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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 March 2012
The arrival of Robert Morrison in Macau on 4 September 1807 marked the beginning of the nineteenth-century Protestant missionary movement in China. The most familiar and important legacy of Morrison is his translation of the Bible into Chinese and the compilation of A dictionary of the Chinese language. When Morrison concluded his work in 1832, only ten Chinese had been baptised. However, the true measure of his accomplishment is not to be sought in the harvest of souls, but in the foundations that laid for future work. As a pioneer missionary in the nineteenth century, Morrison lived in an alien ‘heathen’ world for twenty-five years. How did he hold on to his evangelistic vision and passion in such an adverse and unfavourable environment? This essay aims to sketch Robert Morrison's views on mission, focusing on the way in which he responded to traditional Chinese culture and religion and the huge political obstacles in early nineteenth-century China.
1 Robert Morrison (comp. Eliza A. Morrison), Memoirs, London 1839, ii. 470.
2 Ibid. i. 136.
3 Brian Harrison, Waiting for China: the Anglo-Chinese college at Malacca, 1818–1843, Hong Kong 1979.
4 Alexander Wylie, Memorials of Protestant missionaries to the Chinese: giving a list of their publications, and obituary notices of the deceased, Shanghai 1867, 3–9.
5 Paul A. Cohen, ‘Christian missions and their impact to 1900’, in Denis Twitchett and John K. Fairbank (eds), The Cambridge history of China, X: Late Ch'ing, 1800–1911, i, Cambridge 1978, 548; Starr, J. Barton, ‘The legacy of Robert Morrison’, International Bulletin of Missionary Research xxii (1998), 73CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
6 Strictly speaking, Poo Saat (pusa) is a Buddhist term (bodhisattva). In Mahayana Buddhism, an ordinary person who has ‘engendered bodhictta’ (generated a desire for enlightenment in order to save all beings from suffering) and taken a bodhisattva vow is a bodhisattva, but there are also ‘celestial bodhisattvas’ such as Manjusri and Avalokitesvara, who are almost Buddhas in their attainments. See John Bowker (ed.), The Oxford dictionary of world religion, Oxford 1997, 155. However, in the context of Chinese popular religion, ‘pusa’ become a general term refering to all kind of deities. It was very difficult for Morrison, in his earliest accounts, to understand the complexity of the relationship between Buddhism, Taoism and Chinese popular religion.
7 Christopher Hancock, Robert Morrison and the birth of Chinese Protestantism, London 2008, 42.
8 Morrison, Memoirs, i. 218.
9 Ibid. i. 152.
10 Morrison journal, journals, South China, London Missionary Society, CWM, entry for 7 Sept. 1807.
11 Ibid. entry for 16 Sept. 1807.
12 Ibid. entries for 17, 21 Sept. 1807.
13 Ibid. entry for 25 Sept. 1807.
14 Ibid. entry for 7 Oct. 1807.
15 Ibid. entry for 19 Oct. 1807.
16 Idem, Memoirs, i. 172.
17 Ibid. i. 274.
18 Ibid. i. 176–7.
19 Clifton Jackson Phillips, Protestant America and the pagan world: the first half century of the American board of commissioners for foreign missions, 1810–1860, Cambridge 1969, 270–80.
20 Morrison, Robert, ‘The influence of religion’, CR i (1832), 147Google Scholar.
21 Ibid.
22 Morrison journal, entry for 7 Oct. 1807.
23 Idem, Memoirs, i. 174.
24 Ibid. i. 157.
25 Ibid. i. 205.
26 Ibid. i. 207–8.
27 Ibid. i. 209–10.
28 Ibid. i. 227–8.
29 Ibid. i. 229.
30 Ibid. i. 231.
31 Ibid. i. 281–2.
32 Idem, China; a dialogue for the use of school: ten conversations, between a father and his two children, concerning the history and present state of that country, London 1824, 70–2. See also Memoirs, i. 342–3.
33 Idem, ‘Confucius’, EMS iii (1833), 12.
34 Idem, ‘The worship of Confucius’, CR i (1833), 502.
35 Idem, A parting memorial; consisting of miscellaneous discourses, London 1826, 185.
36 Idem, ‘The influence of religion’, 147.
37 Idem, View of China, philological purposes: containing a sketch of Chinese chronology, geography, government, religion and customs, London 1817, 122.
38 Idem, i. 349.
39 Idem, View of China, 114–16, 106.
40 Idem, ‘Tombs of ancestors’, CR i (1833), 502.
41 Idem, ‘Worshipping at the tombs’, CR i (1832), 201–2.
42 Idem, ‘Tombs of ancestors’, 500.
43 Idem, ‘Worshipping at the tombs’, 201–2
44 Idem, ‘Shanfen jiahen lun’ [‘Worshipping at the tombs’], in Shentien daosui jichuan [Miscellaneous essays], Malacca 1819, as cited in Su Ching, ‘Malixun de zhongwen yinshua chuban huodong’ [‘Robert Morrison and his Chinese printing and publication’], in Su Ching, Malixun yu zhongwen yinshua chuban [Robert Morrison and Chinese printing and publication], Taipei 2000, 45.
45 ‘Yu-lan-shing-hwuy’ (yulan shenghui) is the Buddhist name for the ghost festival: Stephen F Teiser, The ghost festival in medieval China, Princeton 1988, 8.
46 Morrison, View of China, 106–7.
47 Ibid. 105–9.
48 William Milne, Retrospect of the first ten years of the Protestant mission to China, Malacca 1820, 3. This book was drafted by Morrison and revised by Milne.
49 Morrison, Parting memorial, 301, 309–10.
50 Idem, Memoirs, i. 233.
51 Idem, View of China, 123.
52 Idem, Parting memorial, 184–5.
53 Ibid. 239.
54 Idem, View of China, 112.
55 Idem, Memoirs, i, 297–8.
56 For studies on morality books see Sakai Tado, Chūgoku zensho no kenyū, Tokyo 1960, and Cynthia J. Brokaw, The ledgers of merit and demerit: social change and moral order in late imperial China, Princeton 1991.
57 Su Ching, ‘Malixun de zhongwen yinshua chuban huodong’, 44–50.
58 William Milne's Dialogues between Chang and Yuen was published in 1819 in Malacca: Daniel H. Bays, ‘Christian tracts: the two friends’, in Suzanne W. Barnet and John K. Fairbank (eds), Christianity in China: early Protestant missionary writings, Cambridge 1985, 19–34. For the writings of Milne see Wylie, Memorials, 12–20.
59 Hanan, Patrick, ‘The missionary novels of nineteenth-century China’, Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies lx (2000), 418–19Google Scholar.
60 Morrison, Memoirs, i. 477–8.
61 Ibid. i. 343, 346–7.
62 Ibid. i. 359.
63 Ibid. i. 371.
64 Ibid. i. 352.
65 Ibid. i. 334–6.
66 Ibid. i. 418–24.
67 Ching, Su, ‘The first Protestant convert of China, Tsae A'ko (1788–1818)’, Ching Feng v (2004), 234Google Scholar.
68 Morrison, ‘Preface for the Acts of the Apostles’, in Yesu jiushi shitu xingchuan zhenben [Acts of the Apostles in Chinese], Guangzhou 1811. For the full text of the preface see Su Ching, ‘Malixun de zhongwen yinshua chuban huodong’, 37.
69 Morrison wrote in a tract that ‘God created man with a good nature. Man became depraved after offending God. Thus, there is no one in this world who has not offended God’: Shendao lunshu jiushi zongshui [A true and summary statement of the divine doctrine], Guangzhou 1811, 1a.
70 Idem, Wenda qianzhu yesu jiaofa [An easy explanation of the doctrine of Jesus], Guangzhou 1812, 3b.
71 Idem, China; a dialogue for the use of school, 74.
72 Idem, Shendao lunshu jiushi zongshui, 1b.
73 Idem, Wenda qianzhu yesu jiaofa, 13b.
74 Idem, Quandou shenlu shuzhiwen [Homilies on reading the scripture and on the misery of mankind], Malacca 1821, cited in Su Ching, ‘Malixun de zhongwen yinshua chuban huodong’, 46.
75 Idem, China; a dialogue for the use of school, 80.
76 Idem, Parting memorial, 9.
77 Ibid. 243.
78 Idem, ‘Preface for the Acts of the Apostles’, in Su Ching, ‘Malixun de zhongwen yinshua chuban huodong’, 37.
79 Idem, Shendao lunshu jiushi zongshui, 2a.
80 Idem, Wenda qianzhu yesu jiaofa, 19a.
81 Ibid. 17a–18a.
82 Zhuangzi was an influential Chinese philosopher who lived around the fourth century BCE during the Warring States Period. He was considered one of the major founders of the Daoist philosophy.
83 Morrison, Yangxin shenshi [Hymn book], Guangzhou 1818, cited in Su Ching, ‘Malixun de zhongwen yinshua chuban huodong’, 42–3.
84 Idem, ‘Preface for the Acts of the Apostles’, in Su Ching, ‘Malixun de zhongwen yinshua chuban huodong’, 37.
85 Idem, Shendao lunshu jiushi zongshui, 3a.
86 Ibid. 4a.
87 Morrison, ‘Female education’, EMS ii (1833), 5.
88 Idem, China; a dialogue for the use of school, 72–3.
89 Idem, ‘Shanfen jiahen lun’, cited in Su Ching, ‘Malixun de zhongwen yinshua chuban huodong’, 45.
90 Idem, Memoirs, i. 200–1.
91 Bays, Daniel H., ‘Christianity and the Chinese sectarian tradition’, Ching-shih Wen-ti iv (1982), 33–55Google Scholar, and ‘Christianity and Chinese sects: religious tracts in the late nineteenth century’, in Barnet and Fairbank, Christianity in China, 121–34.
92 Su Ching, ‘First Protestant convert’, 235–7.
93 Morrison, Memoirs, i. 410.
94 Ibid. ii. 472.
95 Morrison wrote, ‘It occupies a great part of my short life in that which does not immediately refer to my first object. Whilst I am translating official papers, I could be compiling my Dictionary, which I hope will be of essential service to future missionaries’: ibid. i. 270.
96 Ibid. i. 433–4.
97 William Pitt Amherst, 1st Earl Amherst (1773–1857).
98 Morrison, Memoirs, i. 428.
99 Ibid. i. 378.
100 Idem, Memoir of the principal occurrences during an embassy from the British government to the court of China in the year of 1816, London 1820, 7–9.
101 National Palace Museum, Qing Jiaqingchao waijiao shiliao [Historical sources on Sino-western relations under the Qing Jiaqing emperor], Taipei 1968, v. 29a–b.
102 Murray A. Rubinstein, The origins of Anglo-American missionary enterprise in China, 1807–1840, London 1996, 118–26.
103 Morrison, Memoirs, i. 451, 453.
104 Idem, Memoir of the principal occurrences, 95–6.
105 Ibid. 95.
106 Idem, Memoirs, i. 473.
107 Robert Morrison to 000 Burder, 23 Feb. 1817, in Harrison, Waiting for China, 32–3.
108 Morrison, Memoirs, i. 475–6.
109 Ibid. ii. 162–3.
110 Ibid. ii. 180–2.
111 Idem, China; a dialogue for the use of schools, preface.
112 Idem, Memoirs, ii. 175.
113 Idem, Parting memorial, 308.
114 Guo Tingyi, Jindai Zhongguo shigang [History of modern China], Hong Kong 1983, i. 46.
115 Guo Weidong, Zhuanzhe: yi zaoqi zhongying guanxi he “Nanjing tiaoyue” wei kaocha zhongxin [Turning point; with special reference to early Anglo-Chinese relations and the treaty of Nanjing], Shijiazhuang 2003, 155.
116 Morrison, Memoirs, ii. 524.
117 Henry John Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston (1784–1865).
118 Gonghang was the Chinese import-export monopoly in Guangzhou during the early Qing dynasty.
119 Morrison, Memoirs, ii. 529.
120 Rubinstein, Origins, ch. vii.
121 Su Ching, ‘Fuyin yu qiancai: Malixun wannian de jingyu’ [‘Gospel and money: the later years of Robert Morrison’], in Su Ching, Zhongguo kaimen: malixun ji xiangguan renwu yanjiu [Open up, China! studies on Robert Morrison and his circle], Hong Kong 2005, 91.
122 E. G. Bridgman to [?] Anderson, 24 May 1834, cited in Rubinstein, Origins, 307.
123 Bridgman, E. G., ‘British authorities in China: petition to the king in council from the British residents in this country’, CR iii (1834), 362–3Google Scholar.
124 Michael C. Lazich, E. C. Bridgman (1801–1861), America's first missionary to China, Lewiston 2000, 165–75; Stuart C. Miller, ‘Ends and means: missionary justification of force in nineteenth century China’, in John K. Fairbank (ed.), The missionary enterprise in China and America, Cambridge 1974, 249–51.
125 Karl Gützlaff, Journal of three voyages along the coast of China, in 1831, 1832, & 1833, London 1834.
126 ‘Church Missionary Society – extracts from Rev. C. Gützlaff's reply to the society, dated, Macao, 13 Oct. 1835’, Missionary Register (July 1837), 326, as cited in Su Ching, ‘Guoshila he qita chuanjiaoshi de jinzhang guanxi’ [‘The tensions between Gützlaff and other missionaries’], in Shangdi de renma: shijiu shiji zaihua chuanjiaoshi de zuowei [Under God's command: papers on early Protestant missionaries in China], Hong Kong 2006, 40.
127 Jessie G. Lutz, Opening China: Karl F. A. Gützlaff and Sino-western relations, 1827–1852, Grand Rapids 2008, 3.
128 Miller, ‘Ends and means’, 251–7; Paul A. Varg, Missionaries, Chinese, and diplomats: the American Protestant missionary movement in China, 1830–1952, Princeton 1958, 4–6.
129 Morrison, Memoirs, ii. 139–43.
130 Idem, Parting memorial, 84–7.
131 Phillips, Protestant America, 270–80.
132 William R. Hutchison, ‘A moral equivalent for imperialism: Americans and the promotion of Christian civilization, 1880–1910’, in Torben Christensen and William R. Hutchison (eds), Missionary ideologies in the imperialist era: 1880–1920, Åarhus 1982, 167–77.
133 Starr, ‘The legacy of Robert Morrison’, 75.
134 Morrison, Memoirs, ii. 533.
135 Ibid. ii. 539.
136 Ibid. ii. 541.
