MARTYRS
“We didn’t know where his body was. We went from hospital to hospital. They had lists out. We said, ‘Are those people sick?’ They said, ‘No, those are the dead!’”
–excerpt from chapter 8, “Martyrs,” in The Souls of China: The Return of Religion After Mao.
The banners on each side of the dead man’s shirt read:
The spirit of the June Four martyrs will never decay;
It resides below in the mountains and rivers, above in the sun and stars.
Blood shed in a just cause may not be rewarded for a thousand autumns;
Its fame lies at the gates of the capital, its merit found in the whole world.
More on the book here.
