1900 - Yan Laibao & 13 Family Members

July 1900

Shouyang, Shanxi

Yan Laibao and his family lived in Shouyang, Shanxi Province. When Thomas Pigott and the other missionaries made plans to flee into the mountains, Yan offered his home for them to hide in. They were able to shelter the foreigners for only three days before neighbours reported what was taking place. The Boxers were summoned, so Yan and his extended family, numbering twenty people in all, fled into the mountains. The next day their home in Shouyang was burned to the ground, and the furious Boxers made plans to track the Yans down no matter how long it would take. During the day the Yans hid in ravines as the fierce sun beat down on them, while at night they sought shelter in caves, while dozens of Boxers combed the mountains, searching out every possible hiding place.

Yang Laibao was the first to be discovered. He was ruthlessly hacked to death. A short time later one of Yan’s sons was also captured. The young man was angrily told to divulge where the others were hiding. When he failed to do so,

“he was taken to his village home, where feet and hands were bound together behind his back, and he was suspended from a pole. Tortured with pain, he still refused to reveal the hiding-place; then burning incense was placed on his back, and weighed down with a heavy stone…. He was silent, even unto death.”[1]

The Boxers were not easily dissuaded from their deathly ambitions. They found six more family members, and sent them to Shouyang where they were barbarously killed. In the next few days, “seven others were arrested and killed…and only six men were left to represent the family, all the women and younger members having fallen victims to the hatred of their enemies.”[2]

It was said of the Yan family that “No other Christians in Shanxi were hunted down with such diligence, or murdered with such ferocity.”[3]