The Tientsin Massacre (), was an attack on Christian missionaries and converts in the late 19th century during the late

Qing dynasty The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing,, was a Manchu-led imperial dynasty of China and the last orthodox dynasty in Chinese history. It emerged from the Later Jin dynasty founded by the Jianzhou Jurchens, a Tungusic-speak ...

. 60 people died in attacks on French Catholic priests and nuns. There was intense belligerence from French diplomats, and armed foreign intervention in

Tianjin Tianjin (; ; Mandarin: ), alternately romanized as Tientsin (), is a municipality and a coastal metropolis in Northern China on the shore of the Bohai Sea. It is one of the nine national central cities in Mainland China, with a total popu ...

(Tientsin) in 1870. The incident nearly precipitated a war and marked an end to relative cooperation between foreign powers and the Tongzhi court, and adversely affected the ongoing renegotiation of the Treaties of Tientsin, first signed in 1858. French Catholic missionaries were active in China; they were funded by appeals in French churches. The Holy Childhood Association (L'Oeuvre de la Sainte Enfance) was a Catholic charity founded in 1843 to rescue Chinese children from

infanticide Infanticide (or infant homicide) is the intentional killing of infants or offspring. Infanticide was a widespread practice throughout human history that was mainly used to dispose of unwanted children, its main purpose is the prevention of resou ...

. It was a target of Chinese anti-Christian protests led by the local gentry who saw the need to defend

Confucianism Confucianism, also known as Ruism or Ru classicism, is a system of thought and behavior originating in ancient China. Variously described as tradition, a philosophy, a Religious Confucianism, religion, a humanistic or rationalistic religion, ...

. Rioting sparked by false rumors of the killing of babies led to the death of a French consul and provoked a diplomatic crisis.

Background

Around 1860, a

Lazarist , logo = , image = Vincentians.png , abbreviation = CM , nickname = Vincentians, Paules, Lazarites, Lazarists, Lazarians , established = , founder = Vincent de Paul , fou ...

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.Collard, Maurice. ''The Martyrs of Tien Tsin'', 1926 False rumors circulated for years that the missionaries killed children in order to remove the eyes for the manufacture of some expensive medicines. In June 1870, rumors spread throughout China concerning Catholic nuns who used to give small cash rewards to people who brought homeless or unwanted children to their orphanages. This led illicit child-brokers to engage in kidnapping. Throughout 1870, deaths at these orphanages increased due to outbreaks of disease. Tensions between Chinese residents of the northeastern port city of Tianjin (Tientsin) and western missionaries erupted in 1870 in the riot known as the Tianjin Massacre.

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."Chonghou. Report of Tianjin Massacre, 23 June 1870, Georgetown University
/ref> 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. 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

Arrow War The Second Opium War (), also known as the Second Anglo-Sino War, the Second China War, the Arrow War, or the Anglo-French expedition to China, was a colonial war lasting from 1856 to 1860, which pitted the British Empire#Britain's imperial ...

. However, an angry anti-Christian crowd had gathered outside the cathedral and smashed windows. Chinese Catholic converts begged the French Consul, Henri-Victor Fontanier, to appeal directly to the

county magistrate County magistrate ( or ) sometimes called local magistrate, in imperial China was the official in charge of the '' xian'', or county, the lowest level of central government. The magistrate was the official who had face-to-face relations with t ...

, Chonghou, for public calm.

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.

Newspaper report

Chapel of the Sisters of Charity after the Tianjin Massacre Wellcome L0056093

The London ''

Pall Mall Gazette ''The Pall Mall Gazette'' was an evening newspaper founded in London on 7 February 1865 by George Murray Smith; its first editor was Frederick Greenwood. In 1921, '' The Globe'' merged into ''The Pall Mall Gazette'', which itself was absorbed in ...

'' 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 The man-of-war (also man-o'-war, or simply man) was a Royal Navy expression for a powerful warship or frigate from the 16th to the 19th century. Although the term never acquired a specific meaning, it was usually reserved for a ship armed wi ...

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

Lazarist , logo = , image = Vincentians.png , abbreviation = CM , nickname = Vincentians, Paules, Lazarites, Lazarists, Lazarians , established = , founder = Vincent de Paul , fou ...

priests, and approximately 40 Chinese Christians were killed, as were three Russian traders assumed by the mob to be French."The Tianjin Massacre", ''San Francisco Bulletia'', August 13, 1870
/ref> A jar of pickled onions found was claimed to be the eyes torn from children. Ten nuns of the Daughters of Charity were raped and mutilated by the crowd before being killed.Greene, J. Megan. "Tianjin Massacre, 1870", ''The International Encyclopedia of Revolution and Protests'', John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., 2009
/ref> The final death toll of the riot was given at around 60.

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 Zeng Guofan, Marquis Yiyong (; 26 November 1811 – 12 March 1872), birth name Zeng Zicheng, courtesy name Bohan, was a Chinese statesman and military general of the late Qing dynasty. He is best known for raising and organizing the Xiang ...

. 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 Marie Joseph Louis Adolphe Thiers ( , ; 15 April 17973 September 1877) was a French statesman and historian. He was the second elected President of France and first President of the French Third Republic. Thiers was a key figure in the July Rev ...

in November 1871. China paid France the large sum of 400,000 taels as compensation.Hsu, ''Rise of modern China'' (1975) pp 301-302. 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

Buddhist Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and ...

and

Taoist Taoism (, ) or Daoism () refers to either a school of philosophical thought (道家; ''daojia'') or to a religion (道教; ''daojiao''), both of which share ideas and concepts of Chinese origin and emphasize living in harmony with the '' Tao ...

religious institutions, in the hope it would stop such situations as occurred at Tientsin. Afterwards, however, the French and Americans refused to allow Chinese control or protection over the spread of Christianity in the country. The Qing government replied in turn by refusing to either proscribe or endorse foreign missionaries. For Europeans, the riot and loss of life was further proof that the Chinese government could not be trusted to protect foreigners or their investments. For many Chinese, the fact Europeans and missionaries continued to be an elite outside the realms of Chinese law, and seemingly able to engage in actions through military force without serious repercussions, directly led to anti-foreign feeling which led to the

Boxer Rebellion The Boxer Rebellion, also known as the Boxer Uprising, the Boxer Insurrection, or the Yihetuan Movement, was an Xenophobia, anti-foreign, anti-colonialism, anti-colonial, and Persecution of Christians#China, anti-Christian uprising in China ...

of 1900.

Background

Incident

Commissioner Chonghou's account

Newspaper report

Aftermath

See also

References

Further reading