1900 - The Zai Family

July 1900

Yuxian, Hebei

The Zai family was one of the oldest and largest Protestant families in north China at the time of the Boxer Rebellion. For generations they had served the Lord Jesus Christ in Yuxian, about 100 miles (162 km) west of Beijing. In 1900 the leader of the Zai family was Zai Fuyuan, who had been a preacher for more than 20 years.

In late June the whole region was aflame with Boxer carnage. Zai Fuyuan’s elderly mother, afraid that all the men would be massacred, and no one would be left to carry on the family name, encouraged her son and grandson to flee while it was still possible. Their first stop was the town of Xiheying, where they found the situation even worse than Yuxian, so they continued on. At Bailu, where some friends let them hide in the watchtower of a melon patch, along with an old Catholic lady who had been in hiding for weeks.

After a time, word was received that every member of the Zai family who had remained in Yuxian was slaughtered by the Boxers. The only people alive were Zai Fuyuan and his son. Later they learned the details of what had happened in their hometown. A large group of Boxers marched through Yuxian on their way to attack the Catholic church at Xiheying, where hundreds of believers were holed up inside. A mob captured all the women from the Zai household and locked them inside a nearby temple. where the church and pastor’s home were looted and burned to the ground.

The women being held in the temple were able to escape during the night, but having nowhere to go, they returned to their smouldering home. Soon some local villagers came to the house, hoping to pick up anything valuable that had been left behind in the ruins. They saw the women huddled there, and immediately notified the Boxers. When a crowd gathered around,

“Some demanded that they all be killed, and some of the baser of the crowd suggested that the young women might be sold to the public houses for a good sum. At this the blind old grandmother raised her voice and said, ‘We are not that kind! Kill us if you want! We can die!

The Boxers being on their way to battle did not wish to defile their swords with the blood of women, so led them to the well in the court and threw them in, one after another, burying each with stones and earth as she was cast in. In this way six perished.”[1]