LIBRARY OF THK University of California. \ylf:Tyyy^y:i )T>^(Vn.A/^i/uo 1/Ui/M^o-',., Class Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2007 with funding from IVIicrosoft Corporation http://www.archive.org/details/christianmissionOOesterich CHRISTIAN MISSIONS IN CHINA BY CHARLES S. ESTES, A. M. A Dissertation submitted to the Board of University Studies of the Johns Hopkins University in conformity with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, 1895 17 I 4 CHRISTIAN MISSIONS IN CHINA 1554i)6 PREFACE The following pages were brought to a close in 1896, and are now printed with no expectation that they will fully explain the existing conditions in China. A great war has recently made serious changes in the political situa- tion, and the final effect on missionary work cannot yet be determined. But, on the other hand, the history of mis- sions down to the last decade of the Nineteenth Century, is a part of the permanent history of China, and to this these few chapters are offered as a slight contribution. CONTENTS PAGE Introduction 9 Chapter I.— The Early Period 11 Chapter II. — The Roman Catholic Period 14 Chapter III.— The Modern Period 23 Chapter IV. — Phases of Missionary Work 39 BiBLIOGBAPHY 59 Vita 62 CHRISTIAN MISSIONS IN CHINA. INTRODUCTION. In the earliest period known to history, were three great nations. The record of one is in the pyramids, of another, in clay tablets. The third lives on, exhibiting to the nine- teenth century of the Christian era the life, the art, the thought of the nineteenth century before Christ "It is curious to think that we have as contemporaries a nation of men who, in all their intellectual capacities, are nearer to the ancient Egyptians or Chaldeans than to a modern Englishman or Frenchman."^ It would be of great interest to study China as an inter- preter of the two extinct civilizations.^ Other inquiries, however, press for an answer: What has preserved this nation through the centuries ? Thoughtful men agree that she can no longer endure as she is. What changes must she undergo to make her possible to the present world? The answer to both questions seems to be the same. China has faced the past. She has worshiped the ancestors. This mental attitude, forbidding all change,/ has saved the nation from division, but now while sh^ holds this attitude, modern civilization has no power over her. A change in national characteristics is prerequisite to her progress, even before foreign telegraphs and ma- chinery. Observing how her national life is the inevitable resultant of her religion, one soon comes to believe that nothing short of a religious revolution can reconstruct China. Four of the great religions of the world have been already tried. Confucianism, Taoism, Buddhism have blended in 1 Perot and Chippiez, Chaldean Art, II. 378. 2 As Lacouperie and Edkins have done. 10 Christian Missions in China a way unintelligible to a western mind. Mohammedism has some hold along the western and northern frontiers, but, thus far, has been unable to extend its power. There is a necessity for a new and dynamic faith. This is seen not only by foreigners,^ but occasionally by Chinamen. The Japanese war elicited the same opinion from a third source. Mr. James Creelman wrote from Korea to his paper, the New York World, November, 8, 1894: "The brother-in-law of the King asks me to say to the American public that Christianity is the only thing that can save this country. Korea is under the influence of Confucianism and can make no progress unless another system is introduced." In a study of Chinese missions are involved, then, two great questions: the possible adaptation of Christianity to a third of the human race, and the possible renovation and continued existence of the vast and ancient empire. 3 Of. address of George T. Cantlin at the Chicago Parliament of Religions. CHRISTIAN MISSIONS IN CHINA CHAPTER I. THE EAKLY PERIOD. The. date when Christianity was introduced to China can not be told. The breviary of the Malabar church and the Syrian Canon each relates that Saint Thomas, an immediate disciple of our Lord, preached to the Chinese. Not a few writers accept this statement. It is, perhaps, more probable that the accounts perpetuate a legend which had no existence before the fourth century. ^ There are indications that Christianity found early access to the country. The first certain date, however, is furnished by the Nestorian monument discovered in 1625 in Shen-si province. This is a stone slab covered by an in- scription whose translation requires about fifteen hundred words. The writing sets forth the Christian doctrine and describes the beginning of a niission from the Syrian Nestorians to China: "Olopun carried with him the true scriptures. A translation was presented to the Emperor, and in the twelfth year of Chang- wan (638 A. D.) he de- clared, ' we find these doctrines admirable. Let them have free course throughout the Empire.' "^ Under Imperial protection the new sect increased rap- idly. But it soon experienced opposition from the indige- 1 Eldridge, the Syrian Churches, p. 15 etc. McLean and Browne, The Catholicos of the East p. 3. Hue, Christianity in China, 1, 17. Foreign Missions of the Protestant Episcopal Church, No. 144, p. 3. 2 A reduced facsimile of the tablet may be seen in Yule's Marco Polo II, pp. 17 and 93, or in the Missionary Review of the World, Feb., 1895. The inscription has been translated m^ny times. See Legge's Nestorian Monument. 12 Christian Missions in China nous religions. Another foreign religion, Buddhism, which had entered China at about the same time as Chris- tianity, was making itself obnoxious. In 845 Emperor Wu-Tsung declared in an edict that great masses of people were withdrawing from their duties as citizens to give themselves up to religious retirement. He therefore or- dered four thousand six hundred great Buddhist monas- teries to be destroyed, and directed that " Three hundred other foreign priests, whether of Tath-sin^ or of Muhura, should return to secular life, to the end that the customs of the Empire may be uniform."* It was at this time probably, two hundred years after their entrance to China, that the Nestorians, to preserve if possible the record of their work, committed it to the Shen-si monument. Flourishing religions are not annihilated by a single assault. Buddhism lived on, and Marco Polo, in the story of his journey to Cathay (1290) speaks frequently of Nes- torian churches.^ The early Franciscan missionaries found the Nestorians bitter opponents.** Trigault, '^ writing in the first of the seventeenth century, says that the Nestorians had been numerous, but that persecution had arisen against them and they became extinct about 1540. Missionaries in recent times have nevertheless found some traces of them. One small community is be- lieved to exist still in western China. ^ The second historic attempt to christianize China was made in the second half of the thirteenth century. This was a period of great activity. The Mongol power was at its height, supreme in the East, feared even in the West. The period saw the last passionate surge of the crusades. It marked the commercial activity of Venice, and the splen- 8 That is, of the Roman Empire, the Nestorians. '^ Du Halde, China, I, p. 618, in his collection of Chinese State Papers. 5 Yule's Marco Polo, I, p. 250; II, p. 139. 6 Cathay and the Way Thither, I, 198. '^ De Christiana Expeditione apud Sinas, Ch. XI. 8 Missions and Science, p. 173. The Early Period 13 did zeal of the great preaching orders of Saint Dominic and Saint Francis. It was inevitable that these condi- tions should produce results. Marco Polo sought among the Mongols an extension of the Venetian trade. The friars took them religion. This second attempt, the first movement of the Roman church on China, is associated with the names of two priests, John of Monte Oorvino, and Oderick of Friuli. "At Khanbalik, in the kingdom of Cathay, the 8th of January, 1805," John wrote, "I have baptized six thousand persons, I have converted George, a prince who was formerly a Nestorian, to the true faith, I have not for twelve years received intelligence from Rome, I have translated into the Tartar tongue the whole of the New Testament and the Psalter, and I teach publicly the law of Jesus Christ."^ Pope Clement V. appointed John of Corvino Archbishop of China, and sent him seven assistants together with a let- ter to Timour, the great Khan. The Khan answered: "We pray the Pope to make mention of us in his holy prayers. We beg him also to send us some horses."^^ In 1369 came the Chinese revolt against their foreign masters. The Mongols were expelled and with them the missionaries.^^ Urban V. struggled for a time to gain a position for Christianity with the new Ming dynasty, but the obstacles were too great. The missionaries he sent disappeared, the results of Corvino's work were swept away, and for two hundred years China was again closed to Christian influence. 9 Cathay, I, 197. 10 Hue, Christianity in China, I, 343. iiQrbis Terrarum, "China." CHAPTER II. THE ROMAN CATHOLIC PERIOD. The Period of Growth, 1579 to 1722. The Period of Decline, 1722 to 1809. The last quarter of the sixteenth century saw the mis- sionary labors which established Chinese Christianity as a real influence. Like those of the thirteenth century, they were a manifestation of a new and world wide activ- ity. The Renaissance had come. Portuguese navigators, searching for Cathay, had rounded Africa and taken pos- session of Malacca. From this base, Saint Francis Xavier, fresh from his missionary triumphs in India and Japan, attempted in 1552 to reach China, but baffled by Chinese exclusiveness and worn out by toil, he died in sight of the land of his desire. In 1560 the Portuguese on the petition of the Chinese Mandarins expelled a band of pirates from an island which "commanded the harbor of Canton. As a reward, the Portuguese were allowed to settle the island themselves. They were also allowed to sail from their new town of Macao to Canton and to trade in the city, under surveil- lance, between the hours of sunrise and sunset.^ Here was a fresh opportunity for the Catholic church to enter China. Strong religious houses were established at Macao. The Jesuits founded a house there to which Valignani,^ the superintendent of the eastern Jesuit mis- 1 Hue, Christianity in China, II, 37. For an altogether different account from the Chinese point of view see p. 78 appendix to 2d. Vol. of Memoirs of Robert Morrison. 2 "O Rock, Rock, Rock, when wilt thou open to my Lord?" are Valignani's words, not Xavier's as ordinarily quoted. Du Halde 11,4. Christian Missions in China 15 sions, directed the most talented men of the order. Two of these were Fathers Michael Roger and Mathieu Ricci. Splendidly trained, persistent, and adroit, they were well fitted for their task. In 1582 the viceroy of Kuang-Tung (Canton) province ordered the Portuguese to send an embassy to his capital. By a little artifice Father Roger im- personated the Portuguese bishop,^ made himself agree- able, and won the favor of the viceroy by presenting him with a clock. News of the wonderful machine spread from mandarin to mandarin. Their anxiety to secure a similar treasure on the one hand and their jealousy of the foreigners on the other caused a condition of affairs truly Chinese. The missionaries were alternately flattered and insulted. One day they were presented with houses; the next, they were banished to Macao, only to be recalled immediately by some childish official. The situation rapidly developed the policy of the Jesuit missions. The Fathers aimed, first, to make themselves invaluable to the Government by scientific services; sec- ond, to win the regard of the people by complying with the forms of the existing religion so far as possible; third, to teach their own system; and fourth, to secure a foot- hold at Peking where they would be near the Emperor. After a little, Roger returned to Rome and Father Ricci was left in sole charge. His suppleness enabled him to succeed when others would have failed. When tne pic- ture of the Virgin over the altar offended, the picture was taken down.* The likeness of the Emperor was promi- nently displayed. Father Ricci prepared a map which showed China as the great Middle Kingdom with the other nations holding small places around it. He soon became influential, and in 1601 he achieved his desire of reaching Peking, where he lived the remainder of his life under the immediate protection of the Emperor, whose regard and friendship he enjoyed. Under his official title, 8 Hue, ib. * Hue, II. pp. 58, 155, 164. 16 The Roman Catholic Period *'The Great Doctor of Mathematics," Kicci published a large number of scientific and religious writings. Two works which he adapted from classical sources won him especial honor. These were "A Treatise on Memory," and "A Dialogue on Friendship."^ The Chinese pride them- selves on these virtue^!. Included in the surprising number of converts which Father Ricci won, were several from the higher classes. The most eminent were Li, a distinguished scholar,® and Su, a minister of the Government, who became champions of Christianity. Su's daughter, who received the name of "Candida" devoted her life to charity and became the Saint Elizabeth of China. '^ A Protestant missionary wrote in 1858 that many of Candida's descendants were still Romanists.^ Few men have ever accomplished more than Father Ricci. His methods have been criticized, but no one questions his devotion, ignores the magnitude of his work, or denies him the title, "Founder of the Chinese Church." At his death in 1611, an imperial edict com- memorated his great learning and services to the state, and ordered a monument to be erected to his memory at public expense.^ Apparently the Christian religion was firmly established, but seeds of dissension had been sown in the Church it- self.^*^ Ricci had not opposed Confucianism, maintaining 5 Trigault, Ch. Ill, p. 303. Ricci was the first to identify China with the Cathay of Marco Polo. The overland journey (1603 to 1606) of another Jesuit, Benedict Goes, first convinced Europeans of the identity. Cf . Cathay and Way Thither, II. 529-596. « Trigault has preserved Li's written profession of faith. Ch. IV. p. 47. 7 Gutzlaff, Chinese History, II, 118. Gutzlaff's statement (His- tory II, 121.) that at the time of Ricci's death there were over three hundred churches in the provinces, is both improbable and out of harmony with later statistics. 8 Milne, Life in China. Ch. IV. 474. » Trigault, Ch. V. 633 et. seq. Hue, II, 197 et. seq. Gutzlaff, History, II, 134. Christian Missions in China 17 that it needed only some additions to make it Christianity. He permitted his converts to continue their worship of the *'Lord of Heaven," because the Lord of Heaven must be God. He did not forbid participation in the established religious feasts, or the worship of ancestors, regarding these as only expressions of filial remembrance. Father Lombard, who succeeded Ricci, took altogether a different view, and prohibited such rites. He forbade the term of "Lord of Heaven" (Tien-Chu or Chang. Ti)ii to be used in Christian worship. Appeal was made to Rome and Ricci's views were upheld. In 1631 Dominicans and Franciscans began to arrive. ^^ They too opposed the practice of ancestral rites by Chris- tian converts, and they quarreled continually with the Jesuits. All China was now in confusion. The Emperor had grown old and imbecile. Ministers who were hostile to Christianity governed in his name and started a perse- cution which was stopped only by the determined attitude of Su. ^^ The disorder increased until 1644 when the Ming dynasty fell. ^* The missions gained by the change. The Jesuit Father Schali, who had been President of the College of Mathe- 11 This is the term commonly employed at the present time by Catholics in China to designate the Deity. Its connection with heathen worship explains in part the reluctance of Protestants to use it. Besides, its sound is almost identical with the Chinese words meaning "heavenly pig." For the Chinese use of this term in placards and caricatures of Christianity see Douglas, Society in China, p. 282. The question of the rites came up in Protestant churches as late as the Shanghai Conference of Protestant Mission- aries in 1890. Cf . the records I, 671, 690. 12 Marshall, Christian Missions, I, 68. 13 Su's defense of Christianity published at this time is the earli- est Chinese Apology. It is given in full in the Chinese Repository, Vol. XIX, p. 118. 1* A Ming prince held the title of Emperor at Canton for some time after this, but his authority was recognized in only two provinces. His wife, "the Empress Helena," was a Christian. Her letter to the Pope asking his assistance against her enemies is well known. Cf . Gutzlaff's History II. 1221. 18 The Roman Catholic Period matics and who had taught the Mings the art of casting cannon as a means of defence against their enemies, at once transferred his services to the new Tartar (Ta-tsing) dynasty. The Jesuits gradually won favor again, till the accession of Chang-Hi, in 1661, ushered in the golden age of the Roman Catholic church in China. Chang-Hi was one of the most remarkable monarchs who ever sat upon a throne. A soldier and a conqueror, he was also a scholar, an author and a broad-minded man. He gathered the learned Jesuits about him, admitted them freely to his presence, and conversed with them on scientific and philo- sophic themes. The fathers grew better acquainted with China, because for nine years as state officials they trav- eled over the whole empire making the first accurate maps. They determined the latitude and longitude of every "first rank" city, and produced what was then ''the most complete geographical work ever executed out of Europe." ^^ Verbi- est reformed the calendar, saying to the chagrined and jealous native astronomers: ''It is not in my power to make the heavens agree with your diagrams." ^^ The Jesuits also served as China diplomats, especially in the work of fixing the Russian boundary. The religious interests prospered proportionally. The emperor, grateful for their services, rewarded the Jesuits with ecclesiastical gifts, the only ones which the mission- aries would accept. We are told that he built for them a magnificent church at Peking, and placed upon it an in- scription written by his vermillion pencil: "It is infinitely good and infinitely just."^"^ One priest reports to his superior that in 1707 he had bap- tized sixteen hundred neophytes and a thousand adults. ^* Besides they baptized "vast numbers of young children who have been abandoned, most of whom go into Paradise 15 Remusat. The maps are printed in Du Halde's China. 16 Dean, Christian Missions in China. 17 Lettres Edifiantes, XVII, 87. 18 Lettres Edifiantes, XVIII, 92. Christian Missions in China 19 the day after their baptism." ^® European catholics zeal- ously aided the missions. The Seminary for Foreign Missions, by which the work in China was supported for more than a century, was founded in Paris in 1663. But when Chang-Hi died, in 1722, an entirely new era dawned in China. Chang-Hi, in 1692, had granted to the Christians a legal right to worship in their own manner. The pope thought that the whole case was won and sent so many missionaries that the suspicious Chinese began to fear that the priests were the advance guard of a foreign invasion. Moreover, the missionaries were not at peace among themselves. The controversies over the rites ^^ still continued. At length Clement XI. sent a papal legate, Toumon, with full powers to determine the question. He strictly forbade any Christians to participate in the rites which he called pagan ceremonies. ^^ The pope hereupon required every missionary to promise to be strictly obedi- ent to Kome in this prohibition. Emperor Chang angrily repudiated the right of any foreigner to determine forms, even religious ones, for China, and he immediately decreed that any missionary entering China should spend his life there, a subject of the emperor, and that he should teach the doctrines which Father Ricci had prescribed. ^^ Yong-Ching, on succeeding to the throne, at once ad- dressed an edict to the missionaries: "You wish that all Chinamen should become Christians, but in that event what would become of us ? Should we not be soon merely subjects of your king? The converts you have already made recognize no one but you. I will permit you to re- side at Peking and at Canton so long as you give no cause i» Lockman's Travels of the Jesuits, I, 85. The date is Nov. 1, 1700. 20 See pages 16-17. 21 Lettres, XX, 523. 22 Gutzlaff, History, 139. Alzog, Church History, III, 577, gives an account of this controversy and the conflicting decisions of Inno- cent X. and Alexander VII. Jenkins, Jesuits in China, London, 1894, is a minute study of Tournon's mission. 20 The Roman Catholic Period for complaint. I will have none of you in the provinces." ^^ While the decree was moderate it closed the provincial churches. Native Christians suffered in certain districts, and the emperor banished some princes of a younger branch of the imperial house, who had embraced Chris- tianity.2* In 1744 Emperor Keen-Lung inaugurated the only general Christian persecution which China has ever seen. Five Spanish priests had disregarded the law and gone out to the provinces. These men together with every native who had aided them or who had accepted their teachings were executed in legal form, and the Christians in all the provinces were then assailed. The letters which the mis- sionaries wrote at this time are filled with accounts of the persecution. They relate many instances of devotion as unshrinking as that exhibited in the early persecutions directed against the Roman church. Still there is no trust- worthy estimate of the number who perished. Probably the number was smaller than the first reading of the ac- counts would seem to indicate, as the same instances of mar- tyrdom are many times repeated. Fewer than twelve Euro- peans are actually named as losing their lives. ^^ While the priests seem to have been living at Peking during the entire period on intimate and friendly terms with the emperor, amusing him with mechanical toys, painting his picture, and holding long conversations with him,^® it is clear that the emperors had formed a fixed policy of ridding their country of foreign religion and foreign in- fluence. Their purpose strengthened with growing reports 23 Boulgar, History of China, II, 435. 24 Lettres XX. 54 Cf . Boulgar, History II, 428. 25 Lettres XX, 15 & 54; XXXIII, 72. Annals, Society for the Propagation of the Faith IX, 300. Marshall's Christian Missions p. 80. For curious statements about miracles during the persecution see Annals V, 391; Annals XXIII, 33. 26 Lettres, XXII and XXIII. This portrait is reproduced in Boul- gar's History, Vol, 2. The Emperors were freely accessible to foreigners. Christian Missions in China 21 of wars and confusions in Europe, the home of the foreign religion and policy. The suppression of the Jesuits (1773) on the one hand stopped much of the Church's aggressive power, ^'^ and, on the other heightened the suspicions of the Chinese. Without banishing the remaining priests the government guarded them with such care and required so much scientific service from them that they could do little religious work.^* The Portuguese traders at Macao refused any longer to admit missionaries who were not subjects of Portugal,^® and the East India Company at Canton was unfriendly. The work which had opened so auspiciously had begun to decline as soon as the death of Chang permitted the mass of Chinese to manifest their real feeling, and finally, the temporal downfall of the Papacy itself in 1809 marked the close of the Catholic period. The toil of two hundred years had produced results, however, which were not lost. In the first place the mis- sionaries had revealed China to the world. "To Koman Catholic missionaries Europe was indebted for almost all the knowledge it had of China down to the second decade of the nineteenth century." ^^ "Where neither traveler nor merchant had penetrated, the Catholic missionary had found his way."^^ Second, the missionaries had done the pioneer work in mastering the language. They had pre- pared dictionaries, printed devotional and scientific books in Chinese, and had in manuscript a Chinese Harmony of the Gospels, the book of Acts, and the Pauline Epistles. ^^ Third, they had gathered, a body of native Christians, 27 "Let us submit and adore, yet my heart has received an incur- able wound, O my Grod, how many souls will be replunged into the darkness of idolatry." The Jesuit Superior at Peking. Annals IX, 310. 28 McCartney, Mission to China, (1793-4) II, 386-8. 29 Gutzlaff, History, 154. 80 Legge, Congresso Int. degli Orientaliste 1878, Kecords, p. 225. 31 Gutzlaff, China Opened, I, 180, 32 Morrison used this subsequently. 22 The Roman Catholic Period some of whom held to their faith in spite of all persecu- tions. The road to China had been opened. There could be no rest till western civilization and western religion pressed their way along it. ( I'NfVERSiTY J CHAPTER III. THE MODERN PERIOD. Period of Preparation, 1780 to 1842. Period of Growth, since 1842. It was just at the darkest period of Catholic Chinese Missions that the missionary spirit awoke in the Protestant churches. The same tide of devotion which carried Carey to India carried Robert Morrison, in 1780, to China. He was not welcome there. Though an agent of the London Missionary Society, he was not permitted to sail on an English vessel. He came to America, and, provided with an informal note of introduction from Secretary Madison to the American Consul at Canton, made his journey on an American ship. A stranger to Chinese customs, and with only the slightest acquaintance with the Chinese lan- guage, the empire seemed even more hopelessly closed to him than to the Catholics, but when he had succeeded in actually reaching Canton, he received a courteous recep- tion from the agents of the East India Company and from other foreigners whom the Chinese allowed to trade there. Morrison quietly devoted himself to the study of the lan- guage/ using as one text book the Catholic Harmony of the Grospels in Chinese, a copy of which he had found in the British Museum. The next year he engaged as a translator to the East India Company, thus securing his 1 Dr. Williams says in his Middle Kingdom, II, "No Chinese was allowed to help Morrison in the language. Had his object been sus- pected, he would not have been permitted to live a day." Morri- son's character was known to the settlement generally. A China- man did help him and ran the risk of the death penalty for teaching Chinese to a foreigner. See Memoirs of Robert Morrison, I, 153, 162, 169, 188, et passim. 24 Christian Missions in China residence and a better opportunity to continue his studies.^ Within sixteen years he had produced two monumental works: a Chinese dictionary which the East India Company printed at an expense of XI 2,000, and a translation of the Bible which the British and Foreign Bible Society printed at a cost of over .£10,000.^ The Chinese Government did not view this literary ac- tivity with favor. In 1805 two Catholic missionaries had been banished from China for sending to Europe maps of their districts. In 1811 an edict declared that any Eu- ropean or Chinese who printed books "to pervert the peo- ple" should be executed. Morrison's font of type was twice destroyed at Canton, and the press had to be removed to Malacca.* Other Protestant societies had now become interested in China^ but the most they could do was to establish themselves in towns on the coast of Siam, work for the Chinese emigrants and sailors who came there, study the Chinese language, and wait. In the safe shelters of Malacca and Serampore a large amount of religious literature was printed, including a second^ and a third'^ version of the Bible, and Charles Gutzlaff, a Prussian clergyman, sailed 2 The reluctance of the Chinese to have foreigners learn their lan- guage is described in McCartney's Embassy II, 138, 581. 3 Brief Account of of the British and Foreign Bible Society in China, p. 3. * Memoirs, I, 335. For an acccount of the work done at the Anglo-Chinese college at Malacca see Memoirs, II, 39-58. 5 The first notices of China by American Societies are in the Congregation alist "Missionary Herald" 1828, p. Ill, and in the Bap- tist "Missionary Magazine" 1832. They were both inspired by a Mr. Olyphant, a New York merchant engaged in the Canton trade. He forwarded to the two societies a paper, which he had asked Dr. Morrison to prepare, entitled "Suggestions on the Conduct of Mis- sions in China." The ships of Talbot, Olyphant & Co. furnished for years free transportation to the missionaries going to China. 6 By Marshman, an American, and Lassar, an Armenina. 7 By Gutzlaff. The Modern Period 25 up and down the whole Chinese coast, sowing this liter- ature broadcast.^ In 1833 Leang-Afa, a Chinese scholar who was one of the early converts, distributed to the students taking the state examinations at Canton, twenty-five portions of the Bible together with his "Good Words to Admonish the Age."» In 1822 the religious and civil disturbances in Europe were so far settled that a united Catholic mission society, the Society for the Propagation of the Faith, was again formed. ^° This began to plan renewed activity in China. In 1830 Rev. Luther Bridgman, the first missionary of the American Congregationalists to China, gained an entrance to Canton. There in 1832 he printed the first number of the "Chinese Repository," which is still pub- lished though now under the name of the Chinese Re- corder. Other Missions were planted in Assam and Siam, in the hope that the missionaries might gain access to the west of China under the protection of the land caravans of the East India Company. ^^ But the times were still un- propitious. In 1834 the charter of the East India Com- pany, which had a monopoly of the Chinese trade, expired and the British Government refused to renew it, saying that trade with China should be henceforth free. The Chinese flamed out in wrath. China might permit foreign mer- chants to trade as individuals, but how could a foreign barbarian nation presume to grant trading rights with the great Central Kingdom ? ^^ Lord Napier, the British agent at Canton, attempted to allay the wrath by publishing a "Statement of Facts" in the Chinese language. The same day the viceroy replied by a proclamation against those traitorous natives who had taught foreigners the Chinese 8 See his "China Opened." » Tracy, History of the American Board, p. 276. 10 The Jesuits had been re-established eight years. 11 Titterington, A Century of Baptist Foreign Missions, p. 110. 12 Boulgar's China III, 183. 26 Christian Missions in China language, and against their evil and obscene books which he commanded to be destroyed. This action drove all the missionaries, together with their helpers, their books and their presses, from Can ton. ^^ It seemed as if the earlier Catholic experience was to be repeated. But England, justly out of patience with the shifty orientals, and un- justly determined to force her trade upon a helpless people, took a more and more decided attitude towards China. The opium war came in 1842. It has wrought untold misery to the land, but it wrought good as well as evil Chinese commerce was multiplied many times, and within five years ten more missionary societies (fifteen with the earlier ones) were at work in the opened ports. This date marks the real beginning of the modern period Since then the missionaries have had "a place to stand." This is the date to remember in estimating the success of the missions. The treaty signed at the close of the war made no men- tion of Christians. At the simple request of the French Minister, decrees were issued in 1844 and in 1846 granting freedom of worship to Chinese Christians, with no dis- tinction between Catholics and Protestants, and ordering that the churches which had been built in the reign of Chang-Hi should be restored to the native Christians, ex- cepting those churches which had been converted into temples or dwelling houses.^* At the same time, foreign- ers were strictly enjoined from going into the country to propagate their religion. "If any overstep the boundaries the local officer will at once seize them and deliver them to their respective consuls for correction. "^^ One unlooked for result of missionary work should be noted here. One of the students to whom Leang-Afa had 13 Tracy, History of the American Board, p. 291. 14: Chinese Repository, XIV, 195. XV, 155. Under these decrees Catholic missionaries laid claim to several properties. Friction always resulted, till the attempts were discontinued. 15 Williams, Middle Kingdom, II, 357. The Modern Period 27 given his tract in 1833 was Siu-Tsuen, a man on the border land between insanity and genius. Ten years after he had received the book, he read it for the first time and seemed to find the explanation of visions which he had himself seen. China was in a de- plorable condition. Musing over the mysterious words Siu-Tsuen became convinced that he was appointed by heaven to overthrow the old dynasty with its religion, and to establish a new order of things founded on Christianity, as he understood it. He began by preaching. His earnest- ness won converts. After baptizing these in the Christian form, he set up in 1850 his banners inscribed "Tai-Ping Tien-Kuoh," Heavenly King of the Great Peace, and started the insurrection which could not be stopped till it was crushed by General Gordon in 1864. News of their ally soon reached the missionaries. Some expected much from him. Several wrote letters commending his undertaking. One of the missiona- ries, Mr. Koberts, "an uncouth and eccentric person," was his avowed agent to purchase war material in Amer- ica. ^^ With his first successes, Siu-Tsuen began to drop his purer teachings and to have visions directing numberless atrocities. The missionaries withdrew their sympathy. Siu's army became a mob of bravos. "Words cannot speak the misery he caused" says the imperial rescript of 1864. Dr. Williams estimates the loss of life by millions. ^^ Under such circumstances, it would not have been strange had the insurrection made the Chinese hostile to Chris- tians. Such was not the case. The government pro- tested to Mr. Burlingame against Mr. Robert's course, but the missionary was not even banished by China. A French priest, Chapdelaine, was executed in 1856 for disobedience to the regulations confining missionaries to the treaty 16 Diplomatic Correspondence of the United States 1863, III, 834. Cf . Marshall's Missions I, 200. 17 Williams, Middle Kingdom II, 604, 624, 642. Cf . the beginning of Mohammedism. 28 Christian Missions in China towns, ^® but no Christian is known to have suffered, be- cause of the Tai-ping rebellion. The privileges given the Christians by the rescript of 1844 were confirmed by treaties signed in 1858 and sub- sequently. Article nine of the British treaty of 1858 pro- vided that British subjects should be permitted to travel every where in China. ^^ The other foreign powers at once claimed the same right under "the most privileged nation" clause of their respective treaties with China. This date marks another advance for the missionaries. The old edicts against Christianity had, indeed, been enforced or not according to the temper of the local mandarin. Catholic priests had been able here and there to perform the offices of the church at the risk of their lives, but the process of extermination had gone steadily on. Three priests had been executed between 1800 and 1840.^" Father Baldus wrote in 1843: "At present, to speak proper- ly, there are no churches." ^^ When Father Hue, the his- torian of the Catholic missions, visited the interior in 1843, he went in disguise, passed along with the utmost caution from one Catholic family to another. ^^ The Protestants, having no converts in the interior, could not do even as much as the Catholics. In fact, there were only ninety-seven Protestant missionaries in all China in 1866. They had made a few itinerant tours through the interior, ^^ but their actual work was confined to "twelve of the coast treaty towns, Peking, and two northern cities." ^* Of the eighteen provinces of China, eleven were without a Protes- tant missionary. ^^ 18 He should have been handed over to the French Minister. See above. i» The treaties may be found in Boulgar's History, appendix to Vol. III. 20 Annals IV, 303. Mission Catholiques, June 36, 1891. 21 Annals IV, 180. 22 Annals IV, 162. 28 China's Millions, February 1895. 24= Story of the China Inland Mission, I, 6. II, 10. 25 China's Millions, February, 1895. The Modern Period 29 The land was now opened. Catholics reti rned to their long abandoned churches. Protestants began long tours through the interior. ^^ In 1865 the China Inland mission was organized by Mr. Hudson Taylor. This society has played a unique and important part in the development of missions. Its agents receive no fixed salary, and its work is undenominational. In 1889 Rev. William Upcraft and Mr. George Warner began a mission in Si-Chuen province with methods simi- lar to those of the Inland mission, but in connection with the Baptist denomination. With the exception of Si-Chuen, the interior is almost entirely dependent on the Inland mission. It has stations in every province except Hunan and Kuang-Si, which remain resolutely closed. The concessions made to Christianity by the regent, Prince Kung, in 1844 seem to have been made frankly without any compulsion. For most of the concessions made by the government during the next thirty years the same statement can not be made. The toleration of Chris- tianity has been forced upon China by stronger nations. Foreign force has supported a foreign creed by the side of the religion which has possessed the land for immemorial ages. If the significance of this fact be once grasped, the wonder will be, not that there has been opposition, but that there has been so little. Attacks on the missions have gone on with more or less regularity, but the Chinese government has given consistent support both to native and foreign Christians. Local religious troubles are usually due to the refusal of native Christians to contribute to village feasts of a hea- then character. Prince Kung ordered in 1862 that Chris- tians should be exempt from the temple tax, and should 26 The interior was made safer by the Chefoo Conventions of 1876. To avert a war threatened by England because of the treacherous murder of a British oflBcer in 1875, China was obliged to take active measures to protect foreigners in the interior. See U. S. Diplo- matic Correspondence, 1887, pp. 73-77. 30 Christian Missions in China not be required to support the feasts. If Christians suf- fered for their refusal, reparation should be made.^'^ When Father Mabilieu was murdered in Si-Chuen in 1864, the city officers were degraded and an edict was issued concerning which Dr. S. Wells Williams, at that time Charge d'affaires for the United States, wrote as follows: " The tone and circumstances attending its publication in- dicate a desire on the part of the imperial government to restrain such acts of violence. How far it will be able to punish criminals and preserve peace, depends much on the behavior of Christians, the disposition of the local authori- ties, and other causes which can not be immediately con- trolled."^® In 1865 and 1866 the emperor issued edict after edict commanding his local officers to study the treaties and observe them. ^® The great riot at Tientsing in 1870 illustrates many of the assaults made on the missionaries by the ignorant and superstitious people. The French Catholics had an or- phanage where they gathered children who had been ex- posed by their parents. As nearly all these foundlings speedily died, there was a foundation for the report that the priests and sisters were kidnapping children, even al- luring adults to the mysterious walled enclosure of the orphanage, and there killing them to obtain materials for strange medicines and powerful charms. No Chinaman felt safe. The city judge began an examination. He ar- rested a servant of the missionaries and tortured him till the poor wretch testified that the suspicions of the people were well founded; that he had himself been compelled by magical means to entice men into the power of the mis- sionaries. The missionaries were called to an account. They invited the officers to inspect the buildings. While 27 The term in this rescript strictly included only^Catholics. Hon. J. B. Angell, U. S. Minister in 1881, secured the^formal recognition of Protestants. Diplomatic Correspondence, 1885, p. 163. 28 Diplomatic Correspondence, 1861, p. 50. 2» Idem 1865 H, p. 47. The Modern Period 31 the officers, with much personal terror, were making their examination, the French consul appeared in the crowd. The Chinese say that he discharged a pistol at an officer. The French say that he was struck by a sword and fired to defend his life. In any case, the mob went wild. The authorities were powerless and sixteen French priests and sisters with their native assistants, were most horribly put to death. Three Kussians were also victims. The build- ings of one Protestant mission were damaged. ^^ The people rejoiced at the fate of [the foreign devils. The Grovernment, none too firmly seated in the last cen- tury, hesitated to punish the popular criminals. But at last it was compelled by the treaty nations to act. The city officers were banitrhed, eighteen of the leaders of the mob were executed and a money indemnity was paid. ^^ The whole story is a horrible one, but it must not be forgotten that it can be paralleled in some features by accounts of Christian attacks on Jews not many years ago in Europe. The affair made a deep impression on the imperial government. Shortly afterwards. Prince Wan- Sing addressed a note to the powers which bears evident marks of sincerity. He spoke of the "daily anxiety" that mission problems gave the Chinese Ministers and pro- posed eight rules for regulating mission work. The sig- nificant ones were these: Only Christian children should be taken by Catholic orphanages; priests should not wear the costume of Chinese officials; missionaries should not be allowed to wander over the country without some pass- port by which they could be traced; Catholics should not make unreasonable claims to land on the plea that it was 30 The dispatches which passed between China and the treaty nations may be seen in the Diplomatic Correspondence of the United States, 1871, II, pp. 69-194, and in the corresponding blue books of England and France. 31 A report prevailed among Europeans that the real offenders were released and rewarded, while other criminals were executed in their place. There is no foundation for this report. See the corre- spondence. 32 Christian Missions in China the site of an ancient church. ^^ Wan-Sing contended that it was the violation of one of these rules which most fre- quently angered the people and caused anti-mission riots, and one who reads the whole history feels with Minister Low that the Chinese did have "some just grounds for complaint." ^^ There was some correspondence over Wan- Sing's proposition but no formal action. There were two results : First, the French Minister announced that Catho- lics would not be permitted to enter further claims for recovering real estate. Second, foreign missionaries have been a little more particular about passports. A little later than the Tien-tsing massacre all South China was disturbed by reports that Protestant missiona- ries were poisoning the wells. ^* When the Chinese gov- ernment during the troubles with France in 1883, offered rewards for the heads of Frenchmen, mobs, thinking that all foreigners belonged to the same nation and that the missionaries were emissaries of France, burnt twenty-three Catholic and eighteen Protestant chapels in Canton prov- ince ^^ and fell upon the native Christians. Miss Gordon Cummings thinks that thirty-five thousand native Chris- tians were massacred. The Pope sent a legate to China and disclaimed any political connection between the church and France and then in 1886 the emperor issued an edict commanding all Chinamen to live at peace with each other whether they were Confucianists or Christians, as they all were alike his subjects. ^^ In 1891, after a period of comparative quiet, anti-Chris- »2 The United States translation of the note reads "Roman Catholic." The French translation, and accordingly the English which was made from the French, reads "Christian," in referring to the offenders. U. S. Correspondence, 1871-2, pp. 102, 158. Some of the references evidently have no application to Protestants. 33 Correspondence, 1871-2, p. 98. 3* Fifty years in Amoy, p. 152. 35 Diplomatic Correspondence, 1885, p. 163. 36 Diplomatic Correspondence, 1886, p. 74. Cf . Foster's Christian Progress in China, pp. 25-26. The Modern Period 33 tian riots broke out everywhere. At this time Chinese were being mobbed and killed in the United States, and this fact was employed to stir up mobs in China. The situation grew so serious that the ministers of the foreign governments united in a very strong note to the Board of Rites. The Board memorial- ized the emperor, as is the Chinese procedure when any matter is to be brought to the attention of the sovereign, and the emperor issued a second edict. Minis- ter Denby says that this edict together with the memorial is the most important state paper ever issued in China. It may prove to be the Magna Charta of Chinese Chris- tianity. The memorial reads: " The religion of the West seems to have fcr its main purpose the teaching of men to live uprightly. In the calamities of recent years the mis- sionaries have in large number subscribed money. They are deserving of praise for their charitable works." The edict says: " The doctrine of Christianity has for its purpose the teaching of men to be good. Chinese con- verts are still subjects of China and amenable to the local authorities. It is evident that there are powerful outlaws whose object is to fan discontent by circulating false ru- mors that they may have an opportunity to rob. Let the governors of Liang Kiang, Hu Kwang, Kiang-su and Hu- peh cause the arrest of the leaders, try them and inflict capital punishment." ^^ In 1894, at the beginning of the late war with Japan, the Chinese government sent a note to the ministers of the western nations, promising the utmost efforts to protect the missionaries and urging that they rv main at their posts. The emperor issued a proclamation explaining to his igno- rant people that the western nations had nothing to do with the war. He warned his subjects to let the foreigners alone, and declared that the missi«.nary operations were 87 U. S. Diplomatic Correspondence, 1886, p. 74. 1891, pp. 411- 425. 34 Christian Missions in China under his protection.''® These recent acts show clearly the attitude which the Chinese government, for one reason or another, has taken towards Christianity. Unhappily the government has not been able to protect the missionaries. The Rev. James Wylie was murdered in Manchuria (not in China proper) in 1894 by undisciplined soldiers, though the local officers did their best to protect him.*® There have been anti-mission riots in Si-Chuen and elsewhere. August 1, 1895, a mob in Fu-Kian province massacred nine Protestant missionaries and a child. All of these were British subjects, and England has ex- acted a stern retribution. Twenty-six of the mob have been executed and sixty-six more have been banished or imprisoned for life or a term of years. *^ The American, French, and German governments have received a money indemnity for recent attacks made on their missionary citizens. The French Minister, M. Gerard, took advantage of the situation and obtained from the Board of Rites an order directing the local authorities in all the provinces to ex- punge from the Chinese code all laws placing restrictions on the propagation of the Christian religion.*^ Only two legal questions remain unsettled between the missionaries and China. First, treaties have given mis- sionaries the right to travel through the interior, but have not provided for permanent residence. China tolerates mission stations in the interior where merchants are not allowed for a moment, but, in case of any trouble, claims that the missionaries are exceeding their treaty rights. Thus, when two Swedish missionaries were murdered in Sung-Pu in 1893, China contended that the men were responsible for their own deaths because they 38 See the daily papers of Oct. 14-16, 1894. Chinese Recorder, Dec. 1894, p. 611; July, 1895, p. 539. 3» Edinburg Missionary Record, Sept. and Nov., 1894. *o Missionary Review of the World, from Oct., 1895 to April, 1896. See also the English Blue-books. 4^1 Missionary Review, Feb. 1896, The Modern Period 35 had persisted in remaining in a dangerous locality after they had been repeatedly and officially warned to de- part. The Swedish Consul acquiesced in this apparently reasonable plea. On the other hand the foreign residents were furious over the contention. The remaining foreign consuls united in a peremptory demand for the "exem- plary punishment of all officials high or low who had failed to obey the edict of 1891, and who, by their culpa- ble negligence, permitted this atrocious crime. "*^ The edict of 1891, however, gave no permission to foreigners to settle in the interior. The position of the United States seems the correct one. That is, a missionary has no r ght to settle in an interior town against the wishes of the in- habitants, but if he is once allowed to buy land and erect buildings, he can not then be ejected.*^ The second legal question concerns the claim that China permits the posting of inflammatory placards which pro- voke attacks upon the Christians. In 1895 the missiona- ries presented a petition to the Board of Rites, asking that the legal privilege of settling in the interior be granted to missionaries, and that the placards be sup- pressed. The Board replied that the requests were rea- sonable. It is the impression that the emperor favors the request. No formal answer has yet been returned. ** The missionaries charge that the government is some- times disingenuous. They say that officers who have repressed anti-foreign riots have been secretly punished, aad that officers who have permitted them have enjoyed the imperial favor. It seems to be proven that in several cases the real rioters have been left unpunished and Chris- tian natives have been killed as the guilty parties. ^^ Politic devices which are highly exasperating to the out- 42 Correspondence, of the Japan Mail, Aug. 12, Sept. 2, 9, 30, 1893; Feb. 10, April 4, 1894. *3 Diplomatic Correspondence, 1886, p. 96. 4* Chinese Recorder, March, April, July, 1895, pp. 106, 539. *5 Douglass, Society in China, pp. 269, 281, 285. Rev. Henry Kingman in the " Congregationalist," Jan. 25, 1894. 36 Christian Missions in China side barbarian have sometimes been employed by the "child like and bland" officials. When the English mis- sion at Foochow was destroyed in 1878, the polite manda- rin sent soldiers to quell the mob, but they came without arms or officers. When the American consul protested, a fresh detachment cheerfully appeared upon the scene with muskets but no ammunition. *^ All these charges seem true. Nevertheless, as one reads the records year by year, and remembers the strains to which the government has been subjected, he is forced to the conclusion that China has done all that can fairly be expected from it to protect the Christians. It is useless to expect from China the responsibility of a western nation. *'^ Its system of government is not com- pact. The very conception of law is different in the ori- ent. It is quite in keeping with oriental law that a Christian should be punished for an anti-mission riot. If the immediate criminal is not at hand in the east, his rela- tives may be punished instead, or some one who was a re- mote cause of the disturbance. Judgments are given on this principle in China in other difficulties. Finally, however much the imperial government may wish to punish a criminal, the critical condition of the dynasty these last years may cause officers to hesitate be- fore attacking a powerful noble or antagonizing public feeling. It is more than probable that the liots of 1891 were deliberately started by the secret societies for the very purpose of involving the government in difficulties with foreign powers so that opportunity would be afforded for a revolution. The government recognizes its condition. Many observers believe that the emperor is sincerely glad of the presence of foreigners because of the support they give to the existing order. Rev. Gilbert Reed expresses the almost unanimous feeling of the missionaries when he ^« Diplomatic Correspondence, 1879, p. 183. *7 The United States Government has not always found it easy to punish offences against foreigners. The Modern Period 37 says: "The government is friendly both to foreigners and to missionaries." The trouble has not been with the emperor or the people even, but primarily with the influential mandarins who shape public opinion, the jealous nobles, and the literati, who are really ignorant because of their useless and fos- silized learning. The missionaries are indebted to many individuals of the higher classes for courteous treatment, but as a class the mandarins are practical politicians. They are the gentlemen who offer to starving men bread so filled with rubbish that it is un-eatable, who heap up cannon balls of clay painted black and put the money ap- propriated for famine relief or for the equipment of a navy yard into their own pockets. Corrupt beyond belief, these officials are the enemies of the missionaries and of all Europeans. The missionaries assert that the common people would usually be peaceable if they were let alone. They have, of course, the same racial feeling against occidentals as occi- dentals have against Chinese. They are ignorant and superstitious. Occasionally an anti-Christian riot springs up suddenly from some accidental cause, *^ but generally it is deliberately planned by interested parties. Indecent pictures and placards are scattered through a whole region and rouse the wrath of the people against the missionaries, the foreign devils.*® In the Hunan riots of 1892 a man- darin posted the placards over his official seal. ^^ The ex- *8 U. S. Diplomatic Correspondence, 1866, I, 485; 1876, 54; 1885, 148. Correspondence of the Japanese Mail, Aug. 12, 1893; Feb. 10, 1894. *» Douglass, Society in China, p. 282. A copy of the most famous of the placards, "Death Blow to Corrupt Doctrines, " is in the library of Harvard University. Translations of some of the more decent placards are given in the Diplomatic Correspondence, 1892, p. 126. 50 China claimed that the officer was insane. The claim is not impossible. Diplomatic Correspondence, 1892, p. 115. The mis- sionaries do not think that he was. Douglass, Society in China, p. 285. 38 Christian Missions in China citement grows till not only the ignorant believe the stories but many of the most intelligent people. At length the outbreak comes. Sometimes the riots are anti-Christian. Much more fre- quently they are anti-foreign. The missions suffer be- cause they are the exposed points, and the attacks upon them indicate a racial hatred rather than religious opposi- tion. Districts and periods hostile to missionaries are hostile to all foreigners. Foreign consuls have been re- peatedly stoned. ^^ It is a point sometimes overlooked, 51 The British Consul was stoned at Ichang, Dec. 15, 1895. but of much importance, that riots in China against Chris- tians no more indicate the feelings of the whole mass of people than do riots in any other country. They are the work of lawless and irresponsible agitators. In every re- cent attack upon a missionary, some Chinese have de- fended him at the risk of their own lives. In spite of the many disturbances, the*actual loss of life and property has been surprisingly small. Because of their supposed connection with the French government, and because of their former persistence in reclaiming an- cient church sites, Catholics have, perhaps, suffered more than Protestants. China has paid for the property which has been destroyed. It is believed that in the whole nine- teenth century less than sixty missionaries have been killed. Two-thirds of these have been Catholics. Three werj executed by the courts and six more were murdered prior to 1844. Sixteen were killed at Tientsing, and at least six others have perished. Only eighteen Protestant missionaries are known to have been murdered. CHAPTER IV. The Missionaries Themselves. — Distribution of the Bible. The services of the early Catholics have already been indicated. The first gift of Proteetantism to China was the Bible. The translations made by Marshman and Mor- rison have been mentioned. These men were pioneers through the wilderness of Chinese speech, and their work had the faults of pioneer translations. Moreover the books were too cumbersome and expensive. Morrison's printed Bible required twenty-one volumes. In 1850 the " Delegates " or first authorized version was completed by a committee of the missionaries.^ The members of the committee were unable to agree on a term for Deity and the space was left blank. Several other translations have been distributed by the various societies. Recently an- other general committee has been formed, and it is ex- pected that a revised version will shortly appear and be used as the literary version. Besides the literary versions, translations exist in nearly all the dialects. At first it was attempted to distribute the Bible by free gift. The Chinese were suspicious, and slow to receive the magic book which the foreigner offered to them. Many amusing stories are told of the first years of Bible distribution. One agent had been wondering what be- came of all the Bibles he distributed. He strayed into a temple and found that his precious books had been gath- ered up and burned as a sweet smelling savor to the god of printed paper.^ 1 Records of the Bible Society of Scotland, March, 1883, p. 339. 2 Records of the Shanghai Conference, 1887, p. 59. 40 Christian Missions in China In 1860 the policy of selling the Bibles was adopted.^ The circulation at once increased ten-fold and the books were henceforth preserved. As soon as the land was opened agents of the Bible societies went through it sell- ing the books. The explorers of the Inland Mission dis- tributed Bibles. One man sold j&ve thousand copies in fifty days in north China, another sold thirty-three thousand copies in a year through the southern prov- inces.* There have been even among Protestants some grave questionings as to the wisdom of distributing the Bible pro- miscuously. Portions are liable to be misunderstood by the Chinese. Dr. Nevius feared that the distribution might really hinder Christianity, but the great body of Protestant missionaries is solidly on the other side. Christians are frequently found who have been converted by the Bible alone. One great objection to the distribution has been that the text printed as the rules of the Bible societies required "without note or comment" was unintelligible to the Chinese. This objection has now been removed by the publication of the gospels with simple explanatory notes.^ The Bible is beginning to be known. The demand for it steadily increases. 1894 was a famine year. The work of one of the three Bible societies was interrupted by the death of its manager, nevertheless seven hundred and twenty- three thousand Bibles and parts of Bibles were sold by the three societies alone^ — a gain of more than eighty- eight thousand copies over the preceding year. By official permission the missionaries present each scholar taking the state examinations with a portion of Scripture. Twenty 8 Brief account of the British and Foreign Bible Society in China, p. 11. * Shanghai Conference, 1890, p. 116. 5 Report of the Bible Society of Scotland, 1893-4. « From the Annual Reports of the American, British, and Scotch Societies. Phases of Missionary Work 41 thousand scholars are thus reached at a single exami- nation.'^ In November, 1894 the Christian women of China pre- sented the Empress Dowager with a New Testament costing over twelve hundred dollars. The presentation was made through the English and American ministers. Two days later an order in the emperor's own writing came for a complete Bible. The presentation aroused much interest among the nobility, and it is expected that the Bible will attract an increased interest.* MEDICINE. The second great benefit conferred by Christianity on China is medicine. The early Jesuits had given simple remedies, but the proper history of medicine in China be- gan in 1828, when Dr. CoUedge, the Christian surgeon of the East India company, opened a hospital in Canton. Dr. Colledge believed that Christians had a duty to the sick in China. He corresponded with the mission socie- ties and, in 1834, Dr. Peter Parker opened a hospital at Canton in connection with the mission of the American Board. In 1835-36 the two physicians and a few Christian residents formed the "Medical Society of China". In a little time the news of Dr. Parker's mission spread. Pub- lic preaching was not then permitted and foreigners were hated. But this work appealed to a common humanity. In an oriental town respectable women would sit all night in the streets in order to get a chance in the line of patients which would crowd upon the doctor the next morning. ® When the opium war closed his hospital in 1840, nine thousand severe cases had been relieved besides any number of minor ones. Canton had a welcome for Parker as soon as the treaty was signed. "He had opened China at the point of his lancet." In 1839 there were 7 Briti3h Bible Society Reporter, Feb. 1883. 8 Record of the American Bible Society, Jan. 17, 1895. » Lockhart's Medical Missions in China, 122-123. 42 Christian Missions in China only two missionary physicians in China, The call was so loud that Christians began in 1842 to send more . It is impossible to continue the wonderful story at length, to tell how the work grew, and how female doctors have in later years carried help to helpless women. Sev- eral of the hospitals are endowed by private philanthropy. In 1892 there were in connection with the missions sixty- one hospitals and forty-four dispensaries, ^** one hundred male and twenty-six female physicians ^^ with a corps of trained native assistants. The Chinese have no knowledge of surgery and tne demand for surgical treatment is far beyond the capacity of the mission hospitals. From the annual reports of the hospitals, it may be estimated that they treat annually not ^^ fewer than five hundred thousand individuals and perform about seventy thousand operations, of which about eight thousand are of the gravest kind. The Chinese have learned to have utmost confidence in the surgeons, and submit calmly to the se- verest operations. The patient's relatives are consulted, and usually there is no resentment expressed if a danger- ous operation fails. The motive which brings physicians to hard work in a missionary hospital is a continuous puzzle to Chinamen. " Of the earth earthy they cannot understand unselfish- ness." ^^ But the patients, who have been treated with a gentleness and skill which seem to them miraculous, feel that the religion which inspires such work must be good. A few show no gratitude, thinking that they have rendered a service in allowing the foreigner to treat them . ^* Many have no impulse to accept the religion of their doctors, but some do. " More members are received by the Lon- don Church Mission at Tien-tsing from the Makenzie hos- 10 Fifty years in Amoy, p. 14. 51 The Medical Missionary Record, Sept. 1892, gives a full list. 12 348, 339, patients in 1889. 13 Dr. Graves. 1* Medical Missionary Record. Nov. 1894. Phases of Missionary Work 43 pital than from all other sources combined."^'' Many patients become Christians after they go to their distant homes. In 1884, missionaries were violently expelled from Kwai Peng. A lady physician went to the place, and the result was that in 1893 there were two organized churches in the place. ^* A medical literature is being provided, and native physicians are trained. ^'^ This medical work is one of the points in which the missionaries and the nobles harmo- nize. A hospital for men in Tien-tsing and another one for women mark the gratitude of China's ablest statesman for the cure of Lady Li Hung Chang by a medical mis- sionary. Viceroy Chang Chi-tung, one of the bitterest opponents of Christianity, who was governor at Canton in 1884 and at Hu-Kwang in 1891 and who favored the riot- ing in each place, as the missionaries believe, in 1895 sent a contribution of a thousand taels to a mission hospital. In the various wars missionaries have accompanied the Chinese armies as surgeons and nurses. Lately a medical missionary, Dr. W. J. Hall, died worn out by his exer- tions on the battle field of Pyong Yang. ^® There are peculiar difficulties even in this beneficent work. If physicians are mobbed in Europe during cholera epidem- ics, we can fancy the dangers of Chinese superstition. In times of trouble stories are circulated that the doctors pluck out human eyes to make charms. Dr. Greig, for whom grateful Chinese patients had built a dispensary, was mobbed for some surgical work. ^^ When the plague broke out in Canton and Hong Koog in the summer of 1894, the report was started that foreign doctors were killing the peo- ple by scattering scent- bags, one whiff of which would 15 Lawrence, Missions in the far East, p, 186, 7. 16 Medical Missionary Record, Nov. 1894. 1''^ Medical Missionary Record, Nov. 1894. 18 Medical Missionary Record, Jan. 1895. N. Y. Herald, Nov. 7-10 1894. 19 Michie, Missionaries in China, VII. 44 Christian Missions in China cause death, ^^ and a general uprising was planned to kill the foreigners. Miss Dr. Halverson was stoned nearly to death on the streets near Hong Kong, before the police could rescue her. ^^ Doubtless similar riots will occur again, both in China and in western nations, but such out- breaks have no significance as indicating a feeling against Christianity. EDUCATION. The Chinese regard themselves as a learned people, but they know little or nothing which Confucius did not teach. They have no conception of science, history, or geography. Such is the condition of the learned literati. iBelow them are the common people. Out of three hun- dred and fifty millions it is said that not over fifteen mil- lions and perhaps not more than ten millions, can read.^^ From the advent of the Jesuits, the missionaries have had their schools, which are now scattered over China by the thousands. To enable their pupils to compete with the native scholars, these schools teach the sacred book • of China, but they teach also the natural sciences, geog- raphy, and practical mathematics. The ordinary station 10 Foreign Mission Journals for Oct. and Nov. 1894. 21 Woman's Work in the Far East, Nov. 1894. Shanghai. 22 Chinese Characteristics, p. 386. The full course in the Basel Mission School sj^stem covers fifteen years; seven years in the first grade; four years in the second grade, which corresponds to our smaller colleges; and three years more, for theological students. In 1886 this mission had 231 pupils, who paid $950 annually towards the total cost of the schools ($2,852). Chinese Recorder March, 1887, p. 86. The course in the Reformed Church Schools is shown in "Fifty Years in Amoy." The Episcopalians, Jesuits, and Methodists all have high grade schools and colleges at Shanghai; the Presbyterians at Tengchow and Canton; the Methodists at Peking and Canton. Other high grade schools are at Hong Kong, Chefoo, Wuchang, etc. See Foster's Christian Progress in China; Records of the meetings of the Education Society of China; especially Freyer'a Educational Directory of China, Shanghai 1896. The school at Tung Cho, re- ceives the profit of Dr. S. Wells Williams' Chinese dictionary, a gift amounting thus far to over $17,000. Phases of Missionary Work 45 schools are very simple; but there are a score of high grade academies, colleges, and theological seminaries, which rank with good European and American schools. The inevitable result is that the graduates of high grade mis- sion schools have a better working education than the literati, who consequently are jealous and angry. They combine to keep mission graduates and the few Chinese who have been educated in the west out of political or in- fluential places. Thus far, to the loss of China, they have succeeded, but there is only one end to such bad policy. The mission schools have now re-acted on Chinese ideas. In 1887 for the first time in all the centuries, Mathematics, International Law, History, and Military Tactics were in- cluded in the literary examinations.** This is an event more epoch making perhaps, than the Japanese war. In 1867, the Imperial College was opened at Peking and an American missionary placed at its head. A missionary is tutor to Li Hung Chang's sons. A missionary, Dr. Wil- liams, has repeated the earlier achievement of Morrison and made the universal Chinese dictionary. A missionary, Dr. Legge, who has communicated part of his literary labors to English readers, is now the great foreign authority on the sacred books of China. Even more important than these is the work which the missionaries have done in translating and writing text books for the Chinese in Mathematics, Civil Government, History, Physiology, Physics, Geography. The entire field has been covered.** 33 Foster's Christian Progress in China, "Education." 2* The Shanghai press publishes over eleven hundred text books. This is the most important Protestant Press in China. Each of the other Missionary printing establishments puts out text books. Of Protestant writings, Alex. Wylie of Shanghai, and the catalogue of the Shanghai Press give the beat lists. Brief bibliographies may be found in the Chinese Recorder, for June, 1894, and in the appen- dix to Martin's Chinese Education. The Catholic Publication Agency is also at Shanghai, and issues catalogues. Cordier's Bibli- otheca Sinica, Paris, 1878, gives prominence to Catholic publi- cations. The earlier ones are described in Cordier's Essai d'une bibliographie des ouvrages publies en Chine par les Europeena au 17me. et 18me. Siecles, Paris, 1883, and in the Laacher Stimmen, Ergaenzungsheft 50, Freyburg, 1841. 46 Christian Missions in China Mr. Michie, the keenest and the most intelligent critic of mission work in China, thinks that the distribution of the Bible has been comparatively barren of results, but adds: " The missionaries have the credit of awakening thought in the country, and their great industry in circulating use- ful and Christian knowledge in the vernacular has spread the light o! western civilization far and wide in the em- pire." ^^ This is the second point of agreement between the missionaries and the better members of the higher or- ders. Dr. Hartwell reports^* that the viceroy at Wuchang has just contributed $1,400 to the Society for the Dissem- ination of Christian and General Knowledge. By the es- pecial favor of the mandarins, agents of this society are allowed to attend the literary examinations and present books to the students. Sixty thousand publications were thus presented during the "Grace examinations" of 1893. Books of general information, Bibles, and Christian writ- ings are presented together. In 1894 a copy of Dr. Faber's five volume work on civilization, was given each of the great mandarins of the empire. ^^ But it is from the mis- sion schools themselves that the most momentous influ- ences proceed. At an early period the Catholics introduced industrial training in their schools, teaching watch-making, shoe- making, tailoring, ^^ sewing, lace-making and housekeeping. The Protestants have given more special attention to these subjects only within ten years. The best financial returns come from those industries which do not compete with general Chinese labor. Next after the arts of comfortable living, western trades have been taught, thus promoting in China wood-carving ^® and metal working, and introduc- ing the manufacture of matches, soaps, candles, the use of 25 Missionaries in China, p. 38. 26 Missionary Herald, Jan. 1895. 27 Report of Society, Chinese Recorder, Dec. 1894. 28 Lawrence, Missions in Far East, p. 188. 29 Records of Educational Association, p. 40, Phases of Missionary Work 47 sewing machines, and other simple machinery. The con- ception that manual labor is not a disgrace is taught. Neatness, punctuality and truthfulness are inculcated. An old student was heard coaching some new comers: "Now remember to tell the truth here; we always tell the truth to the master." ^^ The male graduates of the mission schools naturally find congenial the young women who have been similarly trained; homes spring up, not always Christian, but well ordered, intelligent, and friendly to western people. WORK FOR THE BLIND. The care given to the blind is one of the most interest- ing chapters in the whole story of Chinese missions. William Murray, one of the missionaries, was familiar with the Braille alphabet of embossed dots. The miser- able condition of the blind in China aroused his pity. He would gladly have embossed the Scriptures for their use, but the nature of the language forbade. He pondered the problem long. One day it flashed into his mind that by discarding words and printing sounds and " tones " he could represent the language by a simple kind of phonog- raphy. After perfecting his system he took a blind beg- gar from the street who within six weeks was able not only to read fluently, but to write better than many Chinamen can do after studying the ordinary method twenty years. ^^ ^^ Mr. Murray has gone on adapting his system to various Chinese dialects. He now hopes that by changing the reading of special symbols one kind of writing will do for all. *' This marvelous benefaction to the blind is becom- 30 Ibid 33-38. 81 "To master the Chinese language requires a head of oak, nerves of steel, a constitution of iron, and the age of Methuseleh." Lawrence, "Missions in East." p. 146. 82 Work for the Blind in China, Miss Gordon Cummings, Part I. p. 19. 83 Record of Triennial Meeting of the Education Association in China, p. 62. 48 Christian Missions in China ing widely known. Blind people of all ages come from great distances to put themselves under Mr. Murray's teaching. Besides the purely philanthropic results, this discovery puts a great power into the hands of the missionaries. Blind readers are sent out to street corners and work shops and to the enclosures of the women. About 1888, Mr. Murray began printing his system in ink for the use of the sighted, that those who could not learn to read in the usual way may have the same advantage as the blind- Improvements move slowly in China, but, for far reaching influence, the printing of Mr Murray's alphabet for the sighted Chinese will prove one of the greatest educational triumphs of our generation.^* Besides Mr. Murray's sys- tem there are several others representing the language by Roman letters. These are very helpful in certain sections and contain much good literature. But they are more ex- pensive and less easily learned than the Murray system. It is not supposed that any of these systems will take the place of the Chinese symbols, but it is believed that they will open reading and writing to immense classes who oth- erwise could never learn. The services of the missionaries in times of famine in China are well known, and have received recognition of the Chinese government. ^^ A study might be made of the incidental services which the missionaries have ren- dered. It would show not only the success, but also the failures of various experiments. It would not only de- scribe how Dr. Nevius gave fruit trees to China, but it 3* From "Work for the Blind in China." Seyenth Annual Report of the mission to th« Chinese Blind, 1893, and Records of the Edu- cation Association for China, 1893. See also the Chinese Recorder, June, 1894. 35 See letter addressed by the Chinese Minister in London to Lord Salisbury conveying thanks to the British people and especially to the Archbishop of Canterbury. Williams Middle Kingdom, ii, 737. Phases of Missionary Work 49 would explain why good farming tools can not be intro- duced. ^^ It is now necessary to turn from practical works to the workers. The most evident line of demarkation between them is that which runs between the Catholics and the Protestants. Missionaries of one creed respect the per- sonality and devotion of missionaries of the other. As in- dividuals they render each other kindly services, but their religious conceptions are so opposite that there is little sympathy in their work. The Protestant distributes Bibles; the Catholic opposes this policy; the Catholic runs all risks to baptize an infant, believing that a drop of water on its brow, or even the stealthy touch of a finger moistened with saliva, if hostile eyes are watching, decides the soul's fate for eternity. ^'^ This does not commend it- self to Protestants. The Catholic schools attach most importance to the edu- cation of ministers for the church. In the teaching of manual training they are probably superior to the Protes- tant schools. Outside of the orphanages connected with the convents, Catholics do no particular medical work. " Of late years they have done little proselyting. They have confined their labors to Catholic families, and the natural increase has made them powerful and numerous." ^* The charge is frequently made that Catholics are still meddlers in politics, ^® but Minister Denby has never seen any proofs of this. In earlier time the charge was doubt- less true. When the native Christians were abused be- cause they would not pay the Chinese temple tax, the missionaries naturally defended their converts in the courts, and, having learned the way, some times exerted 86 See Rev. A. H. Smith's Missions and Sociology, Missionary Review of the world, Feb. 1895. ^'^ Cf . Parkman's Jesuits in North America, with the Annales XVII. 436; XX. 268 etc. and the Catholic Review (N. Y.) Mar. 9, 1895. The baptizing is largely done by nuns. 88 Diplomatic Correspondence, 1886, p. 98. s» Norman, Peoples in the Far East, p. 304. bo Christian Missions in China their influence in things not religious. Catholics are agreed to have been the great offenders, *^ but Protestants were not blameless. This tendency to interfere became recognized by two parties, the people and the government. The effect still lingers. "I suspect every Chinese who applies for baptism," said Dr. McKay, " that he has be- come engaged in a law suit and thinks that by joining the church he will get some support from the foreigners."*^ The foreign governments have distinctly warned their subjects that they must not interfere in Chinese courts. When the emperor issued his decrees of toleration (1886, 1891) he thought it necessary to state that a Chinaman who joined the church was still subject to Chinese laws. *^ After the French war in 1883, the conviction that the Catholics were the political agents of France became so strong that the Pope was obliged to station a legate at Peking to combat this idea. It can not be denied that in the past some missionaries were not always conciliatory or even courteous to Chinese officials. Missionaries complained of annoyances which the government could not prevent, and some times took means of emphasizing their complaints which were neces- sarily offensive to the government. Once when three American Protestants thought themselves injured in a matter of house rent, they presented themselves to a sub- ordinate officer, strengthening their demands for immedi- ate justice by the presence of the captain of an American man of war and a hundred armed marines. *^ Concerning the present relative standing of the two creeds beyond the matter of mere statistics, perhaps no one outside of China is competent to speak. The expressed opinions are either those of partisans or of chance observ- 40 Lawrence Missions in the East, p. 69. 41 Diplomatic correspondence 1867, I, p. 67, 489. Great Britain and Sweden warned their subjects in China in 1894. Supplement to the Mission Record of the Scotch Presbyterian Church, Sept. 1894. 42 Diplomatic correspondence, 1866, I, p. 540. Phases of Missionary Work 51 ers. A recent traveler writes: "The Catholics receive more consideration and do a much greater work (than Protestants) because they meet the native ideas of priest- hood: poverty, chastity, and obedience. Moreover, they meet the native superstitions half way."*^ When quoted in full, this sentence is believed by neither creed. The external facts as they appear in the non-partisan language of consular reports are open to any reader. At present the missionaries connected with the government, and those who are developing the school system, are Protestants. The Catholics have probably done more scientific work in China. In addition to the services mentioned previously, they have made geological studies in several of the prov- inces, ** they have an astronomical observatory at Nanking, and their observations are communicated to the learned societies.*^ The main criticism made on the Protestants is that they have no responsible director, no unity in their work, and no discipline. *** There is doubtless a certain amount of truth in all this, but it does not, nevertheless, fairly represent the case. The missionaries are carefully selected. Each denomina- tion keeps general oversight over its own men. The agents of the China Inland Mission, apparently the most unorganized, are looked after by a careful system of in- spection. There are denominational meetings and finally the denominations come together as they did at Shanghai in 1877 aud 1890, in interdenominational societies and councils. Their mission magazine is interdenominational. There are, moreover, the Evangelical Alliance, the Chris- tian Endeavor, the Education Society, the Medical So- ciety, the Society for the Dissemination of Knowledge, the Bible Committee and other societies where the denomi- *3 Norman, Peoples in the Far East, p, 304. ■*•* Revue des questiones Scientifiques, Brussels, 1889. *5 Missions of the Jesuits at Nanking, 1874-5. *^ Michie, Missionaries in China pp. 51-53, 52 Christian Missions in China nations work together. There is room for all the societies, and the work of each is planned in reference to all. China is without doubt the most difficult of the mission fields, and, as such, it has had from the first missionaries of unusual ability, men who would be eminent anywhere. When the " Cambridge Band," five university men and two army officers, went from England in 1886, one who was there wrote: "When before were the stroke of a university eight, the captain of a university eleven, an officer of the royal artillery, and an officer of the dragoon guards seen standing side by side, renouncing their careers, the prizes of earthly ambition, taking leave of their social circles, and plunging into that warfare whose splendors are seen by faith alone." *'^ Such men as these are capable of organizing efficient work. Impracticables are soon recognized. There may be instances of eccentric missionaries, but they are far from the rule. A more just criticisrn relates to the Protes- tant's shorter term of service as compared with that of the Catholic. The married Protestant and his wife undoubt- edly do more work together than does the unmarried Catholic. But the failure of the health of either husband or wife usually causes the loss of two workers. Methods have been freely varied to meet the needs of the situation. The most recent experiment is the Mission to ihe Higher Classes begun by Rev. Gilbert Reed in 1894. He believes that China can be transformed only by its own influential men. To interest them he thinks that there must be social contact on an equality, extended business relations between some representative of the missions and the ruling mandarins, the establishment of a museum showing the life and products of both East and West, and the development of a literature especially suited to the upper classes.*^ One of the great hindrances is 4"^ Story of the China Inland Mission, I. 6; 11, 10. 48 Missionary Review of the World, Feb. 1895. Cf . article by Earnest Faber, D. D. in the Chinese Recorder, Dec. 1894. Phases of Missionary Work 53 the lack of words in the Chinese language capable of ex- pressing religious, scientific, and historical conceptions. The language has been already greatly enriched by the missionaries. If in a museum there should be exhibited as many of the concrete subjects of thought as possible, it is believed that the Chinese would become more inter- ested and that a terminology would thus be developed helpful to all parties. STATISTICS A. CATHOLIC. It is especially difficult to present Catholic statistics. The figures relating to the Jesuits are from the Catalogus Patrum at Fratrum e Societate Jesu, Shanghai, 1873. The cost of Catholic missions is copied from the annual reports of the Society for the Propagation of the Faith. These do not probably show the real expenses of the mis- sions. A learned Catholic tells me that they are not known in America. Mr. Michie, in The Missionaries in China, says that a large part of the expense comes from real estate business in China. The figures given should show the amount contributed by the Catholic mission societies. List of provinces in China Proper arranged geograph ically. 1. Pe-chi-li, 10. Kiang-si, 2. Shang-Tung, 11. Hou-Nan, 3. Kiang-su, 12. Kuang-Tung, 4. Che-Kiang, 13. Shen-si, 5. Fu-Kian, 14. Kan-Suh, 6. Shan-si, 15. Si-Chuen, 7. Ho-nan, 16. Kuei-Chow, 8. Nang-hui, 17. Kuang-Si, 9. Hu-Peh, 18. Yunan. In 1720, the Jesuits had 98 stations in provinces 1-8, 10, 11, 13, 17, besides stations in Hainan. In all, there entered China during the years 1581-1600 15 Jesuit Missionaries 1600-1700 225 1700-1779 210 1779-1842 1842-1872 191 After 1779 the missions passed to other orders, In 1723, statistics 55 300 churches and 300,000 converts were reported.^ In 1807 Sir Geo. Staunton estimated that there were 200,000 Christians.^ The Annals for September, 1878 compares the development by means of this table. In 1840 1878 Bishops 14 23 Priests 144 470 Catholics 320,000 772,412 The mission fields are grouped for administration into five " Regiones ". First — Manchuria, Mongolia and Province No. 1. Second— Provinces 4, 7, 8, 9, 10, 12. Third— Provinces 2, 3, 6, 11, 14. Fourth— Provinces 15, 16, 18, and Tibet. Fifth— Provinces 5, 13, 17. According to the Orbis Terrarum Catholicus. REGIO MEMBERS PRIESTS 1 had in 1889 129,047 180 2 " 169,138 245 3 " 63,659 109 4 " 117,699 261 5 " 74,340 112 553,883 907 (i) The Hong Kong Register for 1899 gives the number of communicants as 1,092,818. The Catholic Church counts as members all children of a Catholic parent. Of the priests 558 were foreigners; one foreign priest to 678,000 of the population. The members of the Mission Etran- geres of Paris furnish about two fifths of the missionaries, Lazarists and the Jesuits each furnish about one-sixth of the missionaries, Franciscans about one-eighth of the missionaries. Five other orders the remainder. The contributions of the Society for the Propagation of the Faith: 1 Tracy's History of the American Board, 232. 2Laws of China, p. 176. 1 Part of Regions 1 and 4 are outside of China Properjto which the figures of the Protestant missions are confined. 56 Statistics 1824. 34,200 francs 1830 83,580 1840 217,036 ^850 371,600 ll8<60 520,833 J1870 (2) 347,220 1880 808,313 1889 768,800 There are— Colleges, 34. Convents 34. 2 Estimate based on usual fraction of the total receipts. B. PROTESTANT. From the Records of the Slianghai conferences. The Story of the China Inland Mission, and from information furnished by the various mission secretaries. MEMBERS. 1814 1 1865 2,000 1834 3 1876 13,035 1842 6 1889 37,287 1853 350 1895 55,000 COMPARISON. 1877 1890 Churches 312 522 Wholly self supporting 18 94 Members 13,035 37,287 Pupils 1,388 16,836 . Hospitals 16 61 Dispensaries 24 44 Missionaries 473 1,296 Native contributions $9,271.92 $36,884.54 List of Protestant Societies which in 1890 had over ten agents in China Proper. 1890 NO. NAME ESTABLISHED AGENTS IN 1 London 1807 65 2 American Board 1830 83 3 " Baptist, North 1834 34 4 " Episcopal 1835 18 5 " Presbyterian, North. 1835 122 6 " Reformed Church... 1842 16 7 British Bible Society 1843 x 18 8 English Church 1844 56 9 English Baptist 1845 36 10 American Methodist, North .... 1847 99 11 American Baptist, South 1847 35 12 Basel Mission 1847 33 statistics 57 NO. IfAME ESTABLISHED 13 English Presbyterian 1847 14 Methodist South 1848 15 English Wesleyan 1852 16 Methodist, New 1860 17 China Inland Mission 1865 18 American Presbyterian, South . 1867 19 Canadian Presbyterian 1871 20 Society Propagation Gospel 1874 21 Berlin Mission 1882 22 English Bible Christians 1885 Other Societies 1890 AGENTS IN 51 32 31 12 366* 28 15 13 11 14 92 X Appropriated money earlier. * 634 in 1894. One Protestant Missionary to 30,000 Chinese. 1280 ESTIMATED COST OP PROTESTANT MISSIONS. THE SOCIETIES INDICATED BY THE NUMBERS BELOW NO. PAID UP TO 1840 PAID IN 1840 1850 1860 1870 1880 1890 1 2 3 4 5 $378,495 * 22,000 * 10,000 * 4,000 9,500 22,435 4,617 * 1,200 1,490 4,140 37,200 15,421 10,039 9,089 18,760 37,814 19,741 14,622 26,657 55,761 50,193 53,223 23,883 20,906 77,688 57,272 46,751 22,483 49,881 58,812 67,041 104,701 31,605 69,653 147,389 6 10 11 12 9,513 1,626 5,651 25,567 4,507 14,348 43,347 11,606 16,262 44,589 18,728 21,008 118,642 29,979 U 17 18 7,648 8,118 10,000 18,477 30,248 12,479 33,170 27,331 ^,, ^ . ,. *(6) *(8) *(ll) *(14) (25) Other Societies 53,000 75,700 153,000 167,000 290,000 Figures not marked with * are exact. Table continued on nej:t page. 58 Christian Missions in China 1894 TOTAL REMARKS 108,857 107,657 75,428 75,267 185,698 3,128,043 2,147,500* 1,100,001* 1,335,000* 3,000,000* 21,081 121,389 25,250 543,571* 1,880,500* 649,827 34,131 156,398 30,150 709,905 590,000 295,000* 6,700,000* A grand total of not less than $22,000,000. 1. The average for the decade is given. 1-6. Before 1842 much of the money was spent in Siam. Only two societies separate the accounts before 1842. Its money is counted with 2 till this year. The numbers in ( ) give the number of other societies in the year. SOCIETIBS SPENT. English American $538,000 Scotch 331,181 IN ADDITION THE BIBLE HAVE CIRCULATED BIBLES AND PARTS OF BIBLES. 4,353,188 2,701,495 Up to about 1877, the average cost per missionary was nearly $2,000 dollars. The cost has been steadily lessen- ing as buildings are provided. The increase in the num- ber of women missionaries also reduce the average. In 1894, under pressure, the average cost was under $1,000. BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTES It does not eeem necessary to mention all the works con- sulted in the preparation of this paper, or even referred to in it. The writer's thanks are due to many librarians. The interest and courtesy of four especially have given access to books not easily accessible. They are the librarians of Saint Mary's Seminary, Baltimore; of the College of the Jesuit Fathers at Woodstook, Md., of the Congregational- ist library at Boston, and of Harvard University. Lists of books on Chinese missions may be found in the Minutes of the London Conference of Missionaries, 1888; in Funk and Wagnall's Encyclopedia of Missions, vol. II, appendix; and in the more recent Descriptive Cata- logue of Books on Missions, E. M. Bliss, Presbyterian Board of Publication, 1895. Williams' Middle Kingdom gives the best general account of the missions up to about 1887. The best general history of China which gives con- sideration to mission questions is Boulgar's, 3 vol. edition 1884; Martin's Chinese Education, McCartney's Laws of China, Legge's Religion of China, Lockhart's Medical Missions in China, 1861, and Lowe's Medical Missions, 1886, give special information. The Medical Missionary Record, New York, gives the best account of the medical missionary conditions at present. EARLY PERIOD. For the Early Period the authorities are: — Legge, Nes- torian Monument, 1888. The Narrative of Gonzalez de Mendoza, 1596, reprinted by the Hakluyt Society, 1853. Le Comte (de la Compagnie de Jesus), Noveaux Memoires sur PEtat de la China, Amsterdam, 1698. De Christiana Expeditione apud Sinas suscepta a Sooitate Jesu, ex. P. 60 Christian Missions in China Ricci — comentariis, auctore P. N. Trisgautio. Augustse Vindel, 1615. This is the best account of Father Ricci's work, and is the source largely of Yule's Cathay and the Way Thither. Kircher, China, Monumentis qua sacris qua profanis illustrata, Amstelodami, 1667. Du Halde, J. B. (S. J.) Description of China. English translation, London, 1741. ROMAN CATHOLIC PERIOD. For the Roman Catholic Period the authorities are: — Catalogus Patrum ac Fratrum e Sociate Jesu qui ad 1872 in Sinas adlaboraverunt. Shanghai, 1873. Hue, E. R., Abbe, (R. C.) Christianity in China. Marshall, T. W. M. (R. C.) Christian Missions. The great source for the Catholic Period after 1650 is the collection of Letters Edi- fiantes, a mine of literary material. This paper refers to the twenty-four volume edition, Paris, 1838. A few of the letters have been translated in Lockman's Travels of the Jesuits, and in Kip's Historical Scenes from Old Jesuit Missions. The letters give the best account of the Jews in China as they were then. For a recent account see Biblia, Oct. 1894. MODERN PERIOD. For the Modern Period some of the authorities are: — Annales de la Propagation de la Foi, — faisant suite aux Lettres Edifiantes. Begun at Paris and Lyons in 1835. After 1849 there is an English edition which is referred to in this paper as " Annals." The corresponding Protestant Publication is the Chinese Repository, 1832-1852. After 1852 this is called the Chinese Recorder. The English papers printed in China and the Chinese Correspondence of the Japan Mail give Mission news and have much information about the Missions presented in very unconventional fashion. The most important nonpartisan evidence is furnished in the Diplomatic Correspondence between western nations and China. Bibliographical Notes 61 The Chinese opinion of missions is set forth in the Death Blow to Corrupt Doctrines. A Plain Statement of Facts, Published by the Gentry and the People. Trans- lated from the Chinese. Shanghai, 1870. Each mission Society publishes brief histories of its work and there are many biographies. Some of the most important are: — Morrison's Memoirs, written by his widow. A series of books written by Charles Gutzlaff, and published from 1830 to 1850. Tracy, History of the American Board. Reid, History of the Methodist Missions, a new edition is in press. Pitcher, Fifty years in Amoy, (The German Reformed Church). Guiness, Story of the China Island Mission. Strickland, History of the American Bible So- ciety. Lebouck, Mission Catholicus, St. Louis, 1890. Re- lations de la mission de Nan-King confide aux Compagnie de Jesus, Shanghai, 1876. Orbis Terrarum Catholicus, Werner, St. Louis, 1890. Valuable material may be found in the Records of the two Shanghai Conferences 1887 and 1890, and in the Records of the London Missionary Con- ference 1888. The managers of the mission societies usu- ally hold an annual inter-denominational conference, and print a minute of their meeting. The present condition of the missions is seen best in the various missionary pe- riodicals, and in the annual reports of the Chinese associa- tions, e. g., the missionary Hand-book and the Reports of the Educational Association. These are printed at Shang- hai. Much is printed also in the journals of the Asiatic Societies. 'OJf .>3 JO 3HJ. ,.0 BIOGRAPHICAIe SKETCH Charles Sumner Estes was born at Thomaston, Maine, November 12, 1858, the son of Sumner and Sarah (Holt) Estes. He was graduated from Colby University in 1884, From 1884 to 1891 he was Associate Principal of Ricker Institute, Maine. From 1891 to 1895 he was a student at the Johns Hopkins University, taking History as his major subject, and as subordinates, Latin and Roman Law. He holds in grateful remembrance the advice and instruction of Professors Herbert B. Adams, Minton Warren, Greorge H. Emmott, and J. M. Vincent. 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