1900 - 34 Miao Christians

November 1900

Panghai, Guizhou

Yong Gong, an 81-year-old Miao man who was baptized at Panghai, where 32 Christians were slaughtered in 1900.

South China’s Guizhou Province, was largely unscathed during the Boxer Rebellion. It is said that the provincial magistrate wilfully choose to ignore the orders from Beijing to exterminate foreigners, all of whom were able to escape to safety. At Panghai, where William Fleming and his co-worker Pan Xiushan had been slaughtered in 1898, a mob of more than 200 bandits attacked the Chinese town of Kaili on the night of November 14, 1900. They set fire to more than 100 houses, killed some military and government officials, and made off with the plunder. Almost all of the bandits were ethnic Hmu, a subgroup of the Miao minority group. At daybreak the bandits quickly made their way to their mountain hideouts. They first stopped at a village called Sanglang, near Panghai, where they ordered the people to feed them breakfast and threatened to shoot them if they refused. Sanglang at the time contained dozens of Miao Christian families and enquirers.

After recovering from the surprise attack, the Chinese started to plan their revenge. Exaggerated reports were made to the provincial authorities, claiming more than 150 people had been murdered in Kaili. The Chinese needed to spill Miao blood in order to ‘save face’ from the humiliation. Local Miao headmen, seeing an opportunity to rid themselves of the hated Christians, reported that the believers of Sanglang were behind the rebellion, and that the whole village had participated in helping the bandits escape, even cooking breakfast for them on the morning after the raid. The Chinese magistrate hauled the Miao of Sanglang village—both Christians and non-Christians—off to court. In the following days, “eight men from Sanglang, and twenty-four from other villages who…had attended services at Panghai, were put to death, some of them after they had been cruelly tortured for days in order that they might confess themselves to be rebel leaders.”[1] A missionary who investigated the case, J. R. Adam, reported,

“These poor persecuted ones meekly marched off into the town. Days before this they had their homes looted of everything—grain, farming implements, and household utensils…. As soon as they reached the Intendent’s presence, eight of their number were set apart and seven of them beheaded right away; no trial or any inquiry! The eighth, a young man of twenty-two years, quietly walked away, and since then has not been heard of. He saw what was coming, and in a most wonderful way (i.e. in its simplicity) escaped. The other men were all elderly men, some of them over sixty; others fifty or so.”[2]

Other Christians were ordered to pay a ransom for their lives. In addition, “all who were supposed to be Christians, or who had at any time visited the Mission-house at Panghai, had their houses plundered by the local headmen and their followers.”[3]

Although many of the Miao believers who were killed had not yet been baptized, they died because of their confession of faith in Christ. Others had been put to death simply because they had shown interest in the gospel. Samuel Clarke wrote,

“It was a heart-rending experience to visit those bereaved and devastated homes, and to hear the sound of weeping as they told the story of their dear ones, first tortured in prison and then beheaded on the market-place. One man had suffered so much at the hands of his persecutors that he actually died on the execution ground, and his corpse was beheaded. There were women weeping aloud for their fathers, husbands, brothers, and sons, who had been cruelly done to death.”[4]

A thorough investigation was launched and found that not a single Christian had been involved in the looting of Kaili, but it was too late for the 34 men had been slain for crimes they didn’t commit.[5] One of the martyrs, an elderly man named Wang Jinting (Wang Chin-t’ing) was falsely accused of being one of the bandits. He was held in a house for five days without food and tortured mercilessly in order to extract a confession. When he was ordered to kneel in front of the magistrate,

“The old man was ill and said they had broken his ribs, and even should they set him free it would be no good. He exhorted his son with many good words to serve God and to do his duty, and spoke of his trust in the Lord Jesus. On a certain market day his son, when on the market at Kaili, heard that some Christians were being taken out for beheading. He ran and was in time to see his dear old father led out. He could not get near to speak to him and was much afraid lest they should recognize him and kill him too. Poor lad, he wept as he related his father’s sufferings.”[6]

Immediately after the massacre the missionaries held great hope for the gospel among the Miao in that area. J. R. Adam reported,

“Those bereaved and persecuted people of God are more determined and fixed in their purpose than ever to serve God. There is not one of the grown-up sons of these faithful martyrs but who wants to follow the Lord Jesus. The persecution has fixed the feet of these Miao Christians firmer upon the Rock. There is a prospect of a glorious work down there; but alas! the China Inland Mission have no workers to send to teach the hundreds who are ready to be taught.”[7]

Fallout from the massacre of 1900 continued to reverberate with negative effect for decades. The long-serving missionary M. H. Hutton, who was in charge of the work for years, described the cool reception he received at a Hmu village a full 14 years later: “Some of the men began to curse my men for leading us to their village. They said they did not want the foreigner nor his Gospel, for some years ago, they said, all those who had anything to do with the Gospel Hall were killed.”[8] Even in 1932 Hutton reported, “A great fear fell upon the Miao, and for twenty years scarcely any result was seen from the years of seed sowing.”[9] To this day very few Miao in eastern and central Guizhou Province have believed in Jesus Christ.

1. Clarke, Among the Tribes in South-West China, 163-164.
2. J. R. Adam, “Persecution of the Black Miao in Kwei-Chau,” China’s Millions (January 1902), 11.
3. Clarke, Among the Tribes in South-West China, 164.
4. Clarke, Among the Tribes in South-West China, 166.
5. Some sources gave the total number of dead as 32, but J.R. Adam’s account seems the most detailed, and stated there were 34 Christians or Christian enquirers killed. See Adam, “Persecution of the Black Miao, 11-12.
6. Adam, “Persecution of the Black Miao, 11-12.
7. Adam, “Persecution of the Black Miao,” 12.
8. M. H. Hutton, “In Journeyings Amongst the Miao,” China’s Millions (June 1914), 47-48.
9. M. H. Hutton, “Among the Black Miao,” China’s Millions (March 1932).