1900 - Lu Shangji & Tian Baoxiang Families

July 2, 1900

Baoding, Hebei

Two Presbyterians, Lu Shangji and Tian Baoxiang, fled into the mountains when the Boxer tumult started. Lu’s daughter and three grandsons went with them, while Tian’s wife was also part of the group. The Boxers heard of a group of Christians hiding in the hills, but being unsure of how many there were, they sent a large force of around 1,000 people, armed with “spears, cutlasses and swords” to hunt for them.

The missionaries were greatly impressed by the spiritual depth Tian Baoxiang possessed. One wrote:

“Tian was a man of the deepest consecration and of the highest moral worth. Though reared in a heathen land and among a people of great moral blindness, Mr. Simcox said of him that he had never met any man in whose moral integrity he had greater confidence. Tian had shared with Mr. Simcox the hardships and dangers of many a missionary tour and always proved himself faithful and true.”[1]

Lu Shangji had often told people, “This religion is from heaven, and if all the kings and emperors in the world were to rise up against it, they could not drive it out.” It was said of Lu:

“He was not by any means so intellectual and well educated as Tian, and yet by dogged perseverance and faithfulness in the study of the Scriptures, he had gained such a knowledge of the Word, that he could repeat verbatim more of the New Testament than any one foreign missionary at Baoding, and perhaps more than all combined.”[2]

The refugees “were finally discovered, and, notwithstanding all entreaties, were killed one by one, the children being killed last, and the bodies all rolled down the declivity.”[3]

In April 1901, almost a year later, the remains of the seven martyrs were carried down the mountain and buried in Baoding.