The Origins of the Boxer War

by Lanxin Xiang

"Fall 1917. Ancient silkroad in Gansu, China. A mysterious caravan appeared from the horizon. Camels led a few dozen carts carrying baggage, women and children. In the front were a number of archaic sedan chairs carried by human coolies, reflecting the old comforts of a rapidly disappearing time. In the back, a giant coffin lay in an open cart, escorted by a team of well-armed guards. The strange caravan cast a long, eerie shadow in sharp contrast with the blood-colored sky lit by the late autumn sunset of China's wild west ... No-one realised that the owner of the caravan was once the most powerful man in China and certainly the most hated in the West ... [from the prelude]." "This is the first book to provide a panoramic view of the origins of the Boxer War. Comprehensively examining this historical conundrum of the 20th century from a detached perspective, the book is based on 10 years exhaustive research of both unpublished and published materials from all nine countries involved.