A Deep-Dive Into the Anti-Christian Riots in Tianjin in 1870
Who Benefited From the Violence?
This is a deep dive into the anti-missionary and anti-Christian riots in Tianjin around 1870 that killed about 60 people, including the French consul, as well as priests and nuns. It was mentioned in passing three posts ago during a look at Cixi’s early years.
Chinese people in the 1800s were just getting to know Christians. Even in a port city like Tianjin, Christians and missionaries were strange.
Because of western gunboats, these Christians have special rights. They are outside of Chinese law. The Chinese magistrate can’t judge the French and if a Chinese Christian doesn’t like Chinese law, he can ask for a new ruling by a Christian official in a foreign concession.
French priests put holy water on children, who then die.
French nuns pay cash to those who drop off young children at the missions.
Chinese children in the orphanages far too commonly are blind.
What is going on?
There’s a drought in 1870 and there have been some hot June days and nights. People are fed up with the foreigners and with Chinese children being kidnapped.
Two Chinese Christians, Chen Xibao and Wu Lanzhen are separately taken to the local Chinese magistrate. Chen is beaten by the crowd and accused of kidnapping. Then the Prefect interrogates him. Chen is a real Christian and a reader at the church. The truth is uncovered and the magistrate finds that Chen was just walking children home. He is released. But Wu is questioned and he describes mats, sheds and gates inside the church grounds. He is then taken to the church by Chinese authorities and his lies are revealed. The church grounds look nothing like what he invented. He had not been inside before and is a liar. He is found to have kidnapped Li Suo and had a Chinese Christian accomplice. This implicates the church.
An angry anti-Christian crowd gathers outside the French cathedral and smashes windows.
Stories are going around. Those Christians kidnap children, kill them and use their eyes for medicine and other weird purposes. Shouldn’t that be punished?
The crowd outside the mission demands release of the children. After some hot days and hot nights, people have had trouble sleeping. Everyone’s impatient and ill-tempered.
Chinese Catholics are scared and ask the French Consul to protect them. The French Consul visits the magistrate and lodges a complaint. There’s an argument and French Consul Fontanier shoots and wounds a Chinese assistant.
The mob finds out and storms the French consulate. The French Consul and his assistant, M. Simon, are killed and their bodies dumped in the river.
Now, the mob goes to the mission property next door, including the Church of Our Lady of Victory, presbytery, convent, and orphanage.
They find a jar with what looks like eyes torn from children.
Over the next few days, the Tianjin Cathedral and four British and American churches are burned down. More blood is spilled. Two Lazarist priests, and approximately 40 Chinese Christians are killed, as well as three Russian traders believed to be French. Ten nuns of the Daughters of Charity are raped, mutilated and then killed. All in all, around 60 people die in the riots.
The palace in the capital sends Marquis Zeng Guofan to investigate.
He finds the rumours that the foreigners blinding and killing children to be groundless.
Around 1860, a Lazarist priest, Father Joseph Tsiou had started the mission in Tianjin. He was a physician, and when he could not heal an infant, he would baptize them. Baptism (putting holy water on the child) doesn’t kill the child. It is meant as a blessing for children who were going to die anyways. Father Tsiou had died, but that practice continues.
What was the harm in some holy water? Maybe it did save their souls?
Children in France also send their pennies to save children in China. They are told that Chinese children are often abandoned. If they could be brought to a mission, they could be fed, clothed and educated. French children send their coins to the Oeuvre de la Sainte Enfance in China to save the children there. These coins are then used by nuns to pay a small amount to those who bring abandoned children to the mission. Maybe they shouldn’t be paid. Maybe they are paid too much. It seems like the coins are enough to cause some scoundrels to kidnap children rather than bringing truly orphaned children.
And sometimes, times are hard. There’s a drought. There are too many mouths to feed. Why not have the missions take care of some children until their families have more money again and can take them back?
Marquis Zeng speaks with the children. None of them were kidnapped, he hears.
As for blind children, the missions receive many disabled children. Life is hard for disabled children and for families with disabled children. With many mouths to feed, families might be best to focus on the able-bodied and those who can see. Let the orphanages look after the blind and crippled ones.
That jar is full of pickled onions, not children’s eyes.
Not all is perfect in the orphanages. Babies and infants need breast milk. There aren’t enough wet nurses. And even if the missions can arrange wet nurses, they aren’t always in the same places as where the children are dropped off, nearer to villages. Too often, babies are dropped off in weakened states, and don’t survive long enough for the orphanages to nurse them back to health. They’ve tried mixing millet and water, but this early infant formula isn’t good enough.
Marquis Zeng finds that Chen Guorui (Big Chief Chen), the favourite of Regent Prince Chun, brother of the late Emperor and uncle to the new teenage Emperor is behind things. Big Chief Chen spread the rumours. He had blacksmiths make weapons for days before the riots. On the most violent day of the rebellion, he ordered men out beating gongs to call out crowds. The Foreign Concessions, where the Europeans live and where the church properties are, are across the river from where most Chinese live. Big Chief Chen has pontoon bridges built.
When Commissioner Chonghou, in charge of Tianjin’s security, had a pontoon bridge dismantled, Chen makes sure it is reassembled.
Chen is Prince Chun’s protege. Prince Chun writes that “I am extremely fond of this man and intend to use him for our cause against foreign barbarians.” He tells the palace that the mob must be encouraged and not punished.
Smaller riots also break out in other cities around the same time. In Nanjing, on the Yangtze River, similar rumours were spreading. Local Viceroy Ma Xinyi punished rumour mongers and was assassinated.
Earl Li comes up with a solution that will calm things down. Let’s kill a few of the murderers, but not too many. The westerners value generosity and wouldn’t want to see collective punishment. Too many executions would only inflame the situation and hurt the long-term interest.
On the day of their execution, those soon to be executed criminals are celebrated as heroes. They are so poor that they only have a first name and no last name. Twenty-five more are banished to the Chinese frontier. The crowd cheers these Chinese heroes. Two local officials are punished, but not too harshly. Only for not forcefully suppressing the mob. They are re-assigned to the frontier for a little while. Commander Chen is not punished and keeps his role.
The palace pays generous compensation to France and to the church for the damage and the fallen. A formal apology is made to the French Prime Minister.
This won’t be the last time that we see conspiracies and people in the palace using peasants for their own power games. We will see it again in the Boxer Rebellion. Maybe you can think of other cases?
