Origins & Early Life

Cao Futian was a Chinese mystic, martial artist, and militant who helped mobilize and lead the anti-Christian and xenophobic Yìhéquán, or Boxers which organized militias pogroms of foreign missionaries, civilians and Chinese Christians in the Qing Empire around the turn of the 20th century. Along with his ally Zhang Decheng, he helped organize a popular mobilization and uprising of peasants around Tianjin as part of the Boxer rebellion, which aimed to support the Qing dynasty, to expel and/or exterminate foreigners, and ultimately isolate China from foreign powers and foreign ideas (such as Christianity). Initially the rebellion was repressed by the Qing imperial court, but after the Boxer's siege of the foreign legation in Beijing, and their subsequent massacre of extraterritorials in 1900, the Boxers were tolerated and tacitly supported by factions of the court. When the invasion of the Eight-Nation Alliance forced the imperial court to change from support of the Boxers to suppression, government troops captured and beheaded him in 1901.

Pivotal Works & Achievements

Little is known of the early life of Cao Futian but he was born in the mid-19th century, in Jinghai, Zhili province, China. Cao He...

Enduring Legacy & Impact

The historical impact and works continue to influence the modern world.

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