Kucheng massacre


The Kucheng massacre was a massacre of Western Christians that took place at Gutian Fujian, China on August 1, 1895. At dawn of that day, a fasting folk religious group attacked British missionaries who were then taking summer holidays at Gutian Huashan, killing eleven people and destroying two houses. The Kucheng Massacre is considered one of the worst attacks against foreigners in China prior to the Boxer Movement in 1899–1901, the only comparable event in China's missionary history being the Tianjin Massacre in 1870.

Background

In 1892, a religious movement called zhaijiao began assuming the functions of government due to the decrepit condition of Qing dynasty government in the Gutian region. They resolved disputes between villagers, banned opium, and ended the local practice of selling wives to multiple husbands. Gutian police decided not to intervene in this displacement of the functions of government. Christian missionaries were unhappy with these circumstances and asked the provincial officials to send in their own troops. In response, fasting-religion leaders decided to defend their rebellion with violence. The last letter from the murdered English missionary Robert Warren Stewart, dated April 8, describes the critical situation of affairs at Gutian:

Events

On August 1, 1895, at the time of the initial outbreak, the family of Robert W. Stewart and the other ladies were still asleep in their hill village at Gutian Huashan. The Vegetarian mob then broke in, speared the victims to death, and burnt down the houses. Only five persons survived the attack, two of whom were Mr. Stewart's children: one had one knee broken, and the other, a baby, had an eye gouged out. Those murdered at Huashan were:
Robert Warren StewartIrelandChurch Missionary Society
Louisa Kathleen StewartIrelandChurch Missionary Society
Herbert StewartIreland
Hilda Sylvia StewartIreland
Helena YellopIreland
Marry Ann Christina GordonAustraliaChurch of England Zenana Missionary Society
Elsie MarshallEnglandChurch of England Zenana Missionary Society
Hessie NewcombeIrelandChurch of England Zenana Missionary Society
Elizabeth Maud SaundersAustraliaChurch Missionary Society
Harriette Elinor SaundersAustraliaChurch Missionary Society
Flora Lucy StewartEnglandChurch of England Zenana Missionary Society

Aftermath

The Qing government had suppressed the news for three days before an official telegraph was sent out from Shanghai on August 4. Western countries strongly condemned China for its connivance with the brutality and indignantly urged the guilty be punished. Under the pressure of foreign military force, the Qing government appointed a Commission of Enquiry consisting of both Chinese officials and British diplomats. All principals were soon executed, and other accessories were either banished or sentenced to life imprisonment. The supervisor of Gutian county Wang Rulin was also dismissed from office.
Stephen Livingston Baldwin, Secretary of the Methodist Episcopal Missionary Society in China, commented on the massacre in an interview from New York Times:
The newspapers also recommended that "Great Britain and the United States... combine to teach the Chinese a lesson that will cause foreigners to be respected forever".
The bodies of the victims were buried at the mission cemetery of Fuzhou.

Footnotes