China Mail 18910610
「馬寶山事件」（Mapao Riots / Mapao Anti-Christian Riots）指的是1890年8月發生在中國四川省重慶州大祖縣馬寶山（現屬重慶大祖區）的一場暴力反外國宗教起義。 它是清朝末年著名的大祖事件（由余東真領導的反基督教起義）的重要部分。
On August 14th, 1890, around 9 a.m., approximately 2,000 armed men, described as disreputable characters, appeared in the market place of Mapao.
They formed three bands, each distinguished by a color—white, red, and green—with their faces smeared and turbans matching their band's color. Tsiang Toaw-chew, mounted on a black horse, commanded these rebels. The local Militia was forced to retire before a heavy fusillade supported by cannon. Masters of the position, the rebels immediately targeted the oratory that M. Pierres had just left. Holy vessels were broken, ornaments smashed to pieces, and everything was either broken or stolen before the building was set on fire in several places. The brigands then dispersed to burn and plunder throughout the area. Families in this station, many of whom were well-off with handsome houses, saw their homes quickly engulfed in flames. The chief's orders were brutal: "Kill the men; violate the women."
Irritated by the resistance offered by a certain Yang, the brigands burnt his house, despite him being a heathen. The Christians had immediately fled, but Tsiang, aged 85, being too old, remained hidden. He was, however, found and killed. Another Christian, Hoang, a native of Lungchow who had already fled from there, was cut to pieces with lances and knives, and his body thrown into the fire. Only these two Christians were killed that day; the rest fled across the mountains by precipitous paths. A large number of women took refuge in Tatsien, where they were met with insults at the city gates, with cries of "Drown the Europeans! Drown the Christians!" Fortunately, some honest people came to their aid, and they eventually found refuge in a Christian inn, arriving in tears and exhausted from fatigue. The alarm in Tatsien was so great that the mandarins implored the priest to leave, promising special interest in and protection for the Christians if he complied. At Tchongtien, he was again begged by the Christians themselves to go further, as the fête of Lin Kwan was just beginning there.
The chief of the rebels sent two messengers to Tatsien to demand that the European, Joseph Pons, his servant, and the two catechists be handed over. Meanwhile, he was received in triumph by his entire army and the dregs of the people. Dressed in the mantle of Lin Kwan, he paraded through the market place with military music and crackers. The two principal temples became his headquarters, from which he dispatched his brigands to make requisitions throughout the district. For several months, a reign of terror gripped the entire countryside.
Frightened by the proportions of the revolt, high officials ordered an inquiry. The Prefect arrived, but his approach indicated a determination to find faults on both sides, portraying the conflict as a simple fight between heathens and Christians. When he found traces of blood in the oratory and inquired about their origin, no Christian dared to answer or return. Eventually, one of the rebel's followers claimed it must be the Christians' blood, specifically that of young Lung, whose corpse had been thrown before the oratory. Two old women then falsely claimed that Christians had hidden the bodies of their two sons in the drains. These areas were torn up, as the chapel pavement had been already, but nothing was found. The well was then searched, yielding: 1) a lock of man's hair, probably belonging to the catechist Tchao; 2) a lock of child's hair with a red cord, probably that of the young Tchao; and 3) three tufts of hair evidently torn from one of the Christians. In the courtyard, the Prefect also found the remains of some burnt bones. He gathered a handful and asked if any Christians had been killed on the 27th. A heathen standing nearby began to answer that his uncle and some other Christians had been killed, but followers of Tsiang Wan-to-beng stopped him, knocking him about so severely that he did not dare to reappear for two months. The Prefect ignored this incident but later accepted anonymous papers posted on walls, reporting them to his superiors as bona fide accusations against the Christians from the people.
He then proceeded to Mapao, where among the burnt farms, he found a half-burnt body. He asked whose it was, and several people identified it as that of a Christian from Sangchow named Hoang, who had taken refuge in the neighborhood and was killed while attempting to flee. However, as no relation was present to attest to the identity and present a petition, the Prefect refused to admit it was Hoang, reporting it instead as an unknown person killed in the fight. All this while, Hoang's mother, in hiding, did not yet know of her son's death. When she did, she came in great grief to present a petition, but dismissed by the Prefect, she went to the Viceroy. To this day, the mandarins pretend to doubt Hoang's death, though it is very certain. When several heathens disputed over Hoang's house, one man defended his rights before the burgesses of the City. But another claimed that having killed the owner with his own hand, he was entitled to it, and drove out the then occupier, who carried his wrongs to the Sub-Prefect. However, the Sub-Prefect refused to inquire into the matter. The Christian Tatang, bringing an act of accusation against his brother's murderer, met with no attention. When a number of Christians presented petitions as the Prefect was leaving for Chungking, he reproached them with having caused the troubles by wounding and killing peaceable people. The Sub-Prefect Tsien, guided by his superior, now completely contradicted himself. He had previously rewarded the Militia for defending the Christians, but now in all his reports, he spoke of the Christians as having wounded or killed some ten persons.
A second invasion of Mapao occurred on September 23rd and 24th, 1890.
The rebels, now masters of the country, established themselves in the market place, reportedly numbering 10,000. They burnt everything they could not carry off in the neighborhood. Christian farmers of Kanpatou were despoiled and had to pay contributions to save their houses. Chased a second time from their homes, the Christians went to Chungking to present petitions. There, the Prefect, in full tribunal, invited these poor persecuted people to apostatize, promising they would then neither be robbed nor tormented anymore. Addressing Liu Niu-chang, who held a button of rank, he said, "Deny your religion, and you will live honored by your fellow-citizens instead of being a butt for their hatred and their persecution." Regarding Father Pons's petition, the Viceroy stated that the Prefect had made a contradictory report, and therefore both parties ought to appear before the Prefect for him to decide the truth, thus clearly showing the Viceroy's own view of the matter. This method of mixing victims and tormentors had already succeeded in 1886, when Lo, a very influential Christian in Chungking, was celebrating his mother's funeral with his house full of friends when rioters broke in. He thought he might use the right, acknowledged by all nations, of repelling violence with violence. In the struggle, several rioters were killed or wounded. Consequently, Lo, whose influence had made him an object of suspicion to the mandarins, was put to death without even a trial. The Sub-Prefect then posted a proclamation stating: "Since the said oratory had beforehand assembled 100 fighting men, that proves that it had decided for battle. That day, on the part of the people, more than 10 were wounded, whilst on the side of the oratory there was only one," etc. The Christians, two months ago driven out of their houses, were now ordered to attend quietly to their business. Great was the joy of the rioters, seeing themselves not only unpunished but the Christians treated as guilty. It was then Father Pons decided to go to the capital to vindicate his Christians, but all his efforts were in vain.
The third attack on Mapao took place on October 23rd and 24th, 1890.
The rebels, finding themselves supported by the mandarins, entered the market place, again about 2,000 strong. On their flags, they displayed the slogan: "By order of the Emperor: Destruction of Religion! Rebellion! Tsiang Chew, General in Command." They proclaimed that they would only attack Christians and that they wished to destroy religion in the Emperor's name. For the third time, everything was sacked, burnt, and destroyed throughout the surrounding country. The Christians fled to the mountains, pursued by assassins who this time had sworn to kill them. They particularly persecuted the women, seizing especially young girls and virgins consecrated to God, to outrage and torment. Accounts followed of the terrible sufferings of many women trying to escape.
It was then that Sub-Prefect Tsien committed his most odious injustice. Hearing that 108 women from Mapao were coming to seek refuge in Tatsien, he ordered the city gates to be shut against them. The poor women, who had been supported by the hope of finding some protection beside the Mandarin, knew not what to do. They had to submit to the insults of the people of the outskirts. Some of the principal people of the town, angered by such injustice and considering that Christians, paying taxes like others, were equally citizens of the Empire, remonstrated with the Mandarin. "Why," they asked, "have only rebels and assassins a right to the protection of our city? And are poor people robbed of all they had and threatened with death not allowed refuge in a city walled by the Emperor at the expense of the taxpayers?" But the poor women had to continue to Chungking, where they arrived four days later, worn out by fatigue and exposed to the insults of the populace all the way.
Meanwhile, the rebels, divided into several bands, continued their excesses. Six families had their houses burnt on October 28th; the next day, they burnt two more. The Temple of the ancestors of the Tsiang family was not spared; it was a large and magnificent building, inhabited by three Christian and 15 heathen families. All were enveloped in similar ruin. The oratory of Tchow was only saved by the determined attitude of the leader of the National Guard. On October 31st, the dispensary at Sanku was burnt, and the houses of 12 Christian families were robbed and burnt. A young woman was stripped of her clothes and dragged into a Temple where the brigands were encamped. It was from there the rebels planned to attack the district of Wuchang. They were just starting when a madman met them, crying, "Scoundrels! Murderers! You deserve nothing short of death!" Irritated, the rebels attacked him with their daggers, striking him full on the chest. Such cruelty disgusted the people around, who wanted to seize the assassins. Their leaders then acted "liberally," giving 25 strings of cash, and the victim's relations, fearing reprisals, consented to keep silence. But seeing the people were now hostile, the rebels did not dare to continue their excesses and dispersed. Thus, the station of Mapao was saved. Nevertheless, on November 1st, they robbed two more Christian families; on November 10th, more than 100 of them attacked the house of the Yang family and killed an old man of 70. This family had embraced Christianity more than 200 years ago.
So great were the disorders that the mandarins themselves now began to cry out for soldiers. A colonel and some soldiers indeed set out for Chungking, and Father Pons followed them a few days afterwards. The Viceroy put out a proclamation in which occurred these words: "We learn that a band of blackguards spread reports that the Christians are to be attacked, which is in reality only an excuse for robbing them. Men who thus gather together to do evil are not to be counted among respectable people." Nevertheless, the report sent in made out that the Christians had wounded and killed many of the people; that it was to take reprisals that the militia rose; and this time the number of pretended victims grew to twelve children wounded and eighteen grown-up people killed. No names were, however, given. Father Pons then begged to be brought face to face with the Sub-Prefect and two captains of the militia and examined in the presence of the Viceroy's Commissioners. But they would not receive him and went away again. Father Pons exclaimed, "And this is the Chinese way! The mandarins accuse me of having killed 18 people in my oratory, and they refuse even to hear my defense!"
The soldiers got into trouble with the people and the rebels, and, disgusted with the weakness of their leaders, deserted in large numbers until only about half were left. Such was the position at Tatsien when three delegates of the Taotai came to propose an arrangement. M. Blathery, being ill, sent three missionaries to receive them. In the course of conversation, it was easy to see what they required: 1) That there should be no indemnity, seeing that the Christians had brought their misfortunes upon themselves. 2) That Father Pons should be recalled, as unsuited for this part of the country, having been three times driven out. 3) The Christians, who are Chinese, to be judged by their own authorities; therefore, those who have wounded the people (whether true or false, this must be acknowledged) shall be punished according to the laws. 4) The two oratories of Lungchiu and Mapao shall be placed elsewhere. 5) The rebels, of whom a list had been sent in, having troubled the country, shall be taken and judged one after the other.
All this was simply mockery. The three missionaries made it clear they could agree to nothing of the kind. Besides which, it was difficult to conclude any agreement before peace was re-established, the rebels being still massed, and the Christians unable to return home. This interview showed clearly how far the mandarins carried their ill will. It is for this reason the Pro-Vicar sent Father Pons to Peking to lay the position before the French Minister, hoping that this step might be more useful than the others, and bring back peace and tranquillity to the much-tried district of Tatsien.
It may be as well to add, what is not stated in the official report, that about 2,000 Christians of Tatsien are still taking refuge in Chungking, afraid to return to their homes, and for the most part, objects of charity. For men and women, who have been agriculturists all their lives, are unable at once to earn a living in an already crowded city, where also for the present, trade is absolutely at a standstill. Over sixty have died of hardship and exposure. Not one has apostatized, though any doing so would be at once free to return to their old home.
—N.-C. Daily News.
China Mail 1890-09-09
China Mail 1890-09-09
More riots have been reported in Szechuan. (From a Mercury Correspondent.) Chungking, Aug 20th, 1891. A rumor has been circulating here for some days regarding a riot at Ta Chu Hsien, about three days' journey from Chungking. It was initially difficult to ascertain the facts, but now it is clear that something serious has occurred, as the Prefect of Chungking has gone there with all the force he could muster. The latest reports indicate that the Magistrate of Ta Chu took poison and died, the place was in a state of anarchy, and the Chungking Prefect was held prisoner.
The most reliable account of the affair's origin suggests it began as an anti-Christian demonstration. On the twenty-third of the eighth moon, a procession was planned in honor of the god of thunder. The Christians, as usual, refused to contribute to the expenses, which led to threats to pull down the Catholic Mission buildings. The militia turned out to protect these buildings, and the originator of the trouble was arrested and handed over to the Magistrate, who imprisoned him. Subsequently, a crowd organized a demonstration to demand his release. Soldiers have been dispatched from Chungking, but nothing definite is yet known about the outcome.
In Chungking itself, anonymous placards reviling missionaries have been posted. Under the existing state of affairs, it would take very little to incite another anti-missionary riot here. This is largely because no one has ever been punished for participating in such matters, and there is always something to be gained with little risk of being called to account.
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Three thousand coffins are stored in a house. They do not always manage things better in Shanghai, at any rate not in the parts outside the jurisdiction of the Municipal Council of the English settlement. The N.-C. Daily News recently reported that thousands of unburied coffins were stored in the native city. This statement has been confirmed by an educated Chinaman, who writes as follows to our contemporary:
During July and August, reliable sources indicate that deaths among Chinese inhabiting the English, American, and French concessions amounted to about five thousand. The majority of these were Ningpoese. Currently, the Ningpo Guild-house, located outside the West Gate, is filled with coffins piled on top of each other like bales of cotton in a godown. These coffins are typically provided by charitable institutions or individuals, with prices ranging from four to eight dollars each. The boards are very thin, and the joints are loose and ill-fitted. Little, if any, lining is placed inside the coffin, and chunam is economically used to stop up the cracks.
Imagine two to three thousand of these ill-made, loose-jointed, thin-boarded coffins, each containing a corpse filled with germs of disease and in a decomposing state, all crowded into one place as in the Ningpo Guild-house. When one contemplates the enormous amount of poisonous gas that must escape from these three thousand coffins day and night, wafted all over the settlement and surrounding country, penetrating every dwelling, and inhaled by all classes of people, old and young alike, one is convinced that the present rate of mortality is very low indeed.
The Municipal Council is well aware that the Ningpo and other guild-houses serve as storage for coffins, and they know it is better and safer to have coffins deeply buried than piled in a building. However, because the Ningpo Guild-house falls outside their jurisdiction, they have permitted this nuisance to continue year after year, breathing death and epidemics during the bad seasons. The Ningpo Guild-house reportedly accepts and keeps coffins for three years. If no relatives or friends claim them after this period, they are interred at the Guild's expense. The question arises: why cannot the coffins be buried as soon as they are received, with plots of ground marked? This way, if claimed, the bones could be gathered up and taken home, as is the usual custom with the Cantonese.
The Municipal Council, it is conceded, is powerless to enforce such a regulation. However, the Shanghai Taotai is absolute in such cases, as he is in many others. The Council should request the foreign representatives at this port to make a joint appeal to the Taotai, outlining the evil and danger of unburied coffins in the guild-houses and suggesting he order all such coffins to be put underground as speedily as possible. By this means, the frequent occurrence of epidemics and death could be greatly arrested. If the Taotai claims he is unable to act, he cannot mean what he says. A second and third communication, each more forceful than the previous, and implying a threat to write to Peking, will surely bring about the desired result. The Chinese themselves acknowledge that badly-made coffins, with bodies full of epidemic disease germs, ought not to be left above ground. Yet, bound by erroneous ideas of feng shui and disinclined to deal with officials, they prefer to remain silent. Nevertheless, though silent, they would feel grateful toward the Council and Consuls if steps were taken at once to move the Taotai to issue a stringent order for the immediate burial of all coffins now in the various guild-houses and any that may be received in the future.
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The strike movement in China is gaining attention. Strikes among workmen being the order of the day, it is not to be wondered at if they make their appearance in China. We must not, however, expect to find them carried out as they are in home countries; on the contrary, we are justified in looking for the very opposite. China is the antipodes of Western lands in so many things that strikes and their management are almost sure to be widely different. With us, the demand is on the part of the employed, and either shorter hours or larger wages forms the bone of contention. We have just heard of a case that occurred a week or two ago at the Kiangnan Arsenal where the very opposite features occurred, with the aggression being on the part of the employer.
At the Arsenal, which employs about two thousand men, the custom had always been eight hours of work per day since its commencement some twenty or more years ago. The new Director, Lin Ta-jen, considering this amount too little for the wages paid, resolved to increase it to nine hours. The workmen steadily refused. The majority were naturally against the innovation, and the minority, though in considerable force, were completely intimidated. Hence, on the morning when the new regulation was to commence, the steam was raised in the boilers, the whistle sounded, and the machinery was set in motion as usual, but not a workman dared to pass inside the gates to work. It looked at first as if this state of things might last for months, as both sides showed no symptoms of relenting. But things go by contraries in China. In the afternoon, the workmen, seeing that they made not the least impression on the Directors, who could easily stop all work for an indefinite time, concluded that discretion was the better part of valor and meekly gave in. Half a day was all the time lost, and the extra hour's work is now done as regularly as if it had been the rule from the commencement.
This incident only shows what an easily governed, law-abiding race the Chinese are. A little firmness is all that is needed to keep them under control. It seems as if the great problem of how to avoid strikes, which is now agitating Western nations down to their very foundations, is one that will not trouble China for years to come. (N.-C. Daily News.)
China Mail 1890-10-13
China Mail 1890-10-13
海口（Hoihow）与琼山（Kiungchow）
Kiungchow, Oct. 8th.
Hoihow and Kiungchow have been greatly excited during the last few days over the imposition of an excessive lekin tax. On Saturday last, the excitement rose to such a pitch that it resulted in a collision between the people and the bodyguard of the Taotai, causing the death of four rioters and the wounding of perhaps a dozen others.
From the best accounts secured, it seems that the Viceroy at Canton some time since sold the privilege of collecting taxes on kerosene, matches, and cotton yarn at Hoihow for 16,000 taels. The collector began and quietly collected 40 cents a box on kerosene, and on other things in the same proportion. Things were going on quite smoothly when a new collector arrived from Canton, with the privilege of collecting a tax on piece goods, cotton, and one or two other articles. The tax on cloth especially aroused opposition.
On Friday last, all the shops in Hoihow closed their doors. A rabble seized one of the tax collectors, and after maltreating him, placed him in a cangue, where he remained until released by the magistrate, who came to inquire into the trouble.
On Saturday, the Taotai went to Hoihow to tell the people that he would refer the matter to Canton. However, the people present were not satisfied with this offer and demanded that these taxes be declared abolished by him. He refused to do so, claiming he had no authority for such a course, at which the rabble became very much excited and began to throw stones and pieces of tiles. The guard of the Taotai fired a volley of blank cartridges at them, which only made them fiercer. Then a volley of bullets was fired by the soldiers with the sad effect stated above. The crowd at once dispersed, and the Taotai returned to Kiungchow.
On the next day, he put out proclamations, asking that the shops be opened as usual and promising that all collecting of the duties mentioned above would be for the present abandoned. He also stated that the tax on matches and piece goods would be given up, and that he would refer to Canton the question of the collection of the tax on the other articles. He also offered pecuniary remuneration to the families of the dead and to the wounded. The next day, the shops were opened as usual, and quiet was again restored; but there is considerable feeling manifested among the people towards the Viceroy for imposing the taxes, and towards the Taotai for the severe measures he adopted to quell the disturbance.
China Mail 1890-11-05
China Mail 1890-11-05
The Chungking correspondent of the Shanghai Mercury writes on August 25th about the latest and apparently most reliable account of trouble at Tu Chu Hsien. The unrest arose out of a celebration held at a village called Loong Tuy Tain, about twenty li from Ta Chu, on the sixteenth of the sixth moon. This celebration was in honour of the Lin Kuan Joss, who is apparently the patron deity of the Ko Lao Hui, a well-known interdicted secret society. After the ceremonies, which lasted several days, were over and the seniors duly elected, it was proposed to inquire of the oracle connected with this joss if it would be safe to plunder Christians. The answer was in the affirmative.
Consequently, on the nineteenth of the sixth moon, the brotherhood, composed of bad characters from several neighbouring districts, raided a number of well-to-do Christian families and plundered them, carrying off everything they could lay hands on. This attack appears to have been entirely unprovoked and unlooked for. The Christians were taken so unawares that they had but little opportunity to secrete anything. The crowd remained in the village, feasting on their plunder, until the twenty-eighth. During this time, the oracle was again consulted, the answer being again favourable.
On the twenty-eighth, they made a fresh attack on the Christians and butchered over twenty persons in cold blood; nineteen were counted in the streets, and several are known to have been cut into pieces and thrown into the river. The mission buildings and many others were burned, and the corpses thrown into the flames. The following day, they went to another village or market-town, also about twenty li away, called Mar-ban-chang, and there they went through a similar performance. The Christians fled, and they only captured one, who seems to have been a cripple, and whom they immediately dispatched. Some of the headmen of the village tried to restrain the rioters but were themselves assaulted and had to run for their lives. There seems to have been quite a number of well-to-do Christians in this village, many of whose houses were destroyed, while everything moveable of any value was carried off.
This affair is about on a par with the Indian raids in the Far Western territories of America. Two years ago, at about the same time and place, and at the festival in honour of the same joss, there was a similar occurrence; many Christians were plundered and had their houses pulled down. For this affair, no one was punished, and it is a notorious fact that in none of these anti-Christian riots have the leaders or agitators been punished. The officials simply pay the damages, and the perpetrators get off free, proving an example to others that it is no crime to plunder Christians, although it is well known to be a capital offence against non-Christians.
In the present instance, if the magistrate of Ta'Chu had come out after the row on the nineteenth with a strong proclamation denouncing the rioters and threatening vengeance on all law-breakers, there is no doubt that rioting would have ceased. He simply did nothing but let matters take their course. He reported the matter to his superiors, but they were far away and could do nothing. During the nine days in which he took no action, the crowd gained courage for further depredations. He did not even poison himself, as was rumoured.
The priest in charge of the mission took refuge in the Yamên. The prefect has returned to Chungking, but nothing is known as to how the matter has ended. Presumably, the crowd has dispersed, and now it is only a matter of money damages, as it is doubtful if the officials will depart from their old policy of letting the offenders go free.
Placards were to be posted in Chungking appointing the twentieth of the seventh moon to exterminate all the foreigners in the city, but the correspondent does not apprehend any trouble. The Magistrate is on the lookout and has not only issued a warning but has ordered his runners and the tithingmen of the ward in which the placard was posted to find the writers. They declared that they were unable to find them, whereupon he declared that he would assist them, and administered two hundred slaps on the face of each of them, sending them off to find the party that posted the placard. As yet, the correspondent has not heard of his being found, but they found someone else at an opium shop, a fellow who was telling what was to be done to the Christians and foreigners on a certain day. When one of the yamên runners, who was also having a smoke, laid his pipe down and laid hold of the fellow's queue, he marched him off to the yamên, where a course of bamboo was energetically applied as a warning to him not to know too much.
An update on October 23rd states that the above letter was unavoidably delayed in transmission. Nothing new has transpired since it was written, except that a rumour has reached the correspondent that the Taotai of Chungking has been removed on account of his muddling the likin and other business, and a nephew of Li Hung-chang is said to have been appointed in his place.