The Hushenying () were a unit of 10,000

Manchu The Manchus (; ) are a Tungusic East Asian ethnic group native to Manchuria in Northeast Asia. They are an officially recognized ethnic minority in China and the people from whom Manchuria derives its name. The Later Jin (1616–1636) an ...

Bannermen under the command of

Zaiyi Zaiyi (; Manchu: ; ''dzai-i''; 26 August 1856 – 10 January 1923),Edward J.M. Rhoads, ''Manchus & Han: Ethnic Relations and Political Power in Late Qing and Early Republican China, 1861–1928'', University of Washington Press, 2001 better ...

during the

Boxer Rebellion The Boxer Rebellion, also known as the Boxer Uprising, the Boxer Insurrection, or the Yihetuan Movement, was an Xenophobia, anti-foreign, anti-colonialism, anti-colonial, and Persecution of Christians#China, anti-Christian uprising in China ...

. Zaiyi himself created the unit in 1899, but it was decimated at the Battle of Peking in 1900 when the

Eight-Nation Alliance The Eight-Nation Alliance was a multinational military coalition that invaded northern China in 1900 with the stated aim of relieving the foreign legations in Beijing, then besieged by the popular Boxer militia, who were determined to remove fo ...

captured

Beijing } Beijing ( ; ; ), Chinese postal romanization, alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the Capital city, capital of the China, People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's Li ...

to lift the Chinese siege of the foreign legations during the

Boxer Uprising The Boxer Rebellion, also known as the Boxer Uprising, the Boxer Insurrection, or the Yihetuan Movement, was an anti-foreign, anti-colonial, and anti-Christian uprising in China between 1899 and 1901, towards the end of the Qing dynasty, by ...

Summary

Hushenying has been translated variously as Tiger Spirit Division, Tiger and Divine Corps, and Tiger Spirit Battalion.

, also known as Prince Duan, created the Hushenying in June 1899, for which he gained the praise of Empress Dowager Cixi. The new division contained 10,000 troops, all recruited from the banner armies that garrisoned the capital. Some Chinese sources claim that Zaiyi chose the name Hushenying to convey his dislike of foreigners – since "tiger eats lamb (''Yang'', a pun on foreigners), and the divine tames the devil (''Gui'')" – but this claim cannot be verified in the documents of the time. The Hushenying became the third modern army guarding Beijing, the other two being the Guards Army (established shortly before the Hushenying in 1899) and the older

Peking Field Force The Peking Field Force was a modern-armed military unit that defended the Chinese imperial capital Beijing in the last decades of the Qing dynasty (1644–1912). The Force was founded in 1862, two years after the humiliating capture of Beijing and ...

(created in 1862). During the

(1899–1901), the Hushenying was among the troops that besieged the Beijing Legation Quarter, where most foreigners lived. During that siege (summer 1900), the Hushenying led by the harshly anti-foreign Zaiyi often clashed with the Peking Field Force, which was commanded by the more moderate Yikuang (Prince Qing). Both armies were decimated in the Battle of Peking. Several Chinese works of fiction have been written about the Hushenying.

References

Works cited

* * * * {{Qing dynasty topics Divisions of China Eight Banners