THE 
 
 
 CALL 
 
 
 OF 
 
 CATHAY 
 
 
 
 M 
 
 
 
 : WA.CORNABY 
 
 it 
 
BV 3415 .C7 1910 
 Cornaby, W. Arthur 1860- 
 1921. 
 
 The call of Cathay 
 
 T 
 

 
THE CALL OF CATHAY 
 

 I Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 p in 2017 with funding from 
 Princeton Theological Seminary Library 
 
 
 https://archive.org/details/callofcathaystudOOcorn 
 
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CHINESE PEEACHER RECEIVING AN INQUIRER IN A GUEST-ROOM. 
 
THE 
 
 Call of Cathay 
 
 A STUDY IN MISSIONARY WORK AND 
 OPPORTUNITY IN CHINA OLD AND NEW 
 
 REV. 
 
 W. 
 
 A. CORNABY 
 
 WITH CHAPTERS BY 
 
 Rev. S. GEORGE TOPE 
 Rev. GEORGE A. CLAYTON 
 Rev. ERNEST C. COOPER 
 
 W.M.M.S. CENTENARY SERIES 
 
 LONDON 
 
 THE WESLEYAN METHODIST MISSIONARY SOCIETY 
 17 BISHOPSGATE STREET WITHIN, E.C. 
 
 1910 
 
PRINTED AND BOUND BY 
 HAZELL, WATSON AND VINEV, LD. 
 LONDON AND AYLESBURY. 
 
PREFACE 
 
 An important part of our Centenary 
 Movement will be to foster missionary 
 study throughout the Methodist Church, 
 and particularly among young people. 
 To this end it has been decided to issue 
 a series of Centenary Text-Books for 
 the use of Missionary Study Circles ; and 
 this volume is the first of that series. 
 It has been written with the needs of 
 Study Circles in view, the general scheme 
 of chapters and method of treatment 
 conforming to the principles which have 
 been tested and approved in the larger 
 Study Circle Movement. The Committee 
 is deeply indebted to Mr. Cornaby and 
 his fellow missionaries, Messrs. Tope, 
 Clayton, and Cooper, for their ready 
 response to its request, and for the 
 ability and devotion with which they 
 have discharged the task undertaken. 
 
VI 
 
 Preface 
 
 Owing to residence in China, Mr. 
 Cornaby and his co-writers have been 
 unable to see the proof-sheets, and the 
 final revision has of necessity been done 
 at the Mission House. In view of the 
 special purpose of the book a few minor 
 alterations have been made, and some 
 notes and appendices added, for which 
 the writers are not responsible. 
 
 Wii.LiAM Goudie, 
 
 Centenary Secretary. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Preface v 
 
 Introdijction, by the Rev. Chas. Wenyon, 
 
 M.D xiii 
 
 A Note oit Pronuj^ciation’ of Chinese 
 
 Words ...... xvii 
 
 CHAP. 
 
 I. The Chinese People .... 1 
 
 Their history, and religious and national 
 characteristics. 
 
 II. The Story of Early Missionary 
 
 Work 40 
 
 Nestorian, Latin, and Jesuit missions, and 
 their lessons. 
 
 III. Protestant Missions in China . . 73 
 
 Morrison and the century following ; 
 difficulties, opposition, progress, and 
 prospects. 
 
 IV. Wesleyan Methodist Missions in 
 
 South China, by the Rev. S. George 
 Tope . 114 
 
 The region; missionary methods; members; 
 outsiders ; comrades in the work, 
 vii 
 
viii Contents 
 
 CHAP. 
 
 V. Wesleyan Methodist Missions in 
 
 Hupeh, by the Rev. George A. 
 Clayton . . ... 
 
 History of the Hupeh District. 
 
 VI. Wesleyan Methodist Missions in 
 
 Hunan, by the Rev. Ernest C. 
 Cooper ...... 
 
 The province, its characteristics, diffi- 
 culties ; a foothold gained, our cir- 
 cuits ; some Hunanese Cliristians. 
 
 VII. New China and its Problems 
 
 China’s arousal, its causes and char- 
 acteristics. 
 
 VIII. The Call of the Hour . 
 
 The great issues at stake, and what 
 must be done. 
 
 APPENDICES 
 
 A. Tabular View of the Chinese Empire 
 
 B. The European Staff of W.M.M.S. China 
 
 Missions 
 
 C. The Other Methodist Missions in China 
 
 PAGE 
 
 151 
 
 196 
 
 236 
 
 269 
 
 297 
 
 298 
 304 
 
 Bibliography . 
 Index 
 
 . 309 
 
 . 313 
 
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 A Chinese Preacher Receivino an Inquirer 
 
 Frontispiece 
 
 FACING PAGE 
 
 Pavilion and Lotus Lake in Palace Garden 4 
 Shrine to “ Daddy and Granny ” . .25 
 
 One of the Judges in a Taoist Temple . 25 
 
 Tama’s Hall of Judgment . . . .33 
 
 The Laughing Buddha ..... 33 
 
 A County Magistrate . . . . .34 
 
 The Nestorian Tablet 42 
 
 Group in Courtyard of Buddhist Temple . 58 
 
 Robert Morrison 73 
 
 Chinese Gospels 105 
 
 Selling Gospels in China . . . .105 
 
 Material for Women’s Work . . .108 
 
 A Wayside Tea-house in Kwangtung . 114 
 
 Rapids near Yingtock . . . . .114 
 
 George Piercy . . . . . .116 
 
 JosiAH Cox . . . . . . .116 
 
 WucHOw Hospital . . . . . .121 
 
 Dr. Webb Anderson and Students . . 121 
 
 Medical Students Learning to Dispense . 123 
 
 ‘The Waiting-room, Women’s Hospital, 
 
 Hankow ....... 123 
 
 A' River-bank Scene in Summer . . .126 
 
 IX 
 
X 
 
 List of Illustrations 
 
 FACING PAGE 
 
 Chapel at Uppeh Craigs . . . .129 
 
 Christiaxs at Lok Chexg . . . .129 
 
 The Late Empress-Dowager . . .140 
 
 Shipping Tea, Hankow . . . . .151 
 
 The First Protestant Convert in Central 
 
 China 159 
 
 Hankow Men’s Hospital . . . .173 
 
 The “ David Hill ” Blind School . . 179 
 David Hill ....... 182 
 
 Dr. Hodge Performing an Operation . 189 
 
 Dr. Ethel Rowley and Chinese Nurses . 191 
 
 A Chinese River Gunboat . . . .196 
 
 Changsha Mission Houses after the Riot 214 
 Wesleyan Church, Yungchowfu . . . 224 
 
 A Chinese Street ...... 224 
 
 The Rev. Lo Yu-shan ..... 232 
 
 H.E. Chang Chih-tung 236 
 
 The Old and New Methods of Transport . 241 
 
 Modern Shanghai .246 
 
 The Great Ironworks, Hanyang . . 246 
 
 Making Type in a Printing Establishment 249 
 Schoolboys Taking a Stroll . . . 249 
 
 Young China ....... 254 
 
 How THE Poorest Live. .... 257 
 
 A Cottage in South China . . . .257 
 
 A Tablet to Confucius . . . .261 
 
 Needy China ....... 269 
 
 A Schoolgirl who Became a Nurse . . 274 
 
 A Schoolboy who Became a Tutor . .274 
 
 A Chinese Lady 283 
 
MAPS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 The Earliest Chinese Settlements in China 1 7 
 The Dialects of China . . . .19^ 
 
 Kwangtijng, to Show W.M.M.S. Stations . 118 
 
 Hupeh, to Show W.M.M.S. Stations . . 153 
 Hunan, to Show W.M.M.S. Stations . .211 
 China Proper, to Show W.M.M.S. Fields 
 
 {Double-page at end of bool'} 
 
 XI 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 The world has hardly recovered from 
 its amazement at the sudden emergence 
 of Japan, and the advance of that 
 plucky little people almost at one stride 
 to the front rank of nations, but already 
 we see rising over the verge another 
 and far more formidable power. China 
 even in its quiescence was of absorbing 
 interest, representing as it did such 
 stupendous possibilities. It covers a 
 vast and most fertile area of the earth’s 
 surface. Its mineral resources are of 
 incalculable extent and as yet almost 
 untouched. It has a huge population, 
 not composite as in most other im- 
 portant lands, but consisting chiefly 
 of one homogeneous black-haired race. 
 The people are of a high type-robust, 
 practical, resolute, resourceful, and of 
 great intellectual power. There is no 
 realm of knowledge which they have 
 
 Xlll 
 
XIV 
 
 Introduction 
 
 not attempted to explore, and few 
 branches of literature to which they 
 have not contributed. They have long 
 had a complex and highly developed 
 civilisation, and the social and politi- 
 cal constitution of their country is 
 one of the most comprehensive upon 
 earth. 
 
 This great empire has hitherto been 
 very remote from us, remote not so much 
 by its situation away in the far east as 
 by the strangeness of its ways and 
 language, and it has been made still 
 more remote by its obstinate refusal to 
 move with the times, and by its haughty 
 and dogged aloofness from all other 
 peoples and all other lands. 
 
 But a new era is now dawning. For 
 nearly a century the sleep of China 
 has been more or less disturbed, and at 
 last she has opened her eyes and begun 
 to bestir herself. Already she is calling 
 aloud for our Western inventions and 
 appliances. Her students are to be 
 seen in our Universities and Medical 
 Schools. Her Government is insisting 
 upon having a voice in international 
 affairs. She is raising a great army and 
 
Introduction 
 
 XV 
 
 navy to support her claims. Evidently 
 she is now wide awake. 
 
 This awakening of China is the most 
 momentous fact of our age. It is so to 
 the statesman, for such a colossal body 
 cannot find a place for itself in the 
 council chamber of the world without a 
 serious readjustment of positions and 
 disturbance of the equilibrium of power. 
 It is still more momentous to the Church, 
 for upon it rests the responsibility of 
 determining whether these changes shall 
 be a blessing or a curse. With her 
 present materialistic fatalism and con- 
 tempt for human life, China, frenzied 
 by military and political ambition, might 
 well become the most awful scourge 
 humanity has known. On the other 
 hand, a Christian China would bring 
 within sight, as the conversion of no 
 other country could, the conversion of 
 the world, and could not fail to be one of 
 the most effectual safeguards of universal 
 peace and good-will. 
 
 The evangelisation of China is a 
 matter of extreme urgency. In its 
 present restlessness and thirst for 
 Western knowledge the Church of Christ 
 
xvi Introduction 
 
 has an unprecedented opportunity and 
 one which may never come again. It 
 behoves the thoughtful young people of 
 the Church to acquaint themselves with 
 the facts of the case. No part of the 
 mission field will better repay study, or 
 be of more enthralling interest, and we 
 are glad to recommend this little book, 
 written by one of the most gifted and 
 successful of our missionaries, as a clear 
 and fascinating and thoroughly reliable 
 introduction to the subject. 
 
 Charles Wenyon. 
 
NOTE ON THE PRONUNCIATION OF 
 CHINESE WORDS 
 
 The spelling of Chinese words usual in this book 
 (with the exception of some spellings introduced 
 early into our language, as Canton for Kwantung, 
 and Peking for Peeking ; and Teian — spelt thus 
 for postal convenience — for Te-an, and place-names 
 spelt in accordance with the Imperial Postage System) 
 is that of Sir Thomas Wade. It has been adopted 
 by Professor Herbert A. Giles in his Chinese-English 
 Dictionary (1892 and 1910), and some pocket dic- 
 tionaries, and is now recognised as the standard form 
 of Mandarin romanisation. As Professor Giles says : 
 “ This orthography is anything but scientifically exact. 
 In some respects it is cumbersome, in others incon- 
 sistent ” — and, the reader will feel, often very wide 
 of the mark. 
 
 Only half the initial consonants are pronounced 
 as written — namely, when followed by an inverted 
 comma, as k‘, p‘, t‘, ch‘, tz‘ ; without that comma 
 they are hardly more than g, b, d, dj, and dz. The 
 province names of Kwangtung and Kwangsi are 
 practically Gwandoong and Gwangshi, the a always 
 like a in father ; Hupeh is practically Hoober ; the 
 j) is sounded at its full value in hup‘eh, amber, but 
 there the p is followed by an inverted comma. 
 Wuchang, being now reckoned as an English word, 
 is written without the comma, but is really Woot- 
 sarng, and Changsha is properly Tsarng-sar. It 
 xvii h 
 
xviii Note on Pronunciation 
 
 would hardly be guessed that the final syllable in 
 many names chow is pronounced dzd, but such is 
 the case. Hangchow, so often mistaken for Hankow, 
 though 700 miles distant, is pronounced Harng-dzo ; 
 while Hankow is properly Harn-ko, the inventors 
 of the ow final having in their mind the word To 
 and not the word cow. Lao Tzu is practically Lao 
 Dsz, the second syllable being sounded without a 
 vowel. Li Hung-chang is pronounced Lee Hoongh* 
 dzarng. As matters are so complicated it is always 
 allowable, out of China, to pronounce place-names 
 as written, but the following table of sounds will be 
 a guide to those who strive after correctness. 
 
 a has the sound of a in father. Example : the T‘ang 
 Dynasty, pronounced tarng. 
 e has the sound of e in men. Example : Tayeh. 
 i by itself has the sound of i in ravine. Example : 
 
 lyang, pronounced Ee-yarng. 
 i followed by n or by another vowel, is short, as 
 i in sin. Example : Peking, properly pro- 
 nounced Ber-ging, with a trace of a p in the 6. 
 ih is hardly pronounced at all. Example : Chang 
 Chih-tung, pronounced Dzarng Ds-doong, 
 with a trace of a ^ in the last syllable ; Hwang 
 Shih-kang, pronounced Hwarng-sh-garng, 
 with a trace of a in the g. 
 o and ow (or u) stand respectively for the first 
 two o’s in Loch Lomond, the first short, the 
 second long. Example ; Lo Yu-shan, pro- 
 nounced Lo Y6-san ; Yang-lo, short o ; 
 Anlu, the u sounded as a long o. 
 u has often the sound of oo in hoot. Example ; 
 
 Hupeh, pronounced Hoober ; Hunan, pro- 
 nounced Hoonan ; Ruling, a summer resort, 
 Goo-ling. 
 
of Chinese Words xix 
 
 ii has the sound of u in the French elu. 
 ai has the sound of i in ice. Example : Shanghai, 
 ao has the sound of ow in cow. Example : Tao (dow) 
 and Taoism. 
 
 ei has the sound of the Italian ei, or the English ey 
 in they. Example : Wei-hai-wei (Way-high- 
 way), the “ inlet of the majestic sea.” 
 ui has the sound of ui in the German pfui, or ooay 
 made into a dipthong. Example -. Suichow 
 (or Suichou — the final uov w being optional), 
 prononced Sooay-dzo in the Hupeh dialect. 
 
 Recapitulation. — Some names mentioned in the 
 book : 
 
 Changsha — Tsarng-sar. Chenchow — Tsen-dzo. 
 Chang Chih-tung™ Dzarng Dz-doong. Chang Yih-tzs 
 — Dzarng Ee-dzs. Fa Hsien — Far Shen. Han Ming 
 Ti — Ham Ming Dee. Wu Ti^ — Woo Dee. Kiao- 
 chow — Djao-dzo. Lao Tsu — Lao Dsz. Shih Hu — 
 Sz Hoo. T‘ang T‘ai Tsung — Tarng Tie Dzoong. 
 Wu T‘ing-fang— Woo Ting-farng. 
 

Wesleyan Methodist Missionary Society, 
 
 PLEASE NOTE. 
 
 This book has been prepared for use in Missionary Study 
 Circles, and for this purpose Study Problems and Assign- 
 ments have been suggested at the end of each chapter; a 
 special pamphlet, “ Hints for Leaders,” has also been 
 published to accompany “ The Call of Cathay.” The 
 Centenary Committee urges all leaders of Study Circles to 
 make use of these “ Hints.” (May be obtained from the 
 Mission Study Department, W.M.M.S., price Sd.) 
 
THE 
 
 CALL OF CATHAY 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 THE CHINESE PEOPLE 
 
 A VERY early reference to China in Early English 
 English literature is that of Shakespeare : Chma, 
 
 “ I would not believe such a Cataian, though the 
 priest o’ the town commended him for a true man.” 
 
 Merry WiveSy IT. i. 
 
 On which an old commentary says : 
 
 ‘‘ The Chinese, or sharpers, were called 
 Catalans.” A rather hasty generalisa- 
 tion as regards the character of a 
 quarter of the human race ! But such 
 4 4 are dark,” and dress and 
 
 hair-fashions that were peculiar, have 
 been the chief items which the word 
 '' Chinese ” has called up, from Shake- 
 speare’s day until comparatively recent 
 
2 The Call of Cathay 
 
 years, among the populace of Western 
 nations. Otherwise, except at tea- 
 taking, that land has been so remote 
 from our popular consciousness that 
 Walpoles has a story of the Duchess of 
 Kingston, who, on being told that the 
 end of the world was approaching, 
 declared that she would certainly start 
 for China without delay ! 
 
 China's Early Other hand, the Chinese, from 
 
 Impressions of 1545 onwards, have regarded the re- 
 
 Nations. maining three-quarters of humanity as 
 “ ocean demons ” (often roughly trans- 
 lated ‘‘ foreign devils ”), originally 
 meaning “ pirates,” and not without 
 cause, for in Sir Rutherford Allcock’s 
 Parliamentary Papers it is shown that 
 from that date, for two centuries at 
 least, China’s acquaintance with the 
 Far West was chiefly with European 
 pirate marauders who ravaged her 
 coasts. A fact this, so deeply engraved 
 on the national consciousness, that 
 missionaries and merchants of our own 
 generation have often had to suffer 
 from wild suspicions, which the intro- 
 duction of opium has served to intensify. 
 Truly the sins of one generation are 
 
3 
 
 The Chinese People 
 
 visited upon those whieh sueceed ; and 
 the blaek stain of opprobrium is hard 
 to wash white again ! But as now our 
 missionaries in China, by soeial inter- 
 eourse, by Gospel-preaching, by the 
 instruction of the young, by literature 
 for adults, and by the beautiful art and 
 ministry of healing for China’s sick folk, 
 are clearing up misapprehensions, bring- 
 ing the best from the West to bear upon 
 mind and body and heart, and the best 
 from heaven itself to bear on the soul 
 of a nation, it is only fitting that we of 
 the West should seek to bring China 
 into focus, in her past and present, and 
 in her future outlook. 
 
 In the Chinese nation we have one 
 whose unbroken records go back more 
 than two millenniums b.c. ; whose 
 national life has been as real and event- 
 ful as that of hoary Chaldea, Babylon, 
 Assyria, or Egypt, Greece and Rome ; 
 whose ancient literature is as copious 
 as that of classical lands ; whose phil- 
 osophers have pondered deeply the facts 
 of human life and duty ; whose poets 
 have been inspired to true poesy ; 
 whose literary stylists have perhaps 
 
 Missionaries 
 as Interpreters 
 of the West. 
 
 A Nation with 
 Great Past. 
 
China Worth 
 Winning— 
 
 — and There- 
 fore Worth 
 Studying, 
 
 4 The Call of Cathay 
 
 excelled those of all other ancient lands ; 
 whose rulers and statesmen have 
 grappled with vital problems of govern- 
 ment ; whose warriors have fought 
 with heroism ; whose populace, all 
 through the ages, has been composed 
 of living beings, with hopes and fears, 
 and loves and hatreds, and daily anxie- 
 ties, quite as real as our own, and^from 
 whose numbers there have at last 
 arisen here and there, Christian souls 
 and characters, of exceeding earnestness 
 and beauty. China, the proud land of 
 aesthetic traditions, the land of poesy and 
 pathos, as well as of vast stretches of 
 squalor — physical, mental, and moral : 
 China is a land worth our fullest recog- 
 nition, and worth the utmost energies 
 of a Church of prayer-warriors, worth 
 winning for the Highest ; and capable 
 of becoming in time, by the grace of 
 God, what som^e of its sons and daughters 
 have already become — gloriously Chris- 
 tian. 
 
 Such a land, in its far antiquity, 
 its vicissitudes of dynastic upheaval, 
 its literary tastes and scholarship, its 
 popular feeling and outlook, together 
 
PAVILION AND LOTUS LAKE IN A CHINESE PALACE GARDEN. 
 
The Chinese People 5 
 
 with its recent arousal to modern con- 
 ditions, is well worth our respect and 
 careful consideration. And so we may 
 well brace ourselves to study the past 
 of this nation, for the broadening of 
 our sympathies, and for our enlighten- 
 ment as to the possibilities that lie before 
 this important section of the race, a 
 nation that lies remote indeed from our 
 ken, but not surely from the compassions 
 of the Redeemer. In the love that He 
 Himself lends us, let us try to under- 
 stand China, as we read about her from 
 all sources, that so we may, by prayer 
 and supplication, lead China to know 
 her God ; lest from our lack of sym- China's Danger, 
 pathetic knowledge, and of intelligent 
 intercession, this nation of vast possi- 
 bilities mistakes the outward trappings 
 of modern civilisation for heart-culture ; 
 adopting the vices of the West rather 
 than its virtues ; putting anti-foreign- 
 ness in the place of patriotism, and 
 militarism in the place of pacific develop- 
 ment ; and barren materialism in the 
 place of vital godliness, when her gods 
 and superstitions shall have faded 
 away. 
 
An Ancient 
 Utterance. 
 
 Chinese Ideas 
 of Creation. 
 
 6 The Call of Cathay 
 
 “ Great is God ! In His majestic rulership re- 
 garding this lower world, surveying all regions, 
 seeking the repose of the populace.” 
 
 It was no shallow thinker who penned 
 these words in the twelfth eentury b.c., 
 — penned them, perhaps by a graving 
 tool on bamboo slips, to be eollated by 
 Confueius (551-479 B.c.), and quoted 
 for eenturies, until they beeame re- 
 vivified in the light of Gospel dawn. 
 Here is an utterance from the ancient 
 religion of China, as much earlier than 
 Confucius as he was earlier than our 
 own era. What was the earliest history 
 of a nation from whence came this en- 
 lightened utterance ? 
 
 The standard Chinese history books 
 begin with the Creation, or what is 
 represented as the Incubation of the 
 universe. For although the ancient 
 Odes of China quote Heaven as the 
 universal Parent, and God {Shang Ti, 
 “ Sovereign on High ”) as the Disposer 
 of human affairs, some early Parsee 
 theories concerning the potencies of 
 Light and Darkness ^ seem to have been 
 
 1 Sharistan, an old Arabian writer, says of Zoro- 
 aster : “ He affirmed Light and Darkness to be the 
 
7 
 
 The Chinese People 
 
 imported, to influence the philosophy 
 of China, on the decadence of its 
 earliest form of (patriarchal) religion. 
 Two meteorological terms, Yin (ob- 
 scurity) and Yang (brightness), became 
 idealised as Male and Female potencies, 
 — but happily never worshipped in China 
 as in the fearfully vile religion of the 
 Phoenicians and Canaanites. The first 
 sentence in the standard history, then, 
 is : 
 
 “ Infinitude bore the Two Principles (Yin and 
 Yang), and these produced and evolved the whole 
 complexity of existences.” 
 
 Given the universe, what about its 
 early inhabitants ? On turning over a 
 page describing a Golden Age when 
 “ things grew and flourished, when 
 rulers were not emptily regal or states- 
 men emptily honourable,” we find our 
 question answered, strangely enough, 
 in full accord with modern anthropology. 
 Truly some of the ancient Chinese were 
 
 two contrary principles which were the origin of 
 everything subsisting in the world, the forms of nature 
 being produced from a combination of these prin- 
 ciples ” (Enfield’s History of Philosophy, 1737, 
 p. 27). 
 
 Ideas of Primi' 
 tive Man. 
 
8 The Call of Cathay 
 
 philosophers, for almost every one of 
 our modern discoveries was theirs in 
 embryo ! 
 
 “ At the very beginning men dwelt in caves of 
 the wilderness, on terms of close familiarity with 
 the 'brutes, feeling no revulsion. But as men grew 
 in wisdom and artifice, then enmity began. The 
 creatures grew claws and teeth, horns and poison 
 (as snakes), until men could scarcely overcome 
 them. At that time men had no notion of husbandry, 
 but fed upon the fruits of herbs and trees ; they 
 knew not the use of fire, but drank the blood of 
 beasts, and ate their flesh, and used their skins to 
 cover themselves. 
 
 “ At the beginniug of human existence men recog- 
 nised a mother, but not a father : they felt mutual 
 likings, but knew not the proprieties of marriage. 
 They slept and snored ; they awoke and yawned. 
 Hungered, they sought food ; satisfied, they threw 
 away what was left. They ate herbs and drank 
 blood, and used skins for clothing.” 
 
 These words hardly read like those of 
 a writer of the year 90 b.c., but that is 
 the latest date we can assign to them, 
 and they may possibly have belonged 
 to a much earlier century. In one 
 respect this account of primitive man is 
 misleading, as it suggests that he had 
 no morality whatever. Whereas all re- 
 searches into the life of savage tribes 
 proves that, however widely their notions 
 
The Chinese People 9 
 
 of marriage differ from ours, there are 
 a number of rules rigorously observed. 
 
 And the difference between their 
 morality and ours arises from the fact The Moral 
 that the tribe is the unit, in which there ^ 
 is much sharing in common ; and not the 
 family, as with the Chinese, or the in- 
 dividual, as with us. This conception 
 of units, tribal or family, of which the 
 persons therein were just fractions, is 
 an important one to bear in mind in 
 studying most of the races to which 
 missionaries go ; and without a con- 
 ception of the family as an ultimate 
 unit we shall fail to understand Chinese 
 customs, such as the betrothal of young 
 folk who have never met, and many 
 other things, enacted from the family- 
 standpoint by parents and elders. 
 
 Returning to our history, various 
 teachers, glorified as monarchs, appear Teachers of 
 
 4-U 4. • 4.1. • i China's Mythical 
 
 on the scene, who teach m their turn Age. 
 the art of cookery, exchange and barter, 
 the rearing of domestic cattle, the be- 
 trothal covenant, husbandry, silkworm- 
 rearing, weaving, music, and medicine. 
 
 We read also that earlier than 2852 b.g. 
 
 (according to Chinese dates) the king, 
 
The Ancient 
 Religion. 
 
 The Sovereign 
 on High. 
 
 lo The Call of Cathay 
 
 or chieftain, erected a pulpit for the 
 propagation of religion ; as also did 
 that chieftain whose name has come 
 down to us, glorified as the “ Yellow 
 Emperor.” Somewhere after 2697 b.c. he 
 
 “ erected a palatial hall, where he offered sacrificial 
 worship to God, calling together the whole populace, 
 and instructing them in religion and tribal regula- 
 tions.” 
 
 What was that ancient religion of 
 China ? Apart from the two references 
 quoted above, we are entirely indebted 
 to the moralist Confucius for collecting 
 and fixing the texts of the ancient Odes 
 and Royal Injunctions (the Canon of 
 History), in which other references are 
 found. Except that a secondary wor- 
 ship was rendered to the spirits of hills 
 and streams (following a still more 
 ancient worship of the heavenly bodies, 
 hardly extant then) it closely resembled 
 what we gather to have been the religion 
 of Melchisedek and Job. The Sover- 
 eign on High was known to be the God 
 of goodness and righteousness. As to 
 His goodness, in addition to the passage 
 already cited, ^ we have the following : 
 
 ^ See page 6. 
 
The Chinese People n 
 
 “ How vast is God ! the Ruler of the populace 
 below.” 
 
 “ There is the majestic God ; does He hate any 
 one ? How beautiful are the wheat and barley ! 
 
 What shining produce we shall receive ! ” " 
 
 “ Have no doubts or anxieties, for God is with 
 you.” 
 
 And as to His righteousness, we read : 
 
 “ The majestic God has conferred upon the people 
 a moral sense, to comply with which would give 
 them a right and constant spirit.” 
 
 “ The favour of God is not settled uncondition- 
 ally ; upon the good He sends down manifold 
 blessings ; upon the evil-doer manifest calamities.” 
 
 Of a good chieftain it was said : 
 
 “ Prince Wen, with the carefulness of a fluttering 
 bird, served God intelligently, and secured abundant 
 blessings.” 
 
 And to a bad ruler the message came : 
 
 “It is not God who has caused this evil time, but 
 it is you who have strayed from the old paths.” 
 
 In this early religion, the chieftains Patriarchal 
 or patriarchs were priests — representing 
 God to man (in their exhortations) and 
 man to God (in their sacrificial prayers). 
 
 As Confucius tells us, the chieftain 
 T‘ang (afterwards king from 1766 to 
 
12 The Call of Cathay 
 
 1754 B.c.) prayed to God on behalf of 
 his people, saying : 
 
 “ I, the little child Li [using his baby-name] pre- 
 sume to offer a dark-coloured ox in sacrifice, and 
 dare to announce to Thee, O most majestic and 
 imperial God, that if I myself have committed sins, 
 they are not to be attributed to the people of the 
 land ; and if the people have committed sins, they 
 must rest on my person.’’^ 
 
 What wonder that, as Chinese seholars 
 read of the God of Abraham, they regard 
 his religion as identieal with their own 
 in the good old days ! The pity of it 
 is that, while the deseendants of Abra- 
 ham developed a saered intimaey with 
 God, the Chinese merged His name into 
 that of Heaven (before the days of 
 Confueius), then coupled it with Earth, 
 depersonalising it in their thoughts and 
 conceptions, until the advent of Protes- 
 tant missionaries, who have most of 
 them used the old term Shang Ti for 
 God (rather than the Roman Catholic 
 Then Chii, “ Heaven-lord ”), and so 
 have brought the Old Testament revela- 
 tion of God near to the Chinese mind, 
 as a path to the further revelation of 
 God in the New Testament. 
 
3 
 
 The Chinese People 
 
 Coupled with this ancient worship of Homage to 
 God, there was homage paid to deceased 
 ancestors, Confucius says : 
 
 “ By their great sacrificial ceremonies the ancients 
 served God ; by their ceremonies in tho ancestral- 
 tablet hall they paid homage to their forefathers.” 
 
 I have used the word ‘‘ homage ” rather 
 than the more familiar word “ worship,” 
 for anciently there seems to have been 
 no yrayer to ancestors offered on those 
 occasions The object of these cere- 
 monies is not to pray.”— BooA: of Rites ) ; 
 and thus it was just worship ” in the 
 old English sense of the term— “ wor- 
 ship ” such as was offered to Daniel 
 (ii. 46), and other men in the Old Testa- 
 ment — rather than in our modern re- 
 ligious sense of the term. Modern 
 Chinese in distress may cry, to their 
 ancestors for help ; but originally the 
 object of the ceremonies was to bring 
 the spirits near, to realise them as still 
 part of the family, to honour them, 
 and to secure the blessing of God upon 
 filial sons. 
 
 The ancient worship of Shang Ti is Modem Wor^ 
 . still perpetuated by the emperor of Ti? 
 
Modern Ances- 
 tor Worship.^ 
 
 14 The Call of Cathay 
 
 China at the spring and autumn equi- 
 noxes, in his eapaeity of priest (literally 
 after the order of Melchisedek) ; henee 
 his title Son of Heaven, and the term 
 Celestial ^ standing for Imperial. 
 
 Homage to ancestors is also per- 
 petuated to the present day, by each 
 family. It has remained the chief item 
 in the religion of the masses (for where 
 idols have been worshipped it has been 
 as an extra, and not considered meri- 
 torious, as they are worshipped for gam), 
 and naturally presents a difficulty to 
 the missionary. Were he sure that it 
 is merely respectful homage, and not 
 worship in our modern sense of the 
 word, he might allow its continuance, 
 even as the Roman Catholic mission- 
 aries do ; should he feel that it is 
 “ robbing God,” he will wish that ances- 
 tral tablets be given up by would-be 
 Church members ; but this is against 
 Chinese law, though it has been done. 
 
 1 As in the names T‘ien-tsin, “ Celestial Ferry” ; 
 THen ping, “Celestial troops.” But the Chinese 
 populace should never be called “ Celestials ” : 
 this is one of our blunders which amuses them 
 exceedingly. 
 
The Chinese People 15 
 
 The Church is thus planning for a via 
 media which will conserve all the ad- 
 mirable features of respect for the dead, 
 without any lowering of the paramount 
 position due to the One Ancestor, God. 
 
 ^ Hi ^ H: 
 
 The Chinese tribe whose beginnings The Chinese 
 we have to study appear as settlers China, 
 around the sharp bend of the Yellow 
 River (Huang Ho), in what is modern 
 Shensi, south Shansi, and west Honan, 
 somewhere about 2400 b.c. There are Whence Cime 
 indications in the make-up of certain ^ 
 Chinese literary signs that the original 
 Chinese tribe came from the west ; 
 the whole of Chinese astronomy is 
 similar to that of ancient Chaldea, and 
 the early inhabitants of that region, 
 prior to 3800 B.c., were a Mongoloid 
 race. Professor de Lacouperie boldly 
 holds the theory that the Chinese were 
 originally allied to the most ancient 
 Chaldeans. But we need further evi- 
 dence than the similarity of certain 
 names ^ before we can accept that theory 
 as proven fact. 
 
 ^ There are certain elements in common between 
 ■the Chinese language and that of earliest Chaldea 
 
1 6 The Call of Cathay- 
 
 On the other hand, there is no 
 evidence that the ancient chieftain whom 
 the Chinese call the Yellow Emperor 
 (Huang Ti) actually resided in China. 
 The Taoists ^11 maintain that his palace 
 was among the Kuen-lun mountains 
 (north of Tibet), over a thousand miles 
 to the west of the bend of the Yellow 
 River, and some of the names of his 
 ‘‘ ministers ” seem to be transliterations 
 from another language. From this we 
 gather that, as far back as we can 
 trace, the Chinese race, quoted as origin- 
 ally “ a hundred families ” (whence the 
 hundred surnames of modern China), 
 probably came from the centre of Asia, 
 with perchance a more ancient home 
 in the west of Asia, which we believe 
 to have been the cradle of the race. 
 
 The settlement of the original Chinese 
 tribe in the Yellow River region was 
 
 (such as the “ worship radical ” prefixed to signs 
 connected with religion), but the Chaldean language 
 progressed toward an alphabet (from which the 
 Hebrew alphabet afterwards evolved), while the 
 Chinese has stopped short, alphabetless, with its 
 worn-down picture strokes, classified under 214 
 radicals, as water, wood, hand, heart ; for fiuids, 
 rivers, lakes, seas ; things wooden ; actions of the 
 hand ; or feehngs of the heart. 
 
17 
 
 The Chinese People 
 
 followed by expansion similar to that Expansion of 
 
 A !• liiT* Chinese 
 
 of the Aryan tribe that settled in the Dominion. 
 Panjab in India. Absorption of neigh- 
 bouring territory by conquest and inter- 
 
 CHINESE WHEN THEY ENTERED CHINA. 
 
 marriage took place, various regions and 
 tribes of ‘‘ barbarians ” became tribu- 
 tary or subject to the tribe of higher 
 civilisation ; but, in China, without 
 
Nori'Chinese 
 
 Invasions. 
 
 The Effect on 
 Language. 
 
 The Effect on 
 Character. 
 
 1 8 The Call of Cathay 
 
 the institution of caste. Also, through 
 the centuries, there were repeated in- 
 roads of non-Chinese tribes, Turkic and 
 Tartar, so that those retaining the 
 earlier languages of China were pushed 
 southward ; even as the British Celts 
 were northward and westward, to the 
 Highlands of Scotland, to Wales and 
 Cornwall. Thus we have the Cantonese 
 and other dialects of old Chinese ex- 
 tant in the south and south-east of 
 China ; while the language of the central 
 332,000,000 has been Tartarised ^ into 
 what we call the “ mandarin,” or 
 official, dialect. 
 
 Though one dialect is now spoken in 
 all but five of the modern provinces 
 (Kiangsu southwards to Kwangsi), there 
 are more or less marked differences in 
 the disposition of the Chinese of these 
 common-dialect provinces. Shantung 
 men are impulsive and ardent ; Shansi 
 
 1 Not that Tartar words have been introduced, 
 but certain harshnesses of sound have been cast off, 
 the Cantonese Fatshan becoming Fusan, the Can- 
 tonese Oopack becoming Hoo-her {Hupeh), etc., 
 like a coin wearing smooth by rough usage : all 
 mid- China sounds being easier for the vocal organs 
 than those of the more ancient Cantonese. 
 
19 
 
 The Chinese People 
 
 men are cold-blooded and persevering; 
 Hupeh men, with fine capacities for 
 trade, are voted “ bean-curd ” by men 
 of Hunan, who call themselves “ men 
 
 of iron.” And there is a considerable 
 amount of provincial exclusiveness yet 
 to be overcome before China can become 
 one homogeneous nation. 
 
 When the ancient conquest or absorp- History. 
 
20 
 
 The Call of Cathay 
 
 tion of the regions surrounding ‘‘ the 
 Middle Realm ” (as the Chinese called 
 their early centre of government ; their 
 own name for all China now) had made 
 them masters of the northern portion 
 of China, then stated dynasties began. 
 The following table may serve to fix in 
 the mind the main outline of Chinese 
 history (Central China sounds being 
 given in brackets) : 
 
 The Chinese Dynasties 
 
 Hsia (shar) 
 
 Shang (sarng) . . 
 
 Chow (dzo) 
 
 Chhn 
 
 Han 
 
 “The Three Realms” . . 
 
 2205-1766 B.c. 
 .. 1766-1122 
 
 .. 1122-2551 
 
 255-206 
 206 B.c.-A.D. 220 
 A.D. 221-264 
 
 Chin (jin) 
 
 265-419 
 
 The Southern Sung and Ts’i, 
 and Northern Wei . . 
 
 420-589 
 
 Sui (sway) 
 
 589-618 
 
 T‘ang (tarng) . . 
 
 618-907 
 
 “ The Five Dynasties ” 
 
 907-960 
 
 Sung (soong) 
 
 960-1280 
 
 Yuan or Mongol 
 
 1280-1368 
 
 Ming 
 
 1368-1644 
 
 Ta Chhng or Manchu . . 
 
 1644- 
 
 1 For the last four hundred years of this period 
 the empire consisted of a varjdng number of con- 
 tending States under Chow Dukes or rulers. 
 
The Chinese People 21 
 
 It should be remembered that these 
 dynasties were not all as clean cut as, 
 say, those of England. There was con- 
 siderable overlapping at certain periods, 
 and sometimes smaller dynasties, not 
 included in the above table, ruled over 
 a part of the empire. 
 
 Each dynasty began with a vigorous 
 and, generally, warlike ruler, who 
 founded it upon the ruins of the previous 
 dynasty. The original strain of vigour 
 in each case lasted perhaps through 
 three or four generations, after which we 
 generally find a succession of monarchs 
 on a down-grade, each weaker than his 
 predecessor. The history abounds in 
 romantic incidents. A Buddhist girl- 
 nun grasped the imperial power (after 
 becoming concubine of an emperor) 
 from 684 to 709. A beggar-lad, after- 
 wards a Buddhist novice, then a general, 
 founded the Ming Dynasty and reigned 
 from 1368 to 1398. And the events 
 connected with the rise and fall of 
 every dynasty form exceedingly inter- 
 esting reading in the original (from which 
 J. Macgowan’s Imperial History of China 
 in English is largely translated). The 
 
22 
 
 Confucius. 
 
 The Call of Cathay 
 
 most interesting period of all was the 
 Chow Dynasty (1122-255 b.c.), when 
 China, being divided up into some 
 fourteen dukedoms that became rival 
 kingdoms, presented an ancient edition 
 of European conditions, with its rivalries 
 and diplomacies, its wars and treaties, 
 understandings and peace-congresses. 
 
 It was under the clash of these rival 
 interests, and local vicissitudes, and 
 widespread depravity, that China pro- 
 duced her sages and philosophers : Con-* 
 fucius (born b.c. 551, died b.c. 479) and 
 Mencius (born b.c. 371, died b.c. 288) 
 with their appeal to the conscience, 
 for the strengthening of human relations, 
 especially those between son and father 
 (extending the filial relationship from 
 populace to ruler), and those of the 
 family generally. Confucius never pro- 
 fessed to revive a religion, except the 
 priestly sacrifices to God on the part 
 of the emperor ; he regarded religious 
 problems as beyond him, and concen- 
 trated his efforts upon the claims of 
 known duty — based on the relations of 
 life — in the sight of all-seeing Heaven. 
 His teaching was purely ethical. A 
 
23 
 
 The Chinese People 
 
 text-book in English (prepared by 
 Chinese for modern Chinese schools), 
 says : “ Confucianism was never a 
 
 religion, but a system of ethics.” And 
 in the strict sense of the word, a Con- 
 fucian may be a Christian, observing 
 his main teaching ; while a Christian 
 will be sadly lacking in moral back- 
 bone if he does not follow those duties 
 that are based on his earthly relations, 
 as son, brother, husband, father, friend, 
 neighbour, citizen. The essence of 
 Confucianism is compatible with Chris- 
 tian ethics on the earth-plane ; only 
 some of the details clash. Confucius 
 was the embodied conscience of his 
 time, and his system has a permanent 
 value not confined to China, when ener- 
 gised into reality by the power divine — 
 for which he did not teach men to 
 pray. 
 
 His senior contemporary Lao Tzu, Lao Tzu. 
 (born B.c. 604), was by no means so 
 practical. He was a dreamer who might 
 have had in his mind the couplet of 
 Bishop Heber : 
 
 “ Every prospect pleases, 
 
 And only man is vile.” 
 
Taoism. 
 
 24 The Call of Cathay 
 
 He asked himself why trees and 
 flowers grew naturally into strength 
 and beauty, while human nature grew 
 so far away from its ideal. He saw that 
 trees and flowers were quiescent toward 
 the great Nature-force which he called 
 Tao, and arrived at the conclusion that 
 were humanity to gain the quiescence 
 of the vegetable world, it would grow 
 normally beautiful without effort. Yes, 
 we may say, if after penitent trust in a 
 Saviour humanity subjected itself to 
 the full operation of the Holy Spirit, 
 that would bring Lao Tzu into line with 
 the best of the Christian mystics of the 
 Middle Ages, or with the Society of 
 Friends of later days. But for sinful 
 humanity neither to know its sin nor 
 its God, nor strenuous supplication for 
 pardon and power ; to vegetate in spirit, 
 and to expect to grow into an ideal 
 human vegetable — there are certain ad- 
 verse forces within and around men 
 that reduce this philosophy to an empty 
 dream. Lao Tzu founded no cult ; but 
 his word Tao was adopted by other 
 mystics, seekers after “ the pill of 
 immortality,” of “ un-ageing life,” and 
 

Photo hy\ 0 . A. Coma y JUDGES IN A TAOIST PURGATORY 
 
 A SUPERIOR SHRINE TO “ DADDY AND GRANNY,” TEMPLE. 
 
 GUARDIANS OF THE SOIL. 
 
25 
 
 The Chinese People 
 
 ma^ic and mystery generally, from the 
 Ch‘in Dynasty onwards. Then, when 
 Buddhism (introduced in a.d. 61 and 
 at various subsequent times, by the 
 arrival of monks from North India) 
 departed so far from its original pro- 
 gramme of being a religion for celibates 
 as to promise sons to married women 
 who would pray to the Son-bestowing 
 Goddess for them (in the T'ang 
 Dynasty), these Taoists, or doctors of 
 Nature-force, deified a Chfin Dynasty 
 magician as God of Riches, to bestow 
 wealth upon those who prayed to him 
 for it. They made other deities out of 
 certain ancient worthies of China ; and 
 temples to the “ Dragon-king,” “ Horse- 
 king,” and shrines to “ Daddy and 
 Granny,” the guardians of the soil, 
 became regarded as Taoist. 
 
 The first Buddhist image (a Buddha introduce 
 of gold) was brought to China in the dhism. 
 reign of Han Wu Ti (b.c. 140-187), being 
 captured in war in the region of Turkes- 
 tan ; and the son of its slain owner was 
 brought with it, gained favour, and 
 became the Imperial equerry. The 
 image was set up in the palace, and the 
 
26 
 
 The Call of Cathay 
 
 exiles from the West worshipped it. 
 This caused a very strong protest from 
 statesmen who were jealous of the 
 emperor’s new favourite — a very inter- 
 esting protest to the student of religions : 
 
 “ These men use no oxen or sheep in sacrifice, 
 but merely light incense, and call that ‘ worship ’ ! ” 
 
 Which seems to prove incidentally that 
 all worship of any divinity, up to the 
 first century b.c. in China, had been 
 attended with the taking of animal life. 
 
 Most Chinese preachers tell a tale as 
 to Han Ming Ti (a.d. 58-75) dreaming 
 that he saw a golden image of Buddha 
 enter the palace. This is debated 
 in the authorised history ; and we 
 may gather that he either had that 
 golden image preserved in the palace, 
 or had heard of it. The orthodox 
 account of his embassy is contained in 
 the sentence : 
 
 “ Hearing that there was a Spirit in the West 
 called Fu,i he sent an embassy to India to ask for 
 the doctrine, and to obtain the books.” 
 
 This embassy, we find from other 
 
 ^ Fu was meant to represent the Sanskrit syllable 
 Budh, and, being identical in sound with the word 
 for happiness, was regarded ns a fortunate name. 
 
27 
 
 The Chinese People 
 
 sources, consisted of eighteen persons, 
 who started in a.d. 61 and returned in 
 67, with certain writings and several 
 Indian monks who by and by expounded 
 them in the palace/ 
 
 The next patron of Buddhism was a 
 Hunnish bandit of Shensi, who, having 
 assisted a Hunnish prince to kill his 
 elder brother and to seize his father’s 
 authority, defeating the Chinese troops, 
 capturing the Chinese emperor, making 
 him a menial attendant at banquets, 
 and then poisoning him, was inspired 
 toward ambitious designs on his own 
 account by the prophecies of an Indian 
 monk Buddhochinga ; and on the 
 death of his prince became ruler of 
 quite half of China. After a reign of 
 
 1 The contemporary historian reports on this 
 literature as follows: “These books magnify the 
 virtue of vacancy of mind, uphold a compassion 
 that abstains from taking animal life, assume that 
 man’s spiritual essence is undestroyed by death and 
 appears in another incarnation, in which the good 
 and bad deeds of this life are subject to recompense ; 
 and that by the renovation of the spiritual essence 
 the state of Buddhahood may be attained. Such 
 words are surely big enough to catch the ignorant. 
 But at Court only the younger brother of the 
 ■ emperor became enamoured of this teaching.” 
 
28 
 
 The Call of Cathay 
 
 three years he died, and his son was 
 assassinated the following year by his 
 general Shih Hu Stone Tiger ”), who 
 established himself ruler of North China, 
 issuing an ediet saying : 
 
 “We ourselves being of foreign origin, may well 
 comply with our o\vn customs in all that concerns 
 religion. And we hereby authorise all the populace, 
 be they AVestern or Chinese, to follow Buddha as they 
 may choose.” 
 
 This was the first step towards Budd- 
 hism beeoming a popular religion in 
 China, and in the year 336 a further 
 ediet was issued by this ruler withdraw- 
 ing all prohibition of Chinese subjeets 
 beeoming monks and nuns ; for up 
 to that date all Buddhist monks had 
 been foreigners. 
 
 A few years later an indigent lad 
 applied at a temple for residenee as a 
 noviee ; but as he grew up, finding that 
 his seniors knew little about Buddhism, 
 he formed the bold resolve to travel to 
 India to learn the truth at headquarters. 
 His surname was Rung (of the elan of 
 Kung-fu-tzu or Confueius), but the 
 elerieal name he adopted was Fa FIsien 
 (“ Law Revealed ”). He set out in the 
 
The Chinese People 29 
 
 year 399 and returned in 414, writing 
 a famous book known in English as 
 The Record of the Buddhist Kingdoms 
 (Clarendon Press, 1866) ; which Record 
 has been of much use to Indian histori- 
 ans, as Avell as to students of Buddhism 
 generally. 
 
 The domains of Shih Hu were divided 
 at his death, but the ruler of the western 
 half of them became an ardent patron 
 of Buddhism, making an Indian monk 
 his prime minister and preacher to his 
 statesmen, until nine out of every ten 
 families in his dominions (the modern 
 Kansu) professed Buddhism. The 
 monasteries, however, became the haunt 
 of low characters, were distilleries and 
 worse, and in the year 446 not one of 
 them was left standing. 
 
 In the sixth century Buddhism had 
 two strangely contrasted royal patrons : 
 one in the south, Liang Wu Ti (502-549), 
 the other in the north. Queen Hu of 
 Wei. The former was a languid man, 
 who disliked the cares of government, 
 and, after inviting three thousand 
 Indian monks to his dominions, himself 
 wrote a Buddhist ritual in ten books 
 
Influence of 
 Nestorianism 
 on Chinese 
 Buddhism. 
 
 30 The Call of Cathay 
 
 (527), assumed the garb of a monk, 
 restrieted himself to one vegetarian meal 
 a day, and retired into a monastery. 
 His statesmen fetched him out twice, 
 but on his third return he was allowed 
 to die there of neglect and starvation. 
 
 Queen Hu of Wei (quoted by some 
 English writers as a Buddhist saint) in 
 the year 518 killed the senior Queen 
 Dowager Kao, in a treacherous and 
 shocking manner, and immediately sent 
 to the west “ begging for Buddhist 
 monks and books.” Doubtless she felt 
 the need of some sedative teaching to 
 “ minister to a mind diseased.” 
 
 In the next century a scholar named 
 Ch‘en I (better known as the monk 
 Hsrian Tsang), finding many discrep- 
 ancies in Buddhist books, went himself 
 to India, returning in 645 with six 
 hundred and fifty volumes ; was re- 
 ceived with honour by T^ang T‘ai Tsung 
 (who became* also the patron of Nes- 
 torian missionaries^), and proceeded to 
 translate what he had acquired. 
 
 This marks the last importation of 
 the original Buddhism into China. 
 
 ^ See Chap. II. 
 
The Chinese People 31 
 
 Henceforth it was to come from Tibet 
 (where a daughter of T‘ai Tsung was 
 Queen Consort), and was much modi- 
 fied by Nestorian influence, both in 
 Tibet and after its reaching China (for 
 the Nestorians were in favour in China 
 for two hundred years after this). 
 
 Korea and Japan never had the Budd- 
 hism which was propagated in Ceylon, 
 Burma, and Siam ; and China soon 
 dropped what she had received. The 
 Buddhist monks were wise enough to 
 see that the warmer elements of Nes- 
 torianism were more popular in the 
 Far East than their own tepid doctrines 
 of prohibition and self- extinction. 
 But, dropping the spiritual elements 
 (except in Japan, where justification by 
 faith in Buddha is held by one sect), 
 they materialised various Nestorian 
 elements, to suit the popular demand. 
 From pictures or images of the Virgin 
 and Child, they adopted a new goddess, 
 a virgin with a child in her arms, the 
 Son-bestower, under the name of Kuan- 
 yin (“ Scrutineer of [the] sounds [long- 
 ing sighs of earth] ”). It is, then, this 
 modified religion that became popular- 
 
Modern 
 
 Religious 
 
 Condition. 
 
 32 The Call of Cathay 
 
 ised in China, Korea, and Japan, with 
 various Nestorian elements adhering to 
 it. Seeing which, and not knowing 
 their late origin, unsuspecting travellers 
 to the Far East have come back with 
 the amazing statement that Christianity 
 seems to have borrowed much from 
 Buddhism ! 
 
 At first there was opposition from 
 Confucianism, and rivalry from Taoism, 
 but all three cults have long since 
 settled down together in heterogeneous 
 mixture ; Confucianists sending their 
 brides to Kuan-yin temples to pray for 
 sons, so as to perpetuate ancestral 
 homage, and employing both Buddhist 
 and Taoist monks to chant masses to- 
 gether to escort deceased parents to 
 their respective heavens. Otherwise 
 Buddhism and Taoism have ceased to 
 be forces to reckon with in China ; even 
 as H. E. Chang Chih-tung wrote in a 
 book for Chinese literati in 1898 : “ Both 
 cults are on their last legs, and cannot 
 survive much longer, while the Western 
 religion (Christianity) is flourishing 
 daily.” 
 
 The Chinese are not, as a whole, a 
 

Photo hy'\ {It. Ilvtihiiisin. 
 
 yama’s eall of judgment. 
 
 photo hy] 
 
 [IF. A. Cornahy. 
 
 [p. 33 
 
 THE LAUGHING BUDDHA. 
 
33 
 
 The Chinese People 
 
 religious nation, though a deep religious 
 strain may be found among some sec- 
 tions of the people, known as “ Vege- 
 tarians ” and the like. A considerable 
 proportion of the houses of Central 
 China are devoid of idols or even ances- 
 tral tablets (which may be partly due 
 to the great blow which the anti-idolatry 
 Taiping rebels inflicted on those regions 
 from 1852 to 1855). Many are content 
 with the annual offerings at the ances- 
 tral graves, at the time of our Easter; 
 the lighting of three sticks of incense 
 morning and evening — to any divinity 
 who cares to receive them ; an occa- 
 sional bow before the “ Daddy and 
 Granny ” shrines, if in country parts ; 
 and an occasional visit to temples — 
 by women to pray for sons, by men 
 to pray for riches, or by either to pray 
 for the health of a relative. Religion 
 seems to occupy but a fraction of their 
 thoughts, and missionaries have some- 
 times almost wished they were better 
 idolaters (more in earnest about what 
 gods they know), that they might, as a 
 whole, make better Christians. They 
 are mostly occupied with the struggle 
 
 The Chinese 
 not a Religious 
 Race. 
 
Governing 
 
 Officials, 
 
 34 The Call of Cathay 
 
 for existence, if poor ; with farming 
 or business, if middle-class ; with strife 
 for the gains of office, if scholarly. 
 
 Starting, as we have seen, with a 
 patriarchal government in remote an- 
 tiquity, China has retained that govern- 
 ment in theory. The emperor and 
 magistrates are called alike “ Father- 
 mother of the populace ” — their • pink 
 babies,” or little ones. Literary man- 
 darins ^ are rulers over provinces, dis- 
 tricts, or counties, over one or many 
 cities, as in the Parable of the Pounds ; 
 the particular “ talents” which have 
 won them these posts being talents 
 metaphorical — literary scholarship and 
 style, and talents actual — silver presents 
 to the amount of perhaps £1,000. And 
 the posts thus obtained are practically 
 unsalaried ones (the working expenses 
 covering far more than the meagre 
 allowance). They have thus to live — 
 ‘‘ somehow ” ; to recoup themselves 
 for the expenses of being recommended 
 to office, and, if possible, to secure an 
 
 ^ From the Portuguese mandar, to command ; com- 
 pare our word mandate. 
 
A. COUNTY MAGISTRATE. 
 
 P. 34] 
 
The Chinese People 35 
 
 amount upon which to retire. This is 
 partly arranged by the people paying 
 three times the stated amount of the 
 taxes, two -thirds of whieh gross amount 
 goes to the eounty magistrate, who hands 
 the sum quoted to the district man- 
 darin, who makes his deductions, and 
 so on. But as tax “ squeezes ” are 
 not adequate to support the officials, 
 money is made in other ways, all of them 
 reprehensible from our Western stand- 
 point, but almost neeessitated by a 
 bad old system, a system whose abuses 
 were known and recorded as far back 
 as the seventh century b.c. in the 
 words : 
 
 “ The depravity of the officials is the ruin of the 
 realm, and the officials being lost to virtue is from 
 their fondness for bribes.” 
 
 This is the chief matter of internal 
 administration which China will have 
 to take in hand, if she is to prosper 
 among the nations of the earth. 
 
 Among China’s other drawbacks are Materialistic 
 the utterly materialistic outlook which 
 mistakes militarism for prosperity (and 
 for this we of the West can hardly 
 
Commercial 
 
 Character. 
 
 Courtesy. 
 
 36 The Call of Cathay 
 
 blame them), and exelusiveness for 
 patriotism ; or in soeial and religious 
 matters holds a merely business-like 
 view of the ease : the worship of idols 
 being entirely for either riehes, sons, or 
 long life. And were Chinese asked to 
 explain the term “ Light of Asia ” I 
 am sure they would reply : “ Paraffin 
 oil.” 
 
 On the other hand, the much-quoted 
 “ cunning ” among the Chinese popu- 
 lace does not strike the long resident as 
 by any means a universal trait. They 
 are a nation of artists, in words and 
 ways, wLich may take the form of skil- 
 ful diplomacy, or, in legal matters, of 
 shameless lying. But most of the shop- 
 keepers have only one price for their 
 goods ; and the Chinese merchant’s 
 word has been as good as his bond, 
 until, perhaps, recent years, when the 
 old virtue of commercial probity seems 
 somewhat declining. 
 
 Even the poorer classes are court- 
 eous one to another. Most Chinese 
 have learnt the difficult art of reprov- 
 ing a man for misconduct in such 
 a way as not to offend him. And 
 
The Chinese People 37 
 
 among the gentry courtesy is a fine art 
 indeed. 
 
 From infancy a child is trained to Respect for^ 
 respect his parents ; and later on to officials, 
 show respect for rulers, as being the 
 parents of the people. Old age is 
 revered, and there is much respect for 
 authority, unless an official is wantonly 
 oppressive. Under good government, 
 such as that of Hong Kong and Singa- 
 pore, the Chinese people are very easy 
 to manage. With a due amount of 
 freedom and sustenance, they are a con- 
 tented race. 
 
 They are also remarkably cheerful Sociability, 
 and social. No Chinaman’s house is 
 regarded as his “ castle ” ; its main 
 room is regarded as belonging to any 
 guest of his own status who may happen 
 to come, even though he be a stranger. 
 
 They make staunch friends with those 
 Westerns who win their confidence, 
 and become affectionate enough to be 
 easily lovable. 
 
 In industry the Chinese excel all other industry. 
 Asiatic races. Most of them have been 
 trained to this from necessity, for as 
 certain parts of the land are over- 
 
Adaptiveness. 
 
 3^ The Call of Cathay 
 
 crowded (though the whole empire, 
 under good management, should sup- 
 port four times its present population) 
 the struggle for existence is keen. The 
 diligenee in study among young Chinese 
 students is remarkable, for many at the 
 age of twenty, added to a good Chinese 
 edueation, have now a fair Western 
 edueation as well. Their recreative 
 reading is solid, the great mmtive being, 
 ‘‘ How can I make my country strong ? ” 
 In business life, even in manufactures, 
 they are learning to compete with the 
 foreigner on his own lines. Truly a 
 “ coming race,” and one to be reekoned 
 with, whether we will or no ! 
 
 They are remarkably adaptive to new 
 things when they understand their 
 value. They have been fixed in their 
 habits simply beeause they knew not 
 in what direetion to change them ; or 
 because their rulers saw that new ways 
 were mixed up with ‘‘ foreign author- 
 ity.” But now that this fear has been 
 dispelled as regards Protestant mission- 
 ary work, the Christian religion, as such, 
 is everywhere quoted as a good thing, and 
 sometimes as the one hope of the nation. 
 
The Chinese People 
 
 39 
 
 ASSIGNMENTS FOR STUDY CIRCLES 
 
 STUDY PROBLEM. — To discover in the facts of 
 China’s religious and moral history her preparation 
 for the reception of Christianity. 
 
 1. What facts in this chapter make you feel that 
 China is worth winning for Christ ? 
 
 2. In the light of the past, are we justified in 
 speaking of China as a “ changeless land ” ? Give 
 reasons for answer. 
 
 3. Give, in broad outline, the religious history of 
 China. 
 
 4. What are the characteristic features of Con- 
 fucianism, Taoism, and Chinese Buddhism ? 
 
 5. Are there any points you admire in Chinese 
 character ? 
 
 REFERENCES FOR FURTHER STUDY 
 
 Broomhall, M. — The Chinese Eynpire. 
 
 Ball, J. Dylr. — Things Chinese. (Articles on 
 “ Geography,” “ History,” “ Government,” 
 “ Religion,” etc.) 
 
 Kelley, A. R. — The Great Chinese AwaTening 
 (Sections I., II., III.). 
 
 Douglas, R. K. — Coniucianism and Taoism. 
 
 Beal, S. — Buddhism in China. 
 
 De Groot, J. J. M. — The Religion of the Chinese, 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 Ancient China 
 and Western 
 Asia, 
 
 THE STORY OF EARLY MISSIONARY 
 WORK 
 
 In the table of dynasties, given in the 
 previous chapter, there will be noted 
 the word Chhn (255-207 b.c.), which is 
 really the word used in Isaiah xlix. 12, 
 “ These from the land of Sinim,” ad- 
 apted. For the large State of Chhn 
 (which swallowed up the whole land 
 255 B.c.) was in the extreme west of 
 the realm, and thus nearest to West 
 Asia. And as the Greeks gave us the 
 word Palestine from that part of Judaea 
 nearest to them (Philistia), so the syl- 
 lable Chhn became used in the west 
 for the whole “ Middle Realm.” The 
 Hebrews called it Sinim, the Greeks 
 Sina or Thina (the first notice being by 
 Eratosthenes, who was born 276 b.c.). 
 The French still retain the soft initial, 
 but we hardened it back again into 
 
 40 
 
Story of Early Missionary Work 41 
 
 China} And we are now to trace the 
 earliest beginnings of God’s calling forth 
 a people for His own possession from 
 the remote east, as the term doubtless 
 signified in Isaiah’s time. 
 
 NESTORIAN MISSIONS 
 
 Nestorius was the Patriarch of Con- Nestonus. 
 stantinople in a.d. 428 ; but coming 
 under the influence of the Antiocene 
 school, he drew so wide a distinction 
 between the divine and human sides of 
 our Lord’s nature as to imply a two- 
 fold personality ; he held that the 
 Virgin Mary was the mother merely of 
 His human nature, which was a chal- 
 lenge to the increasing reverence paid 
 to the Virgin. Cyril of Alexandria took 
 up the matter ; a bitter controversy 
 ensued ; a General Council was sum- 
 moned at Ephesus in 431, and, though 
 some terms of accommodation were 
 drawn up between the two parties, 
 
 ^ Catliay, Kathay, or properly Kiiai, was the name 
 of a tribe of Tartars in possession of the northern 
 part of China, westward to Kashgar, from the year 
 917 to 1126. 
 
 2 * 
 
42 The Call of Cathay 
 
 The^^Nestorian 
 
 Tablet/' 
 
 (i) Concerning 
 Doctrine* 
 
 Nestorius was banished in 435 to 
 Arabia. His followers, being driven out 
 of Edessa, made Nisibis their centre, 
 and carried on a successful missionary 
 enterprise throughout Persia, spreading, 
 under the rule of the caliphs, in Arabia 
 and Syria. 
 
 The story of their entrance into China 
 is related on the famous Nestorian 
 Tablet, dated 781 and dug up in 1625, 
 on the site of the early capital of 
 China, Ch‘ang-an (Perpetual Peace), 
 now called Sian (Western Peace). 
 
 As to their teaching in China, the 
 tablet reads : 
 
 “It is acknowledged that there is One unchange- 
 able, true and still, the first and unoriginated, incom- 
 prehensible in His intelligence and simplicity ; the 
 last and mysteriously existing ; who with His 
 hands, operating in abysmal mystery, proceeded to 
 create, and by His Spirit to give existence to all the 
 sacred ones. Himself the great Adorable, — is not 
 this the Eloah with His marvellous Being, Three- 
 in-One, the unoriginated True Lord ? ” 
 
 Then follows a statement as to the 
 creation of things and of man — who 
 had the special gift of moral harmony, 
 and dominion over them all. He pos- 
 
By permission of the] 
 
 [Baptist Missionary Society. 
 THE NESTOEIAN TABLET. 
 
 Sianfu, Shensi. 
 
 p. 42] 
 
\ 
 
Story of Early Missionary Work 43 
 
 sessed a perfect nature, an unstained 
 mind free from all inordinate desires, 
 until led astray by the devices of Satan. 
 A breach, wide and great, was made 
 in man’s judgment of what was right, 
 till there arose three hundred and 
 sixty-five forms of error. The dark- 
 ness became denser, and men lost 
 their way, and after long going astray 
 they ceased any further search for the 
 Truth. 
 
 Then it was that the Triune divided 
 His Godhead, and the Messiah was born 
 of a virgin in Ta Chhn.^ Angels pro- 
 claimed the glad tidings. A bright star 
 announced the felicitous event. Per- 
 sians saw its splendour, and came with 
 tribute. He fulfilled the old Law, as 
 it had been delivered by the twenty- 
 four sacred ones. He appointed His 
 new doctrines, operating without 
 
 ^ Strangely enough, the Chinese, knowing no place- 
 names west of the State of Ch‘in with any definite- 
 ness, used the term Ta ChHn (Great Ch‘in) for 
 Persia, and even for the Roman Empire. And 
 when Nestorian missionaries appeared at the Court 
 of T‘ang T‘ai Tsung, in the year a.t). 635, they 
 gave the name Ta Cli'in to Syria, whence they had 
 come. 
 
44 The Call of Cathay 
 
 words, ^ by the cleansing influence of 
 the Triune. He formed in man the 
 capacity for good- doing by the correct 
 faith. He threw open the gate of the 
 three constant virtues,^ thereby bring- 
 ing life to light and abolishing death. 
 His bright sun hung on high to break 
 up the abodes of darkness ; His ship 
 of mercy ^ was launched to convey men 
 to the palace of light. His mighty 
 work being thus completed He ascended 
 at midday to His true place, leaving 
 behind Him the twenty-seven standard 
 books (of the New Testament), which 
 set forth the great transformation (con- 
 version) for the deliverance of the 
 soul. They institute the Washing by 
 water and the Spirit, cleansing away 
 all vain delusions, and purifying men, 
 till they regain the whiteness of pure 
 simplicity. 
 
 This seems copious, but there are 
 
 1 This quiescent potency was an ideal of Lao Tzu. 
 
 2 The duties between subject and sovereign, son 
 and father, wife and husband ; which Buddhism had 
 all along been criticised as having destroyed by its 
 mendicant celibacy. 
 
 A Buddhist phrase ; the world being called a 
 “ sea of suffering.” 
 
Story of Early Missionary Work 45 
 
 two great omissions : one is the Gospel 
 itself I — the Gospel of the Cross ; the 
 other the practice of prayer — through 
 whieh the power of the Gospel operates. 
 On the other hand, there was great mis- 
 sionary earnestness (perchance under 
 stress of persecution in the west), but 
 this could not avail for the renovation of 
 China, or even of the converts obtained, 
 in the absence of the other two. We 
 have and hold the Gospel of the Cross ; 
 let us arouse ourselves to the paramount 
 importance of prayer in its daily re- 
 ception and its propagation. For the 
 Christian life must ever be the prayer -life 
 of devotion to the crucified Redeemer. 
 
 Then, on the Tablet, there follows a 
 section relating that the 
 
 “ most virtuous Olopun, from Ta Ch‘in, was among 
 the enlightened and holy men who came to the 
 Court of T‘ai Tsung, bringing with them the true 
 Scriptures and images,” 
 
 and mentioning that these Scriptures 
 were translated into Chinese. These 
 translations have not come down to us. 
 But biographies of Buddha, written 
 after that date, have, substituted for 
 the original story, wholesale importa- 
 
 (2) Concerning 
 the Nestor ian 
 Entrance into 
 China. 
 
4^ The Call of Cathay 
 
 tions from the Gospel story of Christ, 
 showing that the New Testament story 
 (minus the crueifixion) was known in 
 Tibet and China about that time. 
 
 The emperor sent a high minister to 
 greet Olopun and bring him to the 
 palaee, admitted him to audienee, eon- 
 versed through an interpreter eoneern- 
 ing his doetrines, until he was eonvineed 
 of their rightness and truth ; and soon 
 after put forth a speeial edict, con- 
 cluding with the words : “ Let the sys- 
 tem have free course ‘ everywhere under 
 heaven.’ ” ^ 
 
 A monastery was built in the capital 
 for the accommodation of twenty- one 
 monks. The next emperor (Kao Tsung, 
 650-683) caused other monasteries to 
 be built “ in every prefecture of the 
 empire, so that the ' lustrous religion ’ 
 spread through all provinces.” 
 
 (3) Concerning Then camc a period of Buddhist oppo- 
 Nesfodanlm in sitiou, during the reign of the un- 
 China. scrupulous ‘‘ Buddhist ” Empress Wu 
 
 (654-719), “ but their machinations were 
 defeated by the greatly virtuous Chi-lieh 
 
 1 The Roman orhis terrariim, or in English, 
 terrestrial realm, a common classical term for China. 
 
Story of Early Missionary Work 47 
 
 and others,” apparently a fresh arrival 
 of “ able and noble men from the west.” 
 On the accession of T‘ang Ming Wang 
 (to give his popular title), in 713, four 
 brothers of the emperor were sent to go 
 in person to “ the blessed buildings, and 
 rebuild their altars ” ; and on one 
 occasion seventeen Nestorian monks 
 were invited to conduct a religious ser- 
 vice in the palace. In a later reign 
 an eminent Buddhist from the west 
 ‘‘ threw all his wealth and influence into 
 the promotion of the cause of the 
 ‘ lustrous religion,’ manifesting special 
 and extraordinary benevolence.” Thus 
 the tablet ends “ in heart and hope,” 
 with no misgivings as to the future. 
 Nestorianism had enjoyed great favour 
 for a hundred and fifty years, and 
 continued for sixty years more, when 
 Taoist influence gained the ascendency 
 at Court ; and in 841 an edict was ob- 
 tained for the wholesale destruction of 
 both Nestorian and Buddhist monas- 
 teries, which had probably become 
 haunts of corruption. Nestorianism in 
 China never recovered from that blow, 
 especially as its western home was now 
 
 The Decline of 
 Nestorianism. 
 
48 The Call of Cathay 
 
 in the hands of militant Muhammadans, 
 A tragic ending, both in West and East 
 Asia, to what had seemed a promising 
 enterprise — if indeed any missionary 
 enterprise can succeed without the 
 Gospel of the Cross, and persistence in 
 prayer ! 
 
 But Nestorianism was not all at once 
 completely wiped out, for Marco Polo, 
 in the thirteenth century, mentions 
 Nestorian churches in China ^ in quite 
 a number of cities. 
 
 ROMAN CATHOLIC MISSIONS 
 
 The conquests of Gengis Khan (died 
 1228) and his successors, and the en- 
 croachments of the Tartars upon the 
 eastern frontiers of Europe, induced 
 
 ^%One of his notes reads : “ There are in this city 
 (Chinkiang) two churches of Nestorian Christians 
 which were established in the year of our Lord 1278. 
 In the year just named the Great Khan sent a 
 Baron of his, whose name was Mar Sarghis, a Nes- 
 torian Christian, to be governor of this city for 
 three years. During the three years that he abode 
 there he caused the two Christian churches to be 
 built. But before his time there was no church, 
 neither were there any Christians.” 
 
Story of Early Missionary Work 49 
 
 Pope Gregory IX. to send embassies 
 to the Tartar camps. The first only 
 penetrated a little way beyond the 
 frontiers of Persia ; but the second, 
 under John de Plano Carpini, of the John de Piano 
 order of Preaching Friars, reached the 
 Court of the Khan (at Karakorum), 
 where they found ambassadors from 
 Persia, India (the Muhammadan court 
 of Delhi), Russia, and China. Whether 
 Carpini reached China we hardly know, 
 but he describes the Chinese as 
 
 “ a mild and humanised people ; with a peculiar 
 language of their own, and better artisans in all sorts 
 of works cannot be found in the world. Their country 
 abounds in corn, wine, gold, silver, and silks, and, in 
 short, in everything desirable for life.” 
 
 This was in 1246-7. The friar seems to 
 have made a good impression, for in 
 1271 Kublai Khan (whose mother was 
 niece of “ Prester John ”) wrote to the 
 Pope for a hundred Catholic literati. 
 
 In 1303 John de Monte Corvino reached John de Monte 
 Peking, found that a Nestorian bishop 
 had been welcomed before him, and 
 himself received a favourable reception 
 from the emperor Ch'eng Tsung (son 
 of Kublai Khan, who had been emperor 
 
Rulers and 
 Religion, 
 
 50 The Call of Cathay 
 
 of China from 1280 to 1294). And here 
 the reader should remember how alien 
 rulers from time to time have given great 
 impetus to a novel form of religion. 
 
 In China, 221 b.c., the son of a 
 merchant adventurer, though on his 
 mother’s side of the lineage of Ch‘in, 
 ascended the throne, called himself Shih 
 Huang Ti, ‘‘ The First Emperor,” 
 abolished the imperial worship of God, 
 and set up eight gods of his own : Ti‘en 
 chu (Heaven-lord, the term for God 
 adopted by Roman Catholics), Ti-chii 
 (Earth-lord), War-lord, Fang-Principle- 
 lord, Yin - Principle - lord. Moon-lord, 
 Sun-lord, Four-Seasons-lord ; decreed a 
 wholesale conflagration of the classics ; 
 passed death-sentence upon 460 chief 
 Confucian scholars ; then welcomed .to 
 his Court all manner of magicians, ex- 
 orcists, and alchemists, and so founded 
 modern Taoism. 
 
 Then, in a.d. 384, it was a Hunnish 
 ruler of North China who first legalised 
 Buddhism, and permitted Chinese sub- 
 jects to become monks and nuns, thus 
 giving the first great impulse to popular 
 Buddhism in China. 
 
Story of Early Missionary Work 51 
 
 And now it was a Tartar ruler of Monte 
 China who welcomed John de Monte [^°Ch?na! 
 Corvino to reside in Peking and to found 
 Roman Catholic missions in the land. 
 
 With what success, a letter of his to the 
 vicars-general of the Dominicans and 
 Franciscans in Persia will show : 
 
 “ I, brother Jean de Monte Corvino, of the order 
 of Minor Friars, quitted Tauris, the capital of Persia, 
 in the year of our Lord 1291. I penetrated into the 
 Indies, and remained thirteen months in the church 
 of St. Thomas the Apostle, where I baptised about 
 a hundred persons. Proceeding farther on, I arrived 
 at the kingdom of Cathay, the dominions of the 
 Emperor of Tartary. . . . On presenting to him the 
 letters from the Pope, I endeavoured to induce him 
 to embrace the religion of oiu* Lord Jesus Christ ; 
 but though he was himself too profoimdly phmged 
 in idolatry to do so, it did not prevent him from 
 conferring many favours on the Christians. ... I 
 have been persecuted by the Nestorians for five 
 years, but at length am free from imperial sus- 
 picion. I have built a church at the principal 
 residence of the emperor. In this church I have bap- 
 tised nearly 6,000 persons. .... I have successively 
 received 150 boys, from seven to eleven years old, 
 have baptised them and instructed them in the ele- 
 ments of Greek and Latin literature. I have written 
 for their use psalters, as well as thirty collections of 
 hymns, and two breviaries ; so that eleven of the 
 boys can now chant in choirs, whether I am .present 
 mj^self or not, and several of the others are able to 
 transcribe the psalters and other books. The em- 
 peror is very fond of hearing them sing. 
 
52 
 
 The Call of Cathay 
 
 “ At certain hours I have the bells rung, and cele- 
 brate divine service before these children ; and not 
 having any written service, we chant a little from 
 memory.” 
 
 A beautiful picture this, surely, for, 
 with certain doctrinal excrescences that 
 seem to deny direct access to the Throne 
 of Grace, this earliest Romish mission- 
 ary to China and those little choir- 
 boys were worshipping our Lord Jesus ; 
 those hymns were in praise of His un- 
 speakable grace. ‘‘ The emperor is very 
 fond of hearing them sing.” And as 
 we read of their singing it makes our 
 hearts glad also. 
 
 “ A prince named George, of the illustrious race 
 of the emperor, and formerly a Nestorian, attached 
 himself to me in the first year of my arrival. I con- 
 verted him to the true Catholic faith, he has re- 
 ceived minor orders, and when I celebrate the holy 
 services he assists me, dressed in his royal robes. . . . 
 
 “ I have not for twelve years received any intel- 
 ligence either from the comt of Rome, or from our 
 own order, and I am entirely ignorant of the state 
 of affairs in the West. I have learnt to write in the 
 Tartar language, and have translated into it the 
 whole of the New Testament, and the psalter, which 
 I have written in very beautiful Tartar characters ; 
 and finally I read, write, and preach publicly the law 
 of Christ. 
 
Story of Early Missionary Work 53 
 
 “ A certain Peter de Lucalongo, an excellent Chris- 
 tian and rich merchant, who travelled with me from 
 Tauris, bought a piece of land, and presented it to 
 me, for the love of God ; it is only a stone’s throw 
 from the palace, and when we chant there the great 
 Khan can hear us from his own apartments. The 
 two churches that I have built are about two miles 
 apart, and are both in the interior of the town, which 
 is of a great size (walls twenty miles round). I can 
 assure you, indeed, that in no part of the world is 
 there as vast an empire as that of the great Khan. 
 I have permission to enter the palace, and have an 
 acknowledged office at court, as legate from the 
 pope, and the empe.ror pays me as much respect as 
 any other prelate.” 
 
 Such is the very human and interest- 
 ing letter from the first preacher of the 
 Cross of Christ in Peking, at the be- 
 ginning of the fourteenth century, more 
 than two hundred years before the Re- 
 formation in Europe. He represented 
 the highest Christianity of his day and 
 we cannot withhold our tribute of 
 admiration for the zealous aetivities of 
 this noble pioneer. 
 
 Two years after the letter was written, Reinforcements. 
 Clement V. sent out seven other mis- 
 sionaries to China—Gerard, Peregrin, 
 
 Andro de Perouse, and four others ; 
 creating John de Monte Corvino Arch- 
 
54 The Call of Cathay 
 
 bishop of Peking, and making the seven 
 others his suffragans. Of these seven 
 Franeiscan monks, however, only the 
 three named above survived the long 
 and toilsome journey; three died of 
 fatigue “ soon after entering the Indies,” 
 and one of them had to return to Italy 
 for his health’s sake. Travel to China 
 was no light matter in those early days ! 
 And has it occurred to you that God, 
 in His providence, waited till England 
 had regained her Gospel (after an age 
 of terrible mioral depravity, following 
 the Restoration) before allowing men to 
 discover and apply the powers of steam, 
 for land and ocean transit ? 
 
 In 1312 the Pope dispatched three 
 new suffragans to the archbishop of 
 Peking : Thomas, Jerome, and Peter 
 of Florence. And there was a lay helper 
 Lay Helpers, in China, bcsidcs the good merchant 
 above mentioned. A rich Armenian 
 lady had taken up her residence “ in a 
 large and beautiful town not far from the 
 sea,” probably the present capital of 
 Chekiang province, Hangchow,^ where 
 “ Christianity was flourishing,” but with 
 
 1 Pronounced Hong-dzo. 
 
Story of Early Missionary Work 55 
 
 no convenient place for worship. Seeing 
 this, she built a magnificent church 
 there, which the archbishop made into 
 a cathedral, entrusting its administration 
 to Bishop Gerard. 
 
 The journey to China in those days 
 was not only difficult, but dangerous. 
 
 Four other missionaries sent out to 
 China were “ martyred in the Indies by 
 Saracens.” Then, in 1314, a monk of 
 Udine named Oderic de Friuli, accus- Odenc de Friuli, 
 tomed to extraordinary mortifications : 
 
 ‘‘ walking always bar e-foot, with a vest 
 of chain-mail next his skin, and a 
 simple tunic as his only garment, living 
 on bread and water, and often subjecting 
 himself to the scourge,” left his monas- 
 tery for the Indies, to gain relics of the 
 martyred four, which having secured, 
 he visited Ceylon, Sumatra, Java, and 
 Borneo, arriving at length in China, 
 at Hangehow, which he compares to 
 Venice, and there deposited his relics. 
 
 He “ wrought numerous conversions in 
 the southern provinces of China,” where 
 the dialect differs widely from that of 
 Hangchow and the interior. But lan- 
 guage seemed to be no barrier to him ! 
 
56 The Call of Cathay 
 
 After three years at Peking, “ he 
 plunged into the wilds of Tartary, to 
 the eountry of the Keraites, the aneient 
 kingdom of Prester John,” and from 
 thenee to Tibet, whieh he deseribes 
 vividly ; then crossed the Himalayas, 
 and traversed North India and Persia, 
 arriving at Pisa in 1330, after having 
 baptised “ more than twenty thousand 
 infidels ” ! What physical constitu- 
 tions (on a low diet), as well as flaming 
 zeal, these early missionaries had ! And 
 what a return to ‘‘ furlough ” ! Abbe 
 Hue says of him : 
 
 “ When he again beheld his native country he 
 was so changed by the sufferings and miseries he had 
 endured, his body was so emaciated, and his face 
 so withered and blackened by the sun, that his 
 relations could not recognise him ; nevertheless, 
 the eyes of Christians must have contemplated with 
 affection and j^ride this hero of faith, and found 
 in his weather-beaten person the manly beauty of 
 an old warrior retm’ning from a long campaign, 
 mutilated, and covered with scars.” 
 
 His first task was to ask the Pope 
 for ‘‘more apostolic labourers.” At 
 this stage, however, as Abbe Hue sadly 
 relates : 
 
 “ The Christian communities founded at the cost 
 
Story of Early Missionary Work 57 
 
 of immense sacrifices (in China), by monks of the 
 orders of St. Francis and St. Dominic, though flourish- 
 ing in the commencement, never became deeply 
 rooted enough in this ungrateful soil to withstand 
 the tempest of persecution. The people, before 
 whose eyes the light of the Gospel had shone for a 
 moment in all its brilliancy, soon relapsed into dark- 
 ness, and wandered far from the path that leads 
 to God — that is, to truth and life.” 
 
 Our modern experience of mission 
 work in China would lead us almost to 
 expect such a relapse when we read of 
 the thousands of uninstructed persons 
 so hastily baptised. Not only Oderic 
 de Friuli’s “ more than 20,000 infidels 
 in sixteen years,” in regions of which 
 he had not learned the language, but 
 Corvino’s baptism of 6,000 persons in 
 six years far exceed any reasonable 
 “ speed-limit ” in a land where (in 
 Chinese language) “ the human heart 
 is hard to fathom,” and all sorts of 
 side-motives may have prompted, as 
 they have done in years under our ob- 
 servation, a profession of adherence to 
 the Roman Catholic creed. 
 
 Ere long, too, the Tartar Dynasty, so 
 vigorously started by Kublai Khan in 
 1280, grew rotten with corruption. It 
 
 The Results 
 Examined. 
 
 Revival of 
 Buddhism. 
 
58 The Call of Cathay 
 
 collapsed in 1367, with the whole country 
 in turmoil. And the founder of the 
 Chinese Ming Dynasty, having once 
 been a beggar, then a Buddhist novice, 
 gave his support to Buddhism — the 
 last fillip-up which that decadent re- 
 ligion (decadent as regards China) ever 
 received. 
 
 Origin ol Anti- Then, from 1545 onwards, Fernando 
 oreign ee ing, Pinto and other Portuguese 
 
 pirates ravaged the China coast, and 
 imported into the nation a new element, 
 not to be detected in history before, of 
 anti-foreignness — an element which has 
 marked the intercourse of China with 
 the West so constantly since. 
 
 Edward VI. Before the first Jesuit missionary 
 arrived in Peking there was, it is inter- 
 esting to note, an English attempt to 
 found missions in China. This is re- 
 lated in a phrase in the dedication of 
 an old book, as follows (the italics are 
 mine): 
 
 “ The dedication of ‘ The historie of the great and 
 mightie kingdoms of China, and the situation there- 
 of ; togither with the great riches, huge cities, poli- 
 tike government, and rare inuentions of the same.” 
 Translated out of Spanish by R. Parke, London, 
 
SCENE IN THE COURTYAllD OF A LARGE BUDDHIST TEMPLE. 
 
 Four of the men are monks ; tlie boys at the extreme right and left are novices. 
 
Story of Early Missionary Work 59 
 
 Sold at the little north doore of Paules, at the sign 
 of a gun 1585. 
 
 “ To M. Thos. Candler esquire. 
 
 “It is now aboue hue and thirty years passed, 
 right worshipfull, since that young, sacred, and 
 prudent prince, king Edward the sixt of happie 
 memorie, went about the discouerie of Cathaia and 
 China, 'partlie of desire that the good young king had 
 to enlarge the Christian faith, and partlie to finde 
 out some where in those regions ample vent for the 
 cloth of England.” 
 
 The ships thus sent forth failed to 
 reaeh the eoast of China, but discov- 
 ered the Philippine Islands instead. 
 
 England had first to gain a definite 
 Gospel herself before she could under- 
 take to spread it in China. 
 
 St. Francis Xavier was the first Jesuit St. Francis 
 who attempted to enter China. He 
 started from Malacca, but died in 1552, 
 on the island of Shang-ch'uan, off the 
 Kwangtung coast. 
 
 Father Matteo Ricci, an Italian of Mattco Ricci, 
 considerable attainments in astronomy 
 and mathematics, arrived in South 
 
 1 Is not this a happy phrase ? We enlarge the 
 faith, not by breaking down doctrinal barriers, till 
 all becomes luminous mist, but by distributing it, 
 as the five loaves and fishes were distributed and 
 thus “ enlarged.” 
 
6o 
 
 The Call of Cathay 
 
 China in 1583 ; removed to the capital 
 of Kiangsi Province (Nanchang) in 
 1588, and to Nanking in 1595. Ob- 
 serving that the results of his work here 
 would be at the mercy of local man- 
 darin caprice, he settled in Peking from 
 1601 onwards, securing the good-will 
 of the emperor and statesmen. He 
 must have had a very fine stylist as 
 Chinese writer, for he wrote several 
 works in the vocabulary and style of 
 an old Taoist mystic, Chuang Tzu (the 
 Philosopher Chuang) of the third and 
 fourth centuries b.c. They are more 
 moral than religious, and the following 
 is a specimen of the high-toned wit 
 which has made them semi-classical : 
 
 “ His Excellency Li asked my age. I replied, 
 
 ‘ Minus fifty.’ He exclaimed, ‘ Oh ! does your re- 
 ligion regard plus as minus ? ’ ‘No,’ said I ; ‘ fifty 
 
 years have gone, I know not where, and I cannot 
 say that I possess them.’ He wondered at this, 
 but I said : ‘ Were you to have deposited fifty 
 
 measures of corn in a granary, or fifty ingots of 
 silver in a sack, then taken them out and used them 
 all, would you not be minus them ? And every 
 month and year that passes is a month or year gone 
 as the grain or as the silver. . . ” 
 
 The matter in these works more re- 
 
Story of Early Missionary Work 6i 
 
 sembles that in Seneca’s Epistles (with 
 which he doubtless was familiar) than 
 any other writing of the West. Says a 
 modern Jesuit Father ^ : 
 
 “ It was owing to his scientific knowledge that Ricci 
 won the favour and esteem of the Chinese.^ His 
 successors retained them by the same means. Among 
 them, two are specially famous : Schaal and Verbiest. 
 
 Adam Schaal von Bell (1601-1666) reached the Adam Schaal. 
 country in 1622. He first settled at Si-an, in Shansi 
 province, but was summoned to Court to reform 
 the imperial calendar, with James Rho. He was 
 appointed president of the Board of Astronomy and 
 Mathematics. The emperor Ch‘ung Chen (the last 
 of the Mings) held him in great esteem, and when 
 that prince succumbed (by suicide) in the catas- 
 trophe of the Ming Dynasty, the new emperor of 
 the present reigning house maintained him in the 
 same honourable position. Schaal obtained an im- 
 perial decree securing the preaching of the Gospel 
 throughout the empire, and guaranteeing protection 
 for converts. Thanks to this favour, 100,000 Chris- 
 tians were received into the Church in the short 
 space of fourteen years.” 
 
 Here again no speed-limit. Would Exceeding the 
 it be unkind to suggest that “ 100,000 
 
 1 L. Richard, Comprehensive Geography of the 
 Chinese Empire. 
 
 * To this, however, one of his co-religionists has 
 added : “ The kings found in him a man full of 
 complaisance ; the pagans a minister who accommo- 
 dated himself to their superstitions.” 
 
** Persecutions/' 
 
 62 The Call of Cathay 
 
 Chinese ” would read more eorreetly 
 than “ 100,000 Christians ” ? Were they 
 indeed Christianised before entering the 
 Chureh ? Were all of them ever so, 
 exeept so far as the rite of baptism 
 might be regarded as making them so ? 
 Would it not have been far better poliey 
 in thfe long-run to have only received 
 the absolutely genuine believers whose 
 belief was the one thing with them ? 
 The teachings of missionary history 
 in China certainly look in that direction. 
 
 “ Notwithstanding the Imperial favour in Peking, 
 the native converts had nevertheless to suffer many 
 persecutions throughout the provinces. They did 
 not cease, however, to increase in number.” 
 
 Any Church in China that is composed 
 of heterogeneous masses of men who 
 have, many of them, joined it in order 
 to get a foreign backing in the law- 
 courts in connection with the old family- 
 feuds, or more recent quarrels, is sure 
 to report “ many persecutions.” Many 
 disturbances, certainly ; but if the mis- 
 sionary be sufficiently in favour with 
 the officials, the “ persecution ” may 
 be of non-members by these hastily 
 
Story of Early Missionary Work 63 
 
 received members themselves ! This 
 is popularly affirmed in every county of 
 the empire concerning a section of the 
 membership of that Church which now 
 reckons in China (1908) about one 
 million believers.’’ 
 
 “ Verbiest (1623-1688) entered the country in 1659. Ferdinand 
 Schaal ordered him to come to Peking to assist him Verbiest. 
 in astronomical labours. He, too, became President 
 of the Board of Mathematics, and the emperor 
 K'ang Hsi showed him the most sincere friendship. 
 
 When he died, the Board of Rites prescribed the 
 honours to be paid him, and his funeral was carried 
 out at the expense of the State. The emperor 
 wrote his eulogium, and had it engraved on his 
 tombstone.” 
 
 Three remarkably fine men were 
 Fathers Ricci, Schaal, and Verbiest ; 
 and the two last were exceedingly 
 happy in being at the Court of the en- 
 lightened emperor K‘ang Hsi, “ the 
 greatest of the Manchus.” K‘ang Hsi, 
 however, was too young (eight years 
 old) when he came to the throne (in 
 1662) to do anything more than save the 
 life of Schaal, who had been his tutor, 
 and who had been thrown into prison 
 by regents jealous of the favours that 
 had been shown him. At the age of 
 
Troubles, 
 
 64 The Call of Cathay 
 
 thirteen the vigorous young prince dis- 
 solved the regency, assumed the power 
 himself, and used it right well till his 
 death in 1723. 
 
 But troubles were brewing for the 
 Jesuit Fathers in this reign. Dom- 
 inican and Franciscan missionaries ar- 
 rived in 1630, and reported their doings 
 unfavourably to Rome. Then came 
 Cardinal Tournon, who in China, as in 
 India, issued a decree denouncing the 
 Jesuits, with the result that he perished 
 in a Portuguese prison in Macao. Father 
 Ripa, who arrived in 1710, reported 
 unfavourably on the character of the 
 work done. He says that 500 mission- 
 aries had come out since 1580, but that 
 
 “ they could not produce any satisfactory results, 
 in consequence of the formidable barrier of the lan- 
 guage, which, up to that time, none had been able 
 to sm’mount so as to make himself understood of the 
 people at large.” 
 
 This stricture upon the Jesuit and 
 other orders of Roman Catholic mis- 
 sionaries reads strangely ! For spoken 
 Chinese, apart from the characters of 
 either spoken dialects or the wen-li of 
 the books, is by no means a difficult 
 
Story of Early Missionary Work 65 
 
 language. Our missionaries are all of 
 them fairly fluent at the end of a year, 
 if with a limited vocabulary. One 
 would think that Father Ripa was in- 
 dulging in special pleading for the 
 college for young Chinese that he wished 
 to start at Naples, and afterwards did. 
 
 But the great storm burst against all 
 the Romish missionaries on the death 
 of K‘ang Hsi. His son, ascending the 
 throne under the title of Yung Cheng, ^ 
 received several of the missionaries in 
 audience, but did not allow them to 
 say a word while he read to them a 
 carefully prepared speech, as follows : 
 
 “The late Emperor, my father, after having in* 
 structed me during forty years, chose me in prefer- 
 ence to any of my brothers to succeed him on the 
 throne. I make it one of my first objects to imitate 
 him, and to depart in nothing from his manner of 
 government. Some European missionaries in the 
 province of Fukien have shown a wish to destroy our 
 laws, and they have been a cause of trouble to the 
 people. It is my duty to provide a remedy for this 
 disorder. . . . Eicci came to China in the first year 
 
 ^ The personal name of the emperor is always 
 sacred, and is never the name by which his reign is 
 called. That is always a felicitous motto, as Kuang 
 Hsii (Continued Brightness) for the late emperor, 
 whose personal name was Tsai Then. 
 
 The Storm 
 Bursts. 
 
 3 
 
66 
 
 The Call of Cathay 
 
 of Wan Li (1573-1619). I will not touch upon what 
 the Chinese (the Chinese Dynasty) did at that time, 
 for I am in no way responsible for it. But then 
 you were few in numbers. In fact there were only 
 one or two of you, and you had not your people and 
 churches in every province. It was only in my 
 father’s reign that churches were raised on all hands, 
 and that your doctrines spread with rapidity. I 
 saw these things then clearly enough, but dared 
 say nothing on the subject. But if you knew how to 
 beguile my father, do not hope to be able to deceive 
 me in the same manner. You wish that all the 
 Chinese should become your converts, but in that 
 event what would become of us ? Should we not 
 soon be merely the subjects of your kings ? Already 
 the converts you have made recognise nobody but 
 you, and in a time of upset would listen to no voice 
 but yours. I know that at present we have nothing 
 to fear ; but when foreign ships shall come in their 
 thousands and tens of thousands, then it may be that 
 some disaster will ensue. China has on the north 
 the empire of the Russians, which is not to be des- 
 pised ; and on the south {sic) are the Europeans and 
 their kingdoms, which are still more considerable. . . . 
 The Czar’s ambassador solicited our permission for 
 Russians to establish factories for commerce in all 
 the provinces. His request was refused, and trade 
 only allowed at Peking or at Kiachta, on the frontier 
 of the Kalka country. I permit you to reside here 
 and at Canton, as long as you give no cause for 
 complaint ; but if any should arise, I will not allow 
 you to remain either here or at Canton. . . . 
 
 “ Do not imagine, in conclusion, that I have nothing 
 against you, or on the other hand that I wish to 
 oppress you. My sole care is to rule the empire well, 
 and to this I apply myself from morning till evening.” 
 
Story of Early Missionary Work 67 
 
 Whether the above utterance was too ^poiicy 
 severe or not, it will be seen to have 
 been the utterance of a level-headed and 
 far-seeing monarch. Powers huge and 
 well armed, represented, alas ! by pirates 
 as well as missionaries, loomed on the 
 horizon. China could not cope with 
 them ; she could but try to regulate 
 their representatives, and delimit their 
 sphere of political influence, for she saw 
 that Jesuit methods were not free from 
 that. And in this utterance of Yung 
 Cheng we have a key to the policy of 
 China’s rulers towards missionaries and 
 merchants — right on to 1900 as far as 
 missionaries have been concerned, and 
 up to the present (in the shutting- down 
 of concessions) as far as Western mer- 
 chants are concerned : a policy of 
 delimitation, if not always of expulsion. 
 
 Edicts were put forth in 1706 and Romanism m 
 1720, to the effect that “as the Papal 
 decrees were contrary to the usages of 
 the empire, the ‘ Heaven-lord religion ’ 
 could not subsist there.” And now 
 that Imperial patronage was reversed 
 into Imperial disfavour, multitudes of 
 the converts recanted ; hundreds of 
 
68 
 
 The Call of Cathay 
 
 churches were destroyed by mobs, 
 under the cognisance of the officials ; 
 the property of wealthy converts was 
 confiscated, and all who kept the faith 
 (and these were still many) were sub- 
 jected to severe persecution. Yet here 
 was the opportunity for the Romish 
 Church, if its leaders had but known 
 it, to nurture that faithful “ remnant ” 
 by prayer and supplication, that so it 
 might become the nucleus of a Church 
 throughly purged. Some undaunted 
 missionaries did endeavour to penetrate 
 the interior — were caught, punished, 
 banished, and in some cases put to death. 
 But as this severity relaxed at the be- 
 ginning of the nineteenth century, we 
 find all the old methods of incautious 
 ingathering asserting themselves (doubt- 
 less from zeal, and a sacerdotal view of 
 the efficacy of the Sacraments), and these 
 methods have continued to this day. 
 
 Position To'day. In 1906 there were 1,773 priests in 
 China — Jesuits, Franciscans, Vincentians, 
 and priests of the Belgian, German, 
 Milanese, Parisian, and Spanish foreign 
 missions ; 5,681 churches and chapels ; 
 and 952,935 baptised converts. 
 
Story of Early Missionary Work 69 
 
 Here is a study of comparative 
 methods. The Nestorians secured Im- 
 perial favour as religious teachers, and 
 vastly modified the Buddhism of the 
 Far East, but apparently suppressed 
 the Cross in their religious teachings. 
 The Roman Catholic missionaries (heroes 
 in zeal for their Church many of them) 
 began to reside in China under Imperial 
 favour, made certain compromises with 
 Chinese customs so as to make entrance 
 -into the Church easy, and while under 
 Imperial favour offered certain political 
 advantages to their adherents (which 
 made the officials regard those converts 
 practically as foreign subjects), gained 
 large ingatherings, but with them offi- 
 cial suspicion, which, after the reversal 
 of all their privileges, became positive 
 antagonism. Was there room iii China 
 for other methods than these ? The 
 next chapter will show. 
 
 A Study in 
 Missionary 
 Methods, 
 
70 
 
 The Call of Cathay 
 
 TABLE OF NESTORIAN AND CATHOLIC 
 MISSIONS IN CHINA 
 
 Doubtful Period. 
 
 1st century : A tradition states that the Gospel was 
 carried to China “by the first teachers 
 of Christianity.” The breviary of the 
 Malabar Church and the Syrian Canon 
 both record that St. Thomas preached 
 the Gospel to the Chinese. These 
 statements are unsupported by evi- 
 dence, and are rejected by scholars. 
 
 A.D. 300 : Arnobius speaks of Christian deeds done 
 among the Seres (Chinese). It is 
 probable that this refers to a possible 
 visit of Mani, an heretical teacher, 
 to China in the third century. 
 
 Nestorian Period. 
 
 A.D. 505 : Probably the first Nestorian missionaries 
 reached China about this time. 
 
 551 ; Records exist stating that Nestorian 
 monks took silkworms’ eggs from 
 China to Constantinople at this date. 
 
 635 : Olopun and a band of Nestorian priests 
 reached China, and were received at 
 Court. Christianity received Imperial 
 sanction, and the Scriptures were 
 translated into Chinese. 
 
 650-683 : The Emperor Kao Tsung caused 
 monasteries to be built “ in every 
 prefecture of the empire.” 
 
 781 : The “ Nestorian Tablet ” erected at Sianfu 
 (Shensi). 
 
 841 : Edict for the suppression of Nestorian 
 and Buddhist monasteries, 
 
Story of Early Missionary Work 71 
 
 13th century: Marco Polo found numbers of Nes- 
 torians and Nestorian churches in 
 China. 
 
 Early Romish Missions. 
 
 A.D. 1246-7 : Papal Mission, led by John de Plano 
 
 1271 : 
 
 Carpini, reached the Court of the 
 Tartar Khan. It is uncertain 
 
 whether it got into China. 
 
 Kublai Khan wrote to the Pope for a 
 hundred Catholic literati. 
 
 1303 : 
 
 1314: 
 
 John de Monte Corvino reached Peking. 
 Oderic de Friuli left Europe for India 
 and China. He spent three years 
 in Peking, and returned to Pisa. 
 
 A.D. 1552 : 
 
 Jesuit Missions. 
 
 St. Francis Xavier died at the island 
 of Shang-ch‘uan, while attempting 
 to enter China. 
 
 1583 : 
 
 1601: 
 
 Matteo Ricci arrived in South China. 
 Ricci settled in Peking. Died there in 
 1610. 
 
 1622: 
 
 Adam Schaal reached China, working first 
 at Sian, and afterwards at Peking. 
 
 1659: 
 
 Ferdinand Verbiest arrived in China. 
 
 A.D. 1630: 
 
 Later Romish Missions. 
 
 Arrival of Dominican and Franciscan 
 
 1710 : 
 1724 : 
 
 missionaries. 
 
 Father Ripa reached China. 
 
 Edict of Yung Cheng against Romish 
 missions. From this time Christianity 
 was under the ban, until the treaties 
 of 1858 expressly sanctioned both 
 Romish and Protestant mission work. 
 
72 
 
 The Call of Cathay 
 
 ASSIGNMENTS FOR STUDY CIRCLES 
 
 STUDY PROBLEM. — To see what we may learn 
 as to missionary methods from the Nestorian and 
 Roman efforts to evangelise China. 
 
 1. What is the net result of Nestorian Missions in 
 China ? 
 
 2. How do you account for this failure ? 
 
 3. Why have Roman Catholic Missions been more 
 successful than the Nestorian efforts ? 
 
 4. Wherein lay the strength and weakness of the 
 Romish methods ? 
 
 REFERENCES FOR FURTHER STUDY 
 
 Smith, A. H. — The Uplift of China (pages 113-34). 
 Beach, Harlan P. — Dawn on the Hills of T^ang 
 (pages 81-94). 
 
 Broomhall, Marshall. — The Chinese Empire (pages 
 5-11, and Appendix III.). 
 
 Ball, J. Dyer. — Things Chinese (article on 
 “Missions”). 
 
By permission of the] \_London Missionary Society. 
 
 ROBERT MORRISON. 
 
 [p. 73 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 A CENTURY OF PROTESTANT MISSIONS 
 IN CHINA 
 
 Within a month of the formation of the The Stimulus 
 British and Foreign Bible Society in 
 1804, its thoughts were directed to 
 China. For, a few years before that, 
 a Chinese manuscript was discovered 
 in the British Museum, which was re- 
 ported to be a translation of the New 
 Testament. It was, however, a harmony 
 of the Gospels, the Acts, and St. Paul’s 
 epistles, apparently made from the 
 Vulgate by Roman Catholic mission- 
 aries. When it was further known that 
 its reproduction would cost two guineas 
 a copy, and that there was no way open 
 for circulating it among the Chinese, it 
 was resolved not to attempt its publica- 
 tion. In the providence of God, however, 
 that manuscript copy of the Acts was 
 to be the basis of the first Protestant 
 missionary publication in China itself^ 
 
 73 3 * 
 
Robert 
 
 Morrison. 
 
 Reflections. 
 
 74 The Call of Cathay 
 
 About the time they were diseussing 
 it, God was working in the heart of 
 Robert Morrison, a young man born of 
 Scottish parents at Morpeth, at the 
 beginning of 1782. Morrison joined the 
 Presbyterian Church at the age of 
 fifteen, studied Latin, Hebrew, and 
 theology with a minister of Newcastle, 
 in intervals between his occupation of 
 shoe-last maker, at eighteen, and in 
 1802 became a student in the Inde- 
 pendent Theological Academy at Hox- 
 ton. Here we find him writing some 
 private “ Reflections ” : 
 
 “Have I tasted and seen that God is good? What 
 cords of infinite love have caught and held my 
 heart ? Say then, my conscience, as thou shalt 
 answer at the judgment seat of God, am I taking 
 honour to myself, or am I called of God as was 
 Aaron ? Is Christ sending me and laying a necessity 
 on me to preach the Gospel ? Is He breathing on 
 my soul and causing me to receive the Holy Ghost ? 
 Is He enduing me with deep compassion for the 
 souls of men ? Have I the love of God burning in 
 my heart, and constraining me cheerfully to suffer 
 poverty, contempt, and hatred of all men for Christ’s 
 sake, wilhng, if necessary, to risk my own salvation 
 in winning others to Christ ? ” 
 
 The Lord Himself answered these 
 questions in him, — questions that every 
 
Protestant Missions in China 75 
 
 would-be missionary should ask himself. 
 
 The eall to mission work grew stronger, 
 and again he writes : 
 
 “ Jesus, I have given myself up to Thy service. The The Call, 
 question is where shall I serve Thee ? I conceive it 
 my duty to go where labourers are most needed. 
 
 Leaning on His love I have made up my mind to for- 
 sake all and follow Him.” 
 
 This was early in 1804, when he 
 offered himself to the Direetors of the 
 London Missionary Soeiety. Being in 
 touch with the Bible Society, the L.M.S. 
 decided to send him to China, with the 
 special task of acquiring the language 
 so as to translate the Scriptures. Here 
 is an early instance of that comity and 
 mutual aid which has become such a 
 blessed fact in modern Protestant mis- 
 sions in China. 
 
 Morrison began to prepare for China Preparations, 
 by studying medicine and astronomy, 
 and some rudiments of the Chinese 
 language. He was introduced to a 
 Cantonese named Tong Sam-tak, from 
 whom he took lessons in writing the 
 Chinese characters, and in the course 
 of a few months of diligence tran- 
 scribed the whole of the Chinese manu- 
 
Sails for China* 
 
 Arrives at 
 Canton, 
 
 76 The Call of Cathay 
 
 script in the British Museum, as well 
 as a Latin-Chinese dictionary lent by 
 the Royal Society. 
 
 He sailed for China the last day of 
 January 1807, but, the Chinese being 
 hostile to the British at that time, he 
 was obliged to go via New York, where 
 he had to Avait three weeks before a 
 ship was starting eastward. The ship- 
 owner said to him, with a sardonic smile : 
 “ And so, Mr. Morrison, you really 
 expect you will make an impression on 
 the idolatry of the great Chinese Em- 
 pire ? ” “ No, sir,” replied Morrison, 
 
 with more than his usual sternness, 
 ‘‘ but I expect God will.” 
 
 Two hundred and eighteen days after 
 setting sail from London, Morrison, after 
 a dangerous voyage, arrived in Canton 
 on September 7. And here various 
 difficulties had to be faced. There was 
 the Chinese opposition to the residence 
 of foreigners ; a strict prohibition of 
 any Chinese teaching foreigners the 
 language — the penalty being death ; the 
 jealous opposition of Roman Catholic 
 priests at Macao ; and lastly, the regu- 
 lations of the East India Company 
 
Protestant Missions in China 77 
 
 against missionaries. To avoid the 
 latter difficulty, he had to live with the 
 American merchants and pass as an 
 American. He adopted the Chinese 
 dress and food, and only took exercise 
 in the evenings. By the help of Sir 
 George Staunton he secured three 
 Chinese teachers, Roman Catholics — one 
 for Cantonese, one for ‘‘ mandarin,” and 
 one for wen-li. In 1809 he was loosed 
 from some of his difficulties by becom- 
 ing translator to the East India Com- 
 pany at a salary of £500 per annum ; 
 he also married the daughter of an 
 English merchant. As residence at 
 either Canton or Macao was difficult, 
 he retired to where there was only the 
 heat to hamper him, and where Chinese 
 traded freely. 
 
 In 1810 the Acts of the Apostles was Bible Transia- 
 printed in Chinese from wooden blocks 
 (with the British Museum manuscript 
 as a basis) ; in 1812 the Gospel of 
 St. Luke ; in 1814 the New Testament 
 was completed ; in 1817 a philological 
 study of the Chinese language (which 
 gained him the degree of D.D. from 
 Glasgow University); in 1818 the whole 
 
Manifold 
 
 Labours. 
 
 78 The Call of Cathay 
 
 Bible was complete, and it was printed 
 in 1821. Here is a record for one man 
 in the strange Chinese language, of 
 which William Milne wrote in 1814 : 
 
 “ To acquire Chinese is a work for men of bodies 
 of brass, heads of oak, hands of spring-steel, eyes 
 of eagles, hearts of apostles, memories of angels, and 
 lives of Methuselah.” 
 
 It must, however, be remembered 
 that this was a new-comer’s early im- 
 pression, and referred to the complex 
 task of talking the widely different 
 dialects of Cantonese and “ mandarin,” 
 and also using the inexhaustible literary 
 wen-li that is common to the whole 
 empire among its scholars.^ 
 
 William Milne had arrived in 1813, 
 and became an altogether helpful col- 
 league, but died in 1822. 
 
 ^ Both Cantonese and “ mandarin ” can be written, 
 and are used for Chinese novels and for translated 
 Scriptures and tracts. Wen-li has the peculiarity 
 of never having been spoken ; it is a condensed lan- 
 guage for the eyes. No Chinese scholar would under- 
 stand another if he read wen-li aloud, beyond a phrase 
 here and there. But it is the language of all Chinese 
 literature and of modern newspaper articles ; and it 
 was into wen-li that Morrison translated the Scriptures. 
 For a fine style in wen-li the rewards have been 
 mandarinships . 
 
Protestant Missions in China 79 
 
 Morrison then completed his monu- 
 mental work, the Chinese-English Dic- 
 tionary, which was printed by the East 
 India Company at the cost of £15,000. 
 He also wrote various tracts, and trans- 
 lated the Assembly’s Shorter Catechism 
 and the Book of Common Prayer. On 
 being asked why he did the latter, he 
 wrote : “We are of no party, we recog- 
 nise but two classes — those who fear 
 God and those who do not.” Which, 
 happily, is a growing sentiment among 
 missionaries in China. There is no 
 place in the world where there is less 
 denominational separation. As Bishop 
 Westcott once remarked : “As far as 
 I see, the union of the Churches will 
 begin at the circumference rather than 
 at the centre.” 
 
 A mission press had been founded 
 at Malacca, and now an Anglo-Chinese 
 college was founded there, Morrison 
 giving £ 1,000 at the start, and £100 a 
 year towards its expenses. Another 
 press was established at Batavia in 
 Java, and an Anglo-Chinese and Malay 
 College at Singapore. A third colleague 
 had arrived in 1817^ Walter Henry 
 
8o The Call of Cathay 
 
 Medhurst, who had received, besides a 
 classical and theological training, that 
 of a practical printer. 
 
 In 1816 Morrison accompanied Lord 
 Amherst’s embassy to Peking as inter- 
 preter, journeying there by sea, and 
 returning overland through Chihli, 
 Shantung, Kiangsu, Kiangsi, and Kwang- 
 tung provinces — thus surveying the 
 land for future missionaries. Both Mr. 
 and Mrs. Milne and his own wife having 
 died, and his own health being low, 
 he returned to England in 1823 for two 
 years, being welcomed everywhere by 
 the Churches, and by learned societies, 
 and being received at Court by King 
 George IV. But everywhere the sal- 
 vation of China was his life-quest. As 
 an American friend of his put it : “ He 
 is not like some whose piety is still 
 in the green shoot; his has the bark 
 on ; his mind is firm, erect, self-deter- 
 mined.” 
 
 One instance of this was in 1812, when 
 the Chinese emperor decreed it to be a 
 capital crime for Europeans or Chinese to 
 print books on the “ Foreign Religion.” 
 Morrison wrote : ‘‘ We will scrupulously 
 
Protestant Missions in China 8i 
 
 obey Governments as far as their de- 
 crees do not oppose what is required by 
 the Almighty. But in this matter I 
 must go forward, trusting in the 
 Lord.” 
 
 On his return there were in all just 
 ten baptised Chinese converts ; but, 
 thanks to the laxity of Chinese executive 
 in the provinces, two of these converts 
 (one of them Liang A-fa) itinerated in- 
 land from Canton, following the train 
 of the Imperial examiner, to the vari- 
 ous examination centres, gaining access 
 to the young literati, and distributing 
 more than 7,000 tracts. This was the Attempting to 
 first attempt to reach the brain of 
 China, through her scholars — a task since 
 taken up by the Christian Literature 
 Society for China. And in this con- 
 nection Morrison wrote in 1823 : “I 
 have been twenty-five years in China, 
 and am beginning to see the work pros- 
 per. By the press we have been able 
 to scatter knowledge far and wide.” 
 
 He died at Canton, August 1, 1843, 
 and was buried in the Protestant 
 burial-ground at Macao. 
 
 A little before this the first English 
 
82 
 
 The War of 
 1840, 
 
 The Call of Cathay 
 
 war ^ with China had taken place, as 
 I.ord Russell said : 
 
 “ to obtain reparation for the insults and injuries 
 offered to Her Majesty’s Superintendent and Her 
 Majesty’s subjects by the Chinese Government ; to 
 obtain an indemnification for merchants for losses 
 of property . . . and to obtain a certain security 
 . . . that their trade and commerce be maintained 
 upon a proper footing.” 
 
 ^ This was what is commonly called the “ first 
 Opium War,” concerning which Lord Morley, in his 
 Life of Gladstone, says : “ The Chinese question was of 
 the simplest. British subjects insisted on smuggling 
 opium into China in the teeth of Chinese law. The 
 British Agent on the spot began the war against 
 China for protecting herself against these malprac- 
 tices.” 
 
 Speaking in the House of Commons in 1840, in 
 a debate on this war, Gladstone said : “ They gave 
 
 you notice to abandon your contraband trade. 
 When they found you would not, they had a right 
 to drive you from their coasts, on account of your 
 persisting in this infamous and atrocious traffic. 
 You allowed your agent to aid and abet those who 
 were carrying on that trade. ... A war more unjust 
 in its origin, a war more calculated to cover this 
 country with disgrace, I do not know, and I have 
 not read of.” 
 
 The Times (Dec. 3, 1842) said in a leading article : 
 “We owe some moral compensation to China for 
 pillaging her towns and slaughtering her citizens 
 in a quarrel which would not have arisen if we had 
 
Protestant Missions in China 83 
 
 The expedition of four thousand troops 
 arrived at the mouth of the Canton 
 River in June 1840, with the motto 
 ‘‘ China must either bend or break,” — 
 four thousand soldiers speaking thus of 
 an empire of four hundred millions ! But 
 that is the motto of the four thousand 
 warriors of Emmanuel to-day in that 
 empire of four hundred millions, op- 
 posed by principalities and powers, the 
 world-rulers of darkness ; a disparity 
 all the more evident were they not the 
 prayer- warriors of God. 
 
 The forts commanding Canton being 
 all taken and destroyed, the fleet sailed 
 north to the mouth of the Peiho, to 
 open negotiations with the Court, which 
 seemed likely to be favourable, until the 
 fleet departed, when China armed for 
 resistance. The capture of Amoy and 
 Chusan not being sufficient, there was 
 
 not been guilty of this national crime [i.e. the im- 
 portation of opium].” 
 
 The Spectator (Oct. 29, 1842), declared that it 
 was “ impossible to read the accounts of the military 
 operations in China without shame amd disgust. . . . 
 Is it a sign of morality that we do all this in order 
 that a poisonous drug may be smuggled into the 
 markets of China ? ” 
 
84 The Call of Cathay 
 
 The Opening 
 of the Ports. 
 
 The Story of 
 the Century. 
 
 fighting and victory for the English at 
 the mouth of, and some hundred miles or 
 so up, the Yangtse. And at length the 
 new Viceroy of Canton, Nu Kien, ad- 
 mitted that ‘‘ the English at Canton had 
 been exposed to insults and extortions 
 for a series of years,” and with two other 
 Commissioners drew up a memorial for 
 the granting of indemnity, partly in 
 money, partly consisting of the cession 
 of Hong Kong, and the opening to trade 
 of Shanghai, Ningpo, Amoy, and Foo- 
 chow. Which meant that these ports 
 were soon to beeome centres of mission- 
 ary activity — whereby hearts would 
 “ bend or break ” at the coming of the 
 Crueified. 
 
 In dealing with the progress which 
 followed, the subject might easily take 
 the form of a lesson in geography, with 
 a list of names and dates added. And 
 certain details of this nature may have 
 to be given. But the reader’s imagina- 
 tion must be stirred, first and last, 
 to clothe all these dry-bone details 
 with warm, living flesh. For the es- 
 sence of the matter is that the Throned 
 One Who has been responsible for all 
 
Protestant Missions in China 85 
 
 that was true in China’s ancient re- 
 ligion and moral precepts, and for all 
 that was good in China’s people — the 
 motherly love of mothers, the parental 
 solicitude of fathers, the filial response, 
 the conscience which knew there was 
 a heavenly standard, and felt the dis- 
 grace of moral failure, — this God of 
 righteousness and love. Who manifested 
 Himself in West Asia long, long ago, 
 was now stirring this or that heart with 
 heroism, to take up the burden of East 
 Asian needs ; going in person to mani- 
 fest Christ the Lord there ; or, with 
 none the less heroism, giving of their 
 substance and soul-energies, continuing 
 faithful in prayer at home ; praying 
 into China spiritual perceptions of the 
 message, moral conviction of sin against 
 the All-Father, bringing the Cross and 
 its Sacrifice within range of vision, 
 arousing penitent faith, and that 
 ‘‘ charity which edifieth,” or rather 
 a grasp of that Love-force, that God- 
 force, which upbuildeth the desolations 
 of many generations. This is the 
 essence of the story of the century and 
 more since Morrison arrived in China. 
 
More Literary 
 Workers, 
 
 Karl Gutzlaff, 
 
 86 The Call of Cathay 
 
 Geography, year-dates, names of men 
 and women, and of the various de- 
 partments of the one great Missionary 
 Society to China, from various lands, — 
 these are details, mere details, and 
 wearisome to the uninitiated reader, 
 but glowing with heaven’s own poetry 
 when read and understood in their 
 setting as landmarks in the coming of 
 the Redeemer to rule where He has re- 
 deemed, even in vast and soul- desolate 
 China. 
 
 Shortly before Morrison died there 
 arrived in China Dr. Bridgman from the 
 United States, who was by and by to 
 start the valuable “ Chinese Reposi- 
 tory,” to open up the mind and heart 
 of China to missionaries and students ; 
 and Dr. Wells Williams, who, among 
 other tasks, was to produce a “ Syllabic 
 Dictionary ” condensed from, and an 
 improvement on, that of Morrison, with 
 much original work — a volume which 
 has been the “guide, philosopher, and 
 friend ” of most Protestant missionaries 
 now on the field. Then, before Morri- 
 son died, Karl Gutzlaff, of the Nether- 
 lands Missionary Society, surveyed the 
 
Protestant Missions in China 87 
 
 coasts of China, in seven journeys, 
 giving the West a necessary insight into 
 many items of geography, as well as 
 being himself a pioneer along the various 
 ports visited. He became indirectly 
 instrumental in the formation of the 
 Chinese Evangelistic Society which sent 
 out Mr. Hudson Taylor (1856), the 
 founder of the China Inland Mission. 
 
 He also published works in seven lan- 
 guages besides the Chinese. 
 
 In the year that Morrison died Dr. The Beginning 
 Peter Parker, of the American Board, 
 landed in Canton (to be followed by 
 Dr. Lockhart, the first British medical 
 missionary), and opened the first mis- 
 sionary hospital in China — the first of 
 about 20T hospitals, besides some 292 
 dispensaries, up to 1910. Dr. Legge, Dr. Legge. 
 of the London Missionary Society (in 
 Malacca since 1839), became the Prin- 
 cipal of the Anglo- Chinese College on its 
 removal to Hong Kong, and produced his 
 monumental work, a translation of the 
 Chinese Classics, with scholarly com- 
 ments ; thus opening up the most revered 
 literature of China to missionary students 
 and Western readers. 
 
88 
 
 The Call of Cathay 
 
 During the eighteen years following 
 the treaty of Nanking (1842), some 
 seventeen soeieties commenced work 
 in China, with about 160 workers. 
 TheTaiping From 1850 to 1864 the Taiping Rebels, 
 Rebellion. possessed of a smattering of Christian 
 truth, did their utmost to stamp out 
 idolatry on the one hand, and to restore 
 China to the Chinese — that is, to the 
 Taiping leaders — on the other. Their 
 chief force, as far as Central China was 
 concerned, was spent by the end of 
 1855 ; but they were still strong on 
 the lower Yangtse Valley, with Nanking 
 as their capital, until they were de- 
 stroyed by the aid of General Gordon 
 ten years later ; not before they had 
 become utterly corrupt in manners, and 
 blasphemers of the religion they had 
 professed to hold, in setting up ‘‘ Per- 
 fect Peace \T'ai-pHng\ and the King- 
 dom of Heaven ” in China. Meanwhile 
 
 The Arrow England’s second war ^ with China broke 
 War.^ 
 
 ^ Concerning this war, the British commander 
 sent to conduct it (Lord Elgin), wrote : “ That 
 
 wretched Arrow affair is a scandal to us. Nothing 
 could be more contemptible than the origin of our 
 existing quarrel. I thought bitterly of those who, 
 for the most selfish objects, are trampling underfoot 
 
Protestant Missions in China 89 
 
 out, arising from the seizure by the 
 Chinese of a boat which was flying 
 the British flag, unauthorised, while 
 smuggling opium/ The violent insult to 
 the British flag (instead of diplomatic 
 
 this ancient civilisation.” And again : “I never 
 felt so much ashamed of myseh in my life. ... I 
 feel I am earning for myself a place in the Litany 
 immediately after ‘ plague, pestilence, and famine ’ 
 [i.e. battle and murder].” 
 
 The House of Commons by a majority condemned 
 the war, and Palmerston dissolved Parliament. 
 
 ^ The ravages of the opium cm*se have been so 
 often described that nothing need be added here, 
 except to remind the reader that on September 20, 
 1906, the Chinese Government issued the following 
 decree : “ Almost the whole of China has been 
 
 flooded with the opimn-poison. Smokers of opium 
 have wasted their time, neglected their employment, 
 spoiled their constitutions, and ruined their families ; 
 and thus for some tens of years China has presented 
 a pictme of increasing poverty and weakness. It 
 arouses our deep indignation even to speak of the 
 matter. We are now ardently determined to make 
 China powerful, and it falls to us to urge the people 
 on to reformation, that they may realise the evil, 
 pluck out this deep-seated cancer, and follow the 
 ways of health and peace. We therefore decree 
 that, within the limit of ten years, this harmful 
 foreign muck be fully and entirely cleansed away.” 
 Since this there have been more or less sincere efforts 
 to reduce the consumption of opium and cultivation 
 of the poppy, and at any rate the rising generation 
 will be deterred from beginning the habit. 
 
90 The Call of Cathay 
 
 representations with regard to the 
 smuggler) was considered material for 
 military reprisals. China was again 
 defeated ; a treaty was signed with 
 Great Britain, and, for other reasons, 
 other treaties were concluded with four 
 other Powers, with the total result that 
 the following ports were declared open 
 to Western commerce : 
 
 Under Treaty of Nanking, 1842. 
 
 Canton, Amoy, Foochow, Ningpo, and Shang- 
 hai. 
 
 Under Treaty of Tientsin, 1858. (Ratified 1860.) 
 Newchwang, Chefoo, Swatow, Kiungchow in 
 Hainan, and Taiwan and Tamsui in Formosa. 
 
 Under French Treaty, 1860. 
 
 Tientsin. 
 
 Under the German Treaty, 1861. 
 
 Chinkiang, Kiukiang, and Hankow. 
 
 In addition to this, there was given 
 to missionaries (1860) the right to 
 travel, with passport, throughout the 
 eighteen provinces, and (by a clause 
 inserted in the Chinese text of the French 
 treaty) permission “ to rent and pur- 
 chase land in the provinces, and to erect 
 buildings thereon at pleasure.” ^ 
 
 1 “ The French text, which was the final autho- 
 rity, did not contain this clause — it having been 
 
Protestant Missions in China 91 
 
 The gate into China’s interior eannot 
 be said to have been very gently opened, 
 or indeed opened without a measure of 
 guile as well as foree, but being thus 
 opened, the duty and privilege of the 
 Protestant Church was apparent. Nor, 
 it should be remembered, was the 
 Roman Catholic Church slow to take 
 advantage of the new openings and 
 privileges, adding, in many cases, hos- 
 pitals and benevolent institutions to its 
 more ordinary propaganda ; aiming as 
 . before at large ingatherings, but with 
 its eyes set rather on the second or third 
 generation than the first, as with 
 Protestants ; and — another point of 
 
 difference — managing to finance its mis- 
 sions in China on the spot, by the ex- 
 ercise of keen business transactions, 
 land investments, and stock and share 
 trafficking, so that its work in China 
 has been for a long time almost entirely 
 free from home support. 
 
 Before the treaty of Tientsin had been Wuchang- 
 ratified at Peking in 1860, William 
 
 surreptitiously inserted by one of the French priests 
 in the Chinese text, an action not unnaturally severely 
 •criticised ” (Broomhall), 
 
92 The Call of Cathay 
 
 Muirhead, of the L.M.S., was allowed to 
 accompany the British squadron up 
 the Yangtse, and gained a first sight of 
 that Wu-Han centre of which Du Halde 
 the Jesuit author (eighteenth century) 
 says : 
 
 “ Vu-chang is as it were the Center of the whole 
 Empire, and the Place from whence it is easiest to 
 keep a Communication with the rest of the Pro- 
 vinces. This City in conjunction with Hanyang,^ 
 (which is separated from it only by the Yang-tse- 
 kyang and the little river Han) forms the most popu- 
 lous and frequented place in all China. The city 
 itself may be compared for Size to Paris ; Hanyang 
 (one of whose Suburbs extends to the Point where 
 the Rivers Han and Yang-tse-kyang meet) is not 
 inferior to the most populous Cities in France^ such 
 for Instance as Lyons or Roan ; add to this an in- 
 credible Number of great and small Barks . . . never 
 reckoned less than eight or ten thousand . . . and 
 should one from an Eminence view this vast Extent 
 of Ground, covered with Houses, he would either 
 not believe his Eyes, or own that he saw the finest 
 Prospect of the Kind in the World.” 
 
 In consequence of William Muirhead’s 
 report, Griffith John and R. Wilson 
 were sent up in 1861 to found a 
 Hankow mission. Meanwhile, from the 
 Wesleyan Mission, Canton, Josiah Cox 
 
 ^ Until the last decade Hankow was governed from 
 Hanyang, and was thus regarded as a sriburb of 
 that city by Du Halde, 
 
Protestant Missions in China 93 
 
 being in England on furlough in 1860, 
 received an official letter from one 
 of the Taiping chiefs at Nanking, 
 inviting him to come there as chaplain. 
 But, finding that extremely inadvisable, 
 he went up to Hankow in February 
 1862, living for some time with Griffith 
 John, until they had arranged to divide 
 the great mart between them. And 
 as Mr. Cox spoke Cantonese (quite 
 unintelligible in Hupeh), Griffith John 
 added to all his other kindnesses the 
 surpassing one of allowing him to 
 take over his own ablest convert, Chii 
 Shao-an, as native preacher.^ It is 
 such deeds as this which testify so 
 finely to the fact that there is but 
 one Protestant Mission to China, under 
 varied names. And in years to come 
 David Hill was to labour in Shansi, 
 during and after the great famine of 
 1877-9, and was then to hand over 
 the results of his labours to the China 
 Inland Mission to develop, while he 
 went back to take (what was to him) 
 a wearying Chairmanship in the Wu- 
 Han centre. 
 
 See also Chapter V. 
 
94 
 
 The Call of Cathay 
 
 Reinforcements The various little bands sent out by 
 and Beginnings. respeetive home Churches, from 
 
 England and America, having gradually 
 invested the new Treaty Ports, resi- 
 dence was secured by the American 
 Presbyterians at Tengchow, on the 
 Shantung coast, 55 miles from the nearest 
 Treaty Port, and inland residence by 
 G. E. Moule (afterwards Bishop Moule) 
 in 1865 in Hangchow, the capital of 
 Chekiang Province, about 200 miles by 
 boat south-west of Shanghai. Apart 
 from these two non-Treaty Port stations, 
 there were just fifteen mission stations 
 for the whole country at the beginning 
 of 1866. But in that year the China 
 Inland Mission began its work, and two 
 inland stations in Chekiang Province 
 were opened by J. W. Stevenson. 
 Massacres, Ir 1870 occurrcd the terrible Tien- 
 
 1870-97. massacre, when twenty Roman 
 
 Catholic workers, chiefly Sisters of 
 Mercy, were brutally murdered with the 
 collusion of the Taotai, the Prefect, and 
 the magistrate there. This was followed 
 by outbreaks at : 
 
 Canton, 1883-4, upon eighteen 
 chapels and the homes of 
 
Protestant Missions in China 95 
 
 Chinese Christians, following 
 inflammatory proclamations by 
 the Viceroy and Admiral. 
 
 Kiangsi and Szechwan, 1886, against 
 Roman Catholic missions. 
 
 Shantung, 1886 to 1890, chronic dis- 
 turbances against missionaries 
 of various nationalities, the 
 instigator being a high official 
 of the Chinese Foreign Office. 
 
 Yangtse Valley, 1891, for six months, 
 following the murder of William 
 Argent and a British officer in 
 the Chinese Customs at Wusueh ; 
 incited by diabolical cartoons 
 issued by an official of Changsha, 
 Hunan, and resulting in the mur- 
 der of two Swedish missionaries, 
 about 40 miles inland from 
 Hankow. 
 
 Manchuria, 1894, murder of the 
 learned missionary, A. Wylie, 
 by Chinese soldiers. 
 
 Shansi, Shensi, Kansu, and Kweichow 
 Provinces were also full of anti- 
 foreign excitements, marked with 
 some deeds of violence. 
 
 Szechwan, 1895, riots in which twenty 
 Roman Catholic stations were 
 wrecked, and over a hundred 
 missionaries’ lives endangered. 
 
The ♦♦ Boxer ^ 
 Massacres, 1900. 
 
 96 The Call of Cathay 
 
 Wenchow, in Chekiang Province, 1884, 
 mission property destroyed. 
 
 Hua mountain, twelve miles from 
 Kucheng, Fukien, on August 1, 
 1895, when nine adults and two 
 children of the C. M. S. and 
 C.E.Z.M.S. were cruelly murdered. 
 
 The last-mentioned massacre was fol- 
 lowed by a public meeting at Exeter 
 Hall, “ not for protest, nor for appeal 
 to Government, but in solemn com- 
 memoration of martyred brothers and 
 sisters, and for united prayer.” 
 
 More violent measures were adopted 
 by the German Government in con- 
 nection with : 
 
 Shantung, 1897, a riot in which two 
 German Catholic priests were 
 murdered ; 
 
 for shortly afterwards the port and 
 hinterland of Kiaochow were taken by 
 Germany. 
 
 In the above, official encouragement 
 can be traced in all cases. In the case 
 of : 
 
 North China, 1900, Boxer uprising, 
 massacre of 224 Protestant mis- 
 
Protestant Missions in China 97 
 
 sionaries and children, many 
 Roman Catholic priests, and hun- 
 dreds of Chinese Christians, 
 
 there had been a decree as early as 
 November 5, 1898, for the formation 
 of “ volunteer bands ” everywhere “ to 
 turn the whole land into an armed 
 camp,” and the movement was vigor- 
 ously nursed from Court by a ruling 
 clique of Manchu reactionaries. But in 
 almost every city the Chinese officials 
 were on the side of peace and safety for 
 foreigners,” while two statesmen at 
 Court (Hsu Ching-chen and Yuan 
 Ch‘ang) risked and lost their lives by 
 altering most of the copies of an edict 
 of extermination against all foreigners 
 to “ strenuously protect.” And as re- 
 gards the cause of China’s integrity, we 
 may apply the word “ martyrs ” to these 
 two noble heroes. 
 
 Changsha, Hunan, 1910, rice-riots, 
 which took 'an anti-foreign turn, 
 to the destruction of much mis- 
 sion and mercantile property. 
 In this again, however, the offi- 
 cials sought to secure the safety 
 of the foreigners. 
 
 Changsha Riots, 
 1910. 
 
 4 
 
Chinese 
 
 Mistrust. 
 
 Sordid Motives. 
 
 98 The Call of Cathay 
 
 Going back to the days following 
 Morrison, we see that the Protestant 
 missionaries inherited serious diffi- 
 culties from earlier centuries. The pure 
 altruism of their motives was quite new 
 to China, as regards help and salvation 
 held out to an alien race in the face of 
 much obloquy. And here is a point 
 for those who study Comparative Re- 
 ligion : nothing like the parable of the 
 Good Samaritan had ever entered the 
 dreams of Chinese Confucian officials. 
 Hence, prejudiced as they were by 
 their experiences with European traders 
 and the methods of pre-Protestant mis- 
 sionaries, they saw in each missionary 
 an emissary of a Western Government, 
 at least a spy, and perhaps a more active 
 agent for winning the populace to be 
 “ subjects of their foreign kings.” 
 
 Then, on the other hand, the popu- 
 lace as a whole were persuaded that 
 the foreign missionaries were ‘‘ foreign 
 demons ” who had come with nefarious 
 intent. Some saw them to be moneyed 
 men, in a land where Ijd. to Ifd. was 
 regarded as covering a labourer’s food- 
 allowance per diem. Others thought 
 
Protestant Missions in China 99 
 
 that they might be made the redressers 
 of grievances — putters-through of law- 
 suits, champions in family feuds — in the 
 chaotic state of Chinese justice. The 
 missionaries had the right to remonstrate, 
 personally or through their Consuls, with 
 the Chinese magistrates in cases of per- 
 secution. And it might be fairly easy for 
 the wily ‘‘convert” to represent the 
 results of some old or new quarrel as 
 “persecution,” and by getting the mis- 
 sionary to send in his visiting-card to 
 the official to let his influence weigh on 
 “ our ” side ; for the magistrate would 
 be almost sure to decide for the side 
 that had “ influence.” 
 
 From this condition of things there Difficulties 
 arose four sets of difficulties or dangers : i^^^gers. 
 
 (1) In many places it was dangerous 
 for the missionary to preach, or to 
 make any attempt to rent property ; 
 
 (2) in some it was difficult to get any 
 
 converts whatever ; (3) in others it 
 
 was easy to gain a “ Church ” of beggars, 
 or, to use a low word for a low 
 character, of “ cadgers ” ; (4) in yet 
 
 others there were opportunities for 
 “ large ingatherings,” by tacitly taking 
 
lOO 
 
 The Call of Cathay 
 
 up cases of “ persecution,” showing one’s 
 power in the law-courts, and thus gain- 
 ing numerous inquirers — after Gospel 
 truth outwardly, but inwardly for 
 justice (or otherwise) in various disputes 
 and quarrels and feuds. Further, in a 
 new Chinese Church like attracts like — 
 in social grade and moral calibre. Start- 
 ing with a company of “cadgers,” that 
 company, however much it may grow, 
 is likely to be a cadger company to the 
 end, mistaking gain for godliness, and 
 keeping out of the charmed circle men 
 of a more respectable grade. Starting 
 with a company of lawsuit fighters, 
 that company will not commend itself 
 to the conscience of the people around, 
 and will raise animosities among those 
 who have been worsted by missionary 
 interference. This latter fact has un- 
 doubtedly been the traditional cause 
 for the exceeding unpopularity of the 
 term chiao-hui, “ religious society ” or 
 Church ; and that unpopularity lingers 
 yet among the populace, and among 
 the mandarins too — where they have 
 memories of having been overruled by 
 the foreign “ spiritual father,” “ pastor,” 
 
Protestant Missions in China loi 
 
 or what not, backed by some officials 
 of France (no friend to Jesuits at home, 
 but regarding them a few years ago as 
 her ‘‘best agents” in China), or the 
 Consul of any other land. 
 
 Up to 1898 practically all Chinese Official Opposi- 
 mandarins were opposed, in their hearts, 
 to the formation of chiao-hui (there are 
 no plural suffixes to Chinese nouns), 
 and therefore to mission work in general. 
 
 This arose partly from the cause men- 
 tioned above, and partly from the fact 
 that they had secret instructions from 
 the Imperial Government (once shown 
 to a British Consul in confidence), prior 
 to a brief spell of reform under the 
 young emperor Kuang Hsu. Since 
 1898 they have not, as a rule, opposed 
 missionary work. 
 
 Three items concerning this change Missionaries 
 may be added to the withdrawal of 
 secret instructions from the Court. 
 
 (1) The Jesuit Fathers and others, 
 coming into China in the first in- 
 stance as employees of the emperor, 
 had of course official rank to start with. 
 
 This being withdrawn by the successors 
 of K‘ang Hsi, they still thought it a 
 
Protestant 
 
 Missionaries 
 
 Disclaim 
 
 Authority. 
 
 102 The Gall of Cathay 
 
 possession more than desirable, and 
 practically, in the people’s eyes, as- 
 sumed it. In 1899, as part of the in- 
 demnity for riots in Szechwan — it was 
 formally offered them by Government — 
 they took rank with Viceroys, Governors, 
 and Prefects. By the “ favoured nation 
 clause ” in the treaties, what was offered 
 to one nation must be offered to all. 
 And so all Protestant missionaries had 
 the option of accepting official rank ; but 
 all to a man declined the honour. This 
 enabled the officials to regard Protestant 
 missionaries as a class by themselves, 
 on their own merits. The “ official 
 status ” was withdrawn by rescript of 
 March 15, 1908, but not before this 
 differentiation had taken place. (2) 
 In 1902 the Missionary Association 
 (Protestant) drew up a statement for 
 the officials of China, disclaiming any 
 authority in the law-courts, and asking 
 that Church members be treated exactly 
 as other subjects of the realm. This 
 gave the officials courage to do so in 
 all law- cases, involving Roman Catholic 
 as well as Protestant members. (3) 
 Most important of all, there was the 
 
Protestant Missions in China 103 
 
 formation of a society which should act Missionary 
 as middleman between mandarin and Middlemen, 
 missionary, and between East and West. 
 
 For officials neither attended the evan- 
 gelistic preaching nor read the tracts 
 issued for the “ man in the street,” nor 
 did medical mission work or school work 
 directly affect them. 
 
 There was needed a special mission of 
 Christian literary men and journalists 
 to the literati (Chinese civil officials 
 are just literati in office). Dr. Y. J. 
 
 Allen had started Christian journalism 
 as early as 1868, branching off into a 
 more general magazine for officials and 
 scholars. David Hill and Timothy 
 Richard had put out prizes for scholarly 
 essays on moral, religious, and social 
 questions after the great famine, and 
 conceived the idea of a definite society 
 to deal with these officials and scholars. 
 
 This society was formed in 1887, under 
 the leadership of Dr. Alex. Williamson, 
 and called ‘‘ The Christian Literature So- 
 ciety for China.” It adopted Dr. Allen’s 
 magazine, the Review of the Times, and 
 added books on all subjects for the uplift 
 of China. In the spring of 1904 a weekly 
 
104 The Call of Cathay 
 
 magazine was started,^ called the Ta 
 Tung Pao (meaning “ Common-Principles 
 Review which, after the cessation of 
 the Reviezv of the Times on the death 
 of Dr. Allen, began to be read at Court 
 by princes and statesmen, by the 
 Viceroys and Governors of all the pro- 
 vince, and by other prominent officials, 
 who now subscribe for 2,500 copies 
 weekly. It has also a general cir- 
 culation among the literary men of 
 China and educated Chinese in seven- 
 teen lands beyond the seas. Books 
 and magazines, and the personal inter- 
 course of such men as Timothy Richard 
 (of the Christian Literature Society 
 for China) and Gilbert Reid (Inter- 
 national Institute), have chiefly assisted 
 in winning over the officials of China 
 to a right understanding of the mis- 
 sionary’s aim, as well as his message 
 itself. The C.L.S. issues amount to 
 some 215,000 volumes per annum. 
 
 Bible and Tract And here it is fitting to mention the 
 
 Societies. work of the Bible and Tract So- 
 
 cieties — the latter chiefly for the better- 
 educated ‘‘ man in the street.” 
 
 1 By the author of this volume. 
 

 CHINESE GOSPELS. 
 
 A MISSIONARY SELLING GOSPELS IN CHINA. 
 
 The Chinese inscription reads : “ Spread Abroad the Heavenly Doctrine.” 
 
 [p. 105 
 
Protestant Missions in China 105 
 
 The following table will serve to 
 give an impression of the extent of 
 their work : 
 
 British and Foreign Bible Soeiety, 
 output for China in 1909 : 
 1,919,688 volumes, an inerease 
 of 409,067 on the previous year. 
 Ameriean Bible Soeiety, output for 
 China in 1909 : 1,008,020 vol- 
 
 umes, an increase of 482,832 on 
 the previous year. 
 
 National Bible Society of Scotland, 
 output for China in 1909 : 
 1,115,062 volumes, an increase 
 of 210,698 on the previous year. 
 Central China Tract Society, about 
 2,500,000 booklets and sheet- 
 tracts. 
 
 North China Tract Society, about 
 
 500.000. 
 
 West China Tract Society, about 
 
 300.000. 
 
 Chinese Tract Society (Shanghai), 
 about 400,000. 
 
 Fukien Tract Societies, about 120,000. 
 Hong Kong and Canton Tract Society, 
 about 45,000. 
 
 These Bibles, Testaments, portions, 
 and tracts are sold at a very low price, 
 
 4* 
 
io6 The Call of Cathay 
 
 instead of being given away. The popu- 
 lace considers them worth paying for. 
 
 In various parts of the land there 
 are seventeen magazines for Church 
 members. Of these, ten are denomina- 
 tional, but are read by members of all 
 Protestant missions ; the rest are inter- 
 denominational, but in some cases have 
 only a local circulation— China being a 
 land of such huge distances. 
 
 The Missionary The ccntury after Morrison’s arrival 
 closed with 3,445^ Protestant missionary 
 workers from the West in residence 
 in China — not all of them Morrisons, 
 but all constrained by the same love 
 of Christ which inspired him. And 
 here we must recognise the grand 
 work done by many whose names have 
 been unmentioned, except among their 
 small circle of friends at home and a 
 much larger circle of natives in China. 
 Not all the golden deeds have been 
 reported in our missionary magazines ; 
 not all have been eulogised on mis- 
 sionary platforms. The half has never 
 been told concerning the many who 
 
 ^ Two years later (1909) the number had increased 
 to over 4,175. 
 
Protestant Missions in China 107 
 
 have added to their other fine qualities 
 an understatement of their own achieve- 
 ments. 
 
 “The nobly dumb who did their deed, 
 
 And scorned to blot it with a name.” 
 
 Perchance some of these silent workers 
 will shine the brightest in the Kingdom 
 at last ; for theirs has been a persistent 
 genius for hard work on the mission 
 field — work done by the right hand un- 
 known to the left in many of its noblest 
 details. Some of them lie in humble 
 graves on Chinese soil, with little in the 
 way of epitaph. But their prayers live 
 on in not a few hearts, and much of the 
 solidity of the walls of the City of God 
 in China is due to their unobtrusive toil. 
 
 Over twelve hundred wives of mis- Missionaries' 
 sionaries are included in the latest 
 returns. And these have been workers 
 too. Gaining his first sight of a Protes- 
 tant minister’s wife at Innsbruck in 
 1706, Father Ripa called her a priest- 
 ess.” And this is what so many wives 
 and mothers have been in China — 
 representing God to man, and man to 
 God, in a way that only cultured and 
 devoted women can. Some of these 
 
io8 The Call of Cathay 
 
 mothers have just lived and loved, 
 without much stated “ work ” beyond 
 that in the family and the circle of 
 missionaries, but the fragrance of such 
 lives has gone forth as a witness to the 
 grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. 
 
 Some twelve hundred unwedded lady 
 workers are also included in the 
 mission staff, and there has been a 
 special sacredness in the labours of 
 these, who have, many of them, given 
 up prospects of a home of their own 
 that they might build up homes for 
 their Master in China ; dealing so tact- 
 fully with superstition and stupidity 
 among older and poorer women ; or 
 wooing forth the soul of China’s future 
 mothers, saying to the girls in their 
 schools in Christ’s name : “ Damsel, I 
 say unto thee, arise ” ; or nursing the 
 sick, and battling with death ; bringing 
 soul after soul into touch with Christ 
 through a life of winsome loveliness — 
 themselves for long slandered, and 
 reckoned by ignorant crowds as vile 
 ones, as they went in and out amid 
 scenes of squalor and scents unutterable 
 ' — winning at last the love of whole 
 
riMlnby^ \\W. A. Cornalrj. 
 
 MATERIAL FOR WOMEn’s WORK. 
 
 G-roap at the David Hill Memorial Girls’ Boarding-school, Hanyang. 
 
 p. 108 ] 
 
Protestant Missions in China 109 
 
 neighbourhoods, that so they might 
 win the women and girls for Christ. 
 
 To-day there is a Christian community Statistics, 
 of 214,546 baptised converts. The num- 
 bers may seem small as compared with 
 the total population, but when the 
 tremendous difficulties are taken into 
 account it will be recognised that there 
 is cause for encouragement. So great 
 has been the opposition that Dr. Milne 
 ( 1813 - 22 ) predicted that a century would 
 be required to build up a Church of a 
 thousand converts. Concerning this 
 statement. Dr. John R. Mott says : ‘‘At 
 the end of the first 35 years of missionary 
 work in China it seemed as if Dr. Milne’s 
 prophecy would not be fulfilled, for there 
 were but six converts to Christianity. . . . 
 
 Even twenty years later . . . there were 
 only 50 Protestant Christian communi- 
 cants.” Finally, there are to-day 
 12,082 Chinese workers, the “ right- 
 hand men ” of the missionaries, or 
 else trusty helpers in the women’s 
 work — as ordained pastors, evangelists, 
 hospital assistants, colporteurs, and 
 Biblewomen. And again, those unpaid, 
 unofficial Christians, not enumerated 
 
no The Call of Cathay 
 
 on any statistical tables, who have been 
 living the prayer-life, and introducing 
 a new sweetness into China’s squalor 
 of motive and deed. Not unfruitful 
 has been the century starting with 
 Morrison. But before it ended a New 
 China, with problems of its own, had 
 begun to be. 
 
Protestant Missions in China 1 1 1 
 
 THE FIRST CENTURY OF PROTESTANT 
 MISSIONS IN CHINA 
 
 The following table will serve to fix the main features of the 
 century in the mind : 
 
 The Period of Preparation (1807-42) 
 
 Began with Morrison’s arrival, China was a fast-closed 
 land ; missionary work was only possible in Canton and the 
 Portuguese colony of Macao, and was subject to severe restric- 
 tions in both places. Under edicts of 1724 and 1744, Christianity 
 was an illegal religion and conversion was forbidden on pain 
 of death. These edicts were withdrawn in 1845, The first 
 “ opium war” in 1840 brought the period to a close. 
 
 The Period of the Ports (1842-60), 
 
 At the conclusion of the war, the Treaty of Nanking (1842) 
 gave Hong Kong to England and opened five ports (Canton, 
 Amoy, Foochow, Ningpo, and Shanghai) to foreign trade 
 and residence. Missionaries speedily occupied the new ground. 
 About seventeen societies began work in addition to those 
 already in the field. The work was all on the sea-board and 
 practically limited to the “ Five Ports,” A group of treaties, 
 following the “ Arrow War” of 1856-8, closed this period. 
 
 The Period of Penetration (1860-77). 
 
 The treaties of 1858-61 opened the ports of Newchwang, 
 Chefoo, Swatow, Kiungchow, Taiwan, Tamsui, Tientsin, 
 Chinkiang, Kiukiang, and Hankow. The last three ports 
 being on the Yangtse, it became possible for missionaries to reach 
 the interior. Hankow was at once occupied by the L.M.S. 
 (1861), and by the W.M.M.S. the following year. At that time 
 there were about 115 missionaries in all China. In 1866 there 
 were 17 mission stations — all along the coast with the exception 
 of Hankow ; the 11 inland provinces were untouched. The 
 China Inland Mission was formed at this time by Hudson 
 Taylor. The first C.I.M. party landed at Shanghai, September 
 30, 1866. Gradually they worked into the interior. Long 
 tours of investigation were taken in all directions, crossing 
 China from side to side. In this way province after province 
 was opened — Anhwei and Kiangsi in 1869 ; Honan in 1875 ; 
 Shansi, Shensi, and Kansu in 1876 ; Szchwan, Yunnan, and 
 Kweichow in 1877. In 1877 the first Missionary Conference 
 was held in Shanghai, and it was estimated that the total 
 number of workers then in the field was 473, representing 29 
 •societies. The number of converts was 13,035. 
 
I 12 
 
 The Call of Cathay 
 
 The Period of Progress (1878-99) . 
 
 The Shanghai Conference of 1877 roused much interest in 
 China, and during the eighties thirteen new societies entered 
 the field. The work developed everywhere, and medical, 
 educational, literary, and philanthropic agencies were extended. 
 In some parts there were occasional anti-foreign riots in which 
 lives were lost from time to time. These were usually of 
 local character. In the nineties there were more serious dis- 
 turbances in mid-China, resulting from a series of tracts and 
 placards of inflammatory nature issued by the literati of Hunan. 
 The entire Yangtse Valley was disturbed, mission stations were 
 attacked and burned, missionaries and converts were murdered. 
 After the war between China and Japan (1894-5) the reform 
 movement gained ground, but the reactionaries triumphed, 
 and by the coup d’etat of 1898 the Emperor was compelled to 
 resign the actual control of the empire to the Empress Dowager. 
 
 The Period of Persecution and Establishment (1900-1907). 
 
 The grabbing of Chinese territory by various Foreign 
 Powers (1895-8) roused the national feeling to fury, and on 
 the last day of 1899 the storm burst. Events moved with alarm- 
 ing rapidity, and by the middle of May the Boxer rising had 
 assumed an alarming character. June, July, and August were 
 months never to be forgotten. The land was deluged with 
 blood. It was one last attempt to expel everything foreign. 
 It was futile. It became clear to all that Christianity was too 
 deeply rooted in Chinese soil to be expelled. From that time 
 expansion and consolidation have been general. The Shanghai 
 Conference of 1907 closed the century. 
 
 The above is abbreviated (in the main) from the Introduction 
 to Mr. Marshall Broomhall’s Chinese Empire. 
 
Protestant Missions in China 1 1 3 
 
 ASSIGNMENTS FOR STUDY CIRCLES 
 
 STUDY PROBLEM. — To understand the difficulty 
 of evangelising China. 
 
 1. What are the landmarks of the missionary 
 history of last century ? 
 
 2. What were the difficulties missionaries had to 
 face ? 
 
 3. To what extent was Chma open to (1) Dr. Milne 
 in 1813, (2) Hudson Taylor in 1856, (3) Griffith 
 John in 1861 ? 
 
 4. What has been the attitude of the several 
 classes of Chinese to Christianity ? 
 
 5. Make a list of what you conceive to be the 
 reasons for the determined opposition that has been 
 encountered ? 
 
 6. How far do you consider the progress of the 
 century satisfactory ? 
 
 REFERENCES FOR FURTHER STUDY 
 
 Smith, A. ^.—The Uplift of China (pages 135-231). 
 Broomhall, M. — The Chinese Empire (especially the 
 Introduction). 
 
 Morrison, E. — Memoirs of Robert Morrison (2 vols.). 
 Townsend, W. J. — Robert Morrison. 
 
 Guinness, G. — Story of the China Inland Mission 
 (2 vols.). 
 
 Thompson, W. — Gri-ffith John. 
 
 Forsyth, R. — The China Martyrs of 1900. 
 
 Edwards, E. H. — Fire and Sword in Shansi. 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 WESLEYAN METHODIST MISSIONS IN 
 SOUTH CHINA 
 
 By the Rev. S. G. Tope 
 
 The provinces of Kwangtung and 
 Kwangsi lie partly within the Tropics, 
 the latitude of Canton being “ nearly 
 parallel with that of Havana, Muscat, 
 and Calcutta.’* The united extent of 
 these provinces is greater than the com- 
 bined area of the British Isles, Belgium, 
 Holland, and Denmark — a great expanse 
 of 177,000 square miles, diversified by 
 mountain and plain, a prodigality of 
 watercourses, and large tracts of fertile 
 soil. There is a total population of 
 more than 37,000,000, of which by far 
 the major portion is to be found in the 
 cities, towns, and villages of south and 
 east Kwangtung. While sharing with 
 all China in one form of the written 
 
rhoto'ly'l 
 
 [ 7 ?. TTulchinson, 
 
 A WAYSIDE TEA-HOUSE, KWANGTUNG. 
 
 Photo hxj] 
 r. U4] 
 
 [ 7 ? Uukhimon, 
 
 RAPIDS NEAR YINGTOCK, KWANGTUNG. 
 
•X 
 
 
 
 
 / 
 
 ■i 
 
 ■■■rs 
 
 :V 
 
 ' ■ ■ . i- 
 
 
 
 ;/*v. 
 
 A'^J' 
 
Wesleyan Missions in South China 1 15 
 
 language, there is no speech common to 
 the people of this region ; several dia- 
 lects are in use, Cantonese being the 
 most widely serviceable. The inhabi- 
 tants are of a sturdy, independent spirit, 
 and under provocation are quick to 
 display scorn for foreigners ; but they 
 are affable and hospitable towards 
 foreign acquaintances. It is doubtless 
 true to describe the vast majority as 
 law-abiding and peace-loving ; but be 
 the fault where it may, there is much 
 lawlessness. The erstwhile free rovers 
 of the sea and of the tidal channels in 
 the Canton delta have been suppressed ; 
 but piracy on the river-ways, brigand- 
 age in the countryside, kidnapping and 
 blackmailing, are all common occur- 
 rences in the two provinces. Family 
 or clan feuds are numerous, and the 
 fights entailed are sometimes utterly 
 ruthless in character. Withal trade and 
 agriculture flourish, commerce thrives, 
 wealth accumulates. The people gen- 
 erally are industrious, economical, 
 practical ; they esteem politeness and 
 respond to it, have a deep respect for 
 learning, are not lacking in first-rate 
 
Mission Foot' 
 hold. 
 
 1 1 6 The Call of Cathay 
 
 mental capacity, and are not insensible 
 to the call of high ideals. But towns- 
 men and villagers alike worship an- 
 cestors, bow down to images, are in 
 bondage to baneful superstitions, 
 lightly yield to many vices, and 
 suffer many sorrows. Possessing in the 
 writings of their sages what may be 
 fittingly termed an Old Testament, 
 their eyes are not yet opened to the 
 supreme worth of the world’s New 
 Testament ; heirs of sterling precepts 
 and principles bequeathed in their 
 classics, they lack the richer heritage 
 of the Gospel ; familiar with ethical 
 instruction, they are strangers to that 
 mighty moral dynamic — “ the salvation 
 which is in Christ Jesus.” 
 
 It was to assist in bringing the tidings 
 of the grace of God to the Chinese that 
 the Wesleyan Methodist Missionary 
 Society, in the year 1852, appointed 
 George Piercy,^ Josiah Cox, and W. R. 
 Beach as their first missionaries to 
 
 1 Who went to China as an independent worker in 
 1851, and started the Canton Mission under conditions 
 of much heroism. He is mentioned in Cassell’s 
 Heroes of Britain. 
 
GEORGE PIERCY. JOSIAH COX. 
 
 Founded the Wesleyan Canton Mission, 1851. Reached China, 1852. Founded the W.M.S, Mid-Cliina. 
 
 Retired, 1882. Mission, 18G3. Retired, 1875. 
 

 J 
 
 
 r.. 
 
Wesleyan Missions in South China 117 
 
 Canton, largest of all the cities in the Canton District, 
 empire. Despite many obstacles, a 
 firm foothold was secured, and, as oppor- 
 tunity and means were forthcoming, the 
 number of centres of mission activity 
 steadily increased. In the early days 
 not only were country places difficult of 
 access, but even Canton city was closed 
 to foreigners. Missionaries resided outside 
 the walls, and were allowed no glimpse 
 of the interior except through gateways 
 while distributing tracts to the people 
 as they went in and out. Ten years 
 later property had been secured within 
 the city itself, as well as in the south 
 and west suburbs. At Hong Kong rooms 
 were rented in 1862. In the preceding 
 year a preaching-place was obtained 
 at Fatshan, but the first mission house 
 there was not built until 1875. A 
 chapel was secured at Sunwui in 1871 ; 
 
 Shiuchow was occupied in 1877, and 
 Wuchow (Kwangsi) in 1897. The mis- 
 sion now carries on work in thirty-eight 
 places, which fall into three main 
 groups — one in south and one in north 
 Kwantung, with a third group situated 
 in eastern Kwangsi. In the British 
 
ii8 The Call of Cathay 
 
 colony of Hong Kong the W.M.M.S. has 
 a prosperous English cause, in addition 
 to a mission to the Chinese ; elsewhere 
 the work is conducted entirely in one 
 or other of the South China dialects. 
 
 STATIONS. 
 
 Evangelism. Evangelism means dissemination of 
 the Gospel. From the point of view of 
 missions, it is an endeavour so to diffuse 
 a knowledge of the Gospel among the 
 peoples, tribes, and nations of the 
 
Wesleyan Missions in South China 1 19 
 
 earth that the life of all shall be raised 
 to the level of Christian righteousness, 
 peace, and joy. All missionary depart- 
 ments, agencies, institutions, exist pri- 
 marily for this work. It is this task 
 which constitutes the supreme obliga- 
 tion of the Churches, and forms for every 
 Christian an essential part of obedience 
 to Christ. 
 
 From the establishment of the mission, Means, 
 preaching has held a prominent place 
 among the methods employed ; teaching, 
 also, dates from the commencement of 
 operations ; healing by qualified physi- 
 cians began at a much later date. These 
 three represent our chief activities in 
 this District for the propagation of 
 Christianity. There are now in regular 
 use for the purposes of evangelism 
 forty pulpits, eighteen schools, and two 
 hospitals. Lantern lectures, special 
 services, distribution of books and 
 tracts, also have a place. In the earlier 
 years several commentaries, text-books, 
 and other volumes of permanent useful- 
 ness were written and published in 
 Chinese. 
 
 In every part of the District premises Preaching-halls. 
 
120 
 
 The Call of Cathay 
 
 have been leased, bought, or built to 
 serve as meeting-plaees for Christians, 
 and to provide for “ street preaching ” 
 where practicable. It should be here 
 mentioned that in China ‘‘ street 
 preaching services ” are held, not in 
 the street after the style of an English 
 open-air service, but in some chapel, 
 hall, or other building opening on to 
 the street. During the preaching the 
 hall doors are kept open, and people 
 come and go at will ; the congregation, 
 like an open-air assembly, changing 
 according to the pleasure of the moving 
 crowd. By exposition of Scripture, or 
 by popular discourse, the Word of Life 
 is proclaimed, and year by year many 
 thousands thus have the Gospel preached 
 unto them. In these halls much good 
 seed is sown, and a wide interest in 
 Christianity is awakened. 
 
 Medical Work. Medical work is an important feature 
 of our Canton District. We have two 
 well- equipped hospitals, and a third is 
 projected. Our Medical Mission began 
 in 1881, when the Rev. Charles Wenyon, 
 M.D., rented a Chinese warehouse in 
 Fatshan. The work developed rapidly, 
 
TTioto Sy] [//. E. Andcrsort, 
 
 THE FRONT BLOCK OF WUCHOW HOSPITAL. 
 
 PB. WEBB ANDERSON AND STUDENTS AT FATSHAN. 
 
 [p- 181 
 
Wesleyan Missions in South China 12 1 
 
 and a hospital was built in due course. 
 In recent years a large new institution 
 has been under construction, and as 
 soon as it is complete the old one will 
 be given up, a portion only being 
 retained as a city dispensary. This 
 new and modern hospital, built almost 
 entirely from fees received from Chinese 
 sources, will accommodate about 120 
 in-patients. A striking feature of the 
 Fatshan medical work is that for some 
 years it has had so large an income 
 from fees as to be entirely self-sup- 
 porting. 
 
 The medical work in Wuchow, in the 
 Kwangsi Province, was commenced in 
 1897 by the late Dr. Roderick Mac- 
 donald, and remained under his care 
 until he met his death at the hands of 
 pirates in 1906. The first dispensary 
 was a Chinese house-boat, anchored 
 among the crowded river population. 
 The present hospital was opened in 
 1904, and a new Women’s Hospital 
 last year. Medical work in the Kwangsi 
 Province is in a very backward con- 
 dition. Ours was the pioneer hospital, 
 and even now there is only one other 
 
122 
 
 The Call of Cathay 
 
 hospital and one other dispensary 
 in the whole province. In connection 
 with our hospital we have a home 
 for lepers maintained by the Mission 
 to Lepers in the East. The leper in- 
 mates are under periodic supervision, 
 and receive Christian instruction, to- 
 gether with such services as medical 
 skill can provide for the amelioration 
 of their condition. 
 
 In 1886 a Chinese worker, who had 
 received three years’ training from Dr. 
 Wenyon at Fatshan, opened a dispen- 
 sary at Shiuchow on the North River. 
 Two years later Dr. Macdonald was 
 appointed, and the work speedily in- 
 creased, the number of consultations 
 being doubled during his first year. 
 After considerable difficulty, a site for 
 a dispensary and hospital was obtained 
 in October 1890 ; but in digging the 
 foundations a number of skeletons were 
 discovered. The opportunity thus 
 afforded was at once seized by our 
 opponents, who carried these bones 
 through the streets of the city as 
 evidence that the graves of their an- 
 cestors were being desecrated. As a 
 

Wesleyan Missions in South China 123 
 
 result the lives of the missionaries were 
 in great peril. Order was ultimately 
 restored, but the work was stopped by 
 order of the district magistrate, who 
 declared that a new site must be found. 
 This was done, but again opposition 
 was aroused ; and as Dr. Macdonald was 
 unable to obtain full and undisputed 
 possession of the land, building opera- 
 tions were never commenced. Ulti- 
 mately the doctor was called to supply 
 at Fatshan, and was not able to 
 return to Shiuchow to carry out his 
 long-cherished scheme. After an inter- 
 val of seventeen years an opportunity 
 presented itself in 1908 to recommence 
 medical work in this town, and a doctor 
 was sent, but there was another inter- 
 ruption in the summer of 1909, and 
 the work is again at a standstill. 
 
 Beyond the work of actual healing, 
 our doctors give attention to the train- 
 ing of Chinese helpers in Western 
 medicine and surgery. The importance 
 of this work is self-evident. 
 
 It has not been found possible to 
 develop educational work on a similar 
 scale. We have no institution in the 
 
Schools, 
 
 Influence of 
 Medical and 
 Educational 
 Work. 
 
 124 The Call of Cathay 
 
 District for higher education, and the 
 provision afforded by our elementary 
 schools is quite inadequate, especially 
 for boys and young men. The Women’s 
 Auxiliary maintains a Girls’ Boarding- 
 school in Canton. 
 
 The importance of medical and edu- 
 cational mission agencies can scarcely 
 be overrated ; they must be reckoned 
 not as auxiliary, but as main forces. 
 Granted always that the missionary’s 
 talents are truly consecrated to soul- 
 winning, expressly engaged to lead 
 Chinese to Christ, their potency here 
 for the spread of Christianity will be 
 as great in the consulting-room and at 
 the desk as in the pulpit. There is 
 special value in medical work from the 
 humanitarian point of view ; there is 
 special value in educational work in 
 relation to the supply of leaders for the 
 Chinese Church and the nation. But 
 apart from these distinctive features, 
 there are considerations which show 
 that hospitals and schools (boarding- 
 schools especially) are not inferior to 
 preaching-halls as evangelising centres. 
 These institutions inspire confidence. 
 
Wesleyan Missions in South China 125 
 
 — Christian and non- Christian meet 
 there on a plane of easy intercourse 
 and mutual respect ; they provide a 
 prolonged opportunity for study of the 
 Gospel ; and through their instrumen- 
 tality access is more readily obtained 
 to the classes whose influence is most 
 powerful in the land. These things, of 
 such manifest help, show that the two 
 agencies can rightly claim to be of 
 front-rank importance among means for 
 dissemination of the Gospel. Further, 
 they have a strong basis of appeal. 
 Their credentials are plainly readable, 
 their utility is undeniable, they meet 
 acknowledged needs, and are popular 
 by virtue of a considerable demand for 
 them ; in short, the people recognise 
 their worth, seek their assistance, and 
 in part or in full are willing to pay for 
 their benefits. 
 
 The deservedly honourable place 
 which the pulpit has held and still holds 
 in British Methodism accounts to some 
 extent for the slow growth of conviction 
 as to the equal worth of school and of 
 hospital for evangelism in the Far East. 
 The Wesleyan Church has enlisted but 
 
Touring, 
 
 Women's Work, 
 
 126 The Call of Cathay 
 
 a small number of physicians and tutors 
 for service in the Chinese field. 
 
 Beyond the visitation of out-stations, 
 touring for evangelistic purposes is ex- 
 tremely difficult in this District, For- 
 eigners are virtually shut out from 
 many large thriving villages near Canton 
 and Fatshan, Even physicians are 
 not always welcomed with cordiality. 
 Villages here are the homesteads of 
 the patriarchal family or the clan, and 
 unless invited a stranger’s visit is by 
 many resented as an intrusion. In 
 the sparsely populated mountainous 
 region the animus is not quite so strong ; 
 but even where chapel premises have 
 been secured, the missionary’s first visit 
 has in more than one instance brought 
 persecution upon the group of Christians 
 there. 
 
 The ladies of the Women’s Auxiliary 
 and the wives of missionaries co-operate 
 with the Biblewomen and schoolmis- 
 tresses in order that the women and 
 girls of these provinces may become 
 partakers of the light, the joy, the 
 love which the Gospel brings. This 
 work very specially affects the future 
 
OHARACTERrSTIC RIVER-BANK SCENE IN SUMMER. 
 
Wesleyan Missions in South China 127 
 
 of home-life among the Chinese ; it 
 gives promise of a time when in this 
 land it will be the eommon lot of 
 the ehild to enjoy the unspeakable 
 blessing of a Christian mother’s eare. 
 
 The girls’ and women’s boarding-school 
 in Canton is one of the most valuable 
 institutions of this District ; there is 
 a small establishment of the same kind 
 at Wuchow, and more than half the 
 number of elementary schools are for 
 girls. 
 
 The community of believers, created The Christian 
 through the prayerful endeavours, past 
 and present, of the mission, is one which 
 justly calls for praise to God. Its mem- 
 bers are “ our glory and our joy.” 
 
 Most of them are Christians of the first 
 generation. They have been emanci- 
 pated from errors and fears — the op- 
 pressive bonds of superstition and 
 idolatry ; and they have also been in- 
 troduced to that new spiritual life 
 through faith in Christ whose fruitage 
 is slowly ripening in Western Christen- 
 dom. (Gal. V. 22 , 23 ; Matt. xxii. 
 
 37 - 40 .) Measured by the New Testa- 
 ment ideal, by Christianity in its per- 
 
128 
 
 The Call of Cathay 
 
 feet expression, it may be prudent to 
 describe them as only in process of 
 becoming Christian, as saints in the 
 making. Can more be said of the bulk 
 of believers anywhere ? The Chinese 
 Christian community, like those in 
 other lands, contains persons of different 
 statures, intellectual and spiritual ; 
 there are degrees of attainment in know- 
 ledge, grace, consecration ; some are 
 weak, some strong. Not every one 
 among them has been called upon for 
 Christ’s sake to endure robbery of crops 
 and agricultural stock-in-trade, to be 
 burnt out of house and home, to be 
 beaten in public, to be boycotted or to 
 be put to personal torture ; some, how- 
 ever, have thus endured. All do not 
 exhibit the contentment of an old 
 brother who said that the one and only 
 remaining trouble in life to him was 
 inability, through feebleness of voice, 
 to shout aloud the praises of God ; all 
 do not build a room on the housetop for 
 private prayer ; all do not abandon 
 business in order to preach the Gospel 
 at their own charges ; but a few have 
 so done. Allowing for an Ananias, a 
 
 
Photo ly] [R. TIutcMnson. 
 
 WESLEYAN CHAPEL AT THE UPPER CRAIGS, NORTH KWANGTUNG. 
 
 Photo hy] {R. Hutchinson. 
 
 GROUP OF CHRISTIANS AT LOK CHENG CHURCH, NORTH KWANGTUNG. 
 
 [p. 129 
 
Wesleyan Missions in South China 129 
 
 Demas, or other type of faulty member, 
 the encouraging fact remains that in a 
 dark environment there is a Chinese 
 community which stands firmly and 
 worthily for the Christian faith and life 
 and hope. 
 
 This community is divided into thirty- 
 nine Societies or local Churches. Their 
 organisation is modelled after the 
 English Methodist type. Critically ex- 
 amined, however, this is still more an 
 aim than an achievement, and when 
 the Chinese take the moulding of the 
 constitution into their own hands, some 
 loving labour by missionaries in this 
 direction will no doubt be lost. The 
 ultimately decisive factors in church 
 organisation are the preferences of native 
 Christians, the peculiarities of local 
 conditions, and, so far as applicable, the 
 usages of the country. The Church in 
 China is a young living organism, and 
 ought to be allowed full scope for natural 
 development. As an illustration of 
 what is desirable here, one may take 
 the evolution of the Methodist Church 
 in England, where the whole system 
 arose, as Wesley says, “ without any 
 
 5 
 
 Local Churches 
 
130 The Call of Cathay 
 
 previous design or plan at all . . . just 
 as the occasion offered . . . following 
 only common sense and Scripture.” ^ 
 
 Support and Missionary work in the formation of 
 
 Control. 1 1 1 
 
 Churches may be pronounced a success 
 wherever a local Society undertakes the 
 burden of its own support and govern- 
 ment. No Church can be regarded as 
 properly established so long as it leans 
 upon foreign props of any kind whatever. 
 A truly indigenous Church is one whose 
 maintenance and control are self-pro- 
 vided, one whose stability and growth 
 are independent of adventitious helps, 
 financial or official. The local Churches 
 of this District have made some progress 
 towards self-support. In Canton it is 
 practically attained, and the same may 
 be said of the two organised Societies in 
 Fatshan ; in the Mong Fu Kong Circuit 
 as in that of Sunwui there is a pastor 
 maintained partly by local subscriptions 
 and partly by grant-in-aid from a 
 Chinese connexional fund ; and in one 
 or two other places self-support is within 
 sight. In the matter of government 
 the limit of attainment possible under 
 
 1 New Hist. Meth.f vol. i. p. 228. 
 
Wesleyan Missions in South China 13 1 
 
 existing conditions has probably been 
 reached in most places. One thing 
 may be taken as a sign of the times : 
 the strong patriotic sentiment of 
 modern days is felt by the Christians 
 and the non- Christians alike. “ China 
 for the Chinese ” is a popular maxim, 
 whose currency in the south slightly 
 disturbs the harmony of relations be- 
 tween missionaries and converts, and 
 affects the control of local Churches. 
 
 Foreign rule is felt by a few stalwarts 
 to be objectionable, even in ecclesias- 
 tical affairs. Yet, on the whole, this 
 is really an excellent feature in the 
 situation, essential to the existence of 
 a robust independent Chinese Church. 
 
 Strictly speaking, a missionary is an The Pastorate, 
 ambassador to non- Christians ; a mes- 
 senger not so much to believers as to 
 unbelievers. At the same time it is 
 obvious to any worker on the field 
 that the newly baptised are in need 
 of further instruction, and that it is 
 incumbent upon him to provide it. It 
 often happens, therefore, that where a 
 missionary is in residential proximity, 
 the local Church comes to depend 
 
132 The Call of Cathay 
 
 upon him for regular ministration, and 
 the missionary assumes ehureh office 
 and rule. At the out-stations the 
 Societies are placed under the care of 
 foreign-paid catechists, and at intervals 
 are visited by missionaries. The prob- 
 lem is how to furnish an efficient Chinese 
 pastorate for the ever-increasing number 
 of societies, scattered over a very wide 
 area. To ordain Chinese to the ministry 
 and to support them by foreign funds 
 is to fail in a most material particular. 
 English Methodism to-day is a highly 
 complex organisation, and it is con- 
 ceivable that in China it might be well 
 to revert to the practice of primitive 
 times ; to follow, for instance, what 
 obtained in the Church of the second 
 century of the Christian era, when “ the 
 officials were separated by no sharp 
 line from the people by whom they were 
 chosen, and with whom they had to 
 act in concert. They were not a pro- 
 fessional class, but men of the world 
 who practised worldly trades such as 
 those of physicians, lawyers, farmers, 
 silversmiths, or small shopkeepers.” ^ 
 
 1 Gwatkin, Early Church Hist., vol. i. p. 230. 
 
Wesleyan Missions in South China 133 
 
 Much attention has been given to Canton 
 the education of Chinese co-workers, i^sSmion!^ 
 and the present Theological Institution 
 in Canton has an average of twenty 
 men in training each year. The In- 
 stitution was opened in 1890 to meet a 
 need long felt by many pastors, evan- 
 gelists, and teachers for our work. Be- 
 sides the resident students undergoing 
 a full course of training, local preachers 
 and office-bearers in the Chinese Church 
 are invited to come to the Institution 
 for Bible study and training in Christian 
 service. In 1906 the curriculum was 
 altered to include a wider range of 
 subjects, and so keep abreast of the 
 modern educational advance in China. 
 
 The services of Chinese agents are indis- 
 pensable, and most praiseworthy ; it 
 is chiefly upon their efforts that the 
 evangelism of China must depend. 
 
 The public means of grace are brought Edification of 
 within reach of the members. Assembly Church?^^^ 
 for worship on the Sabbath is customary 
 in all places which the mission has oc- 
 cupied, and there are meetings during 
 the week for prayer, Bible-study, or 
 testimony. The Scriptures are read and 
 
Activities of 
 the Chinese 
 Church, 
 
 134 The Call of Cathay 
 
 expounded, though not always by trained 
 workers. The practice of private prayer 
 and family worship is inculcated. Some 
 of the Christians display a remarkable 
 gift for extemporaneous prayer, though 
 the majority perhaps rather resemble 
 the Chinese student who, after a few 
 trembling utterances, concluded with the 
 humble admission : “I know no more. 
 Forgive. Amen.” Conventions for the 
 deepening of the spiritual life are held 
 occasionally. As means for edification 
 they are appreciated and fruitful. 
 
 It is impossible to gauge accurately 
 the amount of work for Christ which is 
 done by the members. Some hold 
 week- evening meetings in their homes 
 for social prayer, or for evangelistic 
 purposes, neighbours who are inquirers 
 being invited to attend. There are 
 voluntary church officers whose help is 
 regularly given, and there is evidence 
 of informal, unostentatious service by 
 others of the community. They care 
 for the poor, and contribute to the 
 usual fund. In Fatshan as well as in 
 Canton a home of moderate size has 
 been provided, where a few aged and 
 
Wesleyan Missions in South China 135 
 
 needy members are supported by the 
 local Church. It is certain that when 
 one or two existing disabilities have 
 been removed more initiative and 
 enterprise will be displayed for the ex- 
 tension of the Kingdom of God in these 
 provinces. Christian communities in 
 China are not free to propagate their 
 new faith except under the auspices of 
 the foreign missionary. In recent years 
 some of the Christians have petitioned 
 Chinese officials of high rank for greater 
 liberty, but without success. Chris- 
 tianity is permitted a wide toleration, 
 but not full freedom ; what legal right 
 the Chinese have to become Christian 
 is secured to thern by foreign treaties, 
 not by unconstrained charter from the 
 Chinese Government. 
 
 Our Canton District has a little over W.M.M.S. 
 2,000 adults (Chinese) in full church 
 membership, including 35 local preach- 
 ers, 24 class-leaders, and 33 stewards. 
 
 These are the tabulated returns for the 
 year 1909. They must not be taken 
 as indicating a uniformly high standard 
 of excellence among the members, or an 
 equal fitness and devotion among the 
 
The Non- 
 
 Christian 
 
 Multitude. 
 
 136 The Call of Cathay 
 
 workers ; and they only imperfectly 
 reveal the actual progress of Christianity 
 among the masses. But the potential 
 worth of such a company of believers 
 in this land is incalculably great. 
 
 Reports from the mission field are 
 usually concerned with church increase 
 and the narration of incidents which 
 appeal to the imagination and the heart. 
 The interest of many supporters is based 
 upon what is dramatic, adventurous, 
 thrilling, marvellous in the missionary 
 story. One consequence is that 
 achievements on the foreign field are 
 apt to be thrown out of true perspective, 
 things exceptional and things typical 
 get confounded, and the triumph of 
 Christianity is by some supposed to be 
 on the point of completion when in fact 
 it has scarcely begun. It has to be kept 
 in mind that the soul of a missionary 
 is prophetic ; in a single seed he can see 
 a great harvest, in one believer a con- 
 verted nation. Not for that is he to 
 be discredited. Even as his Lord in 
 the prescient utterance, “ I beheld 
 Satan fallen as lightning from heaven,” 
 so the missionary beholds final victory 
 
Wesleyan Missions in South China 137 
 
 from the very outset of the eam- 
 paign. 
 
 To learn what is the aetual state of 
 affairs here, one must eonsider not the 
 Christian eommunity only, but also 
 their environment, and gain a elear idea 
 of what remains to be done among the 
 non-Christian multitude. Some few 
 instances have been known in South 
 China of persons zealous for bringing in 
 the sheaves who, finding that the sickle 
 was not in extensive demand, promptly 
 and in high dudgeon sailed for home, 
 declaring that they had been misled 
 into believing that this field was “ white 
 unto harvest.” It is to be hoped that 
 most candidates for service in the Orient 
 are better informed. To any disin- 
 terested spectator it is plain that within 
 the limits of the Canton District there 
 is not an eager desire on the part of the 
 people to embrace Christianity. The 
 masses are not crying out for the Gospel, 
 and visible tokens of surrender to Christ 
 are relatively few. Look at the great 
 mart of Fatshan. So far as appearances 
 portend, this wealthy, busy centre is not 
 near to even nominal acceptance of “ the 
 
 5 * 
 
13 ^ The Call of Cathay 
 
 word of this salvation.” Out of half a 
 million people there are probably not 
 more than five hundred adult members 
 in the different Churches. Incense to 
 idols still ascends from shrines in house, 
 shop, street, and temple ; costly pro- 
 cessions are held in honour of gods and 
 goddesses of wood and stone ; births, 
 marriages, funerals call for Buddhist, 
 Taoist, or other non- Christian rites ; 
 and all life’s affairs are held in re- 
 lentless grip by superstition in some 
 form. This is characteristic of most 
 parts of Kwangtung and Kwangsi. 
 Nothing like a mass movement towards 
 Christianity has yet occurred, and tested 
 by purely numerical results progress is 
 slow. 
 
 Cheering Signs. Notwithstanding this, there are signs 
 that the emancipating power of Christian 
 truth is being felt by the people. 
 Much has rightly been ascribed to the 
 impact of Western civilisation, though 
 in this connection it should not be for- 
 gotten that humane progress in the West 
 is mainly a product of Christian prin- 
 ciples and ideals. Missionary activity, 
 however, is entitled to a chief place 
 
Wesleyan Missions in South China 139 
 
 among factors which make for progress in 
 China ; and there is reason for affirming 
 that the vitalising influences of Chris- 
 tianity are not limited to the professedly 
 Christian community. (1) Efforts for 
 social and moral reform, in which 
 church members and non- Christians 
 join, are noteworthy. By the formation 
 of societies, processions in the streets, 
 distribution of literature, public meet- 
 ings, and by the vernacular Press, a 
 crusade is being undertaken against 
 opium- smoking, foot-binding, domestic 
 slavery, gambling, and other abuses. 
 Although in expression fitful rather 
 than persistent, there is the growth of 
 a public spirit making for righteousness, 
 which owes much to the stimulus of 
 the Gospel. (2) Idolatry, so firmly 
 entrenched in the south, is not wholly 
 unaffected. In recent years Canton has 
 witnessed the destruction of a great many 
 idols, the conversion of a few temples 
 into schools, and the assessment of 
 temple revenues to meet the cost of 
 modern education. Of Lungchow, in 
 Kwangsi, it is stated that only one is 
 left out of a large number of temples, 
 
140 The Call of Cathay 
 
 all the others having been either rased 
 to the ground or turned into sehools. 
 Last year (1909) two temples in the 
 Canton delta region were visited by 
 a magistrate, under whose orders the 
 images were dragged into the open, 
 beheaded and broken in pieces. Inci- 
 dents might be given from other parts 
 of these provinces ; and while one must 
 not infer that there is any popular re- 
 volt against idolatry, these things cer- 
 tainly do reveal a considerable decadence 
 of faith in idol worship. (3) One other 
 sign deserves mention, viz. the counten- 
 ance which is openly given to mission 
 college and hospital work by the pro- 
 vincial officials. In Canton certain 
 annual functions of the larger mission 
 institutions are attended by the civic 
 authorities in person or by proxy. In 
 1907 the celebration of the Morrison 
 centenary was an encouraging instance 
 of Chinese public appreciation of Chris- 
 tian missions. That expressions of 
 goodwill by the governing classes are 
 not more frequent, is attributable largely 
 to lack of such equipment on mission 
 stations as would give suitable oppor- 
 
p. 140] 
 
 THE LATE EMPRESS-DOWAGEK OF CHINA 
 
Wesleyan Missions in South China 14 1 
 
 tunity for cultivation of cordial re- 
 lations. 
 
 A few of the things which seriously Obstacles 
 impede the spread of Christianity may ^^^s^fess. 
 be summarised. (1) The suspicion that 
 missions have ulterior designs of a 
 political nature has not yet passed away. 
 
 (2) Many still imagine that to accept 
 the Gospel one must join a “ foreign ” 
 Church. Nothing is more common than 
 to hear critics speak slightingly of the 
 faith as “ foreign religion,” and converts 
 are often stigmatised as unpatriotic. (3) 
 Opposition of the Confucian School. 
 Chinese scholars do not see that the 
 Gospel will “ fulfil ” the ethics of their 
 classics, any more than the scribes and 
 Pharisees of Judaea saw that it fulfilled 
 the Law. They strongly object to a 
 substitution of the New Testament 
 criterion for religion and morals. 
 
 It was in the earlier period of the Troubled 
 Taiping Rebellion that the W.M.M.S. 
 entered upon its task. From that date 
 onwards there have been only brief ex- 
 periences of really peaceful times. 
 
 Work has been hindered repeatedly by 
 disorder or disaster, traceable in most 
 
142 
 
 The Call of Cathay 
 
 cases to international complications, or 
 to political unrest — the wars, rebellions, 
 and outbreaks of anti-foreign hostility 
 so plentifully recorded in modern Chinese 
 history.^ Again and again a stop has 
 been put to activity, and to ensure their 
 safety missionaries have been recalled 
 to Canton, or withdrawn to Macao or 
 Hong Kong. There have been several 
 attacks upon mission property, the 
 worst being that in the Sunwui Circuit 
 in 1900, when five chapels and two 
 schools were destroyed by rioters. At 
 the same time many Chinese Christians 
 were driven from their homes, and had 
 to flee to Canton or Hong Kong for 
 refuge. Prices have been set upon the 
 lives of missionaries and catechists ; 
 some of the staff while journeying have 
 been “ held up ” by bandits and robbed. 
 In 1906 Dr. Roderick J. J. Macdonald 
 was killed by pirates on the West 
 River, while travelling by steamer from 
 Canton to Wuchow. Even in the 
 present year (1910) mutinous troops 
 in Canton, and marauding bands in 
 
 ^ The story is told at length in The W .M .M .S . in 
 China. 
 
Wesleyan Missions in South China 143 
 
 the vicinity of Wuchow, have been dis- Rate of Pro- 
 turbing factors. 
 
 The European staff has never been a 
 large one in any given year. Break- 
 down in health has frequently necessi- 
 tated retirement from the field, and for 
 a long time past continuity of the work 
 on some stations has not been adequately 
 maintained. What progress has been 
 made is due to the gracious help of our 
 God. Confronted by the surviving 
 elder brother of civilised nations, face 
 to face with an ancient, conservative, 
 exclusive people, naught but Divine 
 power could make efficient any mis- 
 sionary endeavour to break down 
 barriers to the admission of the Gospel. 
 
 It was in 1857 that the W.M.M.S. reaped 
 its first harvest, the number of converts 
 being 5 ; at the end of ten years there 
 were 23 converts ; of twenty years, 81 
 converts ; of thirty years, 260 converts ; 
 of forty years, 728 converts. Here is 
 steady improvement in the rate of 
 increase. This has continued, for 
 while it took more than forty-five years 
 to win the first thousand adult church 
 members, the twelve years ensuing have 
 
144 The Call of Cathay 
 
 added a second thousand to the mem- 
 bership roll. 
 
 Attention to the Army and Navy 
 dates back to 1859, when pastoral care 
 was given to about twenty soldiers, 
 members of Society, who were in garri- 
 son at Canton during the ‘‘ Arrow War.” 
 After the British troops withdrew from 
 this city much good work for soldiers 
 and sailors was done in Hong Kong, 
 chiefly through the devotion of earnest 
 Methodist laymen. In 1888 a Wesleyan 
 minister was appointed to Hong Kong, 
 and in 1893 a garrison church was 
 built there. Two years later “ Army 
 and Navy Rooms ” were opened, and 
 were the centre of good work until the 
 new Sailors’ and Soldiers’ Home was 
 erected in 1900. The Institution has 
 a good coffee-bar, a comfortable reading- 
 room, two billiard-tables, a meeting- 
 room, a prayer-room, and one hundred 
 beds. There are some 4,000 sailors 
 and 2,000 soldiers stationed in Hong 
 Kong, except for four or five months 
 in the hot season, when the fleet goes 
 to Japan. Those who know anything 
 about the prevalence of gaiety, drunken- 
 
Wesleyan Missions in South China 145 
 
 ness, and vice in Eastern ports will 
 understand what a boon this home is 
 to those who desire to live a pure, godly 
 life. To-day Methodism has a flourishing 
 English Church in the colony, com- 
 prising a large number of civilians in 
 addition to members from H.M. forces. 
 
 Beside the W.M.M.S., nineteen other Comrades in 
 Protestant Societies are at work in 
 South China. There is a strong feeling 
 of comradeship among most of them, 
 but as yet nothing noteworthy in the 
 shape of federation. Of these societies, 
 the L.M.S. is the senior, dating from 
 1807 ; eight others entered this region 
 earlier than the W.M.M.S., though all 
 are not located in Canton. The missions 
 are under exceptional obligation to the 
 Bible Societies for their versions of the 
 Scriptures in Chinese, both colloquial 
 and book style ; they owe much also to 
 the Religious Tract and other Societies 
 for supplies of Christian literature in 
 Chinese. 
 
 In the religious world to-day inquiry The Ruling 
 has arisen as to the aim or object which 
 should dominate missions, and guide 
 in general policy. Is it the conversion 
 
146 The Call of Cathay 
 
 of individual souls — an early view ; or 
 the expansion of one’s chosen denornina- 
 tiori—a prevalent view ; or the Chris- 
 tianisation of nations — an advocated 
 view ? Which of these is most in accord 
 with the command to preach the Gos- 
 pel to the whole creation,” to “ make 
 disciples of all the nations ” ? It is best 
 to conclude that the first and third 
 views are not to be brought into oppo- 
 sition ; and to hold that while new life 
 in Christ Jesus is a personal experience, 
 and individual souls are a true objec- 
 tive for the missionary, no effort ought 
 to be spared to commend Christianity 
 to the rulers and the people with a view 
 to accelerate general recognition of its 
 worth and authority by the nation. In 
 a broad historic sense, Christianity 
 among Western peoples has been a 
 slow process of development from the 
 nominal to the real, from form and 
 creed to life and godliness ; and 
 it is not unreasonable to assume that 
 something analogous will occur in 
 China. The second view — expansion of 
 particular denominations — ^^is not re- 
 garded as ideal by any one. The prob- 
 
Wesleyan Missions in South China 147 
 
 lems involved are the Gordian knot of 
 Protestantism, but much prayerful 
 thought is being bestowed upon the 
 subject, and the day draws nearer when 
 this knot will be successfully untied or 
 cut. Happily, it grows clearer that the 
 questions in debate properly belong 
 to the sphere of the practical intelli- 
 gence. This gives promise that diffi- 
 culties will eventually disappear, and 
 God’s army move forward in more thor- 
 ough union, for the establishment of His 
 Kingdom. Meantime, the twenty soci- 
 eties at work here will seek to augment 
 the number of disciples, now reckoned 
 to exceed 40,000 in the two provinces. 
 
 The rightfulness of the claim of the The World's 
 Christian religion for universal sway, * 
 the justification of missions to non- 
 Christian peoples, the obligation of the 
 Churches to labour unceasingly for 
 the enthronement of Christ in human 
 hearts in every clime — all are demon- 
 strable not simply from the New Testa- 
 ment, but also emphatically from the 
 world’s need. If any cry persists in 
 the world that can be called universal, 
 it is the cry for righteousness ; if there 
 
148 The Call of Cathay 
 
 be any deep-seated ungratified longing 
 common to the great masses of all 
 nations, it is the longing for peace. 
 That injustice and strife abound in 
 Southern China requires no telling. It 
 was but a few months ago that 
 seventeen maimed bodies, blackened 
 by bomb explosion, lay dead or dying 
 in a village near Fatshan, victims of 
 clan enmity ; it was but yesterday, 
 within the limits of our North River 
 Circuit, that forty lives were sacrificed 
 in a clan fight. And yet, paradoxical 
 as it may sound, both sides would 
 protest that they sue for justice, and 
 strive for amity. Not here alone, but 
 everywhere, the voice is loud which 
 calls for righteousness and peace. These 
 blessings are confessedly of Catholic 
 value; they are the natural products 
 of the Christian faith. At this hour 
 there is no place on the earth where 
 they obtain in greater measure, or abide 
 in more security, than where the spirit 
 of Jesus Christ is predominant among 
 the people. He indeed is Prince of 
 Peace. The far vision and theme of the 
 angels who sang His advent was 
 
Wesleyan Missions in South China 149 
 
 “ peace on earth.” His Gospel is a 
 Gospel of peace, though not at the price 
 of righteousness. For He also is Sun of 
 Righteousness. His light permits no 
 corruption ; the new life He gives is 
 a life unto righteousness. His great 
 purpose among men is to set up in 
 strength God’s Kingdom of righteous- 
 ness, and it is this Kingdom which men 
 are urged to “ seek first.” To the 
 Hebrew poet salvation was brought 
 nigh when to his listening ear came the 
 words, “ righteousness and peace have 
 kissed each other.” Not the one at the 
 cost of the other, not a poverty of both, 
 but the two in happy union to bless the 
 people. What vital need in twentieth- 
 century South China is more obvious 
 or clamant than this ? What but “ the 
 power of God unto salvation ” can 
 meet it ? And what summons more 
 imperative could ever come from the 
 world to impel the Churches to combine 
 with one accord for the promulgation 
 of Christianity ? 
 
150 
 
 The Call of Cathay 
 
 ASSIGNMENTS FOR STUDY CIRCLES 
 
 STUDY PROBLEM. — To consider the methods to 
 be employed in the evangelisation of China. 
 
 1. Enumerate the methods of work now employed 
 in our Canton District. Can you suggest any other 
 methods ? 
 
 2. Which would you rather be as a Chinese mis- 
 sionary — Evangelistic, Educational, Literary, Medi- 
 cal, or Philanthropic ? Give reasons. 
 
 REFERENCES FOR FURTHER STUDY 
 
 Broomhall, Marshall. — The Chinese Empire (pages 
 43-54). 
 
 Barber, W. T. A. — The Wesleyan Missionary Atlas 
 of China (1893). 
 
 Walker, F. D. — The W.M.M.S. in China. 
 Macdonald, M. — Roderick Macdonald. 
 
 Turner, J. A. — Kwang Tung. 
 
 Tatchell, W. a. — Wesleyan Medical Missions in 
 China. 
 
 W.M.M.S. — The General Report of the W .M.M.S., 
 1910. 
 
CHAPTER V 
 
 WESLEYAN METHODIST MISSIONS IN 
 HUPEH 
 
 By the Rev. G. A. Clayton 
 
 The Province of Hupeh (“ North of the The Hupeh 
 Lake ”) and its adjoining provinee 
 Hunan (“ South of the Lake ”) were 
 one under the last dynasty, being then 
 called Hukwang (“ Lake expanse ”). In 
 each case the name refers to the Tungting 
 Lake, which is the largest in China. 
 
 Hupeh has an area of 71,410 square 
 miles, so that it is larger than England 
 and Wales, and a population estimated 
 at 35 millions. The eastern portion of 
 the province constitutes a large, well- 
 watered plain. The remainder is moun- 
 tainous, some of the mountains being 
 more than 4,000 feet high. “ The plain 
 being well watered is very fertile, and 
 though in the mountains famines do 
 occur, the province is not in the same 
 
 151 
 
The Three 
 Cities. 
 
 152 The Call of Cathay 
 
 danger of depopulation as are other 
 parts of China.” Near the Hunan 
 border is situated one of China’s sacred 
 mountains, Wu-tang-shan, which is 
 dedicated to the founder of the Taoist 
 sect, and thousands of pilgrims from all 
 parts of the empire visit this shrine. 
 The Han River unites with the mighty 
 Yangtse in the midst of this province, 
 and Wuchang, the provincial capital, 
 Hankow, ‘‘ the mart of nine provin- 
 ces,” and Hanyang are situated at the 
 angles made by this confluence. The 
 railway to Peking has its headquarters 
 at Hankow, and lines are projected 
 from there to Canton and to Szechwan. 
 Ocean steamers can in the summer easily 
 reach Hankow, which is situated 600 
 miles from the coast, and shallow- 
 draught steamers can proceed for hun- 
 dreds of miles farther up the Yangtse, 
 and across the lake to the capital of 
 Hunan. The three cities named have a 
 population . of not less than a million 
 souls. By the German Treaty of 1861 
 Hankow was opened as a port, and 
 Griffith John and a companion arrived 
 there before the year closed. 
 
Wesleyan Missions in Hupeh 153 
 
 The Wesleyan Missionary Society has w.m,m.s. 
 its head-quarters in the three cities, ^ 
 and has thence extended an almost 
 unbroken chain of stations and out- 
 
 MAP OF THE HUPEH PROVINCE TO SHOW W.M.M.S. 
 STATIONS. 
 
 stations down the Yangtse to the south 
 border, and another up the basin of the 
 Han and its tributaries to the north 
 border. The names of the principal 
 stations are mentioned in the following 
 narrative, and the general position of 
 the circuits can easily be remembered 
 
Other Missions. 
 
 154 The Call of* Cathay 
 
 if a little attention be given to the 
 map. 
 
 Several other missions are at work 
 in the Hupeh Province, but the field 
 has been well divided, and of all the 
 out-stations opened by our Society only 
 two are at present occupied conjointly 
 with other missions. The most im- 
 portant of these other missions are the 
 London, the China Inland, the Church 
 of Scotland, the Swedish, the American 
 Baptist, and the American Protestant 
 Episcopal. 
 
 If the first four chapters of this book 
 have answered the purpose for which 
 they have been penned, they have left 
 on the mind of the reader the clear im- 
 pression that the past century of mis- 
 sionary work in the Chinese Empire 
 has not been in vain in the Lord. 
 The great spiritual movements now 
 being witnessed in China give abundant 
 proof that the Gospel of our Saviour 
 is well fitted to reach the hearts of these 
 dwellers in the Far East, and to win 
 their faith. Let us now turn our 
 thoughts more in detail to the work of 
 the W.M.M.S. in Central China, and 
 
Wesleyan Missions in Hupeh 155 
 
 learn that the Pauline dictum that 
 tribulation, in its ultimate working, 
 produces a hope that will not be put 
 to shame has been there exemplified. 
 
 For the twelve years succeeding 1852 
 our Missionary Society had but one Dis- 
 trict in the Far East, and this was known 
 as the China District — presumably the 
 largest which British Methodism has 
 ever claimed, be it for area or for popu- 
 lation. Its immensity soon led the 
 brethren in Canton to urge occupation 
 of other strategic centres, for in January 
 1863 the stations recommended included 
 Hankow, Peking, and Tientsin.^ Ere long 
 work in Central China was fairly started, 
 and the field was divided into the two 
 Districts of Canton and Wuchang, the 
 first including all the stations and out- 
 stations in the Kwangtung Province, 
 and the latter the new work in Hupeh. 
 
 The work in Hupeh began in a time 
 of great distress, for the Taiping 
 Rebellion was ravaging these usually 
 fruitful regions. Town after town had 
 been destroyed, and the rebels, who 
 
 ^ The last two were never occupied by the 
 
 W.M.M.S. 
 
 The Original 
 Field. 
 
 The Taiping 
 Rebellion. 
 
156 The Call of Cathay 
 
 had started out under the guidanee of 
 the “ Heaven King ” to dethrone the 
 reigning dynasty and to abolish idolatry, 
 were degenerating into marauders of the 
 worst type. Such experiences as those 
 of Chii Shao-an (who became our first 
 Chinese minister) were not uncommon. 
 Returning to Hankow after a short 
 absence in the autumn of 1855, he found 
 that great mart in ashes and his business 
 premises destroyed. Fearing that some 
 evil might also have overtaken his 
 family, he journeyed with all speed to 
 his country home, only to find that his 
 wife had hanged herself to escape out- 
 rage, that his little ones were dying as 
 the result of their sufferings, and that 
 of the ten persons who had composed 
 the household one alone could survive. 
 
 Invited by the But among the leaders of the Rebel- 
 Shield King.^ ^as one known as the “ Shield 
 
 King,” who had once been a Wesleyan 
 evangelist in Canton. This man sent 
 a letter to the Rev. Josiah Cox (then 
 on furlough in England after a term of 
 service in the Canton District), urging 
 him to come to Nanking as chaplain to 
 their Court there. The call was so 
 
Wesleyan Missions in Hupeh 157 
 
 clear that the Mission House at once 
 set him free for this work. But when 
 Mr. Cox arrived at Nanking and entered 
 the palace, he found that the “ Shield 
 King ” was unable to offer him even a 
 welcome, because the other leaders were 
 intent on establishing a religion which 
 had as its deity a Trinity composed 
 of the Heaven Father, the Heaven 
 Brother (Christ), and the Heaven King 
 (the rebel leader) ; and the mere fact 
 that the ‘‘ Shield King ” had invited a 
 missionary to teach the Gospel had in- 
 volved him in trouble. How deter- 
 mined the “ Heaven King was on 
 this point may be learnt from the fact 
 that, shortly before Mr. Cox’s arrival, 
 he had summarily decapitated two 
 copyists for failing to remove from the 
 proofs of a tract some words which con- 
 flicted with his new doctrines. 
 
 Having failed to influence the rebel josiah Cox 
 leaders, Mr. Cox decided to attempt a 
 separate work in some place removed 
 from their influence. To this end he 
 visited several places, and in March 
 1862 found himself at Hankow, whither 
 the Revs. Griffith John and Robert 
 
158 The Call of Cathay 
 
 Wilson of the London Mission had 
 preceded him. One day soon after his 
 arrival Mr. Cox climbed to the top of 
 the Tortoise Hill and thence looked 
 down on the ancient city of Hanyang, 
 just rising from the desolation of the 
 Rebellion ; on the far-stretching walls 
 of Wuchang, a former capital of the 
 Empire, and the seat to this day of the 
 Provincial Government ; and on Han- 
 kow, the greatest trading centre in 
 Central China. 
 
 “ The sight of these vast multitudes,” he wrote, 
 “ and the thought of their spiritual darkness, stirred 
 my spirit and led me to prayer ; and in that prayer 
 was the commencement of the mission.” 
 
 “ The sanctified common-sense of Mr. 
 Cox perceived that this place was the 
 key of Central China, and he wrote 
 home to the Committee proposing the 
 establishment of a mission centre, and 
 asking for seven new men — ‘ one trained 
 for educational work, one a medical 
 missionary, and, before all, one man of 
 high literary qualifications.’ The Com- 
 mittee sanctioned the scheme, and the 
 work began.” 
 
 William Arthur, then one of the 
 
Photo lyl [TT'. A. Corndby. 
 
 THE FIRST PROTESTANT CONVERT IN CENTRAL CHINA. 
 
 Chu Shao-an and his wife. 
 
 [p. 159 
 
Wesleyan Missions in South China 159 
 
 Missionary Secretaries, wrote to Mr. 
 
 Cox, saying that he might be assured 
 that as soon as the Committee could 
 satisfy themselves that Providence had 
 given them the comrades that Mr. Cox 
 needed, they should be sent. 
 
 Meanwhile Chii Shao-an,^ after under- The Fkst 
 
 . IT. 1 A. 1 Protestant Con- 
 
 going much distress and even actual vert in Mtd^ 
 torture at the hands of the rebels, who 
 at various times had captured and re- 
 leased him, started to bring his mother 
 to Hankow. But alas ! she died on 
 the way, and he arrived in a state of 
 utter desolation. This was God’s oppor- 
 tunity, and the young man was led in 
 a spirit of curiosity to the hall where 
 Griffith John was preaching the Gospel. 
 
 He was interested in the message, be- 
 came a sincere believer, and was the first 
 Protestant convert baptised in Hupeh-— 
 probably the first in all inland China. 
 
 • Mr. Cox having previously studied Chu Becomes 
 Cantonese, and now needing to learn 
 Mandarin, was at this time seeking for 
 a teacher, and Mr Chu undertook the 
 task. Soon the two men were drawn 
 together in soul ; and with the ready 
 
 ^ See page 166 . 
 
i6o The Call of Cathay 
 
 consent of Griffith John, the teacher was 
 ere long promoted to the position of 
 colleague to the missionary in his work. 
 Just before this appointment was made 
 Mr. Chii endured severe temptation. 
 As the country was becoming pacified, 
 lands were being reclaimed by their 
 old owners through the merchant guilds. 
 So Chii approached his guild with a 
 view to recovering his lands, but the 
 heads of the guild refused to help him 
 unless he renouneed Christianity. His 
 answer is memorable : “ The property 
 may go. I believe in Jesus, and shall 
 worship Him all the days of my life.” 
 And this he did, serving Christ with 
 unswerving loyalty, first as an evan- 
 gelist, and from 1875 as a minister, 
 till his death in 1899. 
 
 A Missionary When a site had been bought in Han- 
 
 Reconnaissance. ^ chapel erected, Mr. Chii was 
 
 left in charge, while Mr. Cox took a 
 journey into the Hunan Province, with 
 a view to choosing a centre for opera- 
 tions there. Hostility to foreigners was 
 not then so strong in Hunan as it subse- 
 quently became, but, as the support of 
 the Home Churches was not given to 
 
Wesleyan Missions in Hupeh i6i 
 
 the scheme, Mr. Cox was compelled to 
 lay aside the idea and limit his work 
 to Hankow. A later journey into the 
 Kiangsi Province did indeed result in the 
 purchase of a site at Kiukiang, but as the 
 Missionary Committee could not see its 
 way to use it, it was transferred to the 
 Methodist Episcopal Church of America. 
 
 Meanwhile, God had laid his hand on The First 
 a young doctor, F. Porter Smith. Edu- 
 cated at Wesley College, Taunton, he had ^i^'China. 
 had a brilliant career at King’s College, 
 
 London, and had settled in practice 
 when he heard the call to China. He 
 arrived at Hankow in May 1864 ; and 
 though he was only able to spend six 
 years in the work, owing to the effects 
 of the climate on his constitution, to 
 him belongs the undying honour of being 
 the first medical missionary to work in 
 Central China. And what a work he 
 did ! Two months after his arrival he 
 began seeing patients in a small Chinese 
 house, and two other such houses were 
 used as wards. Owing to the novelty 
 of the work nearly 19,000 patients were 
 seen in the first year, and though in 
 the second year the number dropped 
 
 6 
 
** The Hospital 
 cf Alhpervad- 
 ing Love/' 
 
 David Hill. 
 
 162 The Call of Cathay 
 
 to 9,000 there was really no diminution 
 of the work, because in that year the 
 cases brought for treatment were of a 
 more serious nature. In 1866 the first 
 hospital was opened, and the sign-board 
 “ Hospital of All-pervading Love ” for 
 the first time hung out upon a Chinese 
 street. It may be truly said that that sign 
 is now known throughout Central China. 
 
 In 1870 Dr. E. P. Hardey arrived in 
 Hankow to take up Dr. Smith’s work 
 while the latter went on furlough. But 
 even the change failed to restore Dr. 
 Smith’s health, and he could not re- 
 turn to China. In 1875 Dr. Hardey’s 
 health failed also, and as no other 
 doctor was available, the hospital was 
 closed, and remained so until the arrival 
 of Dr. Sydney Rupert Hodge in 1887. 
 
 David Hill and William Scarborough 
 had landed in Hankow in 1865. 
 
 The first task that David Hill essayed 
 was to occupy Wuchang. But the 
 officials, who lived there in hundreds, 
 had no intention of having a foreigner 
 in their midst, and it was not till March 
 1867 that a little house up a narrow 
 passage was rented for use as a chapel 
 
Wesleyan Missions in Hupeh 163 
 
 and dispensary, and as a home for 
 Mr. Hill. Two months later the first 
 eonvert was baptised. During the same 
 year, one morning when Mr. Hill was 
 across at Hankow, the great powder 
 magazine at Wuchang exploded ; houses 
 were wrecked on all sides, shot and shell 
 whistled through the air, and many 
 persons were killed. One fragment of 
 shell, indeed, flew into Mr. Hill’s room 
 at the exact spot where he usually sat 
 studying. The aid which Mr. Hill and 
 Dr. Smith rendered to the injured did 
 much to win popular approval for their 
 work. 
 
 About this time a chapel was opened Openings at 
 in Hanyang, and thus the three great Wu^uehf 
 cities were occupied for Christ by the 
 Methodist Church. But of course this 
 could not satisfy the zeal of these de- 
 voted workers. They had already sent 
 out a band of Chinese evangelists into 
 the regions around, and early in 1870 
 one of these men, while working near 
 Wusueh, was attacked , and all his books 
 destroyed. Feeling that he must pro- 
 tect the man, David Hill mentioned 
 the matter to the county mandarin. 
 
164 The Call of Cathay 
 
 but this official angrily refused to 
 interfere. On his return to Hankow, 
 Mr. Hill mentioned this rudeness to the 
 Consul, who referred to it casually 
 in a letter to the British Minister at 
 Peking. The Minister happened just 
 then to be trying to prove to the Chinese 
 Foreign Office that the county man- 
 darins were not anxious to keep treaty 
 regulations, and used the Kwangtsi 
 case as an illustration. The Foreign 
 Office, being nettled, sent down word 
 that the Kwangtsi mandarin was to be 
 dismissed at once. The immediate out- 
 come was a desire on the part of a large 
 number of Chinese to ally themselves 
 with the powerful foreigner, and the 
 easiest way to do this seemed to be to 
 enter his Church. In .response to an 
 appeal from a group of these men (whose 
 real motive was of course carefully con- 
 cealed) it was decided to commence work 
 in that neighbourhood, and David Hill 
 was chosen by his colleagues for the 
 task. How farthfully he and his Chinese 
 helpers worked may be seen from the 
 fact that in that region, where at the 
 time of his arrival there were neither 
 
Wesleyan Missions in Hupeh 165 
 
 hospitals, churches, nor schools, no 
 members, and few sincere inquirers, 
 there are now three large circuits, em- 
 bracing five counties, with seventeen 
 churehes, each one of which has been 
 opened in a place where David Hill 
 evangelised in those pioneer days. The 
 first baptisms took place in August 
 1872, at Wusueh. At the Synod of 
 1909 there were 455 members in the 
 three circuits, with 191 on trial, while 
 many are now Avith David Hill before 
 the Throne of God. 
 
 It is outside the province of this The Shansi 
 volume to refer at length to the great 
 work that David Hill did in North 
 China during the great famine from 
 1878 to 1880.^ Humanly speaking, its 
 greatest result was the conversion of 
 Pastor Hsi, leading as that did to the 
 establishment of a great Avork. 
 
 While Mr. Hill AVaS aAYay, his col- Determined 
 leagues, noAv increased in numbers, 
 pushed on Avith the Avork despite not a 
 little opposition ; and some of them gave 
 
 1 The reader may well be urged to study the story 
 of that work as told by Mrs. Howard Taylor in One 
 of China’s Scholars. 
 
1 66 The Call of Cathay 
 
 themselves up to the task of heralding 
 Christ’s name where it was not then 
 known, both in Mr. Hill’s old eircuit 
 and up the Han River. This work was 
 not without its excitements. A col- 
 porteur who was sent to preach in Wu- 
 chang Hsien, on the banks of the Yangtse, 
 was driven out. As this man had some 
 skill as a herbalist, Mr. Hill on his return 
 started him in business in this hostile 
 town ; but the semi-official gentry saw 
 through the plan, and summarily ejected 
 the man and his possessions. On his 
 next visit, the colporteur found placards 
 on the walls aimed at himself, and a 
 little later a plot was laid to murder his 
 father. George Miles went to the scene 
 of the trouble, and after much argument 
 secured what seemed a reliable promise 
 from the clan that the old man should 
 be protected, but the very same night 
 an attempt was made not only to murder 
 the old man, but also to murder Mr. 
 Miles himself. For over an hour the 
 matter hung in the balances, but the 
 mob finally listened to reason, and 
 retired. 
 
 In 1880 an opportunity presented 
 
Wesleyan Missions in Hupeh 167 
 
 itself to the missionaries to begin work Entering Teian. 
 
 in Teian, which lies on the banks of 
 
 the Fu River, itself a tributary of the 
 
 Han. As a colporteur (a native of the 
 
 Kiangsi Province) was selling his books 
 
 in the streets of this town, he met a 
 
 trader who was from his own province. 
 
 This common bond led to a hearty 
 friendship between the two men, and 
 also to provision in the trader’s house 
 for the colporteur ; and when the latter 
 announced that J. W. Brewer intended 
 to visit Teian, this trader influenced 
 others in the town to place the Guild 
 Hall at Mr. Brewer’s disposal during 
 his stay. Comfortable as the hall was, 
 it obviously could not be the home of a 
 permanent work, and so Mr. Brewer 
 sought to rent premises. This was a 
 hard task, but at last a man came who 
 was the unfortunate owner of a haunted 
 house, which had been long unoccupied. 
 
 Without hesitation Mr. Brewer agreed 
 to take it. But what pleased the mis- 
 sionary did not please the gentry, and 
 the most influential men in the town 
 were summoned together to discuss the 
 situation. They finally chose a young 
 
68 
 
 Hanchwan. 
 
 Riots at Tciar. 
 
 The Call of Cathay 
 
 man named Chang ^ to visit the mis- 
 sionary and study his ways, with a 
 view to finding something that would 
 serve as a reason for turning him out. 
 Chang visited the missionary, but the 
 outcome of the visits was not what 
 the gentry intended, for Chang became 
 an inquirer, a convert, and ultimately 
 a preacher. 
 
 The next year witnessed the occupa- 
 tion of Hanchwan, a county town up the 
 Han on the way to Teian. At that 
 time a Chinese evangelist went to reside 
 in the town, and he was followed in 
 1886 by George Miles, who was the first 
 foreign resident in that place, and as 
 such had to encounter much ill-will, 
 which showed itself in numberless petty 
 annoyances. This town is now the 
 head of a circuit. 
 
 Meanwhile, matters had not been 
 peaceful at Teian. Mr. Brewer had 
 been succeeded by Joseph Bell and 
 C. W. Mitchil (a layman who worked in 
 Hupeh at his own charges between 
 1875 and his death in 1902, and had a 
 unique reputation as a seller of Gospels 
 
 1 Pronounced Dsarng. 
 
Wesleyan Missions in Hupeh 169^ 
 
 and tracts), and those two brethren 
 had purchased some premises to take 
 the place of the haunted house. The 
 purchase Avas made openly and no one 
 had raised any objection, but Avhen the 
 first class-meeting AA^as being held in 
 the neAA' chapel it AA^as interrupted by 
 Auolent bloAA^s on the front door and 
 Amlleys of stones throAvn on the roof. 
 Regarding the matter as mere horseplay, 
 tAA^o of the members Avent out to speak 
 to the croAA^d, Avith the result that one 
 of the tAvo AA^as very severely handled. 
 A message to the mandarin brought 
 help ; he issued orders for seven men 
 to be arrested. But the gentry forbad 
 the police to execute the Avarrants, and 
 in China the gentry are poAA^erful. En- 
 couraged by this insult to the mandarin, 
 the rioters waited till the Sunday, Avhen 
 they reneAved the attack at daylight. 
 Mr. Bell, hearing a noise, Avent out of 
 his room to see Avhat AA^as the matter, 
 and Avith some difficulty got back to 
 Mr. Mitchil, Avho joined him in a hurried 
 retreat through the back door of the 
 premises. David Hill Avent up to advise 
 AAuth his brethren as to the settlement 
 
 6 * 
 
Troubles at 
 Wusueh. 
 
 170 The Call of Cathay 
 
 of the trouble, and, Avith eharaeteristic 
 thoughtfulness, sent the young men to 
 HankoAv for a ehange Avhile he eondueted 
 the negotiations. But the mob was in 
 no humour for peaee. They frightened 
 the mandarin into releasing all the men 
 whom he had arrested, and made a fresh 
 attaek on the premises, demolishing all 
 that remained intaet. Just at this 
 time Mr. Bell’s health began to fail, 
 and as the negotiations were protraeted 
 over a year he did not see Teian 
 again. He died on July 6, 1885, the day 
 before the restored Teian Chapel 
 opened. 
 
 Nor Avere things quiet in the Wusueh 
 Cireuit. The first trouble there oceurred 
 in this Avise. The brother of one of the 
 Christians had died, and his body was in 
 due eourse eommitted to the grave. On 
 the third day after the funeral, AA^hieh 
 had of eourse been eondueted on Chris- 
 tian lines, and without eonsultation with 
 neeromaneers, a man in the village AA^as 
 taken ill, and a rumour spread that 
 this Avas due to evil infiuenees proeeed- 
 ing from the Christian grave. A 
 demiand AA^as made that the coffin should 
 
Wesleyan Missions in Hupeh 171 
 
 be disinterred, and when the Christians 
 objected it was dug up by the crowd. 
 Such an act is in China a capital offence, 
 so that it was not long before the 
 offenders were made to realise that their 
 position was untenable, and the coffin 
 was reinterred. 
 
 In that same year a new chapel was 
 built at Chichow in the same circuit, and 
 on the opening day it was attacked by a 
 mob and much damage done. In this 
 case the authorities intervened at once, 
 and compensation was paid, Thomas 
 Bramfitt on his part asking for the 
 release of the ringleaders. 
 
 Then, a very little later, there oc- 
 curred in this circuit a case which has 
 become almost historic in missionary 
 annals. For the Lan clan in entering 
 up the family registers (most important 
 documents in China, enrolment carry- 
 ing with it many rights) wrote off all 
 the Christians as dead. All attempts 
 by the missionaries to make the clan 
 yield were in vain, so the matter was 
 taken to the courts, and at last, through 
 the intervention of the British Ambas- 
 sador, an Imperial Decree was issued 
 
 The Rights of 
 Chinese ChriS' 
 tians. 
 
17 ^ The Call of Cathay 
 
 in 1892 stating that native Christians 
 must be treated exactly as the other mem- 
 bers of a clan. 
 
 of The medical work in Hankow had not 
 yet been resumed when Dr. Arthur 
 Morley arrived in China (1886), for 
 the express purpose of commencing 
 medical work at Teian. His first duty 
 was to turn the ruins left by the 
 rioters into wards for his patients 
 and rooms for himself. When all was 
 completed and ready for occupation, 
 the doctor invited six of the gentry 
 to a feast, but every one of them de- 
 clined to countenance the foreigner. 
 In the same year. Miss Sugden arrived 
 in Hankow to take over the medical 
 work among women which had been 
 commenced by Mrs. North. So when 
 in the following year Dr. Hodge reached 
 Hankow, to recommence the work 
 for men, one of his first duties was 
 to superintend the building of the 
 Hospital for Women which was sub- 
 scribed for by the women of Metho- 
 dism as their memorial of the Jubilee 
 of Queen Victoria. The erection of his 
 own hospital followed, and the Hankow 
 

Wesleyan Missions in Hupeh 173 
 
 Medical Mission was once again equipped 
 with both workers and plant. 
 
 While on furlough in England in 
 1897-8, Dr. Hodge advocated two im- 
 portant advances in the work — the 
 enlargement of the hospital to provide 
 for double the number of patients, and 
 the sending out of a second doctor to 
 assist him. In both these schemes he 
 was successful, and when he returned 
 to China he brought with him money 
 to erect the new buildings, and was 
 accompanied by Dr. R. T. Booth, M.B., 
 as his colleague. The Methodist Chris- 
 tian Endeavour ers of Ireland undertook 
 to support Dr. Booth, and, in addition, 
 help in other ways to carry on the 
 medical work. 
 
 In 1890 young Robert Bone, who Deaths, 
 had been in China for only eight months, 
 died of dysentery. And in the next year 
 Mr. Tollerton, after three years of 
 service, died of smallpox. In that 
 same year Mr. Miles effected a peaceful 
 entrance into Anlu, a large prefectural 
 city more than two hundred miles from 
 Hankow, which had till then been visited 
 only by itinerating missionaries and 
 
The Hostile 
 Hunanes ; 
 
 174 The Call of Cathay 
 
 colporteurs. And then like a bolt from 
 the blue came the Wusueh riots. To 
 this we must refer at some little 
 length, for the reason that it came to 
 the missionaries of our own and 
 other Churches as a call to evangelise 
 Hunan. 
 
 It is well known how deep and con- 
 tinued was the hostility of the Hunanese 
 to everything of foreign origin. Des- 
 pite all the treaties that the Imperial 
 Government had concluded, every 
 worker who entered that provinee found 
 himself absolutely debarred from prose- 
 cuting his work. Men like Adam Dor- 
 ward, of the China Inland Mission, ^ 
 who gave themselves prayerfully to the 
 task, were in danger of death every day 
 they spent in the province. The mis- 
 sionary everywhere met with sullen 
 contempt, insolence, or violence. Word 
 was sent on from town to town that the 
 hated foreigner was coming. Often he 
 found the city gates closed in his face 
 when he reached his destination. 
 
 It is now clear that this antagonism 
 
 1 See Pioneer Work in Hunan, by Marshall 
 Broomhallj B.A. 
 
Wesleyan Missions in Hupeh 175 
 
 did not originate among the populace. 
 
 They were originally as indifferent as The'* Hunan 
 the people in other provinces. But the 
 semi-official gentry and scholars, by 
 the careful dissemination of the most 
 abominable lies, caused this feeling of 
 hostility to take root ; and then by 
 ballads, broadsheets, and cartoons nur- 
 tured its growth. The progress from 
 such teaching to the call for the de- 
 struction of foreigners was easy, and 
 the people proved apt pupils. The lead- 
 ing spirit in this malicious campaign 
 was one Chow Han, who in his earlier 
 manhood was a soldier of much prowess, 
 but who fell into disgrace and was dis- 
 missed from the army. What it was 
 that caused him to employ his enforced 
 leisure in attacking Christianity will 
 probably never be known. So success- 
 ful was his campaign that the placards 
 and ballads were soon scattered through 
 the empire, and the firstfruits of their 
 malign influence was a series of riots 
 in the Yangtse valley, in which, early 
 in the series, was the murder at Wusueh 
 of William Argent, of the Wesleyan 
 Joyful News Migsion, and Mr. Green, 
 
Riots at 
 Wusuch. 
 
 176 The Call of Cathay 
 
 of the Chinese Imperial Customs Service, 
 on June 5, 1891. 
 
 For some little time previous, evil 
 rumours had been circulated in the 
 town, but as there were no signs of 
 danger the men were away visiting the 
 churches. On the day itself a man 
 was seen carrying four babies in two 
 baskets through the streets. He was 
 taking them to the Roman Catholic 
 Foundling Home at Kiukiang, but a 
 man on the street yelled that he was 
 taking the babies to be killed by the 
 foreigners. A crowd at once gathered, 
 and the basket-bearer was dragged to 
 one of the yamens, but the magistrate 
 refused to take the charge. This caused 
 some disorder, during which one of the 
 babies was trampled to death. Roused 
 to fury by this untoward event, the 
 mob at once rushed off to attack our 
 mission. Mrs. Roden, Mrs. Warren, and 
 Mrs. Protheroe, with their four chil- 
 dren, were in the^ houses. Their lives 
 were in great peril, but they ultimately 
 found a safe refuge in a yamen. Mean- 
 while, news of the disturbance reached 
 William Argent, who was just about 
 
Wesleyan Missions in Hupeh 177 
 
 to embark for Hankow, and Mr. Green. 
 
 They at once dashed off to the rescue 
 of the ladies, and were met by the mob. 
 
 Just as he reached the chapel. Argent Murder of 
 was struck a deadly blow with a carry- ArgentT 
 ing-pole, and then he was battered to 
 death where he lay. Green ran a little 
 farther and reached a pond, in which 
 he stood up to his neck. For two or 
 three hours the people threw stones at 
 him. Just after dark a mandarin came 
 and promised to protect him if he would 
 emerge. The promise was no doubt 
 sincere, but the hunted man had scarcely 
 landed when the mob drove away the 
 mandarin and killed thh foreigner. 
 
 Of the settlement of the trouble a Decree of 
 there is no need to write, save to say 
 that the great result was the issue by 
 the Imperial Government of a decree 
 that Christianity should he counted as 
 one of the tolerated religions of China, 
 that missionaries should be protected, and 
 that the converts should not he persecuted. 
 
 This decree marks an epoch in mis- 
 sionary history, but the fact that it did 
 not meet with popular consent, or at 
 any rate with the approval of the literary 
 
Educational 
 
 Work. 
 
 178 The Call of Cathay 
 
 classes, was soon seen. In November, 
 when the houses for the missionaries 
 at Teian were nearing completion, a 
 serious disturbance was created by the 
 students assembled for the B.A. exam- 
 ination, and Mr. Warren and Dr. Morley 
 were severely handled. 
 
 As the years had passed, two impor- 
 tant educational institutions had been 
 coming to their full development — the 
 High School and the Girls’ Boarding- 
 school. The need for higher edueation 
 on Christian lines seems to have been 
 realised by our pioneer, Josiah Cox, as 
 early as 1863, but it was not found 
 possible to commenee such a work until 
 1884, when Dr. W. T. A. Barber 
 opened the Wuchang Boys’ High School. 
 The attempt was made under great 
 difficulties, for at the same time the 
 Viceroy of Liang Hu [ix, Hupeh and 
 Hunan), realising the need, opened a 
 large, well-equipped College in the city. 
 The Hanyang Girls’ Boarding-school was 
 opened in 1898, in memory of David 
 Hill, and in response to one of his last 
 requests. School work is of necessity 
 monotonous in its nature and furnishes 
 
THE “ DAVID HILL ” BLIND SCHOOL, HANKOW. 
 
Wesleyan Missions in Hupeh 179 
 
 few incidents that can be recorded in 
 a general survey of the work. The 
 value of these institutions as both edu- 
 cational and spiritual forces has been 
 enlarged upon in a previous chapter, and 
 it becomes more noteworthy as the years 
 pass. A third institution that calls 
 for like brief mention is the David Hill 
 School for the Blind, which remains as 
 the great monument of the philan- 
 thropy and love of David Hill for the 
 poor, the despised, and the neglected. 
 Each of these three institutions has 
 from time to time added to its premises, 
 and each is worthy to rank alongside the 
 similar institutions established by other 
 missions. Later years have seen the 
 establishment of three boarding-schools 
 for Christian boys, where a sound 
 Chinese education is offered at the 
 lowest possible fees. In Wuchang a 
 Training Institution for preachers and 
 a Normal School for teachers began 
 work in 1901 in a tentative way, 
 with a three months’ course of study. 
 Three years later arrangements were 
 made for the students to receive a 
 full three years’ course of training.- It 
 
I Ho The Call of Cathay 
 
 must be confessed that these institutions 
 have not yet met with the success we 
 desire, but the future is bright with 
 hope. The elementary schools for boys 
 and girls throughout the District are 
 a source of anxiety, for there is grave 
 reason to fear that in this department 
 of our work we shall be outstripped 
 by the Government elementary schools 
 which are being opened in every town 
 in the land. Our position is the more 
 precarious as the Chinese Board of 
 Education refuses to recognise foreign- 
 managed schools in any way, or to allow 
 their scholars to compete for entrance 
 to the Higher Grade Schools or the 
 Normal Schools. Since the Government 
 Schools are non-Christian in tone and 
 ideals, it will be a sad day for our work 
 if we are prevented from continuing 
 our elementary schools, for they have in 
 the past proved valuable aids in the 
 attempts we are constantly making to 
 gain an entrance to heathen households, 
 and they have also yielded not a few 
 bright young converts to the Church. 
 The latest addition to the institutions 
 of the District is the Home for Destitute 
 
Wesleyan Missions in Hupeh i8i 
 
 Boys founded by J. K. Hill at Suichow, 
 which meets a great need. 
 
 The year 1892 witnessed the opening 
 of a chapel at Liu Tsu Yiu in the Tayeh 
 Circuit, which was the first chapel en- 
 tirely paid for by our Chinese Christians. 
 The next year saw what must be re- 
 garded, apart from the early pioneer 
 journey of Josiah Cox, as the beginning 
 of our work in Hunan, for in that year 
 Chang Yi-tsz took the journey which 
 is described in the next chapter. Three 
 years later a series of visits was made 
 by various missionaries to the towns 
 in South Hupeh which adjoin the Hunan 
 border. Some of these workers be- 
 longed to our own mission, and in 1898 
 Wesleyan chapels were opened in 
 Tsungyang and Tungcheng, four other 
 towns being occupied by the London 
 and American Baptist Missions. Of 
 these towns Tungcheng lies nearest to 
 Hunan. 
 
 Ere even this step towards the ac- 
 complishment of the long-cherished 
 scheme had been taken, the soul of one 
 who for years had prayed and longed 
 for the opening of Hunan had passed to 
 
 Advance To- 
 wards Hunan. 
 
Death of 
 David Hill. 
 
 182 The Call of Cathay 
 
 its rest. David Hill died on April 18, 
 1896. As the years pass, it becomes 
 increasingly evident that David Hill, 
 whether as superintendent of a circuit, 
 or chairman of the District, was a wdse 
 master-builder. He knew no basis for 
 his work save the foundation once laid, 
 and on that foundation he built prayer- 
 fully with the most precious materials 
 he could find. Whether as a pioneer 
 worker in the country districts or as a 
 patient struggler with reactionary forces 
 in the towns, whether as a preacher of 
 the Gospel to Christians and inquirers, 
 or as an administrator of charity to the 
 poor and the famine-stricken, whether 
 in social intercourse with the foreigners 
 dwelling in this land, or in quiet con- 
 verse with Confucian literati, the record 
 stands that he ever revealed by word 
 and deed the graces of the Master 
 Whom he served. The end was char- 
 acteristic of the life. Touched by a 
 sense of the misery of the poor, the wife 
 of a highly placed Chinese official 
 placed at Mr. Hill’s disposal some money 
 given by herself and others. His 
 friends had noticed how tired he looked, 
 
Pi 182j 
 
 DAVID HILL. 
 
 Beached China, 1865. Died, April 18, 1896. 
 
Wesleyan Missions in Hupeh 183 
 
 but he gladly undertook this work, and, 
 of course, performed it personally. 
 
 Finding that if he went in daylight to 
 those whom he wished to reach he 
 was besieged by scores of would-be 
 recipients of the bounty, he changed 
 his plan and commenced going round 
 from hut to hut in the hours just after 
 midnight, waking the sleepers and 
 quietly bestowing the alms. There is 
 little doubt that it was in some such 
 service as this, when the earth was 
 steaming with the dank vapours of 
 the night, that the lurking typhus 
 leaped forth from its lair upon his en- 
 feebled frame, and held it in the death- 
 grip. Yet would he have chosen a 
 better death than that — proving that 
 Christian love can conquer calumny 
 and hate, and dying in the act of self- 
 denying charity to the poorest and 
 the lost ? It was a fitting end. 
 
 The consolidation and extension of the in Dangers Oft. 
 work in the older circuits was through 
 these years proceeding steadily, though 
 not without opposition. When J. K. 
 
 Hill attempted to secure a permanent 
 foothold in Chishui, the local official 
 
184 The Call of Cathay 
 
 displayed his unfriendliness by allow- 
 ing placards against the foreign religion 
 to be freely posted in the town, and 
 by ordering the landlord to reoccupy 
 the premises and evict the preacher. 
 Seventy of the gentry also met at a feast 
 to decide what steps to take against the 
 mission, but on an appeal to the Vice- 
 roy the mission was confirmed in its 
 possession of the property. At Lotien 
 attempts were made at different times 
 to murder Mr. Hill and Mr. Scholes, 
 but on each occasion the missionary 
 was warned in time. When attempt- 
 ing to evangelise Paoan in the Tayeh 
 Circuit, W. H. Watson and the writer 
 were attacked by an angry crowd. And 
 at Hsingkwoh, in the Wusueh Circuit, 
 C. W. Allan barely escaped with his 
 life from a crowd which suddenly broke 
 into the chapel when he was paying 
 one of his regular visits to the town. 
 The chapel had no back door, and so 
 Mr. Allan was entrapped ; but being 
 of a powerful build, he was able to make 
 a dash for life. His sun-helmet saved 
 him from what would otherwise have 
 been his death-blow, and he found 
 
Wesleyan Missions in Hupeh 185 
 
 refuge in a shop. Unfortunately it, 
 too, had no back door ; so that before 
 long Mr. Allan had to make another 
 dash, but this time with such success 
 that he remained safely hidden till he 
 was rescued by the mandarin. 
 
 While this spirit of unrest was mani- 
 festing itself in the down-river circuits, 
 another wave of excitement swept over 
 the Teian Circuit. Bands of armed 
 men entered the homes of the members, 
 spoiled them, of their goods and en- 
 deavoured to make them repudiate 
 the foreign religion. These villains 
 even went so far as to put a price on 
 John Berkin’s head. All displays of 
 .mercy on the part of the missionaries 
 and converts being interpreted as signs 
 of powerlessness, the matter was re- 
 luctantly placed in the hands of the 
 Consul and the intervention of the 
 Chinese officials secured. 
 
 A year later there was another out- 
 break of violence, the victim this time 
 being Hardy Jowett, and the aggressors 
 being a party of students. The be- 
 ginner of the trouble perhaps only 
 intended to indulge in a little horseplay, 
 
 More Troubles 
 at Teian. 
 
1 86 The Call of Cathay 
 
 but the matter soon became serious. 
 After being repeatedly struck with other 
 missiles, Mr. Jowett received a blow 
 on the side of the head from a half- 
 brick thrown by a Buddhist monk. For 
 a moment he swayed, but managed to 
 get into a house and shut the door. 
 To his horror he found that there was 
 no back door. He sat down to rest 
 for a moment, but there was a sudden 
 struggle at the front. Thinking that 
 the crowd was breaking in, Mr. Jowett 
 made a hole in the mud wall at the 
 back of the room he was in, and es- 
 caped towards the country. Later in 
 the day he learnt that the struggling 
 was due, not to the crowd entering the 
 house, but to one of the members having 
 boldly faced the mob and deterred them 
 from their purpose. 
 
 Early in 1899 Dr. Margaret Bennett 
 reached Wuchang with a viev/ to de- 
 veloping a hospital for women there. 
 A small hospital was opened in February 
 1903, and its value was at once recog- 
 nised by the wives and daughters of 
 the many officials in that neighbourhood. 
 Five months later, after five days of 
 
Wesleyan Missions in Hupeh 187 
 
 suffering from a violent disease, Miss 
 Bennett died, but on her death-bed 
 in answer to a question she said, “ No ; 
 
 I am not sorry, but glad that I came 
 to China.” And so were hundreds of 
 Chinese women. Other hands took up 
 the work, and it is now fully established 
 in the confidence of the people. 
 
 There is no need in this chapter for The Boxer 
 more than a passing reference to the 
 Boxer uprising. That movement, under 
 the auspices of a ruling Manchu clique, 
 expended its strength in the northern 
 provinces. In Hupeh, the presence of a 
 strong Viceroy secured immunity for the 
 missionaries from murder or serious 
 attack, though it naturally failed to 
 secure entire freedom from persecution 
 for the Chinese Church. 
 
 In spite of the troubles of the year, 
 
 1900 saw the opening of a new hospital 
 at Teian, where Dr. Morley had been 
 faithfully labouring for a dozen years 
 under most adverse conditions. The 
 new institution — one of the best ar- 
 ranged and most convenient country 
 hospitals in Central China — was erected 
 without cost to the Society, being 
 
1 88 The Call of Cathay 
 
 the gift of David Hill and his two 
 brothers. 
 
 The new hospital was opened amid 
 mu eh rejoieing. This time the ofheials 
 and people vied with eaeh other in 
 doing honour to Dr. Morley. But 
 when later in the year a band of 
 Manehu soldiers passed through that 
 town on their way to join the Boxers, 
 these men, assisted by the loeal rowdies, 
 foreed their way into the building, 
 smashed the glass, destroyed the wood- 
 work, and stole all that they eould 
 carry away. It is interesting to know 
 that on their return march these same 
 men stopped at Teian to beseech Dr. 
 Morley to dress the wounds they had re- 
 ceived at the hands of the Allied Forces! 
 
 At Chin-niu, in the Tayeh Circuit, a 
 mob did some damage to our chapel 
 and assaulted the wife and son of the 
 preacher, but the mandarin was prompt 
 in his intervention and the trouble 
 ceased. Other officials were callous. 
 The house of one of the Suichow minis- 
 ters, H. B. Sutton, was looted of all it 
 contained and then destroyed. An old 
 man was hanged in his own house, but 
 
LATE DR. HODGE PERFORMING AN OPERATION. 
 
Wesleyan Missions in Hupeh 189 
 
 cut down by friends before life was ex- 
 tinct, and two inquirers and one little 
 boy were killed, the Suichow officials 
 in no way interfering. And in the 
 Kwangtsi Circuit a chapel was destroyed. 
 
 In the neighbourhood of Hsien T‘ao- 
 chen (“Fairy Peach Mart”) eighty- 
 three men banded themselves together by 
 oath not to leave one Christian’s house 
 standing, and the date was actually 
 fixed for the murder of Lo Yu-shan, 
 who was afterwards our first Chinese 
 minister in Hunan. But with the change 
 in the situation at Peking, there came 
 a change in the attitude of the man- 
 darins, and matters became peaceful. 
 
 The year 1907 is well marked in the 
 annals of Hupeh. In that year Hr. 
 Tatchell began the medical work at 
 Tayeh, and Dr. Cundall began similar 
 work at Anlu. On July 21 of that Death of 
 year Dr. Hodge died, not yet fifty 
 years old, but literally worn out through 
 the prodigality with which he had given 
 himself for twenty years to the relieving 
 of distress and woe. Let it never be 
 forgotten that as he lay dying, oppressed 
 with the task of maintaining the finances 
 
Developing 
 the Medical 
 Work, 
 
 190 The Call of Cathay 
 
 of the hospital and securing the necessary 
 equipment, he said, “ Oh that with my 
 dying breath I could arouse the con- 
 science of Methodism ! Oh that she 
 wmuld arise, that those who are willing 
 to work could work unhindered 1 Always 
 this burden of finance ! ” 
 
 Since Dr. Hodge died, the worh has 
 developed along lines laid doAvn by him, 
 and important structural alterations 
 have been made in accordance with 
 his carefully devised plans, under the 
 supervision of Drs. Booth and Tatchell. 
 The fact that scarcely any important 
 change has had to be made in the original 
 plans is a striking testimony to the 
 care wdth which Dr. Hodge thought out 
 the details. During 1909 long-cherished 
 hopes were realised. The hospital was 
 enlarged, so that it is now capable of 
 accommodating eighty patients. Rooms 
 for private patients and two isolation 
 wards were added, the Consumptive 
 Ward w^as enlarged, and several other 
 great improvements effected. In ad- 
 dition to all this, the “ Hodge Memorial 
 Nurses’ Home ” w^as erected to provide 
 accommodation for the large nursing 
 
DR. ETHEL ROWLEY AND GROUP OF CHINESE NURSES. 
 
Wesleyan Missions in Hupeh 19 1 
 
 staff — a scheme Dr. Hodge greatly de- 
 sired to carry through. This was the 
 first hospital in Central China to realise 
 the possibility of using trained male 
 nurses. So well has the plan succeeded 
 that it is now regarded by other hos- 
 pitals as a training school for such 
 nurses, and requests for suitably trained 
 men are constantly received. The head 
 assistants of the other hospitals of our 
 District have all passed through this 
 Nursing School. 
 
 A few months after Dr. Hodge died, 
 Dr. Tatchell opened a dispensary at 
 Tayeh (1907). Dr. Pell took charge 
 in January 1908, and will shortly be 
 in a position to build a hospital on 
 ground already acquired ; the out- 
 patient department was built in 1909 
 and opened in the September of that 
 year. In 1908 Dr. Cundall commenced 
 medical work in Anlu ; he was joined 
 by the Rev. William and Dr. Ethel 
 Rowley early in the following year, and 
 Dr. Rowley at once took charge of the 
 work for women and children. With 
 great difficulty two Chinese houses were 
 rented ; one is used as the men's hos- 
 
Famine in 
 Kiangpeh. 
 
 Thomas 
 
 Protheroe, 
 
 19^ The Call of Cathay 
 
 pital and dispensary, and the other as 
 a woman’s. Each of these newly 
 opened hospitals had admitted over 100 
 in-patients by the close of the year. 
 
 In that same year the great famine 
 broke out in the Kiangpeh region, and, 
 loyal to the tradition handed down 
 from David Hill, Methodism lent two 
 of her sons to the work. Norman Page 
 worked hard at the distributing centre, 
 and Thomas Protheroe undertook long 
 itinerations among the famine-stricken 
 people, arranging for the alleviation of 
 their needs. He wrote, “ I am glad to 
 say that famine-fever, smallpox, and 
 leprosy called forth in me no fear.” 
 Carefulness and the assurance that “ it 
 shall not come nigh thee,” made long 
 days of toil not only possible but happy. 
 Those ills he escaped, but over-strain 
 and long exposure in the sun proved 
 too much for a constitution already worn 
 with over twenty-seven years of almost 
 superhuman toil as an itinerant evange- 
 list, and from the time of his return 
 his health gradually failed. On August 
 20, 1908, he passed away in his sleep. 
 “ Mr. Protheroe was one of the best 
 
Wesleyan Missions in Hupeh 193 
 
 colloquial Chinese speakers in Central 
 China : he Avas, perhaps, the very best 
 open-air preacher in the ranks of our 
 ministry. He could not only gather a 
 great crowd ; he could hold them spell- 
 bound. For rough, hard, self-sacri- 
 ficing work he leaves behind him a 
 memory that can never be effaced in 
 those that knew him.” 
 
 What has been written will suffice to 
 show that China, a land of recurrent 
 unrest, would still be closed to the 
 Gospel of Christ if the official and liter- 
 ary classes had maintained their oppo- 
 sition, but that the influence of that 
 Gospel has so touched all ranks that its 
 eradication is now an impossibility. 
 
 A word in conclusion as to our oppor- 
 tunities. A foothold has been gained 
 during these years of struggle in eighteen 
 counties in Hupeh Province, and in 
 most of these counties we are the only 
 mission at work. Is it too much to 
 ask that our three hospitals for men 
 should be increased to at least seven, 
 and that where possible medical work 
 among women should be added ? Is 
 it too much to ask that our foreign 
 
 7 
 
 Our 
 
 Opportunity. 
 
194 The Call of Cathay 
 
 staff should be augmented till we have 
 one evangelistic worker for each county ? 
 Is it too much to ask that we may have 
 an efficient intermediate school in 
 each group of circuits — say five instead 
 of the three we have ? In a word, is 
 it too much to ask of a Church that has 
 received richly from her Lord that she 
 should utilise to the utmost her oppor- 
 tunities and meet to the full her re- 
 sponsibilities to these eighteen counties 
 in the heart of Asia’s vastest empire ? 
 
 The hand of God led Josiah Cox to 
 Hankow. The impulse of the divine 
 will led David Hill to Wusueh. The 
 obvious call of the Master drew J. W. 
 Brewer to Teian. And so on every 
 step of their advancing way the workers 
 have seen the light of God shining clear 
 and bright. No one can possibly 
 imagine that they were led astray. God 
 has set His own seal on their work. 
 Will it not, then, be counted a privilege 
 by the Methodist Church to rise to her 
 present opportunities in those eighteen 
 counties, and flood them with Gospel 
 light, even as she seems so fully called 
 of God to do ? 
 
Wesleyan Missions in Hupeh 195 
 
 ASSIGNMENTS FOR STUDY CIRCLES 
 
 STUDY PROBLEM. — To see what types of men 
 and women are required for work in China. 
 
 1. Classify the types of workers mentioned in this 
 chapter. 
 
 2. What do you consider necessary qualifications 
 for candidates for China ? 
 
 REFERENCES FOR FURTHER STUDY 
 
 Broomhall, M. — The Chinese Empire (pages 114-26). 
 CoRNABY, W. A. — Rambles in Central China. 
 Clayton, G. A. — Methodism in Central China. 
 Tatchell, W. a. — Wesleyan Medical Missions in 
 China. 
 
 Barber, W. T. A. — The Wesleyan Missionary Atlas 
 of China (1893). 
 
 Walker, F. D. — The W.M.M.S. in China. 
 Thompson, R. W. — Griffith John. 
 
 Hellier, J. E. — How David Hill Followed Christ. 
 Barber, W. T. A. — David Hill, Missionary and 
 Saint. 
 
 Barber, W. T. A. — David Hill, an Apostle to the 
 Chinese. 
 
 Hill, J. K. — Sydney Rupert Hodge. 
 
 Allan, C. W. — Chu and Lo : Two Chinese Pastors^ 
 Taylor, Mrs. H. — One of China's Scholars. 
 W.M.M.S. — The General Report. 
 
The Sealed 
 Province. 
 
 Topography. 
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 WESLEYAN METHODIST MISSIONS IN 
 HUNAN 
 
 By the Rev. Ernest C. Cooper 
 
 Hunan was once the sealed province 
 of a sealed empire. Of the eighteen 
 provinces of China, Hunan was the last 
 to open its doors to the Christian 
 missionary. The Tibet of China was 
 Hunan, and the Lhasa of China was 
 Hunan’s capital, the city of Changsha. 
 It was the citadel of the opposition to 
 Christianity, and the great storm-centre 
 of the empire. The Hunanese made no 
 vain boast when they called Changsha 
 “ The City of the Iron Gates.” 
 
 Hunan is a province of which her 
 people are justly proud. Situated in 
 the centre of the empire, it is one of 
 the fairest of her provinces. In area 
 it is nearly twice the size of England, 
 
 196 
 
CHINESE RIVER GUNBOAT. 
 

 
 I 
 
 
 I 
 
Wesleyan Missions in Hunan 197 
 
 with a population of some 22 millions ; 
 it contains over ninety walled cities, and 
 has high mountain ranges, long navi- 
 gable rivers, fertile and populous plains. 
 
 There is a great export of iron and Resources, 
 coal, and rice and timber, which helps 
 to supply the needs of the whole of 
 the Yangtse valley ; and in the future 
 of China’s expansion Hunan must of 
 necessity take a foremost place as a great 
 manufacturing centre. 
 
 The inhabitants are a race of stal- Hunanese 
 warts ; for Hunan was once depopu- ^^^^’^ctenstics. 
 
 lated by a great rebellion, and after- 
 wards colonised from the surrounding 
 provinces. The people are sturdy, in- 
 dependent, freedom-loving, having all 
 the characteristics of colonists. At one Military Valour, 
 time the Chinese army was in the main 
 recruited from Hunan. The Chinese 
 contingent of Chinese Gordon’s “ Ever- 
 victorious Army ” was an army of 
 Hunan braves, and it was they who 
 so largely assisted him to break the 
 power of the Taiping rebel hordes. It 
 is one of the boasts of Hunan that 
 after the rebellion they carried back 
 home bucketfuls of “ red buttons 
 
Scholastic 
 
 Attainments, 
 
 Capacity for 
 Governing. 
 
 198 The Call of Cathay 
 
 the second highest decoration bestowed 
 by the Emperor. In a great measure 
 the present high prestige of the Hunan- 
 ese was gained by their feats of military 
 power achieved during the time of the 
 Taipings. 
 
 The people of Hunan are amongst the 
 most intellectual in the empire, and 
 under the old system of competitive ex- 
 amination, held every three years, more 
 students from this province took high 
 degree and high office than from any 
 other part of China. Many of the 
 highest statesmen of the empire have 
 risen from amongst Hunan’s sons. At 
 one time no less than six out of the 
 seven ruling Viceroys came from this 
 province. The first Chinese Ambassador 
 to England, the Marquis Tseng Kwo- 
 fan, was a Hunanese scholar and soldier ; 
 and His Excellency Choh Chung-tang, 
 the famous military commander who 
 finally suppressed the dangerous Muham- 
 madan rebellion of Kansu in the north- 
 west, was a fellow provincial. It is 
 not for naught the Hunanese are called 
 “ Men of Iron.” They are born rulers 
 of men. 
 
Wesleyan Missions in Hunan 199 
 
 They are, moreover, on the whole, a Religious 
 
 1 • • 1 TT • 1 1 i? 
 
 religious people. Hunan is a land or 
 beautiful temples and graceful pagodas. 
 Hengshan, one of the five famous 
 mountains of China, is situated in the 
 heart of the province. Here tens of 
 thousands of travel-stained pilgrims 
 worship every year. As soon as the 
 chief rice-crop is harvested, the devout 
 Hunanese prepares for his annual pilgrim- 
 age to distant Nanyoh, the most sacred 
 peak of the Hengshan group. The 
 pilgrims may be seen in attenuated lines 
 of fifties and hundreds, clad in scarlet, 
 symbolical of their sin, travelling in 
 single file along the narrow, sinuous 
 Chinese roads. At every seventh or 
 tenth pace many of them kneel upon 
 the ground and prostrate themselves 
 before the little shrines they carry in 
 their hands. Arriving at the base of 
 the mountain, many climb hand over 
 hand, and knee over knee, painfully 
 ascending to the summit seeking merit 
 and eternal life. Thus is their weary 
 pilgrimage of hundreds of miles patiently 
 accomplished. 
 
 Some of the northern counties are 
 
200 
 
 The Call of Cathay 
 
 Hunan Ascetics, dotted over with shrines of mummified 
 reeluses, who allowed themselves to be 
 “ purified ” by gradual starvation, and 
 finally smoked to death before a ehar- 
 eoal fire — the fumes preserving the 
 body against decay — thus gaining to 
 themselves the happy position of genii 
 of the mountains and the worship of 
 their revering countrymen. 
 
 Opponents of Such are the people who for many 
 
 Christianity. years held missionaries at bay. Their 
 
 very spirit of religiousness made them 
 the opponents of Christianity as well 
 as of the foreigner; They imagined they 
 had a religion to fight for, and would 
 not tolerate the advances of the new 
 faith which they heard to be every- 
 where flooding the land. 
 
 Antichristian This Opposition was strongest in the 
 
 Tract Society, city, Changsha. The gentry — 
 
 a most powerful class, composed princi- 
 pally of the families of retired officials, 
 — formed themselves into an anti- 
 Christian tract society. Their publi- 
 cations were of a virulent and most 
 scandalous kind. In them Christian 
 missionaries were accused of heinous 
 and unnatural crimes. Christ was 
 
Wesleyan Missions in Hunan 201 
 
 represented as a erueified pig, and 
 the vilest orgies were eharged against 
 His followers. The people were urged 
 to expel the Christian teachers and 
 their doctrines, and pillage and murder 
 were openly advocated to effect this 
 end. Of this class of literature some 
 800,000 copies were issued, and dis- 
 tributed by paid agents, not only in 
 Hunan, but throughout the entire length 
 of the Yangtse Valley. The antici- 
 pated result followed, and from Shang- 
 hai on the east coast, riot and pillage 
 spread with the rapidity of a conflagra- 
 tion to beyond Chungking in the far 
 west, a distance of 2,000 miles. 
 
 Wusueh — a quiet riverside town — Hunan's First 
 was in the track of these Hunanese 
 emissaries, and in the riot which resulted 
 there, William Argent, of the J oyful News 
 Mission, lost his life^ and Wesleyan 
 Methodism gained her first martyr 
 missionary in China ; in reality the first 
 martyr missionary of Hunan. 
 
 The first attempt of any Church to josiah Cox 
 enter this sealed province was early gnte? Hunan 
 in the sixties of last century, when 
 
 1 See previous chapter. 
 
 7 * 
 
202 
 
 Later Attempts. 
 
 The Call of Cathay 
 
 Josiah Cox, the pioneer of Methodism 
 in Central China, entered the eity of 
 Yochow, the door of Hunan. He crossed 
 the frontier, and peeped .through the 
 half-closed door. He urged upon the 
 home Churches the necessity for an 
 immediate advance ; and had Metho- 
 dism risen to the greatness of the occa- 
 sion, and supported Mr. Cox in his 
 enterprise, how different might now 
 have been the position of Christianity in 
 the province ! 
 
 Between 1875 and 1880 the workers 
 of the China Inland Mission made several 
 attempts to occupy the sealed province, 
 and even succeeded in renting a house 
 for a little while in Yochow. Several 
 journeys were made across the pro- 
 vince, and some important cities were 
 visited. 
 
 In later years Griffith John, of the 
 London Missionary Society, and John 
 Archibald, of the Scottish Bible Society, 
 adventured themselves into the pro- 
 vince on a colportage journey. Then 
 David Hill turned a wistful eye, and 
 prayed to enter in. 
 
 Later, that intrepid pioneer, Adam 
 
Wesleyan Missions in Hunan 203 
 
 Dorwood, of the China Inland Mission, 
 spent eight most strenuous years (1880- 
 88) of colportage in the province ; and 
 gradually, as the years rolled on, Chris- 
 tendom tied a cordon of love around 
 the Jesus-despising and Jesus-hating 
 Hunanese. Yochow, at the north- Frontier Out- 
 eastern entrance to the province, was 
 occupied by the London Missionary 
 Society. Shishen and Chalingchow 
 on the north and east respectively 
 were occupied by the China Inland 
 Mission. The American Presbyterians 
 crossed the southern frontier, and 
 established Churches at Wuling and 
 Chiaho. The Church Missionary 
 Society took up work at Kweilin 
 on the frontier to the west. The 
 Wesleyan Methodist Church occupied 
 Tsungyang and Tungeheng on the 
 eastern Hupeh boundary ; while Mr. 
 
 B. H. Alexander, of the American 
 Christian and Missionary Alliance, an- 
 chored his boat at the very gates of the 
 capital. Thus the Churches of Europe The Challenge 
 and America took up the challenge Churches, 
 presented by the unbroken front of 
 opposition, which Hunan presented to 
 
How God 
 Guided. 
 
 204 The Call of Cathay 
 
 the Christian advance. The eyes of 
 Christendom were focused upon Hunan, 
 and the flood-gates of insistent, im- 
 portunate prayer were opened upon it ; 
 and although for years little apparent 
 headway was made against the tide 
 of anti-foreign and anti-missionary 
 hatred, yet the unobtrusive work of the 
 Chinese Christian colporteur was quietly 
 augmented and pressed unceasingly 
 forward. 
 
 Much effort therefore, in and for 
 Hunan, had already been made by Euro- 
 pean and Chinese missionaries of the 
 various Societies before Wesleyan 
 Methodism seriously set herself to share 
 in the task of evangelising the hostile 
 province. 
 
 At the time of the Taiping Rebellion 
 there lived in a small town near Teian 
 one named Chang (an exceedingly 
 common surname in China), a man 
 honest and of good report. He had a 
 son, Yi-tsz, who at that time was six- 
 teen years of age. The father was 
 slain by a band of the rebels from 
 whom he tried to rescue a young girl, 
 and Yi-tsz was left to care for the 
 
Wesleyan Missions in Hunan 205 
 
 home. When Mr. Scarborough was 
 itinerating he came to this town and 
 preached in the streets, and as Yi-tsz 
 treated him very courteously, Mr. Scar- 
 borough gave him a copy of one of the 
 Gospels. A relative of his returned 
 about this time from Wuchang, bringing 
 some tracts, and Chang Yi-tsz himself 
 rescued from a rubbish-heap a Christian 
 book. All these books coming into his 
 hands almost at one time made him feel 
 that this strange doctrine should be in- 
 vestigated. When on a visit to Hankow 
 he called on David Hill, and later he 
 joined the Church at Teian, and was 
 baptised in 1886* His house soon be- 
 came a meeting-place for Christians, 
 and members of his own family received 
 baptism. Mr. Chang’s influence for 
 good increased, and he became a faith- 
 ful, honorary pastor. 
 
 In 1893 a young Chinese Christian The Result of 
 named Li Kwang Ti told Mr. Warren * 
 that a few nights previously he had 
 seen Christ in a vision, and had been 
 told to go to Hunan and sell Christian 
 books. Mr. Warren was rather scep- 
 tical, and advised him to consult Mr. 
 
A Chinese 
 Missionary 
 Society. 
 
 The Entry 
 Planned. 
 
 206 The Call of Cathay 
 
 Chang Yi-tsz. He did so, and Mr. 
 Chang reported that he was eonvinced 
 that the suggestion was of God, and 
 volunteered to go also. So the subject 
 was laid before a preachers’ meeting of 
 the Teian Circuit, and they so enthused 
 the local Christians that they supported 
 the enterprise, and appointed the young 
 visionary and Mr. Chang Yi-tsz to this 
 work, the circuit undertaking to bear 
 the cost of the expedition. On Easter 
 Sunday, 1893, the members of the 
 Teian churches assembled in the city 
 chapel to partake of the sacrament 
 of the Lord’s Supper, and solemnly to 
 set apart these two men for the work 
 of evangelism in Hunan. As the out- 
 come of their first journey, the Metho- 
 dist Church in Hupeh inaugurated its 
 own Chinese Missionary Society, and 
 eventually undertook the support of 
 our first four Chinese workers in Hunan. 
 
 The Wuchang Synod of 1900 unani- 
 mously resolved to commence aggres- 
 sive work, and the chairman — T. E. 
 North — W. H. Watson, and G. G. Warren 
 were deputed to make a tour of in- 
 spection in the northern section of 
 
Wesleyan Missions in Hunan 207 
 
 Hunan with a view to occupancy. The 
 Boxer uprising in July of that year 
 prevented an immediate entry, but in 
 January 1902 Lo Yu-shan and the 
 present writer were set apart for this 
 pioneer work. 
 
 In the tew short years that have The Land 
 intervened we have possessed the 
 northern and southern sections of the 
 Siang Valley, and formed no less than 
 seven Methodist circuits. In 1906 Hu- 
 nan was constituted a separate District, 
 with the Rev. Gilbert G. Warren as its 
 first Chairman. 
 
 Our Circuits 
 
 Changsha (“Sandy Stretch,” from Changsha 
 the low sandy island which stretches 
 before the city in the middle of the busy 
 Siang River) is considered one of the 
 finest and cleanest cities in the empire. 
 
 On the opposite bank rises the famous 
 Yoluh Hill, on whose sides may be seen 
 the rude stone structure sheltering one 
 of the oldest inscriptions in the empire, 
 the Tablet of Yii the Great, the Chinese 
 Noah, the saviour of the people from 
 an awful inundation of an early time. 
 
2o8 The Call of Cathay 
 
 At the foot of this hill is one of the 
 oldest and most famous of Confueian 
 eolleges, antedating the great univer- 
 sities of England. A eity that eon- 
 trols the destinies of 22 millions, that 
 triennially determined the future of * 
 10,000 graduates, famous alike for its 
 statesmen, soldiers, and scholars — is 
 it any wonder that it proudly sought 
 to stem the advancing wave of the 
 foreign innovation ? 
 
 It was into this city that Wesleyan 
 Methodism sent its first pioneers — Lo 
 Yu-shan and the writer of this chapter. 
 
 A spacious Chinese house was rented and 
 adapted, and great was the excitement 
 when the large front hall was opened 
 for preaching to the citizens. Crowds 
 gathered daily, and, on the whole, were 
 attentive and respectful. From the 
 first we have had large audiences, which 
 have never flagged in numbers nor in 
 interest. An encouraging group of in- 
 quirers was quickly gathered, and as 
 quickly dispersed when it was under- 
 stood that no special privileges in the 
 law-courts were obtainable. Of that 
 first batch only one remains with us 
 
Wesleyan Missions in Hunan 209 
 
 to-day, and he a man from Hupeh ! 
 On Easter Sunday, 1903 — just ten years 
 after that memorable dedicatory ser- 
 vice in the Teian chapel, when those 
 first Hupeh colporteurs left for Hunan — 
 a baptismal service was held in Chang- 
 sha, when three converts, the firstfruits 
 of our Hunan Church, were received 
 into Christian fellowship. It was most 
 appropriate that the Chinese minister, Lo 
 Yu-shan — ^himself a Hunanese — should 
 administer the rite of baptism. 
 
 In this city we now possess a valuable 
 site on a busy main thoroughfare. 
 Abutting on to this street is a fine new 
 preaching-hall — the largest in the city 
 — where daily preaching (afternoon and 
 evening) is carried on more vigorously 
 than ever. Behind this hall there are 
 the native adapted premises of our Theo- 
 logical Training Institution, which was 
 opened last year (1909) and now has 
 sixteen students in residence, including 
 several men from other missions. We 
 look forward to this institution becoming 
 a valuable auxiliary to our work in the 
 near future. On the same site we have 
 erected two European houses for the 
 
 A Memorable 
 Anniversary. 
 
 Changsha 
 Chapel, School, 
 and Houses. 
 
2 10 The Call of Cathay 
 
 residence of the circuit ministers. From 
 the commencement, the work in this 
 great city has been very unresponsive ; 
 but although we do not seem to make 
 much headway against the prejudice 
 and bigotry of the people, yet even here 
 Christ is gathering to Himself a Church. 
 
 Changsha has one out-station, the 
 county town of Siang-ying, some forty 
 miles lower dowm the river towards 
 Hankow. Here we have a small Chris- 
 tian community. 
 
 Changsha The Changsha riots broke out in 
 April 1910. For several months there 
 had been much unrest in the province, 
 and particularly in the capital. Scarcity 
 of rice, and consequent high prices, 
 agitation against foreign financing of 
 the railroad, the contemplated building 
 of the British Consulate by skilled work- 
 men from other provinces, the revived 
 antagonism to everything foreign, and 
 the superstitious fears aroused by the 
 appearance of Halley’s comet — these all 
 went to swell the popular discontent, 
 but it was almost as a bolt from the blue 
 that the riots burst upon the city. 
 
 There had been trouble over the 
 
KWEICHOW 
 
 MAP OF THE HTJISrAN PROVINCE TO SHOW W.M.M.S. STATIONS. 
 
 211 
 
2 12 
 
 The Call of Cathay 
 
 exportation of rice, but this grievance 
 had been removed, and it was hoped 
 the excitement had died down. The 
 Governor had promised to lower the 
 price of rice by opening the Government 
 granaries. To the amazement and anger 
 of the populace, this promise was not 
 kept. On April 13 a large mob gathered 
 before the Governor’s yamen^ assuming 
 a threatening attitude, and some of the 
 bodyguard fired upon and killed a num- 
 ber of the citizens. Then were let loose 
 the worst passions of the mob. The 
 following extract from a letter written 
 by Mrs. Cooper will give an insight into 
 this phase of missionary life : 
 
 “s.s. Sian Tan. Off Changsha, Hunan. 
 
 1910 . 
 
 “ Last night we retired to rest at eleven o’clock 
 and at one o’clock were awakened by shouting in 
 the street. We rose and hurriedly dressed and went 
 up on to the flat roof, and from there could hear the 
 breaking of doors and general destruction, amid the 
 yells of the mob, of the flne new Government post- 
 office near by. From there the crowds rushed to the 
 Chinese Imperial Bank, a few doors from the post- 
 office. Then they came on to our Mission — the 
 chapel stands on the front of the plot facing the 
 street. They surged in, and as we stood in a silent 
 group on the house-top we heard the banging and 
 
Wesleyan Missions in Hunan 213 
 
 stamping of thousands of feet, and the sharp sound 
 of smashing glass ; then we all came downstairs 
 and waited in the passage in the dark — for we thought 
 it better to have no lights in the house. We hoped 
 against hope that the demolition of the chapel would 
 content them, and that they would surge out again ; 
 but alas ! they surged the other way to the back of 
 the chapel, and smashed up the Theological School ; 
 and after that rushed through the big doors that 
 separate our little front garden from the school. 
 When my husband found them in our garden (he 
 had been watching events at the front and retreating 
 step by step as the rioters made attack after attack), 
 he came hastily to the back, lantern in hand, and 
 told us and Mr. and Mrs. Warren and family (whose 
 house is next to ours) that we must escape at once 
 by the back gate. This back gate is always kept 
 locked, and is an emergency exit into a narrow lane. 
 Leaving the house, we all filed out as the rioters, 
 led by a man beating a gong and another carrying a 
 lantern, dashed up on to the front verandah and into 
 our house. We got to the great West Gate of the 
 city . . . and passed through . . . and breathed a sigh 
 of relief and gratitude to God as we heard the order 
 given ‘ Shut the gates,’ and knew in the darkness 
 that we were out on the river bank. We made our 
 way to this steamer, and came aboard. 
 
 “ This morning we hear that the house was not 
 fired, but that our goods were all bundled out and 
 pitched on to the grassplot, and there lamp-oil was 
 pomed over the heaps and they were set on fire. 
 At dawn Mr. Warren made an excursion to the house, 
 and says that all the doors are wrenched off, the 
 verandah windows and glass windows smashed, and 
 a state of general havoc prevails. The bonfire on 
 the grass still smouldered. 
 
2 14 The Call of Cathay 
 
 “We have just had breakfast on the steamer — a 
 very white-faced, jaded-looking lot, the men without 
 collars, the children without boots and stockings. 
 When we were tidying up for breakfast no one had 
 a comb or brush or hairpin.” 
 
 “ Friday morning, April 15. 
 
 “ Yesterday was a time of great excitement. At 
 short intervals the Chinese fired different buildings, 
 the flames leapt high, and the dense clouds of smoke 
 proclaimed clearly to us what was going on in the 
 city. First, the Norwegian Chapel rose in flames 
 and smoke, and later the Norwegian Mission House. 
 An hour or two of quiet, and then the China Inland 
 Mission House. Again a lull, and then the London 
 Mission premises. During the afternoon we heard 
 the Governor had been murdered, but that the 
 populace would not believe it till they saw his dead 
 body ; rumours said they insisted on his head being 
 shown them. . . .” 
 
 We afterwards found that the last 
 statements were false reports. The 
 Governor’s residence was fired and 
 gutted, but the Governor himself just 
 escaped with his life. Government 
 buildings, schools, and business premises 
 were attacked, and mission after mission 
 suffered in the general riot, our own 
 amongst the number. For three days 
 anarchy prevailed, and the city was 
 given up to riot and pillage ; but under 
 the merciful providence of God, not one 
 
OUR CHANGSHA MISSION HOUSES AETER THE RIOTS. 
 
Wesleyan Missions in Hunan 215 
 
 of the hundred Europeans in the city 
 received any injury. 
 
 During these fateful days little bands 
 of refugees found their way to the 
 hospitable British steamer anchored 
 in the river, and were conveyed to 
 Hankow and elsewhere, to await the 
 restoration of order and government. 
 
 Our Country Circuits 
 
 Pingkiang Placid River ” city) Pmgkung 
 was opened as an out-station during 
 the same year that Changsha was 
 occupied. It lies among the hills, some 
 three days’ journey by road, north-east 
 of Changsha, the actual distance being 
 about eighty miles. 
 
 The inhabitants were greatly opposed 
 to our desire to settle in their midst. 
 
 The unfortunate man who helped us 
 to rent a so-called devil-haunted shop 
 on a main street was afterwards badly 
 beaten, and was compelled to fire strings 
 of crackers from one end of the town 
 to the other, calling out an apology to 
 the citizens. Our premises were taken 
 from us, and for a time it seemed as 
 
21 6 The Call of Cathay 
 
 though we should have to beat a retreat ; 
 but finally taetful interviewing of the 
 gentry of the town, and the sowing 
 broadeast of some hundreds of traets 
 explaining our aims and methods, won 
 the day, and our house was restored to 
 us. Sinee then the attitude of the people 
 has ehanged. Three years ago the towns- 
 people presented the two resident mis- 
 sionaries with a eongratulatory tablet, 
 expressing goodwill and appreeiation of 
 their efforts for the welfare of the town. 
 
 The work has developed rapidly, and 
 there are already two self-supporting 
 ehurehes whieh employ their own 
 preaeher and school teacher. Some £30 
 per annum is subscribed by the ‘‘ One- 
 cash Society,” each member being 
 pledged to give one cash a day — a cash 
 equalling about -g-Q-th of an English penny. 
 A Boys’ Boarding-school has been 
 opened with 34 scholars, and is almost 
 self-supporting. An adult half-day 
 school for Bible instruction is a great 
 success. Fourteen business men of the 
 town, who attend this school, take the 
 Annual Synod examinations in Christian 
 doctrine. There is a Day School for 
 
Wesleyan Missions in Hunan 217 
 
 Girls, and a Women’s Bible Sehool is 
 meditated. Pingkiang has six out- 
 stations, eaeh with its own day school. 
 
 Liuyang (‘‘Virulence of the Liu”)Liuyang 
 takes its name from the beautiful Liu 
 River, which flows past the city. It is 
 a prosperous place, situated amidst 
 fine hill-scenery, some sixty miles or 
 two days’ journey by road from Chang- 
 sha and Pingkiang. It is famous for 
 its past officials, and has a great export 
 of the well-known China grass-cloth, 
 which finds a ready sale in England. 
 
 Liuyang had been visited for some 
 time by a Hunanese Christian colporteur 
 named Huang. He had sold books 
 and preached on the main streets of the 
 town, and there was promise of several 
 converts if only we could occupy the place 
 and instruct the inquirers. We there- 
 fore opened this city at the same time 
 that we occupied Pingkiang. After 
 much difficulty our Chinese minister 
 persuaded a housholder to rent us his 
 shop. This was put into repair, and 
 preaching to the heathen was imme- 
 diately commenced. Colporteur Huang 
 speedily gathered around him a little 
 
Yiyang Circuit, 
 
 21 8 The Call of Cathay 
 
 band of inquirers, who now constitute 
 the nucleus of the Christian Church in 
 that city. 
 
 Unlike Pingkiang, no disturbance 
 followed our occupancy, yet here, too, 
 we have had difficulty and persecution. 
 On one occasion Mr. Huang was roughly 
 handled by an angry mob, and was only 
 saved by the timely interference of 
 friends. He won to himself the respect 
 of the townspeople by the Christ-like 
 way in which he acted under these 
 trying circumstances, and he eventually 
 petitioned the county magistrate for 
 the release of the ringleaders. The work 
 is spreading in the eastern part of the 
 county, and there is promise of a very 
 successful church. Until 1910 there 
 has been no resident missionary, but 
 with the coming of W. W. Gibson and 
 J. A. Alexander there was the beginning 
 of much progress in Liuyang Circuit. 
 
 Yiyang (the city of “ Progressive 
 Strength ”) is an important trading- 
 mart situated on the Tsz River, which 
 empties its waters into the great Tung- 
 ting Lake. It is a place of great 
 strategic importance, as thousands of 
 
Wesleyan Missions in Hunan 219 
 
 boatmen pass through Yiyang each 
 season on their way to Hankow with 
 their freight of coal and iron from the 
 mines of the Paoking district. 
 
 In the autumn of 1902 a visit was 
 paid to the city by W. H. Watson and 
 the writer. The whole city turned out 
 to watch, for this was the first occa- 
 sion upon which foreigners had had 
 the temerity to land there. The shop- 
 keepers closed down their places, for 
 the people are excitable, and not easily 
 controlled ; the officials were nervous, 
 and posted soldiers every few paces down 
 the crowded streets, and they themselves 
 accompanied the two missionaries on 
 horseback during the long hours of 
 that tropical day, as from end to end of 
 the city they perseveringly sold many 
 thousands of picture tracts to the 
 thronging Chinese multitude. As a 
 result of this journey it was determined 
 to occupy at once ; and after the usual 
 opposition and delays, a small wooden 
 house in the corner of a dirty alley-way 
 was rented. 
 
 A Christian soldier was put in charge, 
 a native of the place who had been 
 
220 
 
 The Call of Cathay 
 
 converted to God while guarding a 
 China Inland Mission chapel in Hupeh. 
 He has proved an invaluable worker, 
 and a wise pastor. Under God he has 
 been enabled to start a wonderful work 
 of grace. Thieves, gamblers, drunkards, 
 opium-smokers have been converted 
 under his ministry. When in Hunan, the 
 Rev. Gregory Mantle visited this church, 
 and heard the experience of its members 
 at the Methodist class-meeting. He 
 has left it on record that it was the 
 most wonderful experience-meeting he 
 ever attended. The work still prospers. 
 We have established a day school for 
 boys, and a boarding-school for girls, 
 and also are beginning a Bible school 
 for women. The members have them- 
 selves opened another preaching-place 
 in the town, and in the country they 
 have started several village eauses. The 
 ex-soldier preacher has now been ac- 
 cepted as a candidate on trial for the 
 Chinese ministry. 
 
 Paokingfu (the city of “ Precious Fe- 
 licity ”) is situated on the right bank 
 of the dangerous Tsz River, in the very 
 heart of the “ Black Country ” of 
 
Wesleyan Missions in Hunan 221 
 
 Hunan. Twenty days are required to 
 reaeh the city by boat from Changsha, 
 and by road it takes six days’ hard walk- 
 ing to accomplish the journey. Coal 
 and iron mines abound in the district, 
 and during the night the glare from the 
 smelting furnaces can be seen for many 
 miles around. The people are turbu- 
 lent, but have many sterling qualities. 
 
 The city was first visited in the late 
 autumn of 1902, and was just recovering 
 from the unrest occasioned by an 
 incipient rebellion. The county official 
 strenuously opposed us in our endeavour 
 to rent a preaching-place ; but when 
 he saw the good received by some of his 
 sick soldiers from the missionary’s 
 drugs, he so far relented as to permit 
 us to rent a disreputable house in a 
 quiet corner of -the city. 
 
 In 1903 W. W. Gibson took up his 
 residence and commenced preaching 
 and dispensary work. His Opium Refuge 
 was the means of many a poor opium- 
 smoker gaining liberty from the drug, 
 and some of them, at least, have been 
 led to Christ. His efforts have been 
 much appreciated, and have been the 
 
222 
 
 Chenchow 
 
 Circuit. 
 
 The Call of Cathay 
 
 means of removing much misunder- 
 standing and distrust. After a time a 
 good site was purchased, and two semi- 
 foreign houses have been built for the 
 minister and doctor now in charge of 
 the station. The little dispensary has 
 developed into a hospital with twenty- 
 four beds, while day school and preach- 
 ing-hall are alike doing their work for 
 the city’s good. 
 
 Success has come more slowly than 
 in the northern circuits, and the church 
 is still very small. Paoking has one 
 out-station, the town of Yungfeng, half- 
 way on the road between Changsha and 
 Paoking, where a Chinese preacher is 
 in charge of a small church. 
 
 Chenchow (the city of Trees ”) 
 lies in a cup-like hollow surrounded^ 
 by beautiful hills. It is at the head of 
 the Hunan-Kwangtung watershed, and 
 was once a most important depot. The 
 great overland trade route from Can- 
 ton and South-western China to Hankow 
 and Peking passed through the city. 
 Thousands of mules carried merchan- 
 dise day by day over the famous Cheh- 
 lin Pass to Chenchow, whence it was 
 
Wesleyan Missions in Hunan 223 
 
 shipped by junk to Hankow and beyond. 
 
 The city is now of less importance than 
 formerly, as the big steamers of the sea 
 route now divert much of the trade. 
 Chenchow can be reached by river 
 from Changsha in eighteen days, but 
 by road the journey is accomplished 
 on foot in nine days. 
 
 Work was commenced here in the 
 summer of 1903 in a small rented house 
 at the quiet end of a main thoroughfare. 
 
 For several years there was a native in 
 charge but no resident missionary ; the 
 work being superintended from Yung- 
 chowfu, distant eight days’ journey 
 to the west. Now there is promise of 
 a strong and healthy church. School 
 and women’s work are being vigorously 
 maintained, and colportage and daily 
 preaching occupy much of the mis- 
 sionaries’ time. At Ichang, on the 
 Kwangtung frontier, an out- station has 
 been occupied, and is fortunate in 
 having the loving oversight of an old 
 and experienced Chinese preacher and 
 his wife. 
 
 Yungchowdu (the “ Region of Perpe- Yungchow 
 tuity ”) has been called the garden 
 
224 The Call of Cathay 
 
 city of Hunan. It lies on the right 
 bank of the Siao River, whieh forms 
 a graceful horse-shoe bend round the 
 town. It is well wooded, and contains 
 large open spaces and grassy hillsides, 
 while in the distance are to be seen the 
 towering mountains of Kwangtung and 
 Kwangsi. The inhabitants are friendly 
 but apathetic, and the work has been 
 very up-hill. It is a most idolatrous 
 city, containing, it is said, some sixty- 
 nine temples and monasteries. 
 
 When we first occupied Yungchow, 
 the usual obstructions were encountered, 
 but finally a so-called devil-haunted house 
 was obtained and transformed into 
 preaching-hall, dispensary, day-school, 
 and missionary’s house. Dispensary 
 work broke down the opposition — 
 patients were sometimes carried four 
 days’ journey over the mountains to 
 obtain relief — and after several years of 
 lay medical work a hospital is being 
 built, and a fully qualified practitioner. 
 Dr. George Hadden, is in charge. 
 The day schools have developed into 
 boarding-schools. The Girls’ School and 
 the Women’s Work are now under the 
 
piwto ly-\ [TF. H. PiXlow. 
 
 INTERIOR OF THE WESLEYAN CHURCH, YUNGCHOWFU. 
 
 p. 224] 
 
 A CHINESE STREET. 
 
Wesleyan Missions in Hunan 225 
 
 care of Miss Denham, the only Women’s 
 Auxiliary worker in the province. The 
 Boys’ School is full of promise, and in 
 the three highest grades has this year 
 gained premier places in the examina- 
 tions of all the Methodist schools in 
 Hupeh and Hunan. ' Kiyang, an out- 
 station three days’ journey down the 
 river, has a preaching-hall and day 
 school for boys. 
 
 ^ 
 
 The W.M.M.S. was the fourth British Other Missions 
 Missionary Society to enter Changsha. 
 
 The London Mission had entered a 
 year earlier, while the China Inland 
 Mission and an American Methodist 
 Mission preceded us by a few months. 
 
 Later there followed the Norwegian 
 Mission and the American Episcopal 
 Mission. One of the Alliance mission- 
 aries of America, unable to get a foot- 
 hold in the city, had for many months 
 been living on a boat anchored at the 
 city gate, and had gone ashore each 
 day to preach in the streets. 
 
 At the first Conference of Hunan First Hunan 
 missionaries, held at the Wesleyan oJnferenJI 
 Methodist church, Changsha, in 1903, 
 
 8 
 
226 
 
 The Call of Cathay 
 
 Yale University 
 Mission 
 
 Seccnd 
 
 Conference* 
 
 a hearty and unanimous invitation 
 was given to the Yale University of 
 America to found an Educational Mis- 
 sion in the city, which would take 
 over the higher educational work of 
 the various Churches, and which would 
 ultimately develop into a fully equipped 
 university. The invitation was accepted, 
 and several university volunteers at once 
 came out. Although still in its infancy, 
 we look forward to the Yale University 
 Mission becoming the great helper of 
 all the Churches, and a potent factor in 
 the salvation of Hunan. 
 
 There is the greatest unanimity 
 amongst the missionary community of 
 Changsha, and indeed throughout the 
 whole province. In Changsha, and in 
 many of the other mission centres, the 
 missionaries and the converts of all 
 the Churches gather together monthly 
 for united prayer-meetings. 
 
 The second Hunan Missionary Confer- 
 ence was held in 1907, and it was found 
 that in the four short years since the last 
 Conference the number of workers and 
 their converts had more than doubled. 
 
 In addition to the Societies already 
 
Wesleyan Missions in Hunan 227 
 
 mentioned as having ehurehes in Chang- 
 sha, there are several other powerful 
 Soeieties at work in different parts of 
 the provinee. The Lutheran Reformed 
 Chureh of Ameriea is building up a 
 strong edueational work at Yoehow. 
 The Ameriean Presbyterians have a 
 healthy and developing work through- 
 out the valleys of the Siang and the Yiien 
 Rivers. The Finnish Missionary Soeiety 
 has taken up the responsibility of 
 evangelising the prefeetural cities and 
 counties to the north-west. The Ger- 
 man China Inland Mission has work 
 outside the city of Changsha and also 
 up the Yiien Valley beyond Paoking 
 and Wukang, while the Church Mis- 
 sionary Society has just consecrated 
 its first Bishop of Hunan, whose see is 
 to lie along the Siang Valley from 
 Changsha to Yungchow and on to the 
 Kweilin across the Kwangsi frontier. 
 The missionaries of Hunan now number 
 over two hundred, and their converts 
 several thousands. 
 
 There are fourteen fully equipped 
 hospitals, and many more dispensaries. 
 There are at least twenty educational 
 
 Other Missions 
 in the Province. 
 
 Foreign 
 Workers and 
 Converts. 
 
 The Army of 
 Occupation, 
 
Lo Yu'shan. 
 
 2£8 The Call of Cathay 
 
 institutions throughout the province, 
 in addition to the free schools at every 
 station. Many of these educational 
 institutions are being rapidly developed 
 and efficiently staffed. They include 
 theological schools, Bible schools for 
 women, and boarding-schools for boys 
 and girls, besides the Yale University 
 Mission. The shadow of the Cross lies 
 over half the counties of Hunan. 
 Hospitals, schools, and churches dot 
 the landscape — the camp-fires of the 
 army of Emmanuel. 
 
 Hunan is a citadel of Chinese re- 
 sistance. Capture it, and we shall have 
 gained a most important strategic centre 
 in the conquest of China. 
 
 Some Hunanese Christians 
 
 Lo Yu-shan was the son of a Hunanese 
 literary man who gained an official post, 
 but died before his son was grown up. 
 Yu-shan’s mother was living, as a girl, 
 in Hankow^ in the early fifties ; and 
 during the fearful seventeenth night 
 of the Seventh Chinese month of 1855, 
 when four miles of houses were burnt 
 
Wesleyan Missions in Hunan 229 
 
 down by Taiping incendiaries, she was 
 hiding alone in a cellar. The house 
 was burnt over her head, but the falling 
 beams overarched her, so that she 
 was found alive the next day. She 
 was a woman of considerable force of 
 character, and her son loved her. 
 
 As a young man, Yu-shan made First 
 Hankow his headquarters, but travelled 
 far and wide, in the track of the Im- 
 perial Examiner, as a seller of spectacles 
 at the various examination centres. 
 
 In the year 1884 he was thus engaged 
 at Wenchow, in South Chekiang Pro- 
 vince, over 800 miles bv water from 
 Hankow. The students stirred up a 
 riot, and destroyed the China Inland 
 Mission premises — where George Stott 
 had commenced work in 1868, and where 
 he now suffered the loss of all things 
 with calm cheerfulness. Yu-shan, 
 mingling with the crowd, saw this and 
 marvelled. Here was a foreigner dis- 
 playing the virtue of a Sage ! There 
 must be something in this religion of 
 his. So, on Yu-shan’s return to Han- 
 kow, where he got settled employment, 
 he turned in at the Wesleyan Mission 
 
On Trial " 
 
 The Power of 
 Prayer. 
 
 230 The Call of Cathay 
 
 preaching-hall, began to attend services 
 where David Hill was chief preacher, 
 and became a friend of W. A. Cornaby. 
 In course of time his name was entered 
 as “on trial.” But after a while he 
 “ ceased to meet ” for fully five months. 
 The missionaries thought he had gone 
 off on a tour as before, but eventually 
 found that he lived quite near, but did 
 not intend to come, as his employer 
 was averse to it. One evening, how- 
 ever, he felt a strong impulse to attend 
 the evening prayers — that was his ac- 
 count of it. On Mr. Cornaby ’s side 
 were the following facts. The day 
 after he heard that Yu-shan was not 
 distant there was one of the monthly 
 united prayer-meetings held in the 
 British Concession, Hankow. It was 
 led by a stranger, and was a time of 
 wonderful unity of feeling. In the 
 midst of the meeting the leader called 
 for a pause for silent prayer, saying, 
 “ It may be that some of you have a 
 dear Chinese friend you would like to 
 pray for.” That seemed a direct mes- 
 sage from God to pray — to agonise in 
 prayer — for Lo Yu-shan. It was easy 
 
Wesleyan Missions in Hunan 231 
 
 to pray in that meeting attended by 
 “ power from on high.” And there was 
 a feeling that prayer was availing. As 
 Mr. Cornaby returned to the mission 
 eompound and opened the door of the 
 prayer-room that evening, there sat Lo 
 Yu-shan. He came regularly after that. 
 
 Ten days after he was found kneeling in 
 silent prayer as the door opened. And 
 when the little meeting had started, 
 without being called upon, he offered 
 his first public prayer — a few sentences, 
 the last of which was sobbed out : 
 
 “ Lord Jesus, save my mother ! ” By 
 the time he was baptised his mother 
 was “ on trial,” and her baptism followed 
 a few months after. 
 
 Now that he knew in his own heart, 
 and in his mother’s case, the power of 
 prayer, there was no further turning 
 back. In process of time he became A Pfeacher. 
 a colporteur, and then preacher at 
 Hsien-t‘ao-chen Fairy Peach Mart ”), 
 an out-station in Mr. Cornaby’s circuity 
 where great firmness, tact, and wisdona 
 were needed ; for the three hundred 
 who immediately began to attend were 
 all firmly persuaded that they could 
 
Ordination, 
 
 232 The Call of Cathay 
 
 thereby gain certain privileges in the 
 law-courts, as their neighbours the 
 Roman Catholic adherents had done. 
 For three years he preached the Gospel, 
 refusing to put down a single name as 
 “ on trial.’’ The three hundred dwin- 
 dled to thirty, many of whom became 
 sturdy Christians, even under severe 
 persecution. 
 
 Lo Yu-shan was a man of good 
 education, delighting in ancient Chinese 
 belles lettres ; he was also an intelligent 
 Bible-student, of deep spiritual in- 
 sight ; and a brave man withal. He 
 was told there was a plot to destroy 
 the premises, which could be averted 
 if he removed the signboard. Instead, 
 he called the converts to a prayer- 
 meeting on the premises during the 
 day of danger. And there was not the 
 slightest disturbance. 
 
 It was with great confidence that the 
 Synod ordained him. And when it was 
 decided to commence work in Hunan he 
 became the able colleague of the present 
 writer for pioneering in Changsha. 
 He made an abiding impression in that 
 city, upon missionaries, inquirers, and 
 
Photo by'] 
 
 [TF, ^ . Cornabij. 
 
 p. 232 J 
 
 THE EEV. LO YU-SHAN. 
 
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 -I 'X^', ,-, 
 
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 ■ ’K'V' 
 
 
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 ilr^'i>'- v'" r. . - .'-v V Im Wi . 
 
 
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 w-m:^ 
 
 
 
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 r" 
 
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 •#i , I iV V-w ' 
 
 ; ’:..l 
 
 
 ' ffi'.- 
 
Wesleyan Missions in Hunan 233 
 
 outsiders. On Easter Day, 1903, though 
 already in the grip of a fatal disease, 
 after but two years’ work there, he had 
 the joy of baptising our first three 
 eonverts in that provinee. In the hot 
 summer he passed away, leaving a 
 vaeant plaee that has not been filled. 
 
 Lo Yu-shan was one of the most re- 
 markable Christians that God has ever 
 given us in Central China. Truly a 
 man of God, and of prayer ! 
 
 Si Tai-kai is a native of Pingkiang. Si Tai^kai. 
 His temperament is impressionable and 
 religious ; and mueh family siekness and 
 bereavement, and the loss in quick 
 succession of three young girls who had 
 in turn been selected as his future wife, 
 caused him to seek by a life of asceticism 
 to propitiate the vindictive spirits who 
 so evidently were the enemies of his 
 family. 
 
 He took vegetarian vows. His daily A Vegetarian, 
 diet was merely rice and a few vege- 
 tables and herbs. He sought merit 
 by liberating birds and fishes. These 
 he bought from the hawkers on the 
 streets, and he would open the cage 
 
 8 * 
 
Becomes a 
 Buddhist 
 
 Hears the 
 Gospeh 
 
 234 The Call of Cathay 
 
 doors and let the birds go free, while 
 the live fishes were carried to the 
 nearest pond and set at liberty. 
 
 He decided to join' a Buddhist sect; 
 but as many of these sects are in the 
 main secret societies, the clan elders were 
 much opposed to his doing so. They 
 threatened death by drowning if he did 
 not recant, but the fearless young man 
 bade them do their worst. He dared to 
 face death for his religious convictions. 
 He at once became famous, and soon 
 from that countryside many were per- 
 suaded to take vegetarian vows and to 
 join his sect. He and his converts made 
 long pilgrimages to an important monas- 
 tery in Hupeh. The abbot was so 
 impressed with the earnestness of the 
 young devotee that he offered to ini- 
 tiate him into all the mystic rites of 
 the Buddhist religion, and to nominate 
 him as his successor in office. 
 
 Upon one of these pilgrimages this 
 earnest seeker for truth casually entered 
 the Methodist preaching-hall at Tung- 
 cheng, our farthest Hupeh outpost on 
 the eastern frontier of Hunan. He 
 was very interested in what he heard, 
 
Wesleyan Missions in Hunan 235 
 
 but disputed with the preacher, chal- 
 lenging all he taught. Later, he met 
 a Christian colporteur and others who 
 gave him further instruction, and ul- 
 timately he renounced Buddhism and 
 his vegetarian vows, and was baptised 
 at Changsha, on Easter Sunday, 1903, 
 by Lo Yu-shan. The Buddhist zealot 
 became a Methodist preacher, and has 
 been instrumental in leading many of 
 his former disciples to the Christ whom 
 he has found. 
 
 ASSIGNMENTS FOR STUDY CIRCLES 
 
 STUDY PROBLEM. — To see what part the Chinese 
 Church must play in the evangelisation of China. 
 
 1. Summarise the references (in this chapter) to 
 the part Chinese Christians have played in the 
 evangelisation of Hunan. 
 
 2. What advantages has the trained Chinese 
 worker over the foreign missionary ? 
 
 REFERENCES FOR FURTHER STUDY 
 
 Broomhall, M. — Chinese Empire (pages 164—89). 
 
 Pioneer Work in Hunan. 
 
 Allan, C. W. — Our Entry into Hunan. 
 
 Ghu and Lo : Two Chinese Pastors. 
 W.M.M.S. — The General Report. 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 
 “The 
 
 Changeless 
 
 East” 
 
 NEW CHINA AND ITS PROBLEMS 
 
 It has been the custom of the Western 
 writers, with China especially in mind, 
 to speak of the ‘‘ Changeless East.” 
 Thus Dr. A. B. Bruce, to quote one 
 of many distinguished writers, wrote, 
 somewhere before 1900, of “ that stereo- 
 typed, custom-ridden Oriental race, 
 the Chinese.” And Professor Henry 
 Drummond, after his visit to China, 
 wrote in January 1899 : “ This nation, 
 
 as every one knows, is an instance of 
 arrested development. On a fair way 
 to become a higher vertebrate, it has 
 stopped short at the crustacean, — the 
 external shell of custom and tradition 
 so hardened by the deposit of centuries, 
 as to make the evolutionist’s demand 
 for mobility, i.e, for capacity to change, 
 almost non-existent.” 
 
 Both remarks seemed fully justified 
 
 236 
 
HIS EXCELLENCY CHANG CHIH-TIJNG. 
 
 The Grand Old Man of China on a car of the Peking-Hankow Railway. 
 
 p. 236] 
 
New China and its Problems 237 
 
 at the time they were written, but they 
 read strangely to any one in China to- 
 day. In a sense it is hardly correct China Never 
 to say that China was ever changeless, Chang 
 From Confucius’ death till the present 
 day there have been 245 emperors, 
 with very few uneventful reigns among 
 them. There have been fifty great re- 
 bellions in the last two thousand years, 
 and local insurrections almost every 
 year. China has been split up and re- 
 united several times. Since a.d. 317, 
 some 1,590 years in all, she has been 
 ruled in part, or as a whole, by foreigners 
 689 years : Huns (317-386 inclusive) ; 
 
 Turkic rulers (387-550) ; Tartar (1280- 
 1367) ; Manchus (1644 onwards). On 
 the other hand, with the exception of 
 new religious sentiments, as those of 
 Buddhism, and Buddhism coloured by 
 Nestorianism, there have been few new 
 elements introduced into the thought 
 of her thinkers or the life of her masses. 
 
 Her local government — the element 
 which has bulked so largely in the 
 popular consciousness — has been along 
 the same old ruts all the time, in its 
 habit of dispensing justice to the high- 
 
238 The Call of Cathay 
 
 est bidder by unsalaried mandarin- 
 dom. “ Empires fall, Ministries pass 
 away, but the Bureaux remain,” as Due 
 FAudiffret-Pasquier onee wrote. The 
 history of China in the thirteenth 
 eentury speaks of the offieials “ shearing 
 the populace ” ; and certain words of 
 Talleyrand seem to apply to whole 
 millenniums of China’s past : “ Society 
 
 is divisible into two classes : shearers 
 and shorn.” China’s ideals, in China’s 
 own words, have been Name and Gain ; 
 and for the most part the life of her 
 scholars and people has been a struggle 
 for either or both, and for little else. 
 Not always selfishly, however ; for the 
 family unit has occupied the place of our 
 capital I, and the family bond has been 
 kept well cemented. Beyond the family 
 the outlook has been exceedingly local. 
 Clans have been clannish indeed ; 
 villages of the same surname have been 
 little realms by themselves. At most, 
 the general conception has been pro- 
 vincial. “ China is a mere congeries of 
 provincial governorships, totally devoid 
 of anything worthy to be called national 
 unity,” wrote a leader-writer in the 
 
New China and its Problems 239 
 
 Times of September 30, 1895, and he 
 was not wide of the mark. 
 
 China has been a land of stagnation Largely to 
 till the eomparatively reeent inpouring isolation, 
 of Western ideas. This has arisen from 
 her isolation, or the mere impaet of 
 raees so nearly akin to her own as to 
 be summed up in the common name of 
 Mongoloid. There has been nothing 
 in her history, until late years, answer- 
 ing to the impact of Roman civilisation 
 upon the ancient Britons, and then the 
 coming of the Norsemen, the Anglo- 
 Saxons, the Normans, into our own 
 land. It has been a case of iso-fertili- 
 sation, which has resulted in sterilisa- 
 tion, as regards thought and aspiration, 
 since China ceased to be a continent 
 with some fourteen contending States 
 in the dynasty called Chow (1122-256 
 B.C.), when she produced all her Sages 
 and all her Classics, with only com- 
 mentaries upon them since. Truly a 
 case of ‘‘ arrested development,” though 
 not hopelessly “ crustacean,” with “ a 
 capacity to change almost non-existent.” 
 
 Nestorian foreigners and Roman Nestorian and 
 Catholic foreigners do not seem to have Liliuence. 
 
China^s 
 
 Awakening* 
 
 240 The Call of Cathay 
 
 modified China’s public opinion much, 
 for they were imperially favoured ones ; 
 and as Father Ripa testified of the 
 latter in 1711 : 
 
 “ Their garments are made of the richest materials ; 
 they go nowhere on foot, but always in sedans, or 
 horseback, or house-boats, with numerous attendants 
 following them.” 
 
 The populace have regarded them as 
 foreign officials ; and as Confucius said 
 of the popular gods, “ Respect the 
 spirits, but keep aloof from them,” the 
 nation as a whole has maintained an 
 attitude of “ aloofness ” — generally of 
 respectful fear, but sometimes of active 
 antagonism. The nation as such did 
 not take their influence into itself as a 
 germ that would bring forth some new 
 thing. The foreign body introduced 
 into the systern remained unabsorbed, 
 unassimilated. 
 
 But from 1901 onwards new forces 
 have brought about the beginning of a 
 new China ; the nation has changed 
 more in the first decade of the twentieth 
 century than in all the twenty cen- 
 turies previous. 
 
 The change seems sudden, and will 
 
THE OED METHOD OE TRANSPORTATION. 
 A fair breeze on the Yangtse. 
 
 Photo hijl 
 
 [TF. A. Cornaly. 
 
 THE NEW METHOD OF TRANSPORTATION. 
 Train entering HantowTille station. 
 
 [p. 241 
 
New China and its Problems 241 
 
 go down to posterity on the pages of 
 history as one of the great events of 
 the world, an event comparable to the 
 Renaissance in Europe, in the fifteenth 
 and sixteenth centuries. Sudden in- 
 deed this change of an empire-continent 
 in a single decade ! And yet not with- 
 out a series of causes, growing in their 
 dynamic force throughout the nineteenth 
 century. China is awake ! What has 
 awakened her ? 
 
 I. The coming of the merchant. 
 
 The opening of Treaty Ports, which 
 were and are very up-to-date Euro- 
 pean (or Eur- American, as we can say 
 in Chinese) cities and municipalities, 
 dotted about the land of hoary tradi- 
 tion and custom, and disregarding both 
 —with their solid-built houses and offices 
 and shops, their macadamised roads, 
 horse-carriages, bicycles, motor-cars, 
 and even, latterly, electric trams ; their 
 police force, their sanitary regulations ; 
 and the fact of men and women meeting 
 and walking together as equals, some 
 of them arm-in-arm in broad daylight. 
 And then the goods poured into sur- 
 rounding districts by the foreign mer- 
 
 Causes : 
 
 I. The Coming 
 of the Merchant. 
 
242 The Call of Cathay 
 
 chants : matches instead of the flint and 
 steel and rolled paper spills ; paraffin 
 oil instead of either rape oil, eotton- 
 seed oil, or tea oil (from a eoarse tea- 
 plant) ; soap instead of alkaline bean 
 pods ; Laneashire calicoes instead of the 
 narrow-length fluffy cotton- cloth woven 
 by the women in the farm-houses, — 
 these and a hundred other things became 
 adopted, absorbed, regarded as neces- 
 sities by hundreds of thousands around 
 the ports, and as desirable things by 
 thousands more farther inland. 
 
 II. The Coming II. The comiug of the Protestant mis- 
 
 of the Mission- . i • . j. t x £ x.i 
 
 ary. sionary, living near to the life 01 the 
 
 people, walking and chatting with them 
 in no superior fashion — exeept as re- 
 gards the novel thoughts that were 
 natural to him ; called indeed “ oeean 
 demon,” but surely a man of like 
 passions with themselves, when they 
 saw him leading his little child along 
 outside the city.^ Travelling on foot 
 
 ^ When Dr. F. Porter Smith, of the in 
 
 the mid sixties carried his baby a little way through 
 the streets of Hankow, it made an immense and a 
 favourable impression. “ Look ! look ! he’s carry- 
 ing his own baby. He can’t be a ‘ demon ’ after all, 
 can he ? ” 
 
New China and its Problems 243 
 
 or in the ordinary Chinese hire-boats ; 
 “ half-giving, half-selling ” his traets 
 and Gospels written in almost the lan- 
 guage of the street ; preaehing in the 
 “ Glad-news Hall ” and telling out that 
 the Shang-Ti (Sovereign on High) of 
 antiquity is his Father and theirs, a 
 Father with Whom he holds converse 
 daily ; telling out strange tales of One 
 in West Asia Who lived the life that 
 Chinese Sages had described as ideal, and 
 went far beyond their ideal : Who loved 
 His enemies, and when they conspired 
 against Him and captured Him, and 
 wronged Him, and stirred up a riot, and 
 overawed their official-in-chief, and had 
 Him tortured to death — prayed for them 
 all ; and then, that He did not remain 
 dead, being the Son of God ; that He 
 had given His life for a ransom for all 
 men, and still is living, the great Friend 
 of all men, and Saviour from sin and 
 hell too, if they will but have it so ; 
 telling out also that by penitent prayer 
 to the Sovereign on high new forces 
 of goodness pour into the character, 
 enabling a man to do what he knows 
 he ought to do — bringing, indeed, an 
 
244 The Call of Cathay 
 
 unseen spirit of goodness to live within 
 him, even as it has been half-believed 
 that certain departed spirits, that have 
 been deified, can come and inhabit the 
 wood and plaster images in the 
 temples. 
 
 Here were new thoughts and considera- 
 tions for the masses, which, even if they 
 were not all quite absorbed, were bound 
 to set men thinking as their fathers 
 had never thought for thousands of 
 years. And then, the skilled hospital 
 work, the miracles wrought there, the 
 “ wizard hand bringing back the spring- 
 tide ” to hopeless cases with a “ kind- 
 ness equal to that of new creation,” to 
 quote but two of the testimonial 
 tablets given to Dr. Sydney R. Hodge, 
 and to his colleagues and predecessors 
 in various cities. Then, schools for 
 girls as well as boys ! Who ever heard 
 of g^VZ-schools before ? And the tripping 
 feet of little Western damsels, untram- 
 melled by the cruel foot-compression of 
 many generations. Here were facts, 
 facts that were a ferment, a dynamic 
 force of transformation, introduced into 
 the innermost lump of age-kneaded meal. 
 
New China and its Problems 245 
 
 Thus the soul of the masses began to 
 awake. 
 
 III. Further, the rise of missionary iii. Missionary 
 literature and journalism, on general lines, 
 for the hitherto “ stand-off ” seholar 
 and mandarin — dealing not just with 
 foreign ideas, but bringing the wisdom 
 of the West to bear on China’s own 
 problems, national, economic, social, 
 moral, religious; and that, too, in the 
 choicest literary language of aesthetic 
 scholarship — ^with the aid of Chinese 
 scribes of cultured abilities. Magazine 
 newspapers, and with telegraphic news 
 too ! Who ever heard of these things 
 ‘before ? And illustrated with pictures 
 that look just like the thing to be por- 
 trayed, instead of aesthetic poems of 
 line and wash, that glorify the landscape 
 into impossible proportions, or look 
 down on a hall from the rafters ^ ; and 
 the matter in these magazines brings 
 the real things described graphically 
 before the mind. Moreover, these maga- 
 
 1 This downward perspective in Chinese art arose 
 from their having to ascend a neighbouring hill to 
 gain a picture of a city or wide landscape, and thus 
 it became the correct fashion for interiors also. 
 
IV, Rise of 
 
 Chinese 
 
 Journalism, 
 
 246 The Call of Cathay 
 
 zines bring insight into the teaching 
 of history, in various countries and 
 ages, showing what results follow certain 
 courses in the long-run ; showing too how 
 problems as pressing as those of China 
 have been successfully dealt with else- 
 where. What wonder that these books 
 and magazines, issued by that Society 
 which is now known as the Christian 
 Literature Society for China, as well 
 as the books issued by the Educational 
 Society, scholarly and for scholars, put 
 new ideas into their older readers, and 
 new impulses into their younger ones ! 
 So that various experiments in Western 
 methods, from minor things on to the 
 founding of great iron and steel works, and 
 the establishment of the telegraph from 
 city to city, became the natural result. 
 
 IV. The rise of Chinese journalism. 
 
 Before missionary journalism began 
 China had but the Peking Gazette, or 
 Court Chronicle and recorder of edicts 
 and the like.^ In 1872, however, 
 
 1 The Peking Gazette first appeared 911 a.d. to- 
 wards the beginning of the Sung Dynasty, but came 
 out only at irregular intervals until 1351, since when 
 it has been issued four times in each Chinese moon. 
 
THE GREAT IRON AND STEEL WORKS, HANYANG. 
 
New China and its Problems 247 
 
 it occurred to two enterprising mer- 
 chant brothers in Shanghai to finance 
 and start a Chinese daily paper, the 
 literary material to be supplied by 
 Chinese article-writers, with some assis- 
 tance at first ; the foreign telegrams 
 to be translated from English ; and a staff 
 of newsgatherers to be secured in various 
 Chinese cities. The result was the Shen 
 Pao {Shen being the name of a notable 
 worthy of the region in old time), which 
 is still running. This was followed by 
 a native newspaper in Hong Kong ; by 
 the Sin Wen Pao (“ News Gazette ”), 
 in Shanghai, 1894 ; and the Chung 
 Wai Jih Pao (“ Universal Gazette ”), 
 m Shanghai, 1898 ; the two former 
 somewhat moderated by foreign influ- 
 ence, the third, and its later contem- 
 poraries in various Treaty Ports, hardly 
 at all ; although till after 1900 all 
 the native newspapers of China, being 
 drastically disallowed in inland cities, 
 by the Court ^ and officials alike, could 
 
 ^ The Empress-Dowager’s edict of October 8, 1898, 
 declared : “ As newspapers only serve to excite the 
 masses, to subvert the present order of things, and 
 the editors are composed of the dregs of the lite- 
 rary classes, no good can be served by the continua- 
 
248 The Call of Cathay 
 
 only exist under the aegis of foreign 
 protection and nominal ownership, with- 
 in the various municipalities. 
 
 In view of the liberties native news- 
 papers have since taken in criticising 
 Chinese officialdom, it is interesting to 
 read, in a speech on The Unpopularity 
 of the Foreigner in China,” some words 
 of Wu Ting-fang, Chinese Minister to 
 the United States, November 1900, de- 
 livered at Philadelphia : 
 
 “ The general tone of the foreign press in China is 
 calculated to set the whole Chinese nation against 
 foreigners and things foreign. Columns are devoted 
 in almost every issue to denouncing the Government 
 and its officials, and condemning everything which 
 the people hold dear and sacred.” 
 
 The sole fraction of truth in this 
 specious reasoning as to foreign unpopu- 
 larity was a remark here and there in 
 the Western press on gross errors of 
 policy, and miscarriage of justice, and 
 a word or two on Chinese superstitions ; 
 
 tion of such dangerous instruments, therefore 
 We hereby command the entire suppression of all 
 newspapers jDublished within the empire, while the 
 editors connected with them are to be arrested and 
 punished with the utmost severity of the law.” 
 
ISTEW CHINA : MAKING TYPE IN A PRINTING ESTABLISHMENT. 
 
 Thoto hy\ \.C. Bone. 
 
 NEW CHINA : SCHOOLBOYS TAKING A STROLL WITH DRUM- 
 AND-EIFE BAND. 
 
 [p. 249 
 
New China and its Problems 249 
 
 all three items, elaborated into burning 
 artieles, being three ehief neeessities for 
 popularity and a paying eireulation, 
 as regards the Chinese journalism of 
 reeent years. Certain advantages were 
 onee desired by the native press of a 
 eertain Treaty Port, and were offered 
 as requested on the eonditions (1) that 
 there was to be no defamation of the 
 Court ; and (2) no vituperation as re- 
 gards mandarins ; and after due eonsider- 
 ation both restrietions were rejeeted. 
 
 The native papers of the Treaty Ports 
 deal in outspoken, if eourteous, remon- 
 stranees with the Central Government; 
 outspoken strictures on mandarins by 
 name, and almost ribald pictorial cari- 
 cature of mandarindom in general ; to- 
 gether with strong language concerning 
 China’s sovereign rights and their in- 
 vasion by foreign powers. Those in- 
 land, away from Treaty Ports, are under 
 official “ inspiration,” and so do not 
 criticise the “ powers that be ” ; but 
 are as outspoken as the others on the 
 subject of foreign aggression, real or 
 assumed. 
 
 The Chinese press consists of some 
 
V* The New 
 Learning. 
 
 250 The Call of Cathay 
 
 fifty -five chief trumpets “ sounding an 
 alarm ” throughout the land ; or so 
 many galvanic batteries delivering shock 
 after shock of arousal to their educated 
 readers. And this factor in the awaken- 
 ing of a quarter of the human race 
 can hardly be over-estimated. 
 
 V. The New Learning and rise of 
 Young China. 
 
 From the year b.c. 134 until 1901 a.d. 
 (in addition to silver recommendations) 
 all official posts were obtained as prizes 
 for an aesthetic literary style in ser- 
 monettes on texts from the Classics, 
 at the annual county examinations, on 
 through the triennial provincial exami- 
 nations, to those still higher in the 
 capital itself. And the ideal of that 
 style was the antique — the literary 
 matter itself being quite a secondary 
 consideration. 
 
 But on August 20 , 1901 , a decree 
 was issued ordering the substitution of 
 essays on modern matters. Western 
 laws and constitutions, and political 
 economy. This was followed by a 
 series of decrees on the subject of 
 education : viz., September 13 , a decree 
 
New China and its Problems 251 
 
 commanding all schools and colleges 
 in the empire to deal prominently with 
 Western learning ; Septem^ber 17, a 
 decree commanding all provincial vice- 
 roys and governors to ‘‘ send young 
 men of scholarly promise and ability 
 abroad, to study such branches of 
 Western science or art as would be 
 best suited to their tastes and abilities, 
 so that they may return in time to 
 China, and place the results of their 
 learning at the service of the empire ” ; 
 September 2, 1905, a decree abolishing 
 the examinations for the degree of B.A. 
 that had been held every year and 
 a half ; all such and higher degrees in 
 future to be gained through the colleges 
 in the provinces and the University in 
 Peking. 
 
 Here were tremendous changes, 
 wrought in a few years by a stroke of 
 the “ vermilion pencil ” of the Empress- 
 Dowager in the name of the Emperor 
 Kuang Hsii. The immediate effect of 
 the first edicts was a great demand 
 for books such as the C.L.S. and the 
 Educational Society had on sale ; the 
 next result was the flooding of the 
 
252 The Call of Cathay 
 
 Chinese book-market with translations, 
 chiefly by Chinese in Japan. The 
 further result was the sending abroad 
 of thousands of students to Japan and 
 to other lands — those in Japan being at 
 one time as many as 14,000 — and these, 
 both in Japan and in France, getting 
 strongly tinged with revolutionary 
 sentiment, with the story of the French 
 Revolution as their favourite model ; 
 on their return, also, stoutly resisting 
 all foreign mining concessions, foreign 
 loans for railways, and foreign control 
 of all kinds. 
 
 The more ardent spirits in Young 
 China to-day would wish to discredit 
 and oust the Manchus from the Central 
 Government, and secure the immediate 
 opening of a national parliament 
 (promised for 1918) ; and they would 
 probably endorse most of the following 
 demands made by the Boxers in one of 
 their proclamations (August 1900) : 
 
 “ 1 . — All indemnities still claimed by the foreign 
 powers to be null and void. 
 
 2. — ^All foreign ships of war that enter Chinese 
 waters to be disallowed to leave their berths. 
 
 3, — All foreign settlements and Treaty Ports 
 
New China and its Problems 253 
 
 to be extended to twice their present size (and 
 foreigners kept rigidly within them). 
 
 4. — The churches of the various foreign missions in 
 China to be confiscated, and made common property. 
 
 5. — All missionaries to return to their respective 
 countries. 
 
 6. — Japan to return Formosa to China. 
 
 7. — Germany to return Kiaoehow to China. 
 
 8. Russia (and Japan) to evacuate Manchuria. 
 
 9. — The Imperial Maritime Customs to be delivered 
 over to Chinese control.” 
 
 These, together with the abolition 
 of all Consular Courts in China, and 
 the removal of all barriers to Chinese 
 residence abroad, might perchance make 
 up the sum of advanced Young China’s 
 demands. Where the power to regain 
 Formosa, Kiaoehow, and China’s supre- 
 macy in Manchuria is to come from 
 is another matter ! But even this has 
 been broached in a Young China news- 
 paper of October 17, 1909, where the 
 formation of a reserve of 10,000,000 
 “ Volunteers ” {ix. Boxers) was advo- 
 cated in detail ! Happily, China is hardly 
 likely thus to court her own destruction. 
 
 VI. Mercantile and political pressure 
 from foreign ^powers. 
 
 As a consequence of the policy of ex- 
 clusion held by Young China, there is 
 
 VL Pressure 
 from Foreign 
 Powers. 
 
2 54 The Call of Cathay 
 
 the fact of ardent offers of capital to 
 China by foreign financiers for railway 
 loans, and overtures by foreign syn- 
 dicates for developing China’s resources 
 (both construed by Young China as 
 “ poisonous intrigue ”) ; and such 
 things as the Russo-Japanese grip on 
 Manchuria. 
 
 '' Young China." China, then, as regards her leaders 
 of public opinion, and her future offi- 
 cials, the rising generation of students 
 and graduates, is awake, and inclined 
 to be rampant. The Boxers that grew 
 into being at the Empress-Dowager’s 
 decree of November 5, 1898 (which 
 was taken seriously in two or three 
 northern provinces where there had 
 been a year of scarcity), mostly repre- 
 sented a Young China of an uneducated 
 sort. The Young China of the present 
 day has some culture, and at the least a 
 smattering of Western learning, in some 
 cases much more then a smattering. 
 Darwin, Huxley, and Spencer are its 
 household words, and Rousseau, of all 
 men, is one of its pet ideals ! In all 
 matters, mental, moral, and national, 
 it is possessed of a “ blind, turbulent 
 
YOUNG CHINA. 
 A game oi' dominoes 
 
New China and its Problems 255 
 
 heaving toward freedom ” ; but chiefly, 
 if the truth were told, towards con- 
 stitutional liberty of a modified Western 
 type, in which it can find office. 
 
 The Chinese of a century ago every- 
 where exhibited “ the full efflorescence 
 of that ignorance which permitted them 
 to believe themselves the most enlight- 
 ened nation in the world ” (words used 
 of the English by Disraeli in Tan- 
 cred) ; now, the Chinese scholars and 
 populace are persuading themselves that 
 they are the most oppressed nation in 
 the world. Let us see what elements 
 of oppression appear to the Chinese 
 mind. 
 
 1. “ Oppression from Foreign Au- 
 thority ” — a very hateful term in China. 
 In reality, this exists chiefly on the map. 
 There is of course no “ oppression ” of 
 the Chinese themselves by foreigners. 
 England took Hong Kong in 1840, but 
 has given far greater liberty and security 
 to its Chinese residents than they could 
 have had on the mainland. Five Treaty 
 Ports were opened by the treaty of 
 Nanking in 1842, seven others in China 
 Proper by 1860, and several others 
 
 Young China's 
 Grievances. 
 
 (i) ^‘Foreign 
 Oppression," 
 
256 The Call of Cathay 
 
 since ; and in none of them are the 
 Chinese “ oppressed.” In 1897 occurred 
 what the Spectator called “ the piraey 
 of Kiaochow ” ; but neither there, nor 
 in Port Arthur under the Japanese after 
 the China- Japan war, nor under the 
 Russians, nor again under the Japanese, 
 has there been oppression” of Chinese ; 
 nor is there in Manchuria, so dominated 
 by Russo- Japanese influence. The ‘‘op- 
 pression,” then, is in sentimental regions, 
 but regions that a patriot would natur- 
 ally regard as real. So that there is a 
 strong tendency to feel that foreign 
 nations are China’s enemies — to be 
 resisted by force if that force were 
 available. Hence the energy thrown 
 into military drill in China’s colleges, 
 the students being more ardent about 
 it than their drill-masters. 
 
 2. The Boxer indemnity, still paid 
 annually by people in provinces that 
 had nothing to do with that Manchu- 
 clique plot.^ And as the people have 
 to pay each annual amount (say) thrice 
 
 1 The phrase “ Manchu-cHque ” is used to absolve 
 the enlightened Manchus from any share in the move- 
 ment. 
 
Photo 'by'] 
 
 [ir. A. Cornuby. 
 
 HOW THE POOHEST LIVE. 
 Each hut contains a family. 
 
 Photo by] 
 
 [7?. Hutchinson. 
 
 A COTTAGE IN SOUTH CHINA. 
 
 [p. 257 
 
New China and its Problems 257 
 
 over, owing to official “ squeeze,” this 
 is felt to be a heavy burden. 
 
 3 . Im pecunio us ness, also, from the (3) impecu^ 
 very reforms that China has begun to 
 adopt so eagerly. As a native paper 
 pointed out (May 1910) : 
 
 “ China has hurriedly started schools and colleges 
 everywhere. Police forces, industrial bureaus, 
 foreign-drilled troops, naval schemes — all of them 
 requiring extra rates and taxes [all of which rates 
 and taxes are subject to “ squeeze ”j, when the 
 country is already impoverished witli the Boxer 
 indemnity, and the interest on foreign loans, and 
 an utterly chaotic condition of national finances, 
 the unrestricted coinage of ten-cash pieces in every 
 province, and the like ; so that the expense of living 
 has well-nigh doubled in ten years, with no corre- 
 sponding rise in the income of the populace.” 
 
 Hence, when rice has been abnormally 
 dear, there have been riots in various 
 places, as in Changsha and other cities 
 in 1910. 
 
 4 . The fact of the Manchu on the (4) Manchu 
 Throne. But here again, as under head- 
 ing 1, the grievance is in the region 
 of sentiment. For, with the exception 
 of the fatal Boxer blunder (and a great 
 one it was), the Manchu Dynasty has 
 
 9 *^ 
 
Chilians Real 
 Grievances, 
 
 25^ The Call of Cathay 
 
 served China as well as any native 
 dynasty has ever done. 
 
 Summing up the situation, then, we 
 find that China’s really dynamic griev- 
 ances are from conditions within the 
 nation itself, rather than any which the 
 Manchu Dynasty (excepting the Boxer 
 plot) or foreign powers have forced 
 upon her. And the first real reform 
 must be the entire reorganisation of 
 the mandarin system : the fixing of 
 real and adequate salaries, and the 
 discountenancing of official “ squeeze ” 
 by heavy penalties ; which, it is in- 
 teresting to note, was the burden of 
 several enactments in the Code of Ham- 
 murabi, 2,500* years e.c., as one of the 
 C.L.S. books in Chinese points out. 
 Whether this most radical change can 
 be effected without a national parlia- 
 ment, or whether a national parliament 
 would attempt to overthrow a system 
 buttressed by so many vested interests, 
 it is hard at this juncture to say. The 
 Imperial Maritime Customs, controlled 
 chiefly by British officials, is a splendid 
 object-lesson of what solid gain may accrue 
 to China from upright and adequately 
 
New China and its Problems 259 
 
 salaried collectors of dues. And it is 
 toward that object-lesson that China 
 must “ level up ” if she would be any- 
 thing but financially crippled as a nation, 
 and Avould avoid a very literal oppres- 
 sion of the “ myriad populace ” for the 
 fattening of a crowd of officials and 
 underlings, caught in the meshes of a 
 corrupt old system which makes Con- 
 fucian morality, not to say Christian 
 righteousness, impossible. 
 
 As to anti-foreign feeling, New China Feeling Against 
 is somewhat fickle in its dislikes, Power., 
 
 hatred for Germany has been intense 
 in connection with Kiaochow ; the 
 country was stirred up to a tremendous 
 ferment against America in 1905, boy- 
 cotting her goods everywhere, in re- 
 taliation for harsh treatment of Chinese 
 immigrants ; against England in 1907, 
 in connection with her offering to finance 
 the Chekiang railway ; and there is 
 permanent ill-feeling against Russia and 
 Japan in connection with Manchuria, 
 although it is commonly believed that 
 that region was sold to Russia by a 
 certain deceased Chinese notable- 
 while China let Japan fight her battles 
 
The Moral and 
 Religious Out- 
 look. 
 
 (i) The Need 
 for Insistence 
 upon Moral 
 Obligations. 
 
 260 The Call of Cathay 
 
 for the recovery of it. In 1910 the 
 most unpopular of foreign nations 
 in China is undoubtedly Japan. And 
 until those two nations combine their 
 forces (as they are extremely unlikely 
 ever to do), or until one of them be- 
 comes the master of the other (an 
 extremely remote contingency), there 
 will be no great ‘‘ Yellow Peril ” such 
 as has entered the fevered dreams of 
 some of our own superficial philosophers 
 and prognosticators. 
 
 So much for the social, economic, 
 and political view of New China. 
 What of its moral and religious out- 
 look ? 
 
 1. The time has come when the 
 missionary must be the advocate of 
 that sound moralist Confucius (as far 
 as his main teaching goes) in his strong 
 pleadings for the fulfilment of human 
 relations, the ultimate basis of all duty 
 and virtue, versus the adoption of Rous- 
 seau dreams of ideality divorced from 
 common morality. The essence of Con- 
 fucius’ teaching is found in a comment 
 on an ancient book of geomancy, the 
 Book of Changes, which comment it is 
 
■ 5. 
 
A TABLET TO CONFUCIUS. 
 
 Ill a large provincial temple. 
 
 [p. 261 
 
New China and its Problems 261 
 
 likely that Confucius himself added. It 
 reads literally : 
 
 “Father father, son son, elder-brother elder- 
 brother, younger-brother younger-brother, husband 
 husband, wife wife, and the household system 
 rectified ; rectified households, then the whole realm 
 (under all heaven) established.” 
 
 Meaning, “ Let the father be a true 
 father — fatherly, and the son a true 
 son— filial, brothers brotherly, husbands 
 true husbands, and wives true wives,” 
 etc. Here is the principle which the 
 Sage worked out as regards the main 
 relations of life, especially those of the 
 family. And he touched solid bed-rock 
 in so doing. For what is duty but the 
 fulfilment of all relations to our related 
 fellow men, according to our relatedness 
 to them ; and to God, according to our 
 relatedness to Him ? I am a son or 
 daughter, I may be a brother or sister, 
 I may be a husband or a wife, I may be 
 a father or a mother ; I have friends, 
 I have neighbours, I have fellow country- 
 men, I am a citizen of the world wherein 
 ‘‘ all within the four seas are brothers ” ; 
 I have a God, a Redeemer, an Enabler, 
 — and from each of these relationships 
 
262 
 
 The Call of Cathay 
 
 spring various duties, to fulfil which is 
 (in the old Chinese phrase) “ to accord 
 with Heaven.” And as Mencius de- 
 clared : 
 
 “ Those who accord with Heaven are preserved, 
 those discordant with Heaven perish.” 
 
 True indeed of an individual, and true 
 of a nation, also ; for the nations of 
 earth are, in the innermost sense of the 
 words, prospering or perishing in so far 
 as there is a sum-total of accordance 
 with Heaven among their populace, or 
 the reverse. 
 
 Here, in China, is a sound ethic, an 
 ultimate basis of conduct. It is ours 
 to uphold and interpret it ; and to 
 enforce and quicken it too, by the moral 
 dynamic of Christianity— power from 
 on high, received through penitent, 
 Christ-recognising prayer. 
 
 ( 2 ) The Need 2. The Spiritual view of the universe 
 must be upheld. In China, never a 
 very religious land, scores and hundreds 
 of temples are being turned into school- 
 houses. Attacked by the native press, 
 and the inflow of science, the days of 
 China’s superstitions are numbered, 
 
New China and its Problems 263 
 
 What is to take the plaee of dying 
 idolatries and dwindling superstitions ? 
 That is the burning question of the day. 
 It is felt to be a great question, even 
 by the native newspapers. In 1903 
 that prominent paper the Universal 
 Gazette, had a powerful artiele headed, 
 “ China has no Religion,” taking up 
 all seemingly religious eustoms and 
 asking, as eaeh passed in review, 
 “ Where is there any religion here ? ” 
 eoneluding with the deduction that 
 
 “ taking all China together, there is not to be found 
 anything truly religious, only various customs that 
 have come down from antiquity.” 
 
 And now even those customs are 
 loosening. A few years ago the Chinese 
 of the Straits Settlements agreed to spare 
 all the money hitherto spent on homage 
 to ancestors, and devote it to the educa- 
 tion of their children. An enlightened re- 
 solve from our point of view, but a very 
 materialistic one from theirs. Is it not 
 better to believe in some sort of patron 
 spirits in the unseen than to believe 
 in no spiritual world at all ? As Lord 
 Tennyson once said : “ I tell you the 
 
264 The Call of Cathay 
 
 nation without faith is doomed ; mere 
 intellectual life — however advanced or 
 perfected — will not fill the void.” And 
 this has been echoed by the leading 
 native newspapers of China (doubtless 
 from the books and magazines of the 
 C.L.S.). A specimen utterance is : 
 
 “ Young China talks glibly of Revolution, as though 
 that were a panacea for all ills, forgetting that we 
 have had as many revolutions as Europe, and have 
 gained no uplifting from them, only a temporary 
 relief from tyranny. Whereas Europe has gained 
 by hers. Why ? Because there were moral and 
 religious ideals as the impulse and goal.” 
 
 Surely there were such in that revolution 
 against Papal absolutism under Luther 
 and his successors, however much politi- 
 cal considerations may have bulked in 
 England at the first onset. Surely there 
 were in the political revolution of which 
 Mazzini was the soul, if Count Cavour 
 was the statesman and Garibaldi the 
 popular leader. “ Man is not changed 
 by whitewashing or gilding his habita- 
 tion,” protested Mazzini; “a people 
 cannot be regenerated by teaching them 
 the worship of enjoyment. It is the 
 soul which creates to itself a body, the 
 
New China and its Problems 265 
 
 idea which makes for itself a habitation.” 
 And other more sacred utterances might 
 be quoted from that man to whom God 
 was so real. 
 
 “ History knows nothing of revivals 
 of moral living apart from some new 
 religious impulse. The motive power 
 needed has always come through leaders 
 who have had communion with the 
 unseen,” says Professor Lindsay. In 
 abolishing opium-smoking China has 
 quoted no moral reason for doing so ; 
 just the one motive — “ to mak^ China 
 strong.” A materialistic China will be 
 a weak China, whatever reforms she 
 may attempt. And the marked ten- 
 dency of the times is to replace her old 
 religions and superstitions by (1) a 
 thoughtless materialism for the popu- 
 lace, and (2) a thought-out materialism 
 for her scholars, who read Western 
 philosophy with far more avidity than 
 our Western students do. 
 
 3. There is no non-Chinese religion 
 besieging China in competition with 
 Christianity. A transient attempt was 
 made to introduce Japanese Buddhism, 
 but, as a prominent Japanese, learned 
 
 9* 
 
 (3) The Need 
 for Prayer. 
 
2 66 The Call of Cathay 
 
 in Buddhist lore, Mr. Maeda Gun, wrote 
 in the Shinkoron, the leading Buddhist 
 organ of his eountry : 
 
 “ Looking at the whole Buddhist world, it cannot 
 be said that there is any sect or school which is 
 sufficiently powerful to mould the belief and comfort 
 the hearts of the rising generation ; and as for 
 Buddhism undertaking to reform society, nobody 
 thinks it possible. To the higher cravings of mankind 
 Buddhism makes no response. It is a religion only 
 in name ; all its significance has disappeared.” (From 
 a Japanese newspaper in the spring of 1906.) 
 
 Here,* then, is our responsibility as 
 Christians, to spread true, dynamic 
 Christianity throughout the provinces 
 of China. But it must be spiritual and 
 prayerful Christianity. It must be 
 poured into China ehiefly by intereessory 
 missionaries residing in China and at 
 home. Whatever our stage of enlighten- 
 ment or otherwise as regards the philo- 
 sophy of prayer, we may most surely 
 believe the axiomatie truth that every 
 whole-souled fprayer for China imports 
 moral and spiritual force into China. 
 Some of us in China have felt the prayer- 
 force from the home-land thrilling 
 through us at the moment that prayer 
 
New China and its Problems 267 
 
 (as we found afterwards) was offered 
 for us. And in this critical time in 
 the history of a quarter of the race it 
 is ours, not so much to multiply funds 
 and missionaries indefinitely (there are 
 limits to our powers in both respects), 
 as, while giving all we can, and sending 
 all we can, to multiply our prayer-forces 
 indefinitely, thus pouring into the heart 
 of China the very force which will be 
 her salvation, socially, politically, mor- 
 ally, and spiritually. 
 
 And as we do this there is one grand 
 encouragement that must be quoted. 
 China may look askance at foreign 
 missionaries still ; the term ‘‘ religious 
 society ” (for Church) may have sinister 
 ideas attaching to it. More upheavals 
 may perchance follow that of Changsha. 
 But in New China there is one name 
 never quoted without respect, and 
 seldom without reverence. The red 
 cross has been adopted as the sign and 
 symbol of infinite benevolence, to friend 
 and foe alike. And the Name that 
 gives the red cross its significance is 
 becoming a hallowed Name in China. 
 Far better, if needs must be, that New 
 
2 68 The Call of Cathay 
 
 China should seek to exelude the 
 foreigner, and take that Name to her 
 heart, than that the West should gain 
 all it seeks from China, and that Name 
 be seouted and excluded. For, look 
 you, the first petition of the Lord’s 
 Prayer is being fulfilled more and more 
 daily ; and will not the second petition 
 be most surely fulfilled in its wake, 
 as we learn to pray that prayer with 
 ‘‘ importunity,” and that is with dogged 
 ^persistency, even as we have been taught 
 by Him who teaches to pray ? 
 
 ASSIGNMENTS FOR STUDY CIRCLES 
 
 STUDY PROBLEM. — To realise the significance 
 of China’s awakening. 
 
 1. What have been the chief factors in the awaken- 
 ing of China ? 
 
 2. Enumerate the reforms of the past ten years. 
 
 3. What effect do you think the changes of recent 
 years will have on missionary w^ork ? 
 
 4. What features of the present situation give 
 cause for anxiet 3 ^ ? 
 
 REFERENCES FOR FURTHER STUDY 
 
 Broomhaul, M. — Present-day Conditions in China. 
 Cecil, Lord W. G. — Changing China. 
 
 Brown, A. J. — New Forces in Old China. 
 
 CoRNABY, W. A. — China Under the Searchlight. 
 

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NEEDY CHINA. 
 
 [p. 269 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 
 THE CALL OF THE HOUR 
 
 It was said of Demosthenes, in his Facts as Argu^ 
 
 famous orations for the preservation 
 
 of the freedom of Greeee, “ His faets 
 
 are his arguments.” And the faets 
 
 accumulated in the foregoing pages 
 
 surely constitute a powerful argument 
 
 and call for prayerful consecration, and 
 
 for such action in the matter of China’s 
 
 future as may come within the scope 
 
 of those energies which God will give 
 
 us through our prayer and supplication. 
 
 We have seen China in glimpses, as Lack of Moral 
 regards the broad facts of her past and 
 present : her moral convictions, and 
 her lack of moral power to carry them 
 into action : her Confucianists abandon- 
 ing Confucian probity on gaining office 
 as mandarins ; her masses so much 
 environed and invested with squalor of 
 thought. We have noted her religion — ■ 
 
 269 
 
Lack of Real 
 Religion. 
 
 270 The Call of Cathay 
 
 or rather, except in certain parts, her 
 lack of it : her stated prayer to God but 
 twice a year, in the person of her em- 
 peror ; her populace employing, not wor- 
 shipping, their gods — employing them 
 to bring just the “ three abundances,” 
 Riches, Sons, Long Life, and mostly 
 feeling their uselessness, for the first 
 and third items at any rate ; her 
 Buddhism (originally a religion of celi- 
 bacy) being retained only as a means 
 toward the gaining of male offspring, 
 and as a path to a Western Paradise 
 of which Gautama never dreamed ; her 
 Taoism (originally a philosophy of vege- 
 table life applied to humanity) being 
 retained only as a means to good luck, 
 or for the deceased ones departing to 
 a nine-storied, dragon-guarded heaven, 
 in which no one believes. And, beyond 
 this, no spiritual religion dealing with 
 the conscience and character — only a 
 faded memory of one now more than 
 three millenniums out of date shut up 
 as a populace to unthinking materi- 
 alism. These^^facts are arguments that 
 shout in our ears. 
 
 Then, the total change round of her 
 
The Call of the Hour 
 
 271 
 
 scholars and students : previous to National and 
 1898 ever asking, “ Was it so of old ? ” Sei?sS!ing. 
 but since then and always, “Is it 
 up to date ? ” Her endeavours to do 
 in a moment for her land what had 
 centuries of unconscious preparation 
 behind it in Japan, and what had more 
 centuries of conscious, strenuous aspira- 
 tion behind it in Europe ; her own 
 patriotism being so largely place-seek- 
 ing, in contrast to the “ self-denying 
 • ordinance ” of the Young Turks, who 
 voted themselves non-candidates for 
 parliament and the like. Her absorp- 
 tion of what is deemed most advanced 
 in science and philosophy — Young 
 China’s chosen philosophers being Rous- 
 seau and Mazzini, and her philosophical 
 scientists being Spencer and Huxley, 
 with Tom Paine as an ideal liberator 
 from all religious restraint. For such 
 household words have these four names, 
 Rousseau, Spencer, Huxley, Paine, be- 
 come among the new generation, that 
 they occurred in a written eulogy pre- 
 sented to a Christian lecturer on Nation- 
 al Reform, on his leaving for home, he 
 being likened to them all ! The whole 
 
The 
 
 Possibilities of 
 
 China^s 
 
 Children, 
 
 272 The Call of Cathay 
 
 trend of the times is towards an aban- 
 donment of China’s old Sages, and their 
 exhortations to “ accord with Heaven,” 
 for a thought-out materialism which 
 knows no Heavenly Power above. These 
 facts are arguments that must drive 
 us to our knees. We can but resolve 
 to import into China the spiritual con- 
 ceptions and the moral prayer-force that 
 she needs so sorely. 
 
 Then, the possibilities of the rising 
 generation in China for evil or for good.* 
 Those millions of boys and myriads of 
 girls, trudging along, or chasing each 
 other through the streets and alleys 
 with their pendant shop-signs and 
 their unthinkable odours — with shining 
 morning faces, and bundles of books, 
 wrapped in blue cloth, tucked under 
 their arms, as they go to school : books 
 on our arithmetic, the world’s geography, 
 our sciences in their rudiments, and. 
 accounts of various nations, as well as 
 Chinese lesson-books. These children, 
 bright, interesting, lovable (see, they 
 return our smiles with interest), it is 
 possible for them to grow up sneering 
 at idols and superstitions, but with 
 
273 
 
 The Call of the Hour 
 
 nothing to take their plaee — no worship 
 whatever ; it is possible for them to per- 
 suade themselves, as Young China has 
 mostly persuaded herself, that foreign 
 diplomaey is all “ poisonous intrigue ” ; 
 to drop the old ery of ‘‘ oeean demon ” 
 for deep -muttered animosities in whieh 
 Japan in the east, Russia on the north, 
 and England, Germany, Franee, and 
 America figure as many-headed monsters 
 to be opposed tooth and nail, and their 
 representatives swept clean from the 
 land, if a gigantic militarism and a 
 rampant Boxerism can do it. In a 
 word, it is possible, quite possible, for 
 them to grow up antagonists of God 
 and of humanity, self-destroying in 
 the bitter end. And are these things, 
 forsooth, to happen, my brothers, my 
 sisters ? 
 
 It is possible, on the other hand, 
 for them in years to come to grasp 
 the true teaching of history, catching 
 a glimpse of the views of Carlyle, when 
 he called history “ a mighty drama, 
 enacted on the theatre of infinitude, 
 with suns for lamps, and eternity for 
 a background ; whose author is God, 
 
The Future 
 Makers of 
 China's Homef< 
 
 274 The Call of Cathay 
 
 and whose purport and thousand-fold 
 moral leads up to the ‘ dark with exeess 
 of light ’ of the Throne of God.” It 
 is possible for them to learn that wrong- 
 doing in a nation has its retribution in 
 this world at last ; that (as in the pre- 
 vious century) infidelity to treaty-bonds 
 must ever lead to national loss ; that 
 an undue resistance of the inevitable 
 inflow of non-political merchant and 
 missionary residents must lead to com- 
 plications of an acute political order ; 
 that blind opposition to pacific inter- 
 course with other nations must tend 
 to the employment of unpacific methods 
 by those nations. It is possible for 
 them to grasp the truth of a world- 
 wide brotherhood under a Divine Father ; 
 a grand, common hope for humanity 
 through a Divine Redeemer ; and the 
 vast possibilities of rightness and good- 
 ness, and mutual harmony also, through 
 that mighty Spirit Whose operation is 
 through the prayers of the faithful. 
 
 There they go, those boys and girls, 
 dawdling or tripping along, half sedately, 
 yet with eyes full of mirth and mischief 
 (bless them !) chatting and chaffing ; 
 
Photo &y] [!('. A. CoriHihi/. J‘hoto ?;//] [IK. A. Coniahij. 
 
 A SCHOOLGlRIi WHO BECAME A TRAINED NURSE. A SCHOOLBOY WHO BECAME A COLLEGE TUTOR. 
 
s 
 
The Call of the Hour 275 
 
 all unconscious that they are the future 
 makers of China’s homes, China’s public 
 opinion, China’s policy, China’s history 
 — the history of a quarter of the race, 
 and therefore a mighty factor in the 
 history of the world at large ! Or, 
 taking a yet wider range of view, there 
 they go, those wondrous immortals, 
 who, having blessed or cursed the world 
 with their presence, will find their des- 
 tiny yonder, in regions and conditions 
 blessed or cursed. 
 
 Those children ! Those children ! Momentous 
 What will they be in two or three de- 
 cades ? And what will they he in two 
 or three centuries ? They will be some- 
 thing, somewhere. What is it to be, 
 and where ? 
 
 What is to be their relation to hu- 
 manity, to God, to eternity ? Are they 
 to grow up not knowing, and not caring 
 to know, that the earth is the Lord’s, 
 and that this very earth has felt the 
 impress of One Child’s feet, one Young 
 Man’s “ loveliness of perfect deeds ” ? 
 
 That on this earth was once erected a 
 cross, whereon that Young Man was 
 nailed — not as a Teacher Whose teaching 
 
European 
 Influence for 
 Good or Evil» 
 
 276 The Call of Cathay 
 
 had failed ; not as a mere vietim of 
 slanderous aecusation ; not as a mere 
 hero and martyr to the Truth, but as 
 the Divine Sharer of the griefs and 
 sorrows of the raee, the Divine Bearer 
 of the sin and shame of the whole human 
 family, in all elimes and all ages ? Or, 
 hearing this message delivered with 
 little prayer-force, and backed by little 
 prayer-force from afar, are they to 
 deem it an ordinary tale of merely 
 historic interest, but with no pungency 
 of appeal to them, of no value to their 
 lives, of no use to China, and so become 
 neglecters, despisers, rejecters, of China’s 
 one hope and their own only Saviour ? 
 These questions are forced upon us, until 
 surely they burn within, demanding 
 an answer. 
 
 Then, some of these bright boys and 
 girls in future years will live in Treaty 
 Ports among Westerns in China ; and 
 some of the brightest of them will come 
 to Europe and America, some to England, 
 to reside and study, with open eyes, 
 considering the sum-total of what they 
 see, and pondering it over. What im- 
 pressions are to be the deepest received? 
 
277 
 
 The Call of the Hour 
 
 We talk of home and foreign mis- coin the 
 sions, in this world of dwindling dis- 
 tances, in these days of rapid transit 
 over land and sea, when no part of 
 Europe is more than two or three days’ 
 distant ; when three weeks will take 
 us to any part of India, and a fortnight 
 will land us in the heart of China, and 
 when every ocean-steamer and every 
 trans-Siberian train is taking what we 
 have done-- or what we have failed to 
 do — with our home missions and all 
 our thickly clustered churches and 
 chapels, and pouring it into those ports 
 and cities, living units of the whole, of 
 aggressive energy and potent influence : 
 unconscious missionaries, all of them, 
 from above or from below. Some of 
 them stand erect, as unofficial mission- 
 aries of righteousness and godliness ; and 
 some as emissaries of added depravity, 
 who “ hear the East a-calling,” and re- 
 gard it as a fine place because “ there 
 ain’t no Ten Commandments,” except 
 that one about killing ! They go East 
 to have “ a good time ” at the expense 
 of China’s old-time sobriety, and of what 
 she holds in her conscience, if not in 
 
(2) In Western 
 Lands* 
 
 278 The Call of Cathay 
 
 her practice, as stern moral principle. 
 And the majority who arrive out East 
 would themselves acknowledge that, 
 without being vicious, thay have left 
 their mother’s religion behind them, 
 somewhere where Pharaoh’s hosts dis- 
 appeared of old, now known as the 
 Suez Canal. Oh ! home missions are 
 foreign mdssions nowadays. We must 
 win our own families for God, lest some 
 member of the family, going abroad, 
 should become an effectual barrier 
 against the Chinese coming to God. 
 
 What are to be the deepest impres- 
 sions produced on the Chinese students 
 residing in our home-land — from the vast 
 majority that are worshipless, and the 
 large number in our Churches who 
 confess never to bow the knee for half 
 an hour’s pleading with God in their 
 homes ? What impressions will linger, 
 from a Church christened “ Christianity 
 in earnest,” if they visit homes where 
 they are asked (as has been asked) 
 “ Was not Confucius more scholarly 
 than Jesus ? ” or “ Do you not think, 
 after all, that Buddhism is the religion 
 most adapted for the Far East ? ” What 
 
The Call of the Hour 279 
 
 impressions will linger from contact 
 with Christians too keen on whist- 
 drives, and even bridge parties, to 
 attend once a year a “ dull old mission- 
 ary meeting, with some one or other 
 from China there ” ? 
 
 On a Yangtse steamer a genial 
 Chinese gentleman, who had lived in 
 Shanghai in business intercourse with 
 Europeans, once remarked to a mis- 
 sionary in all innocence : “ What 
 
 numbers of my countrymen are becoming 
 Christians everywhere ! Do any of your 
 honourable countrymen really follow 
 Jesus ? ” It was easy to answer “ Yes,” 
 but with a big lump in the throat, as 
 that passage of Scripture was instantly 
 recalled : “ He came to His own, and 
 
 His own received Him not.” And that 
 other passage, which ought never to have 
 been true, and which must not, in God’s 
 name, continue to be true of the great 
 majority of our countrymen : “ The 
 
 Son of Man hath not where to lay His 
 head ” — that is to say. His heart. 
 
 Again, in a rowdy saloon of a P. and 
 O. liner crossing the Indian Ocean, 
 where not a few were the worse for 
 
A Call to 
 Prayer, 
 
 280 The Call of Cathay 
 
 whisky, and were shouting and singing, 
 a distinguished Japanese professor said 
 to the same missionary : “I have been 
 studying European religion in Germany, 
 and other continental lands, to report 
 to my Government. My stay in Eng- 
 land was brief. Please, what do you 
 think of the outlook of Christianity 
 there ? ” A question hard to answer 
 at that uncomfortable moment. The 
 words would only come : “ Not all dark, 
 I assure you.” 
 
 Once more, a distinguished Welsh 
 missionary, of broadest sympathies, 
 was conversing with a Roman Catholic 
 bishop in Japan, and put the question : 
 “ When, think you, will the Ear East 
 * be converted ? ” “ When the West is,” 
 was the far-reaching reply. 
 
 Dear friend, the reader of these words, 
 do not these things form a strong plea, 
 pouring like some molten metal into 
 your soul, as into the soul of the writer, 
 to be at any rate one in a great crusade 
 against godlessness, worldliness, prayer- 
 lessness, within — yes, within ! — and 
 around ^ our home Churches ? And if 
 you hear a sermon from which the word 
 
The Call of the Hour 
 
 281 
 
 “ prayer ” is omitted, pray for your 
 minister. If you attend a serviee where 
 there is no large, pleading prayer offered 
 for humanity, beyond the little eompany 
 present, pray for your minister ! It is 
 only a lapse of memory ; his heart is 
 right. But pray him into deep eon- 
 viction as to the paramount need of 
 prayerful ness ; pray him into broad, 
 vivid coneeptions of the imperative 
 yearning that fills Christ’s infinite heart, 
 and of the need of Christ among earth’s 
 millions, so that he may ever put the 
 Kingdom of Christ first, and not just 
 the peace and comfort and blessedness 
 of those present and the circles of 
 friends that they represent. 
 
 “ I will run in the way of Thy com- 
 mandments, when Thou shalt enlarge 
 my heart ” ; and as George Fox, founder 
 of the Society of Friends, said : “ I 
 
 prayed the Lord that He would baptise 
 my heart into a sense of the conditions 
 and needs of all men,” — a holy baptism, 
 that, which ministers and ministered- 
 to need to have administered to them 
 daily : first, the conditions and needs 
 of those in our own femilies ; then our 
 
282 
 
 Have the 
 Chinese a Ca^ 
 pacity for 
 Religion ? 
 
 The Call of Cathay 
 
 near neighbours, our fellow eitizens as 
 a whole, our nation at large, in all those 
 things revealed by the daily newspapers ; 
 and then, country by country, the whole 
 world ; until the sense of those needs 
 makes us take up our abode at the Mercy- 
 seat, as workers together with Him 
 through Whose Spirit of Yearning we 
 offer our prayers. 
 
 One consideration may perhaps haunt 
 us, and tend to lower the standard of 
 our faith in prayer for the Chinese, and 
 that is the fact that they as a nation 
 have not shown any strong proclivities 
 for spiritual religion through the cen- 
 turies. “ Is there not as little religion in 
 the average Chinaman as there is music ? 
 Would you not place their religious 
 capacities upon a level, roughly speaking, 
 with their capacity for music, in our 
 sense of the word ? ” may be asked 
 us. And the reply would be : “ Yes, 
 
 perhaps that is not an extravagant 
 comparison. Cymbal-clangings, gong- 
 bangings, five notes on a fiddle, flute- 
 shriekings, and hautboy-wailings in 
 runic patterns on those five notes — 
 meagre, rudimentary, soulless : perhaps 
 
A CHINESE LADY. 
 
 (Winter costume, old style.) 
 
 [p. 283 
 
The Call ol the Hour 283 
 
 their average religious capaeities are 
 almost on such a plane as this. But 
 still, they are capacities not incapable 
 of culture. An average congregation 
 learns to sing Western tunes correctly 
 in a few years. The brass bands of 
 modernised China are not inharmonious. 
 And as to Chinese girl-students, one 
 has heard Ascher’s “ Mazurka des Train- 
 eux ” rendered with spirit as a piano 
 trio, Durand’s “ Second Mazurka ” as 
 a piano solo, Moszkowski’s “ Valse 
 Brilliante ” as a piano quartette, by 
 Chinese maidens most excellently ; and 
 even one of the piano parts (an American 
 lady taking the other piano) in the ex- 
 ceedingly intricate “ Danse Macabre ” 
 by Saint-Saens. And, to come to a 
 more familar piece, never have I been 
 so thrilled by Handel’s ‘‘ Hallelujah 
 Chorus ” as when three of the parts 
 were taken by a whole school of Chinese 
 girls, two accompanying on the piano, 
 and the visitor putting in the bass. 
 And the religious faculties, under divine 
 grace, have, in not a few instances, 
 developed to a corresponding degree. 
 Some in our churches in China have 
 
284 The Call of Cathay 
 
 far exceeded the average church- 
 member at home when once a passion 
 for prayer has seized them. Theirs 
 is the “ simple life ” with great faculties 
 for concentration, when once those 
 faculties have been aroused. There is 
 hope for the average man and woman 
 of China, hope of their gaining a true 
 spiritual life, if a rudimentary one, and 
 all hope for the children of China who 
 come under the spell of the Crucified. 
 
 “ But can you really hope for any- 
 thing on a large scale in a land so subject 
 to riotous outbreaks, the burning of 
 mission houses and killing of mission- 
 aries, without any provocation what- 
 ever ? ” It is a fair question, and one 
 to be considered. Yet, let it be noted 
 that no riot has occurred without what, 
 to the mind of the mob, was a sore pro- 
 vocation ; and further, that riots, other 
 than passing excitements, have needed 
 much preparation, much “ working-up,” 
 on the part, in years past, of officials 
 who had secret orders to drive out the 
 foreigner, or, in riots since 1900, from 
 the gentry of the cities in which the 
 riots have occurred. 
 
The Call of the Hour 285 
 
 We might go farther than this, and 
 pluek a larger faith in our prayings 
 from the very riots themselves. For 
 what is a riot but Penteeost reversed ? 
 
 Is it not a heart-in-heart combination, 
 under the Spirit of Hatred, wherein 
 every one has the “ tongue of fire ” to 
 arouse to a common cause — a “ tongue 
 set on fire of hell ” ? And those who 
 are capable of the incitement and in- 
 dwelling of the Spirit of Hate and 
 Destruction, capable of receiving and 
 spreading that fire from hell, may indeed 
 become capable of the incitement and 
 indwelling of the Spirit of Love and 
 Salvation, capable of receiving and 
 spreading the fire from heaven. 
 
 This has been proven in the revivals 
 that broke out in China in 1908~9. 
 
 The story has been told, as regards 
 Hankow, by J. Sydney Helps : 
 
 “ Some two years ago the Far Eastern Revival The Revival in 
 began in India ; then in Korea, where the Christian K^orea, 
 
 Church was shaken as by a mighty wind. Those 
 who saw this wondrous work spread the tidings 
 amongst the Manchurian Churches, ^ and at once 
 
 ^ It is well to explain that Ma-nchuria is not in- 
 habited b}' Manchus, as might be supposed. On the 
 
286 
 
 The Call of Cathay 
 
 The Revival in the Spirit descended into their midst. Church after 
 Manchuria, Church was visited with such a revival that the 
 story of it {Times of Refreshing in Manchuria) reads 
 like a new chapter of the Acts of the Apostles. The 
 worker most used of God in this revival was the 
 Rev. W. Goforth, of the Canadian Presbyterian 
 Mission, and he was set apart by that Mission to 
 conduct special services in other parts of the 
 empire. 
 
 The Revival in “He has just concluded five days’ meetings in th« 
 Central China, jjankow Wesleyan Church. He is spending some 
 three weeks in these three cities, and came to us 
 from Wuchang and Hanyang. In both cities the 
 gatherings have been large, and the results such as 
 had never been seen in these parts. 
 
 “ There is nothing sensational about Mr. Goforth’s 
 methods. In fact, it might not be incorrect to say 
 that he has no methods. And herein lies the secret 
 of the wonderful movement — all is left to the Spirit 
 of God. There is no ‘ inquiry room,’ and yet men 
 have been literally swept into the Kingdom of God. 
 
 “ Let us look in at one of the meetings. It begins 
 at 10.30, and goes on till one o’clock or later. What 
 is drawing these crowds thus day after day ? Here 
 comes the choir : the blind boys from the David 
 Hill School. They squeeze themselves on to the 
 rostrum, the blind organist seats himself, and, while 
 the stewards are trying to make six people occujDy 
 the space of four, they strike up a rousing hymn. 
 
 conquest of China by the Manchus in 1644 (they 
 were so few in number that they had to impose their 
 dress on the whole male j^opulation, so that the 
 nation miglit not realise their fewness), they settled 
 in China itself, leaving the Chinese to colonise Man- 
 churia- 
 
The Call of the Hour 287 
 
 In a moment there is a volume of sound from the 
 whole company, to the words : 
 
 ‘ O happy day that fixed my choice.’ 
 
 Hymn follows hymn till the bell rings, and the mis- 
 sioner talces his place. Another hymn ; and a blind 
 boy, with his finger tracing the raised dots (of the 
 adapted Braille system), reads expressively a portion 
 of God’s Word. Then ‘ Let some who feel the 
 Spirit is leading them engage in prayer.’ 
 
 “ There is a momentary hush. Then a man begins. 
 And where are the old stereotyped expressions ? 
 He has dropped all his old formulse. He is under 
 the influence of a new power. Instead of the ‘ we ’ 
 or ‘ they,’ it is the ‘ I ’ confessing his sins and 
 pleading for pardon. He is a leading man in the 
 Church, yet is he broken down before God, and before 
 God and his brethren he is confessing to lukewarm- 
 ness, slackness in j^rayer, or love of money. His 
 voice falters, his usual fluency has disappeared, 
 he stammers, the tears stream dovm his face. The 
 whole company is moved, and groans and low cries 
 fill the place. God is here, God as a refining fire. 
 It is sin, not sentiment, that is causing those tears. 
 
 “ He ceases. A girl’s voice is heard, low at first, 
 then clearer. Then, in a moment, she too is shaken 
 by the revealing Spirit, and calls on God for for- 
 giveness. Shaken with sobs, and hardly able to 
 utter her confession, she tells God how, as a hospital 
 nurse, she has yielded to temper, has lost oppor- 
 tunities of witnessing for God, has told lies, and even 
 taken some things that were not her ovni. And as 
 the girl sobs out her prayer, the whole congregation 
 weeps with her, and the sound is as a strong wind 
 in a forest. 
 
 “ ‘ O God,’ cries one, ‘ Thou art this day revealing 
 
288 
 
 The Call of Cathay 
 
 sin in me that I never knew to be sin before.’ Con- 
 viction and confession of sin, these are the leading 
 notes of it all. And why ? The Spirit of God is here. 
 
 “ After several such prayers we sing again, and the 
 preacher steps forward. He announces his text : 
 
 ‘ Roll away the stone.’ He prays for a moment, 
 and then for nearly an hour pleads with the hearers 
 to remove from their lives the stones, and yield to 
 the Resurrection power. One can feel that the words 
 are going home. There is a solemn hush as the 
 sword of the Spirit does its work — God’s work — in 
 those hearts. 
 
 “The address is finished; no hymn, but prayer 
 again. And now one of our best Chinese preachers 
 stands up. What has he to confess ? ‘ Lord, I 
 
 have often exhorted others to give liberally to the 
 Church, but. Lord, I myself am the stumbling- 
 block. I see it now. Forgive me, and forbid that 
 my sin should hinder others. From to-day I promise 
 to give Thee a tenth of all I have.’ Is it any wonder 
 that he got blessed ? 
 
 “ Yonder is a man who has stood up several times 
 to pray, but has been mastered by emotion. It is 
 awful to see his agony, as with sobs and loud cries 
 he pours out his confession before God : ‘ I have 
 
 been a colporteur. I have been trusted by the 
 missionaries. I have deceived them again and 
 again. I have told them lies. I have been dilator^' 
 in my work. Yes, I must, I will confess ’ — visibly 
 fighting the devil — ‘ I must confess all. Lord, 
 once the missionary gave me ten thousand cash, and 
 I declared, when we took accounts, that he had only 
 given me one. Lord, save me ! ’ And just then 
 the leader gives out : 
 
 ‘ Just as I am, without one plea,’ 
 
The Call of the Hour 
 
 289 
 
 and with the words, no less beautiful in Chinese, 
 comes peace to many a heart. Then, after more 
 prayers, the meeting closes. 
 
 “ Have all the prayers been like these ? Prac- 
 tically so, if not all so intense. And the few times 
 that a self-righteous man has prayed in the meetings, 
 a prayer with no grace and grip, it has been as grave 
 in the teeth of the rest. 
 
 “ The whole Church has been swept. The blind 
 boys, the girl-nurses in the Women’s Hospital, and 
 many others have been broken down by the Spirit’s 
 power. Even some little ones in the day schools 
 have come confessing their sins, and pleading for 
 pardon. What has done it all ? ‘ Lord,’ prayed 
 
 the blind organist in a touching prayer, ‘ I never 
 knew till yesterday the real meaning of the Cross 
 of Jesus.’ It has been the Spirit of God exalting 
 the Crucified Saviour. 
 
 “ In these meetings many old things have died, 
 and many new things have been born. Not the 
 least new gift to us here is the new hope for our 
 Church, and for China at large, for we have seen that 
 even the cold and materialistic can be set on fire 
 by God.” 
 
 Yes, as in a sacred riot, if the term 
 be allowed, where all apathy becomes 
 a blaze of elemental passion ; an or- 
 ganised riot against all “ foreign devilry” 
 of sin lurking within the gates. 
 
 “ The town of Mansoul did now thoroughly seek 
 the destruction and ruin of all remaining DiaboHans 
 that abode in the walls, and in the dens that they 
 had in the town of Mansoul.” 
 
 10 
 
1^0 The Call of Cathay 
 
 And then flashed out the Presence — of 
 Pentecost : 
 
 “For now there was music and dancing throughout 
 the whole town of Mansoul, and that because their 
 Prince had granted to them His Presence, and the 
 light of His countenance ; the bells also did ring, 
 and the sun shone comfortably for a great while 
 together.” 
 
 But the results of revivals need to 
 be written up, say, a year after, rather 
 than at the time, if we are to estimate 
 . their permanent dynamic value. What 
 were the results of these China revivals 
 after the lapse of months, some will ask? 
 Results of the The answer need not be given in 
 Revival. statistics of added membership, though 
 
 flgures could be given, but in terms of 
 practical philosophy. The result after 
 the revival was that (1) those who 
 had learned to live the prayer-life re- 
 tained a high-tone spirituality in their 
 everyday character and in their wit- 
 ness-bearing for Christ ; (2) those who 
 failed to give the Lord half an hour of 
 their day for intercession slipped back 
 to the dead-levels where they were 
 before ; while some few (3), imagining 
 themselves uplifted above the necessity 
 
291 
 
 The Call of the Hour 
 
 of watchfulness, fell into envious imagin- 
 ings, and sneerings at others — yes, and 
 into still more reprehensible forms 
 of evil. And has not this been the 
 case in all lands after a revival ? The 
 proportions of the three classes have 
 differed, that is all. And were the 
 whole membership of a given church 
 to be all comprised under the first 
 class, would there be any great need 
 for special services such as these ? 
 Would not the ordinary services inevi- 
 tably become special ? That was the 
 case in one church at home, where the 
 proportion of intercessory members was 
 high, and figures (if figures be needed) 
 show that that Methodist circuit once 
 gained well-nigh three hundred mem- 
 bers in the space of three years. 
 
 Moreover, such powers of concentra- 
 tion lurk in the Chinese nature, when 
 possessed by some master-passion, from 
 above or below, that there are limits to 
 the desirability of any long continuance 
 of overpowering emotion. For see, my 
 brothers, the stupendous facts of God, 
 of sin, of Christ, of eternity, are, in their 
 fullness, far beyond the capacities of a 
 
292 The Call of Cathay 
 
 human brain to bear. It is only a per- 
 centage of these tremendous facts that 
 we can realise to the full, and live. 
 God kindly veils the full glory that 
 would blind and blast. God checks the 
 imagination, which, if it went out too 
 far toward infinity, would end in mania. 
 
 Yet the essentials of Pentecost must 
 be preserved, for the true Church is 
 always the Pentecostal Church. A re- 
 vival is a Pentecost in what the Greeks 
 used to call the aorist tense ; what is 
 desired, in addition to, perhaps eventu- 
 ally instead of, these sudden overwhelm- 
 ings, is a “ perfect of continued action ” : 
 an abiding in Christ, and in love to the 
 brethren ; the upkeep of the communion 
 of God’s devoted ones, communion with 
 Him, in touch with kindred souls ; and 
 strenuous supplication day by day, not 
 so much to “ my ” Father — the Father 
 of this unit, but to “ our ” Father — the 
 Father of God's own home-circle on earth. 
 Which latter words may well be our 
 definition of Pentecost, in its innermost 
 essence : the shining goal of all our 
 Mission Study and praying and working 
 and living, being in the end to gain a 
 
The Call of the Hour 293 
 
 home-circle for God as wide as the 
 human race upon earth. 
 
 Thus it is in the direct line of the 
 highest mission ideal to supply informa- 
 tion for little heart-circles in Christ for 
 the purpose of heart-in-heart “ waiting 
 upon the Lord ” for personal power, for 
 power that is shared, for power that 
 shall vivify our own Church and keep it 
 alive, and just glowing with aggressive 
 vigour. These, as well as our more 
 statedly organised leagues of interces- 
 sion, until our own local church, and 
 then the wider Church of which it is 
 the local representative — until the 
 multiple soul of each praying band, of 
 God’s own united ones^ — become a great 
 channel for the larger energies of God, 
 connecting the Source with each needy 
 nation, and China ; a channel from 
 the sea of Divine fullness to the Sahara 
 of mankind’s vast needs. 
 
 Let this, then, be our programme with 
 regard to the conversion of China : 
 (1) To keep the two Great Command- 
 ments in the Christ-love which the 
 Master will lend us, that love which 
 is holiest yearning — the essence of all 
 
 Our 
 
 Programme. 
 
2 94 The Call of Cathay 
 
 supplication and service ; (2) to live 
 the prayer-life ourselves, that life of 
 peace with God, of quiet prayerfulness, 
 of frequently strenuous supplication 
 (see Phil. iv. 6, 7) ; (3) to cultivate 
 
 heart-unions among friends in Christ, 
 and pray unitedly, even if it be at a 
 distance one from another ; (4) to be 
 
 faithful members of some league for 
 missionary intercession ; (5) to cheer 
 
 one another with such words as, “ God, 
 and you and I will yet move China.” 
 And it shall be done. It is being done. 
 
 Finally, as we must be impressed 
 more and more that all spiritual work, 
 of any dynamic and eternal value, is 
 at its basis prayer-work ; that the 
 salvation of the East hangs upon the 
 true conversion of the West to Christ 
 and the prayer-life ; that aggression 
 abroad cannot reach its normal rate 
 apart from aggression at home, — let us 
 open our hearts and expand our imagin- 
 ations to demand insistently that there 
 shall be in the Christendom of our day 
 a revival of 'prayer and supplication com- 
 parable in its far-reaching results to the 
 Reformation under Luther in Germany^ 
 
The Call of the Hour 295 
 
 or the Revival under Wesley in England; 
 for only thus shall we be demanding 
 “ large things ” worthy of our infinite 
 God, and only thus shall we cope with 
 the eternal needs of the rising genera- 
 tion, at home and abroad, in China, 
 and the world of redeemed but still 
 unrescued ones. Living our little lives, 
 as we do, in the anteroom of Eternity, 
 a thousand motives appeal to us to 
 make this our life-quest, and, high 
 above all, 
 
 “ The Lamb for sinners slain. 
 
 Redeemer, King, Creator,” 
 
 demands it — absolutely demands it— of 
 all who name His name. 
 
 ASSIGNMENTS FOR STUDY CIRCLES 
 
 STUDY PROBLEM. — To discover the spiritual 
 possibilities of China. 
 
 1. What are the great defects of Chinese character ? 
 
 2. Think out the problem of China’s childhood. 
 
 3. What will be the natural effect of purely secular 
 education on the rising generation of Chinese ? 
 
 4. What effect may we expect a materialistic China 
 to have upon the world ? 
 
 5. Are the Chinese necessarily materialistic ? 
 
 6. What is the “ Call of the Hour ” to you ? 
 
96 
 
 The Call of Cathay 
 
 REFERENCES FOR FURTHER STUDY 
 
 CoRNABY, W. A. — China under the Searchlight. 
 Webster, J. — The Revival in Manchuria. 
 CoRNABY, W. A. — “ Let us Pray.'' 
 
Appendix A 19^ 
 
 tABULAR VIEW OF THE CHINESE EMPIRE 
 
 PROVINCE 
 
 (With meauiug of the name, as given by 
 Professor Harlan P. Reach. 
 
 AREA. 
 
 (iu square 
 
 POPULATION 
 
 The “ Eighteen Provinces ” 
 
 
 
 Chihli (“ Direct Rule ”) 
 
 Shantung (“ East of the Hills ”) . . 
 Kiangsu (“ River Thyme ”) 
 Chekiang (“ Tidal-bore River ”) . . 
 Fukien {“ Happily Established ”) 
 Kwangtung (“ Broad East ”) 
 Kwangsi (“ Broad West ”) 
 
 Yunnan (“ Cloudy South ”) 
 Szechwan (“ Four Streams ”) 
 
 Kansu (“ Voluntary Reverence ”) 
 Shensi (“ Western Defiles ”) 
 
 Shansi (“ West of the Hills ”) 
 
 Honan (“ South of the River ”) . . 
 Anhwei (“ Peace and Plenty ”) . . 
 Kiangsi (“ West of the River ”) . . i 
 Hupeh (“ North of the Lake ”) . . 
 
 Hunan (“ South of the Lake ” ) .. 
 
 Kweichow (“ Noble Province ”) . . I 
 
 115,800 
 
 55.970 
 38,600 
 36,670 
 46,320 
 
 99.970 
 77,200 
 
 146,680 
 
 218,480 
 
 125,450 
 
 75,270 
 
 81,830 
 
 67,940 
 
 54,810 
 
 69,480 
 
 71,410 
 
 83,380 
 
 67,160 
 
 i 20,937,000 
 i 38,247,900 
 
 I 13,980,235 
 
 1 11,580,692 
 22,876,540 
 31,865,251 
 5,142,330 
 12,324,574 
 ! 68,724,890 
 10,385,376 
 8,450,182 
 12,200,456 
 35,316,800 
 23,670,314 
 26,532,125 
 35,280,685 
 22,169,673 
 7,650,282 
 
 Total for China proper . . . . 
 
 1,532,420 
 
 407,335,305 
 
 The Dependencies 
 
 
 
 Manchuria . . 
 
 Mongolia . . . . 
 
 Tibet 
 
 Turkestan (Chinese) 
 
 363,610 
 
 1,367,600 
 
 463,200 
 
 550,340 
 
 16,000,000 
 
 2.580.000 
 
 6.500.000 
 
 1.200.000 
 
 Total for Dependencies 
 
 2,744,750 
 
 26,280,000 
 
 Grand Total for Empire 
 
 4,277,170 
 
 433,615,305 
 
 Note. — The above figures are taken from The Statesman's 
 Year Book (1906), and it must be understood that they are 
 only approximate. No really careful census of the Chinese 
 Empire has yet been taken. 
 
 10 * 
 
29B The Call of Cathay 
 
 APPENDIX B 
 
 THE W.M.M.S. EUROPEAN STAFF. 
 
 (I) THE CANTON DISTRICT 
 
 {List of afpointments from 1851 to 1910) 
 
 Arrival on 
 
 the Fielfl. Name. Retired. 
 
 1851 Piercy, Georg© 1882 
 
 1852 Cox, Josiah . , . .(transferred to Hankow 1862) 
 
 1852 Beach, W. R 1856 
 
 1854 Hutton, Samuel . 1865 
 
 1854 Preston, John 1875 
 
 1854 Smith, Samuel J 1866 
 
 1859 Parkes, John S 1865 
 
 1862 Parkes, Henry . . 1882 
 
 1865 Gibson, Joseph 1880 
 
 1865 Rogers, John H 1869 
 
 1866 Napier, F. P., B.A (trans. to Hankow 1867) 
 
 1866 Whitehead, Silvester 1877 
 
 1868 Selby, Thomas G 1882 
 
 1873 Sinzininex, Edward 1875 
 
 1874 Masters, Frederic J 1884 
 
 1876 Jackson, James 1878 
 
 1876 Friend, Hilderic 1880 
 
 1878 Hargreaves, Grainger 1892 
 
 1879 Harris, George 1882 
 
 1880 Wenyon, Charles, M.D 1896 
 
 1880 Bone, Charles 
 
 1882 Tope, S. George 
 
 1882 Bridie, William 1905 
 
 1883 Parker, Henry J 1893 
 
Appendix B 
 
 299 
 
 Arrival on 
 
 the Field. Name. Retired. 
 
 1884 Macdonald, R. J. J., M.D murdered 190G 
 
 1885 Anderson, Anton (med. assist.) 1903 
 
 188G Turner, J. Arthur 1891 
 
 1893 Musson, William 1898 
 
 1897 Dewstoe, Edgar 
 
 1899 Gaff, Charles A 
 
 1899 Herrick, T. Shirley 1902 
 
 1900 Anderson, W. J. W., M.D., B.Ch — 
 
 1901 Anderson, Henry E 
 
 1902 Robinson, Thomas 
 
 1903 Keall, Holmes 1903 
 
 1903 Smith, Dansey, M.R.C.S., L.R.C.T 1910 
 
 1904 Scholes, T. Wilfrid, M.A 
 
 1905 Rees, Philip, B.A., B.Sc., M.D 
 
 1905 Hutchinson, Robert . 
 
 1906 Ellison, Robert 
 
 1907 Hooker, Alfred W., M.B., B.S 
 
 1908 Baker, J. A. A 1910 
 
 1910 Temple, John R 
 
 Women’s Auxiliary 
 
 1862 MaryGunson 1863 
 
 1863 Elizabeth BroxhoLme (Mrs. J. Gibson). . . . 1868 
 
 1866 Jane Radcliffe (Mrs. J. Jackson) 1878 
 
 1872 M. E. Simp.son 1879 
 
 1873 Sara Jane Rowe 1879 
 
 1874 Annie Taylor (Mrs. G. Piercy) 1877 
 
 1885 Annie Wood . 1904 
 
 1893 Rose Jane Clift 1896 
 
 1897 Sarah Wilson (Mrs. Dewstoe) 1903 
 
 1903 F. A. Britton 
 
 1904 Ruth E. Briscombe 1908 
 
 1907 Amy L. Perkins 
 
300 
 
 The Call of Cathay 
 
 (II) THE WUCHANG MSTHICT 
 
 {List of appointments from 1863 to 1910) 
 
 Arrival on 
 
 the Field. Name. Retired. 
 
 1863 Cox, Josiah (transferred from Canton) . . 1875 
 
 1864 Smith, F. Porter, M.B 1870 
 
 1865 Hill, David died on field 1896 
 
 1865 Scarborough, William 1885 
 
 1867 Napier, F. P., B.A. (trans. from Canton) 1871 
 1869 Hardey, E. P., M.R.C.S 1875 
 
 1872 Brewer, J. W 1886 
 
 1873 Mitchil, C. W. (self-supporting lay mis- 
 
 sionary) died on field 1902 
 
 1873 Race, J died on field 1880 
 
 1874 Nightingale, A. W died on field 1884 
 
 1875 Bramfitt, T 1899 
 
 1875 Tomlinson, W. S 1882 
 
 1876 Langley, A., M.R.C.S 1878 
 
 1878 Fordham, J. S 1882 
 
 1880 North, T. E 
 
 1882 Bell, J died on field 1885 
 
 1882 Watson, W. H (transferred to Hunan 1903) 
 
 1884 Boden, Frederick 1893 
 
 1884 Barber, W. T. A., M.A., D.D 1893 
 
 1885 Cornaby, W. Arthur 
 
 1886 Warren, Gilbert G (trans. to Hunan 1907) 
 
 1887 Hodge, S. Rupert, M.R.C.S... died on field 1907 
 
 1890 Bone, Robert died on field 1890 
 
 1890 Hill, J. K 
 
 1893 Pullan, G. Leach 1910 
 
 1894 Gedye, Ernest F 
 
 1895 Allan, C. Wilfred 
 
 1896 Clayton, George A. . 
 1896 Sutton, Henry B. . . 
 
Appendix B 
 
 301 
 
 Arrival on 
 
 the Field. Name. Retired. 
 
 1896 Scholes, Ernest F. P (trans. to Hunan 1905) 
 
 1899 Rowley, William 
 
 1899 Rose, Austin C. . 1907 
 
 1901 Gibson, William W (trans. to Hunan 1903) 
 
 1901 Booth, Robert T.,M.B., B.Ch 
 
 1901 Entwistle, D. (lay missionary) 1909 
 
 1902 Helps, J. Sydney 
 
 1902 Tatchell, W. Arthur, M.R.C.S 
 
 1902 Rattenbury, Harold B., B.A 
 
 1904 Lee, Sylvester 
 
 1906 Page, Norman 
 
 1907 Cundall, E., M.B., B.Ch. (lay missionary) 
 
 1908 Minty, C. S 
 
 1908 Pell, J. W., L.R.C.S. (lay missionarj^ 
 
 transferred from Hunan) 
 
 1909 Thomas, G. M 
 
 1910 Harker, A. J. (lay missionary") 
 
 1910 Simon, A. Gordon, M.Sc 
 
 Central China Lay Mission 
 
 1885 Miles, George 
 
 1886 Reid, W. H 1887 
 
 1886 Morley, Arthur, L.R.C.S. and P 
 
 1888 Protheroe, Thomas (entered ministry, 1899) 
 
 died on field 1908 
 1888 Poole, F 1892 
 
 1888 Rowe, J Retired 
 
 1889 Fortune, P. T 1892 
 
 1890 Dowson, J. L 1891 
 
 “Joyful News” Mission 
 
 1888 Hudson, S. J 
 
 1888 Tollerton, A. C 
 
 died 1892 
 
 .died on field 1891 
 
302 
 
 The Call of Cathay 
 
 Arrival on 
 
 the Field. Name. Retired. 
 
 1890 Cooper, Ernest C. (entered ministry) 
 
 (transferred to Hunan 1902) 
 
 1890 Argent, William murdered 1891 
 
 1892 Berkin, John Retired 
 
 1892 Shaw, W. H Retired 
 
 1892 Fryer, G Retired 
 
 1892 Pell, J. W (transferred to Hunan 1906) 
 
 1893 Champness, C. S. (entered ministry 1907) 
 
 1893 Dempsey, P. T. (entered ministry 1903) 
 
 Women’s Auxiliary 
 
 1885 Grace Louisa Owen (Mrs. Sugden) 1894 
 
 1885 Gertrude Williams (Mrs. Bridie) 1887 
 
 1888 Ida Elizabeth Lyon 1894 
 
 1888 Martha Bell, Mrs 1904 
 
 1892 Mary E. Parkes (Mrs. North) 1896 
 
 1893 Lizzie Dimcan died on the field 1894 
 
 1893 Brena Eacott (Mrs. Entwistle) 1904 
 
 1893 Emily A. Minchin 1898 
 
 1893 Annie E. Parker 1898 
 
 1895 Florence Powell (Mrs. G. A. Clayton) .... 1899 
 
 1895 Ann E. Lister 1900 
 
 1895 Ethel Gough, L.S.A. (Mrs. Rowley) 1905 
 
 1898 Ada E. Hocking 1902 
 
 1898 Annie E. Pomeroy (Mrs. Champness) .... 1903 
 
 1899 Margaret H. Wilkinson 1906 
 
 1899 C. Gwen Ingram (Mrs. Dempsey) 1906 
 
 1899 Margaret Bennett, M.D. died on the field 1903 
 
 1902 Jean Shillington .. 1906 
 
 1903 Edith Brewer (Mrs. H. B. Rattenbury) . . 1908 
 
 1903 Emily Mitchil, Mrs 
 
 1904 Katherine Wheatley (Mrs. Hardy Jowett) 1910 
 
 1905 Winifred Protheroe 1908 
 
 1906 Helen Vickers, M.B., Ch.B. (Mrs. Hadden) 1909 
 
Appendix B 
 
 303 
 
 Arrival on 
 
 the Field. Name. Retired. 
 
 1906 Lizzie Longstaff 
 
 1907 Nora Booth 
 
 1907 Annie Reid 
 
 1909 Phyllis Russell, B.A 
 
 1909 Carrie Crawford, M.B., Ch.B 
 
 1909 Isabel Wilkinson, M.B., Ch.B 
 
 1909 F. Ewins, B.A 
 
 1910 Lily Harris 
 
 (III) THE HUNAN DISTRICT 
 List of Appointments from 1902 to 1910 
 
 1902 Cooper, Ernest C. (trans. from Hupeh) . . 
 
 1903 Watson, William H. (trans. from Hupeh) . . 
 
 1903 Jowett, Hardy 
 
 1903 Gibson, William W 
 
 1904 Webster, James 
 
 1904 Johnson, Vincent 
 
 1904 Pillow, William H 
 
 1905 Scholes, Ernest F. P 
 
 1906 Pell, J. W., L.R.C.S. (lay missionary 
 
 trans. to Hupeh 1908) 
 
 1907 Warren, Gilbert G. (trans. from Hupeh). . 
 
 1907 Alexander, J. A 
 
 1907 Hadden, G., M.B., C.M. (lay missionary) 
 
 1907 Champness, C. S 
 
 1908 Heyward, W. B., M.D., Ch.B. (lay miss.) 
 
 1908 Little, C. D 
 
 1909 Cowling, E., B.D 
 
 1909 Oakes, W. L., B.D 
 
 Women’s Auxiliary 
 1907 Jessie E. Denham 
 
304 
 
 The Call of Cathay 
 
 APPENDIX C 
 
 THE OTHER METHODIST MISSIONS IN 
 CHINA 
 
 Methodist Episcopal Church of U.S.A. {North) 
 
 The first missionaries of the Methodist Episcopal 
 Church sent to China were Judson D. Collins and 
 Moses C. White. They arrived at Foochow on 
 September 4, 1847, receiving a hearty welcome from 
 missionaries of the American Board, who had arrived 
 in the earlier part of the same year. After eight 
 months they were joined by Henry Hickok and 
 R. S. Maclay, the latter, from his long uninterrupted 
 service, becoming practically the founder of Method- 
 ism in Eastern Asia. From 1863 onwards this 
 mission was blessed by its having as Chinese preacher 
 Mr. Ling Ching-ting, a man of apostolic zeal. Work 
 was commenced in Kiangsi Province in 1866, when 
 V. C. and Mrs. Hart were sent to Kiukiang ; and 
 in Peking in the spring of 1869, when L. N. and 
 Mrs. Wheeler were sent there. These were heroic 
 branchings forth, as they left the force at Foochow 
 consisting of just two men and one lady. In 1861 
 West China, the Province of Szechwan, claimed the 
 attention of the mission ; and in 1896 a little district 
 nearer headquarters — Hinghwa. South-east China 
 is a region of varied dialects, and here in a district 
 75 miles by 40 were three millions speaking a dialect 
 all their own. Not only was a flourishing mission 
 started there in 1896, but there is published there 
 
Appendix c 305 
 
 a doubk issue of a magazine called The Revivaliatt 
 one issue in wen-U, the other in rornanised colloquial. 
 The larger districts have university colleges for male 
 students, remarkably fine girls’ boarding-schools, 
 and hospitals, in addition to vigorous evangelism 
 of the preached Gospel. In 1906 there were in the 
 mission as a whole : missionaries and wives, 123 ; 
 women workers of the Women’s Foreign Missionary 
 Society, 70. This latter auxiliary had been organised 
 in 1869, sending its agents to North and South China 
 in 1871, to Central China in 1872, and to West China 
 in 1882. Membership (1906) in Foochow District, 
 6,269 ; Hinghwa, 2,895 ; Central China, 1,011 ; North 
 China, 3,585 ; West China, 1,256. 
 
 Methodist Episcopal Church of U.S.A. [South) 
 
 The Southern Methodist Mission was opened in 
 Shanghai by C. Taylor, M.D., and J. Jenkins, D.D., 
 the former arriving in September 1848, the latter 
 in March 1849. These were followed by six others 
 before the end of 1860, the last to arrive being young 
 J. Allen, of wide journahstic fame, who laboured in 
 China till the end of 1907. The mission occupies 
 the southern end of Kiangsu and the northern end 
 of Chekiang Provinces, one of the most densely 
 populated regions in China. Among its outstanding 
 features are the Soochow University, founded in 
 1899; the Anglo-Chinese College, Shanghai, opened 
 in 1881 ; the McTyeire School for girls, in Shanghai, 
 whose musical prowess is mentioned on page 283 ; 
 and finely equipped hospitals. Evangelistic and 
 literary work are vigorously carried on. The number 
 of missionaries on the field in 1906 was sixty, in- 
 cluding wives of missionaries and the representatives 
 of the Women’s Board. Communicants, 1,754. 
 
3o 6 The Call of Cathay 
 
 English Methodist New Connexion Missionary 
 Society 
 
 This society entered China in 1860, commencing 
 work in Tientsin in 1861, then occupying other 
 stations in Shantung Province. A fine Theological 
 College was commenced in 1876, of which G. T. 
 Candlin is principal. It has been the policy of this 
 mission to employ a large body of Chinese assistants. 
 The number of these has reached 180, and includes 
 preachers, ordained and unordained, catechists, 
 school-teachers, and unpaid workers. There are 
 three hospitals. No less than a hundred members 
 were put to death during the Boxer outbreak, but 
 their numbers have been more than made up since. 
 The number of missionaries in 1906 was ten ; mem- 
 bers, 2,710. 
 
 English Methodist Free Church Mission 
 
 This mission entered China in October 1864, on 
 the arrival of W. R. Fuller at Ningpo, who was 
 joined in August 1865 by J. Mara. Frederic Galpin 
 arrived in 1868, and to him more than any other is 
 due the real establishment of the work. In 1872 the 
 United Presbyterians decided to concentrate their 
 forces in Manchuria, and handed over to Mr. Galpin 
 their two stations and twenty converts. Mr. Galpin 
 worked faithfully for nearly thirty years, retiring 
 in 1896, from failure of health. In 1906 this district 
 had five male missionaries, and one woman worker. 
 Chinese preachers (including local preachers), 69 ; 
 church members, 1,739. 
 
 Wenchow, a port in the south of Chekiang Prov- 
 ince, having been opened to foreign trade by the 
 Cheefoo Agreement of 1876, Mr. Galpin sent Mr. R. I. 
 Riley to commence work there. He died after 
 
Appendix C 307 
 
 three years, when W. E. Soothill arrived to fill the 
 vacant post. The work has since prospered greatlj^ 
 (see A Mission in China, by W. E. Soothill). 
 The city church accommodates over 1,000, and is 
 well attended. Here also a revival broke out in 
 1909, and blessed the out-stations, where there are 
 churches holding 600. The confidence of the people 
 has been won to the extent that over a dozen ancestral 
 temples have been rented, at a nominal sum, as 
 chapels, chiefly among the mountain clans. Mr. 
 Soothill also commenced educational work, which 
 has grown to a college of 200 students. For two 
 years (1910) he has been Principal of the Shansi 
 University, on behalf of the Chinese Government, 
 but pays periodic visits to his old station. The staff 
 in Wenchow consisted in 1906 of five missionaries, 
 one of them medical and one educational. Chinese 
 preachers, regular, 20; local, 131 ; baptised members, 
 144. 
 
 Canadian Methodist Mission in West China 
 
 The pioneer party of this mission arrived in China 
 in November 1891, but, as the Yangtse Valley was 
 then in a disturbed condition, did not proceed to 
 Szechwan till February 1892. There were eight 
 members of the party, four men and their wives, 
 the leader being V. C. Hart, D.D., who had been 
 formerly Superintendent of the M. E. Mission in 
 Central China. In 1895 riots broke out in Chentu, 
 and every mission building was destroyed. But 
 in 1896-7 new premises were erected, and the work 
 carried on without a break, except during the Boxer 
 year of 1900. Evangehstic, educational, medical 
 work, women’s work, have all yielded their happy 
 results. There is also a Mission Press for the printing 
 
joS The Cali of Cathay 
 
 of tracts and Gospels ; and a Book-Room connected 
 with the press. In 1906 there were 13 missionaries, 
 11 wives, 11 single women workers, 43 churches, 
 302 communicants. And — what applies to so many 
 missions — it may be said here that the mere statistics 
 of membership by no means represent the full spiritual 
 achievements of the mission work. 
 
 Free Methodist Church of North America 
 
 The Missionary Society of this Church entered 
 China in 1904. Its field is in Honan Province, 
 Chengchow city, and adjacent regions. In 1906 its 
 missionaries were eight in number, and its converts 
 three. 
 
 W. A. C. 
 
AIAP TO ILLUSTRATE “THE CALL OF CATHAY.” 
 
 W.M.M.S. PROVINCES MARKED WITH HEAVY BLACK LINES. 
 
BIBLIOGRAPHY 
 
 GENERAL 
 
 Things Chinese. J. Dyer Ball, 1904. (Murray, 12^. 
 net.) A series of alphabetically arranged articles. 
 Useful for reference. 
 
 The Chinese Empire. Marshall Broomhall, B.A., 1907. 
 (Morgan & Scott, 7s. 6d.) A general and missionary 
 survey of the provinces and dependencies of China.' 
 Most useful. 
 
 A Mission in China. W. E. Soothill, 1906. (Oliphant, 
 5s. net. ) Very interesting account of mission methods, 
 with useful chapters on the religions. 
 
 The Great Chinese Awakening. A. R. Kelley, 1909. 
 (Culley, Is. net.) Contains a good deal of information 
 about China and Chinese missions. Specially useful 
 for beginners. 
 
 New Forces in Old China. A. J. Brown, 1904. (Re veil, 
 5s. net.) Shows how European trade, politics, and 
 religion have influenced China. 
 
 Present-day Conditions in China. Marshall Broom- 
 hall, B.A., 1908. (Morgan & Scott, Is.) A brief 
 account of present-day changes. Very useful. 
 
 Changing China. Lord W. Gascoyne-Cecil, 1910. (Nes- 
 bit, 10s. 6d. net.) An up-to-date survey of the 
 subject. Very striking. 
 
 The Uplift of China. A. H. Smith, D.D., 1906. 
 (W.M.M.S., 2s. net.) The Study Text-book for 
 
 1907-8. By the Chairman of the last Shanghai 
 Conference. 
 
310 The Call of Cathay 
 
 Dawn on the Hills of T‘ang. Harlan P. Beach, 1905. 
 (Student Movement, 2s. Gd.) Student Study Text- 
 book. Very useful. Contains much information. 
 Children of China. C. Campbell Brown, 1910. (Oli- 
 phant. Is. Gd. net.) Capital account of child-life. 
 Pastor Hsi. Mrs. Howard Taylor, 1907. (Morgan & 
 Scott, 3s. Gd.) A most remarkable biography of a 
 Chinese Christian. 
 
 The China Martyrs of 1900. R. C. Forsyth, 1904. 
 (R.T.S., 7s. Gd.) The most complete account of the 
 Boxer massacres. 
 
 Fire and Sword in Shansi. E. H. Edwards, 1903. 
 (Oliphant, 2s. Gd. net.) A vivid pictme of the Boxer 
 massacres in Shansi. 
 
 China under the Searchlight. W. A. Cornaby, 1901. 
 (Fisher Unwin, 6s.) Chapters on Chinese character- 
 istics by the able author of The Call of Cathay. 
 Confucianism and Taoism. R. K. Douglas, 1895. 
 (S.P.C.K., 2s. Gd.) The best brief account of these 
 religions. 
 
 Buddhism in China. S. Beal, 1884. (S.P.C.K., 2s. Gd.) 
 
 The best brief account of Chinese Buddhism. 
 Memoirs of Robert Morrison. By his widow, 1839. 
 
 Out of print. The standard biography. 
 
 Robert Morrison. W. J. Townsend, 1888. (Partridge, 
 Is. Gd.) A good brief account. 
 
 The Story of the China Inland Mission, 1894. Geraldine 
 Guinness. (C.I.M., 7s. 6d.) A wonderful record of 
 missionary work. 
 
 WESLEYAN MISSIONS 
 
 The W.M.M.S. China Atlas. With Introduction by 
 Dr. W. T. A. Barber, 1893. (W.M.M.S., Is. Gd.) 
 
 Old, but useful. Good maps. 
 
 The W.M.M.S. in China. F. Deaville Walker, 1907. 
 (W.M.M.S., 3d.) A brief historic sketch of Wesleyan 
 Missions in China. 
 
Bibliography 3 1 1 
 
 Kwang Tung : Five Years in South China. J. A. 
 
 Turner, 1905. (Partridge, 2s.) 
 
 Methodism in Mid-China. George A. Clayton, 1907. 
 (Culley, l5. net.) An interesting and useful account 
 of the work in Hupeh. 
 
 Rambles in Central China. W. A. Cornaby, 1896. 
 (Kelly, Is. 6d.) A popular account of Wesleyan 
 work in mid-China. 
 
 Our Entry into Hunan. C. W. Allan, 1909. (Culley, 
 2s. 6d. ) An account of the province, and the attempts 
 to evangelise it. 
 
 Wesleyan Medical Missions in China. W. A. Tatchell, 
 1909. (Culley, 2s. 6d.) Fully describes the W.M.M.S. 
 medical work, its history, institutions, and results. 
 David Hill, Missionary and Saint. Dr. W. T. A. 
 
 Barber, 1899. (Kelly, 3s. Qd.) 
 
 David Hill ; an Apostle to the Chinese. Dr. W. T. A. 
 Barber, 1906. (Culley, Is.) 
 
 How David Hill Followed Christ. Jane E. Hellier, 
 1899. (Kelly, 2s. 6d.) 
 
 Roderick Macdonald. By his wife, 1908. (Kelly, 
 2s. 6d.) 
 
 Sydney Rupert Hodge, the Beloved Physician. J. K. 
 Hill, 1908. (Kelly, Is.) 
 
 Chu and Lo : Two Chinese Pastors. C. W. Allan, 
 1906. (Kelly, Is.) Will be of interest to all readers 
 of The Call of Cathay. 
 
 The General Report op the W.M.M.S. (W.M.M.S., Is. 
 net. ) Indispensable to the student of Wesleyan mis- 
 sions. Contains the latest information and statistics 
 about China. 
 
 Note. — All the books mentioned in this Bibliography 
 may be ordered from the Wesleyan Methodist Missionary 
 Society, 17 Bishopsgate Street Within, London, E.C. 
 Orders should be accompanied by remittance (postage 
 extra). 
 
INDEX 
 
 Adaptability, Chinese, 38 
 Aims of Young China, 252, 253 
 Alexander, B. H., a Hunan pioneer, 
 203 
 
 Allan, C. W., his life endangered,184 
 Allcock, Sir Rutherford, quoted, 2 
 Allen, Young J., Christian journa- 
 list, 103 
 
 Ancestors, homage to, 13, 14 
 Anti-foreignness, its beginning, 2, 58 
 Archibald, John, his pioneer jour- 
 neys, 202 
 
 Argent, William, killed at Wusueh, 
 95, 177, 201 
 
 Armenian lady in China, an, 54 
 Attempted English mission (1550), 
 58 
 
 Awakening in China, causes of the, 
 240-56 
 
 Bell, Joseph, and the Teian riot, 168 
 Bennett, Dr. Margaret, medical 
 work and death, 186, 187 
 Berkin, John, a price put on his 
 head, 185 
 
 Bible and Tract Societies, 105 
 Blind School at Hankow, 179 
 Booth, Dr. B. T., 173, 190 
 Boxer outbreak, 96, 112, 187 
 Bramfitt, Thomas, his clemency 
 towards rioters, 171 
 Brewer, John W., and the opening 
 of Teian, 167 
 
 British and Foreign Bible Society, 
 73, 105 
 Buddhism — 
 
 first image brought to China, 25 
 
 first monks in China from India, 
 27 
 
 its early teaching characterised, 
 27 n 
 
 encouraged by Hunnish rulers, 
 27, 50 
 
 Chinese first allowed to become 
 monks, 28 
 
 Buddhism — con t. 
 
 Fa Hsien and his travels, 28 
 monasteries suppressed, 29, 47 
 modified bv Nestorian teaching, 
 31, 32, 45-6 
 
 “ on its last legs ” (H. E. Chang 
 Chih-tung, 1898), 32 
 its last fillip in China, 58 
 comparative strength in Hunan, 
 199, 234 
 
 “ unable to reform society ” 
 (Maeda Gun), 266 
 
 Canton, 76, 83, 114, 117, 144, 145 
 Cantonese characteristics, 115 
 Theological Institution, 133 
 Carpini, John de Plano, a Preaching 
 Friar, 49 
 
 Cathay, origin of the word, 41 n 
 “ Cataian ” in Shakespeare, 1 
 Catholic Missions in China, 71 
 “ Celestial ” means Imperial, and is 
 not applicable to the populace, 
 14 
 
 Chang Chih-tung, H. E., on Budd- 
 hism and Taoism, 32 
 Chang Yi-tsz, conversion and pion- 
 eering, 204, 205, 206 
 “ Changeless East,” the, 236 
 Changsha, 207 
 
 riots at, 97. 210-15 
 Characteristics of China, 4, 5 
 of the Hunanese, 19, 197-200 
 of Hupeh, 19 
 of the Chinese, 35-8 
 of the Cantonese, 115 
 Chenchow, 222 
 China, origin of the name, 40 
 ancient records, 3 
 characteristics, 3, 4 
 division into dukedoms, 22 
 the word Ch‘in appli^ to the 
 West, 43 n 
 Young China, 252-4 
 Young China’s grievances, 255-7 
 
 313 
 
314 The Call 
 
 Chinese race, its first appearance, 15 
 question of its origin, 15-16 
 Christian literature and journalism, 
 81, 103, 105 
 
 Christian soldier, a, 219 
 Christianity quoted as good, 38 
 “ borrowing from Buddhism,” 
 32, 45-6 
 
 Church-members, Chinese, 127 
 Chii Shao-an, the first ordained 
 Wesleyan minister in Central 
 China, 93, 156, 159 
 Clannishness, Chinese, 238 
 Clayton, G. A., attacked, 184 
 Corhity in mission work, 93, 145, 
 149, 226 
 
 Commercial integrity, Chinese, 36 
 Confucianism not a religion, 23 
 question of compatibility with 
 Christianity, 23 
 Confucius, 22 
 
 important elements in his teach- 
 ing, 260-2 
 
 Cooper, E. C., pioneering in Hunan, 
 207 , 208, 21 9,2 21, 224, 232 
 Cornaby, W. A., and the Ta Tung 
 Pao, 104 
 
 his story of answ'ered prayer, 230 
 Corvino, John de Monte,*^ a pre- 
 Reformation pioneer in China, 
 49, 51-3 
 
 Courtesy, Chinese, 36 
 Cox, Josiah, first Wesleyan mission- 
 ary to Central China, 93, 116, 
 156-60, 178, 181, 194, 201-2 
 Cundall, Dr., at Anlu, 189 
 “ Cunning, Chinese,” 1, 36 
 Customs, Imperial Maritime, 258 
 
 Denominational separatism, 79 
 Dictionary, the first Chinese-En- 
 glish, 79 
 
 Williams’s Syllabic, 86 
 Difficulties, Morrison’s early, 76, 77 
 of Protestant missions, 99, 100, 
 101, 126, 141 
 
 Dorw'ard, Adam, pioneer in Hunan, 
 174, 203 
 
 Drummond, Professor Henry, on 
 China, 236 
 
 Edicts, Imperial — 
 
 against Roman Catholic missions, 
 67 
 
 against Christian books, 80 
 for the abolition of opium, 89 n 
 proclaimng clan-rights lor Chris- 
 tians, 171 
 
 tolerating Christianity, 177 
 abolishing examination essays, 
 250 
 
 for the remodelling of schools and 
 colleges, 251 
 
 of Cathay 
 
 Edicts Imperial — cont. 
 
 recommending students to study 
 abroad, 251 
 
 abolishing the county examina- 
 tions, 251 
 
 Educational Missions, 79, 123-6, 
 178-81 
 
 Encouragements from the riots, 285 
 in South China, 138-40 
 English mission attempted in 1550, 
 58 
 
 first war with China, 82 
 second war with China, 88, 89 
 Evangelism described, 118-19 
 Explosion of the Wuchang powder 
 magazine, 163 
 Fa Hsien and his travels, 28 
 “ Fairy Peach Mart,” 189, 231 
 Family and tribal units, 9 
 Filial piety in China, 37 
 “ Foreign devil ” (originally pirate), 
 2,58,98 
 
 Fox, George, quoted, 281 
 
 Gentry, semi-official, 166, 172, 175, 
 200, 216 
 
 Gibson, W. W., at Paokingfu, 218, 
 221 
 
 God, in ancient China, 6, 10, 11 
 Shang Ti and T'ien Chii, 12 
 GutzlafT, Karl, 86 
 
 Halde, Du, on the Wu-Han centre, 
 92 
 
 Han Ming Ti sending for Buddhist 
 monks, 26 
 
 Han Wu Ti and the first Buddhist 
 image, 25 
 
 Hangchow , 54, 55, 94 
 Hankow and Hanyang, 92, 152, 158 
 burning of, 156, 228-9 
 Hasty baptisms, 51, 57, 61-2 
 Heroic statesmen, tw^o, 97 
 Hill, David, 93, 162-6, 169, 179, 182 
 Hill, J. K., 181, 183 
 History — 
 
 commencement of historical re- 
 cords, 6 
 
 dynasties, table of, 20 
 rise and fall of dynasties, 21 
 Hodge, Sydney R., 162, 172, 189-90 
 Home and foreign missions one, 
 277-80 
 
 Hong Kong, cession of, 84 
 
 W.M.M.S. work in, 117, 118,144 
 Hu, Queen of Wei, murderess, 30 
 Human race, progress from barbar- 
 ism, 8 
 
 Hunan described, 196 
 
 characteristics of its people, 197- 
 200 
 
 visited by Josiah Cox, 160, 202 
 opposition to foreigners, 174 
 
Index 
 
 Hunnish rulers of North China, 27 
 their encouragement of Budd- 
 hism, 27-8, 50 
 
 Ideals, Chinese, 38, 254 
 Imperial worship of God, 13 
 Incubation of the universe, 6 
 Industry, Chinese, 37-8 
 
 Jesus, the name of, honoured in 
 China, 267-8 
 
 John, Griffith, 92-3 ,152, 202 
 Journalism, the rise of Chinese, 246 
 Jowett, Hardy, 185 
 
 Kiaochow, taken by Germany, 96, 
 159, 253 
 Kiukiang, 90 
 
 Kuan-yih, the son-bestowing god- 
 dess, 31-2 
 
 Kublai Khan, 49, 57 
 Kwangtung and Kwangsi, 114-49 
 
 Lacouperie, Professor de, 15 
 Lady-workers in China, 108 
 Language, colloquial and wen-li, 78 
 Mandarin and other dialects, 18 
 difficulty of the complete, 78 
 Lao Tzii, the philosopher, 23-4 
 “ Large ingatherings,” 57, 91, 99 
 Legge, Dr. James, and the Chinese 
 classics, 87 
 Leper home, 122 
 
 Liang Wu Ti, emperor and Buddhist 
 monk, 29 
 
 Literature, anti-Christian, 200, 271 
 Christian, 81, 103, 105, 245 
 Lo Yu-shan, 189, 207, 228-33 
 Lockhart, Dr,, first British medical 
 missionary to China, 87 
 
 Macdonald, Dr. R. J. J., 121-3 
 killed by pirates, 142 
 Magazines, Review of the Times, 
 103 
 
 Ta Tung Pao, 104 
 lor church members, 106 
 Mandarin, derivation of the word, 
 34 n 
 
 dialect, 18 
 
 office and characteristics, 34-5 
 opposition to missions, 101, 188, 
 193 
 
 more friendly spirit, 101 
 abuses inherent to the system, 
 238, 255-9 
 
 Marco Polo quoted, 48 
 Materialistic outlook, 35, 265 
 Mazzini quoted, 264 
 Means of grace, 133-4 
 Medhurst, H., 80 
 
 315 
 
 Medical missions, 87, 120-5, 161-2, 
 172-3, 186-92 
 
 Methods, comparative study of, 69 
 Middle Realm, origin of the term, 20 
 Miles, George, 166, 173 
 Milne, Wm., colleague of Morrison, 
 78 
 
 Mitchil, Charles W., 168, 169 
 Moral and religious outlook, 260 
 Morality under the tribal unit, 9 
 Morley, Dr. Arthur, 172, 187-8 
 Morrison, Robert, 74-81 
 Moule, Bishop G. E., 94 
 Muirhead, William, 92 
 Musical and religious sensibilities, 
 282-9 
 
 Native agents, training of, 123, 133 
 Need, the world’s, 147 
 Nestorjan Tablet, 42-7 
 
 omission of the Cross and prayer, 
 45 
 
 missions in China, 70 
 Nestorians in favour for two cen- 
 turies, 47 
 
 suppression of Nestorian monas- 
 teries, 47 
 
 missionaries in China until the 
 thirteenth century, 48 
 Newspapers, rise of Chinese, 247 
 edict against, 247 n 
 Nu Kien, Viceroy of Canton, 84 
 
 Obstacles to progress, 109, 141 
 Oderic de Friuli, an ascetic monk, 55 
 Olopun, a Nestorian pioneer, 45 
 Opium, the first British war, 82-4 
 second British war and the smug- 
 gling of, 88-90 
 edict for the abolition of, 89 
 “ Oppression ” of China, 255-6 
 Origin of the Chinese, 15, 16 
 
 Pastorate, the, 131 
 Patriarchal government, 34 
 Patriarchal religion, ancient, 10-12 
 Peking Gazette, the, 246 
 Pentecostal Church, the, 292 
 Piercy, George, W.M.M.S. pioneer 
 to Canton, 116 
 Pingkiang, 215 
 Pirate marauders, 2, 58, 67 
 Poetry of missions, the, 85, 86 
 Politics and missions, 67 
 Prayer, a story of answered, 230 
 in relation to China, 265-8 
 revival of, needed, 294 
 Press, the first mission, 79 
 Priest-kings of China, 11 
 Protestant Missions in China,73-112 
 Provincial distinctiveness, 19 
 Protheroe, Thomas, his many la- 
 bours, 192-3 
 
3i 6 The Call 
 
 Reign-mottoes of Chinese emperors, 
 65 n 
 
 Religion, China’s ancient, 6, 10-13 
 Ruddhism, Chinese, 25-32, 46, 
 50, 57-8 
 
 Ruddhism, Japanese, 265 
 Confucius’ attitude toward, 22-3 
 Taoism, 24-5, 32, 50 
 Three cults mingled, 32 
 Religious ? Are the Chinese, 33, 
 199, 282-90 
 Religious mania, 292 
 Review of the Times, 103-4 
 Revival in China, 286-90 
 after results, 290-1 
 of prayer needed, 294 
 Revolutions, futility of Chinese, 264 
 Right of residence in the interior, 
 90 ft 
 
 Riots, list of anti-foreign, 94-7 
 encouragement from, 285 
 Rising generation in China, 272-6 
 Roman Catholic missions, 48-69 
 Pope Gregory IX., 49 
 John de Plano Carpini, 49 
 John de Monte Corvino, 49-53 
 Oderic de Friuli, 55 
 Abbe Hue’s comment on, 56 
 St. Francis Xavier, 59 
 Matteo Ricci, 59-61, 63 
 Schaal and Verbiest, 61, 63 
 trouble brewing for, 64-6 
 Father Rina, 64-5 
 statistics of (1906), 68 
 Russell, Lord, quoted, 82 
 
 Sages and philosophers of China, 22 
 Scarborough, William, 162, 205 
 Scholes, E. F. P., at Lotien, 184 
 Shanghai opened as a Treaty Port, 
 
 “ Shield King,” the, 156 
 Shih Hu, a Hunnish ruler, 29 
 Shinkoron, a Ruddhist magazine, 
 quoted, 266 
 
 Shiuchow, Kwangtung, 117 
 Si Tai-kai, 233-5 
 Smith, Dr. F. Porter, 161, 242 n 
 Sociability, Chinese, 37 
 Squalor of thought, 269 
 Stagnation, Chinese, 239 
 Statesmen, from Hunan, 198 
 two heroic, 97 
 
 Statistics, Roman Catholic, 68 
 Protestant, 109 
 Canton, 135, 143 
 
 of Cathay \ 
 
 e*: 
 
 Stevenson, J. W., China Inland 
 Mission pioneer, 94 
 Students residing abroad, 252, 278 
 Sunwui, Kwangtung, 117, 130 
 Support and control of churches 
 130 
 
 Sutton, H. R., house looted, 188 
 
 Ta Tung Pao magazine, 104 
 T'ang Ming Wang, 47 
 T'ang T‘ai Tsung, 30, 43 n 
 
 his daughter queen of Tibet, 31 
 T‘ang, the chieftain, 11 
 Taiping rebellion, 88, 93, 155-7, 
 228-9 
 
 Tao, the word, as used by Lao Tzu, 
 24 ’] 
 
 Taoism, 24-5, 50 I 
 
 Tatchell, Dr. W. A., 189-90 
 Taylor, Hudson, 87 
 Teian, Hupeh, 167, 170, 172, 185-6 
 205-6, 187-8 I 
 
 Tennyson, Lord, quoted, 263 « 
 
 Tientsin massacre, 94 
 Tract Societies, 105 
 Treaty Ports opened, 84, 90 
 Tribal and family units, 9 
 
 Unquoted missionaries, 106 
 
 Warren, G. G., 178, 206,207 
 Watson, W. H., 184, 206,219 
 Williams, Wells, 86 
 Wives of missionaries, 107 
 Women workers, 108 
 Women’s work, 126 
 “ Worship,” Chinese sense of the 
 word, 13 
 Wu, Empress, 46 
 Wu Ting-fang quoted, 248 
 Wuchang, Hupeh, 92, 152, 158, 163 
 Wuchow, Kwangsi, 121-2, 142 
 Wu-Han centre, 92 
 Wusueh circuit, 163 
 
 riots, 95, 170, 176-7, 201 
 
 Xavier, St. Francis, 59 
 
 Yangtse Valley riots, 95 
 “ Yellow Emperor,” the, 10 
 Yin and Yang principles, 7, 50 
 Yochow, Hunan, 202, 203 
 Young China, 250-5 . 
 
 Yung Cheng, the emperor, hi? 
 
 speech to Jesuit Fathers, 65-6. 
 Yungchow, Hunan, 223-5 
 
 li 
 
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