Juye Incident

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Contemporary German depiction of the Juye Incident.
Bloodstained undershirt of Franz Xaver Nies.
Roadside marker at the site of the incident.

The Juye Incident (Chinese: 曹州敎案 or 鉅野敎案; pinyin: Cáozhōu Jiào'àn or Jùyě Jiào'àn, German: Juye Vorfall) refers to the killing of two German Catholic missionaries, Richard Henle and Franz Xaver Nies, of the Society of the Divine Word, in Juye County Shandong Province, China in the night of 1–2 November 1897 (All Saints' Day to All Souls' Day).[1] The target of the attack, Georg Maria Stenz, survived unharmed.

Causes

The attack resulted from anger at Stenz, who had likely serially raped Chinese women in Juye county, Shandong.[2]: 11 

Attack

The mission compound where the incident took place was located in Zhang Jia Village (

Requiem Mass (Miseremini mei) for the following All Souls' Day. Stenz had given his room to his guests for the night and had moved into a vacant porter's room himself. Believing the area to be quiet, the missionaries did not take any precautions and Stenz left the door to his room unlocked. A band of twenty to thirty armed men[6] broke into the mission compound shortly after the missionaries had gone to bed. They broke the door to the room where Henle and Nies were staying and killed the two missionaries. Both victims were found to have suffered numerous wounds from stabbing and both were dead shortly before midnight. The attackers searched for Stenz, but could not find him. They retreated when the local Chinese Christians arrived at the scene to help. It is not certain who committed the killings, but it is most commonly assumed that the attack was launched by members of the Big Swords Society.[7]

Impact

Less than two weeks after the Juye Incident, the

Japan) began a "Scramble for China" (or "scramble for concessions") to secure their own spheres of influence in China.[11]

Historian Paul Cohen has called the Juye incident "the opening wedge in a process of greatly intensified imperialist activity in China"[12] and Joseph W. Esherick comments that the Juye killings "set off a chain of events which radically altered the course of Chinese history."[13]

Notes

  1. ^ Esherick 1987, p. 123
  2. S2CID 229542406
    .
  3. ^ Stenz 1915
  4. ^ Stenz 1915
  5. ^ Stenz 1915
  6. ^ Esherick 1987
  7. ^ Clark 2011, p. 52.
  8. ^ Esherick 1987, p. 131.
  9. ^ Tiedemann 2007a, pp. 27–28.
  10. ^ Esherick 1987, pp. 134–35; Cohen 1997, p. 21.
  11. ^ Esherick 1987, pp. 129–30.
  12. ^ Cohen 1997, p. 21
  13. ^ Esherick 1987, p. 123.

Bibliography

Further reading

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Juye Incident.
  • Catholic Cyclopaedia: Chinese Martyrs
  • Tiedemann, R. G. (2007b). "Not Every Martyr is a Saint! The Juye Missionary Case of 1897 Reconsidered." In Noel Golvers and Sara Lievens (eds.), A lifelong dedication to the China mission: essays presented in honor of Father Jeroom Heyndrickx, CICM, on the occasion of his 75th birthday and the 25th anniversary of the F. Verbiest Institute, K.U. Leuven. Leuven Chinese studies, 17. Leuven, Belgium: Ferdinand Verbiest Institute, K.U. Leuven.
    ISBN 90-801833-8-5
    .


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