1900 - Protestant Martyrs in Shandong

June – July 1900

Shandong

A postcard showing a Boxer from Qingdao in Shandong.

Sidney Brooks of Shandong Province was the first Christian martyred by the Boxers at the end of 1899, but strangely, he was to be the one and only Protestant missionary killed in this coastal province. The Governor of Shandong saw the threat the Boxers posed, and sent large numbers of troops to drive the insurgents out of his province during winter and spring of 1900. Most of the Boxers were forced into Hebei and Shanxi, which subsequently ended up having the highest toll of Christians slaughtered during the Boxer Rebellion. Although all Protestant missionaries in Shandong managed to leave safely, the local Chinese believers paid a heavy price for Christ. A British Baptist missionary, E. W. Burt, reported that in one location,

“The converts’ homes and places of worship were burnt. They themselves were harmed and scattered, hiding in caves of the hills, and crouching among the tall millet, not daring to show themselves. Over 120 died the martyr’s death…. Others did not prove so steadfast. Some even of the pastors recanted…. In one single village no less than 37 men and women sealed their testimony with their blood…. No doubt ultimately this severe baptism of blood purified the Church, weeding out the unworthy and the self-seeking and deterring others with mixed motives from joining it.”[1]

One of the martyrs was a 35-year-old man named Pang Lide, whose body was cut to pieces and burned. A report in the Missionary Herald noted the killing in Shandong was concentrated around the Zouping area. It declared,

“Zouping is now for ever memorable in the annals of Christian history in China, as the scene of the martyrdom of many scores of Christian men and women, members of our Baptist Church, who died for the sake of ‘the Name’. One hundred and seventy six in all were cruelly done to death, slain for the Faith. For many anxious days and weeks, hundreds were hiding in the open fields from those who sought their lives. They returned to find houses burnt, property stolen and crops reaped.”[2]

Some of the British Methodist missionaries were able to flee to Japan by ship from their coastal base at Chefoo (now Yantai). J. Hedley explained:

“When the Boxers came in force from the [Hebei] border some 7,000 strong, there were only seventeen soldiers left to defend our place and people. So went up in flames the houses, schools, chapel and hospital, while the poor people had to flee for their lives…. All round our field, homes were destroyed, crops ruined, families dispersed, many of their members murdered.”[3]

At Linqing a new mission compound had only recently been built by the American Board (Presbyterians). The Boxers reduced it to a heap of rubble and at least eight Chinese Christians were killed in the town. It was ten years before the Church in Linqing was re-established.

The church in the northwest Shandong village of Zhujia had experienced powerful revival in the years preceding the Boxer Rebellion. A missionary reported “a spontaneous acceptance of the Gospel…a whole region, hitherto closed to the Gospel, suddenly and unexpectedly…was thrown open.”[4] When the Boxers attacked Zhujia they slaughtered 28 of its church members.

The Southern Baptist missionaries were all at Qingdao for a conference when the Boxers attacked their base in Pingdu. Two Chinese preachers associated with the mission were met by Boxers on the road, “and, because they would not deny Christ, were buried alive.”[5] Another source says that in Pingdu,

“some twenty native Christians were seized and offered escape if they would deny their God and worship the idols. When they refused, their queues were tied top the tails of horses, and they were dragged twenty-five miles [40 km] to Laizhou where most were killed.”[6]

At a village in the Binzhou area a man named Duan was praying when a mob of Boxers burst into his home. Forty-five Boxers, all eager to use their sharp swords, rushed upon him, crying “Kill! Kill!” One of the Boxers asked Duan if he still believed in Jesus. “I cannot do otherwise,” he replied. “Forty-five swords vied with each other to end his life, and even as he prayed for speedy entrance into heaven, his petition was answered.”[7]

A young Christian woman named Yu was found in the home of a relative with whom she had taken refuge. The Boxers commanded her to leave the house and be killed. “Wait until I have combed my hair,” Yu replied. She calmly combed her hair and changed her clothes, in preparation for meeting her Saviour. She then asked her persecutors, “Where do you wish to kill me?” The Boxers dragged Yu outside the village to an intersection. They tried to force her to kneel down but she refused, saying, “‘I can not worship the false gods whom you reverence.’ She lifted up her soul in prayer; but the Boxers did not wait until the prayer was ended.”[8]

A Christian man named Su lived in the city of Binzhou. When the Boxers seized him he grabbed a belt full of cash and thrust it into the hands of his father, saying, “Your son, while living, has not been able to manifest to the full his filial devotion. I gave you this money toward the account of my heart indebtedness to you.”[9] As the Boxers prepared to kill him, Su started to pray fervently for the murderers. This enraged them and they immediately cut him to pieces with their swords.

In a village near Binzhou old Li was found hiding inside a peach orchard. Li was asked how many families he had influenced with his preaching, to which he replied, “Just my own family,” so as to not implicate any others. When asked if he would continue to study the doctrine of Christ, Li thought for a moment, then turned to the Boxers and looked them directly in the face. With a loud voice he said, “Though you kill me for it, yet do I propose to study the doctrine.”[10] He was immediately hacked to death.

Those Christians who did survive faced extreme hardship. Thousands of Christians’ homes were burned to the ground, and all their possessions seized. Many were reduced to begging for years to come. When the missionaries returned, much of their time was spent trying to help the impoverished believers recover from their terrible ordeal. Dr. Hunter Corbett of Yantai reported,

“I found suffering every place. Many trying to live on corncobs, the dried vine of the sweet potato, bark, and leaves of trees, roots, etc. I found the Christians hopeful. They feel that God has not forsaken them, but has heard and answered prayer. Wonderful grace has been given to our persecuted people. They have stood firm and are not giving up the Christian life.”[11]

Missionaries in those days usually employed cooks to prepare meals for their families. Dr. Charles Lewis wrote that his cook had won a martyr’s crown after enduring much suffering:

“Refusing to deny his Lord, he was beheaded, and his head suspended from a tree. This good man had brought to Christ eleven families, consisting of fifty-three persons in his village; these were burnt out of house and home, but the fire did not burn out their faith in Christ.”[12]

When pain and devastation caused by the Boxers started to fade, a thorough survey of Shandong found that 245 Chinese Protestants had died throughout the province.[13]

1. Cliff, A History of the Protestant Movement in Shandong Province, 210-211.
2. Cited in Cliff, A History of the Protestant Movement in Shandong Province, 211.
3. Cliff, A History of the Protestant Movement in Shandong Province, 212.
4. Cliff, A History of the Protestant Movement in Shandong Province, 134.
5. Cliff, A History of the Protestant Movement in Shandong Province, 213-214.
6. Hefley, China! Christian Martyrs of the 20th Century, 32.
7. Miner, China’s Book of Martyrs, 188.
8. Miner, China’s Book of Martyrs, 188.
9. Miner, China’s Book of Martyrs, 418.
10. Miner, China’s Book of Martyrs, 418-419.
11. Charlotte E. Hawes, New Thrills in Old China (New York: George H. Doran Company, 1913), 105.
12. Hawes, New Thrills in Old China, 106.
13. See table in Cliff, A History of the Protestant Movement in Shandong Province, 222.