A Brief History of the Tujia: Anti-Imperialist and Anti-Feudal Struggles (Part 2)
II. Opposing Foreign Churches and Protecting Ethnic Rights — Foreign churches and missionaries were the vanguard of Western capitalist aggression. As early as 1783, Catholicism had reached Badong County. After the Opium War, missionaries relied on unequal treaties to expand their influence.
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II. Opposing Foreign Churches and Protecting National Rights and Interests
Foreign churches and missionaries were the vanguard of Western capitalist aggression against China. As early as the forty-eighth year of Qianlong's reign in the Qing dynasty (1783), the tentacles of Catholicism had already reached the Xisha River area of Badong County, and local residents were already privately believing in Catholicism. After the Opium War, missionaries, relying on a series of unequal treaties and with gunboats as their backing, became the vanguard of Western capitalist aggression against China, rushing one after another into the remote villages and backwaters of the Tujia region. By the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Catholic and Protestant churches stood in most county towns and important market towns of the Tujia region; missionaries from France, Britain, the United States, Belgium, Spain, Finland, and other countries had footprints in almost every town and village. In Yongshun County alone, the county town had a Catholic cathedral, 2 church schools, and 1 hospital, while branch churches and preaching halls in market towns and rural areas numbered as many as 10. Using the churches as bases, holding the Bible and cloaking themselves in 'charity,' they gathered intelligence, interfered in internal affairs, violated sovereignty, took over lawsuits, seized land and property, carried out cultural aggression, sowed discord among ethnic groups, and served the establishment of colonial rule by capitalist-imperialist powers in the Tujia region. The converts they recruited were mostly local bullies, thugs, and other scoundrels. Relying on the power of the church, these converts coerced officials, ran rampant in the countryside, bullied the good, and preyed on the people. The various unlawful acts of foreign missionaries aroused strong resistance from all ethnic groups in the Tujia region. Even some wealthy gentry, landlords, and Qing local officials were resentful because the church's power threatened their own ruling position. From the early years of Tongzhi in the Qing dynasty, large-scale anti-church struggles erupted one after another in the Tujia region.
(1) The Youyang Church Case
In the first year of Tongzhi (1862), Fan Ruose (a Frenchman), the Catholic bishop of eastern Sichuan, sent Father Deng to Youyang to preach and bought land at Xiaoba, twenty li from the city, to build a church named 'Gongxin Hall.' This missionary recruited large numbers of 'unruly' local bullies and thugs into the church in Youyang Prefecture, using the church as a protective talisman, running rampant in the countryside, and arbitrarily oppressing peasants, 'so that the people's accumulated anger could not be appeased, and resentment turned into hatred.' These converts also provoked quarrels everywhere and seized any opportunity to create lawsuits, 'inevitably entangled in endless litigation with common people, even turning nothing into something and making light matters grave. Common people who resented them because of this were everywhere!' The contradiction between the masses and the church gradually intensified. The Tujia and Han people of Youyang Prefecture could bear it no longer, and finally in the fourth year of Tongzhi, the Youyang Church Case, which shook the whole country, broke out. During the Spring Festival of that year, Liu Shengchao, Liu Shende, Zhang Yuan, Yang Shengjun, and others agreed to tear down 'Gongxin Hall' and the houses of the notoriously evil converts; then several hundred Tujia and Han people from Youyang Prefecture town, under the leadership of wealthy gentry Feng Shiyin, Zhang Peichao, Song Wenxuan, Zhang Yuguang, and others, surged to the homes of converts in town and countryside, seized the converts, and forced them to renounce the religion; Feng Wenyuan and others again led many people to tear down the oratory and beat to death the shopkeeper He Kui, who had harbored missionaries. The converts repeatedly filed complaints, but the prefect ignored them all. By July, the people's mood was even higher and the struggle more intense; people raised banners and took up weapons, formed battle lines, and publicly hung notices in front of the prefectural office, while residents of every street 'spread the commotion like madness.' The Tujia Ran Congzhi (also known as Ran Laowu) led a crowd to the City God Temple and beat to death the French missionary Feng Bile, who had come to 'comfort the converts.'
After the case occurred, the Qing court was extremely shocked. The French minister Berthemy took the opportunity to apply pressure repeatedly, intimidating and threatening. The Qing court, fawning on foreigners and bowing in submission, ordered the removal from office and stripping of rank of the two successive Youyang prefects Dong Yiqing and Deng Qingtao, who had delayed handling the case, and ordered Xi Pei, the circuit intendant of eastern Sichuan, to take charge of the case. Xi Pei, carrying out the Qing court's will, suppressed it brutally, sending Zhang Peichao, Feng Shiyin, Feng Wenyuan, and others under escort to Chongqing for trial, and successively arresting Ran Congzhi and many others. In the sixth year of Tongzhi, Ran Congzhi was cruelly killed; others implicated in the case were either flogged and sent into exile or sentenced to penal servitude; the Qing court also paid an indemnity of 80,000 taels of silver and fined the wealthy gentry Zhang Peichao 20,000 taels to repair the church. A mighty anti-church struggle was brutally suppressed by the Qing court.
The Qing court's shameful conduct of bowing and fawning in handling this church case further inflated the arrogance of the missionaries. Using the huge indemnity they had extorted, the French missionaries expanded the church in Youyang and built forts and artillery batteries near it, organizing armed defense. The lawless converts, relying on the foreigners' favor, became even more unbridled and reckless. He Dafa, a resident of Maoba Chang, because he repeatedly refused the church's pressure to convert, was beaten many times by converts, who also forced him to kill a pig and bring money to the church to atone. The He family's ripe crops were all trampled by converts, and the family's property was looted clean by them. He Dafa could bear it no longer and brought the lawless converts to court, but the French priest interfered arbitrarily, allowing the lawless converts to go unpunished. Later Liu Mingzhao and others gathered more than a hundred converts and twice blood-washed the He family, cruelly killing his father He Tiangui and 20 others, and gang-raping his wife to death. He Dafa's family was broken and its people dead, while the lawless converts, protected by the French missionaries, 'escaped disaster unharmed.' Another lawless convert, Wang Xueding and others, once lured and killed as many as 22 villagers. Yet the Youyang prefect Hu Qi, cowed by the church's power and 'usually following the priests' wishes in most lawsuits,' actually ignored such a grave case of homicide and did not investigate. In the 1865 Youyang Church Case, the wealthy gentry Zhang Peichao of Huoya Township, who was accused and implicated, was released home after agreeing to pay a fine of 20,000 taels in annual installments. In April 1867, when Zhang was raising the silver, the lawless convert Zhang Tianxing and others gathered a crowd and suddenly came to his house, using debt collection as a pretext, raped women, killed the hired laborer Wu Changlin and two others, seized more than ten thousand taels of silver and other property, and bound his son Zhang Yuguang and sent him under escort to Chongqing for imprisonment, where he died in prison. The various atrocities of the French missionaries and lawless converts, as well as the weakness and incompetence of the Qing local officials, aroused immense anger among all ethnic groups in Youyang Prefecture; from town to countryside, public feeling was inflamed and ready to explode at any moment.
One wave had not yet subsided when another rose. In the winter of the seventh year of Tongzhi (1868), the convert Long Xiuyuan, relying on church power, forced the villager Zhu Yongtai to break off an engagement, wantonly plundered property, and burned down houses. He Cai, the leader of the local militia, witnessed the bloody slaughter of innocent civilians by the foreign church and lawless converts, and moreover his mother had been bound and beaten in humiliation by Long Xiuyuan; unable to contain his accumulated anger, he led the militia and the masses to tear down the Huoshiya church, and the second Youyang Church Case broke out. This anti-church struggle received broad sympathy and support from all strata of Youyang Prefecture. Tujia and Han people enthusiastically joined, and the gentry Zhang Peichao, whose family had been broken and ruined, along with some patriotic gentry, did their utmost to support it. At the beginning of the following year, He Cai again gathered Liu Fu, Zeng Zhan'ao, and others, led the militia into the prefectural town again, rescued the dismissed military scholar Yang Zhenting, who had been detained for litigation with converts, and together they 'attacked the church.' The people of the prefectural town rose in response, besieged the church, and fought fiercely with the church's armed forces, with dozens killed or wounded on both sides. Yang Zhenting, rescued and full of rage, stepped forward and killed the French priest Li Guo (also known as Li Guo'an), and the angry masses burned down the church. In a short time, the flames of anti-church struggle spread throughout the towns and countryside of Youyang. The masses at Maoba Chang, Sujiahe, and other places responded one after another, burning churches and severely punishing the lawless converts who had committed many evils.
At this time, the corrupt and incompetent Qing court immediately ordered the disbanding of the militia and removed from office the Youyang prefect Hu Qi, who had failed to control the situation beforehand and failed to suppress it afterward. Qin Fuchen, a Chinese priest at Zhifangxi, taking advantage of the disbanding of the militia and the masses being unarmed, led the church's armed forces in a sudden attack, cruelly killing more than 200 innocent civilians and wounding more than 600, 'among them dismemberment, burning, and gang rape so tragic that one cannot bear to speak of them.' After this case occurred, the French minister Rochechouart went to the utmost in intimidation and blackmail; bypassing the Qing court's Zongli Yamen for foreign affairs, he took warships himself from Tianjin to Shanghai, via Nanjing, Jiujiang, and other places, and reached Hankou, demanding indemnity and the 'punishment of the culprits,' and threatening to enter Sichuan himself to 'investigate and handle' the matter. French missionaries added fuel to the fire, making unreasonable demands that the Qing government 'severely punish according to law' the local officials who had failed to 'investigate and handle' the case. Under the threat of the French imperialist gunboats, the Qing government hurriedly sent Li Hongzhang, governor-general of Huguang, as imperial commissioner to enter Sichuan to 'investigate and handle' the case. Li Hongzhang pursued a foreign-fawning policy of 'winning the foreigners' hearts,' sparing no damage to national sovereignty and seeking only to settle the case quickly so as to prevent the foreigners from using it as a pretext to expand the incident. To please the foreigners, Li Hongzhang ordered the arrest of the leaders who had taken part in the just struggle against foreign aggression and had them 'punished according to law.' Under the charges of 'gathering a crowd to commit violence' and 'obstructing and destroying the church,' He Cai was sent under escort to Chongqing and sentenced to decapitation; Liu Fu was sentenced to strangulation; Zeng Zhan'ao was sentenced to exile; others implicated in the case were given penal servitude; and he agreed to pay an indemnity of 18,000 taels of silver. Later, Li Hongzhang went to Hankou to meet the French minister Rochechouart and hear his views on closing the case. Rochechouart made further demands, and although 'most were unreasonable' or 'beyond all reason,' Li Hongzhang agreed to them all, paying another 12,000 taels of silver and confiscating all of Zhang Peichao's property and sending him under escort out of Sichuan. Yet the Chinese priest Qin Fuchen, who had led converts in killing and wounding more than 800 innocent civilians, was not subject to Chinese law; he followed Fan Ruose, the Catholic bishop of eastern Sichuan, 'by order of the Pope, to go abroad to discuss matters,' and actually escaped unpunished and fled far away. The second Youyang Church Case, which shook the whole country, was once again suppressed by the Qing court.
(2) The Qianjiang and Lichuan Church Cases
After obtaining huge indemnities from the two Youyang Church Cases, the French missionaries set up churches in many places and continuously expanded the area of church activity. In the sixth month of the twelfth year of Tongzhi (1873), the French bishop Fan Ruose, without the consent of Qing local officials, secretly sent the priest Zhang Zilan, the priest Yu Kelin, and the Chinese priest Dai Mingqing to Qianjiang County, adjacent to Youyang, to privately buy houses, build a church, and lure people to convert. When the Tujia and Han people of Qianjiang County heard the news, public opinion boiled over, and they strongly opposed the French missionaries' building of a church and preaching. Yao Guanyuan, the circuit intendant of eastern Sichuan, fearing the situation would expand and the masses would 'be provoked into revolt,' immediately sent someone to meet Fan Ruose and tactfully urged him to withdraw Zhang Zilan and the others and postpone building the church. Fan Ruose was arrogant and refused to meet. Yao Guanyuan then ordered Youyang prefect Luo Tingkui, together with the Qianjiang county magistrate, to prepare to suppress the matter. On the morning of July 14, more than a hundred people of Qianjiang County, full of righteous indignation, gathered at the missionaries' residence; when they came out, they seized the priest Yu Kelin and the priest Dai Mingqing, dragged them to the river outside the city, and beat them to death. Zhang Zilan took the opportunity to hide in the county office, seeking protection. After the incident, the eastern Sichuan circuit office immediately appointed Fu Wensheng, prefect of Fuzhou, and Zhang Chao, subprefect of Pengshui County, to go to Qianjiang to investigate and handle the case; they arrested and killed Chen Zongfa, Xie the tailor, and four others who had beaten the priests to death, in order to 'satisfy the missionaries' hearts'; and they removed from office the Qianjiang county magistrate Gui Quheng, who had failed to take precautions.
The Dutch Catholic missionary Tian Guoqing in Lichuan County, Hubei, actually violated the regulation that 'foreign missionaries may not purchase property and collect rent in the interior,' buying up large amounts of land and leasing it to converts to farm, while local officials did not dare to intervene, 'so that unruly and reckless elements joined the church one after another.' These scoundrels, relying on the church's power, coerced the government and ran rampant everywhere; some converts even 'called themselves the imperially appointed deputy priest of Lichuan County and paid visits with calling cards,' extremely arrogant. Hu Wen'an, the managing convert employed by Tian Guoqing, was even more of a local tyrant who 'ruled his area like an emperor'; he came and went in a large sedan chair and ordered converts to burn incense and kneel in welcome; at Nanping, Wangjiaying, and other places, under the pretext of building churches, he 'widely purchased land and collected rent for profit.' Lawless converts at Changyantang unreasonably beat someone to death; Hu Wen'an was accused of being the mastermind, but thanks to the protection of the Catholic church, Hu actually dared to refuse to appear in court and was not interrogated. The poor and lonely old woman Ni Li shi had her small amount of land stolen and sold to the church by the convert Ni Zanyang; the old woman complained to the county office, and the Lichuan county magistrate ruled that the land should still be managed by Ni Li shi 'as before' and that the stolen sale price should be recovered. However, the lawless converts Xiang Shike, Zhou Liangchen, and others, bullying the weak, took the opportunity to seize Ni Li shi's house, and despite repeated urgings by the authorities, refused to move out. Ni Li shi, beside herself with rage, splashed dirty water on Xiang and Zhou, and was then bound and beaten, with as many as nine wounds. The corrupt and incompetent Qing officials, cowed by the church's power, made no distinction between right and wrong, and actually released the criminals Xiang and Zhou who had beaten the old woman, handing them over to the foreign missionaries to take back; while the persecuted and miserable old woman Ni Li shi, 'wounded and deprived of her property,' was ignored by the authorities. The rampant violence of foreign missionaries and lawless converts was such that even Zhang Zhidong, then governor-general of Huguang, had to admit: 'All kinds of absurdities are truly outrageous,' and sighed that if this continued, 'how could the good and timid common people survive!' The Tujia and Han people of Lichuan County could bear it no longer, and in the nineteenth year of Guangxu (1893) they erupted in a church case against the church's purchase of land, collection of rent for profit, and the oppression of good people by priests and converts.
(3) The anti-church armed uprisings in Changle, Changyang, and other counties
After the Qing government colluded with the imperialist powers to suppress the Boxers' anti-imperialist patriotic struggle, it had already become the "court of the foreigners" and a loyal servant of the foreign aggressors, thus further deepening the national crisis. In July of the twenty-fourth year of the Guangxu reign (1898), Yu Dongchen of Dazu County, Sichuan, once again launched an armed uprising against the aggression of the foreign church, issuing a proclamation that bitterly denounced the crimes of imperialist aggression against China, and the prefectures and counties under eastern Sichuan responded upon hearing the news. In the Tujia areas adjacent to eastern Sichuan—Lichuan, Badong, Changle, Changyang and others—the Gelaohui (also called the Jianghuhui or Huhaihui), a secret folk society organization, "all thought of imitating what they had done and making trouble for the churches everywhere," rose up in arms and echoed them from afar. The broad masses' struggle against the church, like a prairie fire, quickly spread across both banks of the Yangtze Gorge region. In September of the same year, the Gelaohui of Lichuan County gathered several hundred people, falsely using Yu Dongchen's banner, and burned down churches, foundling homes, and the houses of lawless church members at Yechaba, Lizicao and other places. In October, churches at Sekou, Xiaomaitian and other places in Badong County were smashed by angry crowds. In Changle County, the Tujia leader of the secret society Xiang Ce'an (also known as Xiang Xiting) gathered several thousand people in uprising, beat to death the lawless church member Bi Kaibang, who had forced others to divorce their wives, beat to death the Belgian missionary Dong Ruowang, and burned down churches. They established an armed force and organized troops, with Xiang Ce'an as commander-in-chief and Li Ceqing and Li Shaobai as deputy commanders, and beneath them military advisers, commanders, vanguards, generals and other officers. They then led the masses in attacks on Badong, Changyang and other counties, burning many churches. Subsequently, Li Qingchen, leader of the secret society in Changle County, led a crowd in uprising at Yuyangguan, "with the words 'Destroy the Foreigners' written in large characters on their banner," and within ten days their numbers reached two or three thousand; they fought across Changle, Changyang, Badong and other counties, and at one point entered the Ziliangping area of Shimen County, Hunan, burning churches and killing four missionaries, so frightening the foreign missionaries that they fled upon hearing the news to Lizhou city and begged the local officials for protection. At the same time, Lü Shoujiao of Zijiang in Changyang County, and Yan Dunwu and Qin Peizhang of Shigunshao, each led several hundred people in uprising, supporting and coordinating with Xiang Ce'an's forces, forming a mighty torrent of anti-church struggle composed mainly of Tujia and Han laboring people. This struggle marked a new stage in the Tujia people's anti-church struggle, one that was developing in depth: its leading members were no longer the patriotic gentry and militia leaders of the landlord class as before, but the broad laboring masses and secret folk societies had become the leading force of the struggle; it had developed from unconnected and scattered "attacks on the church" and "church disturbances" into organized, planned, large-scale armed uprisings; and it had developed from the struggle to "reject heresy" and oppose church outrages, advocated by officials and gentry in the past, into a struggle of the broad masses against aggression and oppression. They not only openly raised the banner of "Destroy the Foreigners," directing the spearhead of struggle straight at the foreign aggressors, but also gathered crowds to kill couriers and resist officials, possessing the character of opposition to feudal oppression.
After the anti-church armed uprisings of the Tujia and Han peoples arose in Lichuan, Changle, Changyang and other counties, the people were exhilarated and high-spirited, posting and spreading Yu Dongchen's proclamation everywhere and bitterly denouncing the various crimes of the foreign aggressors. In order to expand the results of battle, Xiang Ce'an's insurgent army planned to divide its forces: one part would cross the Yangtze River and attack the prefectural city of Yichang; another part would go from Badong and Jianshi westward into Sichuan to join forces with Yu Dongchen's troops active in the prefectures and counties of eastern Sichuan. The large-scale mass uprising terrified the imperialist elements and the Qing rulers, leaving them panic-stricken day and night. "Yichang is a treaty port, and Chinese and foreigners alike were shaken with fear"; the church members were panic-stricken, "the foreigners especially so," and "along the river above and below, there was great alarm and disturbance." The British consul at Yichang and the French consul at Hankou repeatedly wrote to the Qing court requesting troops for protection. Under the influence of the insurgent army, the broad laboring masses in the Tujia areas, deeply oppressed and exploited, were all stirred to action, and an even greater storm of anti-church armed struggle was ready to break out at any moment.
Zhang Zhidong, then Governor-General of Huguang, deeply feared that once the insurgent army attacked Yichang, the flames of the masses' resistance "would inevitably become a prairie fire." Therefore, he hastily ordered Fu Tingchen, the chief military commander of Yichang, to recruit five hundred soldiers to strengthen the defense of the prefectural city; sent the deputy generals Wu Yuankai and Liu Sirong with three battalions of troops by steamship around to the Yesanguan line in Badong County to block the way, cut off Xiang Ce'an's route into Sichuan, and prevent him from joining forces with Yu Dongchen's insurgent army in eastern Sichuan; and ordered the county magistrates of Badong, Lichuan, Changle and Changyang to guard strategic points separately and lead troops in suppression and arrest; dispatched the provincial military commander Deng Zhengfeng with three battalions to station at Yuyangguan, and the Shafang camp lieutenant-colonel Jiang Shengyao with two sentries to guard the area of Niejiache in Yidu County, in order to prevent the insurgent army from advancing to Jingzhou; and also telegraphed Yu Liansan, the governor of Hunan, ordering him to send Commander-in-Chief Chen Haipeng and provincial military commanders He Changfa and Tan Huiyou with heavy troops to attack western Hubei from Shimen County. The landlords and local gentry of the various counties also organized armed forces upon hearing the news to pursue and block the insurgent army.
In November of the same year, under the siege of large numbers of Qing troops and landlord militia, the insurgent leaders Yan Dunwu, Lü Shoujiao, Qin Peizhang and others were successively captured and killed. When Xiang Ce'an's insurgent army saw that the Qing troops were guarding Yesanguan and that entry into Sichuan was blocked, they turned from Badong into Changle, and along the way Tujia and Han people joined the insurgent army in large numbers, and the insurgent force grew strong again. Taking advantage of the heavy snow that sealed the mountains, when the pursuing Qing troops could find no path and the county seat of Changle was weakly defended, Xiang Ce'an, in coordination with the secret society inside the county seat, launched a surprise attack and captured the county seat of Changle, seizing the county magistrate Su Yiying and the registrar and other officials. They soon withdrew from the county seat and retreated to the two stockades of Hongyi and Baiyi, collecting guns and cannons, piling up huge rocks, and holding the strategic terrain to resist the government troops. In December, the Qing deputy general Wu Yuankai led troops in attack, broke through the two stockades of Hongyi and Baiyi, and killed more than 130 insurgents; Xiang Ce'an, Li Ceqing and Li Shaobai led the remaining troops in retreat to the territory of Shinan Prefecture, and were later captured and cruelly killed. Li Qingchen's force, pursued and pressed by the Qing troops, retreated from Yuyangguan to the area of Qingpinggang in Changyang County, and the following year, blocked by landlord militia, Li Qingchen sacrificed his life. The armed uprising, which lasted nearly half a year, failed because of the great disparity in strength between the enemy and ourselves and because the various insurgent forces fought in isolation and on the move without close coordination. The heroic deeds of Xiang Ce'an and others in the anti-church struggle are still widely circulated today among the Tujia and Han peoples of Wufeng, Changyang and other counties.
After the armed uprisings occurred in Lichuan, Changle, Changyang and other counties, the French consul at Hankou, Dethomas, using as pretexts the killing of missionaries, the destruction of churches, and the loss of church members' property, took the opportunity to extort and demand that the Qing court pay an indemnity of 425,000 taels of silver. After repeated negotiations, Zhu Zize, the prefect of Yichang, and Liang Dunyan, the commissioner for foreign affairs, went to Hankou and concluded with the French consul Dethomas in March 1899 the "Terms for the Settlement of the Shiyi Missionary Case," which stipulated: an indemnity of 55,000 taels of silver; apart from the nearly 200 insurgent leaders and masses already killed, those not yet apprehended were to continue to be pursued and punished according to law; the two successive magistrates of Changle County were to be dismissed from office; local officials of each county must vigorously protect churches and church members, and "the common people must not make trouble for the churches"; and within Lichuan county seat, a Catholic church was to be built with funds raised locally. This was a traitorous clause that seriously damaged our country's sovereignty, protected the rights and interests of foreign aggressors, and obstructed the Tujia people's resistance to aggression.
(4) The Lichuan and Enshi Missionary Cases
But contrary to the wishes of the Chinese and foreign reactionary rulers, the signing of the "Terms for the Settlement of the Shiyi Missionary Case" did not stop the Tujia people's struggle against foreign aggressors. In July of the twenty-fifth year of the Guangxu reign (1899), the church member Cui Chengfang and others in Lichuan County put poison into a drinking well in an attempt to poison innocent common people and create an incident, arousing intense indignation among the masses. In the spring of the following year, the Tujia and Han peoples of Lichuan County, under the leadership of Yan Mingshan and others, gathered six or seven hundred people within a few days, punished lawless church members, seized back those who had been arrested, "killed couriers and resisted officials," and attacked the county seat. Zhang Zhidong hastily dispatched troops and generals and ruthlessly suppressed them.
In the twenty-seventh year of the Guangxu reign (1901), Catholicism built a church and preached in Shazidi of Enshi County. The local militia leader did not permit it, and the French bishop De Guery complained to the county office; the militia leader was humiliated, and the masses' accumulated anger was unappeased. In June 1904, the French bishop De Guery led the missionaries De Guerin, Dong Mingde and many church members to Shazidi for an excursion. When passing through Huabei in Enshi County, the peasant Xiang Yuanxin wanted to see the French bishop, but was actually beaten by the accompanying church member Jia Chengqing. After Xiang Guangxi pleaded with the bishop, De Guery forcibly ordered Xiang Yuanxin to prepare eight tables of banquet and 60,000 firecrackers at Shazidi to make apologies. Jia Chengqing, relying on power to bully others, used the pretext that the number of firecrackers was insufficient and forced the Xiang family to make up the difference, setting them off along the way. This unreasonable demand aroused the extreme anger of the Tujia and Han peoples. The Tujia Xiang Xietang and others quickly gathered a crowd, beat to death the French bishop, two missionaries and four accompanying church members, and set fire to the houses of the lawless church members. This anti-church struggle shook the whole of western Hubei. When Zhang Zhidong heard the news, he considered that "the case was extremely serious," and on the one hand telegraphed Shinan Prefecture to offer a high reward, giving 500 taels of silver to each person who captured and killed a missionary; on the other hand he hastily sent the daotai Zuo Yuanlin with civil and military officials, together with the Dutch bishop Tian Guoqing sent by the French consul-general, to "investigate and handle" the matter; and ordered Yichang to send garrison troops and specially dispatched one battalion of standing troops to rush there to suppress it; and additionally sent 50 soldiers to escort Tian Guoqing along the way to prevent any mishap.
In this incident, the French legation counselor Casanat took the opportunity to extort, demanding an indemnity of 600,000 taels of silver. British Christian missionaries at Shinan, Kuizhou and other places also used pretexts to exert pressure and threaten intimidation, openly declaring that if the interests of the foreign churches were not protected, "the local officials will be held responsible." Zhang Zhidong immediately ordered the local civil and military officials of the counties under Shinan Prefecture to take strict precautions and effectively protect the churches and missionaries. After repeated negotiations, the "Shinan Supplementary Treaty" was concluded with the French legation counselor at Yichang, stipulating that the twelve people who had participated in beating to death the missionaries and church members—Xiang Xietang, Xiang Yuanxin, Xiang Juechen, Huang Pingshan and others—were to be beheaded in public execution, and that the thirty-seven people who had been captured or had fled, including Xiang Congxin and Xiang Siwa, were to be punished according to law respectively; an indemnity of 145,000 taels of silver was to be paid, of which 10,000 taels were to build a tomb for the killed French missionaries and 25,000 taels to build a hospital, as a memorial; and the acting prefect of Shinan, the deputy general, and the Enshi county magistrate and other civil and military officials were to be dismissed from office. The corrupt and incompetent Qing rulers once again prostrated themselves at the feet of the imperialist aggressors, but the blood of the Tujia and Han peoples would not be shed in vain: "Wildfire cannot burn it all up; when the spring wind blows, it grows again."