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Two Heroes of Cathay: An Autobiography and a Sketch
1903 · 200 pages
Two Heroes of Cathay: An Autobiography and a Sketch
by Fei Ch'i-hao
Fei Ch'i-hao's first-person account of faith under fire. He tells of his upbringing, his conversion, and his harrowing escape through the Boxer massacres of 1900, in which most of his missionary colleagues and fellow believers in Shanxi were martyred. The volume also includes a sketch of K'ung Hsiang-hsi (H.H. Kung), a seventy-fourth-generation descendant of Confucius. Edited and framed by the missionary Luella Miner, but the narrative voice throughout is Fei's own.
The changed life
Converted as a young man in Shanxi, he lived through the Boxer violence of 1900 that martyred most of his missionary teachers and fellow Christians, and escaped to tell the story of the faith that carried him through.
Summary
Two Heroes of Cathay (1903) takes its subtitle literally: it is an autobiography and a sketch. The core is Fei Ch'i-hao's own first-person account of his early life, his schooling, and his conversion to Christianity, told plainly and from the inside.
The book's most gripping passages recount the Boxer Uprising of 1900. Fei describes the violence that swept Shanxi, in which most of his missionary colleagues and fellow believers were killed, and his own harrowing escape through danger and hiding. It is a survivor's testimony as much as a conversion story, bearing witness to those who did not live through it.
Alongside Fei's narrative, the volume includes a sketch of K'ung Hsiang-hsi (H.H. Kung), a Christian described as a seventy-fourth-generation descendant of Confucius. The book was edited and framed by the missionary Luella Miner, who gathered and presented the material, but the voice of the autobiography is Fei's throughout.
Who was Fei Ch'i-hao?
Fei Ch'i-hao was a Chinese Christian of Shanxi province who came to faith as a young man and lived through the Boxer Uprising of 1900, one of the deadliest episodes for Chinese Christians and foreign missionaries in the country's history. His autobiography preserves a rare first-person account of that persecution from a Chinese believer who survived it.
The book was edited by Luella Miner, an American missionary connected to the same mission circles in Shanxi, who framed and published Fei's narrative together with a sketch of K'ung Hsiang-hsi (H.H. Kung), a Christian identified as a descendant of Confucius. Miner's editorial hand shapes the volume, but Fei tells his own story in it.
Common questions
- Who actually wrote Two Heroes of Cathay?
- The autobiography at the heart of the book is Fei Ch'i-hao's own first-person account. The missionary Luella Miner edited and framed the volume and added a sketch of K'ung Hsiang-hsi, but the narrative voice is Fei's.
- What are the Boxer massacres the book describes?
- They were the killings of Christians and foreigners during the Boxer Uprising of 1900. Fei lived through the violence in Shanxi, where most of his missionary colleagues and fellow believers were martyred, and his escape is the dramatic center of the book.
A note on the text. Two Heroes of Cathay: An Autobiography and a Sketchis in the public domain. What you're buying is our edition — the careful typesetting and design. The original text is also available free here.