1971 - Mary Zhang Yuqin

March 14, 1971

Shanghai

Mary Zhang Yuqin.

Born in 1928 at Yangzhou in Jiangsu Province, Zhang Yuqin spent her life in the service of Christ and is fondly remembered as a person who gave her all to the kingdom of God. The Zhang family had never heard the gospel until her older brother was converted by a Jesuit priest. Her brother’s godly life impressed Yuqin, and she grew up hungering after God and eager to serve him.

As a young lady Zhang Yuqin moved to Shanghai to study at the Xuhui Girls’ High School. During this time the Communists seized control of the city and life was turned upside-down for the young Christian. She entered the Carmelite Convent at Dushan as a postulant, where she was given the name Mary.

On September 8, 1955, the Carmelite Convent was closed by the Communists. The five foreign nuns who led the Convent were arrested, bundled into cars, and immediately deported from China. Mary Zhang Yuqin was not persecuted at that time, but later in 1958 she was one of hundreds of Catholics arrested in Shanghai. She was sent to the Baihu (‘White Lake’) Prison Labour Camp in Anhui Province. Each day was a struggle. Hundreds of women died of malnourishment and exhaustion from the bitter workloads placed on them. Every day “they rose at dawn to dig earth, fill the trucks, carry loads on shoulder poles, push single-wheeled barrows…. Even New Year’s Day was not celebrated as a holiday.”[1]

Each prisoner was required to ‘confess their crimes’ to the prison authorities, but Mary steadfastly refused to do so, adopting an attitude that she would rather die with her integrity intact than be freed with the stain of compromise around her neck. After 1962 the government released many prisoners, but Zhang and other believers who refused to confess their crimes were given additional two-year sentences. Zhang was sent to work in the labour camp’s hospital on Majia Mountain. There she met a young Catholic nurse who was planning to forsake her vow of chastity to marry a male nurse. Mary wrote to her, encouraging her not to abandon her vows. The nurse took Mary’s letter and handed it to a guard. The prison authorities pinned it to the notice board and threatened her with a longer prison sentence. Undeterred by the threats, Mary replied, “Everything must be according to the will of God! I refuse to discuss this anymore.” From that time on the other prisoners gave her the nickname, “Dumb Miss Zhang.”

Despite intense stress and deplorable living conditions, Zhang continued to have faith in God, and found a way to overcome her circumstances with a joyous and peaceful heart. A fellow prisoner, Fan, remembers how

“Yuqin and all our other Sisters fought for their Faith, wishing to bear witness before the Lord with their lives. When they came to Baihu Hospital, their nursing duties had precisely this goal in mind, namely to enable these patients, including the lowest level of ‘criminals’, to regain before death a proper respect in full accordance with basic human dignity, before going to meet their Creator. Regardless of what they may have done, they too had all been created by God and their souls redeemed by the Precious Blood shed for them by Jesus.”[2]

By the summer of 1969, after more than a decade of incarceration, Mary Zhang Yuqin’s health deteriorated. She felt listless and tired all the time. Medical tests found she had a liver problem, which was diagnosed as liver cancer in 1970. While still under arrest, she was sent to Shanghai for more tests, and she died there on March 14, 1971, at the age of 43.

Zhang had served her Lord faithfully, enduring to the end. One of those who had shared many years in prison with her later said, “I felt Yuqin [had] a truly supernatural love of God and I sensed that the Good Lord during the time when she loved and admired Him most, had called her to leave this world and to be with Him, for this is the greatest blessing that can occur to a human soul.”[3] On February 24, 1971, just a few weeks before her death, Mary Zhang Yuqin summarized her life in the following poem:

“During my illness, I have been absorbed in thoughts of the past.

God is infinitely good, infinitely compassionate.

When the Lord saw that I was about to stumble and fall,

He immediately instilled in me more strength and courage,

Reminding me: ‘Life is short! Life is empty!”

Today, God wishes me to leave this harsh and bitter world

And there are no regrets on my part.

I willingly and voluntarily offer up my life with

My only wish that every soul in this world

May obtain salvation and redemption.”[4]

1. September 8th Editorial Board, Twentieth Century Outstanding Women, 59-60.
2. September 8th Editorial Board, Twentieth Century Outstanding Women, 66.
3. September 8th Editorial Board, Twentieth Century Outstanding Women, 71.
4. September 8th Editorial Board, Twentieth Century Outstanding Women, 75.