Ying Lianzhi and Ma Xiangbo were the famous personages in the patriotic movement. Ying Lianzhi (1867-1926) was a Man- churian. At age of 19, he began to read Adam Schall"s work Zhu Zhi Qun Zheng and became a Catholic when he was 22. In1902, in order to help save China, he and his friends established the newspaper Da Gong Bao. He was unhappy to see the Catho- lic Church in China being dominated by foreigners and called for the training of good and excellent Chinese clergy. He was angry to see that the missionaries allowed themselves to love their own countries, while forbidding the Chinese Catholics to be patriotic. In his Exhortation to Study, he wrote: "Recently, after the invasion of Belgium by Germany, Cardinal Mercier published a celebrated pastoral on Patriotism-love of the native soil, of the country of one"s fathers--such was the theme that he developed in the document wherein the clearness of exposition is on a par with the nobility of the doctrine expounded, and all accordingly, both learned and ignorant, have been moved by it to the very depth of their souls. As for China, I vainly rack my memory in order to recall ever having heard a missionary exaltpatriotism. Does this mean that the Catholic Church exacts fromthe Catholics of China alone the duty of loving the foreign coun-
tries rather than their own?‘He expressed his strong nationalpride and patriotic sentiment in his work. In 1926, this well- known scholar died with both great hope and profound regret.
Ma Xiangbo (1840-1939), a native of Danyang, Jiangsu Province, was born into an Catholic family and was baptized as Joseph. He took another name Hua Feng Lao Ren when he was advanced in years. He entered Saint Ignatius School when he was 12 to study Latin, French, mathematics, astronomy and reli- gion. He joined the Jesuits in 1861 and was ordained to the priest- hood in 1870. He began his mission in Xuancheng, Anhui Prov- ince and Nanjing and Xuzhou, Jiangsu Province. He left the priesthood in 1876 and married. He came back to work for the Church in 1898. After a year-long retreat in Sheshang, he re- ceived dispensation from the Holy Father. In 1903, he founded Zhen Dan University (Aurora) and in 1905 he founded Fu Dan Public School, meaning Recovering Zhen Dan. He retired in Xu Jiahui in 1920 concentrating on translating and writing books. Ma was a Catholic who was filled with nationalism and patrio- tism. He was saddened to see the Church affairs run by foreign-ers and the pressure that Chinese clergy had to endure from for-eigners. He strongly promoted the self-administration of the Catholic Church in China and the training of native priests and the need to improve the quality of missionary work and its so- cial effect. After the 9.18 Incident in 1931, Ma Xiangbo, who was then in his 90s, showed his patriotism through his continued writings and lectures calling on all people to save China. He also wrote Huan Wo He Shan (Return our Land) calling for a halt to the Civil War in order to resist the Japanese solely. He proactively organized different associations to try to save China. He and Song Qingling organized a Zhong Guo Min Quan Baozhang Tong Meng Hui (Association for protecting Chi- nese People’s Rights) in 1932. In 1935, other scholars, such as Shen Junyu and Zou Taofen organized Jiu Guo Hui (Saving China Association), with Ma Xiangbo, the most respected man, elected as president. In Jiu Wang Bao, dated July 12th 1936, Ma openly criticized the Nationalist government"s non-resistance policy toward the Japanese. He said: "Japan only has 80 million people and China has 400 million. Japan"s population is only one fifth of China. How can such a huge country not resist small Japan"s invasion? This is called Suo Tou Wu Gui (a Turtle with its Head hidden inside its Shell)? This Suo Tou Wu Gui is the government, not the people. Even when the people tried to standup to fight, the government tried to suppress it.‘ These rather patriotic speeches enhanced the Anti-Japanese Movement and influenced greatly the unification of the Chinese people. He was regard as a patriotic legend. When he had his centenary celebra- tion in 1936, the communist Party sent a telegram to congratu- late him, saying, Light of the Nation, Auspice of Humanity. The Nationalist Government also praised him, calling him as a Hero of the Peoples, Auspice of the Nation. On November 4th, hedied of illness in Vietnam. Mao Zedong, Zhu De and Peng Dehuai=sent condolences to his family via telegrampraised his lifetime"s work.
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