Chapter 11 Section 1 Morrison and Protestantism Entering China

Protestantism came to China much later than Catholicism and Orthodoxy. At the beginning of the 17th century, Dutch colonialists invaded Taiwan, our territory, and Dutch missionaries followed suit. They preached in Taiwan for more than 20 years and had about a thousand followers. In 1622, Zheng Chenggong recovered Taiwan and expelled the Dutch colonists, and the Protestant missionary activities in Taiwan were terminated accordingly. At the beginning of the 19th century, with the expansion of Western colonialism, Protestants started large-scale missionary activities.Various Protestant denominations have successively established missionary organizations for foreign missions, dedicated to missionary activities around the world, especially in Asia and Africa.In the missionary process, some missionaries acted as the pioneers and strategists of colonialism and imperialist aggression, serving colonial expansion and colonial rule through missionary work.It was against this background that Protestant missionaries came to China.

In 1807 (the twelfth year of Jiaqing), Morrison was sent to China by the London Missionary Society. He was the first Protestant missionary to mainland China.Morrison, a native of Northumberland, joined the London Missionary Society in 1804, was ordained as a pastor in 1807, and arrived in Guangzhou in September of the same year.Before coming to China, he learned Chinese from a Chinese named Rong Sande, and he borrowed a copy from the British Museum and copied 30 pages by himself.Rong Sande copied for him up to the book of Hebrews.He brought this manuscript to China as a basis for translating the Bible. In 1809, he served as the Chinese translator and secretary of the East India Company in Guangzhou. For the next 25 years, he used this position as a cover, engaging in business and writing books at the same time.His missionary activities began with the compilation of missionary pamphlets, and he has written "The True Book of Shinto Theory of Redemption and Salvation", "Questions and Answers on Jesus' Salvation Law", "A Brief Biography of the Ancient Rudia Kingdom (Jewish Kingdom)" , "Poetry of Nourishing the Mind" and so on.Because officials of the Qing Dynasty in Guangzhou strictly prohibited preaching and printing books, and were squeezed out by Catholic forces and opposed by the British East India Company, Morrison had to put the printing work in Malacca.He began to translate the "Bible New Testament" in 1810, and engraved and published his revised Chinese translation of "Acts". In 1813, the London Missionary Society sent Pastor Milne to China to work with Morrison.He founded a printing office in Malacca to publish Morrison's translation of the "New Testament" and other translations. In 1815, they established Yinghua College in Malacca (later moved to Hong Kong) to train missionaries and publish missionary materials as a base for missionary work to China.Milne also launched the Chinese monthly "Cha Secular Monthly Biography" and the English publication "Indochina Collection".At the same time, with the assistance of Milne, Morrison began to translate the "Bible and Old Testament", which was then called "Sacred Book of God and Heaven".The whole book was translated in 1819 and published in 1823, known in history.During the process of translating books, Morrison compiled the "Chinese-English Dictionary", which was funded by the East India Company and published successively from 1815 to 1823. This was the first Chinese-English dictionary.Morrison died in 1834, and he preached in China for 27 years. He also wrote 19 books including "General Outline of the History of the New Testament", "Hymns", "Questions and Answers", "Ways of the Kingdom of Heaven", and "Common Prayer". In this regard, he is comparable to Matteo Ricci in the Ming Dynasty.

However, in the missionary activities, Morrison was looked down upon by the Chinese people, so very few people were baptized.It was not until 1814 that he received the first Protestant believer Cai Gao in Macau.Cai Gao was framed by the Catholic Church and died of illness in prison. In 1816, Liang Fa was baptized by Milian in Malacca and became the second Chinese believer.The next year, Milne accepted another Chinese believer, Qu Ang.At the end of 1823, Liang Fa was ordained by Morrison as a Protestant missionary, commonly known as the Protestant missionary.Liang Fa studied in a village school when he was young, and went to the provincial capital to work as an engraver at the age of 15. Since 1810, he ignored the Qing government's prohibition on foreigners and their employees secretly printing and distributing books to preach, and privately engraved the Chinese translation of the "Bible" for Morrison. In 1824, he inherited Morrison's missionary work in Guangzhou. He often used the opportunity of the students' examinations in the provincial capital to distribute "Daily Bible Lessons" and his self-edited sermon pamphlets.In terms of religious belief, he was influenced by traditional Chinese Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism, which is what Morrison called "paganism", but he was still a devout believer and was keen on preaching.He wrote a variety of popular sermons, the most important of which was "Good Words for the World" edited and published by Morrison in 1832.The book consists of nine pamphlets. It is not a systematic preaching of the Bible and Christian doctrines. It just quotes some verses from the Bible in more than 60 incoherent sections, aiming at Chinese customs and current maladies. Confucian classics and historical allusions are attached, and Christian teachings are explained in a popular way.What is repeatedly promoted in the book is the worship of "God and God", belief in the redemption of Jesus, opposition to idols and evil gods, heaven and hell, rewarding good and punishing evil, etc. It is just a superficial sermon book.But it was this book that later had an important influence on Hong Xiuquan.

After Morrison and Milne, the London Missionary Society sent Legacy to China to serve as the principal of Yinghua College in Malacca. In 1843, the school moved to Hong Kong and was renamed the Seminary. Legacy continued to serve as the dean of the Seminary in Hong Kong, dedicated to establishing churches and training missionaries, and Quon helped him handle printing affairs.Since then, the London Evangelistic Mission has successively sent Yang Gefei (Yang Duxin), Williamson, Medus, Milne's son Millini, Eyose, etc. to Shanghai, Ningbo, Wuhan, Chongqing, Yantai, Beijing and other places. Infiltrate the country from the north. In 1830, American Protestant missionaries also began to enter China.American Congregational Church priest Bridgeman went to Guangzhou in 1830, and later founded and edited the "Macau Monthly", which published information about China's politics, economy, geography and culture.Another priest, Bo Jia, came to Guangzhou in 1834 and cooperated with Bridgman to open Boji Hospital in 1838.Wei Sanwei is also a Congregationalist priest. He came to Guangzhou in 1833 to edit the "Macao Monthly", and later wrote "China General", "China Business Guide" and other books.Baptist missionary Luo Xiaoquan, Presbyterian missionary Ni Weisi, Anglican missionary Wen Huilian and others came to China one after another.Guo Shili, a German Lutheran pastor who belonged to the Dutch Missionary Society, also came to China as a self-supporting missionary at this time. Hong Kong established the Hanhui (also known as the Fuhanhui, which means that the Han people will be blessed if they believe in it), which specially trains Chinese missionaries to preach in the mainland.But by 1840, due to the Qing government’s ban on religion, there were only 20 missionaries in China, representing four missions, and the number of believers in the past 30 years was less than 100.During this period, the subjective motives of Protestant missionaries from Britain, the United States and other countries to China may vary, but objectively they always played a role in cooperating with colonial aggression.Their activities are mainly: extensive collection of China's political, economic, cultural and military intelligence; writing books, translating scriptures, running newspapers, and setting up schools to prepare for large-scale missionary activities; advocating armed intervention in China's internal affairs and forcing the Qing government to give up ban, in order to achieve the purpose of free missionary work in China.

After the Opium War, the Qing government was forced to sign a series of unequal treaties that humiliated the country.Many missionaries were not only direct participants in the war of aggression against China and blackmail, but also the drafters and planners of unequal treaties.They believe that "only war can open China to Christ", and through the armed invasion of colonialism, missionary activities are included in the treaty as a privilege.After the signing of the treaty, the number of missionaries to China increased sharply. Missionaries from Britain, the United States, Germany, Canada and other countries came to China's treaty ports in an endless stream, and entered the mainland with the treaty as a talisman.According to statistics, there were only 81 Protestant missionaries in 1858, and the number increased to 1,296 in 1889, among which British missionaries accounted for about 3/5, American missionaries accounted for about 2/5, representing 41 mission societies.The main sects of Protestantism were introduced one after another, and missionaries traveled all over the country.The London Missionary Mission of the Congregationalist system was the first to be introduced. After consolidating the missionary bases in Hong Kong, Macau, and Guangzhou, it opened up dioceses in Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Fujian, Hubei, and Zhili, and established missionary bases in Shaanxi, Hunan, and Sichuan. .The American Congregational Church (also known as the American Chinese Association or the American Ministry Association) established parishes or missionary sites in Shanghai, Fujian, Taiwan, Shanxi, Zhili, and Shandong, and also went deep into Zhangjiakou and Inner Mongolia.The Lutheran (Lutheran) system expanded from Hong Kong and Macao to the mainland. Its missionary areas are divided into Henan Hubei, Central Hunan, Western Hunan, Eastern Henan, Central Henan, Southern Guangdong, Shaanxi, and Northeast China, which belong to the United States, Germany, and Denmark. , Sweden, Finland, Norway and other countries.The Anli Ganzong (Shenggongzong) system divides its missionary areas in China into 11 jurisdictions: Zhejiang, Fujian, Hong Kong and Guangdong, North China, Shandong, Sichuan, and Guangxi belong to the Anglican Church; Jiangsu, Hubei, Hunan, and Anhui belong to the Anglican Church. The Anglican Church in the United States; the Anglican Church in Canada has only one jurisdiction in Henan.The Baptist system in China is divided into the English Baptist Church, the American Baptist Church (from the American Southern Baptist Church), the American Baptist Church (from the American Northern Baptist Church), and the Swedish Baptist Church. South China (Guangdong, Shandong), East China (Jiangsu, Zhejiang), North China (a part of Shandong, Shanxi, Shaanxi, and Northeast China), West China (Sichuan), and Central China (Henan, Anhui), with the largest number of believers in Shandong and Guangdong provinces .The missionary area of ​​the Reformed (Presbyterian) sect is roughly similar to that of the Congregational and Lutheran sects, and the vast majority of believers are distributed in coastal areas.Wesleyan (Methodism) had eight missions introduced to China successively. The earliest one was Methodist, which established annual missionary meetings in Fujian, Jiangxi, Beijing and Sichuan.Based in Shanghai, the Supervisory Association expanded to Northeast China and Yunnan.The Shengdao Association established itself in Tianjin, and in addition to spreading in Zhili, Shandong, Zhejiang, and Guangdong, it also penetrated into Hunan, Hubei, Yunnan, and Guizhou.The Inland Mission is a cross-denominational mission organization founded in 1865 by the British self-supporting missionary Hudson Taylor. It specializes in missionary activities in the Mainland of China. In just over 10 years, the missionary area of ​​the Mission has expanded to 19 provinces and has penetrated into Border minority areas, up to Xinjiang and Tibet.However, as of the end of the 19th century, the number of Protestants was only 80,000, far from being comparable to Catholicism.

At the end of the Qing Dynasty, Catholicism was still strictly prohibited from preaching, but France and Portugal were fiercely competing for the right to protect the Catholic Church in China. In April 1834, Pope Gregory XVI issued a decree to revoke Portugal's guardianship on the grounds that Portugal could not fulfill its duties as a protector. In 1838, despite Portugal's opposition, the Holy See formally abolished its patronage rights in China, and French priest Meng Zhensheng replaced the bishop appointed by Portugal as the bishop of Beijing.After the Opium War, China and France signed the "Sino-French Whampoa Treaty," which allowed the French to build churches in treaty ports, and Chinese local officials were obliged to protect them. In 1844 and 1846, under pressure from France, the Qing government was forced to announce the relaxation of the ban on Catholicism and return "all Catholic churches built in various provinces during the Kangxi period".With the support of unequal treaties, Catholicism once again gained legal missionary status.Since then, the protection of missionaries and the return of religious assets have always been one of the main contents of Sino-French negotiations.By 1856, the Holy See had established or re-established vicariates in Liaodong, Mongolia, Yunnan, Guizhou, and Tibet. At the same time, the two dioceses of Beijing and Nanjing under the Portuguese patronage were revoked, and the northern border of Zhili and the southwest of Zhili were established. The four vicarious pastoral districts of the border, the southeast border of Zhili, and the south of the Yangtze River are managed by the Paris Foreign Missionary Society, the Missionary Society, and the Society of Jesus restored in 1814.The two vicariates, still under the jurisdiction of the Diocese of Macau in Portugal, are also represented by the Paris Institute for Foreign Missions.In this context, a large number of missionaries sneaked into the mainland regardless of the restrictions of the treaty, and the churches and religious properties originally managed by Chinese priests and upper-class believers were gradually transferred to foreign missionaries. In 1858, the Qing government was defeated in the Second Opium War and was forced to sign the Sino-French Treaty of Tianjin, in which Article 13 stipulated:

The Catholic Church was originally based on "persuading people to do good deeds". All those who follow the teachings will be protected and their wealth will be protected. They will worship, chant scriptures, etc., and do whatever they want; anyone who has a stamped license according to the eighth paragraph can enter the mainland safely Prosecutors must be treated generously and protected by local officials; all Chinese who are willing to believe in Catholicism and follow the rules will be exempted from punishment without being banned.All or written or inscribed proscribed Catholic scriptures, no matter where they are, are exempted.

Then, Article 6 of the Sino-French Beijing Treaty of 1860 stipulated that the previously confiscated religious property "should be returned to the French imperial envoy stationed in the capital as compensation, and handed over to the person who taught there."At the end of the Chinese version, the French missionary Ai Jialuo, who served as the translator, added the sentence "Let the French missionaries rent and buy fields in various provinces and build them at their own discretion" at the end of the article.These two treaties are a sign that France has obtained the political privilege of fully protecting Catholicism in China. The scope of protection has been expanded from missionaries to believers, and all missionaries who go to China receive French passports. In 1890, Germany also obtained protection rights for German Catholic missionaries in Shandong.Since then, foreign missionaries have no fear and began to openly go deep into the interior of China to preach, and the Catholic power has greatly developed in various places.By 1900, there were 37 vicariates across the country (20 of which belonged to French missionary institutions), with 740,000 believers and 1,356 priests, including 886 foreign priests.

In order to meet the needs of Tsarist Russia's aggressive and expansionist policy, the Orthodox Missionary Mission in Beijing became a missionary and cultural institution in form after 1860.They took advantage of the privileges obtained by the unequal treaties to start large-scale missions to the mainland of China, published Chinese missionary books, and trained Chinese clergy.Its missionary scope expanded from Beijing to Beijing Xishan, Tongzhou, Fangshan, Zhuoxian, Yongping, Gubeikou, Tianjin, Beidaihe, Qingdao, Weihui (Henan), Shanghai, Hankou, Guangzhou, Shipu, Shenyang, Lushun , Dalian, Harbin, Changchun, Manzhouli, Kulun, Xi'an, Xinjiang and other places have established 32 churches, five branch churches, one seminary, 20 boys' and girls' schools, one meteorological station, 46 enterprises and institutions, and owns 150 yuan of property million rubles.The earliest church in Northeast China, Harbin Nicholas Church, was built in 1898. In 1908, 16 churches were built along the Middle Eastern Railway.Harbin, Shanghai, Tianjin, Xinjiang and other places have all formed independent parishes.By 1916, 5,587 Chinese Orthodox Christians had been baptized in the above parishes (including about 1,000 in Beijing and more than 200 in Tianjin).In addition, there are 37,020 Chinese Orthodox Christians registered in Mongolia and the Northwest Frontier Region.

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