1900 - Elder Xu & Son

July 1900

Faku, Liaoning

Elder Xu.

When the Boxers attacked Shenyang, they caught many Christians by surprise with the ferocity of their attack. Many believers were able to survive by hiding in the tall millet that lined the roads at this time of the year. If the Boxers had attacked at another time of the year, there would have undoubtedly been hundreds more deaths. As it was,

“Many who were not able to hide, or were discovered, suffered the most barbarous torture and mutilation before being put to death…. The tale of suffering and bloodshed and widespread destruction of property is so horrible that one’s mind staggers at the very thought of it, and fails to realize it.”[1]

The Chinese Christians later said that the single greatest loss the Church in Manchuria had experienced was the martyrdom of Elder Xu (Hsu). He served the congregation in west Shenyang and was about to be ordained as the head pastor. His great soul-winning ability had brought tremendous growth to the Church at Xinmin, Faku, and Shenyang. Xu had “proved himself to be a diligent student, an earnest evangelist, and a wise superintendent of a wide district.”[2]

Xu was at Faku when the Boxers commenced their attack. The Boxers discovered his hiding place, and he and his son were brought back to Faku where they were publicly beheaded. The merchants of the town pleaded for his life, outlining all the positive things Xu had achieved for them, but the Boxers would not listen. One source provided details of the martyrdoms of Elder Xu and his son:

“On entering Faku by the hilly road from Shenyang, there is a stone bridge. Underneath the bridge flows a trickle of stream in a broad sandy bed. When the day of execution arrived, the Elder and his son knelt down on the riverbed and were beheaded. A last tribute of respect was then paid by the heathen merchants to the Christian martyrs. They provided coffins and hired labourers to stitch the heads on to the bleeding bodies. For it was not wise to appear in the next world without your head!”[3]

A missionary statesman offered the following tribute to Elder Xu:

“Of the three hundred and eleven Manchurians who died for the Faith during the Persecution, no one was a greater loss to the Church than Elder Xu. For thirteen years he had stood by Mr. Fulton in the hard uphill fight to win an entrance to men’s hearts in Xinmin and Faku and all through the West country. On tour when others were asleep in the long inn-room, he would be seen by the dim rush-lamp discoursing on the Gospel to those who were willing to sit up.

A Manchu by birth and a man of piety and learning, he would soon have been one of the leading Pastors of the Church. And now he had gained his reward, a cruel death, a martyr’s crown.”[4]

1. Boyd, Waymakers in Manchuria, 189-190.
2. Boyd, Waymakers in Manchuria, 190.
3. O’Neill, The Call of the East, 41.
4. O’Neill, The Call of the East, 41.