China and the True Jesus: Charisma

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i

China and the True Jesus

ii
iii

China and
the True Jesus
Charisma and Organization in
a Chinese Christian Church
zz
MELISSA WEI-​T SING INOUYE

1
iv

1
Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers
the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education
by publishing worldwide. Oxford is a registered trade mark of Oxford University
Press in the UK and certain other countries.

Published in the United States of America by Oxford University Press

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© Oxford University Press 2018

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in

a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the
prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press, or as expressly permitted
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rights organization. Inquiries concerning reproduction outside the scope of the
above should be sent to the Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the
address above.

You must not circulate this work in any other form

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CIP data is on file at the Library of Congress

ISBN 978–​0–​19–​092346–​4

1 3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2
Printed by Sheridan Books, Inc., United States of America
v

To my parents
vi
vi

Contents

Acknowledgments ix
Chronology xiii

Introduction 1

1. Missionaries in the Manchu City (1864–​1905) 18

2. A Smaller, Bigger World (1905–​1917) 57

3. The First and Last Day (1917–​1922) 86

4. The Three Lives of Deaconess Yang (1922–​1932) 119

5. Four Governments in China (1932–​1949) 157

6. Saving Comrade Stalin’s Soul (1949–​1958) 187

7. The Handwritten Hymnbook (1958–​1974) 212

8. Don’t Be Like the Gentiles (1974–​Present) 235

9. The Parable of the Cursed Chicken (1974–​Present) 260

Conclusion 274

Notes 283
Bibliography 355
Index 377
vi
ix

Acknowledgments

In the course of researching and writing this book I have incurred many
debts beyond my ability ever to repay. From an academic perspective, the earliest
of these debts goes back to the time when I was an undergraduate in East Asian
Studies at Harvard College. My senior thesis advisor, Philip Kuhn, gave up much
of his valuable time to advise and mentor me. As I sat in his office on one oc-
casion, books crowding around in all three dimensions, Professor Kuhn said,
“You and I are similar. We’re both interested in truth.” Up until that point I had
thought that history was about sources, voices, and narratives, but that “truth”
was somehow beyond the reach of scholarly research. As I continued to learn
from Professor Kuhn in graduate school, however, I came to understand a bit
more about what he meant, from his meticulous readings of primary sources
and his engagement with the authors of the texts as if they were living, breathing
human beings—​which, of course, they were.
This book began as my doctoral dissertation, supervised by Henrietta
Harrison. Professor Harrison not only taught me in two graduate courses but
also mentored me throughout several years out of residence as I juggled the care
of four young children (two born before the dissertation was completed and two
within the following two years). Her advising-​by-​email must have been so incon-
venient and tedious. I so appreciate her unfailing encouragement and thoughtful
insights—​not just about research, but about being an academic and a human
being. Throughout the years I have been honored to have such a brilliant, gen-
erous, and lively teacher. Michael Szonyi introduced me to the history of Chinese
popular religion and offered rigorous feedback on dissertation drafts. David
D. Hall, who taught me about American religious history as an undergraduate,
also gave wonderful advice as a member of my dissertation committee. During
graduate study, I learned a great deal from Nancy Cott, who took the time to
read and comment extensively on early essays in which I was still learning to speak
Scholarese and who directed my general examination field in American history.
x

x Acknowledgments

A year of dissertation research during which I acquired the bulk of the mate-
rial for this book was supported by the Harvard Graduate Society Dissertation
Completion Fellowship, the Harvard-​ China Fellowship, and the Foreign
Language and Area Studies grants of the US Department of Education. I also
received generous support for research in other sites by the Religious Research
Association Constant R. Jacquet Award and the Association for Asian Studies
China and Inner Asia Council Small Grant Award. Writing and further research
was supported by the University of Auckland and in particular the very gen-
erous University of Auckland Faculty Research Development Fund New Staff
Grant. I received kind administrative and logistical assistance from the Shanghai
Municipal Library and the New Zealand Centre at Peking University.
During my research in China I was hosted generously by Chinese academic
institutions, including Fudan University, which administered the Harvard-​China
Fellowship. Li Tiangang at Fudan was a warm and helpful mentor. At the head-
quarters of the True Jesus Church in Taiwan, I was received very kindly by the
staff, with special assistance from Hou Shufang, the headquarters librarian. Kar
C. Tsai, a leader of the True Jesus Church, was extremely kind in helping me make
needed connections within the church. I received tremendously helpful advice
from Chinese scholars of religion such as Zhang Xianqing. Jan Kiely was gracious
and generous in helping me to make contacts with local scholars and archives.
Paul Katz gave candid and thoughtful advice about professional correspondence
and grant applications. During my years working in the archives at Hong Kong
Baptist University, sometimes with a kid in tow, Irene Wong and her colleagues
combined competence with humor and collegiality.
In the midst of my fieldwork, I benefited from a productive exchange of
ideas about the True Jesus Church and Chinese Christianity with David Reed,
Chen Bin, Chen-​Yang Kao, Gordon Melton, Jiexia Elisa Zhai, Daniel Bays, Tsai
Yen-​zen, and Chris White. Joseph Tse-​Hei Lee’s generous and savvy advice on
how to access Chinese archives and his broad insights into the significance of
Chinese Christian institutions have shaped my development as a scholar. Li Ji
gave a thoughtful and helpful review of the dissertation manuscript and was a
wonderful colleague during my time in Hong Kong. Benjamin Liao Inouye read
sections of the dissertation manuscript and pointed out places where it was un-
readable, with comments such as “Is this really what academic writing is supposed
to be like? This sentence is about five times too long.”
In the process of revising the manuscript for publication, I received support
and encouragement from my colleagues in Asian Studies and History at the
University of Auckland, including Mark Mullins, Ellen Nakamura, Paul Clark,
Stephen Noakes, Richard Phillips, Jennifer Frost, Karen Huang, and Nora Yao.
Mark, Ellen, Paul, Stephen, and Richard all read and commented helpfully
xi

Acknowledgments xi

on large chunks of the manuscript, pointing out errors and posing productive
questions. Student research assistants Kayla Grant, Jessica Palairet, Charles
Timo Toebes, and Zhijun Yang helped with research and commented on drafts.
Departmental heads Robert Sanders and Rumi Sakamoto supported my re-
search. In addition, Henrietta Harrison, Michael Ing, Yang Fenggang, Haiying
Hou, Amy O’Keefe, Steven Pieragastini, Paul Mariani, Thomas Dubois, Laurie
Maffly-​Kipp, Stuart Vogel, Charity Shumway, Mei Li Inouye, and Charles Shirō
Inouye read and commented on sections of the manuscript. Jason Steorts read
and commented on the entire manuscript. I am so grateful that these brilliant
and busy people made the sacrifice of time and energy to mull over my homely
paragraphs and clunky sentences. I also received helpful feedback at a March
2017 Association for Asian Studies panel organized by Ryan Dunch, with
comments by Xi Lian.
Material from two of the chapters in this book has been published previously.
A narrative of transnational relationship between Wei Enbo and Bernt Berntsen
in Chapter 2 appeared in Global Chinese Pentecostal and Charismatic Christianity
(Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 2017), edited by Yang Fenggang, Allan Anderson,
and Joy K. C. Tong. The discussion on the True Jesus Church’s accommodation
with the Maoist state in Chapter 6 appeared in the journal Modern China (March
2018). I thank these two publishers for allowing me to include these materials in
this book.
Two anonymous peer reviewers for Oxford University Press provided as-
tute feedback on the manuscript as a whole, and the editorial and production
team, including Cynthia Read, Drew Anderla, Rajakumari Ganessin, Sangeetha
Vishwanathan, Victoria Danahy, and others made invaluable corrections and
suggestions. I am indebted to all of these thoughtful and critical readers for their
time and insight. I would like to emphasize that any remaining errors in this man-
uscript are mine alone.
I am thankful to people who have mentored me more generally throughout
the years: Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, a brilliant and caring advisor who graciously
declined when in our first email interaction I mistook her for a Harvard under-
graduate and invited her to a sleepover, Claudia Bushman, my first postgraduate
teacher and a perennial source of inspiration, and Terryl and Fiona Givens, who
have supported and encouraged me through numerous projects, including this
one. As I look back on my life as a student, I am thankful for the time and talents
of people who taught me even when I was not very teachable, including Dillon
K. Inouye, Paul Fitzgerald, Linda Williams, Charlie Appell, and Eileen Chow.
I learned so much from fellow graduate students at Harvard including Jie Li,
Allison Miller Wang, and Michael Ing. I am especially grateful to Tanya Samu,
Sharyn Wada Inouye, Amy Hoyt, and Sherrie Morreall Gavin, who went out of
xi

xii Acknowledgments

their way (a really long way) to support me as I worked to complete this manu-
script in the midst of a significant health challenge.
Finally, I am indebted to my family. My deepest debt is to my parents,
Susan Lew Inouye and Warren Sanji Inouye, who loved learning, supported
my study, and taught me to value the beauty of the world, including the beauty
of my fellow beings. This book is dedicated to them. My mother passed away
several years ago, but I like to think that somewhere—​though who knows
where—​she is aware of my deep, abiding gratitude and respect. I am thankful
to my father and Catherine A. Tibbitts for being such awesome grandparents
to my children and caring advisors to me. I am grateful for my grandparents,
Marjorie Ju Lew and Hall Ti Lew, Charles Ichirō Inouye and Bessie Murakami
Inouye, who have always loved me unconditionally and who admonished
me to be humble and work hard. I am grateful for Gor Shee Ju, Gin Gor Ju,
Mikano Inouye, Sashichi Inouye, Kume Uchida Murakami, Denji Murakami,
and all those ancestors whose trials, triumphs, and growth created the basis for
my life. I am thankful to my aunt and uncle, Elizabeth Ann Inouye Takasaki
and Roman Y. Takasaki, for giving me and my family another home away from
home, and to my cousins Stephen, Aimee, and David, for sharing their home
with my siblings and me. I am grateful to my brothers, Abe, Ben, Isaac, and
Peter, and to all of my aunties, uncles, and cousins who have supported my
family and me with especial fierceness in my mother’s absence. I am thankful to
my parents-​in-​law, Joy Anne Cahoon McMullin and Phillip Wayne McMullin,
for their unfailing support for me and kindness to my children. I am thankful
to my four children (nicknamed Bean, Sprout, Leaf, and Burger 豆芽菜汉堡)
for their cheerful spirits, bright minds, kind actions, and helping hands. Last
of all, I am grateful to my husband, Joseph Phillip McMullin, for being so very
amazing all these years, and for being such an incredible partner in the projects
of international itineration, home renovation, and getting the Bean, Sprout,
Leaf, and Burger potty-​trained, literate, and civilized.
xi

Chronology

[Bold font identifies significant characters in this book’s narrative]

1583 Matteo Ricci founds first permanent Christian mission in Zhaoqing

1644 Qing dynasty invades China; Ming court flees southward
1807 Robert Morrison, first Protestant missionary, arrives in Guangzhou
1838 Zeng Guofan passes the highest level of the civil service examination
1839–​1842 First Opium War between Great Britain and China; Treaty of Nanjing
1850–​1864 Hong Xiuquan leads the Taiping Rebellion
1872 Samuel Meech and Edith Prankard marry in Beijing
1879 Birth of Wei Enbo
1885 Birth of Yang Zhendao
1894–​1895 First Sino-​Japanese War
1897 Lillie Saville runs a dispensary in Beijing
1898 Hundred Days’ Reform; Empress Dowager Cixi places Emperor
Guangxu under house arrest
1899–​1900 Boxer Uprising; Lillie Saville receives Royal Red Cross for work
during siege
1904 Samuel Meech baptizes Wei Enbo and Wei’s mother in Beijing
1905 Civil service examination abolished; Wei Enbo opens permanent shop;
Edith Murray reports on Cangzhou London Missionary Society revival
1907 Bernt Berntsen receives Holy Spirit at Azusa Street revival
1911 Chinese Revolution; end of the Qing dynasty
1912 Republic of China established
1914 World War I begins in Europe; China supports the Allies with laborers
1915 Wei Enbo meets Bernt Berntsen and speaks in tongues for the
first time
1917 Wei Enbo’s baptism and vision; True Jesus Church established
1919 World War I ends; May Fourth Movement; Wei Enbo’s death; Wei’s
wife Liu Ai “is a bishopess” of the True Jesus Church
1921 Mao Zedong attends Founding Congress of the Chinese
Communist Party in Shanghai
xvi

xiv Chronology

1922 National Christian Conference in Shanghai (Gao Daling, Zhang

Barnabas, and Wei Isaac in attendance); Wei Enbo’s end-​of-​the-​world
deadline
1925 May Thirtieth Incident
1926 Zhang Barnabas provokes split between northern and southern
churches, organizes General Headquarters
1927 Northern Expedition of Communists and Nationalists; United Front
falls apart
1930 True Jesus Church General Assembly excommunicates Zhang
Barnabas
1931 Japan invades northern China and creates puppet regime
1932 Japanese attack on Shanghai destroys True Jesus Church General
Headquarters; northern and southern True Jesus Churches reunify
1934–​1936 Communist troops complete Long March to new base in
northwest China
1935 Death of Yang Zhendao
1937–​1945 Second Sino-​Japanese War; True Jesus Church Headquarters moves to
Chongqing
1947 Thirtieth anniversary of the founding of the True Jesus Church; Wei
Isaac heads the church
1949 Communists establish new government; Nationalists decamp to Taiwan
1950–​1953 Korean War heightens antiforeign sentiment; foreign missionaries
expelled
1951 Three-​Self Patriotic Movement organized; Christian Denunciation
Movement launched
1952 Wei Isaac’s “confession” appears in Tianfeng (organ of Three-​Self
Patriotic Movement); Jiang John and Li Zhengcheng lead True
Jesus Church
1956 Jiang John speaks at Chinese People’s Political Consultative
Conference in Wuhan
1957 Anti-​Rightist Campaign targets intellectuals; Li Zhengcheng arrested
and sentenced to labor camp
1958 Jiang John and other True Jesus Church leaders arrested
1958–​1961 Great Leap Forward
1964 The Red Detachment of Women comes to the stage
1966–​1976 Cultural Revolution
Mid-​to-​late Deaconess Fu grows up singing from a handwritten hymnbook and
1960s, early praying with her mother and grandmother, behind drawn curtains
1970s
1974 Wang Dequan’s vision sparks revival of True Jesus Church activity
in China
xv

Chronology xv

1976 Death of Mao Zedong; fall of the Gang of Four ends Cultural
Revolution
1980 Deng Xiaoping’s “reform and opening up” policies create Special
Economic Zones to encourage foreign investment
1982 Document 19 expresses official toleration for “normal religious activity”
including Christianity
Mid-​1980s Deaconess Fu (pseudonym) and her True Jesus Church colleagues min-
ister to the woman who committed suicide
1989 Tiananmen Square student demonstrations;
True Jesus Church International Assembly is officially registered in
California, United States
1995 Mother of seven-​year-​old Zhang Pin (pseudonym) prays for his miracu-
lous resuscitation after he falls into a shrimp pond
2001 China joins the World Trade Organization
2007 Ninetieth anniversary of True Jesus Church’s founding; churches es-
tablished in a record four new countries including Lesotho, Zambia,
United Arab Emirates, and Rwanda
2008 Mr. Chen (pseudonym) and other True Jesus Church preachers in
Beijing touring the 2008 Olympics venue exorcise their colleague
2012 Xi Jinping elected General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party
2017 12th World Delegates Conference, 1st Session, held in Taiwan, on 100th
anniversary of True Jesus Church founding; number of churches estab-
lished outside China reaches fifty-​seven
2018 National People’s Congress votes to remove term limits for Xi Jinping
and enshrine “Xi Jinping Thought” alongside “Mao Zedong Thought”
in the Constitution
xvi
 xvi

Map 1. Contemporary map of China’s provinces, municipalities, and special administrative regions.
Credit: Base map from d-maps, http://d-maps.com/carte.php?num_car=11572&lang=en
xvi

Map 2. Important cities, rivers, and places mentioned in this book.

Credit: Base map from d-maps, http://d-maps.com/carte.php?num_car=17512&lang=en
xi

China and the True Jesus

x
1

Introduction

Extra-​Ordinary
Deaconess Fu told me about the woman she helped raise from the dead.1 The two
of us sat on a faux-​leather couch in the small living room of a ground-​floor apart-
ment in a city in South China. The area just outside was undergoing construction.
One by one, the old apartment blocks would be razed, and modern high-​rises
would be built in their place. It was late in the afternoon, and the backhoes were
still and silent. The happy shouts of children rang out as they climbed, chased,
and leaped among a stack of massive concrete pipes piled on the bare red earth.
This incident, Deaconess Fu said, had taken place in the mid-​1980s, early
years of the “reform and opening up” period after the death of Mao Zedong in
1976. These early years saw the beginning of the revival in China of both cap-
italism (i.e., “socialism with Chinese characteristics”) and organized religion
aboveground. Deaconess Fu described the woman: a member of the True Jesus
Church, in her mid-​thirties, with four young children and a troubled marriage.
One day after an argument, her husband left the house in a temper. Shortly there-
after a stranger, whom Deaconess Fu believed was the Devil in disguise, arrived
at the house.2
“Your life is so terrible,” the stranger told her. “You would be better off dead.”
The stranger pointed to the cords for raising and lowering the window shades.
When the stranger left, the woman hanged herself from the cords. Her husband
returned and found her, apparently lifeless. Three doctors examined her and pro-
nounced her dead. Three women from the True Jesus Church came to the house,
including Deaconess Fu, who was at the time a young seminary student, and an
elderly sister “who was full of faith.” Because the woman was in her prime and had
four young children, they decided to pray for a miracle—​although Deaconess Fu
was afraid. “The face was all dark,” she recalled, “and the tongue was very long. It
was very ghastly.” The elderly sister cried, “Don’t be afraid. Just pray!” She went to
2

2 China an d t he T rue Jesus

the woman’s body and placed hands on her head. The second church sister took
hold of the woman’s hands. Deaconess Fu gingerly took hold of the woman’s feet,
which were cold. They began a cycle of hymns of exorcism—​because the elderly
sister suspected the Devil’s work—​followed by thirty minutes of prayer.
After two hours, the woman’s feet suddenly moved. Deaconess Fu shrieked
and let go. The elderly sister urged them to redouble their efforts. They prayed
harder. Soon the woman’s whole body began to move, and she revived. One of the
doctors was a relative of the family and so was still present at the house. Impressed,
the doctor mused: “Her ancestors must have done something very meritorious.”
“It wasn’t her ancestors who did this,” Deaconess Fu snapped, wanting proper at-
tribution. “It was Jesus!”3
In 2010, when Deaconess Fu told me this story, she wanted me to understand
that this story was not about her or about underdeveloped conditions in China
in the early 1980s (healthcare lacking, economy sluggish, social fabric torn by
the Cultural Revolution), or even about a mother who suffered from depres-
sion. It was about a struggle between the Devil and Jesus, about the divine hand
suspending natural laws in response to a collective petition made in faith.
Around the same time, I interviewed another True Jesus Church leader named
Deacon An. He was a kindly older man, his manner formal but hospitable as he
poured just-​boiled water into a thin plastic cup that sagged with the heat and set
it before me on the wooden table. Like Deaconess Fu, he took the same tack in
pointing to divine influence in human events, but he was even more explicit in
how he thought I should interpret his account. “If you are not clear about a few
things, you cannot possibly understand our church,” he told me. “You must ac-
knowledge the hand of God in creating the True Jesus Church. It is part of God’s
saving work, part of God’s plan of salvation . . . . The True Jesus Church was es-
tablished in China in 1917. This was part of God’s plan from the beginning. Even
[the ancient Chinese philosopher] Laozi 老子 and the Dao De Jing 道德经 [a
book attributed to Laozi] were intended by God to lay a foundation for the True
Jesus Church.” He paused and looked at me searchingly across the wooden table
between us. “Without this understanding, you cannot possibly write the history
of the True Jesus Church.”4

The True Jesus Church was founded in 1917 in Beijing by a rags-​to-​riches

silk merchant named Wei Enbo 魏恩波 (surname Wei, personal name Enbo).
Wei—​who later took the Christian name Baoluo 保羅 [Paul]—​claimed to
have seen a vision in which Jesus appeared to him, personally baptized him, and
commanded him to “correct the Church,” restoring Christianity to its original
purity. Although Wei died in 1919, just two years after establishing his move-
ment, the True Jesus Church continued to flourish under the leadership of Wei’s
3

Introduction 3

associates and his son, Wei Yisa 魏以撒 [Isaac]. By 1947 the True Jesus Church
had become one of the largest independent Protestant denominations in China.5
Today it is one of the most distinctive strains of Protestant Christianity within
the state-​sanctioned churches of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and also
has congregations in places such as Taiwan, the United States, and South Africa.
The claims of both Deaconess Fu and Deacon An are charismatic in na-
ture. In everyday conversation, the word charismatic most usually describes an
individual’s magnetic or forceful appeal, such as in the case of Jesus, Joan of Arc,
and Adolf Hitler. Sociologist Max Weber pointed out the significance of this kind
of personal charisma. It is a source of authority that generates political legitimacy.
According to Weber, this kind of authority rests on “devotion to the exceptional
sanctity, heroism, or exemplary character of an individual person, and of the nor-
mative patterns or order revealed or ordained by him.”6 This sort of authority
extends beyond secular political loyalties and into the sacred polities created
within religious and moral–​philosophical movements. Joseph Smith, Jr., founder
of the Mormon tradition, for instance, was described by many of his followers
as a magnetic personality who stood out in a crowd. Kong Qiu (Latinized as
“Confucius”), the ancient philosopher, inspired such personal loyalty that his
disciples wrote down his words and living example in the Analects 論語, which
became one of the foundational texts for Chinese moral and political discourse
for thousands of years.
In contrast to this personality-​based definition, in an academic religious
studies context the word charismatic describes something manifesting power
that is extraordinary or divine. “Charismatic” is the adjectival form of the noun
“charisma,” from the Greek χάρις/​charis [grace]. In the study of Christianity,
“charismatic Christianity” is a type of Christianity emphasizing the gifts of the
Holy Spirit, such as speaking in tongues, prophesying, and healing. A particular
strain of charismatic Christianity in the twentieth century followed on the heels
of the early twentieth-​century Pentecostal movement and is commonly known
as the charismatic movement.7 Charisma is also an important concept for schol-
arship on religions other than Christianity. For example, Stephen Feuchtwang
and Wang Mingming recently offered a broad definition of charismatic religious
movements.8 In their interpretation, charisma goes beyond the personality of an
individual leader and includes “a message which . . . resonates with and gives au-
thority to followers’ expectations and assumptions.”9 Historically, after leaders
with charismatic personalities have died, their movement has survived or expired,
partly depending on whether the message or worldview they have inspired is suf-
ficiently charismatic. Altogether, charismatic beliefs and practices create an ethos,
a shared “expectation of the extraordinary,” that provides a community’s authori-
tative center.10 To put it simply, in a world full of compelling distractions, in order
4

4 China an d t he T rue Jesus

to attract and retain a large group of people to a new cause, what one has to offer
must be perceived as truly remarkable.
Depending on one’s perspective, there are different explanations for why Wei
Enbo’s vision was so attractive to others of his time and place. The True Jesus
Church provides interesting subject material for religious studies, Chinese so-
cial history, Chinese popular religious history, and global Pentecostal and charis-
matic history. Also critical is the perspective of members of the True Jesus Church
themselves. These various points of view are grounded in different assumptions,
values, texts, and experiences that often overlap but also diverge widely. For ex-
ample, the question of “Did Wei actually hear God’s voice, or was he just making
it up?” is very important to a True Jesus Church practitioner, but not necessarily
on the table in terms of the major arguments a religious studies scholar would
make. Numerous historians have pointed to the significance of Chinese nation-
alism in the rise of the True Jesus Church, but church members would of course
say their church’s rise was due to the divine revelation of its founding events and
the correctness of its claims about truth.
This study is an attempt to illuminate the substance of charismatic ide-
ology and experience within the True Jesus Church. The more interesting and
fruitful question to ask about someone’s charismatic experience is not “Did it
really happen?” but “What did people do with it?” To acknowledge the signif-
icance of the divine elements in the history of the True Jesus Church, and also
to simplify the prose, in my account I will not constantly flag religious claims
with language such as “Wei claimed to have heard a voice” or “Wei alleged he
battled with evil spirits.” As I have done in the opening of this introduction, the
prose recounting claims made in primary source texts will adhere to those texts
as closely as possible. In the accompanying discussion, I will apply additional an-
alytical perspectives. My overall project is to understand how charismatic claims
inspire human organization and hold communities together.

Existing Scholarship on Pentecostal and

Charismatic Christianity
Existing scholarly analyses of the True Jesus Church and independent Chinese
Christian movements more generally have chronicled the truly dismal parade of
social crises that shaped many converts’ daily reality: foreign imperialism, floods,
droughts, famines, warlordism, and banditry. Many studies have acknowledged
the circumstances of socioeconomic, political, or psychological deprivation
in which many early converts lived and suggested that the True Jesus Church’s
charismatic healing practices and ecstatic worship were attractive because
5

Introduction 5

they compensated for or responded to this deprivation.11 A related interpreta-

tion found within a number of studies has emphasized continuity between the
early True Jesus Church and the native popular religious tradition because of
similarities in their charismatic practices and, more generally, their embrace of a
world animated by the extraordinary.12
More broadly, scholars of global Pentecostal and charismatic movements have
sought to explain why the tongues-​speaking mode of charismatic religiosity found
within the True Jesus Church also appeared in so many places around the world
around the early twentieth century, including China. Again, a common explana-
tion is deprivation: Pentecostal movements grew among poor and marginalized
people who suffered “traumatic cultural changes” and “double-​barreled disil-
lusionment” with both traditional and scientistic ideologies in the wake of the
spread of global modernity.13
Others have countered this emphasis on deprivation by showing that in
America, at least, most early Pentecostals “lived comfortably by the standards of
their own age.” Instead, they have pointed to Pentecostal converts’ strong desire
for personal autonomy in their religious practice.14 Another growing approach
to early twentieth-​century Pentecostalism emphasizes its geographic diversity,
pointing out that multiple Pentecostalisms emerged around the world in centers
such as Pyongyang, Korea; Beijing, China; Pune, India; Wakkerstroom, South
Africa; Lagos, Nigeria; Valparaíso, Chile; Belém, Brazil; Oslo, Norway; and
Sunderland, England. These Pentecostal movements were not isolated from each
other but were linked by networks of print and personnel.15 The fact that these
numerous Pentecostal movements sprang up around the world around the same
time suggests that explanations for the rise of Chinese Pentecostal movements
such as the True Jesus Church may go beyond local or national socioeconomic
conditions.
I have found the emerging emphasis on transregional analysis very thought-​
provoking in framing my approach to the True Jesus Church. Existing studies
have made an invaluable contribution by laying out so clearly the local context
of the True Jesus Church (and, more generally, independent Chinese Christian
movements). However, as is the case with any study of human experience, in-
cluding this study, a focus on one set of questions or variables will necessarily
leave gaps. By contributing a variety of perspectives, a community of scholars
works together to paint a broader picture. In what follows, I lay out my reasoning
for exploring other dimensions of charismatic experience within the True Jesus
Church in addition to deprivation and continuity explanations. Although this
study is primarily a study of the True Jesus Church, my discussion of the limi-
tations of these two approaches also has application for other religious studies
6

6 China an d t he T rue Jesus

subjects, from independent churches in China to new religious movements more

generally.
Deprivation approaches emphasize the significance of people’s marginal
status, lack of education, and economic vulnerability as fuel for the growth of
charismatic movements such as the True Jesus Church. Without a doubt, social
seismic shocks can shake people free of existing social structures, including reli-
gious traditions, and set them on a search for a new foundation. However, one
limitation of seeing the church as an expression of socioeconomic crisis is that—​
as can be observed throughout Christian history and certainly in the present—​
charismatic and apocalyptic thinking do not flourish exclusively among people
who are marginalized or living in a time of catastrophe, but among all demo-
graphics, including economically stable, socially privileged individuals in wealthy
modern societies.
Furthermore, no matter how deprived people are, no matter what
circumstances “push” them out of their preexisting paradigms, they do not au-
tomatically or indiscriminately affiliate with Christian churches (as opposed to
Buddhist vegetarian groups, Daoist spirit-​writing networks, or a host of secular
options).16 One Pentecostal studies scholar has concluded that social-​deprivation
theories disregard religious beliefs as a means to explain religious movements: “The
yearning for spiritual depth was interpreted as a personal weakness rather than a
serious faith claim. In other words, their religious beliefs or their native exegesis
was taken as a less than accurate explanation of why they were attracted to the
movement.”17 Although socioeconomic instability may “push” individuals out of
existing religious structures, there must also be a “pull” factor to draw people into
creating a new religious tradition.
Alongside the deprivation approach, the other main theme of scholarly
investigations on the True Jesus Church is an emphasis on continuity between
the charismatic practices of the church (such as healing or exorcism) and those
of the Chinese popular religious tradition. It is clear that native morality and
religious culture contributed to the evolution of Christian church institutions
in China, as they do around the world. However, one potential weakness of
these continuity approaches is that emphasizing the “Chinese” character of the
True Jesus Church’s practices overlooks the long historical presence of identical
practices within other Christian movements in numerous other countries.18
The search for “Chineseness” is valid and illuminating, but given the uni-
versal, translatable nature of Christianity around the world, I am interested in
other questions.19 For example, the prolonged revival that Wei Enbo’s visions
sparked in the village of Huangcun 黄村in the 1910s has compelling similarities
to a movement centered around apparitions of the Virgin Mary in the small
town of Ezkioga, Spain, in the 1930s.20 Continuity-​focused explanations for the
7

Introduction 7

popularity of native Chinese Christian churches often suggest that such churches
are “indigenous” to the extent that they engage in charismatic or supernatural
practices.21 And yet charismatic practices also constitute a global historical
Christian norm. As Henrietta Harrison, a historian of Catholicism in China has
recently put it, when we compare the European Christian and Chinese popular
religious traditions, “we begin to see firstly that each of these great traditions
contains an immense variety of different practices, beliefs, and ideas, and secondly
that the two traditions sometimes overlap.”22 This overlap can be seen not only
in China, but globally. A study of Christianity among the Yoruba populations
in West Africa acknowledges that the Christian message “evoked a deep affinity
with local materials” and that African prophet movements made an “explicit ap-
peal to indigenous categories of religious life.”23 Hence this overlap or affinity is
to be expected generally in manifestations of Christianity around the world.
The language used to articulate deprivation and continuity explanations for
the rise of the True Jesus Church and other Pentecostal, charismatic, and inde-
pendent Christian movements around the world also suggests inherent biases
within these approaches. Certain words employed to describe charismatic expe-
rience convey a sense of powerful compulsion, of already-​vulnerable people sud-
denly overcome. This language evokes pathology (“The lightning spread of the
Pentecostal movement was not like the dispersal of some new idea. It was more
like the spread of a salubrious contagion”24; “paroxysms of mass conversions”25),
magic (“Pentecostalism casts such a spell over many free-​lance evangelists in
China”26), and the primitive (“primal”27; “returned to the raw inner core of
human spirituality”28). As we will see in Chapter 2, the uncontrolled nature of
charismatic experience was indeed cherished by people who had felt “the out-
pouring of the Holy Spirit” and who described this phenomenon in terms that
emphasized its involuntary character. Yet in aggregate, the overall tone of such
language suggests an understanding of charismatic religiosity as compulsive and
primitive that makes it harder to see the agency and theological discrimination of
the religious participants.
Clearly, drawing on the accounts of religious participants has its liabilities
from a scholarly point of view. The “evidence” is in the minds and lived experiences
of the True Jesus Church believers themselves and cannot be extracted to testify
on the printed page unless in the form of hearsay: Wei claimed. Deaconess Fu re-
ported. Deacon An believed. Such evidence of the miraculous, held in the minds of
adherents, is directly contradicted by others’ beliefs and experiences in which the
laws of the natural world always prevail and in which religious movements reflect
social and not supernatural realities.
Yet these miraculous claims, articulated through a distinctly Christian idiom,
are precisely what left their mark on history.29 None of the early True Jesus
8

8 China an d t he T rue Jesus

Church believers who followed Wei Enbo declared, “I feel uneducated and na-
tionalistic. Perhaps I’ll join the True Jesus Church.” Deaconess Fu and her friends
did not say, “We want to do as the Daoist ritual practitioners do. Let’s attempt to
raise this woman from the dead.”30 At particular times and places, people found
that the wondrous or fearsome patterns set forth in the Bible spoke to their eve-
ryday aspirations and concerns. While acknowledging overlap between native
religious practices and the healing, exorcism, and tongues-​speaking of the True
Jesus Church, we should also recognize that within the True Jesus Church such
practices were framed by a distinctively Christian nexus of ideas, texts, and forms
of collective religious life.
Perspectives from Japanese religious studies support the importance of
recognizing the potential of new religious movements to actually do some-
thing new. Religious movements—​and especially their founders—​historically
engage in proactive problem-​solving, creative reinterpretation, and subversive
innovation. Helen Hardacre, in her history of the Japanese new religious move-
ment Reiyukai, argued, “To say of Reiyukai that it represents a reaction to crisis
would ignore its positive attempts to address the problems of Japanese society
and also its inheritance of concepts, beliefs, and rites of Japanese Buddhism.”
Hardacre’s study emphasizes “the founders’ positive initiative in formulating a
creed and their purposeful transformation of traditional elements to match new
circumstances.”31 H. Byron Earhart, in his study of the native Japanese Christian
movement Gedatsu-​kai, has argued in this same vein. Social conditions did help
precipitate new religious movements’ break with existing Buddhist and Shinto
organizations, and the “permanent features of Japanese religion such as venera-
tion of ancestors” did serve as potent resources. However, he concluded, “it seems
inconceivable for anyone to demonstrate that social and religious factors ‘caused’
Okano to ‘produce’ such new elements as the amacha memorial mass and the
gohō shugyō rite. Without this innovative actor of Okano and the subsequent
organizers of the movement, one cannot account for the emergence of Gedatsu-​
kai.”32 Mark Mullins’s study, Christianity Made in Japan, has suggested a fourfold
typology for sources of indigenous Christianity: first, religious experience and
additional revelation; second, Judeo-​Christian scriptures; third, transplanted
missionary cultures; and fourth, native culture and religious traditions.33 I would
like to suggest that existing scholarship on Chinese Christianity has covered this
fourth source very well, but the dimensions of religious experience and commu-
nity enabled by the first three are ripe for additional exploration.
In addition to understanding the local socioeconomic and religious contexts
within which new religious communities form, in a history of the True Jesus
Church we must give sufficient weight to religious ideas, language, and motivations
on their own terms. Extraordinary claims of resurrection from the dead cannot be
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 Constitution of the United States nor to any existing treaty
of the United States, shall remain in force until the Congress
of the United States shall otherwise determine. Until
legislation shall be enacted extending the United States
customs laws and regulations to the Hawaiian Islands the
existing customs relations of the Hawaiian Islands with the
United States and other countries shall remain unchanged. The
public debt of the Republic of Hawaii, lawfully existing at
the date of the passage of this joint resolution, including
the amounts due to depositors in the Hawaiian Postal Savings
Bank, is hereby assumed by the Government of the United
States; but the liability of the United States in this regard
shall in no case exceed four million dollars. So long,
however, as the existing Government and the present commercial
relations of the Hawaiian Islands are continued as
hereinbefore provided said Government shall continue to pay
the interest on said debt.

"There shall be no further immigration of Chinese into the

Hawaiian Islands, except upon such conditions as are now or
may hereafter be allowed by the laws of the United States; and
no Chinese, by reason of anything herein contained, shall be
allowed to enter the United States from the Hawaiian Islands.

"The President shall appoint five commissioners, at least two

of whom shall be residents of the Hawaiian Islands, who shall,
as soon as reasonably practicable, recommend to Congress such
legislation concerning the Hawaiian Islands as they shall deem
necessary or proper.

{257}

"SECTION 2.
That the commissioners hereinbefore provided for shall be
appointed by the President, by and with the advice and consent
of the Senate.
"SECTION 3.
That the sum of one hundred thousand dollars, or so much
thereof as may be necessary, is hereby appropriated, out of
any money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated, and to
be immediately available, to be expended at the discretion of
the President of the United States of America, for the purpose
of carrying this joint resolution into effect."

There was no strict division of parties on the passage of the

resolution; but only three Republicans in the House voted
against it. Speaker Reed, who had strenuously opposed the
measure, was absent. Two Republican senators voted against the
resolution and three who opposed it were paired. A large
majority of the Democrats in both Houses were in opposition.
The policy advocated by the opponents of annexation was set
forth in the following resolution, which they brought to a
vote in the House, and which was defeated by 205 to 94:

"1. That the United States will view as an act of hostility

any attempt upon the part of any government of Europe or Asia
to take or hold possession of the Hawaiian islands or to
account upon any pretext or under any conditions sovereign
authority therein.

2. That the United States hereby announces to the people of

those islands and to the world the guarantee of the
independence of the people of the Hawaiian islands and their
firm determination to maintain the same."

Immediately upon the passage of the resolution of annexation,

preparations were begun at Honolulu for the transfer of
sovereignty to the United States, which was performed
ceremoniously August 12. Meantime, the President had
appointed, as commissioners to recommend legislation for the
government of the Islands, Messrs. Shelby M. Cullom, John T.
Morgan, Robert R. Hitt, Sanford B. Dole, and Walter F. Frear.
In the following November the Commission presented its report,
with a draft of several bills embodying the recommended
legislation. When the subject came into Congress, wide
differences of opinion appeared on questions concerning the
relations of the new possession to the United States and the
form of government to be provided for it. As the consequence,
more than a year passed before Congress reached action on the
subject, and Hawaii was kept in suspense for that period,
provisionally governed under the terms of the resolution of
annexation. The Act which, at last, determined the status and
the government of Hawaii, under the flag of the United States,
became law by the President's signature on the 30th of April,
1900, and Sanford B. Dole, formerly President of the Republic
of Hawaii, was appointed its governor.

The fundamental provisions of the "Act to provide a government

for the Territory of Hawaii" are the following:

SECTION 2.
That the islands acquired by the United States of America
under an Act of Congress entitled "Joint resolution to provide
for annexing the Hawaiian Islands to the United States,"
approved July seventh, eighteen hundred and ninety-eight,
shall be known as the Territory of Hawaii.

SECTION 3.
That a Territorial government is hereby established over the
said Territory, with its capital at Honolulu, on the island of
Oahu.

SECTION 4.
That all persons who were citizens of the Republic of Hawaii
on August twelfth, eighteen hundred and ninety-eight, are
hereby declared to be citizens of the United States and
citizens of the Territory of Hawaii. And all citizens of the
United States resident in the Hawaiian Islands who were
resident there on or since August twelfth, eighteen hundred
and ninety-eight, and all the citizens of the United States
who shall hereafter reside in the Territory of Hawaii for one
year shall be citizens of the Territory of Hawaii.

SECTION 5.
That the Constitution, and, except as herein otherwise
provided, all the laws of the United States which are not
locally inapplicable, shall have the same force and effect
within the said Territory as elsewhere in the United States:
Provided, that sections eighteen hundred and fifty and
eighteen hundred and ninety of the Revised Statutes of the
United States shall not apply to the Territory of Hawaii.

SECTION 6.
That the laws of Hawaii not inconsistent with the Constitution
or laws of the United States or the provisions of this Act
shall continue in force, subject to repeal or amendment by the
legislature of Hawaii or the Congress of the United States. …

SECTION 12.
That the legislature of the Territory of Hawaii shall consist
of two houses, styled, respectively, the senate and house of
representatives, which shall organize and sit separately,
except as otherwise herein provided. The two houses shall be
styled "The legislature of the Territory of Hawaii." …

SECTION 17.
That no person holding office in or under or by authority of
the Government of the United States or of the Territory of
Hawaii shall be eligible to election to the legislature, or to
hold the position of a member of the same while holding said
office. …

SECTION 55.
That the legislative power of the Territory shall extend to
all rightful subjects of legislation not inconsistent with the
Constitution and laws of the United States locally applicable.
…
 SECTION 66.
That the executive power of the government of the Territory of
Hawaii shall be vested in a governor, who shall be appointed
by the President, by and with the advice and consent of the
Senate of the United States, and shall hold office for four
years and until his successor shall be appointed and
qualified, unless sooner removed by the President. He shall be
not less than thirty-five years of age; shall be a citizen of
the Territory of Hawaii; shall be commander in chief of the
militia thereof; may grant pardons or reprieves for offences
against the laws of the said Territory and reprieves for
offences against the laws of the United States until the
decision of the President is made known thereon. …

SECTION 68.
That all the powers and duties which, by the laws of Hawaii,
are conferred upon or required of the President or any
minister of the Republic of Hawaii (acting alone or in
connection with any other officer or person or body) or the
cabinet or executive council, and not inconsistent with the
Constitution or laws of the United States, are conferred upon
and required of the governor of the Territory of Hawaii,
unless otherwise provided. …

{258}

SECTION 80.
That the President shall nominate and, by and with the advice
and consent of the Senate, appoint the chief justice and
justices of the supreme court, the judges of the circuit
courts, who shall hold their respective offices for the term
of four years, unless sooner removed by the President. …

SECTION 81.
That the judicial power of the Territory shall be vested in
one supreme court, circuit courts, and in such inferior courts
 as the legislature may from time to time establish. …

SECTION 85.
That a Delegate to the House of Representatives of the United
States, to serve during each Congress, shall be elected by the
voters qualified to vote for members of the house of
representatives of the legislature; such Delegate shall
possess the qualifications necessary for membership of the
senate of the legislature of Hawaii. … Every such Delegate
shall have a seat in the House of Representatives, with the
right of debate, but not of voting.

SECTION 86.
That there shall be established in said Territory a district
court to consist of one judge, who shall reside therein and be
called the district judge. The President of the United States,
by and with the advice and consent of the Senate of the United
States, shall appoint a district judge, a district attorney,
and a marshal of the United States for the said district, and
said judge, attorney, and marshal shall hold office for six
years unless sooner removed by the President. Said court shall
have, in addition to the ordinary jurisdiction of district
courts of the United States, jurisdiction of all cases
cognizable in a circuit court of the United States, and shall
proceed therein in the same manner as a circuit court. …

SECTION 88.
That the Territory of Hawaii shall comprise a customs district
of the United States, with ports of entry and delivery at
Honolulu, Hilo, Mahukona, and Kahului.

HAWAII: A. D. 1900.
Census of the Islands.
Progress of educational work.

"The last Hawaiian census, taken in the year 1896, gives a

total population of 109,020, of which 31,019 were native
Hawaiians. The number of Americans reported was 8,485. The
results of the Federal census taken this year [1900] show the
islands to have a total population of 154,001, an increase
over that reported in 1896 of 44,981, or 41.2 per cent. The
total land surface of the Hawaiian Islands is approximately
6,449 square miles: the average number of persons to the
square mile at the last three censuses being as follows: For
1890, 13.9; 1896, 16.9; 1900,23.8.

"Education in Hawaii is making favorable progress. In Honolulu

two large schoolhouses have recently been erected at a cost of
$24,778 and $20,349, respectively. The department of education
is under the management of a superintendent of public
instruction, assisted by six commissioners of public
instruction, two of whom are ladies. The tenure of office of
the commissioners is six years, the term of two of them
expiring each year. They serve without pay. The system is the
same as that existing under the Republic of Hawaii. In the
biennial period ending December 31 there were 141 public and
48 private schools in the Hawaiian Islands; 344 teachers in
the public schools, of whom 113 were men and 231 were women,
and 200 teachers in the private schools, of whom 79 were men
and 121 were women. In the same period there were 11,436
pupils in the public schools, of whom 6,395 were boys and
5,041 were girls, and 4,054 pupils in the private schools, of
whom 2,256 were boys and 1,798 were girls. This gives a total
of 15,490 pupils, of whom 8,651 were boys and 6,839 were
girls. … Of the 15,490 pupils, 5,045 were Hawaiian, 2,721 part
Hawaiian, 601 American, 213 British, 337 German, 3,882
Portuguese, 84 Scandinavian, 1,141 Japanese, 1,314 Chinese, 30
South Sea Islanders, and 124 other foreigners. Each
nationality had its own teacher. The expenditures for the two
years ending December 31, 1899, were $575,353. Since the year
1888 nearly all the common schools, in which the Hawaiian
language was the medium of instruction, have been converted
into schools in which English alone is so employed, 98 per
cent. of the children being at present instructed by teachers
 who use English."

United States, Secretary of the Interior,

Annual Report, November 30, 1900.

----------HAWAII: End--------

HAY-PAUNCEFOTE TREATY, The.

See (in this volume)

CANAL, INTEROCEANIC:
A. D. 1900 (DECEMBER); and 1901 (MARCH).

HAYTI: A. D. 1896.
Election of President Sam.

Hayti elected a new President, General Theresias Simon Sam, to

succeed General Hippolyte, who died suddenly on the 24th of
March.

HAYTI: A. D. 1897.
Quarrel with Germany.

The government of Hayti came into conflict with that of

Germany, in September, 1897, over what was claimed to be the
illegal arrest of a Haytien-born German, named Lueders, who
had secured German citizenship. Germany demanded his release,
with an indemnity at the rate of $1,000 per day for his
imprisonment. The demand not being acceded to promptly, the
German consul at Port-au-Prince hauled down his flag. Then the
United States Minister persuaded the Haytien President,
General Simon Sam, to set Lueders free. But the demand for
indemnity, still pending, brought two German war-ships to
Port-au-Prince on the 6th of December, with their guns ready
to open fire on the town if payment were not made within eight
hours. For Hayti there was nothing possible but submission,
and $30,000 was paid, with apologies and expressions of
 regret.

HEBREWS, The ancient:

Their position in history as affected by recent archæological
research.

See (in this volume)

ARCHÆOLOGICAL RESEARCH; IN BIBLE LANDS.

HECKER, Father Isaac Thomas,

and the opinions called "Americanism."

See (in this volume)

PAPACY: A. D. 1899 (JANUARY).

HELIUM, The discovery of.

See (in this volume)

SCIENCE, RECENT; CHEMISTRY AND PHYSICS.

HENRY, General Guy V.: Military Governor of Porto Rico.

See (in this volume)

PORTO RICO: A. D. 1898-1899 (OCTOBER-OCTOBER).

HERVEY, or COOK, ISLANDS:

Annexation to New Zealand.

See (in this volume)

NEW ZEALAND: A. D. 1900 (OCTOBER).

HEUREAUX, President: Assassination.

See (in this volume)

DOMINICAN REPUBLIC: A. D. 1899.

{259}
HICKS-BEACH, Sir Michael,
Chancellor of the Exchequer, in the British Cabinet.

See (in this volume)

ENGLAND: A. D. 1894-1895.

HILPRECHT, Professor H. V.:

Researches on the site of ancient Nippur.

See (in this volume)

ARCHÆOLOGICAL RESEARCH: BABYLONIA: AMERICAN
EXPLORATION.

HINTCHAK, The.

See (in this volume)

TURKEY: A. D. 1895.

HINTERLAND.

A German word which has come into general use to describe

unnamed and poorly defined regions lying behind, or on the
inland side, of coast districts, in Africa more especially,
which have been occupied or claimed by European powers.

HISTORICAL DISCOVERIES, Recent.

See (in this volume)

ARCHÆOLOGICAL RESEARCH.

HOAR, Senator George F.:

Action to recover the manuscript of Bradford's History.

See (in this volume)

MASSACHUSETTS: A. D. 1897.
HOAR, Senator George F.:
Speech in opposition to the retention of the
Philippine Islands as a subject State.

See (in this volume)

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1900 (APRIL).

HOBART, Garret A.: Vice President of the United States.

Death.

See (in this volume)

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1899 (November).

HOBOKEN, Great fire at.

On the 30th of June, 1900, between 200 and 300 people lost
their lives in a fire which destroyed the pier system of the
North German Lloyd steamship line, at Hoboken, N. J. The fire
wrecked three of the large ships of the company, and is said
to have been the most destructive blaze that ever visited the
piers and shipping of the port of New York. An estimate placed
the loss of life at nearly 300, and the damage to property at
about $10,000,000, but the company's estimate of the loss of
life and the value of the property wiped out was considerably
less. The fire started in some cotton on one of the four large
piers at 4 o'clock in the afternoon. In a few minutes the pier
on which it broke out was enveloped in flames, and in six
minutes the whole pier system was burning. The flames spread
so quickly that many men on the piers and on the vessels,
lighters and barges were hemmed in before they realized that
their lives were in danger.

HOBSON, Lieutenant Richmond Pearson:

The sinking of the collier Merrimac at Santiago.

See (in this volume)

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1898 (APRIL-JUNE).
HOLLAND.

See (in this volume)

NETHERLANDS, THE KINGDOM OF THE.

HOLLS, Frederick W.:

American Commissioner to the Peace Conference at The Hague.

See (in this volume)

PEACE CONFERENCE.

HOLY YEAR 1900, Proclamation of the Universal Jubilee of the,

Its extension.

See (in this volume)

PAPACY: A. D. 1900-1901.

HONDURAS.

See (in this volume)

CENTRAL AMERICA.

HONG KONG: A. D. 1894.

The Bubonic Plague.

See (in this volume)

PLAGUE.

HONG KONG: A. D. 1898.

British lease of territory on the mainland.

See (in this volume)

CHINA: A. D. 1898 (APRIL-AUGUST).

HORMIGUEROS, Engagement at.

 See (in this volume)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1898 (JULY-AUGUST: PORTO RICO).

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, The United States:

The "Spoils System" in its service.

See (in this volume)

CIVIL SERVICE REFORM: A. D. 1901.

HOVA, The.

See (in this volume)

MADAGASCAR.

HUA SANG, Massacre of missionaries at.

See (in this volume)

CHINA: A. D. 1895 (AUGUST).

HUDSON BAY, Investigation of.

See (in this volume)

POLAR EXPLORATION, 1897.

HUMBERT I., King of Italy: Assassination.

See (in this volume)

ITALY: A. D. 1899-1900; and 1900 (JULY-SEPTEMBER).

HUNGARY.

See ((in this volume)

AUSTRIA-HUNGARY.

HUSBANDISTS, The.
 See (in this volume)
GERMANY: A. D. 1901 (FEBRUARY).

I.

ICELAND, Recent exploration of.

See (in this volume)

POLAR EXPLORATION, 1898-1899.

IDAHO: A. D. 1896.
Adoption of Woman Suffrage.

On the 11th of December, 1896, an amendment of the

constitution of Idaho, extending the suffrage to women, was
submitted to the then voters of the State, and carried by
12,126, against 6,282. Though carried by a large majority of
the votes given on the suffrage issue, it did not receive a
majority of the whole vote cast on other questions at the same
election; but the supreme court of the State decided that the
amendment had been adopted.

I-HO-CH'UAN, The.

See (in this volume)

CHINA: A. D. 1900 (JANUARY-MARCH).

ILLINOIS: A. D. 1898.
Strike of coal miners.
Bloody conflict at Virden.

See (in this volume)

INDUSTRIAL DISTURBANCES: A. D. 1898.

ILOCANOS, The.

See (in this volume)

 PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: THE NATIVE INHABITANTS.

ILOILO: The American occupation of the city.

See (in this volume)

PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: A. D. 1899 (JANUARY-NOVEMBER).

ILORIN, British subjugation of.

See (in this volume)

AFRICA: A. D. 1897 (NIGERIA).

IMPERIAL BRITISH EAST AFRICA COMPANY:

Transfer of territory to the British Government.

See (in this volume)

AFRICA: A. D. 1895 (BRITISH EAST AFRICA).

IMPERIAL CONFERENCE:
Meeting of British Colonial Prime Ministers at the Colonial
Office, London.

See (in this volume)

ENGLAND: A. D. 1897 (JUNE-JULY).

IMPERIALISM:
The question in American politics.

See (in this volume)

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1900 (APRIL); and (MAY-NOVEMBER).

{260}

INCOME TAX: Decision against by United States Supreme Court.

See (in this volume)

 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1895 (APRIL-MAY).

INDIA: A. D. 1894.
The Waziri War.

A fierce attempt to interrupt the demarcation of the Afghan

boundary was made by the Waziris. The escort of 5,000 troops,
consisting mainly of Sikhs and Goorkhas, was desperately
attacked in camp at Wano, November 3. The attack was repulsed,
but with heavy loss on the British side. It became afterwards
necessary to send three strong columns into the country, under
Sir William Lockhart, in order to carry out the work.

INDIA: A. D. 1895 (March-September).

The defense and relief of Chitral.
The British frontier advanced.

At the extreme northwestern limit of British-Indian dominion

and semi-dominion, under the shadow of the lofty Hindu-Kush
mountains, lie a group of quasi-independent tribal states over
which the Amir of Afghanistan claimed at least a "sphere of
influence" until 1893. In that year the Amir and the
Government of India agreed upon a line which defined the
eastern and southern frontier of Afghanistan, "from Wakhan to
the Persian border," and agreed further as follows: "The
Government of India will at no time exercise interference in
the territories lying beyond this line on the side of
Afghanistan, and his Highness the Amir will at no time
exercise interference in the territories lying beyond this
line on the side of India. The British Government thus agrees
to his Highness the Amir retaining Asmar and the valley above
it, as far as Chanak. His Highness agrees, on the other hand,
that he will at no time exercise interference in Swat, Bajaur,
or Chitral, including Arnawai or Bashgal valley." Under this
agreement, the Indian Government prepared itself to be
watchful of Chitral affairs. The little state was notoriously
a nest of turbulence and intrigue. Its rulers, who bore the
Persian title of Mehtar, signifying "Greater," can never have
expected to live out their days. Changes of government were
brought about commonly by assassination. The reigning prince,
Nizam-ul-Mulk, owed his seat to the murder of his father,
Aman-ul-Mulk, though not by himself. In turn, he fell, on New
Year's day, 1895, slain at the instigation of his
half-brother, Amir-ul-Mulk, who mounted the vacant chair of
state. The usurper was then promptly assailed by two rivals,
one of them his brother-in-law, Umra Khan, a mountain
chieftain of Bajaur, the other an uncle, Sher Afzul, who had
been a refugee at Kabul. On the news of these occurrences at
Chitral, the Government of India sent thither, from Gilgit,
its political agent, Surgeon-Major Robertson, with a small
escort, to learn the state of affairs.

The result of Dr. Robertson's attempt to settle matters was an

alliance of Umra Khan and Sher Afzul in a desperate attempt to
destroy him and his small force of native troops, which had
five English officers at its head. The latter took possession
(March 1) of the fort at Chitral, a structure about 80 yards
square, walled partly with wood, and so placed in a valley
that it was commanded from neighboring hills. In this weak
fortification the little garrison held off a savage swarm of
the surrounding tribes during 46 days of a siege that is as
thrilling in the story of it as any found in recent history.
The first reinforcements sent to Dr. Robertson, from near
Gilgit, were disastrously beaten back, with the loss of the
captain in command and 50 of his men. As speedily as possible,
when the situation was known in India, an army of about 14,000
men was made ready at Peshawur, under the command of
Major-General Sir Robert Low, and relieving columns were
pushed with great difficulty through the Malakand Pass, then
filled deep with snow. A smaller force, of 600 men, under
Colonel Kelly, fought its way from Gilgit, struggling through
the snows of a pass 12,000 feet above the level of the sea.
Colonel Kelly was the first to reach Chitral, which he did on
the 20th of April. The besiegers had fled at his approach. The
beleaguered garrison was found to have lost 40 killed and 70
wounded, out of its fighting force of about 370 men. Sher
Afzul was caught by the Khan of Dir, who led 2,000 of his
followers to the help of the British. Umra Khan escaped to
Kabul, where he was imprisoned by the Amir. Shuja-ul-Mulk, a
younger brother of Amir-ul-Mulk was declared Mehtar. The
question whether British authority should be maintained in
Chitral or withdrawn was now sharply debated in England; but
Lord Salisbury and his party, coming into power at that
moment, decided that the advanced frontier of Indian Empire
must be held. The young Mehtar was installed in the name of
the Maharaja of Kashmir as his suzerain, and the terms under
which his government should be carried on were announced at
his installation (September 2, 1895) by the British Agent, as
follows:

"The general internal administration of the country will be

left in the hands of the Mehtar and of his advisers. The
Government of India do not intend to undertake themselves the
management of the internal affairs of Chitral, their concern
being with the foreign relations of the State, and with its
general welfare. It, however, has to be remembered that
Shuja-ul-Mulk is only a boy, and that, at an age when other
boys are engaged in education and amusement, he has been
called upon to hold the reins of State. Bearing this fact in
mind, the Government of India recognise the necessity of his
receiving some help during the time of his minority, and it
has consequently been decided to leave at Chitral an
experienced Political Officer upon whom the Mehtar may always
call for advice and assistance, while it is proposed to
appoint three persons, Raja Bahadur Khan, the Governor of
Mastuj, Wazir Inayat Khan and Aksakal Fateh Ali Shah, to give
him help, instruction and advice in the management of his
State and in the laws and customs of the people. Ordinarily
the entire country will be governed in accordance with their
experience and judgment; but nevertheless the Assistant
British Agent, if he thinks it necessary to do so, may, at any
 time, ask the Mehtar to delay action recommended by his three
advisers, until the opinion of the British Agent at Gilgit has
been obtained, whose decision shall be final and
authoritative.

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"The desirability of abolishing traffic in slaves is a matter

to which the Government of India attach much importance, and
that they have lately interested themselves with some success
in procuring the release of Natives of Kashmir and her
dependencies, including Chitralis, who are held in bondage in
Chinese Turkistan. It is in accordance therefore with the
general policy of the Government of India that in Chitral also
all buying and selling of slaves, whether for disposal in the
country or with the intention of sending them abroad, should
be altogether prohibited. Any such selling of slaves is
therefore from this time forward absolutely illegal."

Great Britain, Parliamentary Publications:

Papers by Command, 1896 (C.-8037).

Also in:
C. Lowe,
The Story of Chitral
(Century magazine, volume 55, page 89).

INDIA: A. D. 1895 (April).

Report of the Opium Commission.

"The long-deferred publication of the report of this

commission was made in April, and the report was signed by
eight out of nine members of the commission. The commissioners
declared that it had not been shown to be necessary, or to be
demanded by the people, that the growth of the poppy and the
manufacture of opium in British India should be prohibited.
Such a prohibition, if extended to the protected States, would
 be an unprecedented act of interference on the part of the
paramount Power, and would be sure to be resisted by the
chiefs and their people. The existing treaties with China in
regard to the importation of Indian opium into that country
had been admitted by the Chinese Government to contain all
they desired. The evidence led the commissioners to the
conclusion that the common use of opium in India is moderate,
and its prohibition is strongly opposed by the great mass of
native opinion."

Annual Register, 1895,

pages 337-338.

INDIA: A. D. 1896-1897.
Famine in northwestern and central provinces.

A failure of rains, especially in northwestern and central

India, produced the inevitable consequence of famine, lasting
with awful severity from the spring of 1896 until the autumn
of 1897. In December of the former year there were 561,800
persons employed on relief works which the Indian government
organized. In the following March the number had risen to more
than three millions, and in June it exceeded four millions.
Rain fell in July, and August, and the distress began soon
afterwards to grow less. In addition to the heavy expenditures
of the government, the charitable contributions for the relief
of sufferers from this famine were officially reported to have
amounted to 1,750,000 pounds sterling ($8,750,000).

INDIA: A. D. 1896-1900.
The Bubonic Plague.

See (in this volume)

PLAGUE.

INDIA: A. D. 1897.
Change in the government of Burmah.