Page:Twentieth Century Impressions of Hongkong, Shanghai, and other Treaty Ports of China.djvu/341

TWENTIETH CENTURY IMPRESSIONS OF HONGKONG, SHANGHAI, ETC. 333 Museum, in the year 1795, of a manuscript of the New Testament in Chinese prepared by a Roman Catliolic missionary. In 1805 the London Missionary Society determined to engage in work among the Chinese resident in the Malay Peninsula, and designated the Rev, Robert Morrison to establish a mission in Prince of Wales' Island (now known as Penang). Within the next few years that island, Malacca, Bangkok, Singapore, Batavia, and Java were occupied by various societies as points of vantage from which the problem of the evangelisation of China might be attacked. Morrison was fated to begin work nearer the objective. Before he sailed his destination was altered, and he landed in Canton on September 7, 1807, the pioneer of Protestant missions.

When he arrived in China Canton was the only point of contact with the West, and the channel of intercourse was no wider than the little Oil Gate in the southern wall of that city, at which petitions to the Chinese authorities might be presented but through which no foreigner might pass. In such circumstances Morrison was compelled to restrict his work to the narrow limits of the "Factories." Two of his converts found places in the train of an Imperial Examiner, and distributed tracts to the students at the various examination centres in the province. With this exception, the early work in Canton was but another parallel driven nearest of any to the foot of the glacis. The walls still remained unbreached. Preparation was being made for an advance, however. An Anglo-Chinese College had been opened at Malacca. Morrison's Dictionary had been published in 1821, at a cost of ;tJ2,ooo ; the complete Bible in two editions — one by Marshman of Serampore, and the other by Morrison — was ready ; and many workers had already acquired the language. Gützlaff, as agent for the Nederlands Missionary Society, had made seven vojages along the China coast, penetrating as far as Tientsin, and had widely distributed the Scriptures. And, on the north-west frontier, work among the Mongols had been begun with the concurrence of the Czar of Russia. Then came the first great opportunity. At the conclusion of the war between Great Britain and China the Treaty of Nanking, signed in 1842, opened to the commerce of the world the 'Treaty ports of Canton, Amoy, Foochow, Ningpo, and Shanghai, and guaranteed the safety of British merchants residing there. Almost immediately, twelve missionary societies entered into occupation. In 1842 work was begun in Amoy ; in 1843, at Shanghai and Ningpo ; in 1847, at Swatow and Foochow, and among the Hakkas of the Kwangtung Province ; while in 1861 Central China was opened to work by the occupation of Hankow by Griffith John. Since then the work of expansion has gone on without interruption, and now the eighteen provinces of China, along with Manchuria and Mongolia, are open to the Gospel. Efforts have been made to reach the so-called aboriginal tribes, who occupy a large part of the provinces of Yunnan and Kwelchow, and of late these people, the Nosu, and Hwa Miao, have responded to the work done among them in a movement similar to the mass movements among the jungle tribes in India. Ten thousand Miao tribesmen and women have been enrolled as adherents.

Sporadic riots have, from time to time, caused the destruction of mission property, from 1864 and onwards. The most serious of these occurred in Chentu, Szechwan, in 1895, when the compounds of three Protestant missions, and one Roman Catholic mission were destroyed, but without loss of life. Massacres, too, have not been infrequent. Among others the murder of eight missionaries and two children, belonging to the Church Missionary Society, took place at Ku-cheng, Fokien, in 1873 ; and four adults and one child belonging to the American Board Mission suffered death at Lienchow, in Kwantung Province, in 1905.

But eclipsing all others were the losses sustained during the great " Boxer " rising of 1900. The reform measures of the Emperor, the aggression of foreign powers, and illegitimate, and to some degree legitimate, missionary enterprise, roused the intensely conservative Dowager Empress to action, in the hope that she might preserve China for her dynasty. She checkmated the Emperor and the Reform Party by the coup d'etat of 1898 ; but she convinced herself that the other evils would yield to nothing but force. There lay to her hand a weapon ready forged in the Society of Righteous Harmony Fists, the " Boxers," and with these and the officials she hoped to exterminate all the foreigners within the Empire. The Boxers did all that could be expected of them, but some of the officials showed themselves wiser than their mistress, and so the trouble was confined, in the main, to the country north of the Yangtsze and Manchuria, and broke itself against the walls of the legations at Peking. While missionaries were not specially aimed at in the Dowager Empress' secret edict calling for the extermination of all foreigners (yang ren), their position in the interior caused them to suffer most. The losses of that time are tabulated as follows : — Adults. Children. China Inland Mission Christian and Missionary Alliance American Board Mission ... English Baptist Missionary Society Shouyang Mission II American Presbyterian Mis- sion Scandinavian Alliance Mon- golian Mission — British and Foreign Bible Society Swedish Mongolian Mission Society for the Propagation of the Gospel — Unconnected — Total ... The number of native converts who suffered death is beyond estimation. Many of them exhibited a heroism which was not surpassed by that of the noblest Christian martyrs of any age. There is room for but one example. A young artist was apprehended in Manchuria soon after the storm burst. On the execution ground the Boxers bound him, and then asked him if he would still preach the Jesus religion. " Yes," was the reply, " as long as I live." Then an eyebrow was cut off, and the same question put elicited the same reply. Another eyebrow, and then the ears were severally removed, and at each stage opportunity for recantation was given. After each cut he still answered that while he lived he could not but preach the way of salvation to sinners. When he felt himself getting weak he said, "I may be unable to speak, but I shall never cease to believe " ; and then one great cut released him from his pains. Even the Boxers praised his constancy and sincerity.

Many missionaries bore willing testimony to the kindness which they received from the officials, at the risk of disgrace, and even in some cases of life itself. The amazing thing about all the troubles that the Chinese Church has been called to pass through is that these have not imposed more than the most transitory check upon its advance. The Church has always issued from the fire strengthened and purified ; and larger and more suitable premises have always risen upon the ruins of those destroyed, not seldom without any indemnity having been exacted from the destroyers.

SOCIETIES.

At the end of the year 1905 the Protestant missionary societies in China numbered : — British 18 American 29 Continental 8 Bible and Tract Societies ... 4 Educational Societies 3 Y.M.C.A I Total .. 63

The missionaries connected with these societies, along with 108 independent workers, totalled 3,445, of whom 964 were single ladies, and 301 doctors. These workers were distributed over 632 stations. Arranged in order of the number of their workers the principal societies ranked as follows : —

China Inland Mission 849 Church Missionary Society ... 275 American Presbyterian (North)... 265 Methodist Episcopal (American)... ig6 London Missionary Society ... 131 American Board ... 106 English Presbyterian Mission ... 99 American Baptist (North) .„ 90 (South) ... 88 American Episcopal 84 Wesleyan Missionary Society ... 82 The London Missionary Society was first on the field in China, represented by Morrison, who landed in Canton in 1807. Next in time came the American Board with the Rev. Elijah C. Bridgman, who joined Morrison in 1830. In 1831 Karl Gützlaff, deputed by the Nederlands Missionary Society, made the first of his seven voyages along the China coast. The American Episcopal Mission, and the American Baptist Mission also took up positions before the opening of the Treaty ports, the first in Canton in 1835, and the second in Macao in 1837. When the ports were opened societies began to send workers in much larger numbers. The Dutch Reformed Church (American) occupied Amoy in 1842 ; the Church Missionary Society began work in Shanghai in 1844 ; and the English Presbyterians in Amoy in 1847. The foundations of the China Inland Mission were laid in 1853 by the arrival of Dr. Hudson Taylor as agent of the China Evangelisation Society, and the society itself was organised in 1865. These societies have come upon the field not as independent expeditions pursuing different aims, but rather as different regiments, taking their places in the fighting line of that division of the Grand Army of Christ which is campaigning in China. From the time when the American, Bridgman, joined himself to Morrison, the Englishman, the feeling of comradeship has been most conspicuous.