A History of Christian Missions in China

bors, Chinese frequently sought enrollment as Christians in the hope of obtaining the support of the foreigner against their enemies,1° and the missionary could easily have used his privileged position to add to his following. As we shall see later in some detail, he repeatedly invoked the aid of his government in gaining protection for himself and his property and in obtaining and keeping a foothold in inland cities. Occasionally his Chinese assistants without his knowledge used their connection with him as a club over the heads of officials 11 and as a bait to attract adherents. Occasionally, too, from an imperfect knowledge of a case and on the mistaken supposition that a Christian was being persecuted, the missionary appealed to the courts and became embroiled in long-standing controversies between families or clans. On the whole, however, Protestant missionaries seem scrupulously to have avoided even the appearance of gaining "converts" by such dubious methods. At least one Chinese pastor, moreover, deliberately declined to appeal to the magistrate against persecution." That many inquirers came from a mixture of motives is certain, and now and again missionaries through their consuls brought pressure to bear upon Chinese officials in what they regarded as cases of persecution or injustice. As a rule, however, Protestant missionaries attempted to keep out of the courts and brought action in them only as a last resort. The majority of the leading missionaries looked with thorough disapproval on what they believed to be the Roman Catholic practice. The problem was, however, one which the missionary had almost constantly with him. On the one hand he ran the danger of

1 14

10 See instances in Ross, Mission Methods in Manchuria, pp. 163-168.

11 In the sixties a Mr. Tso, connected with the Southern Baptist Mission in Têngchow, Shantung, made money by saying that he had influence with the missionaries and that these in turn could influence officials in the settlement of lawsuits. He had the magistrates cowed and in one instance, under false pretenses, induced a missionary to interfere in a lawsuit. When Tso's tactics were discovered he was expelled from the Church.-Foster, Fifty Years in China, pp. 164, 165.

12 Gibson, Mission Problems and Mission Methods in South China, pp. 294-298. 13 This was Pastor Hsi.-Hoste in Chinese Recorder, Vol. 55, pp. 247, 248. Ashmore, South China Mission of the American Baptist Foreign Mission Society, pp. 40, 48.

Gibson, op. cit., pp. 298-309; Ross, op. cit., pp. 173-176.

10 Gibson, op. cit., pp. 294-309; Ross, op. cit., pp. 160-176; Soothill, op cit., pp. 80-90; Foreign Relations, 2d Session, 42d Congress, pp. 97-111. About 1870 Ashmore and his colleague decided not to appeal to the American Consul on behalf of Chinese Christians.-Ashmore, op. cit., pp. 40, 48, 56.

failing to interfere in cases of genuine injustice to Christians and of incurring ill-will for his seeming callousness, and on the other of being deceived into advocating an unrighteous cause.

ORGANIZING AND NOURISHING THE CHINESE CHURCH The avowed purpose of most Protestant missionaries was not only to give to each Chinese an adequate knowledge of the Gospel and to lead as many as possible into the Christian experience, but to help bring into existence a self-supporting, selfpropagating Chinese Church which should become as vigorous and independent as its sister bodies in the West. Naturally the missionary tended to reproduce the polity and creed of his denomination. There were often adaptations to Chinese institutions— the custom of having head men, for example, usually being taken over under the guise of vestrymen, deacons, or elders. Some contended that the Church should not be held either to the forms found in the New Testament or to those in use in the West, but should work out its own organization. In the main, however, Anglicanism, Congregationalism, Methodism, Presbyterianism, and the other types of Protestantism duplicated themselves in the Middle Kingdom.

Some missionaries believed that no foreign money should be paid to a Chinese for preaching the Gospel, and that from the very beginning the Church should be self-supporting. Several fairly large missions, indeed, put this principle into practice." Others subsidized the Chinese rather freely, unintentionally encouraging them to depend entirely upon the foreigner and to postpone indefinitely the day of independence." The majority of missionaries, however, endeavored to follow a middle course, putting Chinese agents on salary and aiding the Chinese congregations, but attempting gradually to reduce the proportion of foreign con

17 This was the principle on which T. P. Crawford of Shantung worked.Foster, Fifty Years in China, pp. 226-257. In 1877 Crawford said that in twentyfive years in China he had never paid assistants or given a dollar of mission funds to any Chinese to preach the Gospel.-Records of the General Conference of Protestant Missionaries of China, 1877, p. 295. See, too, The Christian Occupation of China, p. 198. The English Baptist Mission in Shantung had a somewhat similar principle.-China Mission Hand-book, Part 2, p. 44. Nevius, too, was opposed to the payment of Chinese evangelists. His insistence on financial independence was widely known and was very influential, not only in China but in Korea. See his Methods of Mission Work and an article by him in Chinese Recorder, Vol. 16, p. 461.

Gibson, op. cit., pp. 192-196.

tributions. Once established, the subsidies were difficult to discontinue. However, contributions from Chinese increased quite steadily, and the number of congregations entirely independent of foreign aid rose with each decade.20

Closely related to the problem of self-support was that of freedom from foreign control. Complete independence could be brought about in denominations with a congregational or presbyterian form of organization more rapidly than in those episcopally governed. Missionaries under all types of polity, however, early took steps looking toward this goal. Nearly all local groups had from the beginning, or from near the beginning, officers chosen by the congregation or appointed by the missionary. On the shoulders of these office-bearers was placed much of the responsibility for holding services, supervising the local church property, raising money, and maintaining among the members standards of Christian faith and living." Presbyteries were formed in various places-in the Amoy region in 1863, in Shan

19 In 1877 there were reported to be 18 churches which were wholly selfsupporting and 243 that were partially self-supporting. Records of the General Conference of Protestant Missionaries of China, 1877, p. 486. About 1893 there were reported to be 137 churches which were wholly self-supporting and 490 that were partially so.-China Mission Hand-book, Part 2, p. 324. On plans for increasing self-support and discussions of them, see Records of the Missionary Conference, Shanghai, 1890, pp. 415-447; Chinese Recorder, Vol. 1, p. 73, Vol. 2, p. 211, Vol. 3, p. 310, Vol. 10, p. 105, Vol. 15, p. 254, Vol. 26, p. 303; China Mission Hand-book, Part 2, p. 55; Nevius, Life of Nevius, p. 404; Duncan, The Missionary Mail, p. 24. In 1882 in Amoy 750 church members gave $1,877.32; in 1886, 804 members gave $2,076.29; in 1892, 1,008 members gave $3,894.80— Pitcher, Fifty Years in Amoy, p. 132. In 1874 the churches associated with the London Missionary Society in the Amoy region had a membership of 612 and gave to central funds £166. In 1911 a membership of 3,458 gave £1,328.— Bitton, Our Heritage in China, p. 63. It must be remembered that compared with Western standards not only were incomes of members low but salaries of native workers were meager. In 1877 the highest salaries paid to Chinese under the American Presbyterian Mission in Shantung were 6,000 cash a month to teachers and 4,500 cash a month to preachers.-Records of the General Conference of Protestant Missionaries of China, 1877, p. 294. About 1895 the American Board paid preachers from $5 to $10 a month, ordained pastors from $6 to $10 a month, and other pastors from $3 to $8 a month.-China Mission Hand-book, Part 2, p. 154. Judged even by Chinese standards, these stipends were not large. A particular type of self-supporting mission was the Chefoo Industrial Mission. This was begun in 1893 by Mr. and Mrs. James McMullan, formerly connected with the China Inland Mission, "with the set purpose of demonstrating that we could work for our support and at the same time do effective mission work." Lace-making was taught and a brush factory was added later. In 1896 a school was opened to lead the pupils to a Christian faith, to give them a sound education, and to teach them to support themselves.-Forsyth, Shantung, pp. 277 et seq.

20 See examples of this in Ross, op. cit., pp. 108-143; Gibson, op. cit., pp. 169232; Soothill, op. cit., pp. 57-74; Ashmore, South China Mission of the American Baptist Foreign Mission Society, p. 52.

tung in 1865," and in Manchuria in 1891," for example—in which it was planned to increase the Chinese element and in time. to dispense with the foreigner. In the Shantung presbytery the discussions were, from 1866, entirely in Chinese." In the seventies the churches which had arisen in and around Amoy out of the efforts of the London Missionary Society were formed into a "Congregational Union" in which missionaries, Chinese workers, and delegates from each church had seats." In 1876 the Church Missionary Society created its first Chinese church committee for a local congregation in its Chêkiang-Kiangsu field," and in 1882 steps were taken toward putting into operation a plan of Chinese church councils with delegates from the various pastorates and probably the first. Another, much talked of in its day and more successful, was developed in Hupeh by the American Episcopalians.'

Many ambitious plans were projected for reaching the Chinese through their fellow countrymen under the supervision of a minimum number of foreigners. Gützlaff's ill-starred enterprise was probably the first. Another, much talked of in its day and more successful, was developed in Hupeh by the American Episcopalians.*

Christians were also encouraged to spread the Faith without the assistance of the foreigner. Most of this "home missionary work" was performed by individuals and by single congregations. 28 In time, however, there began to be organized for this purpose societies in which a number of churches joined, the precursors of the larger movements after 1900.*°

The earliest Protestant missionaries had realized that if the Chinese Church was ever to be vigorous, truly independent, and self-propagating, it must have trained Chinese leadership. They realized, too, that all the nation could never be reached with the

21 Fisher, C. W. Mateer, p. 199.

22 A Century of Protestant Missions in China, p. 178; Ross, op. cit., p. 123. Fisher, C. W. Mateer, p. 199.

* L. M. S. Chronicle, Vol. 15 (new series), p. 51.

A Century of Protestant Missions in China, p. 28.

2 Stock and McClelland, For Christ in Fuhkien, p. 26.

Jefferys, Ingle, pp. 64, 65, 268-272.

Soothill, A Typical Mission in China, pp. 58-60. The L. M. S. Chronicle, Vol. 34, p. 263, tells of a church in Fatshan supported in part by the Canton church.

29 The Congregational Union of Amoy began a mission of its own in an adjoining prefecture in 1892.-A Century of Protestant Missions in China, p. 8. The Hing-hwa (Fukien) Home Missionary Society was formed in 1895.-Chinese Recorder, Vol. 34, p. 170.

Christian message by foreigners alone.3° Consequently, even before 1856 Chinese were employed to help spread the Faith and to shepherd the Christian communities, and some instruction had been begun for them.

The creation of a body of well-prepared, able men and women who would give full time to the Church was, however, no easy task and not one to be accomplished in a few decades. Outside the Roman Catholic communities, nothing existed in China corresponding to the profession of the minister and pastor. The Buddhist and Taoist monks and nuns were probably the nearest approach to it, and these were popularly in ill repute. Most of the early Christians were, moreover, men and women of scanty education, and high standards of education could not quickly be achieved. The communities of Chinese Christians were small, and their members were usually not far removed from poverty and were unaccustomed to contributing to the support of a church. A larger body of converts would have to be gathered and schools of higher grade would need to be established before able Chinese leadership could be expected. Missionaries gave much thought to the problem, and many attempts were made to solve it.31 After 1900, especially after 1914, these efforts were to bear fruit in a rapidly growing body of competent leaders, but, as a rule, before 1900 Chinese remained subordinate to the missionaries. The Chinese were "helpers," and the missionary, often against his will, dominated the Church.

Chinese were in the service of the Church in various capacities. There were "Bible women,' "2 used to spread the message among members of their own sex. There were men who were colporteurs, others were "evangelists," travelling, like the former, much of the time, others were teachers, and still others were resident pastors. Missionaries were usually slow in ordaining Chinese, for they wished to maintain standards of preparation somewhere nearly equal to those that obtained for the ministry in Europe and America. However, by 1897, in nearly every

See an earnest plea on this ground for more training of Chinese workers, in Doolittle, Social Life of the Chinese, Vol. 2, pp. 403-410.

As typical of these discussions see Chinese Recorder, Vol. 2, p. 74, Vol. 3, p. 315 et seq., Vol. 4, p. 118, Vol. 5, p. 137, Vol. 17, pp. 149, 213, 228, Vol. 22, p. 395, Vol. 23, p. 299.

32 The Reformed Church at Amoy began in 1878 to employ Bible women to go out two by two to outlying villages.-Chamberlain, Fifty Years in Foreign Fields, p. 22.

« 上一頁繼續 »

圖書