Remembering the Boxer Uprising 义和团起义

Remembering the Boxer Uprising
义和团起义
A righteous fist
正义之拳

The Boxer Uprising means different things to different people in China
对中国不同的人来说，义和团起义意味不尽相同

Dec 16th 2010 | from PRINT EDITION



IN A schoolyard in a village on the dusty north China plain, martial artists drill children in the stylised kicks and punches of Plum Flower Boxing. This discipline, they proudly claim, spearheaded the Boxer Uprising of 1900. In a village recreation room, musicians practise the ear-splitting tunes which their ancestors played for Boxer braves heading into battle with the foreign "hairy ones". Folk memories abound of an event that transformed the country's relationship with the West, and its own view of itself.
中国北方平原上，尘土飞扬，一家村庄的学校操场上，武术师傅们正训练孩子们梅花拳的脚法和拳式。他们骄傲地宣称，这样的操练造就了1900年的义和团起义。村里的一间娱乐室中，艺人们在练习祖先为义和团冲锋陷阵拼杀洋人"毛子"时的曲调，震耳欲聋。民间的传说中，也充满了这次传奇：它曾经改变了中国同西方的关系，也改变了中国对自己的看法。

The Boxer Uprising, 11 years before the collapse of China's last imperial dynasty, was portrayed in Western accounts as a savage outburst of primitive xenophobia directed at the West and its civilising religion, Christianity. The northern Chinese peasants with their red headscarves, who believed in a magic that protected them from foreign bullets and in the power of ancient martial arts that could defeat the industrial world's most powerful armies, were described with a mixture of fear and racist scorn. But in China the Boxers are officially remembered as somewhat misguided patriots. In the countryside south of Beijing where they burned churches, killed foreign missionaries and slaughtered tens of thousands of "secondary hairy ones", as Chinese converts to Christianity were known, some call them heroes. The missionaries they attacked had it coming, having trampled on China's sovereignty. Their converts were no more than local ruffians who exploited foreign protection to ride roughshod over their countrymen.
义和团起义发生在中国末代王朝倒塌前11年，在西方文献中被描述为因原始的仇外心理而对西方及其文明宗教——基督教——的野蛮运动。中国北方农民头戴红头巾，认为这会产生一种神力，保护他们不受外国子弹的伤害；认为武功的力量能打败工业化世界中最强大的武器——他们被描述成了恐惧了种族仇视的混合体。但在中国，义和团被官方以多少误入歧途的爱国者纪念。在他们曾经烧教堂，杀外国传教士，还屠戮了上万"二毛子"——即皈依基督教的中国人——的北京南郊，有人称他们英雄。义和团打击的传教士，践踏着中国主权才得以传教。改宗的人们，无异于利用洋人保护，在乡亲中横行霸道的土流氓。

In East Zhangwu Village, close to the railway line between Beijing and the port city of Tianjin, the village doctor is a Boxer fan. Sitting behind his desk in the clinic, he recounts, as if he had seen the action himself, how one sultry June local Boxers tore up the line to stop a trainload of foreign troops from heading to Beijing to break a siege of the capital's embassy district by pro-Boxer imperial troops. "The foreigners had a couple of interpreters who said to the Boxers, 'Don't fight, we'll give you some money, OK?' The Boxers replied, 'We don't want money. We want the foreigners' heads'." He shows off a copy of the scores used by the musicians whose flutes, cymbals, drums and pipes accompanied the Boxers into combat. He and a group of fellow enthusiasts have formed what they call the Boxer Band. It performs at ceremonial send-offs for local army recruits. A picture of Boxers charging into pith-helmeted foreign soldiers covers a wall of their practice room.
连接京津的铁路附近，彰武村的村医就是义和团的粉丝。诊所里，他坐在桌子后面讲着义和团的故事，仿佛曾经亲临：闷热的六月，当地的义和团员摧毁了铁路，挡住了一火车开往北京的国外军队道路，这军队是要去营救被亲义和团的朝廷军队包围的首都使馆区。"洋人们有几个翻译，对义和团的人说：'不要打，我们给你们钱还不行吗？'义和团说：'我们不稀罕钱。我们要洋人的项上人头。'"他展示了一张艺人的乐谱：用长笛、铜钹、鼓和短笛演奏的义和团进行曲。他和一些同样着迷义和团的伙计们组成了乐队，称之为"义和团乐队"。为当地部队新兵送行时，他们就会在欢送典礼上表演。排练室的一面墙上，贴着一张义和团刺杀带帽洋兵的图画。

The martial-arts tradition of the Plum Flower Boxers of Pingxiang County, 325km (200 miles) south-west of Beijing, goes back centuries, but it is the prominent role of Plum Flower Boxing masters 110 years ago in "exterminating the foreign" (as the Boxer slogan urged) for which it is best remembered. During the uprising, the Plum Flower Boxers renamed themselves the "Righteous and Harmonious Fists". The name was adopted by the movement as a whole, which embraced many martial-arts sects in drought-parched northern China. At Pingxiang's Mingde Primary School, since last year synchronised Plum Flower Boxing drills in the playground have become obligatory. Yelling, the children jab their fists in unison at imagined enemies.
北京向西南325公里（200英里）处，萍乡县梅花拳武功已有了几百年传统，但110年前，梅花拳大师们在"灭洋"（义和团口号）发挥的突出作用，才最让人们铭记。运动中，梅花拳的人们给自己新取了个名字"义和拳"。运动从始至终都使用了"义和拳"的名号，还有中国北方诸多武功教派的加入。在萍乡明德小学，自去年起，操场上的集体梅花拳训练就成了必修课。孩子们喊着口号，向假想中的敌人同时出击。

The rise of nationalism in an increasingly powerful China worries many foreigners. They fret about the emergence of a new breed of Chinese who are often called fenqing, or angry youth. The fenqing are often dismissive of economic and political liberalism and scornful of the notion of universal rights. The rebellion and subsequent invasion by an eight-nation allied force of Western and Japanese troops that lifted the 55-day siege of Beijing's legation quarter and embarked on an orgy of looting and indiscriminate violence loom large in their cultural memory.
中国日益崛起，其民族主义的上扬让许多海外人士担心不已。中国一群"愤青"的出现，让他们十分困扰。愤青们总是轻视经济和政治自由主义，也不待见普世价值这一说法。八国联军的反抗和接下来的侵略，突破了为期五十五天的北京使馆区重围，他们又开始了一轮烧杀掠抢，而这些，都在愤青的文化记忆中久久回荡。

China's nationalists have plenty of examples of Western imperialist outrages to pick from, but the eight-nation force holds a particular fascination. A divided West formed an extraordinary alliance in 1900 to deal with the Chinese threat: British, Germans, Russians, Americans, Italians, French, Austro-Hungarians and even Japanese (playing their first role as honorary Westerners). In the G8, NATO and the Japan-America alliance the fenqing see spiritual descendants of the invaders of 1900.
要说西方帝国主义的恶行，中国民族主义者们有太多可摘可选，但八国联军这段故事他们却死死不放。1900年，西方列强组成了大型联盟，来对付中国的威胁：英、德、俄、美、意、法、奥匈帝国，甚至还有日本（作为荣誉西方国家的首次行动）。在G8、北约和日美结盟在愤青的眼中，都是1900年侵略者的精神后裔。

Ever since the uprising, memories of it have troubled the relationship between China and the West. For the West, "Boxerism" became synonymous with a rabid, anti-foreign demon that was thought to lurk in China, ready to wreak bloody havoc if given a chance. As The Economist advised its readers in 1905: "The history of the Boxer movement contains abundant warnings as to the necessity of an attitude of constant vigilance on the part of the European Powers when there are any symptoms that a wave of nationalism is about to sweep over the Celestial Empire."
义和团运动过后，此事的记忆一直困扰着中西关系。对西方人而言，"义和团主义"已经成了一种狂热的仇外妖魔——西方人认为这妖魔潜伏在中国，一有机会就会带来一场血腥的浩劫。《经济学家》杂志早在1905年就敬告读者："义和团运动的历史充分地告诉我们，民族主义浪潮在天朝大国出现风靡苗头之时，欧洲列项需要提高警惕。"

That was the year of Japan's defeat of Russia. Never before had an Asiatic power defeated a European one. Fears of a "yellow peril" stalked Europe. These anxieties found fictional expression in the evil Dr Fu Manchu, invented by an Irish writer, Arthur Ward, under the pen-name Sax Rohmer. In the first novel about him, published in 1913, Dr Fu is described as "the yellow peril incarnate in one man". Fu Manchu movies were still being made in the 1960s. Sinophobia was fashionable long before China emerged as a global economic power.
当年，日本打败俄国。从前亚洲国家从未击败过欧洲对手。"黄祸"的恐惧在欧洲蔓延。这样的恐惧写入了爱尔兰作家亚瑟•瓦德——笔名萨克斯•罗默——的小说中，成就傅满楚这样一个邪恶形象。第一部关于傅满楚的小说在1913年发表，他被描述成"化身为人形的黄祸"。直到1960年代，傅满楚的电影还在推出。中国作为全球经济强国崛起之前许久，恐华症就已然流行。

Such worries occasionally resurface. They reappeared in 1967 when Red Guards shouting "Kill, kill", ("the same cry that had been heard at night during the Boxer Rebellion", wrote a former British envoy, James Hoare) besieged and burned the British mission in Beijing and assaulted its staff; in 1999 when thousands of students hurled paint and stones at the American and British embassies in Beijing after NATO warplanes bombed the Chinese embassy in Belgrade; and again in 2008 when at least ten foreign correspondents in China received death threats amid an outpouring of anti-Western vitriol in the wake of upheaval in Tibet. The Japanese have been among the biggest worriers, their anxieties fuelled by large and sometimes unruly anti-Japanese protests in several Chinese cities in 2005 and again this year.
恐华担忧时而会重新浮出水面。1967年，红卫兵大喊"杀，杀"，（前英国大使詹姆士•霍雷写到："和义和团叛乱时晚上同样的喊声。"），包围并焚烧北京的英国公使馆、袭击公使馆成员时，恐惧再度出现；还有1999年，北约战机轰炸中国驻贝尔格雷德大使馆，上千学生向美国和英国的驻京使馆投掷油漆和石头；还有2008年，西藏骚乱过后，不断出现反西言辞，至少10名外国驻华通讯员都收到了死亡威胁。日本一直是忧心最重的国家之一，他们是因为2005年及今年在中国几座城市中出现的大型——而有时会蛮横的——反日游行。

A journey through the Boxers' heartlands shows that many Chinese share these worries. Debate still rages over what to make of the Boxer Uprising and how it relates to Chinese nationalism today. In 2006 a liberal weekly newspaper supplement, Freezing Point, was briefly closed down and its editor fired for publishing an article that said the portrayal of Boxer history in Chinese textbooks was poisoning the minds of young people. A journalist for History, a Beijing magazine, compares the empress-dowager Cixi's manipulation of the Boxers with Hitler's of German nationalists. China, he says, is in danger of breeding a similar mentality of vengeful nationalism unless it gets its history straight.
来到义和团的发源地，会发现许多中国人亦有此忧。如何理解义和团起义，如何将它同中国今日的民族主义联系，仍争论不休。2006年，一家自由派周报副刊《冰点》曾遭短期封锁，主编被炒，因为杂志刊文称中国教科书中队义和团历史的刻画对年轻人思想是一种毒害。北京《历史》杂志的一位记者将慈禧太后对义和团的利用同希特勒对民族主义的利用相提并论。他说，中国如果不还原历史真相，就有滋生类似报复性民族主义心理的危险。

Bicycles and boxing
自行车和梅花拳

On a road lined with maize fields and factories that leads into the county seat, a huge billboard boasts of a "city famous for bicycles, the birthplace of Plum Flower Boxing and a countryside with an eco-friendly water system". Pingxiang County is indeed one of China's biggest centres of bicycle and bicycle-parts production, but it has struggled to shed a reputation for brand-name knock-offs. The fetid open drains lining the main street of the town do not smell eco-friendly; the place is officially designated poor. But locals reckon that Plum Flower Boxing could give them a boost.
通往县城的道路上，满目玉米田和工厂，一张巨大的广告牌上写着"自行车名城，梅花拳源地，生态化水乡"。萍乡的确是中国最大的自行车和自行车部件产地之一，但却没能建立起自己的品牌。县城主要街道上，没有上盖的下水道散发着臭味，闻起来一点也不生态化；官方将此地定性为贫困。但当地人认为，梅花拳能给他们壮壮士气。

In 2006, after much lobbying by Zhang Xiling, the owner of a printing factory and expert in the art, the central government included Plum Flower Boxing in its first-ever list of "intangible cultural heritages" worthy of protection. Early in 2010 Mr Zhang started work on what he and the local government (which has a small share in the project) hope will one day be a 200-hectare Plum Flower Boxing park, with temples, luxury hotel facilities, a training school for martial arts and an annual turnover of $750m.
2006年，印刷厂老板、印刷专家张西岭大力游说过后，中央政府决定将梅花拳纳入第一份值得保护的"非物质文化遗产"。2010年初，张西岭就开始建造占地200公顷的梅花拳公园，他和当地政府（也在项目中占有少量股份）希望在将来的某一天，这里面会有庙宇、豪华宾馆设施，还有一家武术教馆，每年盈利7.5亿美元。



The Boxers' negative image in the West is of little concern. The scheme is aimed primarily at Chinese. The Communist Party has always had a soft spot for Boxers, in contrast with the Nationalist government it toppled in 1949, who called them "bandits". Paul Cohen, an American historian, described in a 1997 book on the Boxers how, by the 1920s, Chinese revolutionaries were beginning to rework the Boxers into "a more positive myth". Mao Zedong's Red Guards sometimes called themselves "new Boxers".
他们不管义和团在西方的负面形象。这一项目主要是面对中国人。相对1949年共产党推翻的国民政府，他们一直对义和团情有独钟——国民政府当年称义和团"土匪"。美国历史学家保罗•科恩1997年出版关于义和团的书中曾描述，1920年代前，中国革命家如何开始将义和团重新打造为"更为正面的神话"。毛泽东的红卫兵有时也会称自己为"新义和团"。

Jeffrey Wasserstrom, another American historian, says that in the post-Mao era official rhetoric has shifted from glorifying Boxer violence to focusing on the foreign invasion it triggered. But the Boxers remain in favour. In 2009 the party's main mouthpiece, the People's Daily, published an article on its website saying the "anti-imperialist, patriotic" Boxer movement had caused "utter panic" among imperialist countries that had been trying to carve up China in the late 19th century. Officials are happy to give the nod to places like Pingxiang. But there is a proviso: they must not alarm foreigners.
另一位美国历史学家华志坚称，在后毛泽东时代，官方言论从颂扬义和团的暴力行径，开始转变为把重点放在义和团引发的外国侵略。但义和团仍旧正面。2009年，党的喉舌《人民日报》在其网站上刊文，称"反帝国主义的爱国"义和团运动在"19世纪末企图瓜分中国的帝国主义国家中"引发了"彻底恐慌"。官方很乐意给萍乡这种地方开绿灯。但有个条件：不能惊动外国人。

Pingxiang, eager to boost exports and attract foreign investment, has no wish to. The kung fu lessons at Mingde Primary School are not an attempt to revive anti-foreignism. The headmaster, Yang Peihua, explains tactfully that they help improve memory and concentration and instil "morality". He says the children have become keener on household chores.
一心发展出口、吸引外国投资的萍乡可没这打算。明德小学开设武术课并不是想要复兴仇外主义。校长杨培华巧妙地解释：这可以帮助提高记忆和注意力，并且是一种"美德"教育。他说孩子们现在在家务中更积极了。

Mr Zhang says he would like to have a Boxer memorial in his park, but he thinks the government will object. The experience of the neighbouring county of Wei, the birthplace of one of the area's best known Boxer leaders, Zhao Sanduo, suggests he might be right. In 2000, the 100th anniversary of the Boxer Uprising, it started building a spacious Boxer museum. The $1.2m edifice was touted as China's monument to Boxer history. Leading military officers from the Hebei region attended the opening ceremony in 2003. A large bust of Zhao took pride of place inside. The museum was named a provincial-level base for "defence education".
张西岭说，他希望在公园中设立一块义和团纪念碑，但他觉得政府不会答应。从不远处魏县——当地义和团最著名领袖赵三多的故乡——经历看来，不容乐观。2000年，义和团起义百年之际，魏县开始建造大型的义和团纪念馆。大楼耗资120万美元，号称中国义和团历史博物馆。2003年，河北军区领导参加了开幕仪式。博物馆中竖立着一尊巨大的赵三多半身像。博物馆也被列为省级"国防教育"基地。

The authorities later had second thoughts. The bust was moved to a less prominent position outside. The other exhibits (including a large black-and-white photograph of Zhou Enlai, China's prime minister in the Mao era, proudly holding up a Boxer flag) remained intact. But large characters proclaiming the building as the "Boxer Memorial Hall" were replaced with "Hebei Province Patriotic Education Base". In East Zhangwu Village a nervous official tries to steer the conversation away from Boxer history towards the Boxer Band's music.
此后地方政府再度考虑，半身像被移至馆外不太显眼的位置。其他的展览（包括毛泽东时代总理周恩来骄傲地高举义和团旗帜的大黑白照片）仍旧保持原位。但"义和团纪念馆"这几个大字却被换成"河北省爱国教育基地"。在东彰武村，官员们也显得很紧张，想避开义和团历史，将话题转移到义和团乐队的音乐。

Some Chinese share the foreigners' point of view. In the village of Zhujiahe, about 120km (75 miles) to the north-east of Pingxiang, the Boxers are remembered as butchers. It was here that one of their bloodiest acts of violence occurred. Zhu Junhuan, who is 75, describes how her Catholic great-grandmother was killed by a combined force of Boxers and Chinese imperial troops as she was spreading her arms to protect a French missionary priest. The Boxer episode is commonly portrayed in the West as an orgy of anti-foreign violence. But the 200-300 foreigners who died in the uprising were far outnumbered by Chinese victims.
一些中国人和国外人士想法一致。萍乡东北方向120公里（75英里）的朱家河村，义和团在人们的记忆中就是屠夫。这儿曾经经历他们最血腥的暴力。现年75岁的朱俊环（音）告诉我们，她的信仰天主教的曾祖母在伸手保护法国神父的时候，如何被义和团和清政府军队联手杀害。在西方，义和团多半被描述成一股仇外的狂热。但起义中总共才牺牲两三百名外国人，比起受害的中国人，不足挂齿。

Because both killers and victims in Zhujiahe were Chinese, communist histories gloss over the massacre. Wei County's museum offers a rare mention of the event as if it were one of a series of Boxer victories ("three or four thousand religious followers were killed or drowned themselves"). It displays a grainy photograph of the village's "captured" Catholic church, in ruins.
因为朱家河中刽子手和受害者都是中国人，共产党的历史中就尽力掩盖这次屠杀。魏县博物馆罕见地提及了这次事件，但仿佛这只是义和团一系列胜利之一（"三四千名宗教信徒被杀或自溺而亡"）。博物馆还展出了一张村中"被占领的"天主教堂木纹照片，照片中，教堂已经成了一片废墟。

The fault lines of Chinese nationalism are visible in Zhujiahe, a cluster of brick houses surrounded by fields of maize. About 70% of its inhabitants are Catholic. They would like to honour "martyrs" killed by the Boxers, but fear upsetting officials.
中国民族主义的裂痕，在朱家河清晰可见——这是一座一群砖瓦房组成的村庄，周围满是玉米田。这里70%居民都信奉天主教。他们愿意纪念被义和团杀害的"烈士们"，却担心触怒政府。

The Catholic church has a difficult relationship with Chinese nationalism. China refuses to recognise the Vatican because of its insistence on retaining the right to appoint Chinese bishops, which China regards as an infringement on its sovereignty. China has its own "patriotic" Catholic church, whose leaders are vetted by the Communist Party. The Vatican, to avoid being shut out of China altogether, accepts worship in the government-backed church as legitimate. But some Chinese Catholics still shun it and, risking punishment, worship "underground".
天主教堂和中国民族主义的关系非常僵硬。罗马教廷坚持要求任命中国地区主教，而中国政府认为这是对其主权的侵犯，拒绝承认教廷地位。中国有自己的"爱国"天主教堂，教会领袖都曾被共产党审核。罗马教廷为了避免在中国全部被禁，于是承认政府背景的教堂合法。但一些中国天主教徒仍冒着受惩治的危险，不去政府教堂，而是在"地下"礼拜。



In Zhujiahe, the conflict between faith and party-defined patriotism came to a head in 2000 when Pope John Paul II declared 120 Catholics who had died in China between 1648 and 1930 to be saints. They included the first Chinese citizens ever to be so honoured. Sixty-six of the Chinese were killed in the Boxer Uprising. Three died in violence related to the siege of Zhujiahe. The government was furious. It condemned the saints as "evil-doing sinners" and said their canonisation was a "gross insult to the Chinese people's patriotic resistance against foreign aggression and oppression". The pope's choice of China's national day, October 1st, to make the announcement added salt to the government's wounds.
2000年，教皇约翰•保罗二世册封1648年到1930年在中国去世的120位天主教徒为圣徒，朱家河中信仰和党定性爱国主义间的矛盾也达到了顶峰。这次宣告，是中国公民首次得到此般尊重。66名中国人在义和团起义中牺牲，3位在与朱家河围困相关的暴力活动中献身。政府非常愤怒，谴责圣徒们是"恶贯满盈的罪人"，认为把他们列入圣徒名单，是"对中国向外国侵略和压迫爱国反抗的严重侮辱"。而教皇挑选中国国庆日宣告，更是给政府的伤口上撒了一把盐。

Zhu Junhuan was delighted. Her great-grandmother became Saint Mary Zhu. She is a devotee of her ancestor: prayers to Saint Mary, she says, have helped cure illnesses. But the state-controlled church frowned on celebrations. A low-key ceremony was held in the nearby county town, not in the village itself.
朱俊环非常高兴。她的曾祖母成了圣玛丽亚•朱。她崇敬先人，说向圣玛丽亚祈祷，治好了她的病。但受政府管制的教堂不赞成举行庆典。典礼十分低调，而且是在附近县城，不在本村。

Zhujiahe church was rebuilt after the Boxer Uprising but destroyed again during the Cultural Revolution, and has not been restored since. On a Sunday, a villager finds the key to its huge red wooden outer gate to show a rare foreign visitor around. It is a small brick-built former storeroom with no pews. Pictures of Zhujiahe's five saints (two bearded Frenchmen and three Chinese) adorn one dirty, cracked wall. A larger picture is propped up beneath them, half-hidden by a desk. It shows a woman, presumably Saint Mary, her head pouring with blood, standing in front of foreign-looking priests. Flames and smoke curl up around Chinese women and children in the foreground. The picture is captioned, "The Martyrs of Zhujiahe". The courtyard is piled with bricks that villagers have been hoarding in the hope of one day building a new church. But fears of upsetting saint-resenting officials have held them back.
朱家河教堂在义和团起义过后曾有重建，但文化大革命中再度被毁，此后再未修缮。一个周日，某村民找到了教堂红漆大木门的钥匙，将一位少见的外国游客带入参观。这是一座小型砖构的房间，过去用作储物，没有长凳。朱家河五位圣徒（两位长胡子法国人和三位中国人）的画像挂在又脏又破的墙上。画像下面，有一幅大画像，一半被桌子挡住了。画中是一位妇女，可能是圣玛利亚，她的头滴着血，在看似外国人的神父面前站着。画像中的前方，火焰和烟雾在中国妇女和儿童周围卷起。画下面的字写到："朱家河烈士"。庭院里到处堆着村民们垒起的砖头，他们希望将来能建造一座新教堂。不过因为害怕触怒那些憎恶圣徒的官员，只得作罢。

In the village of Donglu, 150km (93 miles) to the north-west, the party's narrow interpretation of patriotism (essentially, supporting the party) hits another rut. The spires of a Gothic Catholic church have recently been painted gold. The church honours the Virgin Mary, who residents say appeared above the village in 1900, clad in radiant white, and helped defend it against more than 40 Boxer assaults (miraculously, they say, Boxers died in profusion while few villagers or other Chinese Catholics perished). "Holy Mary of Donglu, Pray For Us", say large red characters attached to its railings, echoing the pleas of the besieged 110 years ago.
西北方向150公里（93英里）的东路村中，共产党对爱国的狭隘解释（即支持共产党）再度遭遇门槛。哥特式天主教堂的尖顶最近被漆成了金色。教堂纪念的是圣母玛利亚，当地居民称她曾在1900年出现在村庄上方，身着发光白衣，帮村子抵御了40多场义和团袭击（他们说，非常神奇，义和团的人死了很多，但很少有村民和其他中国天主教徒丧生）。"东路的圣母玛利亚，请为我们祈祷。"栏杆上条幅的大红字体写道，让人们想到了110年前的那次包围。

The story of Mary's appearance over the village has become central to Chinese Catholic faith. The mother of Jesus is believed to have confronted the "patriots", and to have won (although Joseph Esherick of the University of California, San Diego, says in a history of the period that Catholics in Hebei were well-armed by their missionary leaders and, in their mission bases, "were usually able to hold off Boxer attacks").
玛利亚曾经出现在村子上方的故事成了中国天主信仰的中心。人们相信，是圣母对抗了"爱国义和团战士"，赢得了战斗（尽管加州大学圣地亚哥分校的周锡瑞在一部关于当时的历史中称，河北的天主教徒在传教领袖的带领下装备完善，并在传教基地中，"通常能够抗击义和团的进攻"）。

It is a hard story for the party to tell. Who are the real patriots? The party's "patriotic" Catholic church cannot easily reject Mary herself. In 1924, 25 years before the communists came to power, papal recognition of the Donglu apparition was sought by the first meeting of Chinese church leaders. This was a crucial event in the evolution of a Catholic church led by native Chinese. The meeting asked that an image of Mary holding the baby Jesus, both dressed in Chinese imperial costume, be recognised as that of Our Lady of China. It was intended to symbolise the church's Chinese-ness, something the government-backed church today is also eager to promote (ironically, the image was based on another picture—of the foreign-hating empress dowager).
这段故事对共产党来说难以启齿。谁才是真正的爱国者？共产党的"爱国"天主教堂也不能轻易反对玛利亚。1924年，也就是共产党执政25年前，在第一次中国教会领袖会议上征求意见后，罗马教皇承认东路村上圣母显灵。这是中国本土人民领导的一次天主教堂发展重大事件。会议中要求，身着中国传统服饰的玛利亚抱着同样穿着中国服饰的婴儿耶稣形象，作为"中国的圣母"。这是为了彰显教堂的"中国性"，而政府支持的教堂今天也希望倡导这一形象（很讽刺的是，该形象是以仇视外国人的慈禧太后画像为原型）。

The Vatican agreed to the Shanghai meeting's requests and Donglu became a centre of Marian worship. Under communist rule, Mary the conqueror of "patriots" found herself grudgingly adopted by the "patriotic" establishment. Donglu and the Baoding diocese to which it belongs have been the scene of the official church's bitterest struggles with underground Catholics. Backing Donglu's Marian shrine has been a way of keeping Catholics in the region from devoting their loyalty to the underground, whose priests are often harassed or detained by the police. But officials remain wary. Every year in May, as the church prepares for the annual festival of Our Lady of China when her image is paraded around the village, police set up checkpoints on the narrow roads leading to Donglu to prevent non-locals from attending. Huge displays of Mary-adoration would be embarrassing to party officials and could be used as cover for protests by underground followers.
罗马教廷答应了上海会议的要求，东路成了敬拜玛利亚的核心之一。在共产党的领导下，征服"爱国者"的玛丽亚被"爱国"教会勉强接手。所属的东路和保定教区，一直是官方教堂和地下天主教会抗争最激烈的地方。支持东路的玛利亚敬拜，是为了防止当地天主教忠心地下教会，而地下教会神父经常受到警方的骚扰和关押。但官方仍然小心。每年五月，教会准备一年一度的"中国圣母"典礼，抬着她的画像在村中游行之时，警方就会在通往东路村的狭窄小路上设立关卡，阻止外地人参加。如果崇拜玛利亚的活动做大，会让共产党领导感到尴尬，也可能作为掩饰，组织地下天主信徒抗议。

The Communist Party knows that popular nationalism could turn against it. Its efforts to equate patriotism with support for the party leave many patriots who are critics of the party feeling left out. When nationalist demonstrations occur, such as against Western countries who are perceived to have offended China, these dissidents readily join in, posing a threat to the government.
共产党知道，风靡的民族主义可能会走火。将爱国等同于支持共产党，会让许多对党持批评意见的爱国人士感到被抛弃。民族主义游行之时——如反对被认为曾侵略过中国的西方国家，这些异见人士都积极加入，对政府构成威胁。

At the end of the 19th century the empress dowager struggled with a similar conundrum: support the Boxers and risk being overwhelmed by them, or crush them and risk being accused of pandering to foreigners. At first she supported them, and then she turned against them; but by then it was too late to save the dynasty.
19世纪末，慈禧太后也面临着类似的难题：支持义和团，就有被他们推翻的危险；消灭他们，就会受到卖国的谴责。首先，慈禧站在了义和团一边，后来才变了脸；但是那时，拯救清王朝，为时晚矣