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 CHARLES WILLIAM WASON 
 
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 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924023151115 
 
CHINESE HEROES 
 
 BEING A RECORD OF 
 PERSECUTIONS ENDURED 
 BY NATIVE CHRISTIANS 
 
 IN THE BOXER UPRISING 
 
 ISAAC TAYLOR HEADLAND 
 
 Author of" Chinese Mother Goose Rhymes," " The Chinese Boy and Girl," etc. 
 
 WITH ILLUSTRATIONS FROM PHOTOGRAPHS 
 
 CHICAGO: 
 MISSIONAEY CAMPAlfa]|f( L^BKAEY, 
 57 WASHINGTON STEEET*.' ' ' 
 
Copyright by 
 
 EATON & MAINS, 
 
 1902. 
 
 
PREFACE 
 
 MUCH has been written of the sufferings of 
 foreigners in the recent Boxer uprising 
 and correspondingly httle of the conduct of the 
 Chinese Christians. At a recent meeting of the 
 North China Conference of the Methodist Epis- 
 copal Church it was decided to inquire minutely 
 into the persecutions from the standpoint of the 
 natives, in the belief that a more adequate un- 
 derstanding of their heroism would be a stimu- 
 lant to the faith of the Church. 
 
 A committee was therefore appointed, and 
 the native pastors were requested to gather up 
 and forward reports of such cases as might be 
 considered representative of the persecutions as 
 a whole. To these reports were added such in- 
 cidents in the lives of certain of the members 
 as would contribute to a proper estimate of 
 their character, and thus enable the reader to 
 see the persecutions in their proper settings. 
 Some of these accounts were put in story form, 
 others were strung together in the order in 
 which they happened, and nearly all are given 
 in the words of those who suffered. 
 
 We need not add that all were not equally 
 faithful; but as the world is not interested in 
 
6 PREFACE 
 
 human failure, but only in success, we felt safe 
 in recording only the experiences of those who 
 were true to the faith they professed, and assur- 
 ing the reader that but a small proportion of the 
 persecuted played the part of the coward — 
 most of these under circumstances which would 
 have tested the courage of either the reader or 
 the writer. I. T. H. 
 
 Peking, July, 1902. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 ■ PAGE 
 
 Ch'en Ta-yung — Gate Keeper, Preacher, Martyr 9 
 
 Wang Ch'eng-p'ei — The Wheelbarrow Man and Martyr 30 
 
 Child-Prisoners 52 
 
 A Chinese Pastor's Narrative 74 
 
 The Story of Sinah, Wife of Pastor Ch'en 98 
 
 Dr. Wang 105 
 
 The Adventures of Mrs. Ch'in 114 
 
 The Story of the Students of Peking University 121 
 
 Experience of the Students of the Peking Girls' High School 138 
 
 The Flight of Teachers Liu Fang and Wang T'ien-hsiang. . 152 
 
 Martyrs 161 
 
 Cheng Tien-fang: The Messenger's Story 186 
 
 The Adventures of Yao Chen-yuan 195 
 
 The Story of the Persecutions at Tsun-hua 206 
 
 Mrs. Li and her Child 217 
 
 The Epworth League 218 
 
 The Ch'en Brothers 240 
 
 Pastors and Teachers 243 
 
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Mission Compound and Campus, Peking (1902) Frontispiece 
 
 Ch'en Ta-yung 10 
 
 Mr. Ch'en's Grandchildren 21 
 
 Ch'en Wei-fan ; 24 
 
 Wang Ch'eng-p'ei 31 
 
 Yang Ssu, the Carter 39 
 
 Professor Chung 54 
 
 Chung K'ao-en 58 
 
 Chung Kan-en 69 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. Te and their Daughter 75 
 
 Tseng Kuo-chih 80 
 
 Mrs. Chou and Family 90 
 
 Chang Pai-lin 97 
 
 Ch'en Heng-te 98 
 
 Dr. Wang Hsiang-ho 106 
 
 Dr. Wang with a Group of his Patients and Coolies 109 
 
 Mrs. Ch'in and Helper 115 
 
 Wang Mao-yin 121 
 
 Students of Peking University after the Siege 123 
 
 Durbin Hall, Peking University 135 
 
 Students of Peking Girls' School 139 
 
 Asbury Church, Peking 145 
 
 Liu Fang and Family 153 
 
 Wang T'ien-hsiang 159 
 
 Tou Lien-ming 169 
 
 Cheng Tien-fang 187 
 
 Yao Chen-yuan , 196 
 
 Liu Chi-lun 207 
 
 Mrs. Li and her Child 216 
 
 Ch'in Lung-chang 219 
 
 Wang Chih-p'ing 225 
 
 Liu Kuang-ch'ing 227 
 
 Liu Fang 227 
 
 Ch'en Wei-p'ing 246 
 
 Ch'en Wei-ch'eng 241 
 
 Liu Ma-k'e 243 
 
 Liu Ming-ch'uan 244 
 
CHINESE HEROES 
 
 CH'EN TA-YUNG— GATE KEEPER, PREACHER, 
 MARTYR 
 
 I 
 
 "Six Packages of Incense^ — two Pieces of 
 Soap — one Block of Soda," said little Ch'en, 
 reading off tile sales of a recent purchase to 
 the head bookkeeper of the store in which he 
 was employed. 
 
 " Anything else ? " inquired the bookkeeper. 
 
 " Nothing," answered Ch'en, his attention fixed 
 upon a group of people across the street, and 
 added — "A devil is coming." 
 
 This last remark was caused by a missionary 
 book-seller emerging from the crowd and walk- 
 ing toward the store. 
 
 Young Ch'en was a country lad, born a few 
 miles outside the southeast gate of Peking. 
 Like most Chinese boys he had been taught to 
 read some of the Chinese primers and then been 
 employed in this incense store on Hua'rh Shih 
 that his scant wages might swell the small in- 
 
10 
 
 CHINESE HEROES 
 
 come of the family, thus enabling them to "pass 
 the days," which is about all an ordinary Chinese 
 family expects. 
 
 Ch'en was a plump, short, round-faced, good- 
 natured, honest boy, who enjoyed a good con- 
 
 * 
 
 science and two meals a day. He was fond of 
 a joke but fond also of his books, and there was 
 an uncertain twinkle in his ej'^es as he watched 
 the approach of the missionary, though not a 
 sign of mischief: the man had books. 
 
CH'EN TA-YUNG— GATE KEEPER 11 
 
 " Have you seen any of these books?" was the 
 first question asked by the missionary. 
 
 "No, what are they?" 
 
 "Various kinds. Here is the Entrance to 
 Virtue and Knowledge, the Glad Tidings, and 
 Evidences of Christianity" and with this answer 
 he spread out a variety of books upon the 
 counter. 
 
 Both salesmen-and proprietor were interested 
 in the books as well as in the man, and began 
 plying him with questions about himself, his 
 books, his country and his doctrine, which was, 
 of course, the object-he sought. 
 
 Young Ch'en bought a book. 
 
 n 
 
 A few days later Ch'en was present at the 
 Sunday services of the London Mission and in a 
 conversation with the missionary he said he had 
 read the books he and the other clerks had 
 bought, which by a series of cross-questionings 
 appeared very evident. He had not only read 
 them but had made himself master of their con- 
 tents. He expressed himself as deeply inter- 
 ested in Christianity, and purchased more books, 
 which he took home and studied ; and for some 
 months he was a regular attendant on the Sun- 
 day services. 
 
 His interest in this new life, however, had not 
 affected all his friends as it had the missionary. 
 The inmates of two homes and a business house 
 
12 CHINESE HEROES 
 
 looked upon the matter from a very dififerent 
 standpoint. They could say nothing in opposi- 
 tion to his reading the books, for he gave no 
 offense either by conduct or conversation ; nev- 
 ertheless his parents and the parents of the girl 
 to whom he was betrothed — members of the Li 
 family — were not well pleased that their son and 
 prospective son-in-law should exhibit such a 
 tendency toward the teachings of the " foreign 
 devil." This however did not affect Ch'en. He 
 was not easily influenced. When his mind was 
 made up it was not easily unmade. He con- 
 tinued to study, continued to go to church, 
 asked to join on probation, and when his months 
 of probation were ended young Ch'en was 
 baptized.* 
 
 HI 
 
 Each fresh step taken by the young man in- 
 creased the opposition in his family. His moth- 
 er was especially bitter against him. Yet she 
 dared not express it openly for she did not wish 
 to break with her son. She proposed to bring 
 about his marriage, thinking that by giving 
 him something different to think about she 
 would wean him from this " devil doctrine." To 
 this he was not loth, especially as only a short 
 time previously a foreigner, in consideration of 
 certain services he had rendered, had presented 
 him with one hundred ounces of silver and 
 young Ch'en had given up his position in the in- 
 
 * He was baptized by Rev. Joseph Edkins, D.D. 
 
CH'EN TA-YUNG— GATE KEEPER 13 
 
 cense store and entered the London Mission 
 school. 
 
 When the matter of his marriage was fully- 
 settled he announced his determination to be 
 married as a Christian. A storm arose in his 
 home. His mother was furious. Ch'en was 
 filial but firm, and when the storm had spent its 
 force it left a young married couple very happy 
 but without a home, for Ch'en was married ac- 
 cording to the Christian's ceremony. 
 
 IV 
 
 But married life and school life could not well 
 be pursued together on an empty purse ; and so, 
 as Ch'en was not at liberty to put away his 
 wife — and be it understood he did not wish to 
 do so — he found it necessary to forego further 
 study in school. 
 
 It so happened that the Methodist Mission 
 then being established in Peking was in need of 
 a servant, and on inquiring of certain friends 
 about Ch'en the members were told that they 
 were welcome to him if they could get him to 
 leave his books long enough to do anything, 
 which was more than they of the London Mis- 
 sion could accomplish. Not that Ch'en was 
 lazy — he was never lazy — but he had a consti- 
 tutional indisposition to leave his books. He 
 was willing to do anything if only that thing 
 were studying books ; and either because the 
 newcomers were in such desperate straits, or 
 
14 CHINESE HEROES 
 
 because they approved of such a disposition in 
 a very young man, they concluded to take 
 him. 
 
 They first tried him as a house servant, but 
 Ch'en was a failure. He could eat food — indeed, 
 he was very fond of good food — but he could not 
 cook it, and the office of " boy " was too much 
 like "woman's work," " never done." He had so 
 approved himself to them, however, either by his 
 evident desire to be diligent or by his studious 
 habits, that they concluded to try him in another 
 capacity, and so young Ch'en was installed as 
 gate keeper. 
 
 V 
 
 This was a position exactly suited to the man 
 and the man to the position — at least for the 
 time. 
 
 Here was an important office, connected with 
 which the only duty was to see that no one was 
 admitted except on business. This Ch'en was 
 careful to attend to, and as the new mission was 
 not doing much yet either in a social or religious 
 way he had ample time for study. As time 
 passed on, and Ch'en's intelligence daily in- 
 creased, it began to be known in the neighbor- 
 hood that Chinese were able to associate with 
 and even live on the premises of the " foreign 
 devil "without being devoured, and a pardonable 
 curiosity began to be aroused in the minds of 
 many as to what they were there for. The only 
 way to gratify this curiosity was to call and see, 
 
CH'EN TA-YUNG— GATE KEEPER 15 
 
 and in this way Ch'en had opportunity to con- 
 verse with all classes, educated and uneducated, 
 on the subject which lay nearest to his heart, 
 which subject was the Gospel. No ofifice fur- 
 nishes a better opportunity for preaching than 
 an Oriental gatehouse, and Ch'en " magnified 
 his office" in a way that furnished abundant 
 proof that only the most faithful Christian 
 should be the " gate official " of the foreign mis- 
 sionary. 
 
 A new idea began to take form in the mind of 
 Ch'en, namely, that his position in life was not 
 to be gate keeper in the mission compound, but 
 "gate keeper in the house of the Lord," and he 
 attacked his books with renewed vigor, deter- 
 mined that some time he would be a preacher of 
 the Gospel. There were obstacles, however, in 
 the way, the first of which was that his wife 
 could not read ; and, while she was a helpmeet 
 in his home, unless she learned to read she would 
 be a hindrance to him as a preacher. How was 
 this to be overcome.'' He brought the matter 
 to his wife, in the hope that she would suggest 
 that she could learn to read. This solution she 
 studiously avoided, and after broadly hinting the 
 possibility of such a method he suggested, " Per- 
 haps you could learn to read." 
 
 No, Mrs. Ch'en could not learn to read. She 
 had too many family cares, too many duties, too 
 much work ; she was too old ; it would not be 
 of any use to her ; she did not want to read. 
 
16 CHINESE HEROES 
 
 Now Ch'en was too wise a man to pursue an 
 idea to a final conclusion without giving his wife 
 time for reflection. He always put his ideas to 
 soak, so to speak, with his better half. 
 
 The matter came up again, and Mr. Ch'en 
 urged his wife to study the Catechism at least. 
 Mrs. Ch'en was not inclined to do so. In the 
 ordinary story book Mrs. Ch'en would probably 
 fall ill and die, and Mr. Ch'en would marry an 
 intelligent educated woman. Our Mrs. Ch'en 
 did not resort to such a stratagem as a solution 
 of the difference between herself and her hus- 
 band but she observed that he was very intent 
 upon it and, while she thought it might be best 
 to do so, she resolved not to submit without a 
 struggle. 
 
 Once more the matter came up. Mr. Ch'en 
 was a descendant of people who have believed 
 for four thousand or more years that it is the duty 
 of a wife to obey her husband. Indeed at that 
 time the church he had left and the church he 
 had entered both alike- compelled their women 
 at the marriage altar to promise to obey their 
 husbands. But Mn Ch'en preferred to rule by 
 moral suasion rather than by physical force, or 
 even command. Nevertheless, as he had tried 
 suggesting and urging, he mildly ordered her to 
 study the Catechism. His order was too mild ; 
 Mrs, Ch'en did not obey. He added vigor to 
 his command, but still without results ; and when 
 all other methods had failed Mr. Ch'en took his 
 
CH'EN TA-YUNG— GATE KEEPER 17 
 
 wife out into a vacant garden, where no one 
 could hear, see or tell, and — whipped her until 
 she promised to study the Catechism. 
 
 And the Recording Angel with a tear blotted 
 out the record made against Ch'en for his cruelty 
 because of his ignorance, his earnestness, and the 
 good results that were to spring therefrom ; for 
 Ch'en was doing his best to become a preacher. 
 
 VI 
 
 ■ When he was made gate keeper, as we have 
 seen, he did not cease to be a student. He 
 studied theology in the gatehouse, which he 
 transformed into a" Gospel Hall." He preached 
 in the street chapel, in the school, in his home — 
 everywhere ; as the following quotations from 
 the mission history testify : 
 
 " Thus far only one has made a profession 
 of Christianity in the North China Mission. 
 His name is Ch'en Ch'eng-mei, and he is the 
 father of our gate keeper, an old man, nearly 
 sixty years of age, formerly by occupation a 
 shoemaker." 
 
 Turning over a few leaves in the history we 
 read : 
 
 " The rite of baptism was administered to Wen 
 Hui and Yang Ssu, whose probation has been 
 satisfactorily passed. Representatives of widely 
 different classes, they stood at the altar — the 
 former a literary graduate of the second degree, 
 a Manchu Tartar and belonging to the Imperial 
 
18 CHINESE HEROES 
 
 army, the other a type of the laboring class* 
 The former received his religious impressions 
 while employed as teacher of the boys' school, 
 the latter was our only trophy of the unsuccess- 
 ful attempt to purchase the temple in the South- 
 ern City. We lost the place, but we trust a soul 
 was secured for heaven. 
 
 "The chief credit of bringing forward both of 
 these converts is to be given to Ch'en Ta-yung, 
 whose studious habits and blameless life have of 
 late given us reason to hope that he may yet 
 find his proper sphere in the field of the minis- 
 try. Already his aged father has taken his place 
 as gate keeper, and his time has been given more 
 exclusively to study and work as an exhorter." 
 
 "In the summer of 1873 a native named Wang 
 Tui-fu, having the degree of Hsiu Ts'ai and be- 
 longing to the village of An Chia Chuang in 
 Shan-tung, distant four hundred miles from Pe- 
 king, was at the capital preparing to enter the 
 examinations for the degree of Chii Jen. Mean- 
 time he happened into our chapel on Ha Ta 
 Men, Great Street, was interested in the word 
 preached, came again and again, made the ac- 
 quaintance of Ch'en Ta-yung and soon presented 
 himself as a candidate for baptism." 
 
 " In February, 1874, it was decided to send a 
 letter of greeting to the little church at Hsin-an 
 from the brethren in Peking. Accordingly the 
 
 * Although that was thirty years ago the latter is gate keeper in our 
 compound since the Boxer troubles (1902). 
 
CH'EN TA-YUNG— GATE KEEPER 19 
 
 letter was written and intrusted to Ch'en Ta- 
 yung, now acting as native preacher, with the 
 rank of a student helper, who in the mission cart 
 with Yang Ssu carried it thither and remained 
 a day or two preaching and exhorting." 
 
 In thus traveling from place to place it not 
 infrequently happened that scholars came to the 
 inn to enter into discussions with Ch'en as to 
 the relative virtues of Confucianism and Chris- 
 tianity. After one, discussion the missionary 
 said to him : 
 
 " You are not an educated man ; how is it you 
 do not fear to enter into discussions with these 
 scholars ?" 
 
 " Oh," said Ch'en, " I just stick to the Bible, and 
 I know more about that than they do." 
 
 Ch'en had in reality become a preacher, one 
 
 who feared not the scholar nor despised the 
 
 coolie. 
 
 VII 
 
 " Poor child ! poor child ! ai ya, ai ya ! " 
 This was the ejaculation of Ch'en's mother 
 when his first baby was born. It was a girl. It 
 was born on the first day of the first month — 
 New Year's day. The old woman was super- 
 stitious, and predicted that he would have noth- 
 ing but girls or that he would have bad luck all 
 his life. 
 
 Ch'en was sanguine and satisfied, and called 
 his little girl Mary — he pronounced it Ma-li — 
 after the mother of our Lord. 
 
20 CHINESE HEROES 
 
 The old woman continued to sigh, the baby 
 continued to grow — she was voted by all who 
 knew her to be the most beautiful Chinese baby 
 they had ever seen — and Ch'en continued to 
 preach. It annoyed his mother that he was not 
 disturbed by this stroke of ill-luck; and when the 
 next baby came — which was a boy — she only 
 shook her head and remarked that it would take 
 more than one boy to avert the calamity occa- 
 sioned by one's first baby being a girl and born 
 on the first day of the first month. 
 
 Ch'en continued his soul-saving work, read 
 omnivorously, prayed fervently, cracked an un- 
 usual number of jokes, called his boy John, for 
 the favorite disciple, and waited for the next 
 baby — another boy. Again the old woman 
 sighed, but more faintly this time, and it was not 
 until the fifth child was born, which was also a 
 boy, as were also the sixth and seventh, that she 
 finally gave up her superstition that the first 
 baby girl, born on New Year's day, would bring 
 bad luck to a Christian's home. 
 
 And little Mary grew up an educated woman, 
 married a doctor, and has two little boys and 
 two little girls as beautiful as she was herself. 
 Meanwhile Ch'en continued steadfast in his work 
 of soul-saving. 
 
 VIII 
 
 " Your turn to remain at home to-day," said 
 Pastor Ch'en to his third son, a boy of nine, as 
 the family were starting for church. 
 
T3 '-i 
 
 03 
 
 
CH'EN TA-YUNG— GATE KEEPER 23 
 
 " I shall expect you to repeat this portion of 
 Matthew, when we return, without an error." 
 
 With this parting instruction to the boy 
 Mr. Ch'en locked the door, leaving the child 
 on the inside, and then locked the gate of the 
 court. 
 
 This might seem harsh treatment did we not 
 remember that a house in China is never safe 
 alone, and the only way to be certain that a boy 
 would not run away or get into mischief was to 
 give him- something to keep him employed; and 
 what better business for a boy on Sunday than 
 committing a portion of the gospel ? As there 
 were characters in the chapter with which he was 
 not familiar his older brother, John, and one of 
 the missionaries' children climbed over the wall, 
 told him the characters, and then left before Mr. 
 Ch'en returned, which conduct was so nearly 
 mischief as to lend interest to the task. 
 
 Mr. Ch'en was not one of those who set him- 
 self to preach so much gospel and then rest from 
 his labors. He was not satisfied when he had 
 preached to strangers, his wife and children were 
 his especial care. When the latter were home 
 from school during vacation they were given two 
 meals a day, according to the Chinese custom, 
 one at 9 a. m., the other at 4 p. m. After break- 
 fast they were set to studying the Scriptures, 
 having a certain definite task given them, for 
 learning which they received ten large cash. For 
 every character they missed one cash was de- 
 
M CHINESE HEROES 
 
 ducted. If they missed a large number they 
 were given a half hour's extra time without 
 having their income curtailed. With the money 
 thus earned they were allowed to buy cakes for 
 their lunch. 
 
 CK'en 'Wei-fan 
 
 Fourth Son of Ch'en Ta-yung 
 
 The result of this training has appeared in a 
 multitude of noble and self-sacrificing deeds on 
 the part of his boys, and indicates that Ch'en 
 did not neglect the souls of his children in his 
 efforts to save the souls of strangers. 
 
CH'EN TA-YUNG— GATE KEEPER 25 
 
 IX 
 /' Do not worry as to what you are to do for a 
 living. Finish your college course and trust the 
 Lord. The Lord will provide for the man who 
 does his duty." This was Ch'en's advice to his 
 boys when they indicated anxiety as to how they 
 were to make a living, or, as they put it, "pass 
 the days." 
 
 Mrs. Ch'en wished to economize, and in this 
 she exhibited peculiar ingenuity especially in the 
 matter of heat. On a cold winter's day when 
 the foreign physician called at the Ch'en home 
 she found the infant in a sand-bag. Inquiring 
 the reason, Mrs. Ch'en explained that sand was 
 much more easily kept clean than cloth and that 
 when the sand was well warmed it would retain 
 the heat all day, and thus there was no difficulty 
 in keeping the infant warm even in cold weather 
 in a Chinese house. She advised all her family 
 to bring up their children in the sand-bag. This 
 method will scarcely commend itself to Euro- 
 pean parents. Indeed there is small reason why 
 it should, considering the houses in which they 
 live. But be it said in Mrs. Ch'en's favor that 
 of her ten children none died in infancy, and nine 
 were living when the Boxer movement began. 
 They are, with one exception, without extrava- 
 gant ideas ; they are strong mentally, physically 
 and spiritually ; and Ch'en's two sons who have 
 graduated from college are engaged in religious 
 
£6 CHINESE HEROES 
 
 work, on salaries one-tenth what they could be 
 getting in business, while his fourth son, now in 
 college, promises to be equally self-sacrificing 
 and useful. 
 
 X 
 
 Thus Gh'en continued to preach until the 
 Boxer disturbance of 1900, at which time he was 
 appointed to preach in a town outside the Great 
 Wall in the region of Mongolia. 
 
 " You must leave here at once and flee to the 
 mountains," urged the members of his church 
 some time after he had arrived at his appoint- 
 ment. " The Christians In other places are be- 
 ing massacred and the country is in a disturbed 
 condition." 
 
 "No," answered Ch'en, "I will not leave until 
 all the members of my flock are first hid 
 away." 
 
 He had left Peking on the fifth of June, tak- 
 ing with him his wife, his youngest son and his 
 youngest daughter, who were in school, and had 
 arrived safely at Yen Ch'ing Chou. 
 
 The Christians who were familiar with the sur- 
 rounding country told him of the places in the 
 mountains where he and his family could hide 
 with the greatest prospect of security and 
 safety, and sent the chapel keeper with them to 
 show them the way. Three miles from the city 
 they were met by a man who inquired, 
 
 " Who are you ? " 
 
 " I am the preacher in Yen Ch'ing Chou." 
 
CH'EN TA-YUNG— GATE KEEPER 27 
 
 " Where are you going ? " 
 
 " I am going to the mountains." 
 
 The man hurried back to the village and in- 
 formed the Boxers that a group of Christians 
 were fleeing to the mountains. 
 
 The Boxer chief, followed by his rabble, at 
 once pursued and soon overtook them. After 
 asking the same questions as had been asked by 
 the other, he continued : 
 
 " Have you any money?" 
 
 "Yes," answered Ch'en, and gave him all he 
 had. 
 
 " Throw down your clothing and bedding." 
 
 Ch'en did so, and turning to the motley crowd 
 of Boxers and followers he said : 
 
 " Now I am through ; you may do as you 
 like." 
 
 The little girl, whom they called "Apple " — - 
 not an ordinary apple, but the best variety 
 known in the North — ran screaming to her 
 mother's arms, from which retreat she saw the 
 savage Boxers and irresponsible rabble kill and 
 behead her father, the chapel keeper and her 
 brother, a boy as generous and noble as his 
 three older brothers, while she in childish fear 
 cried out, 
 
 " Oh, mother, what shall we do ! what shall we 
 do!" 
 
 " We will all go to our Heavenly Father to- 
 gether," said the old woman, her faith never 
 wavering to the last, and she and her baby 
 
m CHINESE HEROES 
 
 daughter of thirteen were hacked to pieces 
 locked in each other's arms. 
 
 Thus Ch'en proved himself as heroic in his 
 death as he had been in his life. 
 
 XI 
 
 It was some months later when his third son, 
 the boy who had been locked in the room to 
 study the gospel, visited the place and gathered 
 up the bones of his loved ones, their bodies 
 having been burned, to give them proper burial. 
 The skulls, however, were nowhere to be found. 
 Five months later these were discovered and 
 placed with the others in the family burying 
 ground. 
 
 It would not have been unnatural if a feeling 
 of resentment had been aroused in the heart of 
 the young man as he thus looked upon the re- 
 mains of his kindred so foully and ruthlessly mur- 
 dered. Had he asked the officials to capture the 
 leaders, try them, and inflict upon them such 
 punishment as they deserved, the world would 
 not have regarded it as unjust. Had he put in 
 a bill for indemnity for the property his father 
 had lost it would have been promptly paid by 
 the official. When asked what indemnity he 
 wanted his only answer was, 
 
 " We are not in need. We do not want in- 
 demnity." 
 
 He did make one request however: 
 
 " I should like to go to that church and preach 
 
CH'EN TA-YUNG— GATE KEEPER 29 
 
 the Gospel to the people who murdered my 
 parents." 
 
 That was all. He was allowed to go. 
 
 Ch'en's investment of influence in his sons 
 and daughters is appearing in the form of noble 
 Christian character and self-sacrificing service. 
 
30 CHINESE HEROES 
 
 WANG CH'ENG-PEI— THE WHEELBARROW 
 MAN AND MARTYR 
 
 I 
 
 " What does he mean by saying he hopes I 
 will be among the saved ? " asked Teacher 
 Wang of Pastor Ch'en, as the missionary left 
 the chapel. 
 
 Before Ch'en answered the question the fol- 
 lowing conversation took place. 
 
 First the preacher asked, " What is your hon- 
 orable name, sir ? " 
 
 " My name is Wang." 
 
 " Where do you live ? " 
 
 " I live in the Province of Shan-tung, the vil- 
 lage of An Chia, near T'ai-an Fu." 
 
 " What is your business, sir.? " 
 
 " I have no business at present, but am in 
 Peking to attend the examinations." 
 
 "Are you interested in Christianity.?" 
 
 "Yes, I am interested in it, but I do not un- 
 derstand it. What does he mean by saying he 
 hopes I will be among the saved } " 
 
 Teacher Wang was of a delicate constitution, 
 with much the appearance of one in the latter 
 stages of consumption. He was a first graduate 
 and was in Peking preparing to enter the exam- 
 inations for the master's degree. He had left 
 
"Wang CH'eng-p'ei 
 
 Wheelbarrow man, preacher and martyr 
 
WANG— THE WHEELBARROW MAN 33 
 
 his home in Shan-tung, four hundred miles dis- 
 tant, where he dwelt in a small country village 
 in the neighborhood of the tomb of Confucius, 
 the great master of Chinese morals, and had 
 spent two months on the road to the capital, 
 where he arrived in time for the great examina- 
 tions. These he failed to pass. After the or- 
 deal he was pressed to spend a few weeks with 
 congenial companions seeing the sights of Pe- 
 king and becoming acquainted with urban life. 
 To his excuse that he could not afford it they 
 offered to defray all charges, and in addition fur- 
 nished him with the necessary pocket money to 
 meet such small expenses as he might incur 
 when not in their company. 
 
 While passing along one of the great streets 
 he noticed a large crowd in front of a semi- 
 foreign building, which seemed also to be filled 
 with people, and pressing his way through he 
 determined to enter and see what was going on. 
 
 A foreigner on a small raised platform was 
 speaking in a language singularly like his own ; 
 indeed Mr. Wang confessed that the peculiar- 
 looking individual spoke the dialect of the capi- 
 tal better than he himself could speak it, and he 
 inclined his ear to listen. A long while he sat 
 thus, and when the speaker stopped and the 
 crowd dispersed he remained in the rear of the 
 room devouring with his eyes the cut of the 
 man's garment, the size of his nose and the 
 color of his eyes. He spoke to Mr. Wang as 
 3 
 
84 CHINESE HEROES 
 
 he passed out, and as he left him expressed the 
 hope that he would be among the saved. The 
 young Chinese assistant, Pastor Ch'en Ta-yung, 
 at once engaged Mr. Wang in conversation. 
 The two sat down and in answer to his questions 
 Ch'en gave such explanations as set forth the 
 elements of Christianity and served rather to 
 arouse than to satisfy the curiosity of such a 
 scholar as Teacher Wang. 
 
 " Would you care to know more about this 
 doctrine 7 " asked Ch'en. 
 
 " Indeed I would," replied the scholar. 
 
 "In that case, if you will go with me to see 
 the gentleman who has just been speaking, he 
 will answer with pleasure all the questions you 
 desire to ask." 
 
 " By all means let us go at once," said Teacher 
 Wang, and the two, engaged in friendly conver- 
 sation, started for the home of the missionary.* 
 
 II 
 
 Teacher Wang- was in earnest. 
 
 He had learned from Ch'en what it was to be 
 saved, and now, like the Philipplan jailer, he was 
 anxious to understand the process by which a 
 man past middle life might attain that very 
 desirable end. A long time they talked, and as 
 he was going, well satisfied with what he had 
 learned, the missionary called after him, 
 
 "Mr. Wang! Mr. Wang!" 
 
 *Rev. T.,eander W. Pilclier. 
 
WANG— THE WHEELBARROW MAN 35 
 
 "What is it?" 
 
 " Should any further questions arise in your 
 mind to perplex you, do not hesitate to call and 
 allow me to help you solve them." 
 
 " Thank you. I shall certainly do so." 
 
 "You will come and dine with me?" said 
 Pastor Ch'en, "and we can talk further about 
 this matter." 
 
 Teacher Wang did so. 
 
 It seemed singular to him that a foreigner 
 who looked so savage, with black beard all over 
 his face, and a Chinese whom he had never seen 
 before should take such a personal interest in 
 him. At first he wondered if they were not in- 
 fluenced by selfish motives. " But what selfish 
 motives," he asked himself, " could they have in 
 a man who is as poor as I am ? " 
 
 He called again and again. He followed the 
 missionary's instructions, spending much of his 
 time in prayer, and it was not long until he be- 
 gan to see the light. 
 
 " How long do you expect to remain in 
 Peking? " the missionary inquired of Mr. Wang 
 after he had stepped into the light. 
 
 " I do not know ; perhaps not long." 
 
 " Would you be willing to remain here and 
 take the position of chapel keeper for a few 
 months ? " 
 
 " What duties would I have to perform ? " 
 
 "Your principal duties would be to live in the 
 street chapel and testify that Christ is able to 
 
36 CHINESE HEROES 
 
 save men, because he has saved you, and con- 
 verse with men as Ch'en conversed with you." 
 
 " I will do so." 
 
 After a few months it was evident to the 
 missionary that Teacher Wang understood the 
 religion he professed, and he advised that he re- 
 turn to his home in Shan-tung and there witness 
 among his friends to the Saviour he had found 
 while in the capital. 
 
 Ill 
 
 " Tell us about your trip," said Mrs. Wang to 
 her husband the first morning after his return. 
 
 It was Sunday, and he gathered his family 
 about him for prayers. After reading and ex- 
 pounding a passage of Scripture he told them 
 about his trip, his meeting with the missionary, 
 his newly-found Saviour, and the joy and peace 
 that came to him in believing ; and then he urged 
 both his wife and children to follow his example. 
 
 After prayer he read a hymn in which was the 
 couplet, 
 
 You who seek the throne of grace, 
 Do not delay. 
 
 The words for delay were cliih yen, not very 
 unlike the words cJiih yen, which mean to use 
 tobacco, and when he read the hymn his wife un- 
 derstood it thus : 
 
 You who seek the throne of grace, 
 Do not use tobacco. 
 
WANG— THE WHEELBARROW MAN 37 
 
 and she immediately threw away both pipe and 
 tobacco, and began an enthusiastic crusade 
 against the use of the weed among her neighbors. 
 
 "Are there any foreign woman-teachers who 
 believe in Jesus among those who taught you ?" 
 she inquired of her husband. 
 
 "Several of them," he replied. 
 
 " H.OW would it do for me to go and ask them 
 to teach me ? " 
 
 "Not now," he replied; "wait till I ask the 
 missionary." 
 
 Teacher Wang began at once the preaching 
 of the Gospel through the whole neighborhood. 
 He had many friends among the scholars and 
 he made them his especial care. He went from 
 village to village carrying with him copies of the 
 books which had been given him to read and 
 from which he gained much of his instruction. 
 He was especially attached to the Gospels and 
 Epistles, and made them his constant com- 
 panions. Being a teacher, and widely known in 
 that part of the province, he had no difficulty in 
 obtaining access to the homes. Like Paul, or 
 like his own great ancestor Confucius, he found 
 many who were ready to entertain him because 
 of the wisdom of his instruction and conversa- 
 tion ; like Paul also, many of his friends with- 
 drew from him because of the strange doctrines 
 with which he had allied himself. 
 
 " Howbeit certain men clave unto him and 
 believed." 
 
38 CHINESE HEROES 
 
 IV 
 
 " You must go to Peking for more books," 
 said Teaclier Wang to his son Ch'eng-p'ei after 
 he had been preaching for a few weeks. 
 
 "How shall I go?" inquired Ch'eng-p'ei. 
 
 " Take your wheelbarrow," said his father, " in 
 order that the trip may be as inexpensive as 
 possible." 
 
 He gave his son a diary of the work already 
 done, in which were included the names of eight- 
 een persons who desired to join the church on 
 probation, most of whom were his own friends 
 or relations. 
 
 " I first preached to the members of my own 
 family," he afterwards explained, " believing that 
 if I could not convince them I could have little 
 hope of winning strangers." 
 
 Wang Ch'eng-p'ei, unlike his father, was not a 
 scholar. Like Shun he had followed the plow, 
 or pushed the wheelbarrow, and with the latter 
 he went to the capital, a distance of four hun- 
 dred miles. He remained only a few weeks, 
 which he spent in the study of the Scriptures, 
 and with his wheelbarrow-load of books he re- 
 turned to his home, but not until he had first 
 obtained a promise that some of the mission- 
 aries would visit them in Shan-tung and hold a 
 service among them. 
 
 When the missionaries came they were ac- 
 companied by Ch'en Ta-yung the preacher and 
 
WANG— THE WHEELBARROW MAN 39 
 
 Yang Ssu the carter, two men whose history will 
 ever be interwoven with the history of the North 
 China Mission. 
 
 Yang Ssu, tKe Carter 
 
 " Where is your father ? " they inquired of 
 Ch'eng-'pei, when he called at the inn. 
 
 " He is on a preaching and book-selling tour 
 in the country," answered the son, "but I will go 
 for him at once." 
 
40 CHINESE HEROES 
 
 Unhitching his donkey from the plow he 
 jumped astride it and was soon tracing the 
 donkey paths through the fields from village to 
 village in search of his father. 
 
 The latter was in the habit of going to all the 
 villages within a radius of twenty miles to tell 
 the glad tidings, of salvation, and as he was seven 
 miles away at this time it was some hours be- 
 fore they returned. He was delighted to see 
 the missionaries, and, like all Chinese after hav- 
 ing come in contact with foreigners, he was not 
 satisfied with the native method of salutation 
 but clutched their hands in a manner as cordial 
 as it was awkward. 
 
 Sunday was a red letter day in Teacher Wang's 
 home. His son was baptized and the two were 
 received into full membership in the church, 
 while his wife, son's wife, daughter, nephew and 
 cousin were all received on probation. In the 
 afternoon Ch'en Ta-yung preached, and the sac- 
 rament of the Lord's Supper was administered 
 to a little company of believers all of whom were 
 to play an important part in a small way in the 
 establishment of the Church in China. Well 
 might the missionary write : 
 
 " The day was one of encouragement, not more 
 in what we actually enjoyed than in what it 
 promised," as we shall see who follow the his- 
 tory of some of the members of this day's 
 meeting. 
 
 The following day the missionaries started on 
 
WANG— THE WHEELBARROW MAN 41 
 
 the return trip, stopping at the village of Yang 
 Ssu, the carter, long enough to perform the 
 marriage ceremony for that functionary, after 
 which he continued with them on the journey. 
 
 V 
 
 If I were asked what is the most important 
 thing to be done in the establishment of Chris- 
 tianity in a heathen land I should say the estab- 
 lishment of Christian homes. God, when he 
 undertook to people a world, did it by the estab- 
 lishment of a home. Again, when he undertook 
 to save a world from the flood, he did it by sav- 
 ing a home. Once more, when he wanted to 
 raise up a nation into whose minds and hearts 
 he could commit his most precious revelation, he 
 did it by raising up a God-fearing man and wife ; 
 for Sarah was as important an element as Abra- 
 ham in the making of the character of the Jew- 
 ish people. Those who desire to know the 
 difference between a man with a Christian wife 
 and one with a heathen wife in a heathen land 
 may study the history of Abraham and Lot, both 
 of whom are alike called faithful. But while the 
 record of the one is resplendent with honor that 
 of the other may not be written. It was not un- 
 wise, therefore, for Teacher Wang to spend his 
 first efforts in securing a home following. 
 
 " I hope you did not forget to ask the mission- 
 ary if I might go to Peking to study," said Mrs. 
 Wang to her husband on Sunday afternoon. 
 
42 CHINESE HEROES 
 
 "I asked him, and he said you might go." 
 
 " When may I go ? " 
 
 " As soon as you are ready." 
 
 " I cannot leave you until you are stronger," 
 said the woman. 
 
 This was not the first time reference had been 
 made to Teacher Wang's health. 
 
 For years he had been in delicate health, and 
 it was evident that his long trips in the country, 
 sleeping in all kinds of homes and eating all 
 kinds of food, was rapidly telling on his health. 
 He was becoming weaker and weaker, but he 
 was deaf alike to the pleadings of his family and 
 to the advice of- the missionaries that he should 
 take more rest. He did take as good care of 
 himself as he could, and his reply always was," I 
 can live but a few years longer, and I must spend 
 them in diligent service of rhy Master," and with 
 these words he would enter upon another term 
 of service. 
 
 Some months later, when the missionaries 
 again visited his home, they found the thread of 
 life almost exhausted. They baptized the re- 
 maining members of his family and some of his 
 friends, took the names of others on probation, 
 and ten days after they had departed Teacher 
 Wang left the service of the Master on earth for 
 the association with Him in heaven, committing 
 his work to his son, Wang Ch'eng-p'ei, and his 
 ever faithful wife, both of whom, however, were 
 in sad need of preparation. 
 
WANG— THE WHEELBARROW MAN 43 
 
 VI 
 
 " Children," said Mrs. Wang, after the remains 
 of her husband had been carried to their last 
 resting place, " you must be good to-day while 
 mother is away." 
 
 "Where are you going, mother ? " piped up 
 her two little daughters. 
 
 " I am going to sell books and preach as your 
 father did." 
 
 With this she bade good-by to the children, 
 took the package of books she had wrapped up 
 in a square of cloth, and departed upon her er- 
 rand of love and service. She first visited the 
 homes of relatives and friends, then the homes 
 of neighbors, after which she went to sell her 
 books and tell her story of redeeming grace in 
 the adjacent villages. She met with no little 
 opposition on account of her zeal and what 
 some of her relatives and friends called her 
 " craziness." 
 
 " You are insane, Mrs. Wang," they said ; " the 
 words you speak are the words of a crazy 
 woman." 
 
 " Was not my husband a scholar .? " she asked. 
 
 " Quite right, he was a scholar." 
 
 " Did he not preach this doctrine 7 Did he 
 not die believing in this doctrine.? Is he not in 
 heaven now as a result of this doctrine .? Was he 
 crazy ? No, my friends, I am not insane. I am 
 trying to do the work my husband was not 
 
4.4 CHINESE HEROES 
 
 spared to do," and when the missionaries re- 
 turned a few months later it was thus they found 
 her carrying on the work of her husband. 
 
 They invited her to go to Peking to study, 
 knowing that unless she could read she could 
 not accomplish the ends she designed ; where- 
 fore a few days after they had departed she took 
 her son and her two little daughters and started 
 on that long trip to the capital. 
 
 The girls were placed in school and the woman 
 given rooms in another part of the court, and she 
 began to study the Gospel of Matthew. 
 
 " Who ever heard of a woman as old as you 
 learning to read ? " said the gate keeper with a 
 laugh. 
 
 " I will learn to read, no matter how difficult 
 the task," answered Mrs. Wang. 
 
 It was only a short time after this when, in- 
 quiring the name of a certain character, she was 
 told, 
 
 " Why, that is your own name ; " and she 
 adds, " I discovered how ignorant I was, and 
 prayed the Lord for help and set to work with 
 diligence." 
 
 For seven months she continued at her books. 
 At the end of this time she was able to read the 
 gospel, and she then asked to return home and 
 spend a year in the active service of soul-saving. 
 Then she entered upon her studies once more ; 
 and as the years passed she continued a part of 
 the time in study and a part in traveling over 
 
WANG— THE WHEELBARROW MAN 45 
 
 Shan-tung and Chih-li provinces and her testi- 
 mony at present is — for she still lives : 
 
 " It has been twenty-four years since I ac- 
 cepted Christianity, during which time it has 
 been impossible for me to measure the grace 
 given me. I am now seventy-five years old, and 
 I would that all who read this would join with 
 me In praising the Lord that every member of 
 my family is safely within the fold." 
 
 VII 
 
 " No, you cannot go farther in the cart," said 
 Wang Ch'eng-p'ei to his mother the first time 
 he took her from Peking to Shan-tung. 
 
 They had started from Peking in a Chinese 
 cart but before going far upon their way the 
 cart tipped over and Mrs. Wang was thrown out . 
 upon the road, receiving very serious injuries. 
 
 " But what will we do ? " inquired his mother. 
 
 " I do not know what we will do, but you can- 
 not go on in this cart." 
 
 " I might ride a donkey," she suggested. 
 
 '' You remain here while I go to the inn and 
 see what arrangements I can make." 
 
 The distance to their home was almost four 
 hundred miles. It was impossible for his mother 
 to ride farther in the cart. Her injuries were 
 such that the jolting of a springless cart, to- 
 gether with the agitation entailed by the recent 
 accident, would be too much for the old woman's 
 nerves, and the son was unwilling to run further 
 
46 CHINESE HEROES 
 
 risks with his mother. He remembered the in- 
 structions of his own sacred books. He remem- 
 bered the primers he had learned in his youth, 
 wherein he was taught that, 
 
 To every instruction of parents you need 
 To respectfully listen, with deference heed. 
 Warm well their couch on the cold winter days, 
 Fan their couch cool from the sun's scorching blaze. 
 
 But he remembered something more than this, 
 something which with his new faith had a more 
 powerful influence over him, and as he walked 
 back to the inn he repeated, " Honor thy father 
 and thy mother ; " and he said to himself, 
 
 " I will get a wheelbarrow and wheel her 
 home. What matters it that the distance is four 
 .hundred miles! I brought a wheelbarrow-load 
 of Bibles from Peking, why should I not wheel 
 my mother ? She is more precious even 
 than—" 
 
 But he finished not the sentence. He soon 
 secured a wheelbarrow, and placing his mother 
 on one side, and their effects (which consisted 
 mostly of their bedding) on the other, he spent 
 the following twenty-five days wheeling his 
 mother home, a distance of nearly four hundred 
 miles.* 
 
 * " Old Mrs. Wang has had another serious accident, probably making 
 her a cripple for life. She lives with her son and is still abundant in 
 labor that comes within her reach. Through her many women are hear- 
 ing the Gospel. " — Minutes of North China Conference, 1900. 
 
WANG— THE WHEELBARROW MAN 47 
 
 VIII 
 
 ■' I am as happy as if I had a double-handful 
 of cash," said one of Wang Ch'eng-p'ei's little 
 boys to the other as they played together in the 
 court. 
 
 " Oh," said the other, with stillgreater glee, " I 
 am as happy as if I had a double-handful of sil- 
 ver ! " and putting his hands together as he spoke 
 he scooped them full of fine sand which he 
 allowed to trickle down in a cone-shaped pile 
 between his feet. 
 
 Their father had long ere this become a 
 preacher and their grandmother, now an old 
 woman, was spending the autumn of her life in 
 the home of her son. She often told them about 
 the time when the cart tipped over and their 
 father wheeled her home, an incident that will 
 ever be fraught with interest for the descendants 
 of Wang Ch'eng-p'ei. 
 
 "And was papa a preacher then, grandma ? " 
 asked the boys. 
 
 " No, he was not a preacher, but he was study- 
 ing to become a preacher." 
 
 " He could not do it now," said Ch'ing-p'ing, 
 the youngcf of the two; "he is too fat." 
 
 " But why are you so happy ? " asked their 
 grandmother. 
 
 " Well, you know, grandma, the missionary 
 came to hold revival meetings here. He 
 preached a whole week and still thought he had 
 
48 CHINESE HEROES 
 
 not moved the heart of any one, and last night 
 when he sat down and asked if any one had 
 anything to say, nobody said a word. I knew 
 it was not proper for a boy to speak before the 
 old men had spoken and so I waited a long 
 time, though I wanted to confess my sins. But 
 when no one made any confession I could stand 
 it no longer and so I confessed." 
 
 " And what had you to confess, my boy ? " 
 asked his grandmother. 
 
 " Do you not remember, grandma, when you 
 left me to attend my little sister? " 
 
 "A few days ago ? Yes." 
 
 " Well, I slapped her because she was mis- 
 chievous, and it made me very unhappy, be- 
 cause, you know, she is little, and she cried." 
 
 " Was that all you had to confess } " asked his 
 grandmother, wondering at the little sins which 
 disturb the mind of a child. 
 
 " No. The evening you sent me to the shop, 
 to buy things, I could not get back until after 
 dark and I was afraid. I said to myself, 'Jesus 
 can take care of me as well in the dark as in the 
 light,' but still I was afraid. I could not trust 
 him. Of course we ought to trust Jesus ; ought 
 we not, grandma ? " 
 
 " Certainly, my child." 
 
 "After brother and I had confessed our sins 
 some of the big folks cried and the missionary 
 looked as if he were crying too. 'Most every- 
 one cried. Then the men confessed their sins, 
 
WANG— THE WHEELBARROW MAN 49 
 
 and they said very much, but more as if they 
 were happy than sorry, and they sang, 
 
 Praise God, from whom all blessings flow. 
 
 Then everybody shook hands with everybody 
 else, and cried, and laughed, and sang and said 
 ' Praise the Lord,' and were very happy ; that is 
 the reason brother and I are happy." 
 
 These confessions of the grandchildren of old 
 Teacher Wang started a revival likewhich nothing 
 before had been known in China. The members 
 of the church became new creatures. Others 
 found Christ as a Saviour and entered the church. 
 But, more important still, it was the precursor 
 of a series of revivals which spread throughout 
 all of North China, extending to other schools 
 and churches and preparing both students and 
 Christians for the persecutions which were soon 
 to follow. 
 
 IX 
 
 When the Boxers reached Peking, and the 
 people from all the other missions gathered at 
 the Methodist compound, they at once organized 
 themselves into various committees the duty of 
 each of which was to take charge of some partic- 
 ular kind of work. Some were laborers ; others 
 took charge of the food supply; others the water; 
 others fortifications ; while Wang Ch'eng-p'ei 
 was made governor-in-chief of the Chinese fight- 
 ing forces. On one occasion, when they sought 
 in vain for some one to carry a message to the 
 
50 CHINESE HEROES 
 
 enemy encamped in the south-west corner of the 
 city, Ch'eng-p'ei said, 
 
 " Give it to me ; I will take it." 
 
 " Put on an official hat and clothes," said the 
 head of the general committee. "Official gar- 
 ments inspire fear and respect." 
 
 Thus clad he delivered the message. 
 
 When they arrived in Su Wang-fu it seemed 
 to many, both foreign and native, that all was lost, 
 and that they were penning themselves up thus 
 to be butchered like so many sheep. It seemed 
 impossible that a handful of people with insuffi- 
 cient provisions and almost unarmed could re- 
 sist the forces of the Empire. During the first 
 days of the siege the Chinese pressed them hard 
 and on one occasion nothing but the wall sepa- 
 rated the two forces. The Boxers on the out- 
 side were pitching bricks over the wall, while the 
 Christians within hurled missiles back in hope 
 of breaking the heads as well as the ranks of 
 the enemy. The Chinese soldiers had climbed 
 to the roof of a house where they could see into 
 the court and pick off with their rifles any who 
 showed themselves, so that the fighting forces of 
 Christians under Wang Ch'eng-p'ei were com- 
 pelled to creep about close enough to the wall 
 to avoid the bullets of the soldiers on the roof, 
 and far enough away to avoid the bricks of the 
 Boxers. 
 
 It was at this time that one of the young pas- 
 tors, Liu Chi-hsien, raised his head a trifle higher 
 
WANG— THE WHEELBARROW MAN 51 
 
 than he should and in an instant a bullet pierced 
 his brain. 
 
 " Men," cried Wang Ch'eng-p'ei, " we must up 
 and fight or we are all lost." 
 
 "You lead the way and we will follow," shouted 
 a Congregational comrade. 
 
 " A good brother ! " answered Ch'eng-p'ei, wind- 
 ing his queue around his head and springing to 
 his feet. " Come on ; we will drive them off or 
 die." 
 
 They did both. 
 
 Wang Ch'eng-p'ei with his left arm akimbo 
 and his spear in his right hand led the men to 
 victory, but a bullet pierced his hand and passed 
 through his body. A few hours later, attended 
 by loving hands, with faith in God and a smile 
 upon his face, he passed away, and was laid in 
 a martyr's grave. 
 
52 CHINESE HEROES 
 
 CHILD-PRISO^fERS 
 
 A TALE OF THE BOXER OUTRAGES IN PEKING 
 I 
 
 " Come, boys, come quickly," said Professor 
 Chung, calling to the children who were playing 
 in the court. 
 
 Anxiety was written upon every feature and 
 fear expressed in every intonation of his voice. 
 
 " May we not finish our game, papa } " asked 
 Kan-en, the younger of the two boys, as he kicked 
 the descending shuttlecock with the side of his 
 thick-soled shoe. 
 
 " No, no, boys, come quickly; there is no time 
 to play now," exclaimed the anxious father. 
 
 " Who beat ? " asked their sister, as they came 
 on the veranda. 
 
 " Kan-en," answered the elder of the two. 
 
 " Brother is a better player than I am," ex- 
 plained Kan-en, " but I had good luck to-day." 
 This lest his brother should feel unhappy at his 
 own defeat, for the boys were taught to be 
 modest and never to exult at their own success 
 or the misfortune or failure of another. 
 
 '' What is the trouble ? " asked K'ao-en, the 
 elder brother. 
 
 " Papa says the foreigners have all fled and 
 
CHILD-PRISONERS 53 
 
 we must leave our home and hide or we will be 
 killed by the Boxers." 
 
 Professor Chung was a teacher in the Imperial 
 University. He wi,s a scholar, being, a graduate 
 of an American college and having passed the 
 Imperial examinations, receiving the first degree. 
 He was a true son of the Middle Kingdom but he 
 had been associated with the foreigners. True, it 
 was under the patronage of his own sovereign, 
 but the savage Boxers in their ignorance and 
 superstition had determined to rid the country 
 of every vestige of foreign influence, and massa- 
 cre every one associated with the " foreign 
 devils." 
 
 Most of his possessions had been packed in 
 boxes and sent to the homes of friends who had 
 no connection with foreigners, in the hope that 
 they might be saved, and it now remained to 
 find safe hiding-places for the members of his 
 family. 
 
 " Where shall we go ? " asked his wife as the 
 last box was sent away. 
 
 " We ought to pack the things in the other 
 three rooms," said Chung, without answering her 
 question. 
 
 " No," interposed his aged father, " you are 
 unnecessarily alarmed, my son. In a few days 
 the whole matter will have blown over and we 
 can return in perfect safety. We have packed 
 enough." 
 
 " Mr. Wang and his family are going to the 
 
54. CHINESE HEROES 
 
 grain shop," said Professor Chung, turning to 
 his wife as if to answer her question. " Grand- 
 father and K'ao-en may go with them. I will 
 take you and the girls, with Kan-en and the baby, 
 to Teacher Liu's, in the south-west of the city." 
 
 Professor CKvmg 
 
 " May I not go with brother ? " asked Kan-en, 
 in the hope that they might complete their un- 
 finished game. 
 
 " No, my son ; you must go and help take 
 care of mamma and sisters." 
 
CHILD-PRISONERS 55 
 
 That was enough for that child of seven. The 
 prospect of being useful offered greater induce- 
 ments than the most attractive game. 
 
 Carts were soon called, and after an hour's 
 bumping over rough streets they arrived at 
 Teacher Liu's only to find that the foreigners 
 had likewise fled taking with them all the native 
 women and children. After a few moments' 
 conversation Chung concluded to take his family 
 to the Methodist mission, where foreigners and 
 natives alike were collecting in the hope of de- 
 fending themselves against their common enemy. 
 
 After an unusually tender leave-taking for a 
 Chinese husband and father Chunor left his fam- 
 ily and hastened>back to care for his own home- 
 stead. 
 
 His father and eldest son were safely housed 
 with the Wang family at the grain shop, and 
 after a night or two of watching and anxiety he 
 took what food he could get and went to carry it 
 to his wife ; for hundreds were gathering at the 
 mission, having left everything they had in their 
 homes, not even bringing with them either food 
 or bedding. 
 
 " Your family have left," said the gate keeper 
 when he arrived. 
 
 " Where have they gone ? " 
 
 " I think they went to Teacher Liu's, but I am 
 not certain." 
 
 Chune mounted his cart and drove as fast as 
 he could to Teacher Liu's. 
 
56 CHINESE HEROES 
 
 " Is my wife here ? " was his first inquiry. 
 
 " She is. We have just bought them some 
 eggs and cakes, and they are eating in that side 
 room." 
 
 The smaller children were enjoying it as they 
 would a picnic, but there was a settled look of 
 anxiety on the faces of both parents as their eyes 
 met. 
 
 " Why did you leave.?" Chung inquired. 
 
 " We were without food or bedding," answered 
 his wife. " Let us return home and run the risk." 
 
 They did so, but they had not been home an 
 hour when a messenger came to say that the 
 Boxers had looted and burned two of the mis- 
 sions, that theirs was the next on the list, and 
 that they were less than a mile away. 
 
 " You take the boys to the grain shop," said 
 Chung to his father, who in the meantime had 
 also returned, " and I will take the women to 
 the milk store on the other street." 
 
 The doors of the milk store were closed, and 
 the best he could do was to leave them in a 
 small vegetable shop near the place he sought. 
 
 As soon as he had seen them safe he hastened 
 to learn if his father and the boys had likewise 
 been shut out of the grain shop, but they were 
 gone he knew not where. 
 
 He hurried back to his family but they also 
 had fled, being driven out of the shop by the 
 proprietor, who had returned in the meantime, 
 and Chung was left standing on the street alone. 
 
CHILD-PRISONERS 57 
 
 II 
 
 The streets were thronged with men, women 
 and children hurrying in every direction. 
 
 The hasty glance over the shoulder, the whis- 
 pered instruction of the parents to the little 
 ones, and the quick step, all betokened the fear 
 that drove them from their homes. 
 
 When old Mr. Chung and the boys arrived at 
 the grain shop they found that the Wang family 
 had been compelled to leave and seek another 
 hiding-place. 
 
 " Did they all go together ? " he inquired. 
 
 " No," replied the shop-keeper, " Mr. Wang and 
 his son and youngest daughter went together ; 
 and Mrs. Wang with her daughter-in-law and 
 the other; daughters formed a party of their 
 own." 
 
 "Where did Mrs. Wang go.?" inquired Mr. 
 Chung, for she was his daughter. 
 
 " She went outside the An-ting gate," replied 
 the shop-keeper. 
 
 " Then," said he to the boys, " we will go and 
 find her. It may be she will need our assist- 
 ance and protection." 
 
 " We will take care of her; will we not, grand- 
 pa?" said Kan-en flourishing a stick which he 
 carried with him. " Three men can withstand a 
 large number of Boxers." And he jumped up 
 kicking backward as though at an imaginary 
 shuttlecock. 
 
58 
 
 CHINESE HEROES 
 
 To these two boys it was still a picnic. They 
 were going out in the country for a lark. They 
 played soldier all the way, walking beside each 
 other with their sticks on their shoulders in 
 true soldier fashion or making a dash at an im- 
 
 CHun^ Il.*ao-en 
 
 aginary enemy with fixed bayonets. But when 
 they came near where the soldiers were — and 
 they were to be seen on every side after they 
 passed beyond the gate — they each took hold of 
 his grandfather's hand and walked along with 
 a quiet dignity like well-behaved citizens. 
 
 They were little men. Their clothing was cut 
 
CHILD-PRISONERS 59 
 
 on the same pattern as that of their grandfather. 
 Their faces were bright and expressive, not to 
 say beautiful, and indicated an intelligent par- 
 entage. Their conduct was worthy of their sta- 
 tion. They were neither excessively shy nor 
 intrusively bold. No one could enter a drawing- 
 room with a more manly bearing or greet a 
 guest with a better bow, all which, with their 
 little manly ways, attracted attention to them 
 wherever they went. 
 
 They found Mrs. Wang and the others outside 
 the gate, near the Temple of Earth, hiding in a 
 cave-like excavation in a deep gully. Soldiers 
 surrounded them on every side. Savage mon- 
 sters, followers of Tung Fu-hsiang, thirsting for 
 the blood of all who had had any connection 
 with foreigners, whether in a diplomatic, re- 
 ligious, or business capacity ; and followers also 
 of Prince Ch'ing, who, though they dared not do 
 much to oppose the actions of their cruel com- 
 patriots, yet steadfastly refused to take any part 
 in their unjustifiable attack on the legations. 
 Amid such surroundings it was impossible for 
 our friends to remain long undiscovered in their 
 temporary hiding place, and especially with two 
 such boys as Kan-en and K'ao-en members of 
 their party. 
 
 Among those encamped near them was a mili- 
 tary officer, in command of two hundred and 
 fifty soldiers, named Li Tien-wen, who became 
 interested in and took a fancy to the boys. 
 
60 CHINESE HEROES 
 
 " Give them to me," he said to their grand- 
 father, " and I will take care of them." 
 
 " Perhaps you will kill them," replied the old 
 man. 
 
 " If I wanted to kill them why should I ask for 
 them } " retorted the officer. " Nothing pre- 
 vents my killing them where they are." 
 
 And with but little parleying the old man 
 turned the boys over to the Boxer chief, for so 
 we must consider him, and it was well he did so ; 
 for nothing worse could happen to them than 
 must have befallen their grandfather and the 
 women he went to protect, none of whom have 
 been heard of since. 
 
 The boys were taken to the officer's tent and 
 instructions given to the guards to allow no evil to 
 befall them, and amid the enemies of their people 
 they played soldier with as little fear as they had 
 done in company with their grandfather. 
 
 The possession of two such boys by an officer 
 could not remain a secret. The news flew from 
 tent, and from company to company, and soon 
 reached the ear of another officer in command 
 of five hundred troops, who was without such a 
 coveted offspring. This was Lo Ch'un-hsiu, and 
 donning his official robes he set out to call on 
 Major Li. 
 
 " Ah, Major Li," said he after the ordinary 
 civilities of the occasion had been expressed, 
 " from what sacred tree have you plucked such 
 fair and well-developed fruit ? " 
 
CHILD-PRISONERS 61 
 
 " You know how the lotus grows," answered 
 Major Li. 
 
 " Yes, but these are fruit, not flowers." 
 
 " Rice grows as does the lotus. Colonel Lo, 
 from the submerged surface and the slime." 
 
 " I fear I am unseemly stupid. I do not un- 
 derstand you." 
 
 " Listen, then. These two children have grown 
 amid the slime of the hated Christians, are follow- 
 ers of the ' Foreign Devil,' fled from the city with 
 their grandfather and joined their aunt, with some 
 other relatives, who were living, as one might 
 expect them to, in a gully not far from my camp. 
 I asked for them and they were delivered over 
 to me, and as I suppose their parents have been 
 or will be massacred I propose to adopt and 
 bring them up as my own children." 
 
 " Two such boys are too rich a prize for one 
 man," said Colonel Lo ; " give one to me." 
 
 Major Li gazed at the boys with a look which 
 was well-nigh indefinable. It was not love^ — he 
 had not had time to have learned to love them. 
 It was not fear — he had nothing to fear from his 
 superior officer, though he felt he could not well 
 refuse his request ; it was the look which might 
 appear upon the face of a miser when compelled 
 to give up a part of his most cherished posses- 
 sion. " Very well," said he, " take the younger ; 
 but you will not let any harm befall him." 
 
 And Colonel Lo returned to his tent taking 
 with him little Kan-en. 
 
62 CHINESE HEROES 
 
 III 
 
 When Professor Chung discovered that his 
 wife and daughters had been driven out of the 
 vegetable shop, and his father and sons with his 
 brother-in-law's family had been forced to leave 
 the grain shop, he was almost beside himself. 
 Yet there was nothing he could do. There was 
 no one from whom he could demand satisfaction, 
 for no one was under obligation to protect his 
 family at such a critical period. The sight of 
 him was pitiable. For three days or more his 
 nerves had been kept at their utmost tension. 
 His face was pale, his eyes wild, and his 
 whole body in a tremor. Every moment he 
 knew the Boxer rabble was drawing nearer to 
 where they were. There was not a moment to 
 be lost, and yet he knew not which way to 
 turn. 
 
 Was it possible, he asked himself, that his 
 young wife and the fair forms of those innocent 
 girls were to fall into the hands of that savage 
 horde ? and without knowing where he went, 
 led, no doubt, by the filial and parental ties that 
 bound him to his father and his boys, he hastily 
 retraced his steps to the grain shop. 
 
 But there everything was as quiet as death. 
 The doors were closed and barred and not a 
 sound came from within. He peeped through 
 the cracks of the board front, but only to gaze 
 into darkness. He looked up the great street 
 
CHILD-PRISONERS 63 
 
 toward the An-ting gate, not knowing that his 
 father and boys had gone in that direction, and 
 then down the street where a soHtary individual 
 was slowly walking toward him. 
 
 He sauntered toward the south, looking as 
 unconcerned as was possible under the circum- 
 stances, greeting the other with a slight bend of 
 the body. 
 
 "Are you not Professor Chung?" asked the 
 other with evident concern. 
 
 "Yes, I am," said Chung, not knowing what 
 new calamity was now upon him. 
 
 " I saw," said the other in a half-whisper, " a 
 lady with two girls and a child pass this direc- 
 tion. Might it be Mrs. Chung ? They are now 
 in First Street — at least they turned in that 
 way." 
 
 Chung waited to hear no more. With a 
 polite expression of his obligation he hurried as 
 rapidly as he dared in the direction of First 
 Street, from the mouth of which he saw his 
 wife and daughters, a hundred yards away, the 
 only persons abroad upon the narrow lane, 
 even the dogs having been called within the 
 courts. 
 
 The mother was pressing the child to her 
 bosom, and the two girls were hurrying after 
 her as fast as their feet would carry them, all in 
 the direction of greatest danger. 
 
 Chung put his hand to his mouth and gave a 
 shrill whistle. 
 
64 CHINESE HEROES 
 
 They turned their heads as they hastened on- 
 ward, but seeing who it was they stopped. Then 
 a motion of the hand and they came toward him 
 and he to them. 
 
 " This direction," said he, as he took the 
 child. 
 
 " But where shall we go ? " asked his wife in 
 alarm. 
 
 " We must go toward the west. The east side 
 of the city is full of Boxers. Our only safety is 
 in the west." 
 
 They passed south to the great street that 
 leads to the Drum and Bell Towers, and fol- 
 lowed this till they came to Back Gate Street. 
 Then turning down Pipe Street and passing 
 Duck Lane they crossed a small bridge. There 
 was a cart standing here and Chung stowed the 
 three women with the child inside, while he 
 " hung upon the shaft " beside the driver. The 
 carter at first demurred at the thought of draw- 
 ing five people, but as Chung appeared to be a 
 gentleman, and none of them were large, and as 
 he pointed in the direction the carter himself 
 desired to go, he put the basket, from which the 
 mule had been feeding, in its place under the 
 cart and drove away. 
 
 Smoke was ascending from the smoldering 
 ruins of two of the missions and as Chung turned 
 his head to view them the carter remarked : 
 
 " The Boxers are burning the foreigners' 
 places." 
 
CHILD-PRISONERS 65 
 
 "Yes," answered Chung; "where are they 
 now ? " 
 
 " They have gone to burn Second Street." 
 
 " I perceive you call them foreigners ; why do 
 you not call them 'devils'?" asked Chung, sur- 
 mising that the carter was himself a Chris- 
 tian. 
 
 " I do not call them 'devils,'" was his evasive 
 answer. 
 
 " Do you know any of these foreigners } " 
 Chung inquired further. 
 
 " They have ridden in my cart at times," was 
 his reply. " Where is your destination .? " 
 
 "In the south-west," answered Chung. 
 
 They each suspected the other was a Chris- 
 tian, but each hesitated to tell ; Chung lest the 
 carter would refuse to draw him and the carter 
 lest Chung might be an official who would put 
 him under arrest. 
 
 " Where is your home ?" Chung asked, think- 
 ing that thus he might be able to locate him. 
 
 " In the south-east," answered the carter. 
 
 " Where is your honorable residence.?" 
 
 " In the north," answered Chung. 
 
 Night was now closing in, and as they drove 
 on in silence they could see the sky lit up in the 
 direction of Second Street and Chung knew that 
 their home was being looted and laid in ruins. 
 
 They had had nothing to eat since their hur- 
 ried morning meal, and Chung alighted from 
 the cart and bought a handkerchief-full of eggs. 
 
66 CHINESE HEROES 
 
 cakes and doughnuts, with a few meat dump- 
 lings, which he gave to the girls. 
 
 When they arrived at Teacher Liu's Chung 
 told the carter to wait while he went in to learn 
 what was to be known. 
 
 "What is your name?" asked the carter, 
 while he waited for the gate to be opened. 
 
 " Chung." 
 
 " Of the University .? " 
 
 " Yes." 
 
 " Ah, I thought you were a Christian," he 
 muttered to himself as he raised the mule's har- 
 ness to ease its back. 
 
 The place was deserted, and as Chung mounted 
 the shaft he simply said : 
 
 " To the Methodist mission." 
 
 " That is where I wanted to go," remarked the 
 
 carter. 
 
 IV 
 
 It soon proved to be very inconvenient for 
 Major Li to have K'ao-en always in his tent, 
 and he began to look about for some convenient 
 place to seclude him. 
 
 Outside the city there was none. Inside he 
 knew not what danger might befall him, but if 
 he were called to lead his soldiers to battle he 
 could not take the child with him, nor was there 
 any safe place to leave him unprotected by a 
 guard. He therefore concluded to send him into 
 the city, to his temporary residence, allowing him 
 to remain there until the present trouble was past. 
 
CHILD-PRISONERS 67 
 
 This was on First Street, only a short dis- 
 tance from the boy's old home. 
 
 Again and again during the following weeks 
 the lad requested to be allowed to go around to 
 Second Street and see if his parents had re- 
 turned. There were boys there he would like 
 to play with. He knew a mulberry tree the 
 fruit of which was then ripe. There were a 
 hundred things he thought of during the few 
 weeks he was shut up in this small court, for he 
 was not allowed to go upon the street. 
 
 " Get K'ao-en ready at once," said a messen- 
 ger as he hurriedly entered the gate ; " he is to 
 leave here immediately." 
 
 " What is the matter ? " 
 
 " Major Li has been wounded and has leave 
 to return home, and he wishes to take the child 
 with him," 
 
 " Will Kan-en go with us ? " inquired the boy. 
 
 " Yes ; Colonel Lo has concluded to send him 
 with you, and has placed over him a teacher and 
 a guard of soldiers who are ready to start as 
 SQorL as you arrive." 
 
 It took but a few moments to get the child 
 ready and they were soon on their way. Not 
 far from the gate they came in contact with the 
 escort of the Empress Dowager in her flight to 
 Hsi-an-fu and were compelled to wait until the 
 whole cavalcade had passed. They continued 
 their journey southward and after three days' 
 bumping over rough roads in an August sun 
 
68 CHINESE HEROES 
 
 they arrived at Pao-ting-fu, a place never to be 
 forgotten because of the cruel massacres that 
 had just been perpetrated there. 
 
 Major Li's wound required attention and he 
 was sadly In need of rest. The news he brought 
 from the capital was that of failure on the part 
 of the Boxers, and the officials trembled from 
 fear of what the result would be when their own 
 duplicity and cruelty were published to the 
 world. After ten days of rest Major Li an- 
 nounced his intention of continuing his journey 
 home, his destination being Shan-tung, and he 
 began preparing the elder brother for the jour- 
 ney. Kan-en was not allowed to go with them. 
 It had been the instructions of Colonel Lo that 
 he should remain with the teacher at Pao-ting-fu 
 until he could come from Peking to take the 
 child with him to his home in Shan-si. 
 
 It was a hard blow to the boys to think of 
 being thus widely separated from each other. 
 Major Li would gladly have taken with him the 
 little fellow he had been compelled so reluc- 
 tantly to part with, but he dare not do so. He 
 had no more right to him than had Colonel Lo. 
 
 The children clasped each other about the 
 neck, took fast hold of their short queues, and 
 wept bitterly. They had never been separated 
 before except the few weeks at Peking. They 
 were without father, mother or sisters, and they 
 pleaded to be allowed to go together. Major 
 Li and the teacher tried to comfort them by 
 
CHILD-PRISONERS 
 
 69 
 
 offering them money. They would buy them 
 candy, fruit, nuts, but all to no purpose. They 
 finally threatened punishment, and as a last re- 
 sort they were compelled to separate them by 
 force. The scene would have been ludicrous if 
 it had not been sad. In their efforts to sepa- 
 rate the two children they clung the more tena- 
 ciously to each other's queues, the elder all the 
 time calling to the younger, "Kick 
 him, Kan-en ! kick him, Kan-en ! " 
 while Kan-en through his tears 
 was sobbing, " Hold fast to my 
 queue, brother ; do not let go." 
 
 But the major and the teacher 
 were too strong for them and 
 they were finally separated, K'ao- 
 en to go with the major to Shan- 
 tung and Kan-en to remain with 
 the teacher at Pao-ting-fu until 
 Colonel Lo should come to take 
 him to Shan-si, never perhaps to 
 see his elder brother again. chung n.an-en 
 
 When the children were finally separated they 
 dried their tears and submitted without a mur- 
 mur. They had fought valiantly, they had been 
 overcome not by numbers but by force, and they 
 submitted at once as prisoners of war. As 
 Major Li was about to start with the elder he 
 remarked to the teacher : 
 
 "If we had an army like these we would not 
 have been defeated by the ' foreign devils,' " for- 
 
70 CHINESE HEROES 
 
 getting, it is to be feared, that there was " foreign 
 devil" in the boys, and with this he drove away, 
 the boys the while shouting good-byes to each 
 other. 
 
 " Come, Kan-en," said the teacher after the 
 others had departed, "you must begin your 
 studies now. Colonel Lo expects you to be a 
 great general some day, when you are grown 
 up. 
 
 " I do not want to be a great general." 
 
 "Why not.?" 
 
 " Would I not have to kill people } " 
 
 " Yes, I suppose so." 
 
 " Well, I do not want to kill folks." 
 
 " What would you like to be, then, if not a 
 general ? " 
 
 "What can you be if you do not study?" 
 
 The teacher understood the import of this 
 question and was ready with a proper answer: 
 
 " You will have to be a beggar or a coolie." 
 
 Kan-en thought for a moment, heaved a sigh, 
 and went at once to his books. 
 
 There were times, however, when, either be- 
 cause of the heat or because of that disposition 
 natural to the average small boy, and Kan-en 
 was a very natural small boy, he wished that 
 books had never been invented. It was at such 
 times the teacher said, " Kan-en, if you do not 
 be a good boy and study we will throw you 
 away." 
 
 Nothing the teacher could have said, nothing 
 
CHILD-PRISONERS 71 
 
 he taught him during those months, made such 
 an impress on that homeless, lonely child. That 
 is the one thing he learned which he will prob- 
 ably never forget. 
 
 When Colonel Lo came he took the boy and 
 his teacher with him to Shan-si. For months 
 they wandered from place to place, living in inns 
 or soldiers' tents. Kan-en was kept at his studies, 
 clothed Hke a little prince, and given everything 
 that was calculated to entertain a lonely child 
 during play hours and win his affection for a new 
 parent. After some months, orders came for the 
 colonel to go to Shan-tung. 
 
 " Do you suppose we will see K'ao-en there ? " 
 asked the child, as they traveled over the long, 
 lonely, rocky road. 
 
 " Perhaps so," answered the teacher. 
 
 V 
 
 For some days after Chung and his family 
 arrived at the Methodist mission they saw ter- 
 rible sights. 
 
 Scarcely an hour passed that did not wit- 
 ness the arrival of the remnant of some family. 
 Parents came without children and children 
 without parents, husbands without wives and 
 wives without husbands, some having witnessed 
 the massacre of their loved ones, others wholly 
 ignorant of theiri fate. Mr. Wang with his son 
 and youngest daughter had come to the mission 
 and he and Chung tried to go in search of the 
 
72 CHINKSE HEROES 
 
 other members of their families, but it would 
 have been to no purpose; it only meant the risk 
 of their own lives. The sufferings of the follow- 
 ing eight weeks during the siege in Peking have 
 often been described, but none but those who 
 endured them can know what they were. 
 
 When the Allies arrived, and the besieged 
 were once more free, their first quest was for 
 those they had lost. 
 
 Chung discovered that his father had been 
 massacred while urging the Boxers to cease 
 their bloody work and endeavoring to protect 
 Mr. Wang's family from a fate too awful for de- 
 scription. Of his boys, however, he could learn 
 nothing. Yes, they had been seen, but no one 
 knew whether they were alive or dead. 
 
 Hope springs eternal in the human breast. 
 
 Chung instituted a search in every direction. 
 He sent letters to distant places, until even 
 Major Li, in far-away Shan-tung, heard that he 
 was alive and searching for his boys, and he at 
 once wrote the following letter* 
 
 "Dear Mr. Chung: 
 
 "Your boys are both safe in Chi-nan-fu. They 
 will wait here until you come. 
 ■ ' " Respectfully, 
 
 " Li Tien-wen." 
 
 Chung sent a telegram. 
 
 The following day he sent a letter. 
 
CPIILD-PRISONERS 73 
 
 The third day he went himself. He was the 
 first to arrive. 
 
 The next day the letter came. 
 
 Four days later the telegram arrived. 
 
 Such is the condition of the rapid transit facil- 
 ities of the Middle Kingdom. 
 
 Major Li and Colonel Lo delivered his chil- 
 dren to him safe and sound, gave him written 
 certificates of their friendship, and, with the ex- 
 ception of his father, they are once more a 
 united and happy family. Meanwhile the boxes 
 — packed so securely and sent to friends for safe 
 keeping — escaped the vigilance of the Boxers 
 but only to fall into the hands of the Allies, who 
 helped themselves to what suited their fancy. 
 
74 CHINESE HEROES 
 
 A CHINESE PASTOR'S NARRATIVE 
 
 Rev. Te Jui, presiding elder of the Shan Hai 
 Kuan district, tells of his experiences during the 
 Boxer outbreak as follows : 
 
 On the 4th of the 5th moon (June 3, 1900), 
 the North China Conference of the Methodist 
 Episcopal Church was held in Peking. The 
 Boxer societies were organized at an earlier 
 date, and the rumor was spread throughout the 
 country that their object was to exterminate all 
 foreigners as well as native Christians. 
 
 While Conference was in session a messenger 
 came from the south of Peking telling us that 
 some of our chapels had been destroyed and 
 many of the Christians killed. We were shocked 
 by the startling news, but supposed the insurrec- 
 tion would soon be put down and therefore give 
 but little trouble. To our surprise it gained 
 ground day by day, until every town and village 
 was full of Boxers. 
 
 When Conference closed we hired carts, in- 
 tending to return to our stations, but the Peking 
 and Tientsin railway was already partly de- 
 stroyed and we decided to stop in inns close to 
 the depot until the road was repaired. To our 
 great disappointment this was not done, and we 
 

 . ! 
 
 1 
 
 
 . 
 
 :v^^^^^- 
 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. Te and their Daugkte 
 
A PASTOR'S NARRATIVE 77 
 
 were forced to return to the mission compound. 
 On every street corner we heard the people 
 talking about killing all the foreigners and 
 native Christians, whereupon I concluded that 
 Peking would not be a safe place if the Boxers 
 succeeded in effecting an entrance, and I con- 
 templated going to T'ang Shan by cart and 
 thence to Shan Hai Kuan by rail. 
 
 On the 13th of the 5th moon (June 12) I 
 left Peking for T'ang Shan (four and a half 
 days' journey) but found the inns so filled with 
 Imperial troops that I was forced to turn aside 
 and spend the nights in the seclusion of grave- 
 yards. Boxers filled every village through which 
 I passed, and I cannot but feel that it was be- 
 cause of the Lord's protection that I reached 
 Shan Hai Kuan in safety, — to Whom be all 
 thanks ! 
 
 The local official, being newly appointed and 
 having been requested by his predecessor to pro- 
 tect me, often inquired for my welfare. Ten 
 days after my arrival the Boxers, headed by a 
 tinsmith, Tuan Yi-li, arose and were joined by 
 eight hundred young Manchu soldiers. They 
 intended to burn our chapel and put us to death, 
 but I hastened to the official and consulted as to 
 what steps should be taken, and he suggested 
 that the best way to protect the chapel was to 
 turn it into a police station, which he did. 
 
 About noon a few days later the Boxers 
 thronged the street, yelling, " Burn the chapel ! 
 
78 CHINESE HEROES 
 
 Burn the chapel ! " I opened the gate for them, 
 but they dared not enter, as our men outnum- 
 bered theirs. I sent word to the official but un- 
 fortunately he was absent. A few of the yamen 
 runners came, however, to guard the premises, 
 but remained only a day or two. The official 
 soon returned, bringing the startling news that 
 the German Minister had been massacred, and 
 he advised me to close up the place and leave as 
 soon as possible, remarking that if the Powers 
 should conquer China the chapel would be ours, 
 but if China was successful we Christians would 
 likely all be put to death. 
 
 He expressed his willingness to hire carts for 
 us to go to Peking, and after he left we packed 
 our things preparatory to leaving in case of 
 emergency. We remained a few days, however, 
 to see what would happen. 
 
 On the 3rd of the 6th moon (July 2) the 
 Boxers captured Wang P'u, one of our Chris- 
 tians, and it was rumored that they would burn 
 our chapel at midnight. We waited for them 
 until daybreak but they did not come. We 
 judged that there would be an uprising in the 
 near future and thought it the part of wisdom 
 to hide ourselves in the home of a church mem- 
 ber outside the Great W^all. 
 
 The next day we turned the chapel over to 
 the official, and the following day the Boxers 
 killed Wang P'u and two other Christians named 
 Pai, a father and his son. Four days later the 
 
A PASTOR'S NARRATIVE 79 
 
 chapel was looted and demolished, at which time 
 we were refugees at Neu Yang Kou, seventeen 
 miles from Shan Hai Kuan, lodging with a Chris- 
 tian named Tai Cheng-en. 
 
 Many of the people of Shan Hai Kuan knew 
 of my whereabouts and wanted to capture me. 
 I therefore remained with Mr. Tai but two days, 
 during which time I received word that the 
 Boxers were searching for me. I went farther 
 north, to a village called Yung An Tien, taking 
 refuge in the home of a Mr. Hsii. As it was 
 against the rule of the village to lodge strangers 
 I was compelled to go to Li Mu Ch'ang, where 
 I remained three days at the home of one Shang 
 Chin. 
 
 News came from Shan Hai Kuan that a re- 
 ward of one hundred ounces of silver was offered 
 for me. It was soon revealed to them that I was 
 at Li Mu Ch'ang, and a delegation of Boxers 
 and soldiers came to search for me. The way 
 of escape now seemed dark, and on the nth I 
 was compelled, with much reluctance, to separate 
 from my family, thinking, as we all did, that this 
 was the only chance for safety either for me or 
 them. This was the most painful of all my ex- 
 periences, and during all those days of hunger, 
 thirst, pain and weariness my eyes turned with 
 hope mingled with despair to the place where I 
 had left my wife. I took with me Tseng Kuo- 
 chih, a graduate of the Peking University and 
 pastor of the Shan Hai Kuan church. We 
 
80 CHINESE HEROES 
 
 started at once for Ch'ou Yang outside the 
 Great Wall, traveling thirty-five miles the first 
 day without meeting friend or acquaintance. In 
 order the better to protect ourselves we pur- 
 chased common blue cloth garments and large 
 straw hats, such as are worn by coolies, and, sub- 
 stituting these for what we had on, we buried 
 the latter in a hole which we scooped out beside 
 the road. 
 
 Every place through which we passed was 
 filled with Boxers who talked of arresting those 
 whom they accused of "poison- 
 ing the wells," and we after- 
 wards learned that thousands 
 of innocent people were put 
 to death. On the way we were 
 informed that there were so 
 many robbers outside the Wall 
 that few people possessed the 
 Tseng Kuo-cHih nervc to travel there. Five 
 
 ("Peter Durst-) ^^^^ ^^ J^^J^ j^ ^ ^^^^ ^^j 
 
 we thought of going to Ying K'ou, whence we 
 could sail for Shanghai where our lives would 
 be safe. 
 
 We took the train for Chung Hou So and 
 found the cars filled with Boxers who got off at 
 the same place we did. A heavy rain began to 
 fall, and being without a place to lodge, as all 
 the inns were filled with Boxers and soldiers, we 
 decided to return to Shan Hai Kuan, but feared 
 to go directly lest we should meet acquaintances. 
 
A PASTOR'S NARRATIVE 81 
 
 We took train but got off at a station thirteen 
 miles from the city, intending first to go to the 
 home of a Christian in the north. 
 
 Night came upon us just before we entered 
 the town, and a man emerging from a cornfield 
 recognized my companion, Mr. Tseng, and as 
 he was a probationer he addressed us in an 
 undertone. 
 
 " Where are you going .? " he inquired. 
 
 " To the home of Mr. Pai, in the next town." 
 
 " The men who are searching for you are lying 
 in wait at the home of Mr. Pai." 
 
 Once more we thanked God for his message 
 of protection. 
 
 We hurried on a little further north and spent 
 the night in a cave. We wanted to go to the 
 North Mountains but did not know the way, 
 nor could we hire a man to take us, and as the 
 villagers knew we had been here we thought it 
 not safe to remain lest they search us out and 
 hand us over to the Boxers. 
 
 We left the cave for some safer dwelling place, 
 but as we had had nothing to eat for two days 
 we were getting faint. We made an effort to go 
 on, hoping to find' some hole in which to hide 
 ourselves, but, alas ! we did not know which road 
 to take.. We started toward Chin Men Kuan, 
 but a Christian overtook us telling us not to go 
 that road, as the Manchu soldiers were guarding 
 the gate. He advised us to go by the Yellow 
 Mountain Top. 
 
82 CHINESE HEROES 
 
 The path was rocky and irregular ; we had 
 bHsters on our feet ; we suffered both from hun- 
 ger and thirst ; yet we dared not approach a 
 spring lest we be arrested on the charge of " pois- 
 oning the wells." 
 
 We passed a graveyard where there were 
 about a dozen men lying around, but we were 
 not noticed. We had gone but a few hundred 
 yards when we were asked by a stranger if we 
 had seen a body of men from Shan Hai Kuan 
 who were in search of Christians. We replied 
 that we knew nothing about them, but as we 
 passed on we were convinced that he referred 
 to the company we had just noticed, and we 
 thanked God for his protection. 
 
 Toward nightfall we arrived at Chin Kuan, 
 but it was so dark that we knew not where to 
 go. We inquired of an old man if there was an 
 inn in the place. He replied that there was one, 
 but that it had been closed the day before lest 
 Christians should stop there, which if Boxers 
 discovered they would burn the building. We 
 begged him to take us in for the night and 
 finally he consented to do so, taking us to his 
 home, where he gave us a good supper. The 
 village was Ho Chia Chuang, and the old man 
 we learned afterwards was the proprietor of the 
 inn. 
 
 The people here informed us that the Boxers 
 had burned the churches at Shih Men Chai and 
 Huang T'u Ying, and had killed a Christian 
 
A PASTOR'S NARRATIVE 83 
 
 named Chiang Tung. Having heard this we 
 started on toward Hai Yang Chun, intending to 
 discover if possible whether our Christians had 
 moved away or if they were still there. We met 
 no one by the way, we could buy no food in the 
 mountains, and our feet were so blistered that 
 we could walk no furthef. Happily two camel 
 drivers offered to carry us to the village for 
 thirty cents. They first took us to their home 
 and gave us food, and once more we thanked 
 God " for a good square meal." We then con- 
 tinued on our way toward the foot of the North 
 Mountains to see a Christian named Li Chu. 
 W^e say Christian, though he was such a poor 
 representative of the faith he professed that the 
 Boxers never thought it worth while to arrest 
 him, as he was always ready for a fight. He 
 took us in at once and entertained us for sev- 
 eral days. His place being so near Shan Hai 
 Kuan we feared it would not be safe to remain 
 there and we went farther north, where we lived 
 in a cave over the mouth of which the grass and 
 weeds were so dense as to shield it from view. 
 In this cave was a small pool from which we 
 drank, and Li Chu brought us rice cakes each 
 night at midnight. One day a man gathering 
 fuel cut the grass all about us and I prayed, as 
 I watched him, that he might not discover our 
 hiding-place. He kept cutting closer and closer 
 until it seemed that he must soon take away our 
 screen. Just before he came to the cave, how- 
 
84 CHINESE HEROES 
 
 ever, he gathered up his bundles of fuel and went 
 home. 
 
 This led us to fear that we might be dis- 
 covered if we remained there, and so we washed 
 our faces in the little water that was left, the 
 first time we had had water to use for toilet 
 purposes in several days, and returned to Li 
 Chii's. For a month we slept in his house at 
 night and hid in the cornfields by day. Here 
 we were in almost equal danger, for it was with 
 the greatest difficulty we kept hfm from using a 
 hatchet on the Boxers whenever they came to 
 search his house. Our only prevailing argu- 
 ment was that our lives depended upon his 
 controlling his temper, an argument we were 
 forced to repeat every night in order to secure 
 his submission. 
 
 There was no communication between here 
 and Peking or Tien-tsin, nor did we have any 
 idea as to what was happening at the latter 
 places. As it seemed unsafe to remain longer 
 at Li Chii's we said to ourselves, " Whatever 
 happens we will go to Lan Chou." But we 
 dared not go by rail lest we meet acquaintances 
 on the train. Another heavy rain began to fall 
 which left the roads in a bad condition ; and 
 though the cities and villages were crowded 
 with Boxers we made our way with much diffi- 
 culty to Lan Chou. Here we took the train 
 for T'ang Shan, where, as we stepped upon 
 the platform, we met Mr. Wang Mao-yin, who 
 
A PASTOR'S NARRATIVE 85 
 
 informed us that he had seen our wives and chil- 
 dren with Dr. Wang Hsiang-ho at the Mining 
 Company's Hospital. You can imagine our joy 
 on the reception of such a message. We went 
 to the hospital without delay, where we found 
 our families, whom we had almost given up hope 
 of ever seeing again, as it had been two months 
 since we had separated at Li Mu Ch'ang. God had 
 brought us together once more and we thanked 
 him for his goodness. I asked my wife how she 
 had gotten there and she told me the following 
 
 story : 
 
 MRS. TE'S STORY 
 
 After you left us at Li Mu Ch'ang a letter 
 came from Shan Hai Kuan to the effect that 
 the church there had been destroyed and three 
 Christians murdered. When we heard this we 
 trembled with fear, knowing not what to do. 
 Things having come to this pass we concluded 
 that we would have to flee to a distance ; but as 
 a dog had bitten my foot I found it difficult to 
 walk, and as there was no place to go, and no' 
 one to receive us, we had to possess ourselves 
 with patience. 
 
 On the 13th of the 6th moon (July 12) sev- 
 eral scores of soldiers and Boxers, well armed, 
 came to Li Mu Ch'ang and took us prisoners, 
 binding my daughter and the wife of Tseng 
 Kuo-chih, intending to kill them, saying at the 
 same time that my husband must be produced 
 and that we must deliver over all our money, 
 
86 CHINESE HEROES 
 
 They took a large knife to behead me but finally 
 decided not to do so. Though I begged them 
 with tears they would not release us, but with 
 my wounded foot they compelled us to walk to 
 Yung An P'u. When we had arrived within a 
 short distance of the village we plead to be re- 
 leased, promising them twenty-five dollars if 
 they would let us go. This offer they refused, 
 but stripping us of all we had they told us to 
 flee for our lives or others would come and 
 arrest us. This we essayed to do, but it was 
 no easy task. My daughter was but seventeen 
 years of age, and Mr. Tseng's young wife had 
 their young babe, a child of three months, in 
 her arms. We first hid in a cave in the moun- 
 tains, knowing that it was a dangerous place 
 to be, for only refugee women would resort to 
 such surroundings ; besides there was no place 
 to go to buy food and we almost perished with 
 hunger. 
 
 One night we went to a village (Nan Ts'ung 
 P'i) where we met a blacksmith with a large 
 knife in his hand, and seeing our condition he 
 thought to injure us. We hurried on but he 
 followed for a distance of at least two miles. We 
 hid ourselves in a mountain gorge, where it 
 seemed as if no one had ever been before, and 
 thus finally escaped him. The following morn- 
 ing at daybreak we went to another village and 
 begged for something to eat, as we had had 
 nothing for two days and we were weak with 
 
A PASTOR'S NARRATIVE 87 
 
 hunger. Thence we went to Wang Chia 
 Chiang, where we dwelt in the mountains five 
 days with nowhere to go for food. 
 
 We sent a letter to Shih Ho, to a Chris- 
 tian, telling him of our difficulties and dangers 
 and asking him if possible to bring relief. He 
 sent a man with two carts to take us to his 
 village where we remained a week or more. 
 A man came to arrest us, but we fled during 
 the night and thus escaped under cover of 
 darkness. 
 
 In our flight we were surrounded by a crowd 
 of people who came with knives and clubs to 
 carry off my daughter ; but a man named Sun, 
 moved by the wickedness of their conduct and 
 intentions, gathered about him a company of 
 well-minded people who protected us from this 
 danger, conducting us to a place where we hid 
 for a fortnight. The cursing and persecution, 
 the insults and abuse, which were heaped upon 
 us during these days neither tongue nor pen 
 could picture nor describe. 
 
 When every door seemed closed against us a 
 man named Chu, who was in no way connected 
 with the church or with foreigners, out of pure 
 sympathy for us in our destitution risked his 
 own life to take us back to Shan Hai Kuan, 
 where he hoped our lives would be safe. We 
 knew we were between two fires. We could not 
 long remain thus, going about the country suffer- 
 ing all sorts of obloquy, and perhaps finally be- 
 
88 CHINESE HEROES 
 
 Irig outraged or put to death, if indeed we did 
 not starve. . To go backward or forward seemed 
 alike perilous, but after long consultation we de- 
 cidedto-take ^ large cart and return to the city, 
 though" we knew not what would befall us. To 
 those . whom we, recognized on the way we 
 appeared as strangers. We remained one night 
 in the greatest fear, but were so exhausted that 
 we slept,' and received no injury. The following 
 day we came to T'ang Shan, where we have 
 been living with Dr Wang In the hospital, and 
 where we have had rest and peace until the 
 present moment. 
 
 When my wife had finished her story I could 
 but feel that what I had suffered was not worth 
 mentioning in comparison with the nervous 
 strain imposed upon herself, Mrs. Tseng and my 
 daughter, and I said as much to her. 
 
 " Perhaps so," she replied ; " there will be all 
 grades and shades of suffering during these 
 persecutions." 
 
 As she spoke the wife of another of our young 
 preachers stepped into the room, having heard 
 of our arrival, and my wife asked her to tell us 
 her story, " which," she said to me, " is much 
 more touching than my own." 
 
 Mrs. Chou, for that is her name, after some 
 urging on our part and some tears on her own, 
 related her experience as follows : 
 
M.^,:>yM».:^. 
 
 -■•■■■■•'■ i.V'.i't^^'-i'-i 
 
 Mrs. Choii and Family 
 
A PASTOR'S NARRATIVE 91 
 
 MRS. CHOU'S STORY 
 
 When the Boxer troubles began my husband 
 was stationed at Mi Yun Hsien, about forty 
 miles north-east of Peking. We had five chil- 
 dren, the youngest of whom was but twenty 
 days old, and as we knew not what was best to 
 be done we wrote to our presiding elder asking 
 him what we would better do. 
 
 He answered, "If you can come to Peking I 
 will receive you with pleasure, but if you cannot 
 come you would better flee at once." 
 
 Acting upon this suggestion we left all we had, 
 except such things as we could easily carry, and 
 left our home for we knew not where and we 
 knew not what. We spent a day and a night in 
 the open desert place, hungry and thirsty, and 
 for four hours begged for food but no one would 
 help us because, as they said, we were " rubbers 
 of red and buriers of medicine,"* and they or- 
 dered that the village bell be rung, wishing at 
 the same time to bind us and send us back to 
 Mi Yun Hsien for punishment. We begged 
 them with tears not to do so, and offered them 
 money if only they would give us water to 
 quench our thirst and asked to be allowed to 
 remain on the street and rest awhile, but they 
 drove us from the village. 
 
 We were without human aid and so we 
 prayed that the Lord would open a way, while 
 
 * See p. 102. 
 
92 CHINESE HEROES 
 
 we also begged a donkey driver to take us out- 
 side the Great Wall. The roads were bad, he 
 said, they had no feed for their donkeys and 
 feared they \i\fould starve, and he added that no 
 matter how much money we offered them they 
 would not go. They pitied us, and especially the 
 children, and offered to take us back to Mi Yun 
 Hsien and we finally consented to go. When 
 we were yet seven miles from the city, weary 
 and worn, we begged of a home that they would 
 take us in for a while. At first they refused, but 
 when we gave them money they relented and 
 allowed us to remain half a day. 
 
 We then went to the home of a relative of one 
 of the Christians in a mountain gorge and asked 
 to stay there, and as he was a good man he re- 
 ceived us with pleasure and treated us kindly, 
 and as they were poor we paid them for their 
 hospitality and remained with them three days. 
 Three times the village rabble came to arrest us 
 on the ground that we were " rubbers of red 
 and buriers of medicine." 
 
 We wished for death, but death does not come 
 for the wishing. They arrested us and were 
 about to take us before the official ; nor would 
 they release us until we had given them thirty- 
 one ounces of silver, after which .they drove us 
 out to the caves and gorges in the mountains 
 where we once more felt the pangs of hunger 
 and thirst. The children cried all day, and this 
 was harder to endure than our own hunger. At 
 
A PASTOR'S NARRATIVE 93 
 
 night we returned to the home of a Christian 
 one mile from the city, where we lived two days. 
 The people came at night to take us and the 
 good people of the town urged that we return 
 to our own home village, saying that if we re- 
 fused to do so they could not be surety for our 
 lives. 
 
 We hired a cart and at night started on our 
 way. When we arrived at Chi Chou the Boxers 
 stopped us, saying that we were deceivers and 
 that the children were stolen, and not our own, 
 and they took us before the headman for exam- 
 ination. The Lord was by our side and we did 
 not fear. In their examination they obtained no 
 evidence, and when they saw we were not afraid 
 they concluded that we were not bad people and 
 set us free. Thence we went to Wu Men. The 
 carter had been very much frightened at Chi 
 Chou, and as he refused to go farther we hired 
 two donkeys and continued on our way. 
 
 We passed through P'ing An Ch'eng, where 
 the Boxers had burned the church and where 
 later the Christians from that whole region were 
 taken to be slaughtered. When we saw the dis- 
 turbed condition of the city we thought it not 
 best to stop at the inn, but rested on the street 
 for a few moments while we ate a bite from the 
 stall of a traveling restaurant. Thence we went 
 to Kung Li, to the home of a relative who al- 
 lowed us to remain one night but drove us out 
 in the morning, and we hid in the mountains. 
 
94 CHINESE HEROES 
 
 The Boxers with their long knives went to search 
 the mountains, hoping to kill us, and as we could 
 find no good hiding place I took the five chil- 
 dren and went down the mountain side leaving 
 my husband there alone. I hid in the village, 
 but as the church and homes of all the Chris- 
 tians had been destroyed it was truly pitiful. 
 That day the Boxers gathered in force in the 
 village and captured two of the Christians, whom 
 they carried off to P'ing An Ch'eng to kill and 
 burn. 
 
 Seeing that things were so bad I took the 
 children to a desert place, and when it was night 
 and there was none to see I returned to the vil- 
 lage. The people feared I would be killed and 
 so urged me to leave, and in cover of the dark- 
 ness I fled to the South Mountains. They were 
 treeless, and the heat was intense, and as I was 
 without food or drink, with five children, the eld- 
 est of whom was but ten years and the youngest 
 little more than a month, they all wept bitterly 
 and wanted to return to the village. I yielded 
 to their entreaties, but when the villagers saw 
 me they begged me to leave, saying that the 
 Boxers were seeking all newcomers, and as they 
 did not want to see me killed they urged me 
 to go. 
 
 It was late, the children were tired and sleepy, 
 and I could not move. When they saw how im- 
 possible it was for me to go anywhere with these 
 five sleepy children they pitied me and hid us in 
 
A PASTOR'S NARRATIVE 95 
 
 an old mill that had been partially burned. All 
 day long the Boxers sought for newcomers, whom 
 they intended to kill ; and all night they passed 
 and repassed the place where I was hid. I 
 could hear their footsteps, but I was in the 
 hands of the Lord and they failed to find me ; 
 nevertheless they caught and killed one of the 
 Christians and nailed his head to the wall of the 
 church — a ghastly sight to see. 
 
 Once more I fled to the mountains while it 
 was yet dark, but the children were ill with the 
 heat of the sun and there seemed not the faint- 
 est hope of our escaping. After repeated efforts 
 to save the children I found that I must abandon 
 my infant or lose them all, so I left it by the 
 roadside begging strangers to care for it, and hid 
 with the others several days in the mountains. 
 One morning at daybreak a messenger came to 
 tell me that the Boxers intended to search for 
 us, which when we heard we went to a small vil- 
 lage near by where we were concealed two days 
 longer. 
 
 The people feared the Boxers and drove us 
 out, and for ten days we were in the sun-scorched 
 mountains where we almost perished. The 
 Boxers caught one of the Christians (Liu Pei- 
 chai) and forced him to assist them in their 
 search. Though we met them he purposely 
 failed to recognize us, and when they had passed 
 we hid in the broomcorn fields a day and a night. 
 I discovered that my husband was concealed 
 
96 CHINESE HEROES 
 
 in a melon store and asked the proprietor to 
 allow us to hide with him ; but when I arrived 
 one of the elders urged the villagers to arrest 
 us, which was forthwith done. My husband was 
 first bound and taken to the temple after which 
 they came to take me. When I saw them I 
 was frightened, and asked them where they had 
 taken my husband ; to which they only answered, 
 " Attend to your own affairs and do not meddle 
 with his." The villagers' urged that, if the Box- 
 ers wanted me to do so, I- should go with them, 
 assuring me that if I fled they would tal^e sortie 
 one else in my stead. I found that the people' 
 were very much frightened and I decided to fol- 
 low my husband. When I arrived I found 
 they had bound him to take him to P'ing An; 
 Ch'eng, and I wept and begged them to set him 
 free. The elders answered, " If you were our 
 own relative we would not listen to your appeal. 
 We are going to take him to P'ing An Ch'eng 
 where the Boxers may kill him." 
 
 My husband, to comfort and quiet me, said, 
 " Never mind ; let them do as they wish." The 
 villagers took me to another place and the eld- 
 ers and Boxers carried my husband away to kill 
 him. I was told that when he was killed he 
 showed no fear, but with, joy his spirit ascended 
 to the Father in heaven. 
 
 I took the children and left the village, 
 and when the villagers saw me in want they 
 urged me to bind out the children and marry 
 
A PASTOR'S NARRATIVE 97 
 
 again. I answered, " I will die before I will 
 do so." 
 
 Rev. Chang Pai-lin, hearing of our destitute 
 condition, consulted with Dr. Wang Hsiang-ho, 
 and at night they brought me here, to T'ang 
 Shan, where in sadness over the loss of my hus- 
 band who was killed, and the babe I was com- 
 pelled to abandon, I have lived for the sake of 
 the little ones who still remain. 
 
 After we had been in T'ang Shan but three 
 days we heard that both Peking and Tientsin 
 had been taken. I visited 
 the latter place, where I 
 met the Rev. Mr. Fyke, a 
 thing for which I hardly 
 dared to hope, for we were 
 prepared to hear that all 
 the missionaries had been 
 killed. Our greeting was 
 such as I can imagine 
 might take place between cwang Pai-Un 
 
 two who had been raised from the dead. We 
 felt that we were born again. I was told that 
 the Allied Forces would occupy Shan Hai Kuan 
 and I hoped that it would soon be possible for 
 us to return to our work. I brought my fam- 
 ily to Tientsin, where we all knelt and thanked 
 God for his presence with us in time of danger. 
 
98 CHINESE HEROES 
 
 THE STORY OF SINAH, WIFE OF PASTOR 
 CH'EN 
 
 When Mr. Ch'en went to Conference the 
 Boxer trouble had not begun, but when he re- 
 turned to Lao T'ing, less than two weeks later, 
 the Boxers were like grasshoppers which the 
 ^^^^ ^^^ ^1 wind had brought, infest- 
 ^^B'^^^H ^^S ^^^ entire country, and 
 
 ^^H Ji^Bn ^^ ^ consequence Lao T'ing 
 
 ^^m %^^!!^w ^^^ ''^ confusion. 
 
 ^^*^^^JB A report was circulated 
 
 I "'^nlii^^Bll^i^ that he had brought four 
 
 large guns, with several 
 foreigners, and had hid- 
 den them in the church, 
 and the next day (Sunday, 
 June 24) the people came to church in crowds 
 like those who go to market. We told them 
 the story was false, but they would not be- 
 lieve us, and as the crowds continued to come 
 during the following days the official sent to ask 
 Mr. Ch'en to come and see him, advising him 
 to flee, which we did on the following day, arriv- 
 ing at Ch'ang Li Hsien in the evening. 
 
 We had heard that there was an English war 
 vessel at Pei Tai Ho, the summer resort of 
 North China, but it was reported that it had 
 
 OH'en Hen^-te 
 
THE STORY OF SINAH 99 
 
 sailed away, taking the foreigners to Tientsin 
 or Chefoo. The news that the vessel had de- 
 parted brought tears to our eyes. We knew 
 not where to go nor what to do, as we were 
 hoping, if the worst came, to flee with the for- 
 eigners to a place of safety. Every door behind 
 us was closed and there was no way to go for- 
 ward. Our four children were small and I was 
 myself in no condition to travel. We were in a 
 sad plight. We prayed to the Lord to open a 
 way, and in this uncertain condition remained 
 for two days at a Chinese inn. While here we 
 saw some of the Lan Chou and An Ke Chuang 
 Christians returning to their homes in carts, but 
 as we could devise no measures for our own 
 conduct or safety we remained two days longer 
 at the inn. 
 
 While here some of the Christians from An 
 Ke Chuang came with carts offering to take us 
 to that place and allow us to dwell in the church. 
 After pondering the matter for a moment we 
 concluded to go ; first, because we feared if we 
 remained we would be persecuted to the extent 
 that we would deny our Lord ; second, because 
 all the people at An Ke Chuang were Chris- 
 tians, and if it were the Lord's will that we 
 should be put to death we would have about us 
 those who would stimulate our faith, and would 
 die among those who gave up life with a cry of 
 joy and not with those who were without hope, 
 and so we went with them the following day. 
 
100 CHINESE HEROES 
 
 The conditions there were better than else- 
 where. The church at Lan Chou had already 
 been closed, as was that at An Ke Chuang a 
 few days later, and the people advised the Chris- 
 tians to worship idols, in which case they 
 thought they could protect them. Things had 
 come to this pass when we heard that it was all 
 quiet at T'ang Shan, and Mr. Ch'en went to see if 
 the report was true. He found Dr. Wang Hsiang- 
 ho, one of China's most faithful Christians, who 
 invited us to come at once and he would prepare 
 a house for our reception. 
 
 You can imagine our joy on hearing this. He 
 found us three rooms, which Mr. Chang Mao- 
 lin helped us to clean and put in order, but cer- 
 tain ruffians who saw him going in and' out of 
 the house made uncomplimentary remarks and 
 then reported to the official that we were " devils 
 of the second order," and that if we were allowed 
 to remain some great calamity would befall the 
 place, quoting the proverb : " He who harbors a 
 devil is like the devil." We therefore seemed to 
 be without hope and placed ourselves in the 
 hands of the Lord. 
 
 After a few days we heard that a boat was 
 about to leave Lao T'ing for Chefoo and if we 
 desired to go we were at liberty to do so, as the 
 captain would be glad to give us passage. We 
 thought it an excellent opportunity and went to 
 Pien Liang T'ing, but were told that the boat ' 
 had sailed the day before, and we were left in a 
 
THE STORY OF SINAH 101 
 
 sad plight. In the evening we heard that rob- 
 bers were on every hand. The next morning 
 ten men with swords and spears came to arrest 
 us, demanding everything we had, but offering 
 to set us free and allow us. to keep our things if 
 we would give them fifty ounces of silver. 
 
 During the night we once more fled to An Ke 
 Chuang, where Teacher Kao found us a place 
 to live. This teacher was a graduate of the 
 theological school and for several years a 
 preacher and also teacher in the Lan Chou boys' 
 school. He was a scholarly man and able, but 
 by nature timid and retiring. His life was so 
 blameless and his spirit so gentle that the elders 
 of his village, though not Christian, and sympa- 
 thizing with the 'Boxer movement, were per- 
 suaded to give him a written statement that 
 neither he nor the other Christians in the village 
 had done any harm, but only good. 
 
 He had a generous disposition and a large 
 heart, which he manifested not only in his treat- 
 ment of us but of others as well. This was the 
 second time we had come to his home and the 
 people of the village forbade us to remain, 
 threatening that if he harbored any strangers 
 they would refuse protection both to him and his 
 house. We begged with tears but they would 
 not relent, and we therefore concluded to return 
 home and if we were killed it should be in our 
 own church. 
 
 " Do you fear death .?" Mr. Kao inquired. 
 
102 CHINESE HEROES 
 
 " Not in the least," we answered. 
 
 " If you do not fear death," he continued, 
 " stay, and help us to look after the place. The 
 house is mine and I will entertain whoever I 
 wish. Others shall not control me. Do not 
 weep." 
 
 When we heard this we decided not to go. It 
 was at this time and place we heard of the per- 
 secutions at Ch'ien An. It was reported that 
 many were killed daily, and the suffering of those 
 who were massacred and those who were left 
 will never be understood except by those who 
 endured it. 
 
 The Boxers at An Ke Chuang, when they 
 heard of the success of those at other places, set 
 afloat a rumor that we were using secret charms 
 for the injury of the people and our own protec- 
 tion, and to verify these rumors on the 12th of 
 the 7th month they dug up a stone on which 
 was red paint, which they pretended to believe 
 was medicine, and a crowd of people gathered 
 intending to kill us. The village elders inter- 
 fered, ordering them to wait until daylight, when 
 they said they would take us before the official. 
 
 When Mr. Kao was brought before the mag- 
 istrate and asked why he had followed the 
 " foreign devils " and accepted their religion he 
 replied : " My emperor issued many edicts declar- 
 ing the doctrines of the Jesus religion good and 
 permitting all who desired to enter it. Your 
 excellency also said the- same in many proclama- 
 
THE STORY OF SINAH 103 
 
 tions. I trusted my emperor and my magis- 
 trate. I examined it, and found it indeed good. 
 I believed it, and found it better than I expected. 
 I cannot renounce it. As to our conduct and 
 life, I beg to present the written statement of 
 my village elders." 
 
 The magistrate was a just man, above the or- 
 dinary mandarin, and Kao Fu Ching and his 
 members were spared. Mr. Kao also risked his 
 life by taking the preachers and their families 
 into his house and feeding them as long as they 
 dared to stay. 
 
 Before daylight came we fled to Lan Chou, 
 where we rented a room or two from a non- 
 Christian, hoping to remain here till Peking was 
 relieved. It would be impossible to relate what 
 we endured these two months — petty persecu- 
 tions which chafed us whenever we moved or 
 whatever we .did — but the Lord was with us all 
 the time. 
 
 On the 1 8th of the Second 8th month, when 
 the foreign soldiers came to Lan Chou, it was 
 all quiet; but on the night of the 23rd the Box- 
 ers burned the railroad and came into the city 
 to kill the official and the Christians. Fourteen 
 foreign soldiers were already there and drove 
 them away. We could hear the firing distinctly, 
 as it was but a mile away, and we were dread- 
 fully frightened. 
 
 During this awful night, surrounded by a howl- 
 ing mob, with people running to and fro and 
 
104 CHINESE HEROES 
 
 the firing of the foreigners mingled with that of 
 the Boxers, we were compelled to shut ourselves 
 up in our little hut, and with only such help as 
 my husband could give me our little child was 
 born. But when morning dawned the brave for- 
 eign soldiers, though only fourteen in number, 
 had put the Boxers to flight, the fighting had 
 ceased, our little girl was alive, and we were still 
 safe. 
 
 Peace was gradually restored. The Lord had 
 protected us and we were more determined than 
 ever to do his work, in the hope that China 
 might never again suffer from such an uprising, 
 and that the blood of our ma/tyrs might be the 
 seed of a pure and prosperous church in the 
 near future. 
 
DR. WANG 105 
 
 DR. WANG 
 
 Physician in Charge of the Chinese Imperial Railway and 
 Mining Company's Hospital 
 
 One hot summer day at the hills west of Pe- 
 king, while working with my teacher on the 
 mysteries of the Chinese language, I received 
 among my mail the following note, written, it 
 will be observed, in a spirit which compels us 
 to overlook any deviation from the established 
 rules of our mother tongue : 
 
 "My dear Mr. Headland: 
 
 " I beg to inform you that my salary has been 
 raised to twenty-four dollars Mexican (about 
 $12.50 U. S. gold) now, per month, and I think 
 it is the chance for me to do something for 
 others. I am very glad to help a boy in school 
 at Peking ; it will show that I love the school as 
 my next home, and also that I did not forget the 
 kindness of the mission. Although I cannot do 
 the missionary work of myself, but I always ask 
 my Heavenly Father to help me to have a good 
 conduct to serve Him. 
 
 " When you tell me how much I shall pay for 
 a boy in school, I shall send you the money. 
 
 " With best regards, 
 
 " I am your obedient servant 
 
 " Wang Hsiang-ho." 
 
106 
 
 CHINESE HEROES 
 
 I immediately wrote to Dr. Wang telling him 
 the amount necessary to support a boy, and he 
 promptly responded with a check, which support 
 he has been keeping up ever since. 
 
 Dr. AVang Hsian^-ho 
 
 It was five years later that a letter came to 
 Rev. J. H. Pyke as follows, as nearly as I can 
 remember : 
 
 " Dear Mr. Pyke : 
 
 " I awoke this morning about three a. m. I 
 could not go to sleep, and as I tossed from side 
 to side upon my bed the thought came to me, if 
 I should die and go to heaven, and the Lord 
 
DR. WANG 107 
 
 should say to me, ' Hsiang-ho, why did you 
 not teach those patients in the hospital the 
 way of salvation ? ' what answer would I 
 make ? 
 
 " When I got up in the morning I went to the 
 foreign doctor and asked him if I might have 
 morning and evening prayers with the patients. 
 He told me I might. I would like therefore if 
 you would send me some Bibles and hymn books 
 together with the bill for the same. 
 
 " I am your obedient servant 
 
 "Wang Hsiang-ho." 
 
 For some years before that Dr. Wang had 
 been distributing tracts among the patients at 
 his own expense, and from that time he has 
 been having morning and evening prayers. Of 
 his conduct during the Boxer movement, in ad- 
 dition to what is said of him by Te Jui, Mrs. 
 Ch'en, and Mrs. Chou, I can do no better than 
 give the excellent report of his work written by 
 Rev. J. H. Pyke and printed in World-Wide 
 Missions of June, 1901 : 
 
 " I must tell of one more of the noble band 
 of heroes — thank God, not martyrs, though we 
 praise him for them too. 
 
 " Dr. H. H.Wang was trained in Peking Uni- 
 versity and Medical School. For several years 
 past he has been first assistant in the Imperial 
 Chinese Railway Hospital at Tong-Shan, in 
 charge of such able physicians and surgeons as 
 
108 CHINESE HEROES 
 
 Drs. Robertson and Moorehead. He has won 
 voluntary testimonials from both these gentle- 
 men for efficiency, integrity, and painstaking 
 faithfulness. Dr. Wang's heart was more and 
 more drawn to teaching the Gospel to his pa- 
 tients, and he began to consult his pastors in re- 
 gard to his convictions and a better opening for 
 that kind of work than a government hospital 
 was thought to be. Hearing of this, Dr. Robert- 
 son wrote: 'We cannot spare Dr. Wang. He 
 is invaluable to us, and is just the man we want. 
 In the care and treatment of the sick and the 
 management of the finances he is as trustworthy 
 and faithful as an English or American physi- 
 cian could be. I hope you will not think of 
 taking him from us. He may preach, teach, and 
 pray with the patients as much as he wishes, and 
 he could not find a larger opportunity.' Dr. 
 Moorehead continued the privilege. He re- 
 mained, and several times his salary was raised 
 without his asking it. 
 
 " He was conducting services daily when the 
 storm broke. The Europeans all left, but Wang 
 continued his work. The hospital became a ref- 
 uge for the fugitive preachers, their families and 
 members. At one time he was sheltering and 
 feeding some seventy of our people. Presiding 
 Elder Te Jui and his family found a haven here 
 after six weeks of wandering, hiding, and hair- 
 breadth escapes. God in his wise providence 
 kept this man there and prepared a refuge for 
 
DR. WANG 111 
 
 his people in the very midst of their enemies. 
 Wonderful, yet how like Him ! 
 
 "When the Russian army came to Tong-Shan 
 the Railway Hospital was taken possession of, 
 with a Russian surgeon in charge and Wang as 
 assistant. In a few weeks he acquired a work- 
 ing knowledge of the new language and the 
 confidence of his chief. Strange to say, the sick 
 and wounded soldiers soon came to prefer his 
 gentle, sympathetic treatment to the rough pro- 
 fessional services of their own surgeons. 
 
 " To tell of all the good Dr. Wang has done, 
 of the waifs he has rescued and sent to mission 
 schools, of the students he has aided, of the 
 property he provided for a mission chapel, 
 school, and parsonage in a distant city when 
 help could nowhere else be found, would make 
 a long article in itself 
 
 " The sympathetic reader will be sorry to hear 
 that Dr. Wang has a great sorrow. As soon as 
 he could get away, he went to his own village, 
 two hundred miles or more from Tong-Shan. 
 When he arrived he found that his dear old 
 father and several near relatives had been mur- 
 dered. The Boxer neighbors had persuaded his 
 father to stay at home and promised to protect 
 him, but afterward treacherously and cruelly 
 murdered him and destroyed all the property, 
 leaving the family beggars and fugitives. 
 
 " Dr. Wang's faith in God was sorely tried. 
 He had prayed daily for his honored, beloved 
 
112 CHINESE HEROES 
 
 father. I saw him just as I was leaving and had 
 an hour's talk with him. He said : ' I am so glad 
 to see you before you go. I want to tell you, 
 since I have been home and knew of my father's 
 death I have not been able to pray. It seems 
 no use. I know it is wrong, but can't help it. 
 I did what I could where I was. I could not 
 get home or do anything for my family. But I 
 cried unto God and believed he heard me, and 
 all would be well. And then I found my father 
 had been cut to pieces, and God had not an- 
 swered.' How many have been tempted in the 
 same way ! ' And now,' he said, ' whenever I go 
 to pray something seems to whisper. It's no use ; 
 God does not hear.' 
 
 " I tried to call his attention away from the 
 earthly scene, where his aged father was sur- 
 rounded with the fiendish Boxers and being 
 chopped to pieces by them, to the heavenly 
 scene before the great white throne and Him 
 who sits upon it, with his father standing before 
 him and receiving the martyr's crown, surrounded 
 with the holy angels and the great company of 
 the redeemed, who had come up through great 
 tribulation and washed their robes and made 
 them white in the blood of the Lamb. As the 
 vision dawned upon his mind his heart melted, his 
 eyes filled, faith was restored, and he exclaimed : 
 ' I see. God is good. He doeth all things well. 
 I can pray again.' We prayed together and 
 separated. 
 
DR. WANG 113 
 
 " Twenty-four years ago this young man, then 
 a boy of nine or ten years, and all his family were 
 heathen. But for the coming of a poor mission- 
 ary, a very poor one ; but for hearing a joyful 
 message of light and life, of salvation ; but for the 
 little church, the school, the university, the boy 
 and all his family would have remained igno- 
 rant, superstitious heathen. And now behold 
 what God hath wrought ! ' That the trial of 
 your faith, being much more precious than of 
 gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, 
 might be found unto praise and honor and glory 
 at the appearing of Jesus Christ.' Praise ye the 
 Lord ! " 
 
 8 
 
114. CHINESE HEROES 
 
 THE ADVENTURES OF MRS. CH'IN 
 
 When the annual conference of 1900 closed I 
 returned to work as a Bible woman at Tsun- 
 hua, one hundred miles east of Peking. It 
 was but a few days after we arrived that the 
 trouble arose, and the foreigners all fled. There 
 were none left in the compound but myself, my 
 son, the two teachers of the girls' school, Hsu 
 Hui-fang and Liu Wen-Ian, and some women. 
 We had none on whom we could depend, 
 none to whom we could go, but the Lord. 
 We met together and prayed, and then decided 
 that ft would not be best to remain in the 
 compound. 
 
 It did not seem wise for so many of us to leave 
 in a body and we therefore separated into two 
 companies, one to go with Rev. Liu Chi-lun, the 
 pastor of the church, and the other with me as 
 their leader. We went to Pei Hsiang, a village 
 some distance away, in the hope that we might 
 avoid the impending danger, not thinking that 
 the peril there was as great as in the place 
 whence we had fled, but finding it to be so we 
 returned to Tsun-hua. As Pei Hsiang was the 
 home of the teacher Liu Wen-Ian she remained 
 there, and thus our company was slightly di- 
 minished. 
 
Mrs. Ch'in and Helper 
 
THE ADVENTURES OF MRS. CHTN 117 
 
 When we returned to Tsun-hua we heard that 
 the mission was already in the hands of the 
 enemy, who had surrounded the compound and 
 were knocking down the gates. It was impos- 
 sible for us to remain under such conditions 
 and once more we fled — this time in disorder, 
 each going his own way. I went to an inn, in 
 which the only person I knew was an old uncle 
 who asked me to remain. I requested him to go 
 at once and find the schoolgirls and my son. 
 This, however, was not an easy task, for the 
 grain in the fields was high and it would have 
 been as easy for the Boxers to find me as it was 
 for him to discover their hiding-places. He went 
 in search of them but found none except my 
 son, who was concealed behind a small temple, 
 and brought him to me. The girls were in the 
 home of a Mohammedan to whom Rev. Liu 
 Chi-lun promised two hundred ounces of silver 
 if he would protect them. 
 
 Since I had no place of my own to which I 
 could go I took my son to the home of an aunt 
 at Nan Ying, who treated us kindly while we 
 remained with her. I explained the doctrine for 
 which we were being persecuted. My aunt for- 
 bade me to say anything about Christianity, 
 assuring us that it would only add to our peril, 
 but as my soul was in the hands of the Lord I 
 felt I ought to bear witness to his saving power. 
 
 It was soon reported to the head of the Box- 
 ers that a " second-rate devil " was hid in my 
 
118 CHINESE HEROES 
 
 aunt's home but as they were not strong in that 
 village they feared to arrest me, giving as a rea- 
 son that I was able to make paper horses and 
 soldiers who would fight in my defense. Their 
 number gradually increased and it was not long 
 until three or four hundred came and carried 
 away all I had, and because I had unbound my 
 feet they pulled off my shoes and threatened to 
 kill both me and my son. 
 
 " Cowards !" said one of the bystanders, "would 
 you kill a widow } " 
 
 " No," they answered, " but we will kill the 
 boy." 
 
 " Ah," continued the bystander in a sarcastic 
 tone, " you are brave men ; too gallant to kill 
 widows, just bluster enough to kill children." 
 
 This seemed to shame them but they beat 
 him unmercifully. I pleaded with them to kill 
 me and spare my son, but they refused to listen 
 and took him to Ko Lao Wan, two miles away, 
 while I followed close behind begging them all 
 the time. 
 
 Something, I know not what, perhaps our deso- 
 lation, moved their hard hearts, and they finally 
 set him free, and we hid for a time in an old 
 graveyard. While there the devil tempted me 
 to kill myself, persuading me that Jesus would 
 not receive me. We were consumed with hunger 
 and thirst, and nearly spent, when a Taoist priest 
 ninety years old, who was surely sent of the 
 Lord, gave us something to eat. 
 
THE ADVENTURES OF MRS. CH'IN 119 
 
 Although my aunt was not a Christian she 
 did not forget us. She invited us to return, but 
 we dared not be where we could be seen. In 
 the rear of her house a small mud hut contained 
 a hollow clay bed (k'ang) just large enough to 
 accommodate us, and though it was July, and 
 the weather was burning hot, they placed us 
 therein and covered it over with boards. We 
 thanked God that he had spared our lives, but 
 they had beaten my boy until he bled and he 
 could not eat. He must also have been hurt 
 inwardly, as he had constant hemorrhages, but 
 he gradually recovered and we remained in that 
 hot, dusty, dirty k'ang ten days without being 
 discovered. But our enemies saw them bringing 
 us food, reported it to the Boxers, and they 
 came to kill us. They beat my boy and would 
 have killed him, but the good men of the village 
 interfered and once more they set us free. 
 
 As the villagers objected to our remaining 
 there I thought it the part of wisdom to return 
 to my mother-in-law's. On our way we saw the 
 Boxers at a distance and hid ourselves in a gully 
 until they had passed, when we continued on 
 our way to Liang Tzu Ho. We were uncertain 
 of the road and prayed for guidance, but found 
 it necessary to turn aside and go to my uncle's 
 again. 
 
 He treated us with the utmost consideration 
 but his wife drove us from the house. That 
 night we had no place to go. We could not 
 
120 CHINESE HEROES 
 
 wander about all night, as we had done during 
 the day, and so returned to their mill-house and 
 my uncle made us a place to sleep in their fuel 
 shed. There were days when they gave us one 
 meal only, and then days when we had nothing. 
 My aunt was furious at our being there and often 
 beat and reviled us, fulfilling Matt, x, 35-37. 
 There were nights when we. were so hungry that 
 my boy went out upon the street and picked up 
 the melon peel that had been thrown away and 
 brought it in for food. 
 
 My uncle was exceedingly kind and spent not 
 less than fifty dollars trying to protect us, at the 
 same time saying confidentially to the Boxers 
 if they found us anywhere not to injure or kill 
 us, thus leading them to think that he knew 
 nothing of our whereabouts. We were thus se- 
 creted in his fuel shed and were not allowed to 
 go out until the trouble was over, when we found 
 ourselves still alive but without means, food, 
 clothing or home. 
 
 When the cold weather came my uncle gave 
 us money to buy clothes and my brother built 
 us a home out of weeds and grass. I inquired 
 if the girls were all saved but found that the 
 two teachers, Hsii Hui-fang and Liu Wen-Ian, 
 together with several of the school girls, had 
 been killed. 
 
STUDENTS OF PEKING UNIVERSITY 121 
 
 THE STORY OF THE STUDENTS OF PEKING 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
 Our first special anxiety was caused by the 
 report that the railway station had been de- 
 stroyed and the news from our church at Pa- 
 chou, where Wang Mao-yin was stationed, that 
 the chapel keeper Chu 
 had been murdered.* 
 
 A meeting was called 
 at the American Board 
 mission at which there 
 were present the leading 
 native Christians of all 
 the churches in Peking, 
 the purpose being to 
 consult as to the best 
 method of conduct for 
 the Chinese in case the 
 in effecting an entrance to the city. After a 
 prolonged discussion, during which it was 
 suggested that all the native Christians ren- 
 dezvous at their present place of meeting, they 
 adjourned without reaching any definite con- 
 clusion as to what would be best to be done ; 
 though it is not probable that any one of all 
 
 "Wang Mao-yin 
 
 Boxers succeeded 
 
 ♦When the news of the death of his friend reached the chapel keeper 
 Pan at Yen Ch'ing Chou he was so shocked that he died that same night. 
 
122 CHINESE HEROES 
 
 that company apprehended that the government 
 would allow the disturbance to enter the city. 
 When the carts arrived which brought the mis- 
 sionaries from Tungchou they contained but 
 four of their native teachers, their Peking stu- 
 dents having been sent to their homes in the 
 city from which they did not join us until after 
 the burning of the missions with which they 
 were connected ; thus indicating that all alike 
 were oblivious of the danger which threatened 
 them, though the missionaries from the other 
 missions began at once to gather at our com- 
 pound. 
 
 In addition to the gate keeper we had a for- 
 eigner or a Chinese preacher stationed at the 
 gate whose duty it was to record the name of 
 every one that entered, thus preventing the ad- 
 mission of heathen, and to write such descrip- 
 tions of them as would enable us to recognize 
 them thereafter. This was given to the person 
 himself and he was compelled to use it as a 
 passport whenever he desired to enter or leave 
 the compound. As these descriptions were 
 wTitten in English the holders often got them 
 mixed with those of their friends, which was the 
 source of much amusement as well as trouble. 
 
 Our teachers and students who had not yet 
 left for their homes were divided into two parties, 
 those who were married being allowed to live 
 with their wives and families in the mission 
 compound while the unmarried were required 
 
STUDENTS OF PEKING UNIVERSITY 125 
 
 to dwell in the college ; the former being 
 guarded by twenty foreign soldiers while the 
 latter were without protection other than that 
 which the men themselves could afford. We 
 were drilled daily in the use of spears, that we 
 might be able to defend ourselves in case of 
 attack. 
 
 Many of us spent our days digging trenches 
 around the church which was to be our last 
 refuge, some of us neither taking off our clothes 
 nor sleeping on our beds for five days and 
 nights. The while we lived on corn-meal por- 
 ridge. As business was blocked we had great 
 difficulty in getting spades, but finally succeeded 
 in securing about sixty, many of which we were 
 compelled to give to the women and children 
 who were employed in tearing up walks to build 
 barricades around the church. On each side of 
 our trench we stretched barbed wires, so that in 
 case the Boxers succeeded in scaling our wall 
 they would either be caught on the wire or fall 
 into the ditch, in which case we would have time 
 to dispose of them. 
 
 A few of the soldiers from a camp stationed 
 just outside our college campus on one occasion 
 came to examine our barricades ; the gong was 
 sounded by Teacher Lu as a signal to Captain 
 Hall, who with four foreign soldiers came and 
 marched around the campus, which put an end 
 to all interference from that direction. This 
 same Teacher Lu mounted several pieces of stove 
 
126 CHINESE HEROES 
 
 pipe, the ends of which were covered with red 
 cloth, at the upstairs windows of the college 
 building, which made a fair ruse of being large 
 guns. 
 
 The night the Boxers entered the city on their 
 burning and killing expedition we all rushed to 
 the church. We knew not at what moment we 
 might be attacked, but they came no nearer than 
 the Great Street. Thereafter when we went on 
 the street to buy vegetables or other provisions 
 we were never without our rifles, which when 
 the people saw they gazed at us with open 
 mouth but they never refused to sell us what we 
 needed. 
 
 " One day When I was at my post on the top 
 of the hospital," says Teacher Ch'en Wei-ch'eng, 
 " I saw a man go within the border of our barri- 
 cades. Raising my rifle I pointed it at him, 
 saying, 
 
 " ' This is the last of you.' 
 
 '"Don't shoot,' said- he, falling on his knees 
 and begging for mercy. 
 
 " ' What are you doing in here ? ' I inquired. 
 
 '"I missed my way and got inside your lines 
 by mistake.' 
 
 "'Go, then, and do not make the same mis- 
 take again,' I commanded him." 
 
 Those of us who could speak English most 
 fluently were used as interpreters for the marines, 
 each post having two interpreters who were on 
 duty seven hours at a time. We scanned the 
 
STUDENTS OF PEKING UNIVERSITY 127 
 
 bulletin boards to see what orders the foreigners 
 received from their Ministers and what news 
 they had as to the condition of affairs outside. 
 
 When the order came for us to go to the 
 Legation we carried our bedding and whatever 
 other things we could on our backs ; though 
 many were so frightened, and in such haste to 
 get away, that they stopped for nothing, not 
 even a change of clothing. The students were 
 at the rear of the line of march up Legation 
 Street. When we arrived in front of the Italian 
 Legation we were stopped and compelled to 
 wait for half an hour, not knowing whether we 
 were to be admitted or not, until finally Major 
 Conger came and gave the order, and Dr. Mor- 
 rison met us on horseback and led us to Su 
 Wang Fu, which from that time we called the 
 " Rock of Ages cleft for us." Here we remained 
 in an open court in the hot sun with nothing to 
 eat or drink for four hours, during which time 
 the infants and children suffered especially from 
 hunger, thirst and heat. Dr. Saville brought 
 some boiled water from the British Legation, but 
 among so many what she could carry was as 
 nothing ; nevertheless it quenched the thirst of 
 the little ones, and made them a little more com- 
 fortable, though they cried bitterly for food. 
 
 About four o'clock we got into the Fu and at 
 once Mr. Ewing headed a gang of Christians 
 and led us to a grain shop, to the proprietor of 
 which we said, " We want flour and rice. If we 
 
128 CHINESE HEROES 
 
 live we will pay you for it, but if we are killed 
 you will be the loser." 
 
 " Take what you want," said he, seeing that he 
 had no alternative. 
 
 We took several bags of flour and fermented 
 rice and when we reached the Fu found some 
 huge iron kettles, with plenty of coal, and in a 
 short time each one of us was feasting on a large 
 flour cake with some salted vegetables, after 
 which we prepared a large sleeping room for the 
 women and children while the men slept in the 
 open court. 
 
 The firing had begun at four o'clock, but we 
 were all so tired that we went to sleep and let 
 them fire. 
 
 The next day we formed ourselves into a com- 
 mittee of eight — one from each of the Protestant 
 missions and four from the Roman Catholic — ■ 
 the duty of which was to provide men for the 
 foreigners in charge of the various departments, 
 whether of Defenses, Provisions, Sanitary Ar- 
 rangements, or General Labor, and to see to the 
 relieving of gangs and the preparation of food 
 for the workmen. This, however, was only for 
 seven days, for by that time the Fu was un- 
 tenable by civilians, being under constant fire 
 from the Boxers and Chinese soldiers, and as 
 several of our number had been wounded and 
 some killed we decided to move into the Mon- 
 gol encampment, leaving only the Japanese sol- 
 diers and a few bands of Chinese Christians, 
 
STUDENTS OF PEKING UNIVERSITY 129 
 
 armed with spears or guns, to defend the place. 
 The Chinese had already taken a part of the Fu 
 and had brought in a cannon to complete their 
 conquest. When the Japanese saw this they 
 determined to capture it. 
 
 " Who will go with me to capture that gun ? " 
 asked the officer. 
 
 " We will," said a company of Christians, with 
 one voice. 
 
 " Be ready to die, then, for we know not who 
 will come back alive." 
 
 " We will follow where you lead." 
 
 " Come on, then," said he, at the same time 
 making a sally to capture the gun. They had 
 almost reached it when their leader was shot 
 down. They picked up his dead body and car- 
 ried it back to the barricades but failed to cap- 
 ture the gun. 
 
 It was amusing to see how little consideration 
 was felt by many of the foreign soldiers for those 
 whom we had always had the highest respect. 
 For instance, our head professor, who weighs not 
 less than two hundred and fifty pounds, was 
 taken by a common French soldier at the point 
 of the bayonet to do coolie work. As Professor 
 Lu could not make himself understood as being 
 the head of the General Committee he did the 
 wisest thing he could under the circumstances — 
 went. Fortunately for him he met someone 
 who could communicate with the Frenchman, to 
 whom he appealed. 
 
130 CHINESE HEROES 
 
 " What are you going to do with this man ? " 
 said his friend. 
 
 " Taking him to dig trenches," answered the 
 soldier. 
 
 " You cannot do anything with such a big man 
 as he is ; if you get him into your trench you 
 will never get him out again." 
 
 And so, on the promise that he would get him 
 a man to do his work, Teacher Lu was set free. 
 Two of our teachers, one a graduate of Ohio 
 Wesleyan University the other of DePauw, were 
 given control of a gang of coolies, most of whom 
 were our own students, and put to work on the 
 defenses or in the trenches, another was placed in 
 charge of the scavenger work, while our teacher 
 of English was transformed into a messenger 
 boy ; our hours being from 6 a. m. to 8 p. m., and 
 in time of special danger we were often kept on 
 duty all night. Those of us who worked in the 
 trenches suffered many hardships, having to 
 work in a pouring rain or a scorching sun, often 
 up to our knees in mud, with nothing to eat but 
 a bowl of fermented rice, and not infrequently we 
 were called out at night to help fight the fire. 
 
 But those of us who were at work on the bar- 
 ricades were in more immediate danger from the 
 bullets of the enemy. We realized that for the 
 safety of all it was necessary that the lives of the 
 foreigners be preserved, so that we often occu- 
 pied without hesitation the most exposed posi- 
 tions in barricade-building rather than allow our 
 
STUDENTS or PEKING UNIVERSITY 131 
 
 foreign leaders to do so. In spite of this but 
 one of our number was killed while carrying 
 bricks, though many were wounded. Often our 
 hearts almost failed us as we ran through the ex- 
 posed places to build up the barricades or stood 
 filling sandbags while the shot fell like hail all 
 around us, with an occasional shell or cannon 
 ball whizzing overhead or striking the wall we 
 were building. 
 
 The danger to which those who were messen- 
 ger boys were exposed was equally great, for no 
 matter how thick the shot and shell were falling 
 they were compelled to go from legation to lega- 
 tion, indeed when the danger was greatest their 
 services were most in demand. One traversing 
 the streets was especially exposed. This was 
 particularly true in crossing the Legation Street 
 bridge, where he was an open target from four 
 directions. Often they would wait until there 
 was a lull in the firing and then cross with a 
 rush, not infrequently with the cannon balls or 
 bullets whizzing past their ears or over their 
 heads. 
 
 Every one had his special work assigned him, 
 and he was under a " boss " who, in case he 
 shirked, went with him to Mr. Hobart, who had 
 charge of the meal tickets, and ordered that no 
 ticket be given him. There were foreigners also 
 appointed to take charge of the food supply and 
 see that no one got more than his single cup of 
 fermented rice, except at such time as we were 
 
132 CHINESE HEROES 
 
 treated to the entrails, head and feet of the mule 
 that was killed for the Europeans, which we re- 
 ceived with pleasure, thankful to get anything to 
 fill our stomachs. 
 
 During the time that gunner Mitchell was 
 making his fruitless efforts to construct a can- 
 non out of a pump, when several of our boys 
 were rummaging through a junk shop one of 
 them discovered an old gun. This was after- 
 wards mounted and became the famous " Betsy " 
 of the siege. A man who had formerly been a 
 Buddhist priest, but had been converted and 
 joined the church, was rehabilitated in his orig- 
 inal Buddhist garb and let down from the city 
 wall at night, in order if possible to secure for a 
 Japanese officer some copies of The Peking 
 Gazette. The next day he was caught by the 
 Boxers and condemned to death, but finally re- 
 leased by the head Boxer because he was " really 
 a priest." He discovered a large amount of arms 
 and ammunition in a Buddhist temple which he 
 afterwards revealed to Col. Robe, and for which 
 he was liberally rewarded. 
 
 It was one of the students in our industrial 
 department who, being sent as a messenger to 
 Tientsin, met General Gaselee immediately after 
 the battle at Yang Ts'un, delivered his letters, 
 and received the assurance that the Allies would 
 be in Peking within five days. This was impor- 
 tant news to us, as we had cut down rations to 
 one cup of rice a day and were numbering the 
 
STUDENTS OF PEKING UNIVERSITY 133 
 
 men for another cut when he got in. We were 
 all discouraged. But our spirits rose with the 
 tidings he brought. 
 
 Aaron Li, the son of one of our leading 
 preachers, says : 
 
 " I was a coolie in those days, building barri- 
 cades and digging ditches. One day while work- 
 ing in a ditch a bullet went through my right 
 leg, but in twenty days I was as well as ever 
 and back at my coolie work again." 
 
 His brother Moses was engaged in the same 
 work, and when asked about his experiences 
 during the siege he replied, 
 
 " Oh, nothing happened to me except that my 
 hands became blistered and my feet got pustules 
 on them." 
 
 A number of the students had returned home 
 before the Boxers reached Peking and none were 
 placed in more serious situations than they. 
 One, the only Christian in the family, was about 
 to be delivered over to the Boxer chief by his 
 elder brother, to prevent their troubling the rest 
 of the family, when his mother interfered, saying, 
 
 " No, he shall not be given up." 
 
 " But what will you do with him ? " asked the 
 brother. 
 
 " I do not know. Cannot you think of a plan 
 for his safety?" said she to his uncle. 
 
 " I know of no better way than to shave his 
 head and make a Buddhist monk of him," replied 
 the uncle. 
 
134 CHINESE HEROES 
 
 " No," said the lad ; " I will die rather than 
 deny my Lord." And he adds, 
 
 " It was beyond my fondest hopes that I was 
 not killed, and that I am still a Christian and 
 not a monk." 
 
 Another of the boys with his father went to 
 the home of a friend. Here they hid for two 
 days. Being obliged to leave this place they 
 fled under cover of the darkness to a place 
 twenty miles away, called the " Jade Mountain," 
 where they remained a few days longer. Pur- 
 sued by the Boxers they went to- a small town 
 two hundred and fifty miles from their home 
 and put up at an inn. Here the Boxers came to 
 inspect all guests, to find if there were any 
 Christians among them. 
 
 " Examine me first," said the father, presenting 
 himself before them. 
 
 " Take off your cap," said the head Boxer. 
 
 He did so. They first rubbed his forehead 
 between the eyes and above the nose to see if 
 there were a cross there, for the Boxers believed 
 that all Christians could be detected by this 
 sign, and many Christians were so afraid that it 
 was true that they felt compelled to wear a hat 
 drawn down over their forehead all summer. 
 Finding no cross, they breathed lightly on the 
 spot to see if the cross could be brought out in 
 this way, but none appeared. 
 
 "You are not Christians," said the Boxers, "or 
 you would have a cross there." 
 
C« H. 
 
 a 
 
 
 t 
 
 ' I ■ ' KS 
 
 •l^'^T 
 
 
STUDENTS OF PEKING UNIVERSITY 137 
 
 The father and son then purchased pens, ink 
 and books and visited all the native schools as 
 booksellers ; but this proving unprofitable busi- 
 ness, and their money being exhausted, they 
 hired themselves with a family to work for their 
 board, which position they kept till the Boxers 
 were dispersed. 
 
 In some cases whole families fled to the Great 
 Wall and remained in one of the towers until all 
 danger had passed ; others went to the homes of 
 relatives but only to be told that it was impos- 
 sible to receive them, as those who entertained 
 Christians, even though they were members of 
 their own families, would be regarded as follow- 
 ers of the foreigners. Two of the students fled 
 to Mongolia, laboring as common day-laborers 
 to secure food on the way, and there found po- 
 sitions as teachers of schools ; instead of" board- 
 ing around " the children brought them small 
 quantities of money or meat, as was most con- 
 venient to their parents. 
 
 At the close of the siege a number of the 
 graduates and most of the members of the higher 
 classes were employed as interpreters for the 
 officers and soldiers until school opened, or until 
 the country was in a sufficiently settled condition 
 to justify them in returning to their work. 
 When duty called they promptly gave up posi- 
 tions in which th^ were getting $50 to $100 
 per month and returned to their work, as preach- 
 ers or teachers, on $5 to $10 per month. 
 
138 CHINESE HEROES 
 
 EXPERIENCE OF THE STUDENTS OF THE 
 PEKING GIRLS' HIGH SCHOOL 
 
 In the spring of 1900, the 26th year of 
 Kuang Hsii, commencement was to have oc- 
 curred on the loth of the 5th moon. On the 
 nth we were to go home, but on account of 
 the Boxer uprising the examinations were four 
 days earlier, being completed on the 6th, and 
 it was decided that we might return home with 
 the preachers at the close of Conference. It 
 had never occurred to us that the persecutions 
 would be so fierce that this hope could not be 
 realized. 
 
 As it became obvious that we must forego all 
 expectation of seeing our parents, and as the 
 daily reports of the Boxer disturbances came in 
 from all sides, the girls became more and more 
 agitated. There seemed to be nothing on which 
 we could depend, and we resolved to place our- 
 selves, body, soul and spirit, with all we had, in 
 the hands of the Lord. All day we gathered in 
 twos and threes, or in a general group, and spent 
 the time in prayer. We sang, but it was in GUI' 
 hearts ; for we dared not utter a sound, knowing 
 that Tung Fu-h'siang's soldiei^, who held the city 
 wall beside the school, were ready to destroy us 
 at any moment. 
 
PEKING GIRLS' HIGH SCHOOL 14.1 
 
 On the evening of the iith a messenger came 
 on horseback to say that it was the intention of 
 a band of hoodlums to loot the school and carry 
 away the girls. On hearing this the principal 
 informed us that we must watch and be ready 
 at any time during the day or night, for if the 
 Boxers came she would ring the bell, which 
 would be the sign that we must all gather at 
 once in the schoolroom, her idea being that if 
 we- were to die we would all die together. When 
 we heard this we were frightened almost to 
 death. We could not sleep, or if we slept it was 
 but for a moment, for we dared not take off even 
 our shoes. Most of the night we spent in prayer 
 When the morning dawned clear and bright the 
 Boxers had not come and our hearts were filled 
 with gratitude. From this time forward the 
 Boxers thought of nothing except our injury, 
 and our principal exercised all her ingenuity in 
 devising ways and means of preserving our lives. 
 
 On the evening of the 12th we were ordered 
 to prepare to go and sleep in the church, as 
 twenty foreign soldiers had come from the 
 American Legation and were then guarding the 
 place. At six in the morning we returned to the 
 school. All day the men built barricades and 
 watched for the enemy ; and the girls, not being 
 able to work, received the women refugees, pre- 
 pared them food, and kept watch lest the enemy 
 burn our buildings. 
 
 On the night of the 13th the Boxers deter- 
 
142 CHINESE HEROES 
 
 mined to get the blood of the school girls to 
 offer in sacrifice to their gods. In the evening 
 we gave ourselves into the Lord's hands and 
 went to sleep in the church ; for it had been so 
 well fortified that it was hoped they would not 
 be able to break in, and if they did it would be 
 a good place from which to go to heaven. 
 
 On the morning of the 14th we again thanked 
 the Lord for raising us as it were from the dead, 
 but throughout the day we knew not what an 
 hour, a minute, a second, might bring forth. 
 Daily we thanked the Lord for what was passed 
 and prayed for protection in the future. Once 
 more, on the 15th, the Boxers determined that 
 they would have our blood for their gods, but 
 again they were foiled. At midnight on the 
 1 6th, just outside the city wall opposite the 
 school, night was made hideous by a vast multi- 
 tude of Boxers screaming at the top of their 
 voices, " Kill ! kill!" We thought they would 
 surely effect an entrance during the night, but 
 when morning came we were once more able to 
 thank the Lord for protection. 
 
 On the evening of the 1 7th they burned the 
 street chapel and other churches and missions 
 throughout the city, and the i8th was spent in 
 guarding against their entrance to the compound 
 or burning our buildings. Since they had failed 
 to get our blood on the 15th they decided that 
 they would have it on the 19th, but once more 
 they were unsuccessful. If they came by day- 
 
PEKING GIRLS' HIGH SCHOOL 143 
 
 light we were ordered to gather in the north room 
 of the school where the soldiers could protect us. 
 
 The school court was large, and it was feared 
 that if they came upon us suddenly in our sur- 
 prise we would suffer defeat ; we therefore sta- 
 tioned girls in the upstairs rooms to keep a 
 lookout and warn us if they came. We were 
 divided into six companies and kept watch from 
 6 A. M. to 6 p. M. As there were four courts in the 
 compound we put four girls in each company, so 
 that if anything happened in any part of the 
 premises it would be reported at once. This 
 condition of affairs continued until ten o'clock 
 of the 24th, when Mrs. Jewell with a sad face 
 announced to us that the American Minister 
 had ordered all the foreigners to leave the mis- 
 sion and go to the Legation. 
 
 When she said this every one of us burst into 
 tears, and while she was trying to comfort us 
 Miss Terrell brought the good news that a second 
 message had arrived saying that not only the 
 girls but all the Chinese Christians should go 
 with the foreigners, and our joy was as great as 
 our grief had been. 
 
 It was the next day that the treachery of the 
 Tsung-li Ya-men leaked out. They had pre- 
 viously offered an escort to the foreign ministers 
 to induce them to leave the city, requesting them 
 to go to the Ya-men and talk the matter over, 
 assuring them that the soldiers would meet and 
 protect them and that they stood ready to pro- 
 
144. CHINESE HEROES 
 
 tect the native Christians. No one suspected 
 that it was their intention to massacre them, as 
 was the case with the German Minister. Thence- 
 forward we were aware of their deceit and their 
 intention, which was to massacre the Christians 
 as soon as they could induce the foreigners to 
 leave the city. 
 
 In harmony with the order of the American 
 Minister we left Hsiao Hsun Hu Tung and fled 
 to Su Wang Fu. Prince Su had been unwilling 
 to give it up, lest he himself should be supposed 
 to be in league with the foreigners, but he 
 told Prof. Janes and Dr. Morrison that they 
 might batter down the gates and he would flee 
 and we would have it, which would prevent his 
 losing favor with our enemies and preserve his 
 head. These two gentlemen made it their busi- 
 ness to see that it was habitable and defensible. 
 
 When we arrived we pulled dry grass and 
 scattered it about to sit upon. The largest of 
 the buildings was prepared for our accommo- 
 dation, and in this we dwelt. We arrived there 
 at 4 p. M. and half an hour later an innumerable 
 company of Boxers together with Tung Fu- 
 h'siang's soldiers rushed up Legation Street, in- 
 tending to massacre all the Christians, but were 
 stopped by the foreign soldiers. As we had just 
 arrived and had but few soldiers we were unpre- 
 pared to defend ourselves against an enemy 
 which was like the sands of the sea for mul- 
 titude ; we girls therefore resorted to prayer, 
 
PEKING GIRLS' HIGH SCHOOL 147 
 
 asking the Lord to open a way and help the men 
 to fight, and we soon discovered that Prince 
 Ch'ing's troops had overcome the Boxers for the 
 time. 
 
 About all we could do was to make sand bags 
 for our defenders. The bullets fell like hail and 
 we did not dare go out of the house. The Box- 
 ers set fire on all sides in the hope of burning us 
 out, and the fiercer the fire burned the closer we 
 clung to the Lord. On the 28th there were con- 
 flagrations everywhere and the fighting was 
 almost hand to hand, there being only a wall 
 between our men and the enemy, who were 
 throwing bricks at each other as well as fighting 
 with weapons. The building next to the one in 
 which we were living caught fire and in the twink- 
 ling of an eye our house was in flames, and we 
 were compelled to flee. Though we ran directly 
 across the line of battle not one of us was killed, 
 but we had hardly saved ourselves when, to 
 our great dismay, two of our pastors, Wang 
 Ch'eng-p'ei and Liu Chi-hsien, had fallen. 
 
 Thence we fled to a pawn-shop. It was now 
 nine o'clock at night and we had not yet had 
 our breakfast. As there was rice in the pawn- 
 shop we set to work to prepare something to eat, 
 but before it was ready fire broke out in the 
 region of our new refuge. We fled to the Mon- 
 gol Encampment, hoping to be safe there, but 
 as they had succeeded in extinguishing the fire 
 at the Fu we were ordered to return to our orig- 
 
148 CHINESE HEROES 
 
 inal dwelling-place. From that time until the 
 2nd of the 6th month there were fires and fight- 
 ing every day, and our home was once more 
 almost destroyed. 
 
 This time we fled to Chan Shih Fu (the in- 
 stitution that takes charge of the education of 
 the heir apparent), but returned to the large 
 building in the evening. That night "we could 
 not sleep a wink," for the reason that the build- 
 ing was half shot away. We were all huddled 
 together in one corner and one of our number 
 was wounded, and afterwards died. The fire 
 raged ; it seemed in reality like a great sun, and 
 we knew not at what moment it would consume 
 us, nevertheless our trust was in the Lord and 
 we were at peace. 
 
 On the evening of the 3rd our big building 
 caught fire and was utterly destroyed. We again 
 fled to the Mongol Encampment. That night 
 it was terrible ; the Chinese soldiers seemed de- 
 termined to rush upon and destroy us, but dur- 
 the flashes of lightning the foreign soldiers en- 
 countered and defeated them and they fled. 
 On the 5th of the 6th month the Boxers took 
 an oath to annihilate us or be blotted out them- 
 selves. We prayed that their oath might be 
 fruitless and our prayers were answered. 
 
 When our food was almost exhausted we dis- 
 covered a grainshop where there was an abun- 
 dance of wheat and broomcorn. As there were 
 not mills enough to grind the wheat we ate it 
 
PEKING GIRLS' HIGH SCHOOL 149 
 
 whole, and what flour we had we saved for the 
 soldiers. It seemed sad that we were idle while 
 the men were overworked, but it was not long 
 until we began sewing again on sand-bags, mak- 
 ing thirty, fifty, one hundred a day. JEach day 
 we washed clothes for the foreigners in the Le- 
 gation, as they had brought but few with them, 
 but this was not enough to keep us busy, and so 
 when there were not enough men to do the 
 work Mrs. Jewell divided us up into companies, 
 we wrapped our queues around our heads like 
 boys and joined in the work of carrying bricks. 
 
 By the latter part of the 6th month there had 
 been so many of the Chinese killed that the 
 decaying bodies caused a continual stench, as 
 there had been no opportunity to bury them. 
 The Chinese asked for a truce, saying that from 
 this time they would fight no more, but their 
 idea was simply to bury their dead and begin 
 the battle again. Happily the foreigners were 
 not deceived by their wiles, and continued their 
 work of fortification. 
 
 All lines of communication between us and 
 the world had been severed and the British Le- 
 gation repeatedly sent couriers to Tientsin to 
 let the world know of our condition. Each time 
 a courier left we prayed that he might go and 
 return in safety. Every day we anxiously 
 awaited the arrival of the foreign soldiers. On 
 the 19th of the 7th month we heard the firing 
 of their guns and our joy was such that we could 
 
150 CHINESE HEROES 
 
 not sleep. On the afternoon of the 20th the 
 first of the troops arrived by way of the Water 
 Gate and they were all in by evening. There- 
 after we spent our time washing clothes for the 
 soldiers. 
 
 From the Legation we were first moved into 
 a house in the Russian section, but this we soon 
 vacated for the accommodation of the soldiers, 
 and on the 26th of the 7th moon we were finally 
 settled in the American section of the Tartar 
 City, west of the Ch'ien-men. 
 
 The character of the food and air during the 
 6th month had left many of the girls in a de- 
 bilitated condition which began to manifest itself 
 in fever soon after we reached our new home, 
 and we divided ourselves into committees to 
 care for them. As we had lost all our posses- 
 sions the principal sought work for us, that we 
 might be able to earn enough with our needles 
 to clothe our backs. But when the 8th month 
 arrived we were still without wadded garments, 
 at which time a Mr. Yang from the Mongol En- 
 campment gave us a large number of old gar- 
 ments which when we washed and altered sup- 
 plied our needs. These, with what we earned 
 with our needles or by washing, enabled us to 
 provide ourselves with clothes for the winter 
 and we decided to begin our studies. 
 
 We were, however, without books. We bor- 
 rowed what we could from the American Board, 
 but still found it necessary for several girls to 
 
PEKING GIRLS' HIGH SCHOOL 151 
 
 study from the same book. We were also without 
 either schoolroom or dining room, so that we 
 were forced to eat, study and sleep in our cham- 
 bers. We were without a chapel, but we all 
 gathered together and worshiped in the court. 
 Our hymnals and Bibles were nearly all lost, the 
 entire school having saved but five New Testa- 
 ments and six hymnals, but a little later Mr. 
 King gave us each a Bible and we bought forty 
 or fifty hymnals. After a few weeks we made 
 such alterations in two of the buildings as to en- 
 able us to utilize one for a chapel and the other 
 for a dining room. 
 
 When all these things were arranged we be- 
 gan school in earnest, the elder girls acting as 
 teachers for the younger, spending any extra 
 time we had on work which Miss Oilman sold 
 for us whenever she had opportunity. Her 
 kindness to us is beyond the power of words to 
 express, even her salary was spent in purchasing 
 materials for us to use. • When she was about 
 to return to America we made a number of dolls 
 which she took with her, hoping that she would 
 be able to sell them there. When we were in 
 our most straitened circumstances we received 
 aid which was subscribed and sent to us by some 
 of the Japanese and Fukien school girls. 
 
 Such were some of the experiences of the 
 students of the Peking Oirls' High School. 
 
152 CHINESE HEROES 
 
 THE FLIGHT OF TEACHERS LIU FANG AND 
 WANG T'lEN-HSIANG 
 
 After the Conference at Peking many of the 
 brethren urged Pastor Ch'eh Heng-te not to re- 
 turn to his work at Lao T'ing, but his answer 
 was, " Where the flock is there the shepherd 
 should be, and whether we Hve or die we are in 
 the Lord's keeping." The railroad had been 
 destroyed, and he and Presiding Elder Wang 
 Ch'ing-yun hired carts and we all started across 
 country together. About eighty li from Peking 
 we met the troops of Tung Fu-h'slang on their 
 way to the city, and though we had Christian 
 books in our carts they were not discovered 
 and we suffered no inconvenience. Though the 
 road was quiet all the way to T'ang Shan we 
 did not dare to let the people know we were 
 Christians, and to better prevent inquiry we 
 concluded to call our presiding elder Chang- 
 kuei-ti. Some of the students at times forgot 
 this rule and called him pastor, but a stare or a 
 scowl brought them to their senses and we ar- 
 rived at T'ang Shan in safety. We knew we were 
 surrounded by danger on every side, yet our 
 method of protecting ourselves by calling our 
 chief pastor " Boss " furnished the younger mem- 
 bers of the company with no little amusement. 
 
Liu Fan^ and. F*a 
 
 ily 
 
 The older man is Mr. Liu, head of the Industrial School of Peking University, 
 builder of Durbin Hall and Asbury Church. He was at Tsun-hua su^jerintending 
 the building of the Girls' School whsn the Boxer trouble began. On his way home 
 he was captured while at the inn, and taken before a Boxer chief, by yhom he was 
 liberated. On reaching home he found that his wife had been killed, and his 
 daughter, Mrs. Li (page 217), carried to Prince Tuan's palace. He hid until the 
 trouble was past, and is now helping to rebuild the mission. (The lady in front 
 of him is his wife, the child his son.) 
 
THE FLIGHT OF TWO TEACHERS 155 
 
 When we arrived in the region of Lan Chou, 
 where Liu Fang was pastor, and principal of the 
 Intermediate School, we could not but compare 
 the conditions with what they were when we 
 left. Two weeks before not a Boxer was to be 
 seen anywhere, now they were like grasshoppers 
 which the wind had brought. Many of the 
 people supposed we had been killed in Peking, 
 and various reports were circulated to the effect 
 that we had brought foreign soldiers and secreted 
 them in the church, with foreign arms for our 
 own defense. On Sunday the people gathered 
 at the church as they gather at a market-place. 
 
 We arrived at An Ke Chuang on the 15th of 
 the 5th month. Rumor was rife in all this sec- 
 tion, and the Lan Chou church was closed and 
 sealed by the official. During the night Liu 
 Fang brought his wife to An Ke Chuang on a 
 donkey and dwelt with me for a time, and a few 
 days later Pastor Ch'en Heng-te, Wang Mao- 
 yin, P'ang Chan-hai and others fled to this 
 place. On the 12th of the 6th moon the Boxers 
 arose and to avoid trouble the elders of the 
 village closed and sealed the chapel, the Chris- 
 tians scattered, and Liu Fang and I, after send- 
 ing our wives away to the homes of Christians 
 where we thought they would be safe, remained 
 in the chapel as a guard. The 13th being a 
 holidav a number of Boxers came and examined 
 the church door; the village elders interfered 
 and trouble was avoided, but as the situation 
 
156 CHINESE HEROES 
 
 seemed dangerous we spent the night in the 
 homes of Christians. The next day we fled to 
 T'ang Shan, but finding it unsettled there we 
 returned to An Ke Chuang. On the train we 
 met Ch'en Heng-te, who had been to T'ang 
 Shan to prepare a place for his family. At 
 Chang Ke Chuang, north of Lan Chou, we 
 found a place where we could live for a short 
 time and on the 19th we went to Heng Shan 
 Ying. Here we hoped to get a boat for 
 Chefoo, but as Chen Heng-te had given up the 
 hope of such good fortune we did the same. 
 
 On the 20th the effects of Mrs. Ch'en were 
 seized by the Boxers. Danger seemed to be on 
 every side and so we " slept " in a " lodge in a 
 garden of cucumbers." The night was spent in 
 prayer, and on inquiry we learned that the Box- 
 ers had set Mrs. Ch'en free but had kept all her 
 things. We returned to the chapel, where we 
 remained a few days thanking God that no one 
 was killed. Daily we prayed, read our Bibles 
 and conversed about our spiritual condition, be- 
 coming more and more firm in our religious con- 
 victions and having greater peace. 
 
 Rumor arose among the villagers that we 
 were sorcerers, and a disposition was manifested 
 to rob us of all our possessions, but on the ist 
 of the 7th moon word came from one Han, of 
 the village of Chun Ying, to the effect that he 
 desired to consult with us regarding various im- 
 portant matters, possibly, we suppose, concerning 
 
THE FLIGHT OF TWO TEACHERS 157 
 
 our freedom and the peace of the neighborhood ; 
 but on inquiry we found that he hoped to bring 
 about peace by inducing us to deny the faith, 
 and we concluded that unless we fled to a dis- 
 tant place the persecutions might be so strong 
 as to tempt us to recant. 
 
 Just at this time a Christian named Wang 
 Yii-t'ing, a colporteur, who had already been 
 captured by the Boxers under charge of poison- 
 ing the wells and had been liberated by the 
 Boxer chief because of his fearless testimony to 
 his faith, joined us from Tientsin. He told us 
 that the Boxer leader had ordered him to be 
 returned to the place whence he had been 
 brought and kept until he could be delivered to 
 the district judge, but that at night he had come 
 to him secretly and during a long conversation 
 had asked the reason for his fearless courage 
 and the nature of his religion, whereupon he 
 had planned his escape and requested that when 
 the trouble was over and peace restored he 
 would return and teach the Boxer leader about 
 this strange way. 
 
 Mr. Wang informed us that Tientsin had been 
 successful in overcoming the Boxers, that the 
 church was still standing and the people alive, 
 and we concluded to flee thither as a place of 
 safety. We knelt and prayed that the Lord 
 would guide us, tears streaming from our eyes, 
 feeling that there was neither joy in life nor fear 
 in death, and committed ourselves into his hands. 
 
158 CHINESE HEROES 
 
 We started on the 3d of the 7th moon. The 
 road was muddy and we were compelled to go 
 barefoot. At Lei Chuang we boarded the train 
 on which we traveled to Ho T'o, where we hired 
 a small boat and on the 4th arrived at P'an Erh 
 Chuang, within seventy li of Tientsin. As we 
 did not dare travel the great road we went 
 around by Pei Ts'ang and found ourselves in a 
 camp of Chinese soldiers. We observed the 
 position of their large guns and cavalry (which 
 we revealed to the Allies after we arrived at 
 Tientsin and it was of no little service to them), 
 and as we were faint we sat down by the side of 
 the road and drank some water and ate a melon. 
 
 We crossed the river twice, but found the 
 road almost impassable, and rested at a small 
 village. The people told us it would be difficult 
 to get into Tientsin, and for a while we hesi- 
 tated but decided to try, since to go back was 
 impossible. Our feet were covered with blisters 
 and our legs ached but we limped forward, pray- 
 ing all the time for grace and protection. In 
 this condition we took advantage of a small 
 boat that overtook us and rode to tohe gate of 
 Tientsin, where we arrived about sundown. We 
 passed through the Ying gate and hastened to 
 the West gate, but as we could find no inn we 
 were compelled to spend the night in a small 
 cake shop or restaurant. 
 
 The next morning we went along the river 
 side to the East gate, having been relieved of 
 
THE FLIGHT OF TWO TEACHERS 169 
 
 our Mexican dollars by the Japanese soldiers 
 whom we met by the way. Later we went to 
 the South gate, where the American soldiers 
 were quartered, and asked them to give us a 
 pass to enter the foreign settlement. They did 
 so, but we had no sooner entered the Concession 
 than Wang T'ien-hsiang and Wang Yii-t'ing 
 were taken and beaten by the French soldiers, 
 Liu Fang being set free. He hastened on in 
 hope of reaching the Methodist mission and find- 
 ing Mr. Pyke, who would 
 rescue his friends ; but other 
 soldiers took him and kept 
 him a^ coolie work during 
 the entire day, though it 
 was intensely hot, without 
 either food or drink. 
 
 Wang T'ien-hsiang was 
 soon set free and went in ^ 
 
 "Wang TT'ien-Ksiang 
 
 search of Liu Fang, but not 
 findine him he mixed in with the coolies of the 
 Japanese and went with them through the French 
 settlement till he came near to Wesley Chapel, 
 where he saw Mr. Pyke and other friends, and 
 he was not able to control himself, but tears 
 gushed from his eyes and he thanked God for 
 his rescue. In the evening Liu Fang and Wang 
 Yu-t'ing were set free. Weary and faint they 
 came to the chapel weeping tears of joy. Here 
 we lived for a month. The hardships of the way 
 left Liu Fang in a weak condition and he was 
 
160 CHINESE HEROES 
 
 prostrated with fever, but the others were put to 
 work either as laborers or in the Young Men's 
 Christian Association, which was opened inside 
 the city, until it was safe to return to our homes. 
 Here we arrived a few weeks later to find all our 
 possessions taken away, our friends having suf- 
 fered as much as we, and to crown it all we were 
 kept at the point of death for some weeks with 
 typhoid fever. But none of these things moved 
 us. We were glad that we could bear the cross 
 for Christ's sake, and remembering his words, 
 that " he that taketh not his cross, and followeth 
 after me, is not worthy of me," we renewed our 
 determination to follow Christ, * 
 
MARTYRS 161 
 
 MARTYR5 
 
 Of the Christians who were faithful unto 
 death we have spoken at some length concerning 
 Pastors Ch'en Ta-yung and Wang Ch'eng-p'ei, 
 who had already been proved by years of service 
 and were thus rewarded with a martyr's crown. 
 
 There were others, of equal faith and devotion, 
 better prepared to battle with the new conditions 
 now being thrust upon the Mongolian race by 
 Western governments and peoples, both because 
 they were of the second or third generation of 
 Christian manhood and womanhood and because 
 in their youth they had secured the advantages 
 of a better education. Among these none stand 
 out more prominently than 
 
 WANG CHIH-SHEN 
 
 He was a member of the senior class of Peking 
 University, always in the front rank of the best 
 students as to appearance, conduct, piety and 
 scholarship, and ready to enter upon a life of 
 usefulness. During a revival service, the in- 
 fluence of which was felt throughout the various 
 churches and schools of Peking and vicinity, he 
 found the fullness of blessing only a few months 
 before he was called upon to endure persecution. 
 
 A few days before the outbreak, at the close of 
 11 
 
162 CHINESE HEROES 
 
 the college year, he went to his home, two hun- 
 dred miles distant from Peking. When the 
 storm approached he was urged by all his friends 
 to escape, as he was a marked man, but he re- 
 fused to desert his family. He was taken by the 
 Boxers and was offered the choice of recantation 
 or death. To make it easier for him to deny 
 his Master it was proposed by the village elders 
 that some of his friends be allowed to worship 
 the idols in his stead, in which case they could 
 secure his release. " No," said he ; "I will 
 neither burn incense to idols myself nor allow 
 any one to do it for me; not to mention the fact 
 that it would be denying my Lord, I should 
 never dare to look my teachers in the face 
 again." 
 
 He then exhorted his persecutors to personal 
 repentance and an acceptance of Christianity. 
 They ordered him to cease his preaching, which 
 he refused to do, whereupon they cut off his 
 lips to stop his exhortations. His arms and limbs 
 were then severed from his body, which was 
 hacked to pieces. 
 
 Not less noble was the death of 
 
 DR. WANG CHUNG-LIN 
 The first church established in his native vil- 
 lage was opened in his grandfather's home by 
 Rev. George Davis during one of his trips on 
 the Nan Kung circuit. At that time Chung-lin 
 was a small but clever and mischievous boy, in- 
 
MARTYRS 163 
 
 clined to have a will of his own. Both his father 
 and grandfather were anxious that he become a 
 scholar, and so sent him to a Chinese school. 
 There he was under strict supervision, while at 
 home the parental government and mandates 
 were equally rigid, until the boy concluded he 
 could submit to it no longer. He begged a few 
 cash from his father daily on the pretense of 
 buying little things, all which he saved to help 
 pay the expense of an adventure which he pro- 
 posed soon to undertake. 
 
 When all was in readiness he wrapped up his 
 bedding — but finding this too large a bundle he 
 left it behind — took a dollar of his father's 
 money and turning his back upon his home 
 started out, at the age of fourteen, to face an 
 unsympathetic world, like many another lad be- 
 fore and since his time. His destination was 
 "outside the Great Wall;" an indefinite some- 
 where, nowhere, anywhere, everywhere. He did 
 what odd jobs a boy of that age can find, to fill 
 an aching void which every uncared-for youth 
 of fourteen constantly carries with him, with but 
 indifferent success, until finally it dawned upon 
 him, after two years of wandering, that his parents 
 were anxious to see him and longing for his 
 return. 
 
 One day as he was going along the road 
 weary and almost starved, he met an old woman 
 whom he greeted thus : 
 
 " Old lady, I am not a beggar, but I am very 
 
164 CHINESE HEROES 
 
 hungry; could you not give me something to 
 eat ? " 
 
 " Go along, you lazy, worthless boy," she re- 
 plied ; " how dare you, a big, strong boy, ask an 
 old woman to provide you with food ? " 
 
 This made him feel quite ashamed of himself, 
 especially as he knew he was not a beggar — 
 though in truth he was in as dire distress as any 
 beggar could be. 
 
 He went to an inn, but he was without money 
 to pay for his lodging and again he found him- 
 self compelled to beg, which with the rebuke 
 the old woman had given him led him to decide 
 to go home. 
 
 It was some time after this when Dr. H. H. 
 Lowry during one of his missionary tours found 
 him at his home, poring over various Chinese 
 medical books, and brought him to Peking. His 
 father was an intelligent man and was made 
 chapel keeper, while the boy was sent to school. 
 
 For some years he studied and then entered 
 the church service as a local preacher, but his 
 old medical tastes still clinging to him he asked 
 to be taken as an assistant in the Dispensary. 
 Still later he entered the Medical School, from 
 which he graduated, and then completed his 
 course in the Arts Department. 
 
 Before the Boxer movement had reached 
 Peking he sent his wife and children to his 
 father's home while he remained at his post in 
 Peking. He did not go into the Legation, think- 
 
MARTYRS 165 
 
 ing, as did many others, that he would be safer 
 outside. But it was not long until he was ar- 
 rested by the Boxers and taken into the college 
 campus, where all kinds of threats were made 
 and inducements offered to lead him to recant, 
 but all to no purpose. What happened then we 
 learned from our water-carrier, who had gone as 
 a cook into the Boxer camp. 
 
 One evening after they had massacred a num- 
 ber of Christians near the college he heard the 
 following conversation : 
 
 " That pock-marked fellow was a brave one."* 
 
 " How was that.?" 
 
 " We wanted him to recant and worship idols, 
 and threatened that if he did not we would kill 
 him. It was a pity to kill as fine a scholar as he 
 was and we did not want to do it." 
 
 " What did he say ? Did he refuse ? " 
 
 "Yes; he grated his teeth together and said, 
 ' We are four generations of Christians, my 
 grandfather, my father, myself and my son, and 
 shall I be the first to recant ? Kill me if you 
 will ! ' " 
 
 " What did you do ? Did you kill a man of 
 that kind ? " 
 
 " Yes ; we stuck a spear into him twice and 
 threw his body under the college building." 
 
 His bones and hair, with those of several 
 other Christians, were found among the ruins 
 and all buried together in the college campus, 
 
 * Wang Chung-lin. 
 
166 CHINESE HEROES 
 
 where we hope that some one who reads this 
 will offer to erect a monument over them. 
 
 Both his father and grandfather were massa- 
 cred, and only his wife and two little boys are 
 left, — but their story is left for the future to 
 write. 
 
 As in the early church, so in China, some of 
 the noblest and bravest of our martyred dead 
 were women. Among these none stand out 
 more prominently, both because of what they 
 resisted and of what they endured, than two of 
 the young lady teachers irwour Woman's For- 
 eign Missionary Society Girls' School at Tsun- 
 hua, one hundred miles east of Peking. The 
 first of these was 
 
 HSU HUI-FANG 
 
 who was originally a Peking school girl. She 
 entered when she was but four years old and 
 studied till she was nineteen, being at that time 
 highly esteemed by Miss Cushman because of 
 her conduct and her ability. She was appointed 
 as a teacher in the girls' school at Tsun-hua, 
 where she taught eleven years. She was at the 
 compound in Peking when the trouble arose, 
 and many of her friends urged her not to return 
 to Tsun-hua. She answered : " Miss Croucher 
 has made me responsible for the girls and I must 
 go." 
 
 She had been there but a short time when the 
 missionaries were ordered to go to Tientsin. As 
 
MARTYRS 167 
 
 we have already seen, in Mrs. Ch'in's story, they 
 spent the night in prayer, divided themselves 
 into companies and fled to the homes of the 
 Christians. These were soon looted and the 
 girls carried off prisoners. They pleaded in vain 
 with these robbers to set them free. Through 
 the intercession of Rev. Liu Chi-lun, the pastor, 
 and the interference of the official they were lib- 
 erated, but as she was without a home no one 
 dared to receive her. 
 
 One of the Christians took her to the moun- 
 tains, where the Boxers followed and shot her in 
 the face. As the wound was made by a Chinese 
 matchlock it did not prove fatal, and being with- 
 out food or drink they were forced to come down 
 to the plain. She was once more caught and 
 twice offered life and wealth, either as the con- 
 cubine of a high official or the second wife of a 
 wealthy farmer, but she refused to give up her 
 religion for any inducement they could offer — 
 and this through thirty days of trial the severity 
 of which will probably never be known. She 
 was finally carried off to P'ing An Ch'eng, where 
 an attempt was made to behead her, but the 
 headsman's sword broke in twain upon her neck 
 and the rabble rushed in and pierced her with 
 their spears, after which she was sliced and 
 burned. She was " faithful unto death," and is 
 now doubtless rejoicing in the possession of " a 
 crown of life." 
 
 The second of these young lady teachers was 
 
168 CHINESE HEROES 
 
 LIU WEN-LAN, 
 
 who " from the time of her birth," says my in- 
 formant, " seems to have been selected by the 
 Lord for his own work as a teacher." She was 
 good and upright as a girl, enthusiastic as a 
 Christian, diligent as a student, and faithful as 
 a worker. Being afflicted with consumption she 
 left the school in Peking, it being feared by her 
 teachers that she could live but a short time: 
 She rallied, however, and became a teacher in 
 the girls' school at Tsun-hua. She daily be- 
 came more prayerful, and thus won the loving 
 respect of all the students. She exerted herself 
 to develop the best that was in the girls, espe- 
 cially in the matter of Christian living ; and thus 
 all were moved by her influence or uplifted by 
 her grace. 
 
 She, with seventeen of the girls and others, 
 was captured by the Boxers. As they were 
 being led to the place of execution she reminded 
 them how the Master was persecuted, and killed, 
 and afterwards ascended into heaven ; how the 
 disciples one after another had met death be- 
 cause of their faith, and she continued, " though 
 we are not worthy to die for him we are ready 
 and willing to do so, and will depend upon his 
 grace to save us." 
 
 The Boxers were angered by her exhorta- 
 tions and threatened to kill her at once. None 
 of their threats moved her, however, and without 
 
MARTYRS 
 
 169 
 
 a tremor she offered her head to the sword, 
 as though by her fearlessness in death to 
 strengthen her companions for the corning trial. 
 
 Coupled with the name of Wang Chih-shen 
 among the students of the University is that of 
 
 TOU LIEN-MING 
 
 At the revival service held in Peking in 1900, 
 not long before the close of school, he received 
 a rich baptism of the Spirit. He was a member 
 
170 CHINESE HEROES 
 
 of the senior preparatory class, and returned to 
 his home near Tsun-hua well prepared for the 
 persecutions which awaited him. 
 
 He was seized by the Boxers at his home, 
 taken to the temple and ordered to burn in- 
 cense and knock his head on the ground before 
 the idols, both of which he refused to do. 
 
 " He is a devil of the second class," exclaimed 
 the crowd. 
 
 " I am not a devil," he answered. 
 
 " What are you, then ? " 
 
 The slender youth straightened himself up 
 and without a sign of fear replied, " I am a 
 Christian;" and in answer to further questions 
 began to explain what it meant to be a follower 
 of the Lord Jesus Christ. 
 
 " Kill him ! Kill him ! " cried the mob. 
 
 " No, no, not here ; it is not proper to kill him 
 in front of the temple ; take him to the street 
 which has been set apart for the slaughter of 
 devils." 
 
 While they led him forth he continued to ex- 
 hort them, urging them to listen to the truth, 
 until many of those who followed the irrespon- 
 sible mob felt pricked to the heart, as they after- 
 ward reported, and would have saved him if they 
 could. It was when they were about to put him 
 to death that he said, 
 
 " Though you can kill our bodies, you cannot 
 kill our souls ; hereafter we will live forever," 
 and with that they hacked him to pieces. 
 
MARTYRS 171 
 
 His death had a profound influence on his fel- 
 low-students. In relating it to his teacher they 
 spoke of it as a triumph of faith, a victory over 
 death and the grave, and when her eyes filled 
 with tears they gathered about her, saying, " Do 
 not weep, do not weep for him. Think what a 
 glory it was to die like a man, bearing witness 
 for Christ, rather than to be killed like a dog in 
 the street. We would all be glad if our death 
 could be like that of Tou Lien-ming." 
 
 LI TE-JEN 
 
 " What is the matter, Te-jen .? " 
 
 " Nothing," answered the boy addressed, while 
 tears filled his eyes, " only my feet are blistered 
 with walking." 
 
 " You are too small to go all the way to Pe- 
 king ; we will hire a cart and send you back 
 home." 
 
 " I will not go back," answered the plucky 
 lad. " I am determined to go to school." 
 
 This conversation occurred between a mis- 
 sionary and the smallest of a companj'' of boys 
 he was taking from Shan-tung to Peking, a dis- 
 tance of four hundred miles. 
 
 He was a little boy, the son of a little woman, 
 slender and undersized, but the disposition man- 
 ifested at this time is a fair index to his char- 
 acter and a criterion of his life. 
 
 His virtue consisted not in quantity but in 
 quality, not in mass but in fineness. He was an 
 
172 CHINESE HEROES 
 
 artist. Sunday school lessons were made inter- 
 esting to hundreds of little folks by his crayon 
 drawings during his college course. Maps and 
 pictures illustrative of the branches he taught 
 decorated the walls of the school in^which he 
 became a teacher after his graduation, and the 
 pupils who came under his tuition bore, not the 
 impress of a master mind, but the marks of a 
 devoted Christian character. At the close of the 
 Conference of 1900 he with his family went to 
 visit friends at Ch'ang P'ing-chou, north of Pe- 
 king. What happened when the Boxer move- 
 ment reached that place we know not. One re- 
 port has it that he fled to the mountains and 
 with his wife and child was butchered in a cave 
 where they were in hiding ; while another says 
 that he was returning to Peking in a cart and 
 outside the An Ting gate the carter reported 
 that he was a Christian, when he was taken by 
 the Boxers and, with his whole family, put to 
 death. 
 
 The persecutions reached their climax in our 
 church at Ch'ien An, at which place there were 
 a noble company of martyrs, less noted perhaps, 
 because occupying a more humble position, but 
 none the less faithful to the Lord whom they 
 had undertaken to serve. Among these their 
 pastor, 
 
 YANG NIEN-TSENG 
 
 stands at the head. Diligent as a student in his 
 youth he early became a teacher of the various 
 
MARTYRS 173 
 
 native branches of learning, which were of no lit- 
 tle assistance to him after he had embraced the 
 Gospel. He was an enthusiastic Christian and a 
 preacher of some ability. H is son was a student 
 in the Peking University and had just returned 
 home on his vacation when the Boxers first took 
 him prisoner. The villagers besought them to 
 liberate him, offering themselves to go security 
 for his good conduct. They did so, but the 
 next day they arrested both him and his son, 
 saying, 
 
 " We will not kill you both, but one of you 
 must die to propitiate the gods and atone for 
 the sins you have committed." 
 
 " Since I have received the greatest grace," 
 said the father, " I should be the one to die ; 
 moreover, to lay down one's life in the service of 
 the Master is the greatest glory that is vouch- 
 safed to man ; I gladly receive the sentence, that 
 my son may live." 
 
 He was taken away and put to death and his 
 body was given to his son, who had it placed in 
 a coffin and carried back to his natiye town for 
 burial. The people, however, refused to allow 
 it to enter the village, and the Boxers came 
 once more, took it away, and burned it in the 
 coffin. 
 
 His wife and son are left without any means 
 of support other than that which is usually the 
 heritage of a Methodist preacher. Here is an 
 excellent opportunity for someone or some 
 
174 CHINESE HEROES 
 
 League to establish a perpetual scholarship in 
 his memory for the education of his son. 
 Not less enthusiastic as a disciple was 
 
 LIU TUNG 
 
 From his youth he was a lover of learning, and 
 when the Gospel was brought to his attention 
 he not only accepted it but spent a large portion 
 of his time searching the Scriptures that he 
 might under no circumstances be without a 
 reason for the faith which he professed. His 
 whole family became Christians as a result of 
 his exhortations ; he was made a local preacher 
 and spent a large portion of his time in 
 efforts to spread the Gospel without any assist- 
 ance from the church, as his family was well- 
 to-do. 
 
 When the Boxer troubles were disturbing the 
 country the people belonging to his own village 
 took him prisoner, bound him and hung him to a 
 tree, where after a night of suffering he died, 
 committing himself to the hands of God, with 
 prayers for his enemies upon his lips. 
 
 His wife returned to the home of her parents. 
 After a few months she gave birth to a son, so 
 that he is not left without an heir. Her parents 
 urged her to give up her belief in the God of 
 her husband, but her reply was : 
 
 " No ! Though they have killed my husband 
 I shall behold him again in the presence of the 
 Father. If I forsake God I am without hope of 
 
MARTYRS 175 
 
 ever seeing him again. No ! you may kill me, 
 but I will never recant." 
 
 The same tree on which Liu Tung was hung 
 bore other martyr fruit in the person of 
 
 LIU SHEN 
 
 Originally he was a Chinese doctor and was 
 the first to accept Christianity at Ch'ien An, 
 and it was due to his devotion and enthusiasm 
 that many of the villagers and farmers were bap- 
 tized and entered the Church. He was made a 
 local preacher and knew no weariness in his 
 work for Christ. He was indifferent to revil- 
 ing and always answered it with exhortations. 
 Many of those who were not believers respected 
 him because of his patience, though there were 
 others who, either because of their own evil na- 
 ture or because they misunderstood his motives, 
 ceased not to persecute him, and so he was taken 
 and hanged, on the same tree with Liu Tung. 
 
 Many of the onlookers were his neighbors 
 and of his own village and expressed their dis- 
 approval by reviling the Boxers. He besought 
 them not to revile, saying, 
 
 " If the Lord has brought this punishment upon 
 me because I have been unfaithful in teaching 
 the Gospel of the Lord Jesus, why should you 
 revile 7 " 
 
 He was taken from the tree by the Boxers 
 and led to a temple some. forty li away, there to 
 be put to death. All the way he exhorted his 
 
176 CHINESE HEROES 
 
 captors, but they would not listen, and when 
 they reached the temple, and the Boxers tried to 
 induce him to sacrifice to their gods of clay, he 
 answered, 
 
 " Nay ; do not put me to shame, put me to 
 death at once." 
 
 Not less enthusiastic as a Christian was the 
 chapel keeper, 
 
 LIU MING-CH'IN 
 
 He was originally a druggist by profession, 
 but was so impressed with the doctrines of the 
 Christian religion that he at once put away his 
 false gods and joined the church. His interest 
 in church work soon led the missionary in charge 
 to employ him as a chapel keeper and the love 
 of the church members was a constant testimony 
 to the wisdom of his choice. 
 
 He was taken by the Boxers and led to the 
 temple of Yii Huang, their headquarters, where 
 he was bound to a stake. All the way to the 
 temple and after he was bound he continued to 
 exhort them, when, angered by his exhortations, 
 or condemned by their own consciences, one 
 slapped him in the face. Still he ceased not, 
 until a brute exclaiming, " You still preach, do 
 you ?"sHt his mouth from ear to ear. Even this 
 did not silence him, and they finally cut out his 
 tongue, smoked him with incense, and cut off 
 his hands and feet. Even while he was dying, 
 we are told, his face wore a look of happiness 
 and peace, so much so as to cause the Boxers 
 
MARTYRS 177 
 
 to wonder and remark, and their only way of 
 accounting for it was, 
 
 " He has eaten the medicine of the foreigner 
 until he does not fear to die." 
 
 Among those of humbler station we may 
 
 mention 
 
 YANG T'AI 
 
 He was a farmer. He was deeply impressed 
 by his first knowledge of the Gospel, though his 
 people were bitterly opposed to his joining the 
 church and put every possible obstruction in his 
 way. He would steal out at night and meet 
 with the other Christians, when together they 
 would pray that a way might be opened for him 
 to enter the Church. Their prayers were finally 
 answered in the conversion of his entire family, 
 who not only favored his becoming a Christian 
 but joined the church with him. 
 
 Before the Boxers came to his village he went 
 to them, saying, 
 
 " It was through my influence that my family 
 became connected with the church, now I beg of 
 you that they all may be saved and I will lay 
 down my life with pleasure." 
 
 After extorting a large amount of money 
 from the family they put him to death, but let 
 the rest go free. 
 
 As with the early Christians, the perse- 
 cutions were confined to no one class or con- 
 dition. 
 
 12 
 
178 CHINESE HEROES 
 
 CHOU WAN-CH'UAN 
 
 was a small merchant. His whole family being 
 Christians they were all together made prisoners. 
 The wife of his fourth son, who was at this time 
 twenty-four years old, had been for some time in 
 the women's training school, and when she saw 
 the whole family in the hands of their enemies 
 she insisted on following them. 
 
 " You will be killed if you go," said the vil- 
 lagers. 
 
 " And why should I live if my husband and all 
 my family are put to death .?" she asked ; and so 
 followed her people. 
 
 When they came to the Boxer headquarters, 
 her husband, seeing the fidelity of his wife, and 
 being acquainted with some of the Boxer lead- 
 ers, induced them to liberate him. 
 
 Having secured his own liberty he then sought 
 to secure the release of the rest of the family. 
 He requested that they would allow him to die 
 in the place of his mother. This they refused, 
 but allowed his mother to commit suicide in her 
 own home rather than be beheaded in the pres- 
 ence of this motley mob of human butchers. 
 The rest of the family were all put to death. 
 
 Many of these Chinese Christians exhibited a 
 bravery in the presence of their enemies, a bold- 
 ness in the fear of the Lord and an indifference 
 to death worthy of their old Jewish, Roman or 
 English predecessors. Among these was 
 
MARTYRS 179 
 
 LIU PI 
 
 a druggist, whose life had been so changed by 
 his conversion that he was recognized by all 
 who knew him as a true believer in the Chris- 
 tian's God. 
 
 He was taken prisoner by the Boxers, bound, 
 and they were about to throw him in the fire to 
 burn him to death. 
 
 " Why do you bind me } " he asked, " it is easy 
 to die for the Lord," and with this he jumped 
 into the flames, to the astonishment of the 
 crowd, and thus perished. 
 
 We cannot but fear that our Chinese Church 
 is human to the extent of having in it those 
 who, like some in the early Church, so far forgot 
 the prayer of their Lord as to seek the uncertain 
 glory of a martyr's crown or a martyr's grave, 
 for we are told of one 
 
 WANG HSI 
 
 who in his native village as well as the sur- 
 rounding country had the reputation of possess- 
 ing such strength that ten men could not hold 
 him. When the troubles arose a local preacher 
 named T'ang Chen-pang, in charge of the church 
 in a neighboring village, was taken prisoner on 
 the charge of poisoning the wells, the common 
 accusation in all cases where they could trump 
 up no other charge against the party. The 
 Boxers were so numerous that none of the 
 Christians dared enter the city. Under these 
 
180 CHINESE HEROES 
 
 circumstances Wang Hsi entered alone for the 
 purpose of finding some one who would go se- 
 curity for the imprisoned preacher. The latter, 
 on account of his courageous defense of himself 
 before the magistrate, was liberated, while the 
 former allowed himself to be arrested by two 
 Boxer children, whom he could easily have cast 
 aside, and without being bound he put his hands 
 behind him and "willingly went to his death." 
 While there may be something about this case 
 of which we have no knowledge it was the evi- 
 dent belief of our informant that it was an heroic 
 deed ; a thing which we would not encourage in 
 the present stage of the Church in China. 
 The Boxers made strenuous efforts to induce 
 
 HOU WANG 
 a farmer, to deny the faith. 
 
 "If you will give up your religion," they said, 
 " and promise henceforth not to worship the 
 Lord Jesus, we will liberate you." 
 
 " I have believed in the Lord these many 
 years," replied Hou Wang, "and he knows 
 I believe in him. Can I now say I do not be- 
 lieve in him .? You can deceive men but you 
 cannot deceive God. No ! I will not deny him." 
 
 Of like character was 
 
 CHIA FU-SHAN 
 
 originally a carpenter, but at the time of his 
 death the keeper of a small shop for the sale of 
 
MARTYRS 181 
 
 water pails. He was one of those ardent Chris- 
 tians who was never absent from his place of 
 worship. He and his wife were taken and 
 bound. As they were being led out of the city 
 to their execution the bystanders laughed at and 
 made sport of them. He called out, so that all 
 could hear, 
 
 " We, because of our belief in the Lord Jesus, 
 go bound to our death, which is to us an honor ; 
 when you come to die I fear that your lot will 
 be much more pitiable than ours. Do you then 
 dare scoff at us .? " 
 
 They bent their heads to the swords of their 
 murderers without fear, leaving but one child, a 
 little girl, to mourn the loss of her parents. 
 
 Not less pathetic is the story of 
 
 MRS. WU 
 
 and her family. She had been in the training 
 school in Tientsin for several terms, and was 
 thus well prepared for the work in which she was 
 engaged, that of a Bible woman in the employ 
 of the Woman's Foreign Missionary Society. 
 When the Boxer movement arose, and her life 
 seemed to be threatened in Tai Ch'eng, the 
 place to which she had been sent, she returned 
 to her home. Here she was in equal danger. 
 She was known to be an enthusiastic Christian 
 and was one of the first to be captured. She 
 was taken to a temple where she was bound to 
 a pillar and beaten across the breast, but never 
 
182 CHINESE HEROES 
 
 uttered a cry. As she refused to sacrifice to 
 the idols a bunch of lighted incense was held 
 to her face till the flesh was burned off. The 
 Boxers were greatly opposed to the women 
 unbinding their feet ; and as she had done so 
 they first cut off her feet and hands and hung 
 them on a tree, and as she still continued to 
 praise the Lord it so angered them that 
 they beheaded her and then hacked her body 
 to pieces. 
 
 One of her sons, together with his wife, was 
 also killed. Two other sons and her husband 
 were first taken to the official's, where they 
 were beaten and then put into a cage. The 
 father died of starvation and the wounds he had 
 received, but the sons were afterwards liberated 
 and thus escaped death. 
 
 In this same village was a farmer named 
 
 WANG TE-WEN 
 
 who, notwithstanding he was recognized as one 
 of the most patient men of the town, was con- 
 stantly persecuted by certain worthless vaga- 
 bonds because of his faith, and at this time 
 they brought him before the official. The latter, 
 finding nothing for which he could condemn 
 him, returned him to the villagers. No one was 
 willing to kill him and yet his enemies were not 
 willing to set him free. On the suggestion of a 
 scoundrel it was decided to bury him alive. 
 After they had dug the grave he threw himself 
 
MARTYRS 183 
 
 into the hole, to show that he was not afraid to 
 die, and thus they buried him. 
 
 His property was all taken from him and his 
 wife and little son are left in a destitute condition. 
 
 As a testimony to the good character of 
 
 LIU SHU-FAN 
 the people of his native place came in a crowd 
 to the head Boxer, before whom he had been 
 brought, and requested that he be liberated, 
 offering themselves to go security for his good 
 conduct. The Boxer leader refused to grant 
 their request, but offered t& set his father, 
 mother and wife at liberty instead. But they, 
 fearing that the people would think that by thus 
 accepting life they had renounced their faith, re- 
 fused to be liberated, preferring rather to suffer 
 with their son. When they were being exe- 
 cuted the people wept bitterly, their wailing being 
 heard for many li. 
 
 A clay-stove maker, by the name of 
 
 CHIANG JUI-CH'UN 
 and his wife were accused of being " rubbers of 
 red and buriers of medicine," and also of being 
 " able to ride on the clouds and the fog," and for 
 this reason they were burned at the stake. 
 A restaurant keeper named 
 
 WANG CH'ING-WEN 
 because of his enthusiasm in his efforts to spread 
 the knowledge of Christ was treated with scorn 
 
184. CHINESE HEROES 
 
 and reviling by the Boxers, who as they hacked 
 him to pieces said : " You say that hereafter you 
 will ascend to heaven. We will send your fin- 
 gers and toes there first, and after that your 
 hands and feet, and see how you can stand 
 pain." But in spite of their reviling and of the 
 pain occasioned by their cruelty he neither lost 
 his peace with God nor his patience with his 
 persecutors. 
 
 A man by the name of 
 
 TS'AO YUNG-FU 
 
 who kept a leather shop in a village near the 
 city, his wife, sons and daughters were all 
 taken prisoners and carried outside the East 
 gate of the city. They were first shot with shot 
 guns ; their clothing was then removed and 
 wounds were made in their chests; some had 
 their ears, noses or lips cut off; others were cut 
 into eight or more pieces, and all were left for 
 dead. During the night his wife became con- 
 scious, and though wounded in many places 
 both with shot and knife, she crept to the home 
 of relatives, where, though she will remain a 
 lifelong cripple, she was saved. Her third and 
 fourth sons were also saved, but her husband, 
 with four sons and two daughters, perished. 
 Though she has suffered so much she still 
 teaches her two sons to trust the Lord ; the 
 oldest of them she sends to a Christian 
 school. 
 
MARTYRS 185 
 
 JEN PANG-HSIANG 
 was a brilliant child and a good scholar; but, his 
 mother dying in his youth, he was left without 
 proper care and grew up an unfilial boy. At 
 nineteen he was married, but neither himself 
 nor his wife was obedient to their parents. On 
 hearing the Gospel he was converted, and his 
 life was so changed as to lead his father, who 
 was a Hsiu Ts'ai, or literary graduate, to study 
 the Bible, to see if he could discover the cause 
 of this remarkable change in the character and 
 conduct of his son, and in this way the father 
 was himself converted. 
 
 The young man was taken prisoner and the 
 neighbors urged him to burn incense to their 
 idols, but this he steadfastly refused to do and 
 joyfully went to the stake. His faithfulness 
 only served to strengthen the faith of his father, 
 who became more ardent than ever in the serv- 
 ice of the Lord, and as a consequence he also 
 was made a prisoner. But as most of the vil- 
 lagers had been his pupils, and as scholars are 
 too rare in China to be promiscuously beheaded 
 by an ignorant mob of superstitious ruffians, 
 they came out en masse and insisted on his lib- 
 eration, which the Boxers were reluctantly com- 
 pelled to grant. 
 
186 CHINESE HEROES 
 
 CHENG TEN-FANG: THE MESSENGER'S 
 STORY 
 
 On the 3rd of the 6th month I was requested 
 to go to Tientsin as a messenger for those who 
 were besieged in Peking. I was in Su Wang 
 Fu at the time, and was first taken to see the 
 chairman of the General Committee, who said 
 to me : 
 
 " Are y.ou, of your own free will, ready to go 
 to Tientsin to take a letter?" 
 
 " Yes ; I will go gladly," I answered. 
 
 "You understand that there is great danger of 
 your being killed," he continued. 
 
 "Yes, I understand." 
 
 " I will not take any responsibility. The risk 
 all rests with you." 
 
 " I will take the risk." 
 
 " If you bring us a letter back we will give 
 you a thousand taels." * 
 
 " I do not go for money," I answered. " This 
 is a piece of business money could not hire me 
 to perform. It is an important matter and I 
 will go as a service to the besieged, but not for 
 money. Whether I ever return or not is in the 
 hands of the Lord." 
 
 " Bravo ! " he replied. "You are a true Chris- 
 
 • One thousand ounces of silver. 
 
THE MESSENGER'S STORY 
 
 187 
 
 tian. To-morrow you will start, and may the 
 Lord go with you ! " 
 
 I returned to my duties, and while the rain, 
 thunder and lightning were keeping time to the 
 shots of the Chinese soldiers and the howling of 
 
 Cheng Tien-fang 
 
 The successful messenger to Tientsin, He received $i,ooo for his service, one half 
 of which he gave to found a scholarship in Peking University. 
 
 the Boxers without I knelt and prayed that the 
 Lord would go with me to Tientsin. As I prayed 
 I wept — praying and weeping again and again — 
 and finally, with my head resting on my arms 
 on the table, I fell asleep. When I awoke and 
 
188 CHINESE HEROES 
 
 explained to my wife what I was about to do I 
 found that she was bitterly opposed to my going. 
 She wept, and begged me not to go, asking 
 what would become of her if I were killed. But 
 when I explained to her that I felt it was a duty 
 I owed the Lord, and that perhaps the lives of 
 all these people depended upon me, she sub- 
 mitted, promising to pray for me every day, 
 which she was faithful to do, and her first greet- 
 ing when I returned was, " My prayers are an- 
 swered and you are safe ! " 
 
 The following day I went to see the professor 
 of Japanese in the Imperial College (Tung Wen 
 Kuan) and the Minister, to get the letter which 
 they were to write. This I sewed in the heel of 
 my shoe and started upon my journey. 
 
 I had hardly left the defenses when a bullet 
 whistled close to my head. I ran a few steps, 
 being rather frightened. Just then I saw a num- 
 ber of people going along the street carrying 
 bundles of things they had looted from burning 
 buildings, and I mingled with the crowd, going 
 north past the Temple of Imperial Ancestors, 
 where the decaying bodies of the dead, piled one 
 upon the other, were so offensive as to compel 
 me to hold my nose. 
 
 When I arrived at the Tan P'ai-lo, the arch 
 where Von Ketteler was murdered, the stores 
 were all closed and sealed and but few persons 
 were abroad upon the street. I went past the 
 Kuan Yin temple to the East gate of the city, 
 
THE MESSENGER'S STORY 189 
 
 the two sides of all the streets being lined with 
 tents and soldiers. The gate enclosure was filled 
 with Boxers ; but as I went out with the crowd 
 no one interfered and I was greatly comforted, 
 and prayed that the Lord would go with me all 
 the way. 
 
 I arrived at Tung Chou in the evening and 
 entered a boat. Both sides of the river were 
 lined with Boxers practicing their arts. The 
 conversation of the boatmen was vile, and seemed 
 like arrows entering my heart, and once more I 
 prayed. I was worn out, and leaning against 
 the side of the boat I slept. 
 
 The boatmen would not start, the Boxers 
 were constantly coming on the boat to find 
 Christians and their talk frightened me, but the 
 Lord was with me and no one discovered my 
 errand. On the 6th we started and after three 
 days and nights arrived at the red bridge at 
 Tientsin and I continued to pray. On the east 
 bank there were innumerable Chinese soldiers 
 and so I could not go over there. I returned to 
 the Pei Fu bridge, where I went to a small inn. 
 The innkeeper did not want to admit me but I 
 begged so earnestly that he finally allowed me 
 to stop. 
 
 On the loth I went to the South gate, but 
 this was so strictly guarded by Chinese soldiers 
 that I could do nothing, and I returned to the 
 bridge and stayed all night. 
 
 At daylight I went to the West gate, think- 
 
190 CHINESE HEROES 
 
 ing I could get out and go to the French 
 Settlement, but this again was guarded by 
 Chinese soldiers, both outside and in, so I could 
 not get through. I once more prayed,, thinking 
 to go round by Yang Lu Ch'ing, forty li by the 
 river, and thus make my way. When I got on 
 the boat a man told me that the day before he 
 had gone to the Foreign Settlement but was 
 beaten and could not get in, and I asked care- 
 lessly but particularly where the foreign soldiers 
 were and where one could most likely get in. 
 He said that both at the ticket office and farther 
 north on the l"ailroad there were numerous for- 
 eign soldiers. All of this I remembered with- 
 out seeming to be interested. 
 
 At dark I arrived at Yang Lu Ch'ing, where 
 the innkeeper refused to receive me, as had been 
 done at other places, saying that the Boxers 
 were hunting for Christians and would burn the 
 inn if they found one there. I implored him as 
 I had done the others, and as night was rapidly 
 coming on he allowed me to remain. The next 
 day was Sunday. I prayed all day in the inn, 
 and with much care tried to find how I migrht 
 be able to get to the Foreign Settlement, but I 
 could secure no information and soon the 13th 
 returned to Tientsin, stopping at the Yu Lung 
 inn, the proprietor being a native of my village. 
 
 On the 14th I went to Ch'en Chia Kou, but 
 found the place carefully guarded by Chinese 
 soldiers and again returned to the inn. That 
 
THE MESSENGER'S STORY: 191 
 
 night as I lay on my brick bed I prayed that the 
 Lord would help me to get to Tientsin. The 
 following day I again went to Ch'en Chia Kou, 
 where the Chinese and foreigners were fighting, 
 the former being slain in great numbers and, piled 
 one on top of the other, were being devoured by 
 vultures and dogs, and as the firing continued I 
 returned to the inn. Once more I prayed, and 
 at daylight of the i6th I went to Ch'en Chia Kou. 
 I walked to and fro till noon, but as the Chinese 
 were on every hand I could not get in. The 
 day was very hot and at noon the soldiers went 
 into their tents to rest. Taking advantage of 
 this opportunity I hurried to the railway, where 
 the foreign soldiers were on guard. They shot 
 at me twice, but the Lord was round about Yne 
 and their bullets went astray. As I waved a 
 white handkerchief they knew I was not a Boxer 
 and they allowed me to enter. 
 
 After inquiring where I came from they sent 
 me to the Japanese consul. He brought out a 
 Japanese map of Peking-Tientsin on which I 
 pointed out to him the whole situation, telling 
 him where there were men, where none, where 
 many, where few ; all which he wrote down, say- 
 ing that if I had not come they would not have 
 understood the situation in Peking and would 
 not have dared to do anything. He then took 
 the letters and went to see the commanders of 
 the Allied Forces. 
 
 On the 1 8th they effected an entrance to the 
 
192 CHINESE HEROES 
 
 native city of Tientsin at the sacrifice of a great 
 many, both soldiers and citizens. A large num- 
 ber of Boxers were killed and the remainder ran 
 away. On every door a white flag was placed, 
 and that night the people rested in peace. 
 
 On the 19th the Japanese consul wrote a let- 
 ter and gave it to me to carry back to Peking, 
 asking me to go as quickly as possible and offer- 
 ing me $200 in money. 
 
 " I do not want the money," I said. " I came 
 as a duty, and not for the purpose of making 
 money." 
 
 " What ! not want money ? " he inquired with 
 surprise. 
 
 " I will take enough to pay my expenses, if 
 you please," I replied. 
 
 He gave me $10. I sewed the letter between 
 the lining and the outside of my shoe and left 
 the city by the East gate through the Russian 
 district. The Russian soldiers arrested me, and 
 as they would not allow me to proceed I was 
 forced to return to the consul. The following 
 day he sent soldiers with me to the Yu Lung 
 Tien. All ray clothes were stolen from me and I 
 was forced by the Japanese soldiers to return to 
 the consul. I met him at the river, and when I 
 told him all about it he sent others who con- 
 ducted me to Pei Tsang. They had hardly left 
 me when I met and was arrested by Chinese 
 soldiers, who sought to find out whether I was a 
 traitor, fearing, as they said, that I was a mes- 
 
THE MESSENGER'S STORY 193 
 
 senger for the foreigners. I meekly submitted, 
 as there was nothing else to do, and they 
 searched all my clothes except my shoes, thanks 
 to the protection of a good Providence. 
 
 That evening I arrived at Yang Ts'un and 
 slept on a boat, but I was very hungry, having 
 had nothing to eat all day. The next day I 
 went as far as Ho Hsi Wu, where the Boxers 
 had just killed three men. 
 
 " Where did they come from ?" I inquired. 
 
 " From Tientsin," they answered. 
 
 " Why did they kill them ? " 
 
 " They asked the men how matters stood in 
 Tientsin and they said the Chinese had been de- 
 feated. This led the Boxers to suppose that 
 they were ' devils of the second class ' and they 
 killed them." 
 
 " How did they kill them ? " 
 
 " They led them to the altar to burn incense 
 which, when they burned it, sent up a dark 
 smoke." 
 
 When I heard this I was greatly frightened, 
 and leaving as hurriedly as was possible, without 
 arousing suspicion, I arrived at Tung Chou the 
 following evening. 
 
 The Boxers here were as numerous as before 
 but not so violent. When I arrived at the Ch'i 
 Hua-men I had my head shaved and got some- 
 thing to eat, after which I entered the city. The 
 gate enclosure was still held by the Boxers, and 
 along the streets all the stores were closed and 
 
 13 
 
194 CHINESE HEROES 
 
 the people presented a frightened appearance. 
 I passed the Tan P'ai-lo and went up the T'ai 
 Chu Ch'ang, where the Chinese soldiers with 
 Imperial edicts in one hand and swords in the 
 other prevented the people from going to Lega- 
 tion Street. 
 
 As it was impossible to go further I walked 
 back and forth, when suddenly I saw a crowd of 
 people going through the Customs place carry- 
 ing fruit to the Legation. I joined the crowd 
 and went with it to the East gate of Su Wang 
 Fu where I saw the Japanese soldiers and told 
 them I was the messenger returning from Tient- 
 sin with a message from their consul. 
 
 They bade me come in and I gave them the 
 letters I had brought. A meeting of the Minis- 
 ters of all the countries was called and the let- 
 ters were read which told them that on the 24th 
 the Allies would start to Peking. There were 
 24,000 Japanese, 2,000 English, 4,000 Russians, 
 1 ,500 Americans, i ,500 French, 300 Germans, with 
 others soon to follow. The Ministers all wanted 
 to see and shake hands with me, saying very 
 many kind and comforting things, and inquiring 
 about my adventures by the way, treating me with 
 great respect. That night there was much sing- 
 ing and every one was happy praising the Lord. 
 
 Such is the account of my experiences while 
 going in the name and under the protection of 
 the Lord, from Peking to Tientsin and return, 
 as a Messenger for the Besieged. 
 
YAO CHEN-YUAN 195 
 
 THE ADVENTURES OF YAO CHEN-YUAN 
 
 ONE OF THE FOUR SUCCESSFUL MESSENGERS TO AND FROM 
 TIENTSIN 
 
 When the letters of the various Ministers had 
 been committed to my care I returned to Su 
 Wang Fu saying to myself, " How shall I ever 
 be able to take these letters to Tientsin ? " 
 
 I breathed a simple prayer to God to " Give 
 me some method by which I might reach my 
 destination in safety." 
 
 The words had scarcely left my lips when I 
 noticed on the wall a large straw hat, such as is 
 commonly used by coolies in the summer time, 
 and as it was composed of two layers of straw I 
 wet it, ripped it apart and concealed my letters 
 between the two sections, after which I carefully 
 sewed it together as before, with the prayer 
 upon my lips, " Lord, when do you wish me to 
 start?" 
 
 When I left the Legation I crossed the bridge 
 and climbed over a wall of barricades into Su 
 Wang Fu, where two Japanese soldiers said to 
 me, 
 
 " What are you doing here? " 
 
 " r am goLag to Tientsin with letters," I re- 
 plied. 
 
 " What is your name? " inquired one of them. 
 
196 
 
 CHINESE HEROES 
 
 When I told him he said, in a kind but warn- 
 ing tone, 
 
 " You must be careful or you will be killed 
 before you are well started on your way." 
 
 He took me to a small lane at the outskirts of 
 
 Yao CKen-yuan 
 
 the barricades where he left me to go on alone, 
 but I had not gone far when I discovered that a 
 Boxer watchman was stationed at the other end 
 of the street and my heart almost stood still. I 
 had gone too far, however, to turn back, so I put 
 on a bold front, prayed the Lord for guidance 
 and walked boldly onward. 
 
YAO CHEN-YUAN 197 
 
 " Give me ten cents and I will let you pass," 
 was all he said, the which I was quite ready to 
 do. 
 
 My way through the East gate was without 
 incident ; but when half way to Tung Chou I 
 overtook some three hundred of Tung Fu- 
 hsiang's soldiers to whom I joined myself and 
 continued on my way. The canal had overflowed 
 its banks at the Eight Li bridge and at their 
 suggestion we had our dinner, for which they 
 paid, after which one of them offered to swim 
 across with me on his back, which kindness I was 
 glad to accept as I saw no other way of getting 
 to the opposite side. I continued with the sol- 
 diers, stopping with them that night at a Mo- 
 hammedan inn the proprietor of which was very 
 kind to me. He refused to accept payment for 
 my entertainment and asked me to take vows of 
 friendship before I left. 
 
 During the night a crowd passed by led by a 
 woman Boxer — a member of the Society of the 
 Red Lantern — who asked me my name, my busi- 
 ness, and where I was going. As I seemed to 
 Satisfy them with my answer they went about 
 their business, which was the destruction of a 
 Catholic village and the murder of the Chris- 
 tians. 
 
 The next morning I continued on my way, 
 being early joined by a Boxer who invited me 
 to dine with him, after which we separated. 
 
 That night I heard the keeper of the inn at 
 
198 CHINESE HEROES 
 
 which I stopped say to a Boxer, " We have no 
 Christians here," and I spent the night in peace. 
 The following day a child warned me not to 
 go through a certain village, saying that the 
 Boxers were taking every one they suspected, 
 and I saw the fire kindled at which they burned 
 twenty Christians, while I at the same time 
 thanked the Lord for putting it into the mind of 
 a child to warn me, and thus save me, and per- 
 haps the people of the Legation, from a like 
 horrible fate. 
 
 The country was flooded. I was compelled 
 to wade through water the depth of which I 
 knew nothing about and I was wet and dis- 
 couraged. I had just emerged from the water 
 when a man with a gun on his shoulder called 
 out to me in a loud voice, 
 
 '' Where are you going ? " 
 
 " I am going to Tientsin," !■ answered. 
 
 " What for .? " 
 
 " To find the head of a flower establishment 
 in which I was employed before this trouble 
 broke out." 
 
 The readiness of my answer seemed to satisfy 
 him and he allowed me to continue on my way. 
 [It ought to be said in Mr. Yao's defense that 
 he had been connected with such a business, the 
 head of which lived in Tientsin, so that his an- 
 swer was not wholly fiction.] 
 
 At the next village a shoemaker informed me 
 that the road was dangerous, being crowded 
 
YAO CHEN-YUAN 199 
 
 with Chinese troops ; a thing which I soon found 
 to be true by being made prisoner and having 
 my money all taken from me. My money being 
 all they wanted the soldiers at once set me free, 
 and I in turn complained to the officer that I 
 had been robbed by his troops. 
 
 " Wait," said he, " until I see who did it." 
 
 " No, no," said I, " do not let me trouble you 
 to that extent ; the day is far spent and I would 
 like to spend the night in your camp." 
 
 " With pleasure," said he. So I spent the night 
 in the protection of my enemies. 
 
 " Please search me," said I in the morning, " to 
 see that I have taken nothing, and I will pro- 
 ceed on my way." 
 
 He returned my money, warning me not to 
 go on the Great Road lest I fall into the hands 
 of the foreign troops and suffer at their hands. 
 
 " I understand," said I, with a meaning which 
 he did not comprehend, and I left. 
 
 When I came to the river I noticed a boat- 
 man and accosted him as follows: 
 
 " Will you take me to the red bridge in Tient- 
 sin ?" 
 
 " We do not dare to go as far as the red bridge," 
 he answered ; " the Japanese soldiers are there 
 and they will shoot us." 
 
 "You need not be afraid," said I, " I can pro- 
 tect you from the Japanese soldiers." 
 
 On hearing this he readily consented, but he 
 put me off some distance from the bridge. 
 
200 CHINESE HEROES 
 
 I saw the soldiers in the distance, but waved 
 my handkerchief as a token that I was a mes- 
 senger, and thus encountered no danger. 
 
 They escorted me to the Foreign Settle- 
 ment and then left me to go alone, but the 
 Russians refused to allow me to pass and I was 
 compelled to return to the red bridge. I took 
 one of the letters out of the hat and showed 
 it to three Japanese officers who happened to 
 be passing. 
 
 " Where do you come from ?" they asked. 
 
 " From Peking." 
 
 " Were you not afraid of the Boxers 7 " 
 
 " No." 
 
 " You are a good man ; wait till I give you a 
 pass. 
 
 While he was writing, it began to rain, and 
 they took me to their headquarters, where I saw 
 a higher official, dined with him, and related all 
 my adventures by the way, as well as the con- 
 dition of affairs in Peking ; all of which he wrote 
 down, and then sent four of his soldiers to ac- 
 company me to the British and American con • 
 sulates. When I saw the American consul I 
 burst into tears and told him of all that the 
 people in Peking were suffering ; how the Boxers 
 were firing on them from all sides arid trying to 
 burn them out; how each man was limited to a 
 small cup of grain a day while at the same time 
 they were compelled to labor like coolies, under 
 a burning sun, in employments to which they 
 
YAO CHEN-YUAN 201 
 
 were not accustomed, and I urged him to send 
 soldiers at once to relieve them. 
 
 He sent a man to take me to my room and I 
 found among the servants one of my old ac- 
 quaintances, with whom I spent a pleasant even- 
 ing, and then had a good night's rest. The 
 following day I went to the Methodist mission, 
 where I met those who had passed through a 
 siege similar to the one I had left. When Dr. 
 Benn saw how sore my feet were she washed 
 and bandaged them with her own hands. 
 
 After a rest of two days I secured the letters 
 of the various consuls, together with others from 
 friends of some of the besieged, and started on 
 my return journey, depending upon the Lord for 
 his protection. I had not gone a mile from the 
 city when I was arrested by two foreign soldiers, 
 robbed of all my money and taken to the tent 
 of their officer, who when he saw my pass rec- 
 ognized it as that of a messenger from Peking 
 and restored both my money and my liberty. 
 Two miles from the city I came to a stream I 
 was unable to cross, and found myself compelled 
 to return and leave by way of the North gate of 
 the city. 
 
 Seven miles from the city I fell into a nest of 
 Boxers, the head of whom asked me, 
 
 " Where have you been .'' " 
 
 " To Tientsin," I replied. 
 
 " What for ? " 
 
 " To see the head of the flower establishment 
 
202 CHINESE HEROES 
 
 with which I was connected before this trouble 
 broke out," I answered. 
 
 " How old is he?" 
 
 "Seventy-six years," I replied without hesi- 
 tation. 
 
 He said no more, and I asked if I could dine 
 with them. 
 
 After dinner I said to the head Boxer, 
 
 " I wish to go to Peking ; can you tell me the 
 safest route for me to take ? " 
 
 He told me, and after wishing him good-bye 
 I left, taking the direction he suggested. The 
 following day, when passing a melon patch 
 watched by Boxers, I walked up to them and 
 asked them to give me a melon, thinking that 
 they would be less likely to disturb me if I first 
 addressed them. 
 
 " Where are you going ? " they asked. 
 
 " To Peking," I answered ; " can you tell me 
 which road it would be safest for me to take ? " 
 
 They told me and, as in the former case, I fol- 
 lowed their direction, reaching the city without 
 further adventure other than that of avoiding 
 several crowds of Boxers and Chinese soldiers. 
 
 Outside the East gate I ate two bowls of vermi- 
 celli, while I watched the soldiers and Boxers on 
 top of the city wall. I went west to the Ssu 
 P'ai Lou, thence south to the Tan P'ai Lou, 
 where I turned west toward the British Le- 
 gation. 
 
 All the way through the city I was compelled 
 
YAO CHEN-YUAN 203 
 
 to saunter slowly, as though I were merely look- 
 ing about and not going anywhere, so that it 
 took me from noon till evening to go from the 
 East gate to the Legation. The soldiers in the 
 lines between the Chinese and foreign quarters 
 were gambling as I passed and paid no attention 
 to me. In the Austrian Legation grounds I 
 noticed a Chinese soldier digging as though for 
 treasure. Walking up to him 1 addressed him 
 thus : 
 
 " Hello! Captain, what are you doing .?" 
 
 " What are you doing here .? " said he, staring 
 at me and speaking in a loud voice. 
 
 " Please do not speak so loud," said I in an 
 undertone, as though to enter into a secret 
 alliance with him, " I was originally a coolie in 
 this place. My home is in the country and I 
 have just been to see if my family were killed, 
 and finding them safe I have returned to get 
 some treasure I have in the Su Wang Fu." 
 
 " How much have you.?" he inquired. 
 
 " About one thousand dollars." 
 
 " What is your name .?" he inquired further. 
 
 " Yao Chen-yuan. What is your honorable 
 name 1 " 
 
 " Wu Lien-t'ai," he replied ; " now you go and get 
 your silver and we two will open an opium shop." 
 
 " Very well," I replied. 
 
 " Have you any silver with you ?" he asked. 
 
 " Only about four or five ounces." 
 
 " Well, you give that to me. Not that I want 
 
204 CHINESE HEROES 
 
 the silver, but it will cement our friendship and 
 I will return it to you when you come back." 
 
 " Very well," said I, giving him what silver 
 I had. 
 
 While we were talking an officer with forty or 
 fifty soldiers came up and wanted to have me 
 killed. 
 
 " Do not kill him," said the soldier to whom I 
 had been talking ; " he is an old friend of mine 
 from the country, here to make money out of 
 the foreigners." 
 
 " If he is a friend of yours, what is his 
 name ? " 
 
 "Yao Chen-yuan," he replied. 
 
 " What is this soldier's name } " asked the 
 officer, turning to me. 
 
 " Wu Lien-t'ai," I answered, without hesita- 
 tion. 
 
 " Quite right," he said, and passed on to the 
 Great street. 
 
 Just then a crowd of Boxers came up, and the 
 leader asked : 
 
 " What is this fellow doing here.?" 
 
 " Do not meddle with my affairs," said the 
 soldier, " he is my friend," and with this they 
 passed on, leaving us alone 
 
 " Now you go into Su Wang Fu," said the 
 soldier, " and get your money ; and if you can- 
 not come out to-morrow stand behind the wall 
 and hold your hand aloft that I may know you 
 are safe." 
 
YAO CHEN-YUAN 205 
 
 " Very well," I replied, " but how am I to 
 get in ? " 
 
 " I will take you to the end of that alley, where 
 you will be safe," he said, at which place I bade 
 him good afternoon. In a few moments the 
 Japanese soldiers, who had observed and recog- 
 nized me, pulled me up over the wall and I was 
 once more safe. 
 
 I was at once taken to the officer and met Mr. 
 Squiers, to whom I delivered the letters. When 
 he saw me ripping open the hat and taking them 
 out, one after another, until I had given him 
 eleven, he could not refrain from laughing. 
 
 He took me with him to the American Lega- 
 tion, where as we entered he held aloft the let- 
 ters. The people clapped their hands and 
 cheered and many of them wanted to talk with 
 me, but I was led out through the Russian into 
 the British Legation. Here I met Mr. King, who 
 after a short conversation asked me for my hat. 
 
 " It is all ripped apart," I replied. 
 
 " I can sew it together again," he answered. 
 
 " What do you want to do with it ? " I inquired. 
 
 " Take it back to America as a relic of your 
 trip," said he. 
 
 While we were talking someone came to say 
 that Lady MacDonald wanted to see me and 
 hear about my trip, to whom I told it much as 
 I have told it to you, not even concealing the 
 deceit I was sometimes compelled to practice, in 
 order, as I then supposed, to accomplish my ends. 
 
206 CHINESE HEROES 
 
 THE STORY OF THE PERSECUTIONS AT 
 TSUN-HUA. 
 
 The 14th of May, 1900, will never be forgot- 
 ten by the church at Tsun-hua, for it was on that 
 day that the schools, containing one hundred boys 
 and girls, were closed, the missionaries received 
 a telegram to leave the city, and the church 
 members were advised to flee to their own 
 homes. 
 
 When applied to for protection the official 
 could only wring his hands and promise noth- 
 ing. Eleven men were appointed to watch the 
 compound day and night. After darkness had 
 fallen the missionaries drove away, and we 
 knew not whether we should ever see them 
 again, and before morning the compound was 
 deserted with the exception of the pastor of 
 the church, the matron of the girls' school and 
 a few boys and girls who had no homes to 
 which to flee. 
 
 Two days later a child who sold sesame cakes, 
 said to be possessed of a spirit, was dressed in a 
 long red garment, taken to the temple and placed 
 on the throne of the " goddess of mercy," where 
 he pretended to be sent from heaven to save the 
 people of the place ; to accomplish this end he 
 circulated the report that in the mission com- 
 
PERSECUTIONS AT TSUN-HUA 
 
 207 
 
 pound there were nine large guns, and that if 
 they, with the church and residences, were not 
 all destroyed calamity was sure to befall. 
 
 The whole city was in an uproar ; and from 
 all sides as well as the surrounding country the 
 people flocked to burn incense to the little im- 
 postor — even the city official knocked his head 
 to him ; but as the Boxers soon began to quarrel 
 among themselves the child was pulled from the 
 throne, and a little later, at the suggestion of 
 Pastor Liu, the official 
 had him arrested. 
 
 In order, if possible, 
 to save the women the 
 pastor and the doctor 
 sent their wives with the 
 girls' school teacher, Hsii 
 Hui-fang, and some of 
 the school girls to the 
 home of a Christian out- 
 side the Great Wall. A 
 few days later Dr. Hsii went to see how they 
 fared and was just in time to be arrested, with 
 them, by a large company of Boxers. Word 
 was brought to Pastor Liu, who at once 
 applied to the official and secured a squad 
 of soldiers and went to their relief In the 
 meantime his wife and Dr. and Mrs. Hsu had 
 escaped and fled to the mountains, where they 
 spent the night in a cave. The girls' school 
 teacher was the only one of the party rescued. 
 
 l^iii CKi-K 
 
208 CHINESE HEROES 
 
 the girls having been forced to wife with the 
 robbers before the arrival of the soldiers. 
 
 Thirteen days after the foreigners left the peo- 
 ple went out en^ masse to meet a new Boxer 
 teacher, who was said to be so powerful and 
 skillful in the rites of the order as to be able to 
 make a Boxer god out of a new recruit in the 
 short space of seven days. The following day 
 the whole city was in an uproar, and we could 
 hear them calling out, 
 
 " Kill the followers of the foreigners and burn 
 their churches and homes, and rid the country of 
 everything foreign." 
 
 At this time but three caretakers, three women 
 and a boy were in the mission compound. As 
 the boy was leaving he met three of the school 
 girls returning. 
 
 " What shall we do ? " asked they, with tears 
 streaming from their eyes. " Where are you 
 going, and where can we go 1 " 
 
 "I am simply fleeing! I know not where to 
 
 go." 
 
 " Brother, there is no one to help us ; can 
 you not think of some way to save us ? " 
 
 The boy took their bundles and they started 
 off together ; wandering about until nightfall. 
 He then led them to the home of the mission 
 gardener, where they all remained that night, after 
 which the girls were placed in three heathen 
 homes. Two of them were killed and the other 
 returned to the school after the trouble was past. 
 
PERSECUTIONS AT TSUN-HUA 209 
 
 " What plans have you ? " said the chief of 
 poHce to Pastor Liu the following day. 
 
 " I have no plans for myself," answered Pastor 
 Liu, " other than to die for the Lord here." 
 
 " Come, let us become lifelong brothers, and I 
 will save you," he proposed. 
 
 " I have no objections," answered the pastor, 
 " only I am more anxious about three of the 
 school girls than about myself." 
 
 " I will save them, too," he answered. 
 
 This was a generous offer which Pastor Liu 
 dared not accept, as he knew the character of 
 such men to be too questionable to justify him 
 in entrusting school girls to their care. He 
 therefore made other plans for the girls. 
 
 No sooner had the people all left the com- 
 pound than it was surrounded, looted and burned 
 by the Boxers. When they returned to the city 
 to loot and burn the city chapel the pastor fled 
 to the north side of the city followed by a crowd 
 of Boxers. The chief of police, true to his prom- 
 ise, rescued him, and sent him with several 
 trusted men to a village north of the city where 
 his family had already been hidden ; but as they 
 had fled to the North Mountains he followed 
 them, and was finally sent to the home of one 
 Mrs. Yen, a relative of the chief of police, who 
 at great risk of her own life received both him 
 and his family most hospitably and entertained 
 them for a month. 
 
 When the Boxers heard where they were they 
 
 14 
 
aiO CHINESE HEROES 
 
 threatened to take them all prisoners, and Mrs. 
 Yen came to the pastor in great agitation. 
 " Come with me at once," she said, " and worship 
 at the altar of the goddess of mercy ; it is, I fear, 
 the only way to escape their wrath." 
 
 "It is you who have entertained and cared for 
 us," said he, " why then should I worship that 
 idol.? I would rather knock my head to you 
 than to that mud image." 
 
 At this time Pastor Liu received the following 
 terse note from the chief of police : 
 
 " Meet me at Ta Ho Chu village as soon as 
 possible." 
 
 At three o'clock a. m. he started and walked 
 to the village to meet his adopted brother. 
 
 " What is the condition of affairs in and about 
 the city ? " he asked at once. " Who of the 
 church members have been murdered and who 
 are safe 1 " 
 
 " The girls' school teacher was brutally mas- 
 sacred while exhorting her friends not to weep 
 for her and to be true to their faith." 
 
 " What became of her grandmother ? " 
 
 " She fled to the mountains, where it is sup- 
 posed she starved to death." 
 
 " And the Tou family ? " 
 
 " Tou Pin, the father, was taken to the mission 
 compound. On the way he said he was thirsty, 
 and asked them for a drink of water. They told 
 him he did not need a drink as they were going 
 to kill him in the mission premises." 
 
PERSECUTIONS AT TSUN-HUA 211 
 
 " What did he say ? " 
 
 " He said he never thought he should have 
 the good fortune to die as a martyr at the place 
 where he first heard the gospel and received 
 baptism." 
 
 "How did they kill him?" 
 
 " They cut out his heart and took it to their 
 headquarters, where it was put up in a conspic- 
 uous place for some days," 
 
 " And his family ? " 
 
 " His third, fourth, and fifth sons, with his 
 daughter-in-law, were all killed, as they were 
 unwilling to renounce their faith." 
 
 '' What became of the book-seller, Fu Tuan } " 
 
 " He, with Ho Ch'uan-sheng, was massacred. 
 The Boxers offered them their lives if they 
 would recant, and worship their gods, but all in 
 vain. They said they would rather die than deny 
 their Lord." 
 
 " Were there any others killed in the mission 
 compound ?" 
 
 " One day I noticed the Boxers bringing in 
 three persons whom on inquiry I found to be 
 Yang Fu-chin,his wife, and a Mrs. Wang. They 
 were covered with mud, and looked tired and 
 hungry, while the hair of each was clutched by a 
 Boxer by whom they were led to the mission 
 compound and there put to death." 
 
 " Can you tell me of any of the others who 
 suffered?" 
 
 "Scarcely a day has passed that has not wit- 
 
^12 CHINESE HEROES 
 
 nessed the death of some of the boys or girls of 
 your schools or some of your Christians." 
 
 "What about the Christians at other places?" 
 
 " I have heard that twenty-four of the Chris- 
 tians at Pao Tzu Yu,led by a helper, Chia, went 
 to the top of a mountain and with nothing but a 
 spear, a pistol and a few carrying poles resisted 
 a company of Boxers with great bravery." 
 
 " How was that ? " 
 
 " When they saw the Boxers coming they 
 placed the women and children in the center 
 with thirteen men around them. The Boxers 
 attacked them with swords, spears and guns, 
 and they would have held out longer but for the 
 fact that the children clung to their legs and 
 garments. It was thus the helper Chia fell ; 
 and as he fell one Chang came to his aid and 
 thus their lines were broken. As Chang came 
 up a Boxer made a lunge at him, but the spear 
 went under his arm. Snatching it he thrust it 
 through the Boxer's neck, and calling out, 'Every 
 one for himself!' he pushed the Boxer before 
 him through the mob and thus escaped." 
 
 " Was he injured ? " 
 
 " He was struck by a volley of stones, one of 
 which cut off his queue, which was wrapped 
 around his head, and which thus, no doubt, 
 saved him." 
 
 " Did none of the rest escape ? " 
 
 " I understand that Chang broke his spear in 
 two, giving half of it to his brother who had 
 
PERSECUTIONS AT TSUN-HUA 213 
 
 fought his way to his side, and the two es- 
 caped." 
 
 Pastor Liu left the chief of police in heavi- 
 ness at the news he had heard, but his mind was 
 soon turned in another direction by what he 
 learned in an adjacent village — that Mrs. Yen 
 and his own family had been taken prisoners by 
 the Boxers. 
 
 He hurried back and reported to the chief 
 what he had heard. Advising him to flee to the 
 mountains the chief returned in haste to Tsun- 
 hua to put into operation plans for saving the 
 family. From the mountain peak Pastor Liu 
 could see his wife and nephews with the others 
 driven, bound, to the city. At the same time the 
 chief sent, thirty men to the head Boxer to in- 
 tercede for the prisoners. After three days they 
 were liberated on the payment of $60, and — 
 let the pastor tell the story : 
 
 " Mrs. Yen took my wife and child to an inn, 
 where she kept them for some days, after which 
 she took them to the home of the chief of police, 
 where on the 22nd of the 7th month I saw them 
 once more. A company of one thousand Boxers 
 came to take us prisoners and we fled to a cave 
 in the mountains, where for more than a month 
 I was prostrated with fever. During this time I 
 ceased not to pray that the Lord would take me, 
 and not let me fall into the hands of my ene- 
 mies ; for while thus weak and sick I could not 
 but feel that it would be well if I could go and 
 
214 CHINESE HEROES 
 
 be with those of my church members who had 
 been massacred. The chief sent a doctor to see 
 me but we dared not let our whereabouts be 
 known, even the doctor deeming it necessary to 
 change his name while attending on me." 
 
 When Pastor Liu began to recover he was 
 taken to the arsenal and remained there for a 
 fortnight. Then news began to arrive that the 
 Chinese had been defeated at Tientsin and 
 Peking, and the Boxers began to disperse. He 
 decided to go at once to Tientsin. On his way 
 he found General Feng's soldiers fighting the 
 Boxers, especially at P'ing An Ch'eng, the place 
 where the most of the Christians had been taken 
 to be put to death ; altogether in that region 
 fifty-eight Boxer villages were burned to the 
 ground by the Chinese soldiers. 
 
 After remaining for a few weeks in Tientsin 
 he returned to Tsun-hua. Here he found a com- 
 pany of English, French and Russian troops 
 sent by the Allies to see to the settling up of 
 the difficulties. A large proportion of the peo- 
 ple of the city as well as of the surrounding 
 country fled, and the official who had had charge 
 of affairs during all these troublous times en- 
 treated him to act as middle man in the proposed 
 settlement. This he did, and after the foreign 
 troops had departed, at the request of the magis- 
 trate, he made out a list of the losses of the 
 Christians, which were promptly paid by the 
 official. 
 
Mrs. Li and Her CKild 
 
MRS. LI AND HER CHILD 217 
 
 MRS. LI AND HER CHILD 
 
 Mrs. Li and her child, with five other families, 
 were carried by the Boxers to the palace of 
 Prince Tuan, their chief. While they were con- 
 fined it was discovered that this child had de- 
 cently been vaccinated and they were led to sus- 
 pect that they were not Christians. After a 
 little while the child crept out and began playing 
 with the swords of the Boxers, which confirmed 
 their suspicions, for, they reasoned, " If they were 
 Christians the child would fear rather than play 
 with the sword," and at once they were liberated 
 and allowed to return to their home. 
 
218 CHINESE HEROES 
 
 THE EPWORTH LEAGUE 
 
 We had rather a novel experience meeting in 
 Peking, some months after the siege, which I 
 have no doubt will strike the reader as peculiar, 
 even as it did the writer. It was desired to 
 know the various trials through which the mem- 
 bers had passed during the Boxer troubles, and 
 in order to do so we called them together. 
 
 The place of meeting was no less novel than 
 the meeting itself, it being a large Boxer rendez- 
 vous contiguous to the city wall, just west of the 
 Ch'ien Men, or principal gate of the city. 
 
 We had difficulty in securing the attendance 
 of some who were engaged in important work at 
 a distance, but finally succeeded in bringing to- 
 gether a fairly representative audience. In or- 
 der to add to the interest of the assembly, and 
 make it more general, we concluded to invite 
 those of the alumni who were within easy reach, 
 and who had always been enthusiastic workers 
 while in college. It will be as impossible as un- 
 necessary to give the experiences of all, both be- 
 cause of their number and their similarity ; but 
 consulting the report of our stenographers we 
 will select such as we think of interest to gen- 
 eral readers and will best represent the experi- 
 ences and character of the members as a whole. 
 
THE EPWORTH LEAGUE 319 
 
 It was decided that we should not content 
 ourselves with listening to the rehearsal of the 
 experiences of each individual, but that we should 
 admit any scraps of information by others con- 
 cerning the character and conduct of the one in 
 question ; for we were sure that certain modest 
 members would suppress such facts of their past 
 lives as would prevent our seeing the persecu- 
 tions in their proper settings. We discovered 
 therefore when the meeting was over and the 
 minutes properly recorded, that we had obtained 
 short biographies of most of the members. 
 
 They selected as their chairman one 
 
 CH'IN LUNG-CHANG 
 
 an alumnus who had been enthusiastic in the 
 work of the League since its foundation. 
 
 " Tell us how you became a Christian," said 
 one of the younger boys. 
 
 " Oh, you do not want 
 my whole history," said the 
 chairman. 
 
 " Yes ; tell us that part 
 of it," was echoed from sev- 
 eral parts of the house. 
 
 " My grandfather," began 
 the chairman, "joined the 
 church on probation while 
 in Tientsin, but feared to openly embrace Chris- 
 tianity when he returned to his native town ; 
 but as he told us about it I became interested 
 
 OH'in Lun^-cHan^ 
 
220 CHINESE HEROES 
 
 and joined the church, and thus became the 
 humble instrument in the hands of God of lead- 
 ing father, mother, brothers and sisters into the 
 fold. When I graduated from college I was 
 tempted to seek official position through friends 
 of my maternal grandfather, who had been a 
 District Magistrate, or of my uncle, who was a 
 Han Lin and Literary Chancellor, but was pre- 
 vented from doing so by a revival service held 
 about that time by Mr. Pyke, and, as you all 
 know, I became the principal of the Interme- 
 diate school. 
 
 " At the beginning of the uprising I took my 
 family home, only to find that the Boxers were 
 on every hand. I put my wife and babies into 
 the hands of her relatives, who were heathen, and 
 friends of the Boxers, and with my mother, 
 brother and sister, and some other friends, fled 
 to the mountains. The ladies of the party were 
 secreted in caves and ravines during the day and 
 at night fled to other places of refuge. For a small 
 consideration we hired a mountain shepherd to 
 bring us food and water and keep us informed 
 as to the Boxers' whereabouts. 
 
 " Among the party was a heathen uncle, and 
 it became necessary to leave the women in his 
 hands while my brother and I fled to Shan Hai 
 Kuan, thinking that thus we might reach Mon- 
 golia or Manchuria, or perhaps Korea. As this 
 was not feasible we returned to Pei Tai Ho, by 
 the sea, where we fell in with certain merchants 
 
THE EPWORTH I-EAGUE 221 
 
 from Chefoo who told us that the presence of 
 foreign war-ships guaranteed peace at the latter 
 place. Whereupon we secured passage and 
 reached Chefoo in safety, a certain Christian 
 teacher named Ts'ai having furnished us with 
 the requisite silver to defray our expenses. Here 
 we were cared for by the Presbyterian mission 
 until we secured employment as teachers of 
 Mandarin or the condition of the country war- 
 ranted our return to Tientsin and thence to Pe- 
 king." 
 
 The secretary of the meeting was a young 
 grandfather of some fifty-one summers, weighing 
 in the neighborhood or two hundred and fifty 
 
 pounds, named 
 
 LU WAN T'lEN 
 
 During the course of the meeting it leaked 
 out that while in Shanghai, some years ago, this 
 young man had observed Chinese women in 
 chairs going to church service, and supposing 
 their object evil, and their destination the office 
 or home of the foreigner, he conceived an in- 
 tense hatred for the latter. In Tientsin he again 
 saw crowds of men and women gathering at the 
 foreigner's place, which increased his hatred and 
 led him to despise the ignorant people, who 
 were thus hoodwinked, more than the foreigners 
 themselves. 
 
 He had been an opium smoker and a wor- 
 shiper of his ancestors, and during a certain New 
 Year's festival, having properly arranged the 
 
222 CHINESE HEROES 
 
 sacrifices before the ancestral tablets, he had 
 gone to call upon his friends. On his return he 
 found that his servant had allowed a cat to up- 
 set the tablets and devour the sacrifices, and in 
 a fit of anger he first beat and then dismissed 
 the unprofitable servant. 
 
 " All this is the result of opium-smoking," he 
 meditated. 
 
 " Why not give up the pipe .? " asked Con- 
 science. 
 
 " I will do it ; but how .? " he inquired of 
 himself. 
 
 " Let yourself up easy with opium pills," said 
 Appetite. 
 
 He purchased a quantity of opium pills, in- 
 vented by incompetent or unprincipled physi- 
 cians, who had as much care for their purse as 
 for their patient. All of these he used in some 
 weeks without achieving any result other than a 
 conviction that it was the same drug in a differ- 
 ent form. 
 
 " Why not go to the missionary hospital ? " 
 inquired one of his friends. " There, after a 
 few days' agony, you will obtain a sure cure 
 with but little expense and no uncertainty." 
 
 " Go to the missionary hospital ? No ! I 
 would rather die than come under the influence 
 of the Foreign Devil ! " he exclaimed, remem- 
 bering the things he supposed he had seen in 
 Shanghai and Tientsin. 
 
 But marble is not more certainly worn away 
 
THE EPWORTH LEAGUE 223 
 
 by the constant dropping of water than was his 
 prejudice by the daily urging of his friends ; and 
 he was finally persuaded to apply for admission, 
 which was granted, and he was shut up in a 
 prison ward. After a few days' treatment his 
 opium appetite was permanently destroyed. 
 
 During these days the assistants tried to re- 
 gale him with conversation and books, but all to 
 no purpose. He was a literary graduate, hav- 
 ing all the pride that — with all deference to its 
 other virtues — Confucianism lends to its vota- 
 ries, while they were only uneducated followers 
 of the Foreigner. They gave him copies of the 
 Gospels written in the Mandarin or spoken lan- 
 guage ; but they only aroused within him a 
 loathing for such a display of plebeian taste. 
 They secured a copy of Martin's Evidences of 
 Christianity. This he opened with a sneer, 
 glanced at with indifference which soon changed 
 to surprise, then to interest, and finally to 
 admiration. 
 
 "Ah what is this!" said he to himself; "are 
 these foreigners also able to write books in our 
 classical language ? " and he read the book with 
 avidity. 
 
 A year afterward he applied for baptism, 
 after which he returned to the school he was 
 teaching and called together his pupils, address- 
 ing them as follows : 
 
 " My pupils, I have that to say to you which 
 may have some influence upon our future rela- 
 
224 CHINESE HEROES 
 
 tions. I am a Christian, and I shall be glad to 
 continue to teach you all if you so desire ; but 
 if you do not wish to remain in school I will be 
 frank with you and let you know that I am de- 
 termined to live a Christian life hereafter." 
 
 All but four of his students left and he found 
 himself under the necessity of seeking other em- 
 ployment or another school. 
 
 A short time thereafter the Peking Univer- 
 sity, when seeking a teacher, discovered and 
 employed him, in which position he still re- 
 mained when the Boxer movement broke out. 
 
 When organization became necessary to self- 
 preservation Teacher Lu was made the chair- 
 man of the- General Committee of the Chinese 
 Forces, on the principle that the advice of an 
 educated man who tips the scales at two hun- 
 dred and fifty pounds is more valuable than his 
 prowess when the thermometer registers one 
 hundred in the shade. Few perhaps endured 
 more than he did during the siege, though his 
 sufferings were thermic and gastronomic rather 
 than nervous, and as he kept a diary, which has 
 si'nce been published and has a good circulation 
 in Japan as well as in China, he, like many 
 others, proved himself useful in his particular 
 line. 
 
 WANG CHIH-P'ING 
 
 was a member of the class of 1900. He had 
 withstood the temptations of a lucrative position 
 in secular employment and had entered the min- 
 
THE EPWORTH LEAGUE ^5 
 
 istry on a salary one fifth of what he had been 
 offered elsewhere. 
 
 " I had been preaching one year," he says, 
 "and on May loth I returned to Peking for the 
 double purpose of attending the annual con- 
 ference and being married, the latter event com- 
 ing off on May 23rd, and the conference began 
 a week later. 
 
 " Our intention was to return to our work as 
 soon as the conference adjourned ; but we soon 
 discovered that the railroad 
 had been torn up and all 
 traffic had ceased. Those 
 who had come alone went 
 away in carts; but as my 
 appointment was two weeks' 
 distance from Peking by 
 mule-cart, it did not seem 
 wise to start on such a trip 
 through Boxer regions with 
 a newly married wife, as they would easily dis- 
 cover that we were Christians. I therefore re- 
 mained in Peking. 
 
 " During the siege I was made one of the mes- 
 senger boys. At first, I confess I was very 
 much afraid of the whistling bullets and shriek- 
 ing shells, but after a few days they did not dis- 
 turb me. My own greatest suffering, I think, 
 was caused by hunger, as we were allowed but 
 nine ounces of flour apiece. 
 
 " As it was impossible for us to go to our ap- 
 
 15 
 
 "Wang GhiK-p'ing 
 
226 CHINESE HEROES 
 
 pointments at the close of the siege because of 
 the disturbed condition of the country, I was 
 employed by one of the military officers as an 
 interpreter, which position I retained till the 
 country resumed its normal condition. 
 
 "While I was working in the police station 
 of the American district, the Chinese of that 
 region offered to take up a subscription which 
 they intended to present to me, no doubt, as 
 a bribe, but as I refused it they presented me 
 with an honorary scroll instead." 
 
 It ought to be remarked that it leaked out in 
 conversation with others during the meeting, 
 that the subscription mentioned by Mr. Wang 
 would have amounted to several hundred ounces 
 of silver, and that as soon as the country be- 
 came settled, he gave up his position and salary 
 of $ioo per month and went to his appointment 
 on his small salary leaving his young wife in 
 
 Peking. 
 
 LIU KUANG-CH'ING 
 
 graduated from the Peking University with the 
 class of '98. It was a strong class, and he was 
 the best English speaker, and as a consequence 
 tempting offers of five times what the church 
 could pay for his services were made to him 
 without eliciting even so much as his consid- 
 eration. 
 
 Entering the conference as a Methodist min- 
 ister he was appointed to a circuit outside the 
 Great Wall beyond Shan Hai Kuan, where his 
 
THE EPWORTH LEAGUE 
 
 227 
 
 Liu. t\.\:ian^-cH'in^ 
 
 work during his first year will be best understood 
 from the following narrative of "A Missionary 
 Trip" by Miss Alice Terrell, made at the close 
 of her summer vacation in 
 1899, ^^'^ printed in the 
 World-Wide Missions of 
 January, 1900 : 
 
 " A recent trip into the 
 country was a source of 
 deep satisfaction to me, 
 showirjg as it did the re- 
 sult of Christian education 
 as a preparation for our 
 preachers for the spreading of the Gospel 
 here in China. Most of our preachers at this 
 stage of our work are necessarily men who have 
 not been educated in Christian schools, but in 
 advanced manhood have taken a course in our 
 Bible training schools ; and while, for the most 
 part, they are earnest work- 
 ers, Christianity has not 
 been bred in the bone, 
 and they can only give 
 what they have received. 
 Now there is coming on 
 f'/ a new class of preachers, 
 ■^ young men from Peking 
 University, who have been 
 trained from childhood in 
 our schools, have lived in a Christian atmosphere, 
 and have had careful, prayerful, personal atten- 
 
 l^iu Fang 
 
228 CHINESE HEROES 
 
 tion through the years. Their preaching marks 
 a new era in the evangelization of China, and is 
 the promise of the coming of the kingdom here. 
 " I had long wished to visit some of their 
 work, but my connection with the university had 
 up to this time prevented. This year I had the 
 opportunity, and on Sept. 9 I landed in Shan 
 Hai Kuan, the point where the great wall of 
 China, creeping over the mountains, finally buries 
 its head in the sea. As I stepped from the train 
 a young man sprang through the crowd and gave 
 me a quick, warm welcome. This was Tseng 
 Kuo-chih, or, as he is known to his patron in 
 America, Peter Durst. He is one of our gradu- 
 ates of the class of 1895, and is the preacher in 
 charge at this point. Earnest, eager for souls, 
 he not only performs his duties as pastor of the 
 church, but has also organized and has charge of 
 a Young Men's Christian Association of tele- 
 graph students, among whom he is doing a noble 
 work. To one who knows the fearful tempta- 
 tions to which Western progress exposes the 
 young men of China, the knowledge of the work 
 done among these young men by young Durst 
 brings a thrill of deep gratitude, and we give 
 sincere thanks that he has seen this open door 
 and entered it. These young men show their 
 appreciation of his services by furnishing his 
 support. I wish I could tarry longer and let 
 you see more of his life, his simple home, so neat 
 and clean, his bride, a sweet, modest girl from 
 
THE EPWORTH LEAGUE 229 
 
 our Girls' School ; but after one night with them 
 and the presiding elder, T6 Mu-shih, whose 
 lovely daughter lay dying of that fell disease of 
 China, consumption, I was obliged to push on 
 to my second point, Shih Men Chai, a distance 
 of fifteen miles over the mountains. This jour- 
 rey was to be taken on donkeys, but as there 
 are none in Shan Hai Kuan, we waited till they 
 came in with coal, and one of the beasts which 
 brought the fuel carried me back. What was 
 my consternation, when it appeared, to find no 
 pack, but a wooden frame fitted over the ani- 
 mal's back, and no stirrups. A comforter folded 
 up and placed over this wooden arrangement 
 soon served as pack, and ropes strung on the 
 sides did duty as stirrups. In this way, escorted 
 by my boy and a man carrying on a pole neces- 
 sary clothing and my bedding, without which one 
 cannot pass the night in China, I set out. We 
 passed over low mountains, forded a river, with 
 its wide bed of cobblestones, saw the mountains 
 lift their lofty heads on every side, hid under the 
 trees while a sudden shower poured down its 
 torrents, then pushed on eagerly to avoid the 
 rain which now threatened to envelop us ; and, 
 sitting astride my pack, which had now grown 
 hard and wooden, to save precious time eating 
 my lunch of crackers and Chinese apples as we 
 journeyed. The rocky road was slippery ; twice 
 my donkey fell. Once I sprang and saved my- 
 self, but later, grown stiff by travel, we both fell 
 
230 CHINESE HEROES 
 
 in a heap, whereupon my boy, with a terrified 
 exclamation, jumped to the rescue, helping me 
 with one hand and raining blows on the unfor- 
 tunate donkey driver with the other. Receiv- 
 ing an all-too-gentle reproof, he replied shame- 
 facedly: ' It could not be helped. I told him to 
 lead the donkey. He did not mind me ; did he }' 
 " At different times I asked the distance. 
 ' Twenty li more ; ' later, ' Twenty-five li ; ' long 
 after, ' Only three li ; ' then again, ' O, all of seven 
 li.' Whereupon my boy interfered. ' Don't ask 
 him again ; he only tells lies.' But it may have 
 been the curves in the road. At last the walls 
 of Shih Men Chai arose before our eyes, and 
 presently passing through the city we were at the 
 door of our chapel. The pastor and the young 
 student who assisted him for the summer were 
 both away at, a wedding feast, for, as is to be ex- 
 pected in China, my letter had not reached him, 
 and I was not looked for; but his wife and three 
 young children were not lacking in hospitality, 
 and she and I were glad for a few minutes to- 
 gether after a separation of nearly a year and a 
 half The pastor here is Liu Kuang-ch'ing, a 
 young man only twenty-three years of age, of 
 the class of 1898. I will not attempt to describe 
 him, but rather let his work speak for him. The 
 women of the neighborhood at once filled my 
 room, for a foreign woman is a rare sight in- 
 deed ; but several Christian women came in, 
 too, with warm greetings and the word that for 
 
THE EPWORTH LEAGUE 231 
 
 weeks they had been expecting their pastor's 
 teacher. Mrs. Liu had sent for her husband, and 
 in less than an hour he and the young man men- 
 tioned came in, breathless with the race, and with 
 the perspiration pouring from their faces. It 
 was a glad reception I received on my first visit 
 to the field of labor of a very dearly loved pupil. 
 After greetings had been exchanged a beautiful 
 expression came over Mr. Liu's face as he said, 
 ' God has answered my prayer, and you are 
 here.' 
 
 "It was the truest welcome I ever received. 
 Many a man would have taken my coming as a 
 personal visit to himself and family ; not so Mr. 
 Liu. His one thought was for the good of the 
 work, and my visit was to be made a means to 
 that end ; so the doors were thrown open and 
 the women invited in. I arrived on Saturday ; 
 the few remaining hours till the evening meal 
 were spent in seeing the church members, both 
 men and women. After our supper (on this trip 
 I adapted myself to Chinese custom and ate 
 two meals a day) Kuang-ch'ing and Tsai-hsin 
 went to the chapel and, with the chapel keeper, 
 began to sing. Soon the swell of voices showed 
 an increase in the number, until within half an 
 hour a full chorus told the story of a full house. 
 In a few minutes the young men returned, and 
 the singing still continued. As they came in, 
 both with bright, eager faces, I looked up and said, 
 'Well.?' and Tsai-hsin responded, ' O, Kuang- 
 
232 CHINESE HEROES 
 
 ch'ing has a piece of business in his heart.' 
 ' What is it?' 'We want to pray together for 
 our meeting to-night.' So together we knelt, 
 and God's Holy Spirit came down as those 
 earnest young voices pleaded for God's blessing 
 on the people, some of whom understood so 
 little of what the new life, meant. As my own 
 prayer went up for a special blessing upon this 
 earnest young pastor for that night I heard his 
 sobs, and as we stood again he was not ashamed 
 of the tears which he wiped away. 
 
 " Can I ever forget that meeting led by those 
 two young men fresh from their knees.? The 
 Spirit was there, and the people felt it, as the 
 reverent attention and short, earnest prayers 
 testified. 
 
 " Sunday morning, as soon as breakfast was 
 over, the women came crowding in, till not only 
 my kang, or brick bed, was full, but every avail- 
 able corner was crowded. I talked for a while 
 with the women, they sang a few hymns, and it 
 was time for Sunday school. Mr. Liu has a cir- 
 cuit of three stations, with a membership of over 
 five hundred, and at all of these three points he 
 has recently established Sunday schools — the 
 only Sunday schools in the district. After the 
 Sunday school came the preaching service, and 
 in the evening the usual service ; but in between 
 I heard many words of quiet exhortation to one 
 and another of the members. One very zealous 
 old man, who had no heirs, had made over his 
 
THE EPWORTH LEAGUE 233 
 
 houses and land to the church, and was a devout 
 and constant attendant upon the divine service. 
 Not so his wife, a worldly-minded, shrewd old 
 Christian, whose superior ability had been largely 
 the means of collecting all this property. She 
 preferred to stay by the stuff, and no persuad- 
 ing could move her to leave her home to be 
 ravaged by servants or thieves while she wor- 
 shiped the Lord in his temple. Mr. Liu thought 
 my visit an opportunity to get her out of the 
 rut, and suggested to her husband that he bring 
 her to spend Monday with me. The temptation 
 to meet a foreign woman, to inquire of all the 
 strange doings of our far-away country, and to 
 see a wardrobe only five years out from Amer- 
 ica were too much for the old lady, and she 
 came. Mr. Liu and his wife received her most 
 kindly, gave her tea, and let her rest on my kang 
 and satisfy her curiosity; and then our young 
 brother came in, and most respectfully and gently 
 led up to her soul's welfare. I never heard any- 
 thing more tender or more searching than his 
 plea. As she responded his eyes would be 
 closed in prayer, and then with glowing, wistful 
 eyes he would renew the charge. I was moved 
 to tears, and felt that I was in the very presence 
 of the Master. As I listened I was at last led 
 to say a few words, and as I took her hand and 
 began the young evangelist at once sat down by 
 the table and bowed his head on his hand, while 
 Tsai-hsin, in the corner, prayed silently. The 
 
234. CHINESE HEROES 
 
 old man added his word and said, ' You go to 
 Tientsin and study and learn to understand this 
 teaching, and thus you can help me, who am so 
 stupid.' 
 
 " I think the worldly old heart caught a 
 glimpse of what all this meant, for she seemed 
 touched at last, and said, ' I will think about it, 
 and I will come to church ; I promise,' 
 
 " Tuesday we started for Huang Tu Ying, 
 Mr. Liu's second charge, and the place of the 
 original church on that circuit. The journey of 
 seven miles was most picturesque, and was ac- 
 complished partly on foot and partly on donkeys. 
 
 " As we reached the village, which is set on a 
 hillside, we passed up the pretty, narrow, stone- 
 paved streets, with their trellises of squash vines 
 before the doors telling nothing of the story of 
 poverty and wretchedness within. 
 
 " When we reached the chapel it seemed to 
 me that the whole community had gathered, but 
 it proved to be only the church members, who 
 were expecting us. I spent two days at this 
 place, seeing and hearing more and more of Mr. 
 Liu's earnest, self-forgetful work and its results. 
 He never in any way seemed to think of 
 himself. 
 
 " It was here that one of our students lived, a 
 boy who expects to preach, but whose wife has 
 no education to speak of — one of those unfor- 
 tunate early marriages, made when the family 
 was still heathen, between a boy of eleven and a 
 
THE EPWORTH LEAGUE 235 
 
 girl of thirteen. Here again our young preacher 
 had exerted his influence, and the wife and 
 mother were both coming to Mrs. Gamewell's 
 training school for a three years' course. It was 
 touching to see this old woman, with her shrewd 
 old face working with emotion, as she said : ' O 
 yes, I am going, and my daughter-in-law is going, 
 and I am so glad to go. I did not think of it at 
 first, but our pastor talked to me, and now I 
 know that I must help my son's wife to be a 
 helpmeet in his life's work ; and as to myself, I 
 am over sixty years old, and I want to do a 
 little for my people before I die. I don't want 
 to go to the Lord empty-handed.' And so this old 
 woman is leaving her little home, which she, by 
 gathering fagots, selling cloth, working in the 
 fields, doing anything and everything by day and 
 sitting sornetimes all night at her loom, has 
 earned, to begin to study books in which she is 
 now able to recognize not more than half a dozen 
 characters. I call it true heroism. Many a man 
 on the district is hampered by an uneducated 
 wife, who pulls down as fast as he builds up, and 
 so we greatly rejoice at this decision, cost what 
 it may, of loving sacrifice. 
 
 " I returned, after ten wonderful days, exalted 
 in spirit, comforted in heart, filled with great 
 joy, because of what I had seen of the Lord's 
 great power to use consecrated, educated young 
 men in China." 
 
 Some of the most interesting features of 
 
236 CHINESE HEROES 
 
 Kuang-ch'ing's work as exhibiting other phases 
 of his character were his devotion to^ his people 
 and his constancy in prayer. As Miss Terrell 
 was about to leave he inquired, 
 
 " Can you stand a bad smell ? " 
 
 " I think so," she answered, feeling that such a 
 question was unnecessary to one who had spent 
 five years in Peking. " Why do you ask ? " 
 
 " I thought I would show you my curios," said 
 he, opening a door and exhibiting a cupboard 
 full of old pipes and wine-cups he had induced 
 his members to give up, in his Temperance 
 work. 
 
 During the year in question he had seventy- 
 five baptisms and one hundred and twenty 
 united with the church on probation. 
 
 During the Boxer troubles he was stationed 
 on the Shih Men Chai circuit, on which are two 
 other chapels, Chu Ts'ao Ying and Huang T'u 
 Ying, and, while the district suffered less than in 
 many other places, there was no little plundering 
 by the yamen runners as well as by the common 
 rural robbers. 
 
 During the first ten days of the fifth month, 
 the time when the Tientsin-Peking railroad was 
 being torn up, there were Boxer rumors and they 
 began to practice their gymnastics, but though 
 two large altars had been established in Shan 
 Hai Kuan there was none at Shih Men Chai. The 
 pastor at Chu Ts'ao Ying supposed that, if the 
 Boxers came at all, they would start from Shan 
 
THE EPWORTH LEAGUE 237 
 
 Hai Kuan, come to our place and thence to his 
 place ; but on the 24th of the fifth month he 
 was attacked, captured, kicked, beaten and 
 dragged to the robbers' home, where he was 
 forced to knock his head to their idols and burn 
 incense to their ancestral tablets, they threaten- 
 ing to behead him in case he refused. After 
 this they returned to the chapel, smashed the 
 doors and windows and the tablet on which the 
 name of the chapel was inscribed, and set the 
 pastor free. 
 
 " When we heard of this uprising," said Mr. 
 Liu, " I could not believe it, and I sent a mes- 
 senger to see if the report was true. It was not 
 long till we had more convincing proof than 
 that brought by our messenger, for that same 
 evening in an incredibly short time several hun- 
 dred people surrounded our chapel and broke in 
 pieces the tablet on which 'Jesus 'was inscribed. 
 Several of the Peking students were with me at 
 the time, and as we were not a match for such 
 a crowd we fled from the back door and thus 
 escaped with our lives. The members of the 
 Catholic church united with our own, and as they* 
 were armed they fired a few shots into the 
 crowd, which soon dispersed. From this time 
 the Boxers, yamen runners and robbers plun- 
 dered the Christians at will, and it is impossible 
 for either tongue or pen to describe what the 
 members suffered during those awful days. 
 
 " A dozen or more of the Christians stayed 
 
238 CHINESE HEROES 
 
 with me at the chapel and acted as a guard, but 
 on the 2nd of the sixth month I went to Shan Hai 
 Kuan to consult with Te Jui, our presiding elder, 
 as to what was best to be done, and he sug- 
 gested that the chapels be turned over to the 
 official for protection. Just then the persecu- 
 tions began at Shan Hai Kuan and it became 
 necessary for us all to flee, as many of the Chris- 
 tians had already done. On the evening of that 
 same day, in company with Chang Chan-ao (Peter 
 Durst, Jr.), I fled to a place in the mountains called 
 Shan C'ha, distant fourteen miles from the church 
 I served. 
 
 " As I had sent my family away on the 23rd 
 of the fifth month they escaped the outbreak of 
 the 24th, for which I was very thankful. Ten 
 days later soldiers came from Shan Hai Kuan and 
 captured some twenty of the Christians, whom 
 they bound and took to an inn and poured boil- 
 ing water on their heads, saying: "This is the 
 way we will baptize you," after which they beat 
 them with clubs, their object being extortion 
 rather than murder, and from this time on there 
 'was constant persecution. 
 
 " The following day ten soldiers came to our 
 hiding-place in the mountains to capture and 
 take us to Shan Hai Kuan, to deliver us to the 
 Boxers ; but the people interfered in our behalf, 
 and by giving $16 we were allowed to go free. 
 Hoodlums all over the country were engaged in 
 persecution for the sake of pelf and the Chris- 
 
THE EPWORTH LEAGUE 239 
 
 tians fled in every direction, dwelling among the 
 rocks and caves of the mountains exactly as was 
 predicted in the Scriptures. 
 
 " Ten days later Boxers came a second time 
 from Shan Hai Kuan and with the local mem- 
 bers of their society razed our chaped to the 
 ground. The following day they went to Chu 
 Ts'ao Ying, captured and killed one, Chiang 
 Ch'iin, and hung his head on the chapel door 
 for ten days, after which they went to the homes 
 of the Christians and robbed them of all they 
 possessed. This was likewise done at Huang 
 T 'u Ying, the third place on the district, being 
 the worst persecution our Christians endured. 
 
 " There was a Boxer headquarters at I Yuan 
 K'ou led by one Liu Ping-ch'ang, who instigated 
 the people to persecute and kill all the Chris- 
 tians they could find both inside and outside the 
 Great Wall. When the official at Shan Hai Kuan 
 heard that the Chinese had been defeated at 
 Tientsin by the foreigners he sent a company of 
 cavalry to tear down the house of this Boxer 
 leader, taking prisoner all those he taught. 
 
 "Thereafter it gradually became quiet and the 
 Christians returned to their desolated homes. 
 As soon as it seemed safe to do so I moved my 
 family to Lan Chou where I lived with the Pre- 
 siding Elder of that district, in the chapel, until 
 all danger was past. It was as if I had awak- 
 ened from a dream." 
 
240 
 
 CHINESE HEROES 
 
 THE CH'EN BROTHERS 
 
 In the story of Ch'en Ta-yung we have inci- 
 dentally referred to his sons, the third and 
 fourth of whom have graduated from the Peking ' 
 University. 
 
 A few years ago a Christian gentleman and 
 his wife, Mr. and Mrs. Chain, 
 while taking a trip around 
 the world came from Tient- 
 sin to Peking in company 
 with Mr. Chen's third son, 
 Ch'en Wei-p'ing, who acted 
 as interpreter for them " up 
 the river." They were so 
 impressed with his honesty 
 and his frankness, in not 
 telling them " the things he did not know," that 
 before leaving the city they made a trip of four 
 miles through the dust of Peking to bid him 
 good- bye ; in other words, they took an inter- 
 est in him. 
 
 It was this incident that made Wei-p'ing. Up 
 to this time he had always seemed to feel that 
 because he was undersized, and without a partic- 
 ularly pleasing personality, he could amount to 
 nothing. But now some persons had shown 
 that they cared for him, and his spine stiffened 
 
 CK'en "Wei-p'ing 
 
THE CH'EN BROTHERS 
 
 241 
 
 and he went about with his face turned toward 
 heaven rather than toward earth. He seemed 
 to have " grown a few inches, and all Nature 
 seemed to him to smile where formerly she had 
 frowned ; he had discovered himself 
 
 When he graduated, in addition to other temp- 
 tations to go into business, there was offered 
 him a position in Shanghai which would bring 
 him forty dollars per month. This he at once 
 refused, accepting a pastorate outside the Great 
 Wall with a salary of two 
 dollars and seventy-five 
 cents per month ; the place 
 where his parents and his 
 brother and sister were 
 afterwards put to death. 
 The nobility of his con- 
 duct at that time has al- 
 ready been referred to. 
 
 We ought to mention 
 that this may have been the last good work of 
 Mr. and Mrs. Chain, as they were on the fated 
 "Bokhara" and were lost before leaving Chinese 
 waters. 
 
 The fourth son of Mr. Ch'en was Ch'en Wei- 
 ch'eng, who graduated the next year after his 
 brother. He at once passed the examinations 
 for entrance to the Chinese Imperial Customs 
 Service, where his salary would be twenty-five 
 ounces of silver a month. He had hardly re- 
 ceived the intelligence that he was accepted by 
 16 
 
 Ch'en Wei-ch'eng 
 
CHINESE HEROES 
 
 the Customs Service when he voluntarily gave 
 up that position and accepted a position as 
 teacher of English, in his alma mater on a salary 
 of five ounces of silver a month, with no hope 
 of ever getting more than ten. 
 
 He had just begun his work when the secre- 
 tary of Li Hung-chang asked him to teach the 
 grandsons of the latter two hours a day, offering 
 him thirty-five ounces of silver a month if he 
 would do so. This he consented to do on con- 
 dition that it did not interfere with his other 
 work in the university and that he be not re- 
 quired to teach on the Sabbath ; and when he 
 received his thirty-five ounces of silver he put it 
 into the treasury of the university for the educa- 
 tion of another boy. 
 
 During and after the siege both of these 
 young men acted as interpreters on salaries of 
 from fifty to one hundred dollars per month, 
 which they voluntarily relinquished as soon as 
 it was possible for them to resume their work in 
 church or school; and Wei-ch'eng has in 1902 
 visited Sweden, sent by the Young Men's Chris- 
 tian Association to attend their conference, after 
 which he passed through the United States on 
 his return to his work here. 
 
PASTORS AND TEACHERS 
 
 PASTORS AND TEACHERS 
 
 LIU MA-K'E 
 
 Liu Ma-k'e, or Mark, as we have always called 
 him, married upon graduation a sister of Wang 
 Ch'eng-p'ei, who as long as she lived acted as a 
 ballast to his uncertain barque. His first temp- 
 tation was to go into business where the remu- 
 neration was ten times what we could offer him 
 in the church, but after 
 days of half-yielding uncer- 
 tainty and a night of 
 prayer with Sarah, his wife, 
 he came off victor and an- 
 nounced himself as ready 
 to preach the Gospel. This 
 may seem a small matter 
 to the reader unless he 
 asks himself, "If I had 
 five thousand dollars a 
 year within my reach would I be willing 
 preach the Gospel for five hundred dollars 7 " 
 
 That was the question which came to Mark, 
 and his answer was, " I will." 
 
 Mark had ability and he knew it ; and after 
 preaching for three years he voluntarily" gave 
 up his small salary, preached for nothing, taught 
 English in official families for a living, and dur- 
 ing his first year gave ten ounces of silver to- 
 
 to 
 
244 CHINESE HEROES 
 
 ward the building of a street chapel, ten ounces 
 more toward the building of a dispensary in con- 
 nection with the church of which he was pastor, 
 and collected almost enough from his official 
 non-Christian friends to complete the building 
 of the dispensary. 
 
 He had served this appointment five years 
 and was at the pinnacle of his popularity when 
 he had to be removed, according to the time 
 limit, from the place where he could preach for 
 nothing and at the same time influence official 
 
 families in which he taught. 
 This promised to be the 
 last straw, but the camel's 
 back did not break, and 
 Mark submitted to being 
 removed and being placed 
 in the most difficult charge 
 of our North China work, 
 the west of Tientsin, and 
 he was there when the 
 Boxer outbreak occurred, 
 ready to make himself useful as a leader of the 
 Chinese in the siege of Tientsin and, later, in 
 the settlement of the difficulties ; for none of 
 our young men handles a Chinese official with 
 more ease than Mark. 
 
 LIU MING-CH'UAN 
 When Liu Ming-ch'uan graduated from the 
 Peking University he was allowed to paste the 
 
 Liu Min^-cH'uan 
 
PASTORS AND TEACHERS 245 
 
 names of the students upon the bulletin board out- 
 side the front gate — a privilege which is granted 
 only to those who are leaders in their class. 
 
 He at once went to the United States, entered 
 De Pauw University, where he graduated from 
 the Theological School, and was offered one 
 thousand dollars a year if he would remain in 
 America as an interpreter and assistant transla- 
 tor. This he refused, and returning to China he 
 began preaching on a salary of eighty-four dol- 
 lars a year, out of which he gave enough to 
 support a student as he had been supported. 
 
 T'lEN SHU-NIEN 
 
 T'ien Shu-nien was the best English speaker 
 of his class. One of the Censors and an official 
 who afterwards took an active part in protecting 
 foreigners from the Boxers, being interested in 
 him, lent him enough money, without security, 
 to put him through the Arts course of the Ohio 
 Wesleyan University, after which he returned 
 and took a position as teacher of English in his 
 alma mater. 
 
 When the Boxer movement began he, Liu 
 Ming-ch'uan and others were made the leaders 
 of gangs of workmen in the British Legation for- 
 tifications, and did excellent service. After they 
 were relieved he acted as an interpreter in the 
 American Forces for a living, and, though deeply 
 in debt, has given two years of excellent service, 
 free of charge, as teacher in Peking University. 
 
246 CHINESE HEROES 
 
 CH'EN HENG-TE 
 
 The following testimony to the services of a 
 native preacher from high officials stands unique, 
 perhaps, among the annals of China. It was 
 sent, as the petition indicates, by the official of 
 Lao-t'ing to His Excellency Li Hung-chang. 
 The latter turned it over to the American Le- 
 gation, requesting that it be sent to Bishop 
 Moore, and that, if possible, he accede to the 
 wishes of the District Magistrate and the peo- 
 ple of Lao-t'ing. The following is a transla- 
 tion of the document as it came to the mission: 
 
 Petition of Wan Ho-yin, District Magistrate of Lao-t'ing, in 
 the matter of the American Methodist Episcopal Mis- 
 sionary, Ch'en Heng-te. 
 
 Wan Ho-yin, District Magistrate of Lao-t'ing, 
 respectfully presents this petition to H. E. Li, 
 Grand Tutor of the Heir Apparent, Grand Sec- 
 retary, Earl, etc., etc. 
 
 Your petitioner humbly represents that cer- 
 tain of the gentry and people of his un- 
 worthy district, among them the Senior Secre- 
 tary of the Board of Revenue, Ts'ui Ping-wen, 
 and the Secretary of the Grand Secretariat, 
 Liu Chu, and others, joined in a petition, 
 saying that the American Methodist Episco- 
 pal Mission had been established many years 
 in Lao-t'ing and that the Missionary, Ch'en 
 Heng-te, for some time previous had propagated 
 the religion, making it his special work to ex- 
 hort men to do right, that in all his intercourse 
 with the people there was nothing that was not 
 
PASTORS AND TEACHERS 247 
 
 in accordance with friendly relations, that on any 
 occasion when the Church and people were at 
 cross purposes the matter was always settled 
 justly, that on this account all were pleased to 
 serve him, that the number of those turning to 
 righteousness was daily increasing and that the 
 Christians and people were having no trouble 
 in their relations with each other ; that not only 
 those who entered the Church were greatly in- 
 debted to his practical virtue, but among the 
 stupid villagers there was not one who did not 
 put hand to forehead in respect for the Rev. Mr. 
 Chen's virtues; that they had now heard that 
 Rev. Mr. Ch'en had been promoted to a post in 
 Shan-tung, and that, while they ought to rejoice 
 that he was held in such esteem as to be thus 
 selected for employment, the people of the town 
 nevertheless, yielding to their private feeling of 
 affection, were loth to hear of his leaving them, 
 and that they therefore petitioned me on their 
 behalf to address Your Excellency, stating the 
 circumstances and begging that he might be re- 
 tained, which would secure good feeling between 
 the people and the Christians of Lao-t'ing, and 
 be of great benefit to^the place ; that the people 
 of the city as one man really desire this, etc. 
 
 On receiving the above, your petitioner made 
 inquiries and learned that the said missionary, 
 Ch'en Heng-te, had for many years preached his 
 religion in Lao-t'ing, and was thoroughly con- 
 versant with the circumstances of the place, that 
 whenever there had been any trouble between 
 the Church and people there never had been 
 any other than a just settlement, that all had con- 
 sidered that each should attend to his own busi- 
 ness and all dwell together in harmony, and that 
 
248 CHINIiSE HEROES 
 
 therefore there were none in this unworthy dis- 
 trict who did not trust and respect him. We 
 have recently heard that in other places the 
 Christians have relied upon their connection 
 with the Church to practice extortion, but the 
 Christians of this District have done nothing of 
 this sort. It cannot be but that it is due to the 
 said missionary's great merit in exerting himself 
 to admonish and lead. Now, according to the 
 statements of the said gentry and others, since 
 the aforesaid missionary has been promoted to 
 a post in Shan-tung, they have united in a peti- 
 tion urging his retention. 
 
 To determine whether this is possible or not 
 your petitioner begs Your Excellency to write 
 and consult with the Bishop of the American 
 Church, requesting him to order the missionary 
 to postpone his going to Shan-tung and remain 
 for the present in Lao-t'ing, which will be for the 
 real benefit of the people and the Church. 
 
 Duty requires your petitioner to submit this 
 request, with a statement of the circumstances, to 
 Your Excellency,, and to beg that Your Excel- 
 lency will give the matter consideration and 
 issue instructions, that he may respectfully obey 
 the same. This will certcunly be just and ex- 
 pedient. 
 
 In presenting this respectful petition, peti- 
 tioner desires to express his good wishes for 
 Your Excellency's prosperity and begs that 
 Your Excellency will cast a favorable glance 
 upon this humble petition of the unworthy 
 Magistrate, Ho-yin. (That is, of himself.) 
 
 THE END 
 

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