1900 - Cao Zuolin's Family

June 1900

Cao Zuolin’s Family

Fuho, Beijing

11-year-old Cao Zuolin’s entire family was slaughtered by the Boxers in 1900.

Little Cao Zuolin was raised in the city of Tongzhou, near Beijing. His father was a teacher at the North China College, and Zuolin was a typical energetic young boy, always seeming to find something mischievous to do. His two older sisters were studying at a Presbyterian school in Beijing, but the school term in 1900 was shortened because of the Boxer troubles, and they had returned home for the summer.

On June 7th news came that Christians were being slaughtered in villages near Tongzhou. Zuolin’s parents decided the whole family should flee immediately to Fuho, where they had many relatives. Little did they know that this small town was also in chaos, and would yield a total of 43 Christian martyrs before June had come to an end. The crazed Boxers vowed not only to kill the Christians there, but also to not even leave a chicken or dog alive.

The An family, who lived next door to where Cao Zuolin and his family were hiding, was all put to death on June 17th. Cao’s family would surely be next. There was no escaping now, as Boxers blocked all the roads out of the city. Cao Zuolin experienced things in the summer of 1900 that no little boy should ever have to. He later recounted,

“Someone came and told us that my father had just been killed. He was seen by Boxers when he was trying to creep unobserved into his brother’s house for a drink of water. Pursued by them, he waded across the river, but they were soon upon him, and with rough hands they dragged him back to the spot, not far from our lodge, where the bodies of two other martyrs lay. ‘Pray to your God to save you!’ they cried, as they set upon him from all sides with swords and spears.”[I]

Just before sunset, the Boxers found Zuolin’s uncle hiding in some bushes, and dragged him and an old Christian man named Zhou, to the place where Zuolin’s father had been slain. “‘You can kill my body, but you cannot hurt my soul,’ he said with a brave smile; and as the death blows fell on him he prayed, ‘Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.’”[II]

That night, the terrified 11-year-old Cao Zuolin huddled with his mother and sisters in a garden shed. His mother suffered grief beyond words. She mumbled something about not letting the Boxers have their way with her. That night, through sheer exhaustion, Zuolin managed to sleep for a few hours. When he awoke he found the dead bodies of his mother and sisters next to him. They had chosen to take poison rather than face being raped and murdered.

Cao Zuolin’s non-Christian uncle pleaded with the Boxers to spare the young boy’s life. He explained that the rest of the family had been killed, and there was no point shedding the blood of a young boy who was in no position to take vengeance on them. For once, common sense prevailed and they left the boy alone.

God did not abandon Cao Zuolin. He later remembered,

“It seemed to me I would be so much happier if I could join my loved ones in heaven. The next night after they died I had such a beautiful dream about them. I saw my father, mother, and two sisters in white robes, with a flood of glory about them and a great throng of angels close by. Two or three times this vision came to me, and comforted me.”[III]

Some time later Christians in Beijing heard that a few children in Fuho were still alive. They came and took Cao Zuolin to Beijing, where he was taken care.