1900 - Han Youlan

July 1900

Yanshan, Hebei

Han Youlan was a young 17-year-old student at the Yanshan Boarding School, and the son of one of the London Missionary Society’s Bible women. He was a quiet boy, not a brilliantly gifted student but faithful and diligent in all he did.

When the Boxers arrived in his neighbourhood, they announced their intention to destroy the lives and property of every Christian in the district. Han and many of the other believers fled as quickly as their legs could carry them. The Boxers hunted their victims like bloodhounds. One day as Han emerged from the grain fields in which he had been hiding, the Boxers saw him from a distance and immediately set out to capture him. Han Youlan ran into a Buddhist temple and pleaded with the head monk for protection. The monk was a compassionate man and insisted that Youlan

“must at once submit to having his head shaved, and don the robes of a Buddhist priest, the better to escape detection. The boy was very reluctant to adopt such a disguise, but worn out with fatigue and hunger, he at last consented to comply with his protector’s request. He remained in hiding in the temple, unsuspected by those who sought his life, for nearly a month.”[1]

During this time the Boxers had massacred almost all Christians in the area, but the name of the young Han Youlan remained on their hit-list. An informer told the Boxers where Han was hiding. They immediately went to the temple, infuriated with the monk for deceiving them. They seized Han, before turning to the kind monk and saying, “You defend and protect him, do you?—a boy who is well known in the district as a member of the hated Jesus sect! Then you shall suffer with him. You, a priest of Buddha—just as if you were one of the secondary devils!”[2] The Boxers grabbed the monk’s yellow robes and pulled him to the ground, slicing him to pieces in the courtyard of his own temple. The Boxers thought the sight of the man being slain would put terror in the heart of Han Youlan, but he showed no fear. They took him to their headquarters, hoping he would divulge information regarding the whereabouts of some of the other Christians who had escaped their wicked net. For two days Han was tortured,

“with all the refinement of cruelty with which the Chinese are familiar. But the noble young Youlan steadfastly refused to betray his fellow Christians or to tell the direction in which they had fled. On the third day, finding it was quite useless to continue their attempts to extort from him any testimony that could be used against his friends, the Boxers’ sharp swords released him from his prolonged agony, and he was set free to join the noble army of martyrs in the Better Land.”[3]