摘要
一般對義和團運動的印象，認為其具有反對帝國主義侵略的愛國主義性質。同時將基督宗教的傳教活動，視為與帝國主義侵略中國具有關聯性，因此反教即係反帝。在史料中，可以找到這種看法的眾多證據。 本文係對上述觀點的重新審視。實際上史料因撰寫者不同，而具有不同的意義。官書檔案代表的是官員的意見，但他們絕大多數並未參加義和團，且受官場文化影響，他們多半表達的是一種主流意見。而在文字資料中，可表達出義和團參半者反教心態者，必須依賴揭帖歌謠；但在揭帖歌謠中，可見籠統的排外情緒，但並未清楚感受到帝國主義威脅的情緒，而此種籠統排外情緒是數百年長時期的產物，基督宗教在一般民眾看來，是外來的異端邪教，而似乎這才是義和團反教的主因。
並列摘要
The general impression of the Boxers is that they were a group of people who shared patriotic sentiments and fought against the invasion of imperialism. As missions and evangelization of the Catholic Church were seen as closely related to imperialistic invasion on China, therefore, to oppose the religion is to oppose imperialism. The notion can be supported by various historical documents. This article re-examines the above-mentioned deduction by taking the authorship of these historical documents into consideration. Government records represented the mainstream opinion, and were written under influence of the official position; also in most cases, authors of these records were not members of the Boxers. Documents that reflected the Boxers' anti-Christian sentiments were mostly anonymous letters or slanderous posters; yet these writings showed more of general anti-foreign sentiments instead of a specific opposition against the threat of imperialism. These general anti-foreign sentiments came as a result of long-term accumulation. Seen by the general public as a heresy, the heretic nature of Christianity was the real reason why the Boxers sabotaged the Catholic Church.