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[NOTE: Chronology of events needs to be checked in this chapter.]
The beginning of the storm was first heard in 1899. A band called I Ho Ch'uan or "Righteous Harmony Fists" formed in Shantung, the province in which the Rinells and Lindbergs [and Swordsons?] had settled. The members of Righteous Harmony Fists believed that they were immune against sword, spear, or bullet. Yu Hsien, the governor of Shantung, backed their anti-foreign purpose. The fire of hatred toward foreigners grew strong owing to the unequal treaties forced upon the Chinese by Western powers. Soon the missionaries heard frightening stories about arson and killing of Chinese who worked with foreigners as well as Chinese Christians in northern China. Then they began hearing of missionaries themselves being killed.
By March of 1890 fifty-six missionaries and twenty-three children of the China Inland Mission had been killed not to mention hundreds of Chinese Christians. 1 Taylor, J. Hudson. Hudson Taylor. Bethany House Publishers, n.d. page 154. Also previously published under titles, To China With Love and A Retrospect.
Missionaries in the interior and Chinese Christians having connections with foreigners were easily attacked. S.M. Brooks of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts was killed not very far away from Tsinanfu. Owing to British authorities protest Yu Hsien was transferred to governor of Shansi, and Yuan Shih-k'ai replaced him. The movement continued to spread rapidly throughout Chili, Shansi, Manchuria and parts of Mongolia. The German minister, Barow von Kettler, was killed on the 20th on his way to the Foreign Office. On June 24th the Empress Dowager issued a decree for the extermination of all foreigners.
Foreigners and some Chinese Christians took refuge either in Roman Catholic premises or the Legations. A small force of 425 with the assistance of some volunteers held through a siege of fiftty-five days under heavy fire. Their release came when a strong international force fought its way from Tientsin and captured Peking. A thousand foreigners and three thousand Chinese Christians were saved. Yu Hsien, governor of Shansi, ordered the massacre of July 9th of Catholic and Protestant missionaries in his Yamen, and by the end of the year some two thousand Christians were killed in Shansi.
Only a couple of weeks after the mentioned last baptism a telegram was received from the closest mission station Weihsien, with the following sensational news 'Weihsien burning. Missionaries flee, but pursued by boxers. Next night the buildings of the railway in Gaomi are going to be burned. The following Kiaochow." With this telegram the Swedish Baptist missionaries fled.
With sad hearts the missionaries had to stop work, pack necessary things and join those fleeing. The [German?] railway was not ready, but rails had been lain to the closest canal port, Mato, ten kilometers from the city. The German engineers kindly invited the Swedes to follow in a railway carriage to that place. The proposal was accepted, but the trip was slow. The "locomotive" for the train car was an ox. Arriving finally at Mato the whole company took refuge in the German-Chinese customs. Feeling fairly safe, the men, women and children tried to get some rest. During the night, however, someone set the building on fire. Spotting the flames or smelling the smoke, they were able to put out the fire. They were not disturbed for the rest of the evening. 2
The next day, June 29, they climbed into small smelly fishing boats. Small sails were hoisted and a breeze carried them the fifty kilometers over Kiaochow bay to the city of Tsingtao, a German colony and a safe haven. German missionaries took them in and cared for them. Their lives had been spared. The Lindbergs had been in China eight years. It was time for their furlough. They left for Sweden on August 2, 1900 during the Boxer uprising .
About a month later conditions in Kiaochow had somewhat calmed down so the missionaries returned. To their great joy and thankfulness they found houses and homes untouched by the enemy, and the Chinese Christians unharmed. The Christians had been well taken care of and the missionaries life and property saved. The angel of death had passed.
During the Boxer Uprising mission work continued. Two more Chinese were baptized and joined the Church in spite of the persecution of the Christians. Also in 1900 a small school for boys was started under the leadership of Hedvig. Only five pupils enrolled.5 Many more applicants to the boys school were put in than the locality could hold. Wang tsin-hoa who had taught many village schools many years was called as teacher. Hedvig was responsible for teaching religion and Mrs. Swordson singing. A Sunday School was begun. Because of the disruption caused by the Boxer Uprising the girl's school had to be delayed.
The Allied troops entered Peking.3 The Boxers' power was broken.
Kenneth Scott Latourette, D. Willis James, Professor of Missions and Oriental History in Yale University, came to the following conclusion:
The total loss of Roman Catholic missionaries was reported to be five bishops, thirty-one other European priests, nine European sisters, and two Marists. The exact number of Chinese Catholics who were killed or who died from privation is unknown, but it was probably in excess of thirty thousand. The number of the Protestants who perished is somewhat uncertain. Of the foreign missionary body what seems to get the best figures give the number of adults as one hundred and thirty-five, and of children as fifty-two or fifty-three, a total of one hundred and eighty-six or one hundred and eighty-seven. Of these slightly more than a third were under the China Inland Mission and its associated societies. The total number of Chinese Protestants killed is still more uncertain, but one set of figures gives it as nineteen hundred and twelve, including three Mongols. The young Christian churches had paid a high price for their faith.1
Some 30,000 Christian Chinese were killed, and 200 missionaries and their children, including 56 Swedes. [See book by Johan Alfred Rinell about murdered Swedes].
The number of martyrs would have been much higher if a brave and compassionate Chinese official had not changed the edict from "kill" foreigners to "protect" them. Yuan Shih-k'ai, Governor of Shantung, gave orders in his province to escort foreigners to safety. John Rinell writes, "Many boxer-stories which had circulated among the people, became more horrible and often, the badly reputed boxers came closer and closer."
[Note: The book 'Chinese Recorder and Missionary Journal, The. Volume XXXVII. Shangahi: Presbyterian Mission Press, 1906, page 527 says the Kiaohsien became a place of refuge for Christians from all parts of the province of Shantung. Do not know if the book is mistaken or it was a place of refuge initially, but not later or a relative safe place for Chinese Christians. In any case, the missionaries escaped to Tsingtao.]
Egron had been sent to China Inland Missions British schools in Chefoo. A telegram from the school said that he was very sick with scarlet fever, a disease of which many people died in those days. Johan Alfred decided to travel the 300 kilometer journey to be with his son. He had no way to travel except by bicycle. About half way to Chefoo bandits attacked him. They destroyed the "iron horse" but let John go. He continued the rest of the way on foot. After a couple days in Chefoo "the brave Viking returned home on foot, the same way he had come" a Shanghai newspaper4 wrote later about the event.
"After thunder often falls rain, and after the rain God lets the sun shine," as it was said. This was confirmed in Kiaochow. From this time the missionaries could experience a great change to the better. The church could not accommodate all who wished to hear, and several interested in the Gospel asked for further teaching in God's word. The city's most important businessmen gave a substantial gift to building a new church. New fields of missionary activity opened. One was ten kilometers to the west of the city - a furnished and rent-free house for religious work.
Before the flight to Tsingtao a formal proposal to let the members elect a leader of the church, but this was tabled on (Len - Add the next section of manuscript here).
Hedvig starts a school for boys in Jiaozhou, and in July of the same year Hedvig gave birth to a daughter, Edith. 6
5. Later were added boys' and girls' boarding schools in the city and three village day-schools. See MacGillivray, A century of Protestant missions in China, page 515.
6. "The school for boys started 1900 (by Hedvig) and for girls three years later (by Mrs Lindberg). They soon found the need for higher education, and started "upper classes" until the elementary school was six years plus a "middle school" of 3-4 years." Email from Lally Rinell to LJH, September 28, 2007.
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Revised: 14-Jun-2009
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