1900 - Dong Dianfu

June 1900

Dong Dianfu

Beijing

Dong Dianfu (Tung Tien-fu) was a good Christian man who taught Chinese to new missionaries. After the Boxer troubles started he sent his wife to a safe place, while he decided to hide in the house of a friend. Neighbours soon told the Boxers of this arrangement, and they came to kill the occupants. Dong and his friend fled for their lives but had nowhere to go. They decided to go as far from Beijing as possible, hoping that the Boxers were not as strong in the countryside as in the city. They went to Tongzhou, and then south to the small town of Caiyu, but there was no place to hide and Boxers were prevalent in these areas. Hedged in from the front and back, and with dwindling finances, they decided to head back to Beijing.

Just minutes after Dong reached his father-in-law’s house, 30 to 40 Boxers seized and bound him, taking him to their headquarters near the southeast gate of the city. He was bound hand and foot, and offered a chance to escape death if he would renounce his faith in Jesus and become a Boxer. “Do you still believe in Jesus?”

“…the Boxers asked Mr. Dong, seeing his calmness even while hacked and stabbed with their knives. ‘Yes, indeed,’ he replied, ‘until death I shall believe in Him.’ The man bowed his head and prayed, ‘Lord Jesus receive my spirit.’ And soon the cruel wounds of the Boxers set free his weary soul.”[I]

The record of Dong Dianfu’s last words came from his chief persecutor, a Boxer named Chang Chun, who was later put to death for his part in the uprising. Dong’s powerful and fearless testimony for Christ left an indelible impression on the hearts and minds of their persecutors.