1900 - Meng Zhangzhun & Children

June 28 – July 1, 1900

Baoding, Hebei

Meng Xiaozhi, his wife, and five children.

After becoming the first Protestant Christian at Baoding in 1878, Meng Xiaozhi relocated his whole family to Baoding where he was employed as an assistant to the missionaries. He died in 1888, while his son, Meng Zhangzhun was attending the North China College and Theological Seminary in Tongzhou. Meng Zhangzhun was a brilliant student. One of his teachers wrote:

“His name usually stands at the head of the weekly roll of honour for perfect lessons and deportment…. It seems to be his highest desire for this life to become a preacher of the Gospel to his own people, and if his life is spared…it is expected that he will be an earnest advocate of the Truth and will be the means of bringing many to the Savior.”[1]

Meng Zhangzhun – the first pastor at Baoding.

Later, a missionary reminisced about the day Meng Zhangzhun was ordained, saying,

“If it could have been known on that great day, when Meng Zhangzhun was set apart for the work of the gospel ministry, how fruitful his life would be of helpful and consecrated service, in teaching and preaching the Word, and how loyally he would stand for God when the clouds lowered dark over China; if his faithfulness, even unto death, could have been foreseen by those who gathered…how doubly clear would the privilege have been of hearing his ordination vows!”[2]

Pastor Meng was known for his God-given ability to win souls for Christ, and for his humility and dependence upon Christ’s sustaining power. In the early spring of 1900, during revival meetings at Tongzhou, he was one of the first to tearfully repent before the Lord. He said,

“It is a great grief to me that I have not been more faithful, and that I have allowed worldly things to interfere with my great work of winning souls. Pray that the Lord will forgive me, and give me new grace to labour in his kingdom from this time forward. Here I consecrate myself anew to the Lord’s work.”[3]

One participant in the meeting later said that after Meng spoke, “He sat down, and for the remainder of the meeting great teardrops fell fast from his eyes.”[4]

When the Boxers were preparing to attack Baoding, Meng was travelling in another district 120 miles (194 km) away. Despite the obvious danger, Meng, “without waiting for the end of the meeting said his farewells. ‘Mr. Pitkin and the Church members will need me,’ he said as he hastened away.”[5] A prominent Christian asked Meng, “‘Why do you not hide away for a time?’ He replied, ‘I am the shepherd of the flock. Can I leave them?…. The missionaries have staid by us; I shall stay and live or die with them.”[6] At about three o’clock in the afternoon on June 28, 1900, a group of Boxers suddenly rushed into the chapel where Meng Zhangzhun was packing books up in expectation of having to seal the premises. The Boxers

“first stabbed the pastor in the head with spears, twisted one arm out of joint, and bound it, then dragged him to the ‘Temple of the Seven Saints’ near the south wall of the city…. There they tortured him, scorching his shoulders with burning candles, hoping to force him to tell where his oldest son was concealed…. In the early morning scores of cruel knives severed the head from the body, and the face of the Master smiled on this brave soul.”[7]

Pastor Meng’s body was placed in a ditch behind the temple. Two days later the majority of the missionaries and the Chinese Christians were killed in the northern part of the city. It was rather fitting, therefore, for the pastor of the church in Baoding to lead the way in martyrdom. Later, some believers who survived “reverently disinterred the body and coffined it. The hands which were still bound behind the back were released, and the severed head tenderly replaced to await the wondrous transformation of the Day of the Lord.”[8]

Meng’s 13-year-old son, Titus, was encouraged to go into hiding a day or two before his father was killed. The young man initially refused, saying he wanted to stay and share the fate of his beloved father. Meng told his son, “Titus, if you do not seek a place of safety, there will be none of our name left to tell the story of Jesus.”[9] He reluctantly went into hiding and became the only surviving member of his immediate family. On July 1st, three of Pastor Meng’s children were slaughtered at the mission compound, along with his sister and her three children. Later, the body of Pastor Meng’s second son, “mischievous, bright-eyed Peter, was in the ashes of the mission buildings where death had overtaken the little company. The Boxers laughed as they saw him three times run out of the flames, and each time they tossed him back.”[10]

God fulfilled the final desire of Pastor Meng by sustaining the life of his young son Titus in a remarkable way. He was protected by a non-Christian man named Zhang, one of three brothers, “all notorious bullies, the terror of the region…. For three months he kept him in his home, tenderly providing for every want. Such was the terror which Mr. Zhang inspired in the village that not even a child dared ask Titus whether he belonged to the hated Christian sect.”[11]

1. Ketler, The Tragedy of Paotingfu, 97-98.
2. Ketler, The Tragedy of Paotingfu, 105.
3. Bentley, Illustrious Chinese Christians, 125-126.
4. Bentley, Illustrious Chinese Christians, 126.
5. Miner, China’s Book of Martyrs, 99.
6. Miner, China’s Book of Martyrs, 100.
7. Miner, China’s Book of Martyrs, 100-101.
8. Ketler, The Tragedy of Paotingfu, 384.
9. Ketler, The Tragedy of Paotingfu, 333.
10. Miner, China’s Book of Martyrs, 103.
11. Miner, China’s Book of Martyrs, 375.