1898 - Pan Xiushan

1898 - Pan Xiushan

November 4, 1898

Qingping, Guizhou

Pan Xiushan[1] and his wife belonged to the Hmu tribe (a subgroup of the Miao). They were born and brought up in Huangping, about 93 miles (150 km) east of Guiyang. Pan’s job as a mason took him to Guiyang, where he had lived for many years. Soon after arriving in the provincial capital Pan and his wife heard the gospel, believed it, and were baptized by the China Inland Mission’s J. F. Broumton, who had been one of two first Protestant missionaries ever to set foot in Guizhou in 1877.

Pan taught Hmu to a few of the missionaries, who soon realized the various Miao languages were completely different throughout Guizhou, and nothing of Pan’s language could be understood by other groups closer to Guiyang.[2] In 1896 Pan Xiushan accompanied Mr. & Mrs. F. B. Webb as they established a mission base at Panghai, near Kaili, in order to reach out to the Hmu tribesmen. They found most of the Hmu to be very friendly and receptive to the gospel, but the Chinese—who were outnumbered in that part of China—were afraid of the Christians’ intentions and especially hated Pan for the assistance he gave the foreigners. In 1897 the Webbs left the area because of ill health, and were replaced by missionary F. E. Bolton. Together, Bolton and Pan made a good team. Bolton’s letters frequently mentioned the impact Pan’s preaching was having on his fellow Hmu listeners:

“From early morning till 10.30 or 11 p.m. the chapel has been filled, and preaching has gone on all day. The evening service is a sight to behold; the place packed inside, and as many people outside. Both Mr. Pan and the teacher have preached splendidly, taking the meeting in turns.”[3]

After a three-week preaching trip with missionary William Fleming, Pan returned to Panghai to find great animosity between the Hmu and Chinese. Fleming and Pan attempted to flee to Guiyang. A short distance from Panghai they stopped for lunch for about an hour, then

“continued their journey, when they observed two or three men following them, one of them being armed with a long cavalry sword. When they had got about three hundred yards [275 metres], this man suddenly set upon the evangelist and quickly dispatched him—hacking at him as he tried to get out of a field into which he had fallen.”[4]

Pan Xiushan was the first of his tribe to follow Christ. Today approximately three million Hmu people comprise the largest subgroup of the official Miao nationality in China. His death was an inspiration to many Hmu people, who knew Pan had died unjustly and they thought about the message he had fearlessly preached. On May 12, 1899, little more than six months after the martyrdoms of Pan and Fleming, a missionary wrote,

“There are quite a few persons in Panghai and Qingping district who profess to be interested in the Gospel and want their names put down as enquirers. Several parties have come to Guiyang to see us. One was deputed by forty or fifty men to come, and another by a whole village of thirty or forty families. Already our brother’s life and labours are bearing fruit.”[5]

© This article is an extract from Paul Hattaway's epic 656-page China’s Book of Martyrs, which profiles more than 1,000 Christian martyrs in China since AD 845, accompanied by over 500 photos. You can order this or many other China books and e-books here.

1. Some English-language sources have spelt his name Pan Shoushan.
2. See Paul Hattaway, Operation China: Introducing All the Peoples of China (Carlisle: Piquant, 2000) for profiles of 490 distinct ethno-linguistic groups in China, including more than 40 groups belonging to the official Miao minority nationality.
3. Samuel R. Clarke, “P’an, the Evangelist,” China’s Millions (August 1899), 121.
4. “Particulars of Mr. Fleming’s Death,” 22.
5. Clarke, “P’an, the Evangelist,” 121.

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