1900 - The Baoding Massacre

June 28 – July 2, 1900

Baoding, Hebei

Christian women who were living in the Presbyterian mission at Baoding, 1900. The Boxers killed all or most of these women.

Isaac Pierson of The American Congregational Church founded the mission at Baoding (formerly spelt Paoting) in Hebei Province in 1873. The first convert came to Christ five years later, in 1878, when Meng Xiaozhi was baptized. By the late 1890s more than a dozen foreign missionaries lived in the city. The main church was led by Meng Zhangzhun (the son of Meng Xiaozhi) and numbered approximately 120 believers, while the entire district under the administration of the Baoding Church had “a total church membership of about six hundred, besides children and inquirers.”[1]

In late 1899, the Christians of Baoding knew a perilous change was coming. Posters were placed around the city announcing the Boxers goal of exterminating all Christians. Missionary May Simcox wrote a letter home on the last day of 1899. She said,

“South of us, there is an uprising among a class called ‘Boxers.’ They have decided to exterminate all foreigners and all who believe in foreign doctrines, and are persecuting Christians very dreadfully,—killing, destroying property and plundering. No foreigners have yet been hurt, but native preachers have been killed and great numbers are suffering now for want of food and clothing. They are coming Northward, and are now within seven miles [11 km] of us. They organise in great numbers, but we have not much fear, for we think the officials would protect us here…. Remember us always in your prayers. Love to all your family from us all.”[2]

Simcox’s husband Frank wrote a letter to his home church, dated March 29, 1900, in which he said:

“The Church in Shandong and Southern Hebei (this province) has become a Martyr Church, and we rejoice to know, she has proved that she is able to suffer for the Lord. Hundreds of homes have been destroyed, and all have held fast. When the history of the Martyr Church of China is written, it will be a beautiful record of suffering for His Name!”[3]

On May 24th he added,

“Many of the Catholics have renounced the faith rather than face death, but our people are all standing firm. In one village there were nine families of Catholics and four men of our faith. On last Saturday the Catholics all gave up their faith and burnt incense, but our four Christians say they will remain faithful, even unto death; but oh, what a trial they are passing through! The Church in China has already become a Martyr Church, and hers is a beautiful history of suffering…. Dark and troublous times are ahead of us, but we trust in the Heavenly Father’s love, that all is for the best.”[4]

In June the Boxers destroyed the rail line between Baoding and Beijing. They also demolished the telegraph system and key bridges, and placed guards on the roads and rivers surrounding the city, effectively cutting Baoding off from the rest of China. The Christians knew that only a supernatural intervention by God would save them.

A group of 36 Belgian and French railroad engineers and their families tried to flee Baoding by river, but the Boxers ambushed their vessel in a narrow part of the river and slaughtered them all. Pastor Meng Zhangzhun was the first Christian to be killed in Baoding on June 28th. The story of his life and martyrdom is told elsewhere.

The site where the China Inland Mission and American Board missionaries were slaughtered on July 1, 1900.

The missionaries and more than a dozen Chinese believers belonging to the Presbyterian mission were killed on June 30th in the northern suburbs of the city. A group of more than 20 Boxers and a mob of local troublemakers descended upon the Christians. They gained entry to the mission compound by setting fire to a pile of cornstalks they had placed against the doors, burning them down. Including the foreign missionaries, approximately twenty Christians were slaughtered, many of whom were burned to death.

One Chinese Christian “who tried to kill himself by jumping into the cistern was taken there-from, removed to the city and tortured during the night in an effort to secure evidence against the missionaries…. This man was afterwards put to death.”[5]

Missionaries and Chinese believers associated with the China Inland Mission and the American Board (Congregational Church) were massacred on July 1st at a spot outside the south wall of the city. In total, eleven foreign missionaries and four children were killed in Baoding, in addition to around 50 Chinese Christians.

An exhaustive list of the Chinese martyrs of Baoding has never been made, but the dozens of dead included a seamstress named Jian; and Brother Zhang and his wife who were key workers at the Christian hospital in the city. Mrs. Zhang, who was 60-years-old at the time of her martyrdom, was a close colleague of missionary Mary Morrill. The Zhangs were instructed to flee for their lives by the missionaries, “but during the night his sense of loyalty to those who had led him to the truth and his conviction of duty triumphed over fear and he returned and was faithful unto death.”[6] The Boxers seized Mrs. Zhang,

“carried her to a village not far away, and there many hands rained sword-blows upon the defenceless body as it lay by the roadside, until it was literally minced. No one dared to bury the poor remains, and when, long month after, her sons searched for the body, they found only a skull.”[7]

Lonely graves marking the slaughter of the Baoding missionaries.

When a pit was later uncovered at the Congregational compound, they discovered the grisly sight of three missionaries and nine Chinese believers. Seven “were children of the Meng brothers and of their sister, one a Shanxi pupil, and the ninth, Meng’s sister herself.”[8] The world was not worthy of them.

When another man named Zhang heard that the Boxers had murdered Pastor Meng, his thoughts immediately went to some of the newer members of the faith whom he feared might be tempted to denounce Christ under pressure. He decided to visit their homes and encourage them, but one after the other he found the homes deserted—the inhabitants having fled for their lives. Zhang returned to his own home, knowing the Boxers would soon come to kill him. Unafraid, he wrote the words ‘I am a member of the Jesus Church’ on a piece of paper and posted it on his door. A few days later, as he was sitting down to eat, a cry went up, “The Boxers are coming!” Zhang said, “‘They must wait until I have asked for the blessing’…and as he sat with his head bowed in prayer the Boxers rushed in and cut him down.”[9]

Many were the tales of horror from Baoding. Imagine the grief one young Presbyterian man named Wang Jiude must have felt when he was told, “Your grandfather, mother, two sisters, two brothers and their wives, and four nieces have all been killed. We do not know whither your father and oldest brother have fled.”[10]

The murder of Christians did not stop in the summer of 1900. As late as January 1901, two Chinese believers were murdered about 25 miles (40 km) south of Baoding by a group of Boxers. In all, more than 50 Protestant believers died in Baoding and the surrounding areas where they had fled. The thief who comes to “steal, kill and destroy”[11] did not have his own way however. Dozens of Baoding Christians survived the Boxer onslaught, and later shared miraculous testimonies of how God had protected them.[12]

The mood of many Chinese people changed from hatred of foreigners to one of sympathy as the full scale of the Boxer carnage became apparent. On March 23 and 24, 1901, memorial services were held to commemorate the lives of the Baoding martyrs. On the first day, services were held for the Presbyterians who had been slain, while the next day was for the Congregational and China Inland Mission martyrs.

On a banner bearing the insignia of cross and crown, with the motto ‘Joyfully bearing the bitter cross,’ were written the names of seven missionaries and 43 Chinese Christians who had been slain. Missionaries travelled from Beijing and other parts of north China to attend the services, and various dignitaries joined hundreds of locals at the sombre occasion. Above the martyrs’ names was written the inscription Ling Shuang zai Tian—‘Their spirits are happy in heaven.’

Memorial service for the Baoding martyrs, July 23, 1901.

A hymn was sung:

“Asleep in Jesus, far from thee,

Thy kindred and their graves may be,

But thine is still a blessed sleep

From which none ever wake to weep.”[13]

The Boxers’ desire to forever wipe Christianity from China’s soil went unfulfilled. Today there are approximately 12,000 Protestant Christians in Baoding City, in addition to at least 65,000 Catholics.[14]

1. W. P. Bentley, Illustrious Chinese Christians: Biographical Sketches (Cincinnati: The Standard Publishing Company, 1906), 123.
2. Ketler, The Tragedy of Paotingfu, 314.
3. Ketler, The Tragedy of Paotingfu, 348.
4. Ketler, The Tragedy of Paotingfu, 355-356.
5. Ketler, The Tragedy of Paotingfu, 380.
6. Ketler, The Tragedy of Paotingfu, 371.
7. Miner, China’s Book of Martyrs, 372.
8. Ketler, The Tragedy of Paotingfu, 386-387.
9. Miner, China’s Book of Martyrs, 180.
10. Miner, China’s Book of Martyrs, 389-390.
11. John 10:10.
12. For examples of miraculous escapes, see the many testimonies in Miner, China’s Book of Martyrs.
13. Eddy, Horace Tracy Pitkin, 29.
14. China News and Church Report (August 11, 1995) states there were 55,000 underground Catholic believers in Baoding at the time, in addition to 10,000 members of the Catholic Patriotic Association (the government-sanctioned Catholic church).