1900 - Zhao Ximao & Family

July 1900

Xinzhou, Shanxi

Zhao Ximao.

One Chinese Christian family—Zhao Ximao, and his wife, sister and mother—were among the Chinese martyrs at Xinzhou. Zhao was well known among the local community as a zealous evangelist and a close friend of the missionaries. Consequently, his friends urged him to flee to another location in order to protect his life, but he refused to go.

On July 1, 1900, the Boxers seized him, along with his young wife, mother, and sister. The four were bound and placed on a cart, while their home was set alight. When the captives arrived at Xinzhou the Boxer chief exclaimed, “I don’t want to see them; take them back and kill them where you arrested them.”[1]

As the cart made its way back to the Zhao family’s home village they sang the hymn, ‘He Leadeth Me.’ As they sang the words ‘E’en death’s cold wave I will not flee, Since God through Jordan leadeth me,’ their hearts were strengthened for the fiery trial that lay ahead. As they approached the village, they saw the clouds of smoke still rising from their home. The Boxers stopped near an open field and pulled the four Christians from the cart. Zhao Ximao

“was first beheaded with a huge knife used for cutting straw. Still the faith of the women failed not; they would not recant. The old mother said, ‘You have killed my son, you can now kill me.’ and she too was beheaded. The sister and wife were still steadfast, and the sister said, ‘My brother and mother are dead; kill me too.’ When only the young wife was left, she pointed to the three bodies saying, ‘You have killed my husband, mother, and sister; what have I to live for?’”[2]

She too was swiftly and callously cut to pieces in a pool of blood. Zhao Ximao was 30-years-old at the time of his martyrdom, and his wife was just 19.