1876 - Ling Zhe'ang

January 1876

Zhedu, Fujian

The Church Missionary Society first opened the mission station of Zhedu, in Fujian Province, in 1875. Right from the start the Chinese believers in Zhedu suffered a great deal of opposition from the locals, who believed Christianity upset the spirits they and their ancestors had served for centuries.

The villagers were especially angry that the Christians refused to participate in ancestral ceremonies or to worship the esteemed village idols. This was viewed as a direct disgrace to the ancestors who had lived for countless generations without ever believing in this new, ‘foreign religion’. In January 1876 a leading woman in the village died.

The village elders believed the Christians were responsible for upsetting the spiritual harmony of the community. They seized the mission chapel and decided to turn it into an idol hall in the hope that by worshipping the angry spirits inside the church building they would feel placated. When the Christians resisted this plan they were badly beaten and their Bibles and other books were burned. The resident missionary, John Wolfe, appealed to the magistrate for assistance, showing that he was the legal owner of the chapel and the village elders had no right to take over the facility. The magistrate, however, was too afraid to take the side of the ‘foreign devils’ and refused to intervene. A short time later another villager died of fever. The elders

“…raised the cry that these Christians were the cause of this fever, and that the idols were angry. On Sunday morning, as the Christians were quietly engaged in worship, the leading gentry, with the [constable] beating his official gong, and followed by a mob, proceeded to the chapel, dragged the Christians forth, and beat them most violently, and threatened to kill them unless they renounced their faith and returned to the worship of idols.”[1]

Not only did the believers give no thought to the demands of the village elders, they displayed their faith and steadfastness by returning to the chapel the very same Sunday afternoon, and proceeded to worship God again. This act was perceived as a direct provocation by the authorities. They raced to the chapel and dragged each believer from the building, beating them severely. One man, Ling Zhe’ang (Ling Cheh-ang) was beaten to death.

Ling’s relatives demanded the magistrate come to the village and examine the body as evidence that he had been killed. The law required the judge to come immediately, but he purposely delayed his visit, so that by the time he arrived five days later Ling Zhe’ang’s body had decomposed. The magistrate took one look at the corpse and announced it was clear Ling had committed suicide by drinking poison.