Wang the Ninth: The Story of a Chinese Boy

In Short

Set during the closing years of the Qing dynasty and the violence of the Boxer Uprising, this novel follows Wang the Ninth, an indomitable Chinese youth sold into poverty and raised in the hard-scrabble alleys of Peking. Through shear nerve and adaptability, he rises from forge worker to city smuggler to groom in the foreign quarter. When anti-foreign violence erupts into open siege, Wang accepts a perilous mission: slip through enemy lines to carry news to the relief army. Written by a longtime British diplomat in Peking, the book endures for its rare, unsentimental portrait of a boy surviving on his wits within a society in total convulsion.

The Story

The narrative opens in Ten Li Hamlet, a tiny village stripped bare by famine. Wang the Ninth, the eighth child of a impoverished family—named "Ninth" to spare him an insulting numerical nickname—is uprooted at age three when his mother absconds with a itinerant blacksmith and his siblings are leased or sold. Trundled off on a wooden wheelbarrow by his desperate father, Wang settles on the dusty outskirts of Peking, where his father sets up a blacksmith's forge.

Growing up wild and fiercely independent, Wang spends his childhood mastering street slang, out-cursing camel drivers, and bird-catching along the Imperial Canal. As he enters adolescence, his father attempts to lock him into hard labor at the forge, keeping him chained to the bellows from dawn to dusk. Wang relies on trickery and sheer persistence to escape. Wanting more out of life, he runs away to join a band of illicit wine smugglers who scale the great stone walls of Peking at dawn and dusk. Proving his complete lack of fear, Wang learns to walk up the brick ramparts as easily as climbing a tree.

Driven by an inexplicable fatalism and curiosity, Wang eventually abandons smuggling and makes his way into the capital's foreign quarter. He seeks out a foreigner with a distinctive red beard, securing employment in the stables of an American resident. Perched in his skull-cap and discarded foreign boots, Wang becomes a fixtures of the foreign compound, defending his dignity against local hecklers and learning the ways of the white men.

Political turmoil soon engulfs the capital. The Boxers—the "Society of the Righteous and Harmonious Fists"—fill the streets, displaying blood-red regalia, burning foreign property, and carrying severed heads through the alleys. As imperial troops join the anti-foreign violence and siege lines tighten around the Legation Quarter, communication with the outside world is severed. With food supplies dwindling for three thousand besieged souls, Wang's red-bearded master asks the young Chinese servant to volunteer for a near-impossible task: slip through the Boxer encampments, reach the advancing Allied relief column, and return with news.

Disguised as a peasant boy searching for lost relatives, Wang survives beatings, suspicious village priests, and dry watering troughs as he covers the arid countryside. He locates the relief army, receives their verbal message, and turns back toward Peking. Captured on his return journey by imperial gate guards, he is robbed of a hidden gold coin and bound naked on the city ramparts to serve as a target for foreign bullets. During a midnight sortie, foreign troops discover Wang unharmed. Brought back to his master, the exhausted boy announces that he swallowed the written document to save it, delivering the message by memory and surviving against all odds.

How It Unfolds

The wheelbarrow exile Famine destroys Wang’s family in Ten Li Hamlet, forcing his mother to run away and his father to transport the three-year-old child to the outer edges of Peking.

Dreams at the forge Wang’s father forces the growing boy to pull the bellows from dawn till dusk, but Wang continuously slips away through elaborate tricks to explore the city's hidden nooks.

Scaling the ramparts Defying his father, Wang joins a gang of wine smugglers, winning their respect by scaling the massive rectangular brick walls of Peking with leather flasks strapped to his back.

Entering the foreign quarter Wang migrates to the foreign quarter, secures a job in the stables of a red-bearded foreigner, and fiercely defends his status among the local grooms.

The rising storm The Boxer Uprising breaks out in Peking, bringing fires, murder, and fanaticism to the streets while Wang tracks troop movements and reports back to his master.

A dangerous request With the foreign quarter cut off and short of food, Wang's master asks him to volunteer to carry a critical message through enemy lines to the advancing relief force.

Journey through the fields Wang treks south through abandoned villages, dodging suspicious priests, hostile dogs, and dry wells, sustained only by stolen water-melons and small flour-cakes.

Captured on the wall On his return journey, Wang is seized by imperial soldiers, beaten, stripped, and tied to the city wall as a target for night gunfire.

The midnight rescue A foreign sortie team breaches the gateway, discovers Wang alive, and carries him back to his master, where he delivers his report safely.

The People

• Wang the Ninth, the protagonist; an agile, stubborn, and highly intelligent street urchin. He wants freedom, adventure, and respect. Plagued by extreme poverty, family abandonment, and physical abuse, he transforms from a street vagabond into a brave, resilient courier who risks his life for those who treat him with dignity.

• Wang's Father, a bitter, impoverished blacksmith. He wants a dutiful son to labor at his forge and provide interest on his upbringing. Burned by his wife's desertion, he drinks warm wine to excess, beats Wang for disobedience, and views the boy primarily as financial capital.

• The Master (The Red-Bearded Foreigner), a prominent white resident in Peking's foreign quarter. He wants clear intelligence on military movements and a reliable way to contact the relief column. He treats Wang with unprecedented respect, asking for his voluntary help rather than issuing orders.

• The Smuggling Captain, a practical leader of a contraband wine gang operating outside the city walls. He initially scoffs at Wang’s youth, but gives him a chance when the boy displays absolute fearless persistence.

In Its Own Voice

"Tomorrow it will rain also."

Wang sings a traditional frog-rhyme while sitting hunched up during summer thunderstorms in stagnant fields.

"Fear! Who speaks of fear! Give me a day to learn correctly, and I will walk up the wall as a man goes up a rope."

Wang boldly boasts to the seasoned wine smugglers before proving he can scale the city ramparts.

"Your Honour, I have returned; but the message the great army gave me is inside me because it was too dangerous to carry and I swallowed it, and by your blessing I shall now die a natural death."

Wang reports back to his master after being rescued from the city wall at the end of the siege.

What It's Really About

Beneath its adventure plot, the novel explores the psychology of survival in a collapsing society. It examines how severe poverty and trauma shape a child's moral universe, replacing conventional ethics with personal loyalty and acute self-reliance. Author Bertram Lenox Putnam Weale presents China not through abstract political summaries, but through the visceral sensory reality of its lower classes—the smell of forge fires, the mechanics of smuggling, and the terror of arson. The story also explores the complex cultural friction of the Boxer Rebellion, showing how a boy caught between traditional Chinese life and foreign employers navigates a world where both sides view him with deep suspicion. Ultimately, it asks what drives individual resilience when every social structure around a child breaks down.

Why Read It Today

Wang the Ninth offers a vivid, historical insider view of late-Qing China and the 1900 Siege of the International Legations. Readers who enjoy gritty historical fiction, coming-of-age survival stories, and authentic historical detail will appreciate its immersive, grounded depiction of daily life in old Peking. The prose moves with swift confidence, avoiding sentimentality or cheap melodrama in favor of sharp, concrete observation.

Readers should note that the book reflects the era in which it was written (1920). It occasionally uses antiquated terminology, romanized dialect, and period racial designations common to early twentieth-century Western writing about East Asia. However, the author's extensive first-hand experience living in China gives the narrative a grounded authenticity rare for its era. What remains with the reader long after finishing is Wang himself—an unforgettable, fiercely proud anti-hero whose humor, stubbornness, and raw physical courage turn a historical tragedy into a deeply human triumph.