著者

土肥 歩

出版者

東洋文庫

雑誌

東洋学報 : 東洋文庫和文紀要 (ISSN:03869067)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.102, no.1, pp.1-29, 2020-06

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The civil disturbances caused by secret societies and discharged military veterans of Guangxi Province from the end of the 19th century into the beginning of the 20th century were further exacerbated by natural disasters, especially the flood and famine from 1901 to 1903. Although much research has paid special attention to these Guangxi civil disturbances to date, the aspect of relief efforts by foreign Protestant missionary societies has not been sufficiently covered. For this reason, the present article attempts to clarify whether or not the disaster relief activities, which were carried out by the Christian and Missionary Alliance (CMA) in Guangxi Province, and by Robert McWade, a Consul General of the United States at Guangzhou, affected the civil disturbances. The author begins by summarizing the actual conditions surrounding the disturbances based on the research to date and the available primary sources, in order to confirm a relationship between civil disturbances and the Renyin Disasters. Next, he describes the famine relief efforts conducted in 1903 by the missionaries of the CMA and McWade's "American Relief Expedition" funded by private voluntary contributions from the United States; then sums up the influence exerted by relief efforts on the evangelical activities of the CMA in Guangxi Province, in general, while focusing specifically on the relationship between famine relief, touted as "humanitarian service" in the US, and the simultaneous efforts by the Cen Chunxuan, the Viceroy of Liangguang to suppress rebellion. The above investigation has led the author to the following two discoveries. First, regarding the relationship between disaster relief and Protestant evangelical activities, as already shown in the existing research, the contribution of the humanitarian efforts carried out by the missionaries of the CMA and diplomats in the midst of the Renyin Disasters can be confirmed. On the other hand, it is also clear that the evangelical efforts conducted by McWade's "Expedition" met with every possible impediment because of the oppositions on the part of local elites. Secondly, due to the intervention of Chinese authorities, the relief campaign was incorporated into the counterinsurgency operations. In more general terms, the author's results demonstrate the necessity of further studying the relationships between internationally organized relief campaigns and intervention in such efforts by Chinese local authorities.