On Tuesday 15 September we left for Zhangjiakou were we will spend the night since there are no hotels available in Xiwanzi. Tomorrow it will only be a short drive to Xiwanzi.
After some 50 km we reached Juyongguan [1] a mountain pass where the Great Wall of China passes through. Interesting besides the wall itself is the Cloud Platform built in 1342.The structure we have seen looks like a gateway but originally it was the base for three white stupas. It is renowned for its Buddhist carvings in six languages.
When Verbist and his group also travelled from Beijing to Xiwanzi they also passed Juyongguan. Vranckx wrote:
« Mais en voilà plus qu’assez sur Péking : nos passeports sont en régie et nous venons de louer des litières. Des litières oui! Portées par deux mules. N’allez pas vous écrier que c’est du luxe, tout à l’heure vous pèserez les motifs qui nous ont fait agir.
D’abord, de Péking jusqu’a Si-wan-se, notre future résidence, il y a une distance de sept jours. Nous faisons communément cinq heures le matin et cinq heures l’après-midi dinant et logeant dans des « hôtelleries ».
Ensuite… je me suis plaint de la route de Ta-kou à Péking, n’est-ce pas? Mais c’est pour ici que j’aurais dû réserver mes plaintes. A quatre lieues de la capitale commence ce qu’on appelle la route impériale. Vous croyez peut-être que nous allons rouler sur une voie Appienne ou sur une voie Sacrée quelconque? Attendez-vous-y !
Avant d’entreprendre ce périlleux voyage un bon chrétien fait le signe de la croix; le muletier chinois, qui n’a de foi que dans le dieu sapèque, fait assurer son équipage et ses bêtes. …La route impériale a été construite il y a mille ans au moins; or les Chinois de cette époque ; ne connaissant ni le macadam[2] ni nos beaux cailloux de Quenast, n’ont trouvé rien de plus simple que de juxtaposer d’énormes blocs de rocher dont les interstices, je le suppose, ont dû primitivement être comblés au moyen d’une matière quelconque. Mais aujourd’hui, impossible de faire deux pas sans rencontrer un abîme de plusieurs pieds de profondeur.
Ne croyez pas que j’exagère: pendant quatre heures nous avons sauté d’un bloc à un autre, et nos souliers portent d’irrécusables témoignages de cette mémorable expédition. Nos mulets, moins heureux que nous, ont plus d’une fois fait la culbute; cependant, soutenus par les guides expérimentés que la compagnie d’assurances avait mis à notre disposition, ils sont parvenus à s’en tirer sans y laisser leurs os.
Du reste, rien de plus pittoresque que ce passage. La route impériale court entre deux chaines de rochers escarpés; on se dirait dans une gorge des Apennins. Au lieu même où commence la route impériale s’élèvent ces constructions gigantesques si connues sous le nom de murailles de Chine. Ici c’est un rempart avancé, destiné à couvrir la route de Péking. L’aspect de ces murailles est vraiment imposant: aussi loin que la vue peut porter, on les voit courir à travers les pleines et les vallées, passer sur les rivières el les fleuves, escalader les collines et les montagnes, surplomber la crête des rochers les plus abrupts et les plus élevés, sans s’arrêter devant aucun obstacle.
On Wednesday 16 September we left Zhangjiakou direction Xiwanzi.
When I read the history of the Scheutist I wondered how it was possible that a small group of missionaries without having any knowledge of Chinese neither of China succeeded in establishing with success a mission post in Inner Mongolia. After having read “Het Katholieke Dorp Siwantze – de geschiedenis van een voorpost in Mongolië”[3] I understood that the situation in Xiwanzi was totally different of what I thought. Hereafter some historical facts on Xiwanzi.
It is almost certain that Xiwanzi had a Christian community around 1700. They received now and then visits from Jesuits living in Beijing. The French Lazarist took over from the Jesuits in Beijing when the Company of Jesus (Jesuits) was suppressed by Pope Clement on July 21, 1773.
The problem the Lazarist were facing when they took over was their limited number in China. The anti-Christian actions had furthermore reduced their number and In 1836 there were only 17 Lazarist left in China.
In 1796 the Lazarist decided to send two missionaries to Inner Mongolia from then onwards Xiwanzi was visited regularly by Lazarist. The Lazarist were very active in the ordination of Chinese priest which will turn out as an essential element for Xiwanzi. One of these priests was Mathieu Sue[4] who was ordained priest in 1809 lived in Beijing but was obliged to hide when the persecution of Chinese Christian became very aggressive. He first hides in Suen-hoa-fou[5] but he was not safe there; he then left for Xiwanzi. From Xiwanzi he managed the Mission of Beijing and Xiwanzi became a central point for the missionaries in the larger Beijing area. In Beijing remained only those who were considered by the Chinese officials as useful for the country.
Unexpectedly on 12 July 1835 a young missionary Joseph Martial Mouly[6] only 28 years old who was appointed as head of the French Mission in Beijing came to Xiwanzi. Sue immediately stepped down and transferred all his responsibilities to him. He became Bishop in 1842 and some years later in 1846 he will leave Xiwanzi leaving behind a flourishing mission.
In 1858 there were in Xiwanzi 19 seminarians, four European and five Chinese priests and in 1861 three additional priests arrived. A brother joined the Xiwanzi mission in 1864. This well established mission explains how the Scheutist were able to start their activities immediately.
Before reaching Xiwanzi we stayed in Zhangjiakou whereas Verbist stayed in Xuanhua some 20 km south east of Zhangjiakou.
“Le soir du cinquième jour nous entrâmes à Suen-hoa-fou, ville très-commerçante, où nous étions attendus par M. Gottlicher, prêtre de la Congrégation des Lazaristes. Quelle fut notre surprise et notre joie, en descendant chez lui, d’y trouver l’excellent M. Bray, le supérieur actuel des missions de Mongolie !
Nous aurions vivement désiré nous reposer un jour chez le digne M. Göttlicher, mais nous désirions plus vivement encore nous trouver à Sy-wan-se pour y célébrer la fête de l’Immaculée Conception ; or, nous étions déjà le 5 décembre, et il nous restait deux longues étapes à faire. De grand matin donc, nous étions en route, escortés par les braves chrétiens de Sy-wan-se montés sur de vigoureux petits chevaux tartares. Dans la journée, une seconde députation de cavaliers vint à notre rencontre. C’était donc une véritable ovation qu’on nous préparait! Comme nous souhaitions voir notre nouvelle patrie adoptive, le vaste champ confié à nos travaux !»[7]
I didn’t share with the other participants the reason why I wanted to come to Xiwanzi and therefore was not aware of their expectations for the next day when finally we would discover the cradle of the presence of Scheut in China. At the eve of our visit to Xiwanzi I was very apprehensive that I would be disappointed by this historic place since time went by and maybe nothing is left anymore that remembers the days when the Scheutist were there.
I fully understood that when Verbist and his group were invited to rest a day Suen-hoa-fou they refused and wanted to discover as soon as possible their home “Xiwanzi”. Although my trip to Xiwanzi took only a few days it was for years that I planned to visit this place which was mentioned to me every time when I discussed with a Scheutist about their presence in China.
The next day Xiwanzi !
« Enfin, par un étroit défilé, nous débouchâmes dans une profonde vallée, environnée de toutes parts de hautes montagnes et traversée dans son milieu par un torrent. Au même instant le canon tonna dans le lointain. Nous levâmes les yeux et au bout de la vallée nous aperçûmes un petit village coquettement perché sur le flanc des montagnes. C’était Sy-wan-se… Avec quelle émotion nous les vîmes venir à notre rencontre aux doux accents de l‘harmonie, au son des cloches, au grondement des canons et des pétards ! Ils étaient là tous en habits de fête, les prêtres du séminaire en tête, les enfants et les vieillards, les hommes et les femmes. …Avec quel empressement ils se jetèrent sur nos pas lorsque, descendant de voilure, nous nous dirigeâmes vers l’église !
The arrival by bus was less spectacular than what Vranckx describes but it was nevertheless fascinating, that part of the village where the Church is located has still a lot of old houses and is close to a hill where you still can see some old troglodytes.
When we arrived there were no cannons thundering but the welcome was really incredible! When our bus stopped a crowd of singing people applauded and we shake hands. They thereafter invited us to the Church were a choir of woman were singing a welcome song. I didn’t expect this neither I think the other participants we were all moved and silent.
We thereafter went to the cemetery which is located on one of the hills surrounding the village. From there you could see the Church in the valley and what struck me was that it is very large and probably disproportionate to the number of Christians in the region. But this is not something new for Xiwanzi!
When Mouly arrived in Xiwanzi it had 130 Christian families and they had decided to build a new church! Mouly wrote:
“Our Christians could not bear the pitiful fact that the true God had only small chapels in a country where one can see monuments everywhere for the idols and their worshipers, even for Muhammad.” They wanted to build a church that would rival the temples of the false gods of beauty. “They themselves had gathered more than 7000 francs”
Later he wrote: “I have no doubt that this church is the finest and largest in China.”Msgr. Bruguière adds: “It is a beautiful church for such insignificant village.”[8]
Someone raised a question about the old western style of the Church under construction; we didn’t aksed the local priests why they had chosen such a style instead of either a modern style or a Chinese one. The answer lies maybe in the history of the Christian Church in this village. All this has been destroyed several time and rebuilt each time. I remember having seen pictures taken some hundred years ago from one of the hills surrounding the village looking down into the valley with the Church in the middle. The view we had from cemetery was almost identical to these pictures with majestic towers of the new Church pointing to heaven. Rebuilding in the old style is maybe a sign to those that have been taking actions to destroy Christianity in their village that they have failed.
Late in the afternoon we left Xiwanzi; looking back; being home again I can say without any hesitation that Xiwanzi was one of the highlights of our journey.
[1] or Juyong Pass ( 居庸关Jūyōng Guān)
[2] The use of the word in 1865 looked strange to me but it was introduced after John Loudon McAdam (21 September 1756 – 26 November 1836) invented road construction using single-sized aggregate layers of small stones, with a coating of binder as a cementing agent. Some of the roads in Paris were built that way in 1849. The use of tar as a binding material came much later.
[3] Het Katholieke Dorp Siwantze – de geschiedenis van een voorpost in Mongolië; Valère Rondelez, 1941, Missiën van Scheut.
[4]薛玛窦 SUE MA-TEOU born in Shanxi province in 1780 – Mong-kia-fen孟家坟 (Mengjiafen) 1860
[5] Suen-hoa-fou = Xuanhua some 20 km south east of Zhangjiakou
[6] France Figeac 1807 – China Beijing 1868孟振生 mèngzhènshēng
[7] Supra 2 page 45
[8] Supra 43 page 27
Experiences I wish to Share 