1970s - The Little Flock of Narrow Gate

1970s

Wuding, Yunnan

A-Hmao Christians from Wuding County.

The Christians from the A-Hmao (Big Flowery Miao) tribe of Wuding County in northern Yunnan Province experienced intense persecution throughout the 1970s. The most barbaric treatment was meted out to the inhabitants of Xiaoshiqiao village, located on a mountaintop near Wuding town.

In the late 1960s Xiaoshiqiao (which means ‘Little Stone Bridge’) consisted of just seven Christian households totalling about 60 people, all members of the A-Hmao ethnic minority group. These Christians were zealous in their faith but also model law-abiding citizens. This wasn’t good enough for the Communist authorities, and a systematic plan was launched to obliterate the Christians of Xiaoshiqiao.

In 1969 officials came to the village and asked the family leaders whom they were loyal to. They replied, “On earth, we rely on Chairman Mao, but spiritually, we give our allegiance to God.”[1] This answer was deemed unacceptable and persecution commenced. The believers were told, “The land belongs to Mao, you cannot till it. The cattle belongs to Mao, you cannot pasture them. Every blade of wood and grass belongs to Mao.”[2] All the Christians in the village were condemned as ‘counter revolutionaries.’ The government cut off their monthly salt rations and clothing coupons, and the village leader was cruelly tortured. Their land was confiscated and given to the people of neighbouring villages.

Now cast aside by their country, the Christians of Xiaoshiqiao tried to make ends meet. They roamed the forests eating wild herbs and fruit. Some dwelt in isolated caves. Many of them died, especially the young children and elderly who were not able to endure the difficulties. All of this hardship could not shake the Christians’ resolve. They declared,

“Many years of torment have made us disillusioned with the mortal world. We are now striving for sustenance from the Scripture. We do not blame the cadres who inflicted those sufferings on us. What was said in the Scripture has all come true. Genuine Christians are bound to bear intense sufferings. It goes without saying that the gate of heaven is very narrow indeed. In the past we believed it with some reservation. Now, we have convincing evidence to believe it is true.”[3]

Because of all their troubles, the Christians called their church The Little Flock of Narrow Gate, seeing themselves as those “who were willing to pass through the narrow gate, to distinguish themselves from those who were working their way through the wide gate, referring in particular to the believers who put themselves at the beck and call of the government.”[4] In 1978 an order was issued from Beijing to ‘unmask the counter-revolutionaries hiding under the cloak of religion.’ A fresh wave of attacks against the Little Flock of Narrow Gate was launched. The People’s Liberation Army surrounded the harmless village, reacting as if they were facing a foreign army:

“Rifles and machine guns were displayed surrounding this hamlet on the mountain top, with loudspeakers at full blare calling the inhabitants to abandon their faith and surrender. At the same time, warning was given to compel all the newcomers to leave immediately. When this failed, more than 200 militiamen rushed up to the mountain top. They bound up the hands and feet of adult villagers, putting a wooden pole through them, and carried them down by the local method of handling pigs. They were all confined in the district prison for two months. The former head of the hamlet was condemned to seven years’ imprisonment.”[5]

The Christians from Narrow Bridge had passed from that place of selfish living to only wanting to please God. Consequently, their witness was blessed in a mighty way and people repented and believed in Jesus Christ all over the county. By 1981, 34 of the 62 villages in Wuding had joined the Little Flock of Narrow Gate, numbering over 3,000 Christians. In neighbouring Luquan County the number of believers in this church amounted to 1,043. One of the leaders in Wuding was a Han Chinese named Li Zicheng. At the height of persecution he issued a lengthy statement of defiance to the Chinese government. After detailing all the persecutions he and his family had been forced to endure, Li concluded with these words:

“What you, the government, intend to do is your own decision. I firmly believe that Jesus will eventually remedy all the injustice imposed. What I have just said, though it might be in a fit of righteous anger, came from my deep conviction. I have nothing to fear. If you want to punish me again, go ahead, the sooner the better. You can even arrest me now. More arrests would surely accelerate the second coming of Jesus.”[6]

With such bold believers it is little wonder that the influence of the Little Flock of Narrow Gate grew. The more the government tried to crush them the more they multiplied. A Chinese historian wrote, “Despite the most precarious situation, the spark struck suddenly in the tiny hamlet of Narrow Bridge on the mountain top soon burst into a big flame, and awakened many unbelievers to share the faith.”[7]

The worst single attack against the A-Hmao Christians in southwest China came during a meeting on July 28, 1974, when “many A-Hmao believers were massacred by Chinese troops when they secretly met for prayer in a cave at Xinglongchang.”[8] The A-Hmao church leaders had boldly and defiantly told the government,

“The more you forbid Christianity, the more we will cling to the church. If you confiscate our churches, we will worship in caves. If you announce the extermination of the church, we will develop even more secret meetings. If you attack ordained pastors, we will use even more independent house church preachers instead. If you take action against us on Sundays, we will multiply our meetings to every day of the week and into the night.”[9]

In a separate incident an A-Hmao evangelist named Zhang Youxue was arrested and accused of counter-revolutionary activities. Zhang was “forced to commit suicide. His two sons, Zhang Mincai and Zhang Mingan jumped into a river and also committed suicide. This incident caused masses of the Miao people to return to the church.”[10] The persecution was designed to destroy the A-Hmao Church, but instead it caused a doubling in the number of Christians in a short space of time.[11]

1. A statement by Li Zicheng, a Christian from the Little Flock of the Narrow Gate; cited in Tien, Peaks of Faith, 115.
2. Tony Lambert, China’s Christian Millions: The Costly Revival (London: Monarch Books, 1999), 101.
3. Hu Zongyao, Guanyu Yunnan ‘Xianshiqiao’ wenti de chubu Baogao [Preliminary Report on the Problem Concerning the Incident in Narrow Bridge of Yunnan], in Zongjiao (No.1, 1982), 515.
4. Tien, Peaks of Faith, 113.
5. Tien, Peaks of Faith, 113.
6. A statement by Li Zicheng, a Christian from the Little Flock of the Narrow Gate, cited in Tien, Peaks of Faith, 117.
7. Tien, Peaks of Faith, 119.
8. Hattaway, Operation China, 26. The original description of the massacre in Chinese accounts is found in Zhang Tan, “Zhaimen” qian de Shimenkan: Jidujiao Wenhua Yu Chuan-Dian-Qian-Bian Miaozu Shehui (Kunming: Yunnan Jiaoyu Chubanshe, 1992), 237.
9. Lambert, China’s Christian Millions, 100.
10. Zhang Dan, The Stone Threshold (Kunming: Yunnan Educational Press, 1992); cited in Lambert, China’s Christian Millions, 100-101.
11. See Enwall, A Myth Become Reality, Vol.1, 217.