Bamboo

The Righteous and Harmonious Fists, known in Chinese as Yi He Quan, were more familairily known as the Boxers. The Boxers believed in a very ancient idea that calisthenic exercises could transcend the mind over matter. Their training included traditional forms of shadow boxing, particularly kung fu at an advanced level, that were accompanied by charms and trances that were believed to be magical. The Boxers believed that by following this type of training, they would be impervious to any type of attack by their opponents. This included attacks with weapons. Bullets and knives were all useless against their abilities.

Why The Boxers Rebelled

The Boxers were nationalistic; they aspired to rid China of foreign influence at a time when the majority of the country’s people were suffering from poverty and starvation. Like what happened in many other countries, the foreign influence was blamed for these troubles. From 1898, they spread throughout China attacking foreign businesses, Christian missionaries, and Chinese converts. The Righteous and Harmonious Fists were supported by the imperial forces.

In 1900, the Boxer Rebellion was finally surpressed by an international force commanded by Count Alfred von Waldersee. Despite their failure, the Boxer Rebellion is believed to have contributed to the development and proliferation of many Chinese martial arts, particularly kung fu and Tai Chi.

This entry was posted on Friday, December 8th, 2006 at 7:43 pm and is filed under Martial Arts in History. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.