from the mountain strongholds where they had found refuge. He also mobilized new troops and prepared local militias for defense against these expected attacks. The events that followed are difficult to document, because unlike the Siege of the International Legations in Beijing in the summer of 1900, no Westerners survived to recount them and even some of
988-590: The front of the Sino–Japanese War in 1894 led to a sharp increase in banditry at the junction of southwestern Shandong and northern Jiangsu . Officials disliked the "heterodox technique" of the Armor of the Golden Bell, but also distinguished between lawless bandits and the Big Swords, who defended social order. Even as the local government issued proclamations ordering the Society to disperse, Liu's Big Swords actively assisted Caozhou prefect Yuxian in putting down
1026-523: The homes of Christians in neighboring villages. By the end of June, Pang Sanjie's group had grown to about 1,000 and contained a large number of locals who were not regular members of the Big Sword Society. Their discipline broke down and they started looting shops in a village on the Shandong–Jiangsu border. The local militia and government troops quickly dispersed the band, arrested Liu Shiduan's disciple Peng Guilin, and captured 13 minor leaders of
1064-532: The imperial convoy in Taiyuan for several weeks after it had fled Beijing on August 15. Only in November 1900 was he removed from his post. In addition to imposing heavy indemnities on the Qing government, the Boxer Protocol signed on 7 September 1901 mandated that Yuxian should be beheaded for his role in killing foreign missionaries during the rebellion. Following news that Yuxian had presided over
1102-434: The increasingly well-armed bandits who roved southwestern Shandong at the time. The group first called itself "Armor of the Golden Bell", but was soon renamed the Big Swords Society . As founder, Liu Shiduan became the Big Swords' main leader. His disciples Cao Deli ( 曹得禮 ) and Peng Guilin ( 彭桂林 ), who like him were landowners, were the Society's heads in their own villages. The departure of Shandong's local troops for
1140-423: The official record was clearly altered. The usual account states that Yuxian called 18 Western missionaries and their families – a total of 44 or 45 people, including women and children – to Taiyuan under the false pretense of protecting them, and that he had them all executed on July 9 in the compound of the provincial government. This longstanding account of the " Taiyuan massacre "
1178-408: The same term [REDACTED] This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the title Yuxian . If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Yuxian&oldid=877794830 " Category : Disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Short description
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1216-593: The site of more clashes between Chinese Christians and local self-defense groups, into local militias that would help suppress banditry and mediate conflicts between locals and Chinese Christians. In 1898, Yuxian became Shandong lieutenant governor ( buzengshi 布政使 ), the second-highest-ranked official in the province. After serving in Hunan and Jiangsu provinces for a few months, he came back to Shandong in March 1899 to serve as provincial governor . In mid-October 1899,
1254-405: The weakness of the Qing government to expand their activities in Shandong. There were clashes between the Big Swords and Catholic communities, sometimes because bandits had converted to Christianity for protection. Both groups struggled over religious meaning – the Catholics doubting the efficacy of the Big Swords' invulnerability rituals, and the Big Swords resenting the Catholics' rejection of
1292-437: Was captured in a similar manner and also executed. After the beheading of its leaders, the Big Swords Society disappeared for good from southwest Shandong. Pang Sanjie, the leader of the Pang lineage, managed to escape arrest. In April 1897, he and his entire lineage converted to Christianity. Because the Big Swords practiced rituals of invulnerability and engaged in anti-Christian violence, they are considered as precursors of
1330-741: Was executed in 1901. Yuxian was a Manchu whose family was registered in the Bordered Yellow Banner , one of the Eight Banners . His father served in minor government positions in Guangdong . Instead of passing the civil service examination , Yuxian purchased a degree that qualified him to serve as an official. Although he bought a position of prefect in Shandong province in 1879, only in 1889 did he start to serve in Caozhou , an unruly prefecture in southwestern Shandong that
1368-513: Was highly influential in British evangelical circles at the time. Using Chinese official documents and missionary accounts written between June and September 1900, he concludes that the "weight of evidence" indicates that the missionaries had been killed by a violent mob rather than on Yuxian's orders. About 130 foreigners and 2,000 Chinese Christians died in Shanxi during the Boxer uprising, in part because of government support. Yuxian received
1406-478: Was in fact actively involved in the suppression of Boxer groups in 1895–96 and 1899, but that his strategy of killing Boxer leaders without prosecuting their followers failed in late 1899, when the Boxers had changed in nature and their executed leaders could easily be replaced by new ones. They also suggest that the Christians in Taiyuan were killed by mob violence, not by Yuxian's order. Because of his doings, he
1444-528: Was prone to flooding and plagued by bandits. The departure of local troops for the front of the Sino–Japanese War in 1894 led to a sharp increase in banditry in the area. Yuxian managed to keep bandits under control with the help of local self-defense groups like the newly founded Big Swords Society . Having developed a reputation for efficient administration, in 1895 he was promoted to the rank of circuit intendant ( daotai 道臺 ), with several prefectures under his jurisdiction. Buoyed by government support,
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