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Religion and rebellion in China: the London Missionary Society collection

A revised version of this article by Andrew Gosling was published in National Library of Australia News, 8(10), July 1998, pp 3-6

"Twenty-five years have this day elapsed, since the first Protestant Missionary arrived in China, alone and in the midst of perfect strangers, with but few friends, and with many foes."

So wrote Robert Morrison (1782-1834) of the London Missionary Society about his own arrival in China at the beginning of September 1807.

The London Missionary Society was founded in 1795 during the evangelical revival as a non-denominational body dedicated to spreading the Christian faith around the world. It was largely associated with the Congregationalist movement in England and the United States. The National Library has developed extensive holdings of English language books and microforms about its activities particularly as they relate to Australia, the Pacific and Asia.

Christian missionaries have played an important role in the interaction between China and the West. From the time of the Jesuit Matteo Ricci (1562-1610) who established himself at Peking in 1600, European Catholics were attached to the imperial court for nearly two centuries. Protestant missionaries arrived much later but were to be important agents of change in nineteenth and early twentieth century China.

The impact of missionaries such as Morrison is reflected in the London Missionary Society's collection of unusual and at times rare Chinese language works now housed at the National Library in Canberra. The School of Oriental and African Studies Library in London has acquired the Society’s extensive archives and other holdings on China.

Chinese government hostility and Catholic opposition severely restricted Protestant activity in China well into the nineteenth century. Hence early missionaries with the notable exception of Morrison were based not in China itself but in Southeast Asia and their Chinese language works were largely printed in colonial settlements such as Malacca, Batavia and Singapore. At Morrison's suggestion an Anglo-Chinese College was established at Malacca, where a press was set up and a monthly magazine published in Chinese. Later when Protestant evangelists were allowed into certain Chinese ports they were still subject to official limitations on travel.

Morrison persevered in China from 1807 until his death in 1834, studying the language, compiling a Chinese dictionary and grammar and translating the Bible. As he noted in his journal it was not only official persecution of Christianity which hampered his preaching efforts :

" A-Sam, a lad, showed some levity and disposition to laugh...The novelty of seeing a Fan-kwei - 'foreign devil' - sitting down to address them in their own language, perhaps in broken Chinese, on new and strange topics to them, appears at first very odd, and boys are disposed to levity..."

Although its evangelising efforts in China were slow to bear fruit, the London Missionary Society had a significant effect on the country's intellectual, social and political developments. Liang A-fa (1789-1855) and Wang T'ao (1828-1897?) are prominent examples of its influence.

Liang was one of the Society's first converts. In 1832 Morrison listed "Leang Afa, native teacher of the London Missionary Society, in China" as one of only ten Chinese to have been baptized. Morrison referred elsewhere to "Leang Afa, the Chinese printer, who was baptized and instructed by Dr Milne [William Milne (1785-1822)], and scourged in Canton for making Christian books" and later reported with some concern "Leang Afa is busy on the Scripture Lessons, which he expects to finish in two or three months : but I am in constant fear for his safety, as he is carrying on the printing in the city of Canton."

In September 1828 Liang wrote to Morrison about the resistance of his fellow countrymen to his preaching :

"But the people here are all deceived and sunk in stupidity, respecting vain idols. Although I take the truth and exhort them, all my strength is too small to overcome such a multitude."

Nevertheless it was Liang's tracts in Chinese which first introduced Hung Hsiu-ch'uan (1814-1864) to Christianity in 1836. Hung went on to found a religious and political movement which as the Taiping Rebellion convulsed China between 1850 and 1864.

As a young man Wang T'ao accepted the invitation of the London Missionary Society's Walter Henry Medhurst (1796-1857) to be Chinese editor of the Society's press in Shanghai. He became a noted translator and influential reformist writer, declaring for example " if Confucius were born today we may be certain that he would not stubbornly believe in antiquity and oppose making changes." A pioneer of Chinese journalism, he founded and edited his own newspaper in Hong Kong in the 1870s, after fleeing there because of his contacts with the defeated Taiping rebels.

The National Library acquired the London Missionary Society collection of Chinese language sources in 1961 as part of its effort to develop strong research holdings on modern Asia. The Library's Liaison Officer in London at that time, F.W.Torrington, first sought advice from experts at London's School of Oriental and African Studies and the British Museum. He then wrote to the National Librarian, Harold White on 4 May 1961 :

" I have to report that the London Missionary Society has offered to sell to the National Library a collection of Chinese works of about 600 volumes. The majority of these works were published in the 19th and early 20th centuries, and they cover a wide range of subjects - religion, history, literature, politics etc. Works on theology comprise about one fifth of the total ... Some of the historical and literary material is of considerable value and rarity. The most valuable items in the collection are the pamphlets relating to the T'ai P'ing rebellion..."

Following receipt of this letter the Library consulted several eminent China scholars at the Australian National University who supported acquisition of the collection, which was duly purchased and sent to Australia on board the Carnatic in January 1962.

As Torrington noted, the most outstanding part of the collection came from the Taiping Rebellion, one of the greatest upheavals in modern Chinese history. The Taiping ("Great Peace") movement was founded by Hung Hsiu-ch'uan, a visionary leader influenced by Liang A-fa and other Protestant missionaries. Hung preached a mixture of Christian egalitarianism and traditional Chinese utopian ideas. He established what was intended as an ideal realm known as the Heavenly Kingdom of Great Peace. The movement's reformist actions initially enjoyed some support from missionaries and other Westerners, despite misgivings about its unorthodox form of Christianity.

Hung and his followers including the former charcoal-cutter Yang Hsiu-ch'ing (d.1856), who became Taiping commander-in-chief, captured Nanking in 1853, making it their "Heavenly Capital". They looked as if they would overthrow the ruling Manchu Ch'ing dynasty. However their initial success was followed by internal dissension, while the Ch'ing largely retained the loyalty of the Confucian Chinese elite who preferred Manchu government along traditional lines to Chinese rule by rebels with an ideology combining Western Christian and anti-Confucian elements. Finally Chinese forces with some aid from foreign-officered mercenaries crushed the rebellion with enormous loss of life.

Contemporary materials acquired from the London Missionary Society include pamphlets published by the rebels and two original proclamations from Yang Hsiu-ch'ing and other Taiping leaders. The latter were issued at the height of the movement in 1853. The proclamations claimed success for the Taiping armies and urged the people to be peaceful and carry on with their normal lives. Taiping publications include T'ien li yao lun (Important Discourse on Heavenly Doctrines) issued in Nanking in 1854, as well as a Taiping calendar and seven other rebel pamphlets on their religious and social program bound together and annotated "Brought from Nanking by W.H.M[edhurst]... July 7 1854". The British consul Walter Henry Medhurst (1822-1885) returned to Shanghai from Nanking on 7 July 1854, after an official visit to the Taiping capital on board Her Majesty's Steamer "Rattler". Medhurst's official report on this river journey lists the Taiping items he procured in Nanking, which are now housed at the National Library of Australia. The report is included in full as an appendix to J.S. Gregory's Great Britain and the Taipings.

The consul Medhurst's father was also called Walter Henry Medhurst (1796-1857). The elder and more famous Medhurst was one of a number of remarkable linguists and evangelists whose Bible translations and other religious writings are well represented in the London Missionary Society collection. He ministered in Batavia (Jakarta) for over twenty years. When Robert Morrison visited him in 1826 he noted :

"Medhurst, the Chinese Missionary in Java was waiting to see me... He practises chiefly speaking about Jesus, to Chinese and Malays, from house to house; but he mourns over the hardness of their hearts."

Medhurst later began the work of the Society in Shanghai in 1843. In the Valley of the Yangtze by a fellow missionary, Mrs Arnold Foster, describes his early days in Shanghai :

"Dr Medhurst preached in the streets and temples, and had a regular Sunday service in his own house. Besides this he printed a sermon every week, and gave away large numbers of copies. He also wrote and translated many Chinese books."

After the Taiping items, the most significant materials in the collection are the Bible translations and other Christian works in Chinese. Of particular importance are the more than sixty editions of the Old and New Testaments translated into literary and colloquial Chinese and local dialects by Medhurst and other missionaries. A number of these translations are now rare.

There are numerous other religious works.While most are Protestant there are also Chinese versions of writers such as Thomas a Kempis (1389?-1471) and the Jesuit Father Ferdinand Verbiest, whose unique map of the world hand-painted on silk in China in 1674 is also housed at the National Library. John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress is held in several nineteenth and twentieth century Chinese editions. There are also hymn books and catechisms and even an illustrated Old Testament in Shanghainese.

In addition to Medhurst, the collection contains the works of other early Protestant missionary translators. They include Robert Morrison, William Milne and the German Karl Gutzlaff (1803-1851). Medhust collaborated with both Milne and Gutzlaff in translations of the scriptures.

One of the most unusual titles is the Life of Jesus published in Batavia in 1839. The text is in Chinese, Malay and English, and thought to be the work of Medhurst or Gutzlaff or possibly their joint compilation. The Life of Jesus is the only book in this collection which is trilingual.

Works on non-religious topics cover a range of subjects. They include a number of dictionaries and other works on Chinese language, literature and culture. There are also several titles on scientific and medical matters. For example Dr Benjamin Hobson in a work on physiology published in Canton in 1851 has inserted a hand-written "Note to the Foreign Reader" explaining his aim as compiling "a popular and useful Compendium for Chinese Physicians and Scholars" despite difficulties with translating anatomical terms. He signs himself "Benjn. Hobson M.B. Lond. M.R.C.S. Agent of the London Missionary Society".

Except for the rarest items which are held in a strongroom, the London Missionary Society material is housed together in the National Library's Asian Collections. The books are generally in good condition. A Chinese librarian working as a volunteer recently placed the unbound items in special plastic folders to help preserve them.

In developing its holdings about Asia the National Library has placed a strong emphasis on China's modern history. The London Missionary Society collection contains valuable resources on Western influences in China and Chinese responses to the foreign impact.

Andrew Gosling
15 April 1998