Tianjin Massacre
The Tientsin Massacre (
Background
Around 1860, a Lazarist priest, Father Joseph Tsiou, began a mission in Tianjin. Tsiou was a skilled physician, who made it practice to baptize seriously ill infants whom he could not heal. This led to the impression that the baptism itself caused the deaths and there was opposition to this among the populace. Tsiou died in 1861 and was replaced by a French missionary and sisters of the congregation of the Daughters of Charity. In keeping with the Holy Childhood program popular at that time, the mission continued the practice of teaching and baptizing sick and abandoned children.[1][2]
False rumors circulated for years that the missionaries killed children in order to remove the eyes for the manufacture of some expensive medicines.
Incident
The summer of 1870 was hotter and drier than usual, and the popular mood was unsettled. Angry and excited crowds assembled in the street from time to time in the neighborhood of the Mission buildings and demanded the release of the children. It does not appear that either the mission nor the French Consul took any steps at this time to allay the public's fears. On June 18, two Chinese kidnappers were arrested 30 li outside Tianjin, were investigated and executed forthwith. According to Chonghou, Commissioner for the Three Ports, "Talk about kidnapping became more and more widespread among the populace. Because of this, the streets and alleys were not tranquil."[6] Subsequently, the populace apprehended and sent in a "reader" from the church, Chen Xibao. He was beaten and sent to the magistrate. Through the Tianjin prefect, Liu Jie, he was interrogated and it was found that, in reality, he was leading students home, and was not kidnapping them. He was subsequently released. There was also a case in which the residents of Taohuakou apprehended and sent in Wu Lanzhen, who had kidnapped Li Suo. From the prefect's interrogation, Wang San from the church was implicated.[6] Upon further investigation, the Chinese authorities determined that Wu Lanzhen had lied.
Chinese officials met with their French counterparts, who had assumed responsibility for the Catholic missions to China since the
Commissioner Chonghou's account
While the Chinese magistrate's staff attempted to suppress the riot, the French Consul visited the magistrate's official quarters to lodge a very angry complaint. Fontanier shot and wounded a Chinese assistant after an argument with the magistrate, under the threats of the mob. The French Consul and his assistant, M. Simon, were murdered by the rioters and their bodies dumped in the river.[6]
Newspaper report
The London Pall Mall Gazette reported that on June 20, in anticipation of local unrest, the British Consul at Tianjin, Mr. Lay, had contacted the British Minister, Mr. Wade, requesting that a man-of-war be sent to the port. It further said that Consul Fontanier and his aide M. Simon had been killed when the mob stormed the French consulate. The mob then proceeded to the mission property next door, which housed the recently completed Church of Our Lady of Victory, the presbytery, the convent, and orphanage.
The riot only ended after a number of Catholic institutions and foreign buildings, including the Tientsin Cathedral and four British and American churches, were burned down. As well as the two French Consular officials, two
Aftermath
The Chinese government immediately condemned the riot. Foreign gunboats were sent to restore order to the legations of Tianjin, with reparations and reprisals demanded by the European governments. Chinese negotiations to mitigate the damage were led by the aging statesman Zeng Guofan. The situation was more complex than Zeng originally thought; he interrogated the orphans, who denied they had been kidnapped, and proclaimed the nuns innocent. Foldable hand fans began to appear depicting the murder of the French Consul near the door of the church as political propaganda expressing resistance to Western countries and their religions. Europeans were incensed and demanded punishment against the riot's ringleaders. Zeng had eighteen Chinese instigators (or scapegoats, depending on who tells the history) executed and removed both the magistrate and much of his staff. A Chinese mission of apology sailed to France, under Imperial Commissioner Chonghou. A formal apology was presented to the provisional French Head of State Adolphe Thiers in November 1871. China paid France the large sum of 400,000 taels as compensation.[9]
The Tientsin Incident was far-reaching politically and culturally. Before 1870 the French and Chinese had been negotiating a clause to bring Western missionaries under the same guidelines as Chinese
See also
- Anti-missionary riots in China
- Chonghou, (1826-1893) a key diplomat
- Yangzhou riot, of 1868
References
- ^ a b Collard, Maurice. The Martyrs of Tien Tsin, 1926
- ^ Henrietta Harrison, "'A Penny for the Little Chinese': The French Holy Childhood Association in China, 1843–1951." American Historical Review 113.1 (2008): 72-92. online
- ^ Great Britain. Foreign Office, Correspondence Respecting Anti-foreign Riots in China (1891) p. 10.
- ^ Immanuel C.Y. Hsu, Rise of modern China (1975) pp 299-302.
- ^ John King Fairbank, "Patterns behind the Tientsin Massacre." Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 20.3/4 (1957): 480-511.
- ^ a b c "Tianjin Massacre - Chonghou's report". spendelow.georgetown.domains. Retrieved 2023-01-03.
- ^ "The Tianjin Massacre", San Francisco Bulletia, August 13, 1870 This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
- ^ Hsu, Rise of modern China (1975) pp 301-302.
Further reading
- Bays, Daniel H. : Christianity in China: From the Eighteenth Century to the Present (1996) online review
- Barend, J. Ter Haar. Telling Stories: Witchcraft and Scapegoating in Chinese History, (Brill, Leiden: 2006) chap. 4, ‘Westerners as Scapegoats’ pp. 154–201.
- Cohen, Paul A. China and Christianity: The Missionary Movement and the Growth of Chinese Anti-Foreignism, 1860–1870. (Harvard University Press, Cambridge: 1963)
- Fairbank, John King. "Patterns Behind the Tientsin Massacre." Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 20, no. 3/4 (1957): 480–511. online
- Harrison, Henrietta "'A Penny for the Little Chinese': The French Holy Childhood Association in China, 1843–1951." American Historical Review 113.1 (2008): 72–92. online
- Thin, George. The Tientsin massacre, the causes of the late disturbances in China and how to secure permanent peace (1970) online, primary sources
- The Tientsin massacre: being documents published in the Shanghai Evening Courier, from June 16th to Sept. 10th, 1870 (1870); primary sources online