THE CONTINUATION OF THE STORY
BEING A RECORD OF SOME WHO WERE COUNTED WORTHY TO SUFFER FOR CHRIST'S
SAKE, AND OF MRS. HSI'S EXPERIENCES IN THE BOXER OUTBREAK
CHANGES in the staff at Taiyueanfu released for the oversight of mission
work in Hwochow, Jane Stevens and Mildred Clarke.
They might well shrink from the task facing them. Work in the provincial
capital had been of so totally different an order, and life in a large
community of foreigners had limited their sphere to the oversight of a
small school for girls, and the instruction of women inquirers.
None had felt more strongly the seriousness of the step taken by Miss
Jacobsen, and they came to Hwochow with the determination that all
should early understand the impossibility of intercourse outside the
most rigid observance of etiquette, Chinese and Western. Feeling
strongly that such an attitude on their part would be the most helpful
factor in the gathering around them of better-class women, they
faithfully carried it into practice. Men who were connected with the
Church were received by them only under the most formal restrictions.
Finding it impossible to eat Chinese food, a simple, but foreign
_menage_, took the place of the hitherto free-and-easy conditions.
It was a severe test for Chinese and foreigners alike; desire for
renewal of the former conditions of intimacy met with no encouragement
from those who could not but constantly bear the past in mind, and who
felt that, for the highest interests of the work, a new relationship
must be established. This attitude was naturally regarded as aloofness,
and was galling to those whose love had been set on the young
missionaries fresh from Norway, with all the enthusiasm of youth, to
whom they themselves had taught the language and who belonged to them as
others could not.
Miss Clarke gave her time to the Girls' School, the pupils of which now
numbered nearly twenty, and those who followed her have reaped where she
sowed. Often sad and weary she plodded on, but God in His time gave the
increase. Miss Stevens, to the limit of her strength, and often beyond
it, faithfully worked in the city and villages, suffering much which to
her was intense hardship, and feeling keenly the isolation and lack of
confidence amongst the people who misunderstood the course of action
deliberately adopted. Thus, while bringing heartache to themselves,
these missionaries were enabled to make easy the way to all who followed
them.
The year 1900 dawned. In the month of June the ladies closed school and
gladly accepted an invitation from friends in their old station to
visit them. To Taiyueanfu they went, and after many anxious days spent
with the missionaries gathered there they, in obedience to the
Governor's command, helpless to disobey, even though they suspected his
treacherous promises of protection, moved to a house near his
_Yamen_.[4]
"Arrived at the house chosen for them, they made themselves as
comfortable as possible for the night; and the next morning (Sunday,
July 8) were able to examine their surroundings. They found that for
their whole number (twenty-six, including children) there were only two
comparatively small courts, the two inner courts being already occupied
by the Roman Catholics. . . . When the fateful day (Monday, July 9)
dawned, the foreigners evidently had no inkling as to what was to
happen. Just before noon the sub-prefect called and took a list of all
who were in the house, both foreigners and Chinese, saying it was by
order of the Governor. . . . As was ascertained just a year later, when
other Protestant missionaries returned to the province, the Governor had
determined that on that day he would kill all the foreigners in
Taiyueanfu. He evidently only took a few of the officials into his
confidence, and one at least--the _Tao Tai_--strenuously opposed the
course he was about to pursue, but unfortunately without result.
"It must have been about two o'clock in the afternoon when he ordered a
number of officers, with their soldiers, to accompany him, and mounting
his own horse, led the way. He made as though he would go out of the
city by the North Gate, but before reaching that point, he suddenly
wheeled round and went to the house where the missionaries were
confined. He there ordered their immediate arrest, and they appear to
have made no resistance--as, indeed, it would have been useless. All who
were found within the compound (Protestants and Roman Catholics) were
seized; and it so happened there were several Chinese there on
business. . . . No excuse was listened to, and all were marched off to
the Governor's _Yamen_ between files of soldiers, where they were taken
into the courtyard adjoining the street and surrounded by soldiers--not
Boxers.
"As to what really occurred, the whole truth will probably never be
known, but from inquiries made on the spot, it seems certain that the
Governor did not assault any with his own hand; but, having asked the
missionaries where they came from, and being answered, 'From England,'
and 'From France,' just gave the order, 'Sha' (kill) to the soldiers,
who answered with a shout and immediately fell upon their defenceless
victims, killing them indiscriminately."[5]
The Church in Hwochow, Chaocheng, and Fensi had a marvellous escape. The
Boxers, practising their mystic rites, overran the district. Whole
families fled to the mountains, and no one was safe from robbery and
violence. The mandarin of Chaocheng, fearful lest massacres should take
place in the county under his jurisdiction and desiring at any cost to
keep the peace, called together some of the leading gentry and asked for
advice as to the problem facing them. "I know," said he, "that calling
upon the Christians to recant will be useless, but can we not issue
tickets to them upon which are the very words they use in entering the
Church, 'I promise to repent?' There should be no difficulty in getting
them to take these, for it will mean to them what they themselves
preach, while to the anti-Christian fanatic it will be sufficiently
satisfactory."
Orders were accordingly issued that all Christians were to receive this
official paper whereby their safety would be ensured. Large numbers in
the Church regarded the mandarin's action as the overruling of
Providence on their behalf, and accepted tickets which involved no
verbal recantation of their faith. Others, amongst whom was Mrs. Hsi
(now a widow), with more sensitive spiritual perceptions, refused to
take advantage of even the semblance of a subterfuge.
The Chaocheng mandarin, surrounded by his bodyguard, went outside the
city gates to the place where the Boxers were practising their rites
with the intention of burning incense in their presence, by which act he
would acknowledge them as invulnerable and holy men. At the critical
moment, however, one of them was said to have made a move as if to
attack the official, who instantly called upon his bodyguard to seize
the men, exclaiming: "These are insurgents, and no holy men; bind them,
they are prisoners." As such they entered the city, and Boxerism never
spread in the district. Thus did the Hand of God protect the hundreds of
men and women who in these three counties were called by His Name, and
while in many places few escaped the sword, the numerically largest
Church in the province of Shansi was spared.
Mrs. Hsi was in Chaocheng seeking to help the women in their troubles,
when news reached her that her brother-in-law, Elder Si, was stabbed by
one of the local Boxers. Rumours followed rapidly, and she heard that
her mother-in-law was in serious danger. She hastened to her home, and
found matters worse than she had feared. There was no place in which to
live, the house was destroyed, her clothes were stolen, and had it not
been for the thoughtfulness of one missionary who, in the midst of
personal danger, found time to buy and send to her some garments and
bedcovering, she would have been in a sad plight. Her old mother could
not walk, so badly had she been beaten by the robbers, and terrified,
the two women crept to the fields and hid themselves. When night fell
they returned to shelter and to get a little food, crawling out to their
hiding-place before the cock crew each morning. Terror was upon the
whole populace. The official had not been successful here, as in
Chaocheng, in dealing with the movement, and the party of missionaries
who had for some time been gathered in Pingyangfu were openly attacked
and robbed by Boxer bands as they left the city under official escort.
In loneliness and peril Mrs. Hsi and her aged mother cried to God, as
the anxious, weary days passed by. The missionaries were gone, very many
killed, others in hiding, and some, after perils and sufferings
unspeakable, had reached Hankow. After some months came the additional
sorrow of the death of her brother-in-law, Elder Si, who had managed
for her all matters in which she required help.
Gradually the storm blew over, but those who passed through that period
can never forget it. For Christ's sake they had suffered, and they could
not again be as before. The Church in Shansi "had a new and powerful
weapon" in her hands, "the power of her sufferings."
A few months later, as soon as passports were available, the
missionaries were back at their posts. There was much to tell and to
hear, as old friends met and were able to recount all the wonderful
deliverances of the past year. But how many vacant places there were!
How could they be filled? Ripe experience and Christlike sympathy were
needed to deal with the new situation.
Some had, under pressure, in a weak moment, recanted; others had
resisted this temptation, but fallen over the more subtle question of
indemnity for property destroyed. The situation, moreover, was changed;
foreigner and Christian alike were now in the ascendancy. Compensation
for life and property was granted, and though the members of the China
Inland Mission declined to accept this, their action was made the
occasion of a laudatory proclamation which called upon the people to
note and imitate such an exemplification of self-forgetting goodness.
In the providence of God the lives of a few missionaries had been spared
to return, and with the benefit of their experience, to help new workers
to an understanding of a situation which, mishandled, would inevitably
lead to disastrous consequences.
Nothing could give Mrs. Hsi greater pleasure than to hear from her
friend, Miss French, that Hwochow was to be her future centre. I, as a
new worker, was to accompany her, and together we reached the city which
was to be henceforth our home.
The reception given by the very few Christians who gathered to meet us,
was both cordial and critical. Miss French was welcome as being one
whose reputation had long ago reached them, who had already paid several
visits to the station, and whose Chinese, they soon remarked, was "as
good as Miss Jacobsen's!" Of me they knew nothing, and I had to meet the
gaze of many eyes and listen to the remark, before I opened my month to
speak, that it was impossible to understand my words. I had only one
asset, and that was the fact that this being my first station I should
belong to them, and when the day dawned that would release my stammering
tongue, the honour of having taught and trained me would be theirs!
FOOTNOTES:
[4] _Yamen_=law courts or Mansion House.
[5] From _Fire and Sword in Shansi_, by Dr. E. H. Edwards.
LIFE IN THE VILLAGES
"Great things are done when men and mountains meet;
These are not done by jostling in the street."
WILLIAM BLAKE.
"Arrived there, the little house they fill,
No look for entertainment where none was;
Rest is their feast, and all things at their will;
The noblest mind the best contentment has."
WILLIAM SPENSER.