Cibrarjp of Che theological ^tminaxy
PRINCETON • NEW JERSEY
PURCHASED BY THE HAMILL MISSIONARY FUND
BV 3415 .R52 1916
Richard, Timothy, 1845-1919.
Forty-five years in China
FORTY-FIVE fEARS IN CHINA
Photo i;']
TIMOTHY RICHARD AT 6o.
[Elliott Gr Fry. Frontispiece.
FORTY-FIVE YEARS IN
CHINA REMINISCENCES BY TIMOTHY "RICHARD, D.D., Litt.D.
WITH 18 ILLUSTRATIONS
NEW YORK
FREDERICK A. STOKES COMPANY
PUBLISHERS
1916
(All rights reserved)
PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN
DEDICATION
To the Baptist Missionary Society, London, in whose service I have been since 1869 :
To the Christian Literature Societies of Scotland, England, and China, under whose auspices I have engaged in special literary work since 1891 :
To the many individual friends in England, America, and China who have generously aided me in all my life :
This volume, which is mainly a record of efforts to establish the Kingdom of God among a fourth of the human race, is grate- fully and affectionately dedicated by
THE AUTHOR.
INTRODUCTION
The problem before the missionary in China, a^ I found it forty -five years ago, was not only how to save the souls of a fourth of the human race, but also how to save their bodies from perishing at the rate of four millions per annum, and to free their minds, more crippled than the feet of their wom;en, from a philosophy and custom which had lasted for many centuries and left them at the mercy of any nation which might attack their country. But, if the nation were liberated from the bonds of ignorance and harmful custom, and were to receive the light of education — scientific, industrial, religious — it might become one of the most powerful nations on earth. It was glad tidings of great joy that the missionary brought to its political and religious leaders. Many of these, after some years of hesitation and doubt, believed his message, but the majority were too full of ignorance and prejudice to take action till it was too late. Thus one of the greatest nations of antiquity or of modern times has become involved in revolution and anarchy from which it will take a long time to recover.
These reminiscences tell of sympathetic efforts made to guide the spiritual leaders of China to a vision of the Kingdom of God, with its promise of a hundredfold in this world, and in the world to come life everlasting. These efforts have meant the uplifting of China in various ways, through better religion, better science, better means of communication, better international commerce, the institution of modem schools and colleges, the found- ing of a modern Press, the establishment of new industries and manufactures over a country as large as the whole
8 INTRODUCTION
of Europe. In all these departments I have taken some share, as will be seen in these reminiscences.
I should like to record my thanks to those who have given me so much help in this work : —
To my daughter Eleanor, for writing at my dictation, and putting the manuscript into shape for the Press ; to Miss Hilda C. Bowser, for the trouble she took to obtain some of the photographs, and for typing the whole ; and lastly to the Rev. W. Y. Fullerton, Home Secretary of the Baptist Missionary Society, at whose request I have written these reminiscences, for revising the work for publication.
TIMOTHY RICHARD. Shanghai,
yanuary 1916.
CONTENTS
PAGE
INTRODUCTION ........ 7
CHAPTER I
EARLY YEARS IN WALES. 1845-69 . . . . • ^9
I. Birthplace and Family. 2. Accidents. 3. Baptism. 4. School- ing. 5. Teaching School. 6. Haverfordwest Theological College. 7. Starting of China Inland Mission. 8. Application to Baptist Missionary Society.
CHAPTER H EARLY YEARS IN CHINA. STUDYING LANGUAGE AND CIVILIZATION . 30
I. Last Days in England. 2. Voyage. 3. Arrival in China. 4. Early Trials of B.M.S. in China. 5. Fellow-missionaries in Chefoo. 6. Tientsin Massacre. 7. Sterling Quality of First Converts. 8. Arrival of Dr. Brown. 9. Selling Gospels round Shantung Pro- montory. ID. Trip to Manchuria Selling Gospels : (a) Threatened Shipwreck ; [b) Sunstroke ; (c) Robbers ; (d) Sa Ur Hu ; (c) Ling Kai ; (/) Lao Ch'eng, the old Manchu Capital ; (g) Extraordinary Confusion of Exchange ; {h) Some Features of Interest in Man- churia ; (:') Adventure at Korean Gate ; (j) Bad Government.
II. Street Preaching not Productive of Satisfactory Results. 12. Visit to Salt Manufacturer. 13. Fair at Hwui Lung San. 14. Attempt to Settle in Ninghai. 15. Visit to a Devout Seeker after Truth. 16. Striking Essay on Jesus Christ by a non-Christian. 17. First Visit to Chi-nan fu. 1873. 18. Baptism of Military Officer. 19. Moham- medans. 20. Mcllvaine, the first Protestant Missionary in Chi-nan fu. 21. Crossett, his Colleague. 22. Chinese Philanthropist In- troducing Vaccination. 23. Medical Tour with Dr. Brown. 24. Demon Possession. 25. Black and White Sheep. 26. Second Visit to Chi-nan fu. 27. Roads and Modes of Travel in North China.
CHAPTER III
PIONEERING AMONG SHANTUNG FARMERS. 1875-6 . . .76
I. First Connection with Li Hung-chang. 2. Journey to Ch'ing-
chow fu. 3. Medical Work. 4. Prefectural Treasurer. 5. Change
into Chinese Dress. 6. Acting as Master of Fengshui. 7. How I
9
10 CONTENTS
Got a House. 8. Anti-foreign ex-Magistrate. 9. Study of Native Religious Book. 10. Intercourse with Mohammedans. 11. Visit to Leader of Religious Sect. 12. Kindness of Country People. 13. Midnight Gathering of Women at Taoist Temple. 14. Visit to Hermit. 15. First Converts in Ch'ing-chow fu.
CHAPTER IV
PAGE
FAMINE RELIEF IN SHANTUNG. 1876-7 . . . -97
I. Failure of Crops. 2. Posters Exhorting People to Pray to God. 3. Disturbances owing to F'amine. 4. Asked to Head a Rebellion. 5. Methods of Distributing Money. 6. Second Request to Head Rebellion. 7. Proposals to Governor Ting Pao Chun to Avert Future Famines. 8. Donations from Chefoo. 9. Increase of In- V quirers. 10. My Mission Policy Adopted by Dr. Nevius. 11. Inci- dents in Famine Relief. 12. Subscriptions from Ports. 13. Serious Riot at Ch'ang Lo. 14. Interview with Official. 15. Pur- suit and Rescue. 16. Dishonest Official Threatened by Women. 17. Distress during Winter. 18. Distribution of Relief with Officials and Gentry, ig. Arrival of A. G. Jones. 20. Proposals to Local Officials to Avert Famine. 21. Church Work. 22. Letter to Baptist Missionary Society.
CHAPTER V
FAMINE RELIEF IN SHANSI. 1877-81 ..... I25
I. Decision to Distribute Relief in Shansi. 2. Journey to T'ai-yuan fu. 3. Interview with Governor Tseng. 4. Questions to Roman Catholic Priests through their Bishop. 5. Extracts from Diary on Trip South of T'ai-yuan fu. 6. Difficulties of Grain Transport. 7. Arrival of C.I.M. Missionaries, James and Turner. 8. Co-operation with Chinese Officials in Famine Relief. 9. Proposals to Governor to Avert future Famines. 10. Suggestion to B.M.S. to Show Atten- tion to new Chinese Ambassador. 11. Letter to Protestant Mis- sions Proposing Organization and Co-operation. 12. Arrival of Hill, Turner, and Whiting, and Death of latter. 13. Distribution of Mansion House Relief Fund. 14. Arrival of C.I.M. Ladies. 15. Marriage with Miss Martin. 16. Gratitude of Chinese for Foreign Relief. 17. Famine Relief at Ping Yang Fu during Winter. 18. Roman Catholic Books in Chinese. 19. Lack of Organization in Protestant Mission Work. 20. Missionary Tracts Alienating Non- Christians. 21. Lost Christians Found in Ping Yang Fu. 22. Lu Tung Pin, Founder of the Sect of the Pill of Immortality. 23. Dis- tribution of Tracts and Gospels throughout Province. 24. Prizes for Religious Essays at Triennial Examination. 25. Pastor Hsi. 26. Visit to Peking. Interview with Li Hung-chang. 27. Arrival of Dr. Schofield and other C.I.M. Workers. 28. A Regrettable Severance. 29. Biographies of Christians. 30. Unusual Measures to help the Shansi People.
CONTENTS 11
CHAPTER VI
PAGE WORK AMONGST OFFICIALS AND SCHOLARS. 1881-4 . . • I56
I. Attitude of Officials to Foreigners. 2. Better Equipment for Mission Work. 3. Lectures to Officials. 4. Visit of Prefect Wang. 5. Best Scholar in the Province residing in Compound. 6. Inter- view with Viceroy Tso Tsung T'ang. 7. Friendly Intercourse of Official with Missionaries. 8. Chinese Music. 9. Intercourse with Buddhist. 10. Visit to Wu Tai San — a P'amous Mountain. 11. New Governor — Chang Chih-tung. 12. Intercourse with Roman Catholics. 13. Journey to Shantung. 14. Dysentery at Chi-nan fu. 15. Harvest Thanksgiving. 16. New Churches in Shantung. 17. Fellow-missionaries — Mr. and Mrs. Kitts and J. S. Whitewright. 18. Difficulty with Anti-foreign Magistrate, ig. Robbery on Return to Shansi. 20. Death of Dr. Schofield. 21. Effect of Taiping Rebellion. 22. Hostile Attitude of Government and Persecution of Christians. 23. Visit to Peking with Mr. James. 24. Establishment of Evangelical Alliance. 25. Remarkable Korean Proclamation against Christianity. 26. Sir Robert Hart's Scheme. 27. My , Various Reform S<;h^;nes_ 28. Interview with Sir Harry Parkes. 29. Proposals to Shansi Missionaries.
CHAPTER VII
FIRST FURLOUGH. 1885-6 ...... I94
I. Journey to Coast. 2. Visit to Nanking with Hill. 3. Finding of "The Awakening of Faith." 4. Storm on Voyage Home. 5. B.M.S. Annual Meeting. 6. Appeal for more Workers. 7. Edu- cational Scheme Proposed to B.M.S. 8. Rejection of Scheme. 9. Suggestions for improved Mission Methods. 10. Special Course on Electrical Engineering at Home. 11. Interview with Minister of Education in Berlin.
CHAPTER VIII
YEARS OF TRIAL AND SUSPENSE. 1886-9I . . . 20I
I. Talks with Pere Simon on s.s. Oxns. 2. Wife's Illness and Re- covery from Sprue. 3. Criticism from Colleagues. 4. Departure from Shansi. 5. Work in Peking. 6. Marquis Tseng. 7. Inter- view with Li Hung-chang. 8. Mrs. Richard's Pupils. 9. Visit to Chief Lama. 10. Visit to Chief Buddhist Abbot. Ii. Invitation to Work in Shantung. 12. Fever and Paralysis, Shantung. 13. ELM.S. Refuse Scheme of College, 1889. 14. Shanghai Conference. 15. Editing Chinese Paper. i6. Mrs. Richard's Biblewomen'in Tientsin. 17. B.M.S. Deputation. 18. Invitation to S.D.K. in Shanghai.
12 CONTENTS
CHAPTER IX
PAGE S.D.K. WORK IN SHANGHAI. 189I-4 ..... 2l8
I. Founding of the S.D.K. by Dr. Williamson. 2. Other Workers in the S.D.K. 3. First Methods of Work, 1891. 4. Plans for In- crease of Interest. 5. Appreciation of Work by Chinese Officials. 6. Presentation of New Testament to Empress-Dowager. 7. Pro- posal to Municipal Council to found a Pubhc School for Chinese. 8. The Anti-footbinding Society. 9. Results of Rev. J. Lambert Rees' Work.
CHAPTER X
INTERVIEWS DURING THE CHINO-JAPANESE WAR. 1894-5 . . 229
I. The Chino-Japanese War. 2. Influence of S.D.K. Literature \ during the War. 3. Change of Attitude of the Chinese Booksellers. 4. Winter in Nanking. 5. First Interview with Viceroy Chang Chih-tung. 6. Second Interview with Chang Chih-tung. 7. Inter- view with Peace Envoy, Chang Yin-huan. 8. Third Interview with Chang Chih-tung,
CHAPTER XI
PRESENTATION OF MISSION MEMORIAL IN PEKING. 1895 . . 242
I. Memorial Committee. 2. Persecutions of Christians. 3. First \ ,| Interview with Li Hung-chang. 4. Following Interviews with Li Hung-chang. 5. First Interview with Prime Minister. 6. Interview with Prince Kung. 7, Dr. Wherry and I Present Mission Memorial. 8. Obstructions to Granting our Request.
CHAPTER XII
THE REFORM MOVEMENT IN CHINA. 1895-8 .... 253
I I. Kang Yu Wei. 2. The Reform Society in Peking. 3. My
I Reform Scheme for Weng T'ung-ho. 4. Sun Chia-nai, the Em-
j peror's Tutor. 5. Interview with Chang Yin-hwan. 6. Kang Yi
j and Interesting Manclm Oflicial. 7. Farewell to Weng T'ung-ho
1 and Li Hung-chang. 8. Progress of Reform Movement. 9.
\ Chinese Girls' School in Shanghai. 10. The Emperor's Wonderful
Edicts. II. First Check to Reform Party. 12. Invited to Peking
to Become Emperor's Adviser. 13. Coup d'Etat and F^light of
K'ang Yu-wei. 14. Execution of Reformers. 15. Fate of Others.
16. Emperor's Decree of Abdication.
CONTENTS 13
CHAPTER XIII
PAGE
A JOURNEY TO t'IEN-T'AI MOUNTAIN. 1895 .... 269
I. A Great Religious Centre. 2. A Manchu Christian Proposes to Visit the Pope. 3. Strange Superstitions. 4. Splendid Temples at Hangchovv. 5. Shaohing, a Cily for Lawyers and Wine. 6. Travellers' Agency. 7. A Riot Averted. 8. Laborious Method of Rice Cultivation. 9. Gigantic Images of Buddha. 10. Other Temples. 11. Temple Worship. 12. A Hermit's Hut. 13. Hwa Ting Sz. 14. More Hermits' Huts. 15. Chin Kwoh Sz. 16. Kwoh-Ching Sz. 17. Birthday of the God of War. 18. Men Re- duced to Beasts of Burden. 19. A Remarkable Prescription. 20. Our Inn Accommodation.
CHAPTER XIV
MY SECOND FURLOUGH. 1896-7 . . . . . 286
I. Fellow-passenger with Li Hung-chang. 2. Visit to Madras. 3. Trip across India. 4. Delhi. 5. Paris. 6. Reception by B.M.S. Committee. 7. Appeal to the Missionary Secretaries' Association. 8. Other Appeals to the Religious Tract Society. 9. Other Forms of Work.
CHAPTER XV
THE BOXER MOVEMENT. I900. ..... 293
I. Visit to Peking. 2. Spread of Anti-foreign Feeling. 3. Militia Raised by Kang Yi. 4. Ecumenical Conference in New York. 5. Appeal to Twentieth Century Club. 6. Appeals to Washington and New York. 7. Return to China. 8. Telegrams to Shensi and Shansi. 9. Chow P'u's Action. 10. Interviews with Prince Ching and Li Hung-chang.
CHAPTER XVI
THE SHANSI UNIVERSITY. I9OI-IO ..... 299
I. Reasons for its Fecundation. 2. Attempts to Start a Rival Uni- versity Foiled. 3. I Oppose Regulations Forbidding Teaching of Christianity. 4. Friendly Attitude of Governor. 5. Courses of Education at University. 6. Translation Department in Shanghai. 7. Promise of Yuan Shih kai to Help Translation of Textbooks.
_8. Edicts to Establish Universities in Each Province. 9. Chang '^ Chih-tung's Scheme of Education. 10. Principal Moir Duncan.
II. Visit to T'ai-yuan fu in 1907. 12. Resignation of Chancellor- ship. 13. Governor Ts'en Ch'un-hsiian. 14. Other Governors of Shansi. 15. Effect of Revolution on University.
14 CONTENTS
CHAPTER XVII
PAGE
CHANGING CHINA. 19OI-4 . . . . . . 311
I. Empress-Dowager Issues Emperor's Reform Edicts. 2. Visit to the North: {a) Chow Fu ; {b) Jung Lu ; (c) LuCh'uan-Hn ; {d) Prince Su. 3. Appointed by Edict Representative of Protestant Missions. 4. Bishop Favier and Mission Regulations. 5. Public School for Chinese. 6. Visit to Japan : (a) Prince Konoye ; (b) Prince Tsai Chen at Peeress School ; (c) Japanese Ambition. 7. Loss of my Wife. 8. International Red Cross Society in Manchuria. 9, Visit to Peking, 1904. 10. Religious Conference in Shantung.
II. Suggestions of Chow Fu.
CHAPTER XVIII
RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS AND CONFERENCES. I905-IO . . 326
I. Welsh Revival. 2. World-Baptist Conference. 3. The Chinese Commissioners at Lambeth. 4. Dr. J. B. Paton. 5. China Missions Emergency Committee. 6. Centenary Conference in Shanghai. 7. Appeal of China Emergency Committee. 8. Deputa- tions to China. 9. Dr. John R. Mott. 10. The Edinburgh Con- ference. II. Edinburgh Conference Continuation Committee.
CHAPTER XIX HIGHER BUDDHISM ....... 334
I. Study of Buddhism. 2. Professor Lloyd. 3. Introduction of Buddhism into Japan. 4. Connection between Early Christianity and Lotus Scriptures. 5. Mrs. Gordon's Researches. 6. Visit to Koyasan. 7. Similarities between Christian and Buddhist Rites. 8. Visit to Korean Buddhist Monasteries. 9. Striking Shinto Rites. 10. "A Mission to -Heaven." 11. Attitude of Prince Ito towards Religion. 12. Count Okuma. 13. Evening at Japanese Bank in Peking.
CHAPTER XX
WORK OF LATER YEARS . . . . . . 348
I. Visit to Korea. 2. Prince Ito's Banquet. 3. Sun Yat-sen's Early Career. 4. His Schemes for Revolution. 5. Outbreak of Revolution. 6. Yuan Shih-kai's Measures. 7. Modern Religious Movement in China. 8. Interview with Mullah in Peking. 9. Religious Meetings in Shanghai. 10. Baptist Conference in Shantung. 11. Visit to Lao Shan in Shantung. 12. Monastery of Tai Ch'ing Kung. 13. Return to Tsingtao by Raft. 14. Changsha, the Capital of Hunan. 15. My Visit in 1914. 16. Intercourse with Buddhists. 17. Meeting of Educationists. 18. Other Meetings in Changsha. 19. Second Marriage. 20. A Trip to Java. 21. Hindu Civilization. 22. Arab Civilization. 23. Portuguese Civili- zation. 24. Dutch Civilization. 25. Chinese Civilization.
CONTENTS 15
CHAPTER XXI
PAGE MY CONNECTION WITH THE PEACE MOVEMENT . . . 367
I. First Ideas. 2. " League of Peace for Princes." 3. "Parliament of Man." 4. Proposal to Prince Konoye. 5. Prince Ch'ing. 6. Prince Saionje's Secretary. 7. Turkish Prince. 8. Peace Congress at Lucerne. 9. Lord Weardale. 10. President Roose- velt. II. China's Changed Attitude. 12. Interview with Prince Ito. 13. Carnegie's Speech at the Guildhall. 14. Treaty of Arbitration. 15. The Great European War.
ILLUSTRATIONS
TIMOTHY RICHARD AT 6o
, Frontispiece
FACING PAGE TANYRESGAIR, THE FARM AT WHICH TIMOTHY RICHARD WAS BORN 20
TIMOTHY RICHARD AT 24 .
REV. A. G. JONES .....
THE REFORMERS K'ANG YU-WEI, T'aN TZE-T'UNG, LIANG CH
MR. AND MRS. RICHARD IN 1884
TIMOTHY RICHARD AT 40 .
VICEROY CHANG CHIH-TUNG ....
WAN KWOH KUNG PAO .....
TIMOTHY RICHARD AND MEMBERS OF HANLIN ACADEMY
GOVERNOR TS'EN CH'UN-HSUAN AND HIS TWO SONS .
PRINCIPAL MOIR DUNCAN, M.A., LL.D. ...
GRADUATING STUDENTS, SHANSI UNIVERSITY, I9IO .
SHANGHAI PUBLIC SCHOOL FOR CHINESE
TIMOTHY RICHARD AT 65
CHRISTIAN LITERATURE SOCIETY'S OFFICES
2
• 34
. 120 i-ch'ao 160
• 193
. 200
• 234 . 254 . 256
• 300
• 305 . 306
• 317
• 332
• 354
17
FORTY-FIVE YEARS IN CHINA
CHAPTER I EARLY YEARS
I. Birthplace and Family.
I was born in 1845 in Ffaldybrenin, a small village of Caermarthenshire in Wales. Its name means King's Fold, and there was a tradition that Llewellyn, last of the Welsh princes, hid there from King Edward's pursuit. Four miles away, between Punsaint and Caio, was a spot where the Romans had worked gold-mines, and an old Roman road passed within two miles of Tanyresgair, my father's farm. My ancestors, though of humble origin, were highly respected. Being the youngest of nine, the son of parents who were both the youngest in their respective fan^ilies, I never saw my grandparents. My paternal grandfather, Richard, son of David Jones, was a blacksmith, as was also my father, Timothy Richard, in the early part of his life, but in later years he came into possession of a farm. One of his brothers, Jedadaiah, had some literary gift, and published a book in the Welsh language. He was the means of the conversion, in Caermarthenshire, of the first wife of Dr. Grifhth John of China. A nephew of my father, Joshua Lewis, was the most famous of the family, and became a well-known preacher in the oldest Church in Pembrokeshire, the mother of most of the Independent Churches in that country.
My father had the reputation of being one of the most entertaining men in the district round. Rowland Williams, one of the writers in " Essays and Reviews," when professor at St. David's College, Lampeter, five
20 FORTY-FIVE YEARS IN CHINA
miles away, used often to ride out to see and talk with him. He was secretary and deacon of the Baptist Churches of Bethel and Salem, and was often in demand as a peacemaker between contending parties.
My maternal grandfather was a farmer at Llethercoch, and was deacon in a Baptist Church at Aberduar, near Llanybyther. Of my mother, Eleanor Llethercoch, the celebrated Welsh preacher Kilsby Jones wrote, in " Welsh Worthies," that he never met her equal for guilelessness and sweetness of disposition, nor her match in the making of pancakes. I often remembered her saying of any one who had done her a wrong or said an ill word against her, "Well, it is worse for them than for me."
2. Accidents.
My childhood, passed on the farm, though in the main uneventful, was not without the accidents that, usually befall boys of 3. more or less adventurous spirit. One of the first I remember was putting my shoulder put of its socket. It was arranged that I should be driven to see the doctor, who lived five miles away. When the gig was being brought round, I was so excited by the prospect of the drive and the interview wi,th the doctor, -that I ran to the door. But the floor was very uneven, and I stumbled an|d fell with a crash to the ground. The others were alarmed, thinking I had niade matters worse, but I jumped up and laughed, and they discovered that the fall had put my shoulder back into the socket. I was keenly disappointed, how- ever, to find I had done myself out of the ride and the visit to the doctor.
Between my eyebrows there is a scar I have carried all my life, that has branded me with the letter T, which might stand for my name, Timothy. People have often asked how I got it. When I was about four years old, I was one day in a field with one of my cousins, who was ploughing. After a time, he left the plough to fetch something. I thought it a fine opportunity; and took hold of the plough, calling out to the horses. Off they started, and on they went till the plough grated
EARLY YEARS 21
against a stone which turned up and struck me between the eyebrows. Another time, when I was about eight years old, I was keeping watch over my father's horse, which was grazing near the hedge, in order to prevent him from eating any of the corn. The field was about ten feet above the level of the road on the other side of the hedge. I attempted at the same time to learn my school task for the next day, and when the horse began to take a mouthful of corn, I gave him a blow with my grammar book ; instantly he gave me a kick which sent me flying right through the hedge and down into the ditch of the road below. Happily there was no further damage than a good deal of bleeding and a permanent scar.
On another occasion, when I was about twelve, my brother Joshua had gone with a cart and two horses to bring coal from the coal-pits, over twenty miles away. I was sent with an extra horse to meet him, as there was a steep hill to climb. After attaching the third horse, I was allowed to drive them up the hill, while my brother talked with other carters who had been to fetch coal with him. With a fresh horse I soon gained upon other carts ahead of us, and drove up the steep hill for more than a mile. The road then turned suddenly down on the other side. Instead of waiting for my brother to come up, I went boldly on. But in going downhill, the fresh horse began to pull, and made it difficult for the shaft horses to keep back the ton load. I went up to the fresh horse to check him, and then I was obliged to go back to the others, but no sooner had I left the front horse than he began pulling again. Thus the horses went from walking to trotting, and I knew that trotting down a steep hill with a heavy load behind was most dangerous. Seeing a tree in the hedge, and finding that I would not be able to keep up with the horses and guide them, I jumped into the hedge, caught hold of the tree, and let the horses rush past me. Now at the bottom of the hill was a river, and about a quarter of a mile beyond there was a village whence the people could
22 FORTY-FIVE YEARS IN CHINA
see the horses tearing down the hill at a terrible rate. They expected some dreadful accident to happen both to cart and beasts. But to the astonishment of all, the fresh horse, in a marvellous way, got loose at the river and ran on and on with the traces danghng about him till he was stopped by the villagers, while the other two horses stood quietly in the river with the cart. Nothing was wrong, one lump of coal only having been thrown out.
3. Baptism. During the great revival which swept almost like a prairie fire over America, North Ireland, Wales, Scotland, Norway, and Sweden in 1858-60, the most godless men suddenly breaking down and becoming converted, I was among a number who confessed their faith |in Christ, and was baptized in the river near my home. Shortly after this, I had my first impulse towards missionary work from a sermon not particularly missionary in character. I well remember the text, " Obedience is better than sacrifice." On my way home from Salem Chapel, I told my brother Joshua, who was four years my senior, how during the whole sermon I had felt as if a voice had been commanding me to go abroad as a missionary. He wondered at it, for no such idea had been conveyed to his mind.
4. Schooling. The first school I attended was in connection with a Congregational chapel, built in one of the fields belonging to my father's farm at Tanyresgair, and there I had lessons till I was fourteen years of age. When I was fifteen, my father wished me to help on the farm with my brother Joshua, but my mother and brothers thought I should continue my education. I told my father that if I were supported for one year at school, I would never ask for further help. So I was sent to a school kept by a cousin, at a place called Cross Inn, some twenty miles off. Besides the usual lessons, I was given extra studies with the pupil teachers, and I also learned music in the Tonic Sol-fa
EARLY YEARS 23
notation. At the end of my year, an application was made to the schoolmaster for a teacher for the school at Penygroes, and I was sent. This was a mining place, and in addition to the day school for children, I had a night school, attended by miners, some of them old enough to be my father. With the money I received here I was able to pay for my tuition at a grammar school in Llanybyther. Here, when the schoolmaster had any occasion to be absent, he always put the pupils in my charge, and I may be pardoned for remembering that the neighbours used to say that they always knew who was teaching, as the boys were kept in far better order, and were much quieter with me than with the master. So when the schoolmaster at New Inn, a place a few miles farther south, suddenly closed the school there without giving any notice, and left for another post, I was asked to go at once to New Inn as temporary schoolmaster, the children having been told that after- noon that school would open as usual the next morning, but with a new master. After leaving New Inn I was able to support myself at the Normal School in Swansea. I did not stay there long, as my brother Joshua, who had been at home on the farm, wished to go to school during the winter, and asked me to take his place at the farm. I was familiar with all kinds of farm work, from ploughing and mowing down to digging trenches, trimming hedges, and thatching hay- stacks. When the neighbours saw me come back to the farm, they remarked, what a pity it was that after I had received so much schooling, I had nothing better than farming to do.
5. Teaching School.
One day, however, my eldest brother David brought me a paper containing an advertisement for a school- master in an endowed school at Conwil Elvet. My brother Joshua was quite willing, if I obtained the position, to return to the farm. In answer to my application came a reply that sixty applicants had written before me. A week later there came another letter
24 FORTY-FIVE YEARS IN CHINA
to say that only two satisfactory applications were being considered out of sixty, that of the son of the Baptist minister of the place and my own. A few days later I received a letter announcing that the appointment was mine. It was no small surprise to me as I knew no one in the neighbourhood. But the mystery was solved when I arrived. The son of one of the churchwardens of the place, who was on the School Committee, had been one of my classmates in Swansea. There was consider- able feeling that the minister's son had not received the appointment, and many parents took away their children, so that I commenced my work with only twenty-one pupils. But after eighteen months three small village schools were compelled to close as they could not get pupils, while I had 120 scholars in mine. While there I had some interesting experiences.
One day there came a knock at the door. On opening it, I found some strangers who were bringing their children to school. Seeing a youth of about eighteen before them, they asked him if they could see the school- master. I replied that I was the master. They looked astonished and seemed not a little doubtful of my ability to manage a school.
At this time I had to deal with a boy of about twelve years of age who had been a constant torment to my predecessor. The only child of his parents, he had been badly spoilt, and was always quarrelling with the other children. The more he was punished the worse he became. One day I determined to try a new method of dealing with him. I told ham to remain behind after the school was dismissed in the afternoon. His first look at me was one of defiance, as if to show that he did not care how much I punished him. I began the interview by asking why he was so often quarrelling with the other boys. He rephed that it was because they were all unkind to him.
" Is there not one in the school that is good to you? " I asked.
" Yes, there is one boy who is friendly to everybody. He is always kind to me," replied the boy.
EARLY YEARS 25
" I am glad to hear that," I said, "for I beheve that if you make up your mind to be good to every one in the school, no matter what is done to you, you will find every one friendly with you, just as they are with that other boy. Now I want you to promise me that you will try this experiment for a week. Do not tell any one of it, and I will not tell any one. It will be a secret between you and me and God. Will you promise for a week to try and be friendly with all of them?"
I saw the boy's face soften, and he said he would try. " Very well," I added, " we will say no more about it for a week, and then you can come and report to me how the plan has worked."
From that time the boy's character seemed to have completely changed. He became one of the most cheer- ful and lovable boys in the school, and if ever I wished a boy to go on a message, his hand would always be first put up to volunteer.
I arrang^ed to hold a Bible Class for the senior form' once a week in the evening, giving them lessons on the life of Paul. They enjoyed the class so much that they begged it might be held every evening. I did not consent to this, but it was held very frequently. Within a year after I left the place every one of the class had joined the Church.
6. Haverfordwest Theological College, 1865-9.
I next became a student at Haverfordwest Theological College in Pembrokeshire. When there I introduced the Tonic Sol-fa system to the college, and to the Baptist Church and other Churches in Pembrokeshire. During my stay a revolution was made in the curriculum. The students joined together to beg that living languages should be substituted for the dead ones of Greece and Rome, and that universal history, covering' such lands as Egypt, Babylon, India, and China, should be studied instead of solely European history ; they regarded science with its modern applications as more useful than barren metaphysical and theological studies. 1 joined most heartily in the demand for reform in the curriculum, and
26 FORTY-FIVE YEARS IN CHINA
was prepared along with others to be expelled from the college rather than submit to a course of antiquated studies two hundred years behind the times. To our surprise and gratification the authorities, instead of calling together a committee to discuss the seriousness of the revolt, agreed to modify the curriculum to a large extent. They stipulated, however, that all theo- logical students should pass a stiff examination in Hebrew, and in this I won the prize. Fifteen years later, when I paid a return visit to the college, I found that the new studies had been abandoned in favour of the old once more. I mention this incident because in all my after missionary life I endeavoured to seek the methods most productive of results, rather than adhere to old ones not adjusted to the changing needs of the timles.
When I preached my first sermon before my fellow- students, I was charged with having cribbed it from Horace Bushnell. It was the rule for the students to criticize in turn from the juniors to the seniors. Now, I was lodging with one of the senior students, and when his turn came for remarks, he said that he con- sidered the charge of plagiarism highly complimentary to me because he knew for a certainty that I had never set eyes on any book of Bushnell's. My second sermon, however, received a different fate. It was so severely criticized by the professor that for two or three days afterwards I felt I could scarcely face my fellow -students.
During the latter two or three years of my college life at Haverfordwest, we were fortunate in having as our classical professor Dr. G. H. Rouse, a gold medallist of the London University, who had been out in India as a missionary, but whose health had broken down. In the President, Dr. Davies, we had one of the ablest theologians in Wales, whilst in Dr. Rouse we had the best classical master. The friendship I formed with him when at college continued after my departure to China and lasted after his return to mission work in India, and throughout the remainder of his life. One of the pamphlets he prepared for use amongst the Indian students, " How to pass the Great Examination," was translated into
EARLY YEARS 27
Chinese by my wife, and distributed at the Triennial Examinations in T'ai-yuan fu.
A fellow-student in Haverfordwest, named Chivers, generally had his name bracketed with mine in the examination results. The future development of our respective lines of work resulted in an unexpected meeting in 1897, nearly thirty years after we had parted at the close of our college course. I was passing through New York on my way back to China, and hearing of a Baptist minister's fraternal to be held in one of the churches, I went there, a perfect stranger, to listen to the reports of work. After opening the meeting, the chairman said : "I am glad to see Dr. Chivers back amongst us ; we shall be glad to hear from him how his work is progressing in Chicago." With that, a man who sat right in front of me rose and went to the platform. He told us of his endeavour, by means of a periodical he was conducting, to unite the young people of the Northern and Southern States into one national Baptist body, instead of having twoi indepen- dent Baptist societies in one country. After he returned to his seat, I put my hand on his shoulder and asked, " Do you remember Timothy Richard,? " After the first glance of recognition, he instantly rose and informed the chairman that a fellow-student of his from Wales, who had been nearly thirty years in China, was present, and he felt sure the meeting would be glad to hear a few words from me. So 1 went to the platform and briefly told my audience how I had been greatly struck with the remarkable fact that two students from a far-away corner in little Wales should have been called in God's providence to lead in work amongst students — Dr. Chivers influencing the young Baptist people of the great American republic, and 1 working amongst the students in the vast Empire of China. The lesson to be learnt was that the day of small things was not to be despised, for if God led, great results would follow.
Before I finished my college course, 1 was asked by a Church to take monthly services regoilarly, and before leaving for China 1 received two pastoral calls, one from
28 FORTY-FIVE YEARS IN CHINA
a Church in Pembrokeshire and the other from one in Glamorganshire.
7. Starting of China Inland Mission.
In 1866 there had occurred a missionary movement in regard to China which was destined to have far- reaching effects on mission work. It was the sailing of the first party of the China Inland Mission. At that time Mr. Hudson Taylor published what were called " Occasional Papers." In these he explained the prin- ciples of his Mission — faith in God to provide all necessaries for support ; trust in specific guidance in answer to prayer rather than in special training in edu- cation before going lOut ; readiness to go into the interior, put on native dress, live in native houses, feed on Chinese food, and generally to be prepared for a life of self- sacrifice instead of a life of luxury at the ports, in which other missionaries were supposed to indulge.
This movement created much sensation in the Baptist Missionary Society, under whose auspices Mr. Taylor had offered previously to go to China. Dr. Landels, of Regent's Park Baptist Church, and Dr. Underhill, the Secretary of the Society, studied the new movement, the former regarding its methods as an improvement on those of the Baptist Missionary Society. Dr. Under- bill was also so strongly in favour of it that at the annual meeting in 1868 he seconded Dr. Landel's motion in favour of a new policy for the Baptist Missionary Society similar to that laid down by the C.l.M. These speeches caused a great stir in the Society. The Indian missionaries protested against the suggestion as to their want of devotion, and maintained that the prin- ciples of the B.M.S. were much sounder than the new ones. Others who had spent their lives in great consecration in trying climates were much distressed. After more than forty years of the experience of the " Principles and Practices " of the China Inland Mission, in which there are many devoted and able men and women, and in whose work the whole Church of Christ rejoices, it must in fairness be said that their results
EARLY YEARS 29
have not proved more successful than those of other societies ; indeed, in China nearly all the other societies have a far larger number of converts per missionary.
8. Application to Baptist Missionary Society.
In 1868 I heard Mrs. Grattan Guinness plead the cause of the China Inland Mission field.
The heroic and self-sacrificing programme of the China Inland Mission appealed to me, and towards the end of my college career in Haverfordwest I offered myself to join them. But as I was a Baptist, they recommended me to apply to the Baptist Missionary Society. I did so, desiring to be sent to North China. On being asked by the committee why I wished to go to North China, I replied that as the Chinese were the most civiUzed of non- Christian nations, they would, when converted, help to carry the gospel to less advanced nations, and that by working in the north temperate zone Europeans could stand the climate, while the natives of North China, after becoming Christians, could convert their fellow- countrymen all over the Empire. At the last moment before sailing, I was asked if I would pledge myself to remain ten years unmarried. This question took me by surprise, as I had not thought much of that subject, but had merely considered it would be risky to take a wife into the interior, then as little known as the wilds of Africa. I replied that whether I would marry in ten days or ten years would depend on what was best for the work. It fell out that I did not marry for nine years.
In the spring of 1869 I was accepted for China by the Baptist Missionary Society. In the Pembrokeshire church where I had often preached was a man named Rees who used to drive me the fifteen miles back from church into Haverfordwest. He and his wife, intimate friends, were very impressed on hearing I was going to China. Our friendship had been so real that they pledged themselves that so long as they had any money to spare they would share it with me. Our parting took place in silence and tears.
CHAPTER II
EARLY YEARS IN CHINA. STUDYING LANGUAGE AND CIVILIZATION
I. Last Days in England.
On November 17, 1869, I was to sail on the Achilles of the Blue Funnel Holtz Line. My father had come to Liverpool to see me oif. But as he was unused to travelling, I was uneasy about his being left alone in a strange place, and I insisted on seeing him off in the train back to Wales before I myself left in the steamer. At the little hotel where we stayed was a man who was emigrating to America. He was in great distress, for he was short of money. He had written home for a money-order, but he found that it would arrive only after the steamer had left next day. He appealed to the guests at table to advance him the money, and open his letter and cash the order. I offered to lend him the money, but in the hurry of the moment omitted to take down the name of the sender of the order. The money-order arrived next day, as he had said, and I presented it at the post-office. But as I could not give the name of the sender, the money was confiscated for the benefit of the British Government.
A loan which I made to a doctor on board, who ran short of money before the end of the voyage, proved more fortunate. It was promptly refunded after our arrival at Shanghai.
2. Voyage.
The very day we left Liverpool the Suez Canal was declared open, but as it was not sufficiently deep for
STUDYING LANGUAGE 31
vessels of a large tonnage to pass through, we had to travel round the Cape of Good Hope.
At Mauritius the captain was astonished to find that as the result of an earthquake an island had sprung up where during his last visit there had been deep water in the harbour. At one time Mauritius was considered the most unhealthy place in the world for European troops, as the death rate was extremely high. However, during our call there we heard that conditions had entirely changed, and that the death rate was very low. On inquiry into the cause of the change, we found that the former barracks had been built on low- lying ground, but in re-building them a site had been chosen at the top of a hill. There the soldiers were free from the malaria that had formerly thinned their ranks — malaria which we now know is engendered by mosquitoes on the swampy ground.
3. Arrival in China.
At Hongkong the Rev. George Moule, who after- wards became Bishop, came on board, returning after his first furlough in England, and travelled up to Shanghai with us. Nothing could exceed the kindness with which he welcomed me to China. I told him I had been advised not to attempt the Chinese language on the way out, as the pronunciation varied so much in different parts, and asked his opinion of the advice. He fully approved, but added that I could learn the radicals. So I set to work on the 212 radicals which form the keys to the hieroglyphic puzzles that constitute the written Chinese language, and before arriving in Shanghai Mr. Moule examined me in them.
I reached Shanghai on February 12, 1870. Mr. Thomas, originally of the London Mission and after- wards pastor of Union Church, finding me at an hotel, insisted on my removing to his house, and there I stayed till on February 24th I left for Chef 00, where I arrived on February 27th and was warmly welcomed by my colleague, Mr. Laughton.
32 FORTY YEARS IN CHINA
4. Early Trials of B.M.S. in China.
ChefoOj Tientsin, and Newchwang were first made open ports in i860, when the various foreign legations were established in Peking. Several missionaries who were living ,in Shanghai and Ningpo then removed north, partly because the climate would suit them better, and partly to be nearer the centre of authority. Before this, there had been an Evangelization Society at work in Central China with Shanghai as its chief centre, but owing to failure of its funds several members of it applied to join the English Baptist Mission. Amongst these Dr. Hall, and a Dutch missionary, Mr. Kloekers, (father of Mrs. Holman Bentley of the Congo) were among the first to be received, and the Baptist Mission decided in i860 to open a station at Chefoo, where Dr. Hall and Mr. Kloekers were accordingly sent. Mr. Hudson Taylor, a former member of the Evangelization Society, also applied to join the Baptist Mission, on condition of having', I believe, five fellow-workers. But this arrangement fell through, and Mr. Taylor decided to found the China Inland Mission, to which reference has been made in the preceding chapter. Up to the time of my arrival in China the Baptist Mission had suffered severe losses. Dr. Hall had died of cholera, contracted while attending cholera patients, within twelve months of his arrival in Chefoo, and Mr. Kloekers soon left for England, while two others, Mr. McMechan and Mr. Kingdon, were obliged to return after a year pr two. At the time I was accepted by the Baptist Missionary Society (1869) Mr. Laughton, who had been seven years in China, was its sole representative. He was a man of rare natural ability and devotion. Unfor- tunately, I was soon to lose the benefit of his advice and valuable experience, for he was taken ill with typhus fever and died in the June of that year.
5. Fellow-missionaries in Chefoo.
When I arrived in Chefoo, there were several remarkably able men there. The Rev. Alexander
STUDYING LANGUAGE 33
Williamson, LL.D., had begun his missionary career in the London Mission, coming out in the same sailing ship as the Rev. Griffith John in 1865, and had first settled in Shanghai. He studied Chinese so efficiently that within a twelvemonth he had written a book on botany in Chinese. But he paid dearly for his excessive toil, for he broke down in health and was obliged to go home. He returned later, however, as the agent of the National Bible Society of Scotland, and settling in Chefoo when that port was opened, travelled extensively in North China, and published two volumes of his travels, for which the Glasgow University conferred on him the degree of LL.D, He was a gigantic man, physically, intellectually, and spiritually. Later he published his " Natural Theology " (" Ke Wu Tan Yuen ") and his " Life of Christ," both remarkable books. Towards the end of his life he founded the Society for the Diffusion of Christian and General Knowledge among the Chinese, and in 1891 1 succeeded him as its Secretary.
The Rev. John L. Nevius, of the American Presbyterian Mission, a most genial companion, had spent some years in Ningpo and Hangchow before going to the newly opened port of Chefoo. In 1890 he was elected American Chairman of the China Missionary Conference in Shanghai, the Rev. David Hill being the British Chairman.
The Rev. Hunter Corbett, of the American Presbyterian Mission, had sailed up from Shanghai in the same vessel with Dr. Williamson and was shipwrecked on the Shantung Promontory. One of them in describing the adventure unconsciously perpetrated a bull and wrote that they " landed in the sea." Mr. Corbett was an untiring evangelist, travelling all over the Eastern portion of Shantung. On one of his later visits to the United States on furloug'h, he was made Moderator of the Presbyterian Synod. He married three times and had several children. His third wife later used to tell the following story against herself. On one occasion her son grieved het very much by not gaining a prize at the end of the school year, and she reproached him for being the first Corbett who had ever failed to get
3
34 FORTY-FIVE YEARS IN CHINA
a prize. " But oh ! mamma," he cried, looking at her reproachfully, " the others had such clever mothers." The Rev. Calvin Mateer, of the American Presbyterian Mission, was the great pioneer of scientific education in missionary work in China. He visited Chefoo and delivered a very interesting lecture on Chemistry, bringing with him a large supply of apparatus. I assisted him as demonstrator. It has been said that if the American Presbyterian Mission had only sent out these three men — Nevius, Corbett, and Mateer — ^they would have been more than justified in ten times the amount of expenditure on them.
The Rev. J. B. Hartwell, of the American Baptist Mission, had great charm of manner, and early won the affection and confidence of the Chinese. When the Taiping rebels visited Teng Chow fu, where he was then living, the city gates were closed, leaving some of the leading citizens outside. No one but Mr. Hartwell could successfully persuade the city authorities to open the gates again to let them in.
Mr. Robert Lilley, assistant agent with Dr. Williamson of the Bible Society of Scotland, was the wittiest foreigner in China until the advent of the Rev. Arthur Smith. He went some years later to New York, where he helped in the production of the Century Dictionary. When passing through New York I called at the office there, hoping to see him. I was told by a bright, silver- haired lady that he had left, and was helping to finish a Cyclopedia by Appleton. " We tried hard to make him a Republican while he was here," she remarked, " but he always maintained that a limited monarchy was much better." He died in 1 914.
6. Tientsin Massacre.
On the day of Mr. Laughton's funeral, before the service was over at the cemetery, we were all startled by a gun fired from a steamer that had just arrived. We hastened to the Settlement to inquire what it meant. The captain had brought the terrible news of the massacre in Tientsin of the French Consul and his wife.
TIMOTHY RICHARD AT 24.
To face p. 34.
STUDYING LANGUAGE 35
and twenty-one Sisters of Mercy. The rumour spread that there was to be a rising against all foreigners at every port. Consequently a volunteer force, in which I took part, for defence was at once organized, and for some days we kept watch lest the Chinese from the native town should attack the Settlement.
After my colleague's death, I set to work with greater energy than before on the language so as to acquire it as soon as possible, for all the responsibility of the Baptist Mission work rested on me, its sole representative. Left entirely alone, my various experiences formed my only guide, and from them I learned what courses to follow and what mistakes to avoid in the future.
7. First Convert. 1870.
When catechizing my first convert before admitting him into the Church, I asked him, " Are not all men sinners in the sight of God?"
The man repHed in distress, " I do not know about other people, but I know I am a great sinner."
I was much struck by the sincerity of the answer and the foolishness of the question, and felt that the man was a true Christian in spirit. Never again did I repeat that question. The history of this man is interesting. Years after, Mr. Roberston, of the Presbyterian Mission, Manchuria, was opening a new station belonging to his Mission in the vicinity of the Amur. A man from the surrounding district came one day Into the chapel and told the pastor he was a Christian.
"To what Church do you belong?"
" The Baptist Church."
"Who admitted you into the Church?"
" Li Ti Mo Tai in Chefoo," giving my Chinese name.
"How many years have you been in this country?"
" Nineteen years."
"Are there any other Christians in your village?"
" No ; I and my family are the only ones."
Mr. Robertson was inclined to doubt his Christianity, for he thought it impossible that a man could still continue to be a Christian in the midst of non-Christian
36 FORTY-FIVE YEARS IN CHINA
neighbours, with no pastor or evangelist to visit and help him. The native pastor suggested that the man should be asked to pray, so that from his prayer they might easily judge whether he was a Christian. The man engaged in prayer, and all their doubts vanished. His fervent petition was a proof of daily communion with his Master .
I was very fortunate in having a splendid native assistant in a former secretary to the Taiping rebels, Mr. Ch'ing, who had been theologically trained by Mr. Laughton. During my early years in Chefoo, he was supported by Grosvenor Baptist Church, Manchester.
8. Arrival of Dr. Brown.
Dr. William Brown, a medical missionary from Edinburgh, came out in December to join me. I was greatly delighted to have such an able and devoted man as my colleague, and I vividly recall one incident of our common experiences. Soon after his arrival. Dr. Brown and I went on horseback to visit a city twenty miles inland from the port of Chefoo. At one place where we had halted a little while. Dr. Brown's horse ran away with saddle and bridle on. I urged my horse to a gallop in order to overtake it. Soon alongside, I stretched over to catch the reins of the runaway horse, but in doing it I overbalanced myself, so that my feet were on the back of one horse, and my hands on the neck of the other. As both were galloping as fast as they could, it was a most perilous position. Happily there was a broad canal ahead at which the horses stopped, and I was enabled to right myself and secure the runaway.
9. Selling Gospels in Shantung Promontory.
I was desirous to see for myself the country round, so in December, in company with Mr. Robert Lilley of the National Bible Society of Scotland, I travelled about distributing portions of Scripture. We visited the chief towns and market-places in the Shantung Promontory, making a tour of about one hundred and
STUDYING LANGUAGE 37
fifty miles. On my return, I laid before our little Church in Chefoo the fact that there was no missionary work done in the promontory, and suggested that they should select one of their number and send him forth as their missionary. They took the proposal up most heartily and undertook to support him, the first missionary of our native Church.
lo. Trip to Manchuria Selling Gospels.
During 1871 I made five trips, four of which were short ones, in the neighbourhood of Chefoo, the fifth, however, taking us six hundred miles away through Man- churia to Korea. Again my companion was Mr. Robert Lilley. Korea was at that time but little known to foreigners, every attempt to enter it having resulted in the massacre of travellers. We had an adventurous journey, and narrowly escaped capture in Korea.
(a) Threatened Shipwreck.
The first adventure was in connection with a threatened shipwreck. We were running from Chefoo to New- chwang, then the only open port of Manchuria, in a German sailing vessel, before a strong gale from the south. At dawn next morning we were suddenly thrown out of our bunks by the grounding of the ship. We found ourselves in shallow water, and as each high wave passed the vessel bumped with great force against the bottom. The large mirror in the saloon was thrown down on the floor and shivered into a thousand pieces. The captain laid the chart on the table, and holding the compass in his trembling hand, said, " I lost her two masts last year, and now she goes altogether. We are here," pointing to a place south of the mouth of the river. We suggested that he had probably been carried by the strong gale faster than his reckoning, and that we must be in shallow water beyond the river's mouth, so that if we tacked south-west we would soon be in deep water. This he did, and we got safely to New- chwang with only a little damage to the copper sheathing of the ship.
38 FORTY-FIVE YEARS IN CHINA
(b) Sunstroke.
My next adventure was caused by our ignorance of the climate. The rainy season is the months of July and August, and the roads were impassable because of the floods and mud. We were forced to wait a fortnight before we could engage any carts to venture on the journey to Moukden, although our route was along the chief highway connecting with the Manchurian capital. At last we got three carts with two mules each, loaded with Gospels and tracts, with room for ourselves and two Chinese servants. On the day we were to start I had a severe headache, and Dr. Watson, one of about half a dozen Europeans in Newchwang, urged me to wait another day, as he feared I had a slight sunstroke. But having been delayed a fortnight waiting for carts, I determined to push on at once. My head grew worse and worse. I could not ride in the bumping carts, nor could I open my eyes, for rays of light pierced them as with lancet thrusts. My friend Lilley made me take his arm, and together we trudged along that day for about thirty li (a li is about a third of a mile), arriving in the evening at the Chinese town of New- chwang, after which the port had been called. As the day's journey had made my head worse, we decided that I should take a dose of laudanum to send me to sleep. We had a small medicine -chest with us, but unfortunately we had left the dose-book behind. We differed in our recollection of how many drops the dose should be. Lilley advised the larger dose, and being the medical man pro tern., administered it. I was soon fast asleep and woke up without a trace of headache. Very many years after, I read in the Lancet tha,t the best cure for sunstroke was a stiff dose of laudanum. Thus we had stumbled on the best remedy.
In order to prevent a Xiecurrence of sunstroike, I fastened a pillow on my head, because it was a fine non-conductor of heat, and thus proceeded on our journey. According to European notions I must have presented a comical sight. However, the Chinese took no notice of my
STUDYING LANGUAGE 39
headgear, but were, on the contrary, highly diverted by Lilley's helmet. " Look at the man with the wash- hand basin on his head I " they cried.
(c) Robbers.
The next danger in Manchuria arose from the mis- government of the country. After leaving Moukden and going eastward, we were told there were bands of robbers infesting the country. One midnight there was loud knocking at the door of our inn. Some carters were calling upon the innkeeper to open the doors and let them in. A band of robbers had descended on the inn ahead of us where they had been staying, and in fright they had taken their mules and escaped, leaving their carts and goods at the mercy of the brigands.
Next day our Chinese servants, hearing this tale, were so afraid that they wanted to return to Chefoo, but finding we were determined to go on, their sense of honour would not let them leave us, though we offered them their expenses to return. We then decided to divide our money, so that if some of us were robbed the others would have something left. This was not an easy process, as Chinese silver is generally current in large ingots, each about the size of one's fist, and weigh- ing about fifty Chinese ounces or sixty-six English ounces. This lump had to be taken to the smithy, heated red hot, beaten into thin slabs, and then cut into square bits of about an ounce or two in weight. These square pieces were then sewn in different parts of our clothes. Having prepared against attack, we started rather late in the day.
Every man we met on the road was armed with a pike or an old matchlock across his shoulder. We were travelling up a valley along a road on the right side of a little river, and keeping a sharp look-out. All at once the cry arose, " There they are ! " We saw ahead of us on the left bank some tents, and we counted eleven horsemen moving upwards towards the inn for which we •were making . We saw that they would intercept us before we could reach the inn. We therefore turned round and
40 FORTY-FIVE YEARS IN CHINA
made for a farmyard we had just passed. At the gate we were met by an elderly woman of about sixty, and we asked her if we might drive our carts into the yard until the robbers had passed. She was one of the noblest, and invited us to enter at once. " I have reapers in the fields ; I will send my daughters to call them in to protect you. I did not know that you spoke our language, or I would have asked you in as you passed before." We drove the three carts inside and the farm gate iwas shut.
The country was covered with a fine harvest of taU millet, and the roads wound in and out among the fields. We could not see the mounted robbers approaching, as the millet was too tall, but we could hear the patter of the ponies' feet as they came nearer. We were dressed in European costume and stood inside the gate. The riders could not see us until they turned a cornier within ten yards of us. At the sudden sight of two Europeans before them they were greatly startled and cried out, " Ai yah! Liao puh teh!'' ("This is awful ! "). Instantly they turned their ponies and galloped away, firing a shot as a signal to their companions. We then counted eleven more horsemen coming from the tents to help their comrades.
Meanwhile we discussed whether we should make use of our revolvers, for our friends in Chefoo had insisted that while travelling through a perilous country we should take revolvers with us in self-defence. Neither of us relished the idea of shooting the Chinese whom we had come to save. We finally decided that if the worst came to the worst, we would give the farmer who had ofl:ered to protect us the benefit of our revolvers. So we thrust them into a heap of straw in the barn and went out again to the gate unarmed.
When the horsemen came up the second time, they turned the corner cautiously and rode up to the gate armed with rifles and gingalls. There was a dead silence for a few moments when they stopped. Then one spoke to the man who appeared to be the leader, " What shall we do? They cannot understand us." We replied
STUDYING LANGUAGE 41
that we could understand a little, and they asked where we came from, where we were going, and what was our business. We told them we were selling books.
They asked, " What books? " Lilley, who was some- thing of a wag, replied, " Books to exhort people to do good."
" You do not mean to say that your carts are full of books ? "
" Yes, indeed," we replied. " We will bring some of them to show you." We then went to the carts ; each brought an armful out, and opening the gate went outside to the horsemen to present them with our books. Then we saw that their firearms were cocked, but their hands were trembling with fear. They declined the books, as they could not read. We urged them to take the books for their friends. No, the friends were ignorant fellows ; they did not want anything from us. They had heard there were foreigners travelling through the country, and as they had never seen any before, they had merely come to look at us. Begging us not to tell the official where they were, they turned their ponies round and left us, firing three shots as another signal to their party. Thus this danger passed without injury to any.
(d) Sa Ur Ha.
Scarcely had we escaped this danger than we were in the midst of a greater one. The day was spent, and we were nearing Sa Ur Hu, an important town in our route. Lilley went on with the carts to secure an inn, while I remained behind at a village to sell some books. To my astonishment, the place was like a city of the dead. There were houses, but not a soul stirring. I went on to some of the cross-streets, but they were also empty. I noticed that all the doors and windows had been filled up with loose bricks, a most unusual sight. Through one of the openings between the bricks, how- ever, I caught sight of people moving inside, and on listening I heard them whispering. Not suspecting any harm, I called out that I had books to sell. After a while, out of a side street there came a man walking
42 FORTY-FIVE YEARS IN CHINA
very cautiously, I showed him the books, and he examined them. He was soon convinced by my imper- fect Chinese that I was a foreigner, thajt I was alone, and that he had nothing to fear. He called out to others to come out. A crowd soon gathered and I had a fair sale of my books. But I was still at a loss to know why the people had barricaded their doors and windows.
As I proceeded to the market town, I found at every few yards on the road sentries with weapons in their hands. On reaching the town I saw a crowd gathered outside the inn where my friend proved to be. The whole town seemed to be alive with persons fully armed. We had our evening meal in peace, and before retiring went to look at our carts. But no sooner had we got outside the door than a shot whizzed past us. We could not tell where it came from. The carters said the place was very dangerous and they were anxious to pass on.
We then decided that we must keep watch in turn that night. Never before had I found my knowledge of Euclid serve me so well. I went over in memory the first book, proposition by proposition, and was thus able to keep awake.
In the early hours of the morning, through the loose curtain that hung between our door and the public room of the inn, I saw a mule pass, apparently from the back-yard through the general room to the front door to the street. After a few seconds another mule passed, and another, and another. I cried out to Lilley, " Wake up at once, they are taking our mules away ! " We rushed into the general room and discovered a single mule grinding corn. Each time he came to the light near our room, he appeared as if going out to the front. Thus it was the same mule that had passed and repassed. We had a hearty laugh at my expense.
When we rose, however, we asked the innkeeper why all the people of the town were armed. He replied by asking : " Do you not know? It was rumoured that the robbers had put on European dress. So when you appeared you were supposed to be robbers."
STUDYING LANGUAGE 43
(e) Ling Koi.
Having met the robbers, and the people defending themselves from the robbers, we went on with lighter hearts, feeling we knew the cause of the hostile attitude towards us. False rumours, however, have a way of travelling faster than true reports. When we arrived at our next resting-place. Ling Kai, we could find room at none of the inns, the keepers being afraid of foreign robbers. Finally, to the east of the town we found a little inn where we foreigners did not show ourselves, but sent one of the servants to inquire for lodging. There was room for us, the gate was thrown open, and the three carts drove into the courtyard. But no sooner were we seen than the innkeeper cried out that there was no room. He was so terrified that he got into the chief room of the inn, where a number of guests and servants gathered round him ready for any attack we might make upon them. They all seemed in a great fright, and the innkeeper protested that he had not a single room left. 1 explained that we had tried all the inns of the town with no success. But if he really had no room, we would sleep in our carts.
With that we walked out and doubled ourselves in the cart, intending to spend the night there, though we soon found it very cold. Fortunately one of the guests came to us not long after and said : "You cannot stay in the cart ; it is too cold. Take my room, and I will join the others." We followed him gladly to his room, where it was delightfully warm, with a fire burning in the k'ang — the brick bed to be found in every sleeping- room. We then set about getting our suppers. Before we had finished there was a cry outside that the " lao- yeh " had come. He was a small military official in full dress, with boots on and a white button on his cap. He had come at the request of the innkeeper to say he had secured a place for us elsewhere. We thanked him for his kindness, but said that a gentleman had courteously given up his room to us, and we could not think of changing. There we rested in peace for the night.
44 FORTY-FIVE YEARS IN CHINA
(f) Lao Ch'eng, the Old Manchu Capital.
Our next stopping-place was at Lao Ch'eng (the Old City), one of the ancestral fortresses in the home of the Manchus. It was built on a rock rising perpendicu- larly on three sides from the bed of a river, and acces- sible only on the fourth side. Thus it was a natural fortress of very great strength. The inn where we spent the night had evidently been a jail, for attached to the top beam of the k'ang, and opposite the bed of each guest, were strong iron links to which the queues or handcuffs of the prisoners must have been fastened.
Next morning we went out to sell books, one to the east side of the city, the other to the west. A crowd gathered round each, greatly curious to see the foreigner in their midst and to examine his books. As I was explaining their meaning, there appeared a ruffianly man with a greasy dress and a savage look, holding a stout horsewhip in his hand. He flung this out among the crowd, telling them not to press round, and so made a wide circle round me. Not a soul dared come near because of his fierce attitude. Seeing this, 1 expostulated with him. "What are you doing? Who are you to interfere with my work ? 1 have an edict from the Emperor authorizing me to sell these books. How dare you prevent the people from coming if they wish to buy?" At this the man looked apparently over my head, and so did all the crowd. Turning round, I discovered an official standing close behind me in a magnificent dress and with a blue button on his hat. Hearing that I had an Imperial edict allowing the sale of the books, he became very civil, and I was able to sell some of them to the people. At the end of the day I found that my friend had had a similar experience with a mandarin wearing a red button.
That night the two mandarins must have consulted, for next morning the superior sent us his card to say that as we were strangers in a strange land and might get into difficulties from the hands of ignorant people, he had appointed six mounted soldiers to accompany
STUDYING LANGUAGE 45
us all along the way. To our delight, these soldiers were most friendly, and at every place we stopped helped us to sell our books. When we came to the end of their official's jurisdiction they expressed a wish to go with us the whole way back to Shantung, their home.
(g) Extraordinary Currency.
On arriving at Kien Ch'ang, on the border between Manchuria and Korea, there was a most extraordinary confusion of coinage. We had to reconstruct our calculations, for we found that straightforward arithmetic would have ruined us. In that region sixteen cash counted as a hundred, and i6o as a thousand. The reason for this was that there had been once a general whose payment to his soldiers had been far in arrears. In parting from them, he could only pay them sixteen cash for every hundred, and from that day that reckoning held good. Bad as this reckoning was, matters were worse when we came to banknotes . We exchanged our ounces of silver into cash, and were given bills to the amount of fourteen thousand cash for each ounce, but when we came to exchange these bills for cash, we could never get the face value of them, but only ten thousand cash. In this way the poor people in the far-off mountains of Manchuria were absolutely at the mercy of distant officials or local capitalists.
(h) Some Features of Interest in Manchuria.
During these days we came to a most extraordinary geological formation, as if all the roads had been turned edgeways like the leaves of a book, a spot that would have delighted the heart of any geologist. We had come through lands of rich soil yielding magnificent harvests, and later we reached the banks of the Yalu, where the soft grass under our feet reminded us of meadow-land at home. In another place we passed through a superb avenue of tall trees, with wild grapes hanging in rich clusters from the branches over- head. Pears were rotting on the ground, without even pigs to eat them. At the same time we learnt that only
46 FORTY-FIVE YEARS IN CHINA
thirty miles away there was a famine in Korea, and mothers were selling their children in order to buy food to keep body and soul together. All this distress arose from ignorance of the value of roads and communications.
(i) Adventure at Korean Gate.
Outside Feng Hwang Ch'ing, the last city before reaching the border of Manchuria, was the Korean Gate, which marked the boundary, and was built on the plain, but with no wall on either side of it. Beyond it was a neutral strip of country varying in width from ten to fifty miles, within which neither Chinese nor Koreans were supposed to live. This was to prevent strife between the two nationalities. How primitive their notions ! When we reached Feng Hwang Ch'ing we found about a thousand soldiers en route for this neutral strip. The officers told us that they had orders to capture a certain Liu King K'ai who was at large in this piece of country. He was a rebel who had been usurping* the powers of government as if he had been an official, and had about six hundred followers with him.
As the troops were in no hurry to leave Feng Hwang Ch'ing, and we could not wait to travel in their company, we took the opportunity of entering the Korean Gate ourselves. We went some distance over the hill and down to a valley beyond, where flowed a stream of limpid water, on the banks of which was a carpet of fine grass. Here we stopped our carts, ate some food, and dirank the clear water of the stream. While we were thus refreshing ourselves, a Chinaman suddenly appeared, and pointing to a hill beyond which we could see two horsemen dressed in a peculiar costume, said, "Those two are the scouts of Liu King K'ai. They bode no good for you. You had better go back, for he has six hundred followers in the next valley." At this we mounted our carts and told the men to drive back as fast as the mules could go. On getting back to Feng Hwang Ch'ing, we heard more of the exploits of Liu King K'ai. In that part of Manchuria the magistrates were as far apart as five hundred li. Conse-
STUDYING LANGUAGE 47
quently, if trouble arose in any village the dispute could not be settled until people had travelled a good part of that distance to see the magistrate. To save time and trouble, this Liu King K'ai had often acted as arbitrator, and had given such satisfaction that the people always went to him, and thus his fame and influence had rapidly spread. He was regarded by them not as a rebel, but as a benefactor.
(j) Bad Government.
In Manchuria the roads were frozen like iron during the winter, and hundreds of farmers' carts passed up and down the high-road to Newchwang. But beyond the one or two great highways, the numerous valleys were practically without any roads. The carters there- fore used the dry beds of rivers, which, though flooded during the rainy season, ran dry after the water flowed down to the sea. They drove their carts over the rough stone beds, which frequently had big boulders in the way. To overcome these difficulties the carters travelled in company with several others, so that when the mule of one cart could not pull it out of a deep hole or over a big boulder, five or ten mules from other carts were hitched on, and so progress was possible. As the cities where the district magistrate resided to administer justice, the bankers exchanged silver and paper money, and the farmers could sell or buy produce, were often situated five hundred li apart, life was very hard to bear.
Seeing the Government so regardless of the security of the people, it was no wonder that the farmers found it to their interest to pay the robbers every winter a sort of insurance money, which enabled them to travel without fear of being robbed. The insured carts would carry flags which the robbers recognized, and they would sometimes escort the farmers safely through dangerous parts.
As for the accommodation in the inns, beyond the cheering fact that there was fire under the k'angs, there was little to rejoice in. In one place we slept on a large k'ang with thirty -seven other travellers, one of
48 FORTY-FIVE YEARS IN CHINA
whom was a woman. Seeing how the people suffered from lack of proper government, and that the very man who was improving matters was regarded by the Govern- ment as a rebel, we felt that the dark places of the earth were indeed full of the habitations of cruelty. As we turned our steps b^ack toward Newchang", we wondered when the day would come when this land, which in so many respects might be said to be " flowing with milk and honey," would be properly governed, and the people be happy and prosperous.
1 1 . Street Preaching not Productive of Satisfactory Results.
When at home at Chefoo in 1872, I went to the chapel to preach every day, as was the custom of all the missionaries in those days. I did not find the preaching very productive of good results, and was consequently considerably discouraged. 1 learnt that many of the native business houses had taken an oath together never to countenance the foreign preaching by entering a chapel. Those who attended the services, therefore, were for the moist part stray visitors from the country passing by, who came out of curiosity to see the foreigner and his barbarous costume.
In my evangelistic work during the first two years in Chefoo I had tried street-chapel preaching without any success worth mentioning. I then began to follow the plan of " seeking the worthy," as our Lord commanded, for I found that they constituted the " good ground " in which to sow the seed.
12. Visit to Salt Manufacturer, perhaps a Lost Nestorian.
Hearin'g of a devout man living some eight miles from Chefoo, I sent word asking if 1 might call on him. He replied that he would be glad to see me. He was a manufacturer of salt, obtaining it from the sea by evaporating the water in shallow beds. He was perhaps sixty years of age. I took with me some Gospels, a few tracts, and a hymn-book, and he received
STUDYING LANGUAGE 49
me with great kindness, and insisted on my having a meal with him whilst we talked of religion. After a time he took me into an inner room, spotlessly clean, and said to me, " This is the place where I worship daily."
On my showing the hymn-book to him, he picked out one of the hymns which spoke of the fleeting character of this world and said, "This hymn is ours."
I opened my eyes in astonishment and asked what he meant. He replied that his religious sect used it regularly in their worship. He told me various other things about his religion. As this was the first time I had met a man of his stamp, I was dumb, and felt that his religious experience was not only much earlier than mine, but possessed p. depth which astonished me. After a long, happy day together, he insisted on accompanying me back to Chefoo over the hills, and though several times on the road I begged him to go back, he came with me the whole way to the door of the hospital where 1 was living. I never saw him again, but have always felt that he, if not a Christian, was at any rate not far from the Kingdom of God. My knowledge of the Chinese language and history of religion was too imperfect at that time for me to take advantage of that most rare opportunity.
13. Fair at Hwui Lung San.
I decided to go to the country with a native evangelist and see what would be the result of preaching to large gatherings. I learnt that in the springtime there were gteat fairs in various places, attended by crowds of people from the neighbouring districts. These were held every year at some famous temple. People from scores of villages came up in procession with flying banners and drums, and cymbals, and went into the temple to worship. By noon the worship of the various processions would be over, and all would join the fair, where horses, mules and donkeys, and cattle, together with all sorts of agricultural implements, were on sale.
One of the most celebrated fairs in the east of
4
50 FORTY-FIVE YEARS IN CHINA
the Shantung Promontory was at Hwoii Lung San, a mountain on which was a noted temple, near the market town of Sung Tsun.
Thither I went on horseback, followed by two mules, one ridden by my assistant, the other laden with two boxes of Gospels, tracts, and books. Arriving at the place ahead of the mules, I went to an inn, but was told there was no room. On receiving the same answer at the only other inn in the place, I suspected that the reason for it was that the innkeepers had no wish to harbour the foreigner. I was not distressed about the matter, feeling sure that if I had been called to work there God would somehow open up a way. I took my pony to a big stone in the middle of the street, where I alighted and sat, holding the pony's reins in my hand. A crowd soon gathered.
"Do you not want your horse fed?" asked one.
"Certainly," I replied. "But where?"
" Give him to me and I will see to him," and he took the horse and walked into the first inn, while I remained sitting on the stone.
Within ten minutes every one in the little market town knew all about me and my intentions.
Presently, a cook with a greasy apron came up and said : " My master has heard that the inns are afraid of taking you in. He has an empty house, and if you like to stay there, you are welcome."
I went with him, and found the empty house much more comfortable than either of the inns. My host was the chief man in the place. His great-grandfather had been a Governor of one of the provinces. As the fair was not to begin for a fortnight, he offered me the use of the house until then. He had two sons, about my age, who were studying to take their Sui-ts'ai (often spoken of as equivalent to our B.A. degree). They were very intelligent and anxious to hear about the world outside, of which they could gather no knowledge from their books. All the schoolmasters from the villages round about came to see me, and we held long talks on foreign civilization and religion, I on my
STUDYING LANGUAGE 51
part getting as much information as I could as to their rcHgion and civilization. When not besieged by visitors I studied Chinese literature.
A day or two before the fair commenced, I proposed to visit the temple on the mountain. One of my host's sons accompanied me. It was a fine temple, in charge of some Buddhist priests. I asked if I might speak to the crowd at the fair. No objection was made. The young man asked where I would like to stand. Looking round the place, I noticed a tower between two court- yards, commanding a good view of both, and chose it as the spot from which I would address the people. The young man ordered the priest to put up a ladder there so that I could easily mount to the tower.
On the day of the fair I went to the top of the hill, and found innumerable crowds of people thronging the place and selling all sorts of requirements needed by the farmers. They gathered round me, pressing from all sides to have a peep at the foreigner, as they had never seen one before. I was literally carried off my feet, but I steered for the temple, and in time arrived there. I found the ladder ready and mounted to the tower. From this vantage-point I had a good view of everything that took place. The morning was taken up by a series of processions, with music and banners and drums, from scores of villages round, each one in turn going to the temple to burn incense and bow before the idols. The music was an interminable din, caused by drums, gongs, and cymbals. By noon the last village had paid its respects to the gods, and there was a lull in the noise.
I took advantage of this opportunity, and spoke for a long time as well as I could to the people in both courtyards, who manifested great patience in listening to the foreigner addressing them in imperfect Chinese. When I saw how attentively they were listening, I might have been tempted to say, as did another missionary once, that " thousands were hanging on my lips." How- ever, discounting the interest of a good many as curiosity, I was inclined to think that some were genuinely anxious
52 FORTY-FIVE YEARS IN CHINA
to hear more about the countries of the West and their religion, for at the close several came up to me and invited me to visit their villages.
This was my most memorable attempt at preaching to a vast crowd. I had not then learned that it was not the most effective way of doing missionary work. The friendship commenced with the chief man of Sung Tsun and his son continued for many years, and when- ever they were in Chefoo they came to call on me.
14. Attempt to Settle in Ninghai. 1872.
From the beginning of my work in Chefoo, I felt that there was no need for a number of missionaries to live together at the ports while the interior was un- occupied. I therefore took trips inland to inspect the country and find suitable conditions for missionary work.
The first place that attracted my attention was the city of Ninghai, only twenty miles from Chefoo, and I thought I might rent a house there and settle down to work. But I was doomed to disappointment. The man I sent to rent a house was successful ; but no sooner had the news spread that a foreigner was to live there than trouble arose. The landlord was arrested, beaten, and put in jail. In this predicament he sent me a letter relating his trouble and begging me to save him.
I went to see the British Consul in Chefoo, who said we must put the matter through, and gave me a letter for the Ninghai magistrate. But neither the Consul nor I knew the true attitude of the Chinese Govern- ment and the people towards foreigners at that time. Armed with the Consul's letter, I arrived in the city and called on the official. He immediately put on his official robes and received me in grand style, appearing exceedingly friendly. This was the first interview 1 ever had with a Chinese official. I returned to my inn, hoping things would soon be satisfactorily arranged.
Within half an hour the magistrate returned my call at the inn where I was staying. While he was with me a dozen of the elders of the city entered and fell on their knees before the official, begging that no houses
STUDYING LANGUAGE 53
should be rented to foreigners. The magistrate replied that the power to refuse rested not with him, but lay with me. Then they turned on me, and on their knees implored me not to insist on renting the house. As I was then inexperienced in Chinese matters, all I said was that the matter had been arranged by the Consul and that 1 had no power to change his decision. As my action was quite within the bounds of the treaties between England and China, I asked that the landlord be set at liberty, and not persecuted. But the interview proved fruitless.
Thinking I had a right to the house, I took posses- sion of it. The Chinese, who had some experience with foreigners in Chefoo, expressed their sentiments in a doggerel that ran thus : —
If you wish to be destroyed, Be by foreigners employed.
This verse, repeated everywhere in Ninghai, fanned the anti -foreign feeling into a blaze, and my action roused much indignation. When I went for a walk, crowds of children and grown-up ruffians followed me, shouting " Foreign devil ! " and all manner of evil epithets after me, and throwing gravel and dirt at me, while at night they came in the dark, plastering my door with all kinds of filth. My native assistant urged me strongly to complain of my treatment to the official, but even then, as stated in my report of the year to the Baptist Missionary Society, it was my principle never to call for official aid unless absolutely necessary.
Then it was that I sought to find what our Lord would have counselled. Two thoughts presented them- selves to my mind. One was that if God had really called me to be a missionary. He would at the same time have prepared some of the Chinese to hear my message. There seemed no one in Ninghai prepared to receive it. Further, the words of our Lord were, " If they persecute you in one place, flee to another." vSo I decided to leave, feeling persuaded that God had
54 FORTY-FIVE YEARS IN CHINA
prepared some other place where the people would be willing to hear me. I left the city without saying a word either to officials or elders.
15. Visit to a Devout Seeker after Truth.
Among the titles I next visited was Lai Yang, eighty miles to the south of Chef 00. Here I stayed a fortnight. After preaching in the street, I had a talk with two intelligent Buddhist priests, who freely discussed the merits of Christianity and Buddhism. A scholar named Wang followed me to the inn, and put two striking questions to me, " What must one do to be accepted of God?" and "Why was there need for Christ to die for mankind?"
Another man named Liu had the reputation of being a seeker after truth, and my visit to him taught me an important lesson, which it would be well for every in- tending missionary to learn before coming out. I quote from a letter at that time : —
" We entered a long, narrow room, or rather a barn, for there was straw piled up on both sides, leaving but a narrow path up the middle. At the end of this path was a table, where Liu sat facing us. To his right was the only window of the room. Before him were three books, one Confucian, one Taoist (the Book of Changes), and the third Christian. On my inquiring which of the three books was true, he answered that they were all true, that each of them must have come from Heaven. And this was not a casual remark, but his firm conviction. I took the New Testament which was before him and put a few questions to ascertain how far he understood it. There were others present, two very much interested, one lying down on the straw making occasional remarks, the other standing like a statue in the narrow passage during the whole con- versation. At the door others chatted and cracked jokes, caring little about the foreigner's visit. Liu came to me for another conversation before I left the city."
Though I never saw these men again, my interviews with them were not without result, as the sequel will show .
STUDYING LANGUAGE 65
This visit to Mr. Liu in Lai Yang brought before my mind the necessity of devising means to free the Chinese philosophers from the chains of superstition by which they were bound in the theory of Yin Yang and the five elements through which they explained all the mysterious wonders of heaven and earth'. One means of dispelling their ignorance was to give a few lectures with experiments on physics and chemistry, and this I did to my Chinese assistants when I returned to Chefoo by ocular demonstrations, giving them true conceptions of the laws of natural philosophy.
1 6. Striking Essay on Jesus Christ by a Non- Christian.
In the spring of 1872 a new method of missionary work was started, which I have made use of from time to time ever since, as it has shown wonderful possi- bilities in reaching thinking men in their homes.
A Shanghai newspaper (probably Dr. Allen's pub- lication) offered a prize for the best Chinese essay in answer to the question, "Whom say ye that I am?"
In 1873 ^ Sui-ts'ai (B.A.) brought his son to Chefoo to have his eyes attended to by Dr. Brown, and while he stayed in the hospital he read our Christian books, among them the Gospel of St. John, and our news- papers. In one of them he found a notice of the com- petition referred to above, and wrote a most striking essay, which 1 translated and sent to the Baptist Mission. The following extracts are from his essay : — I am like the salt taste in the sea. Seek it, and you cannot find it. I am like the fragrance of the flower. Seize it, but it eludes your grasp. Men think that I dwell where there is form, but they do not seek me where there is no form. Should they by chance meet me they would not know me, but before my face mistake me. He who recognizes me must be a true believer in me."
" That which can be scattered, shaped, and killed is matter, but I am that which is complete, all -pene- trating, and without form. You seek me above and
56 FORTY-FIVE YEARS IN CHINA
look up, but forget that I am below as well. You ask for me before you, and hasten after me, but forget that I am also behind."
" Of all things mysterious under the sun the greatest mystery is the Reality which remains for ever."
" I am matter, matter is I. I existed, and matter and I were two. I am the Word, the Word is 1. I existed, and the Word and I were two. 1 am the Father, the Father is in me. I existed, and I and the Father were not in each other."
" I am neither rest nor action. Those who truly believe in me will have the principle of life. Those who love the living God shall become living spirits. Those who do not believe in me are walking corpses."
Though the Chinese mystic wrote in a spirit worthy of Pulsford, the Missionary Committee were probably right in considering the views enunciated by him not sufficiently edifying to the Christian public at home, and the translation, interesting in itself, was not therefore published.
17. First Visit to Chi-nan fu. 1873. In the autumn of 1873, i^ company with my friend Mr. Lilley and Mr. Mclntyre of the United Presby- terian Mission in Chef 00, I visited Chi-nan fu, the capital of Shantung province, a place over three hundred miles from Chef 00. There we were able to see at work perhaps one of the most remarkable educational systems on the face of the earth. At that time Chinese scholars were examined once a year in each of the fourteen hundred counties of the Empire by Government inspectors for their matriculation. The Sui-ts'ai degree was con- ferred once in three years simultaneously over the Empire, and later the Sui-ts'ai met in their respective provincial capitals as candidates for their Ch3-ren degree, the equivalent of our M.A. We found some twelve thousand scholars already assembled, although only the best ninety -five were to be entitled to the degree. Imme- diately after the civil examination took place a military
STUDYING LANGUAGE 57
one was held, attended by some thousand candidates. We saw but few of the civil candidates, as disturbances against foreigners had been created by similar scholars in Hangchow, and we had to exercise caution on meeting them, but we mixed freely with the military students.
Mr. Mclntyre and Mr. Lilley returned to Chefoo soon after the examination had taken place, but I remained for five months.
1 8. Baptism of Military Officer in Chi-nan fu.
At this time I met a very interesting lieutenant from the province of Honan, who frequently came to see me at my inn and wanted to become a Christian. In the end I baptized him by immersion in the beautiful lake of the city, the first baptism of the kind ever witnessed there. The sight of two men walking into the clear waters of the lake immediately attracted a large number of spectators in the south-west suburb. Directly after the ceremony the lieutenant, on landing, while his clothes were still dripping, addressed the crowd and explained the meaning of the rite in a most interesting manner.
Curiously enough, on that very day, Mr. Ch'ing, the pastor 1 had left behind in Chefoo, baptized two con- verts there, one of whom had been sent to him for teaching by Mr. Wang, the other being Mr. Liu, of Lai Yang, mentioned above.
19. Mohammedans in Chi-nan fu.
Whilst at Chi-nan fu I was interested to find two large Mohammedan mosques attended by a considerable follow- ing. I tried to find if the Koran had been translated into Chinese, but was told no such translation had been made, though there were two works in Chinese (not for sale) which gave the substance of the Mohammedan faith. I also learned that, though the Mohammedans devoted much time to the study of Arabic and Persian, they were, as a rule, lamentably ignorant of Chinese literature .
58 FORTY-FIVE YEARS IN CHINA
20. MClLVAINE, THE FiRST PROTESTANT MISSIONARY IN Chi-nan FU.
Up to that time no missionary in China had written any Christian books for use among Mohammedans ; but there lived in Chi-nan fu an American Presbyterian mis- sionary, the Rev. Mr. Mcllvaine, who had removed there from Peking about a year before my visit. He was the most promising of young missionaries, and had been associated with the seniors of his mission in publishing the Presbyterian standards in Chinese. He was then studying Mohammedanism with a view to writing a tract for the use of its adherents. It is now forty years since he prepared this tract, and I regret to say that to this day nothing of importance has since been published in Chinese on the subject by any missionary.
Another remarkable man in Chi-nan fu was Mr. Crossett, who was a great favourite with the Chinese and very devoted in his work. Yet both these men got into a most dangerous mental condition ; the main difficulty was a rigidity of view and a want of adaptation to Chinese conditions.
This latter point was manifest even in matters of dress in Mr. Mcllvaine's case. For instance, as the Chinese houses and inns had no fires in them, our foreign dress was utterly inadequate for warmth. So Mr. Mcllvaine had a fur dress made for himself, not after the Chinese pattern — a long gown with a short jacket over it — but like a long foreign overcoat, lined with sheepskin, with a kind of cape covering the shoulders and breast, but stitched down the back.
The first day he appeared on the street wearing this new garment the people were thrown into convulsions of laughter. " What a stupid wife the foreign devil must have ! " they cried out. " She does not know how to make a coat. You look at him from the front and side and he has a jacket on ; but when he is past and you look at him from behind he wears no jacket. Did you ever see such absurd figures as these devils? "
STUDYING LANGUAGE 59
When I told Mcllvaine that I could not stand this constant ridicule and cursing every day, his reply, how- ever unpractical, was beautiful. " We must live it down," he said. But it soon proved more than even his human nature could stand. One evening he came to my inn (for in those days none dared rent houses to foreigners) . He was greatly depressed, and said ; —
" Richard, I want you to do me a favour."
" Willingly. What is it ? "
" I have come to the conclusion that 1 have made a great mistake in thinking God has called me to be a missionary. If He had, surely He would have per- mitted me converts before now. But I have none. Therefore I am determined to leave the Mission and let the Board give the money for the support of one who has been truly called of God. I will go to one of the ports and do what I can to prepare school- books in Chinese and thus earn a living. I have a clock which my mother gave me. I cannot part with that. I want you to keep it for me till I am settled in my new work."
" Of course I will take charge of your clock," I answered. " But do you not think you have made your resolution too hurriedly?"
We had a long talk over the matter. At parting I said to him, " Pray over it again, and let us have another talk before you finally decide."
Some days after he came to see me again, and at once said : —
" I have come to the conclusion that, whatever our theories about life and religion and Missions may be, there is one course that appears to me absolutely sound, the value of which will never change, and that is to do good."
1 got up and shook hands with him, saying: " That is a rock. Stand on that and your trouble will soon be over."
From that day he was a happier man and a most efficient worker. He died in 1878, his health having been impaired by his mental troubles.
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21. Crossett, his Colleague.
Mr. Crossett was a different type of man, but equally devoted to what he considered to be his duty. After a time he became heart-broken at the small results of his years of labour, and came to the conclusion that he did not pray enough. He then prayed and prayed for hours at a time in agony of spirit. After a while a complete mental breakdown resulted, and he was sent to Peking, and later home to the United States.
During his stay there he visited and studied, in search of light, every kind of erratic religious sect to be found in America. But his longing to work in China was as strong as ever. As the Board was not prepared to send him out then, he went to the coast and worked his passage as a common sailor on a vessel to the Holy Land. On his way from Joppa to Jerusalem, w!hom should he meet but the Roman Catholic Bishop of Chi -nan fu. Crossett literally fell on his neck and wept for joy, and his longing for China was all the more intensified by the meeting. He visited strange religious communities in the Holy Land, then went to Egypt, where he engaged himself on a ship for Bombay. At this port he visited that saintly man Bowen, whom the Hindus almost worshipped, and, after imbibing his special teaching, sailed once more before the mast for China.
During his period of absence from China he read many of the strange writers on Christianity amongst the early Fathers, the mediaeval writers, down to the mystics of the present day. He had come to believe in various curious doctrines — for instance, that the pores of the skin were open doors through which innumerable evil spirits passed in and out of the body.
On arriving in Chefoo he called on his old missionary friends. They were greatly shocked to see him in ragged clothes, and offered him money to procure new ones. But he refused to take any. They surreptitiously slipped some pieces of silver into his wallet, but when he found them he gave them away to the first beggar he met. He walked all the way to Chi -nan fu, healingi
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the sick. When the few native Christians in Chi-nan fu saw him, they were also greatly shocked at his appear- ance ; but his return so delighted them that they declared they would share their last morsel with him.
After a time he was again sent to Peking. Here he devoted himself to the beggars of the city, and neither Francis of Assisi nor any ascetic was ever more devoted to the poor. During one of my visits to Peking we were both staying in Dr. Dudgeon's house in the London Mission, the doctor being away. I slept in a foreign bedroom, while Crossett slept with the patients in the hospital. Every morning at dawn of day he used to come to my room, lie down on the floor, and we would discuss the religious beliefs of early and mediaeval days, with which he was saturated. Later in 1889, when we were living in Peking, we often invited him to a meal with us ; but he usually came with a Chinese cake up his sleeve, and partook of that simple fare in preference to our food. When we asked him to spend the night with us, sometimes he accepted the invitation ; but he would never sleep in a bed ; he used to lie on the floor in front of the fire and spend the night there.
He had kept a careful diary of all his thoughts and experiences since he first left Chi-nan fu. Extracts from it were occasionally published in the Peking newspapers by Mr. Michie, who had a great admiration of his devo- tion. Once Crossett gave me the diary, asking me to edit it for publication. Finding he was gradually recover- ing from his strange vagaries, I glave it back to him, telling him to wait some time before publishing it.
A year or two later he went to Shanghai, walking all the way from Peking to Hankow, and thence by boat. He stayed with Dr. Fryer at the Arsenal, where the servants all became extraordinarily devoted to him. Mrs. Fryer told me that one morning he came to breakfast with his face full of joy.
" I have now triumphed over my last enemy," he announced.
"And what is that?" she asked.
" My diary was my pride. I have just burnt it."
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This was a tragedy indeed !
The same summer his strength began to fail. He thought that if he could get to Mongolia, he would regain his health. So he started for Tientsin in the Eldorado. Captain Payne, a very good man, gave up his cabin to the sick man. But on the arrival of the boat at Tientsin he was dead. 1 happened to be away at the time, but my wife, hearing what had happened, went straight to the steamer and arranged for his btirial. Later I had a simple stone put up to mark where his mortal remains were laid.
These tragedies of Mcllvaine and Crossett, and some Roman Catholic priests whom I knew, were largely due to false theology, mistaken application of Christianity, and an imperfect knowledge of the conditions of success in missionary effort.
22. Chinese Philanthropist Introducing Vaccination.
In 1874, on the way back to Chefoo from Chi -nan f u, I stayed a day in Wei-hsien with my friend the Rev. Mr. Mclntyre, of the United Presbyterian Mission of Scotland. Whilst there I learned two very important factors in connection with Mission work in China, one the intense hostility of the officials, the other that even amongst the non-Christians in China, as elsewhere in the world, some of the most devout people were to be found.
Wei-hsien was one of the great commercial centres of Shantung and was the home of many wealthy people who had members of their families holding official rank in different parts of the Empire. Thus the city was an official as well as a commercial centre.
When Mr. Mclntyre rented a small house as a begin- ning to his mission work, the whole city rose up like a nest of hornets in opposition, and there was as great an uproar about this little matter as if an arch-rebel or violent robber had come into their midst. They threatened all sorts of violence unless the foreigner cleared out of their midst at once. Then suddenly there
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called on Mr. Mclntyre one of the gentry of the place, a veritable Cornelius, a devout man, full of good works, who told him that he need not be alarmed at the threatening of the people, as they were ignorant and knew not what they were doing. He would personally explain to them their great mistake.
This gentleman, some years previously, had heard of the arrival of a foreigner in Peking (Dr. Lockhart, of the London Mission) who knew how to prevent small- pox. At that time it was so terrible a scourge that in many places half the population of small towns and villages perished. He was so rejoiced to hear of a preventive of smallpox that he travelled ten days to Peking to see Dr. Lockhart, who showed him how to vaccinate. He then engaged two women to bring their inoculated children and travel with him to Wei-hsicn. On arrival there, he began to vaccinate his friends and neighbours direct from the children. In time the people learned the value of vaccination, and for many years, indeed, up to the time when Mclntyre arrived in Wei- hsien, this Chinese gentleman had continued vaccinating people daily for nothing. In return, a fine tablet was put up in gratitude to him over his door.
■When the people now found him visiting the foreigner, they became very angry, saying that they had not put up a tablet to him in order that he might be friendly with the hated and dangerous foreigner. They would therefore pull it down. He replied : "I did not inocu- late you in order to get a tablet from you. You are quite welcome to take it down. I wish to tell you that you are mistaken about the foreigners. What- ever good I have been able to do in the prevention of simallpox I learnt from the kindness of Dr. Lockhart the missionary. And I know that this missionary also has no other motive than to do good. Therefore I must do all in my power to befriend him."
While I was stopping a day or two at the inn, Mr. Mclntyre asked this Chinese friend if he might bring me with him to call. He said he would be glad to see any of his friends, so I went. I was anxious to
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know what impression our New Testament would produce on a good Chinaman at the first reading. I found that he had read it through three times and I asked him, "What impressed you most when you read?"
He considered a few seconds before replying and then said, " Perhaps the most wonderful thought was this — that man might become the temple of the Holy Ghost."
23. Unique Medical Tour with Dr. Brown.
In the beginning of 1874 I returned to Chefoo, after an absence of nearly five months in Chi -nan fu. I found that Dr. Brown was making rapid progress with the language, and, assisted by Pastor Ch'ing, was translating an important medical work, and was training four natives as medical students and assistants.
Not long after my return, Mr. Margary, of the Consular Service, came to dine with Dr. Brown. Mr. Lilley, of the Bible Society of Scotland, was also there that evening and made our sides ache with laughing at his funny tales, all told with a most solemn face. Margary left Hankow in September of that year to begin his ill-fated expedition to Burmah. He was murdered in February 1875 at Manwyne, by treacherous Chinese.
In the early part of the year Dr. Brown and 1 planned a tour of the counties in the promontory which was situated in the eastern part of the province, staying at each country town and chief market town, he to heal the sick and I to preach in the waiting-room, admitting the patients to Dr. Brown's room one by one. To ensure peace and order, as foreigners were a great curiosity in those days, we sent in our cards to the chief magistrate on arriving at the county town, telling him what we in- tended to do, and asking him to appoint two of his police to assist in keeping order. The magistrates were in- variably very civil, readily agreeing to our request, and not infrequently members of the Yamen came as patients.
From early in the morning Dr. Brown worked very hard, seeing patients without intermission. Fearing that his health would break down under such a severe strain, I tried to persuade him not to work so many hours, but
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he would not listen. The cry of a patient was to him an imperative call. Knowing that his strength was not equal to such a tax on it, I tooic him one evening by main force in my arms and carried him off to his bedroom.
Some of his treatments produced instant relief, which appeared no less than miraculous to the patients. For instance, a man came in one day suffering from intense pain in the stomachy being doubled up in agony. Dr. Brown gave him a single draught, and in ten minutes the man stood up straight, opened his eyes, and, all amazed at his sudden recovery, cried out, " I am cured ! 1 am cured ! The pain is all gone ! " His dramatic declaration made the other patients laugh at first, but then, realizing he was truly cured, they were all most anxious to get medicine to ensure their own instant relief.
Another morning, a leprous man entered, full of joy, bringing presents to testify his gratitude. He said that for years his hands and feet had been numb, without any feeling, but that after taking the medicine which Dr. Brown had given him the day before, both hands and feet were tingling with sensation.
In the course of our trip we chanced to stay for the night at an inn not far from Sung t'sun, the market town where I had spent a fortnight the previous year before attending the great fair at Hui-Lung-San. We were travelling in what is called a shen-tze, a covered hammock slung between two mules, one in front and one behind. We had with us one of Dr. Brown's assist- ants who helped him in dispensing, so what with men and mules, our cortege practically filled the little village inn. On asking the innkeeper next morning for our bill, he refused to charge us anything, saying, " You have come here, giving medicine gratis to our people ; it would be wrong for me to charge you for the night's lodging. Besides, do you not remember me ? "
I could not recall him, so he explained that he had visited me a few times the previous year in Sung t'sun and obtained valuable information from me about the
5
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outside world and about religion, for which he had been most grateful. I pressed him again for his bill, thinking it was only a courteous way of expressing his pleasure at seeing me again, but he positively refused to charge us anything, saying that he himself would like to have a share in doing' good to people.
Thus we proceeded on our tour round the promontory, gaining through Dr. Brown's ministrations the good- will of the people wherever we went.
Alas ! that, at the time when our Mission was striking out in a new line of work with such success, the con- nection between the Society and my colleagues should have been severed, owing to the imperfection of human appreciation and foresight. To the great grief of all our missionary associates of every denomination, both English and American, in Chefoo, Dr. Brown left in April 1874 and went to Dunedin, New Zealand, where, both as professor in the University and practitioner in the city, he became most eminent. When after many years he retired, the Mayor, in the name of the town, presented him with a handsome testimonial in recognition of his many services during his thirty years of residence there.
Thus I was left once more alone in charge of the English Baptist Mission work in China.
24. Demon Possession.
In the early 'seventies no steamers ran from Shanghai to Chefoo during the winter, Chefoo harbour being impassable owing to the ice. As business was at a stand- still, the small foreign community formed clubs and societies whereby they might spend their time happily and profitably together.
In connection with a literary society I was asked one winter to read a paper on " Demoniacal Possession in China." The subject proved very attractive, and mis- sionaries and merchants, Jews and Gentiles, Catholics and Protestants, believers and sceptics, all came and it was the largest gathering we had had. Beginning with the cases of demon possession cured by our Lord, I then referred to similar cases in China, Men were possessed
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by evil spirits to such a degree that the afflicted ones would personify different individuals. One day the un- fortunate victim would say his name was Li, from a locality some distance off, and would weave a history of that personality, whereas in reality his name might be Chang. When in his right mind he would speak of his home and the Chang family with perfect clearness and in a natural voice, while when possessed he would talk in quite a different voice, speaking of himself as Li. At other times houses would be haunted and the residents would be so terrified that they would leave their homes, and houses were known to be left untenanted for twenty years or more, because people believed they were haunted by evil spirits.
The philosophy of the matter seemed to be that men and women of weak will were like reeds shaken by every breeze that passed ; every rumour of evil spirits and haunted houses took possession of their wills, and swayed them hither and thither. When Christians approached them, and told of an Almighty God, to whom the evil demons were subjected, and whose Holy Spirit would come and dwell in the hearts of all who were willing to obey Him, it was glad tidings of great joy to them. Their wills received tonic and strength, and in this way were able to resist common reports. Thus the weak became strong, and those who had lost their reason became restored to their right minds.
The discussion which followed my paper proved intensely interesting. Dr. Williamson described the use of the planchette in China, especially in the temple of Lu Tsu, to obtain prescriptions for the sick. The planchette consisted of a string attached to a bean^ and ending in a pen hanging over some sand in a tray.
Dr. Corbett described a house believed for years to be haunted, so that nobody would rent it. At last his native evangelist lived in it, and the supposed ghost removed to the next house, where it gave no peace to the occupants. They then begged him to go over and exorcise it. He took the New Testament with him, and called on the neighbours to join him in prayer that
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God would protect them from all harm, and peace was restored to that house too. Dr. Corbett was followed by a Jew, who remarked that the idea of demon possession was brought to Palestine from Persia. A medical man next rose and scouted the theory of demon possession altogether, saying that the victims were suffering from hysteria, and that the explanation was physical. After him spoke Mr. Fergusson, the head of the firm of Fergusson & Co., originally a Jesuit priest, one of the best educated men present. Though married, he entertained all the Roman Catholic bishops as they passed through inland, and he was as devout as ever. He remarked that he believed in the theory of demon possession, and that he had as much ground for his belief as the medical man for his view. He gave a number of striking instances, attested by various bishops, how even ordinary Christians had the power to restore afflicted men to their right mind.
My paper of that evening was published in the Celestial Empire, ?and Mr. Christopher Gardner, the British Consul, quoted largely from it in an interesting article to one of the home papers on " The Bogey in China." After this memorable evening. Dr. Nevius began to collect evidences of demon possession and demon exorcism from all parts of China, and gathered them into an exhaustive work, " Demon Possession," which was published after his death.
25. Black and White Sheep.
A Chinese proverb says, " If you sow beans, you gather beans ; if you plant sweet potatoes, you reap sweet potatoes." But the wonderful thing in human character is that the same treatment meted out to two individuals so often ends in different results.
There was in Tengchow, near Chefoo, a Mrs. Holmes, widow of an American Baptist missionary who had been murdered by the Taiping rebels in the 'sixties. She had a little son whom she herself taught. In the goodness of her heart, she thought that if she brought up with him two poor Chinese boys of about the same
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age as her son, and gave them the same teaching, she would be doing good missionary work. The Chinese boys' names were Sei-kse and Joe. They learnt English very well. At that time English-speaking clerks were in great demand by foreign shopkeepers, as they could be paid twenty dollars a month, while a foreign assistant would demand at least four times that sum.
Joe, the younger of the two boys, when about sixteen, was, unknown to Mrs. Holmes, offered a situa- tion in the Russian store in Chefoo with a salary of twenty dollars a month. This seemed a fortune to his poor parents, who had regarded five dollars a month as the average wage to those in their station. They urged their son to accept the offer, so one day he ran away.
Mrs. Holmes was greatly distressed at this, and, to prevent the other boy leaving her, she decided to send him to a school in America, where her son was finishing his education. After a few years in the United States, Sei-kse returned to China, and obtained a good situation in the Customs under Sir Robert Hart. When he was passing through Chefoo, Mrs. Holmes asked me to receive him as my guest. I found him unusually bright. But, alas ! within three months of his entrance into the Customs, he decided he could easily better his position if he were to head a rebellion and make himself Emperor. His position in the Customs enabled him surreptitiously to pass a quantity of foreign arms and ammunition into Chinkiang. But the conspiracy leaked out, and his head was demanded by the Government. A missionary friend of Mrs. Holmes helped him to get away to the United States. After arrival in America, forgetting that all the advantages he had received, including the saving of his life, had been through the kindness of missionaries, he travelled about the United States lecturing on China, and trying to prove the superiority of Confucianism to Christianity.
Joe, on the other hand, was offered a position in Tientsin, under Jardine and Matheson, to provide and superintend coolies for the loading and unloading of
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their ships. He was most resourceful in difficulties, and was often consulted by other companies.
About twenty years passed, and Mrs. Holmes fell on evil times. Her son, who had become a medical man, had turned out badly. Mrs. Holmes was poor, and her health not good. For her livelihood she had to teach in a school, to which daily she had to walk a long distance. In her distress she wrote to Joe of her troubles. He at once went to Jardine and Matheson's agent in Tientsin and told him of Mrs. Holmes's sad letter. " You have put by to my credit a sum of a thousand dollars," he added. " Please draw it out for me, as I wish to send it to Mrs. Holmes." The agent promised to do so. About a week later, not having received the money, Joe went again to the agent to remind him of his promise. The agent said he had not forgotten, but he had feared Joe had not realized the many years it had taken him to save the money, and he had delayed in order that Joe might consider the matter carefully. Joe replied that he had fully made up his mind. " Mrs. Holmes did far more for me than my own mother. If it were not for her, I might have been like one of the coolies under my charge, getting a few hundred cash a day. Let me have the money without delay, for I cannot think lof Mrs. Holmes suffering from want while I have enough and to spare." On hearing the story, a clerk in the bank remarked : "It does one good to hear such fine results. I will give him the best exchange I possibly can."
In 1891, when I was leaving Tientsin for Shanghai, Joe undertook to remove my goods and furniture to the steamer. An army of coolies came in at the front door, swept through the house, each man seizing some- thing and going out at the back, leaving " not a wrack behind." When we boarded the boat, not a single article was missing. Joe refused to take any payment for the work.
26. Second Visit to Chi-nan fu.
I was anxious to get to Chi-nan fu, the provincial capital, at the earliest opportunity. Now, the rainy season
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in Shantung occurs in the months of July and August. The rain is so heavy, and the country in many parts so flat, that communication is impossible, the roads being nothing but mud. All business is at a standstill till the rains are over.
It was therefore not till September that I could make the trip. I engaged one of the usual carts, drawn by two mules. I put a box of books and some Chinese clothing at the back of the cart, while at the bottom I spread the thick bedding which every traveller in China has to take with him everywhere, as none is provided in the inns. The cost of a cart at that time was about three shillings a day. Ten or twelve other carts started with us, for as the roads were not dry, there would be many pitfalls, and it would need the help of all the men to get the carts out of the mud. One day we were upset out of the cart no less than three times. When the road seemed to be deep with water and mud it was a great temptation to the carters to leave the main road, and as there are no hedges, to drive over the fields, which were usually on a higher level, and therefore dry. When crops were growing, the farmers would naturally, come out and object to the invasion.
On one occasion we had serious trouble. The owners of the crops insisted that the carters should return to the road, while the drivers protested that they had not intended deliberately to trespass, but that the road was absolutely impassable. High words passed between the parties. People from the village came to the help of the farmers, bringing bamboo poles and other weapons to fight the intruders if necessary. The carters, seeing the villagers opposing them, became furious, flung off, their coats and prepared for battle. Some blows were exchanged. On seeing this, and fearing grave conse- quences, I went up to two of the seniors of the village, and pointed out that unless they restrained their party, serious results would follow. " You see it is a sheer impos- sibility for us to go by the road. The wheel of one of the carts is already broken. Would you have all
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our carts break their wheels ? It will go hard with your village if others hear of it. Allow the carts to go on the dry land, and I, for my part, will take the load of the broken cart into mine."
The elders listened to reason, and called on the villagers to desist and let us pass. When we reached the next inn the carters were so grateful that they wished to pay my expenses for having got them out of their difficulties.
In Chi -nan fu I found Mr. Mcllvaine in a great state of depression, almost in despair. I had not been long there before Dr. and Mrs. Williamson of the U.P. Mission, Chefoo, came through with a native, Mr. Li, who had been assistant to Dr. Henderson, the medical missionary in Chefoo, for some years. Besides distri- buting literature, Mr. Li gave away simple medicines, such as quinine and chlorodyne, to sufferers in need of them. On reaching Chi -nan fu, Mr. Li had high fever. After some ten days. Dr. and Mrs. Williamson went to Tai An, leaving him in my charge, expecting he would recover after a few days' rest. But the fever proved to be a case of malignant typhus. There was not a single foreigner in the city, so Mr. Li stayed in the same inn with me. Day by day his fever grew worse. I fed him with chicken soup^ thinking it was the easiest diet to digest. After fifteen days his temperature rose exceedingly high. Having made up my mind to feed him with a few spoonfuls every hour, both day and night, I got into the habit of waking up at the end of every hour of the night just as regularly as if I had had an alarm clock in my brain.
About the twentieth day haemorrhage began in such abundance that I began to fear for his recovery, as I could not believe a man could lose so much blood and yet survive. However, the next day, to my intense delight, he asked if he might have a little millet gruel. This he drank greedily, and asked for more. He improved rapidly after this in health, but not in temper. Nothing I did would please him, though I nursed him as if he were my own brother. Finally he became
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homesick, and insisted on going back to Chefoo, even before he had fully recovered his strength. I engaged chair-bearers to carry him, sent my servant along with him to take care of him, and walked the first three miles with him. When I returned to my inn, I had a severe headache, and later discovered I was down with fever caught from my patient. As I was quite alone, I sent word to Mr. Mcllvaine, who then lived two days' journey off, and he soon came to the city and nursed me back to health. This seizure rendered me immune from further attacks, when millions round me were suffering from famine typhus.
27. Roads and Modes of Travel in North China.
The roads in China are most extraordinary. The plains of Shantung, Chihli, and Honan are composed of yellow soil brought down by the Yellow River ; in Shansi there are strange formations of loess in which the country people dig cave dwellings, delightfully cool in summer and warm in winter. As the climate is very dry in these provinces, sometimes without a drop of rain for six months, the carts travel with ease along the dusty roads, for not a stone is to be seen for a hundred miles. But when the rainy season comes in June, July, and August the roads are drowned with water, which when mixed with the dust forms impass- able sloughs of mud. All traffic ceases along these highways, and for three months there used to be a stoppage of trade, all capital being locked up during this time without any interest, involving enormous loss to China as a whole.
A similar stoppage of trade arose from the narrow- ness of the streets in larger cities. In Tientsin the streets were not wide enough to allow two carts to pass each other. This always involved great wrangling between the carters as to which should back his cart to the end of the street. Sometimes other carts came behind the first one, and there would be a block of some dozen or more carts, involving a delay of hours. The time wasted involved so much loss to the merchants
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that it would have paid them to buy up a portion of the city and lay it out with wide streets. What sober officials and business men did not attempt, the Boxers did in one day. They burned the city down. In re- building the authorities laid out streets wide enough for carts and tramcars to pass, to the great gain of all.
In those days in North China officials used to travel in sedan-chairs, carried according to rank by four or eight bearers, at the rate of about twenty miles a day. Another mode of travel was the lighter shen-tze, an erection covered with matting and slung between two mules, one in front and one behind. Merchants as a rule travelled in a small covered cart at the rate of about thirty miles a day. They started on the day's journey about an hour before dawn, and travelled till about ten, when the carters stopped to feed the mules and have a midday meal. About noon they started again, and travelled till a little before dark, when they put up at an inn lest they should be attacked by robbers. There were, and are, regular inns on the great highways.
At the best inns all kinds of food can be procured, and excellently cooked chicken, fish, pork, and eggs, prepared in many different ways. The dish of fried pork and cabbage is as common as ham and eggs in England. The available vegetables comprise potatoes, sweet potatoes, yams, cabbages, turnips, carrots, egg- plants, beans, peas, plums, cucumber, while fruit of various kinds — cherries, pears, plums, peaches, apples, apricots, persimmons, melons, grapes — can be obtained at different seasons of the year, with nuts of different kinds — peanuts, chestnuts, water -chestnuts, and lotus - seeds. Alcohol made of the tall millet, a sherry -like yellow wine, rice wine, and wine made from small millet can be served, and is always drunk hot. The rule is to take the table d'hote fare provided for all alike. The muleteers have the same food as their masters, but sit at a different table. The noon meal usually costs two hundred cash, the evening meal about three hundred cash, which includes the night's lodging', and ten per cent, is paid in tips to the waiters. Altogether the
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noonday meal costs about sixpence and the evening meal about ninepence.
Besides the above quick mode of travelUng in North China there is the much slower but commoner one of the barrow. This vehicle is peculiar to China, and unlike any in Europe or America. In the centre is a stout wheel, about three feet high, as strong as a cartwheel. On it is fixed a framework, carrying a seat on each side of the wheel. The traveller sits on one side, while his goods balance him on the other. The barrow is pushed from behind by a coolie, and pulled in front by another coolie or by a mule or donkey. The load which these barrows carry is enormous, sometimes half a ton, involving an enormous strain on the man pushing it. The converging shafts are so arranged that the greatest strain is thrown on the wheel. These barrows travel at the rate of about twenty miles a day. The inns at which they stay are much inferior in accommodation to those frequented by carters and muleteers. The k'ang is often only a foot high from the ground, and there- fore damp, while the food is coarse, consisting of millet and maize, with salted vegetables, but no meat. In summer the barrow is covered with a blue awning, and one can read or lie down and sleep while the mule pulls the barrow along at a good pace. In Shantung it is a common sight to see sails fitted to the barrows when there is a good breeze. The sails of a dozen of these heavy-laden barrows travelling along a deep-cut road have the appearance of a fleet of boats scudding along before the wind down some unseen creek in the country.
I once travelled with these slow barrowmen near the coast of Shantung, where the ground was white with deposits of soda exuding everywhere. I was warned of the difficulty of getting fresh water, as every well was saturated with soda. When we attempted to make tea, the soda in the water made the infusion very strong and bitter. Happily, 1 found a good remedy. I pro- vided myself with a bagful of cucumbers, and when I suffered from thirst after the bitter tea the cucumbers tasted as sweet as apples.
CHAPTER III SETTLING IN CHTNG-CHOW FU
I. First Connection with Li Hung-chang.
Li Hung-chang was a native of Anhui province, and had been one of the chief generals under Tseng Kwoh Fan in crushing the Taiping rebellion. It was to assist Li, when he was Governor of Soochow, that General Gordon was lent by the British Government.
My first connection with Li Hung-chang was in 1875, when he was at Chefoo signing the Chefoo Convention. I was then in charge of our Mission hospital, with a native assistant. Finding that a large number of Li Hung -Chang's soldiers were coming to the hospital suffering from ague and dysentery, I sent a present of quinine and chlorodyne to the General for distribution amongst his retinue and escort. For this he sent me a letter of thanks.
2. Journey to Ch'ing-chow fu.
After my return to Chefoo, I pondered much over the question of where to settle in the interior. On inquiry I found that at a place in the neighbourhood of Ch'ing-chow fu, two hundred miles away, about eight days' journey from Chefoo, there were several native sects, with a large number of followers seeking after higher truth than was to be found in the three great religions of China. I came to the conclusion that this was a place prepared to receive my message, so I decided in January 1875 to go to Ch'ing-chow fu. There was a young lad of about fourteen years of age in Chefoo, son of a sea captain, who could not continue
76
SETTLING IN CH'ING-CHOW FU 77
his lessons there, as there was no school at that time. It was decided that he should travel with me and that I should superintend his studies every evening.
On the journey we encountered considerable difficulties through the inclemency of the weather. It was winter- time and there was heavy snow on the ground. There were only three carts going together. The first day we made only ten miles. After toiling all the second day it was midnight before we reached our inn, having made only five miles. It was a hilly part of the country, and the wind had blown the snow off the high places, so that the roads were covered with snowdrifts and it was impossible to tell how deep they were. The fields lay in terraces up the sides of the hills, rising in ledges of two, three, or four feet high. Forced to leave the roads because of the snowdrifts, we had to drive over the fields, and in some instances had to dig away some hedges in order to get over them. This lengthened our journey considerably.
One night the carters lost their way and engaged a guide. He led us over some fields sown with wheat. The villagers came out, protesting. The carters, being tired out with the long day, answered roughly, and high words passed between the parties. People from the village ran to the help of the farmers, and it seemed as if we were to have a repetition of the trouble we had experienced the previous autumn after the rains. Again I had to intervene with the elders of the village, and after hearing me, they turned on the guide, whom they knew, and abused him roundly for leading us over the fields. Finally they turned to me and said : " We will let you pass this time, as you are a stranger. We have ordered the guide to take you to the nearest inn, but as a punishment for his misdeeds, you are not to pay him anything."
When we were within two days of Ch'ing-chow fu we were beset by a terrible blizzard. The wind was high, and the snow, though not deep, was driven before it in such a density of minute particles that everything was obliterated. We could see neither the tracks on
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the road nor the sun, and as the sun is the compass on the plains of China as on the ocean, we could not find our bearings. In some places there were deep snowdrifts, preventing us from following the road where it was visible. When we came to such spots, we were forced to leave the main roads and go into the fields, where we wandered and wandered in search of the main road, not knowing the direction we had to go. How- ever, after about five hours' travel in the blinding blizzard and the bitter cold, to our intense relief we finally reached an inn. The innkeeper feared that other travellers had failed in finding their way. And so it proved. The following morning it was found that two carts had lost their way, and some of the men had been frozen to death.
Ch'ing-chow fu is a prefectural city with eleven counties under it. At one time, in a former dynasty, it was the capital city of one of the princes. In those days it occupied a very large area. Even now it covers an area twice as large as the average city, and the city wall is one of the finest in Shantung.
Having arrived at Ch'ing-chow fu, we stayed at an inn, making no effort to rent a place. I studied Chinese general literature and religions, while the boy went on with his lessons. We were a great curiosity to the people. We used to go out for a short walk every afternoon, and as we were dressed in European costume the whole city used to turn out to look at us as we passed along the streets, while some of the most inquisitive and courageous would come to the inn to see us. I tried to receive them as kindly as I could, though I was often interrupted far more than I liked.
3. Medical Work in Ch'ing-chow fu.
In the autumn of 1875, after the rainy season, there was an immense amount of suffering from ague. I had a good supply of quinine and gave it out freely. To the people around it seemed nothing short of miraculous, as a single dose of from eight to ten grains
SETTLING IN CH'ING-CHOW FU 79
was usually enough to stop the distressing ague at once. Then they came for medicine for other diseases, but I told them I was not a medical man. Still, I had some valuable specifics.
Chlorodyne I found most useful. In the summer cholera was very dangerous, carrying people off sud- denly. I was fortunate by using spirits of camphor in being able to save many lives. One day the superin- tendent of police called on me to say that his wife was dying of cholera. Would I go and see her ? I went with him, and found her laid out on matting in the open courtyard, her people evidently expecting her to pass away very shortly. I gave her a few drops of spirits of camphor on sugar every five minutes, and within a quarter of an hour she turned round of her own accord and said she felt much better. This was one of many similar cases. The report went forth that, though it was very difficult to get me to give medicine, when I did 1 could cure people like a god.
4. Prefectural Treasurer.
Amongst the applicants for medicine came a remark- able man who was Treasurer of the Prefecture, all the Government taxes having to pass through his hands. He was about fifty years of age, and was without a son. He was very anxious to have one, so took a secondary wife, but without success. His friends told him that this childlessness was due to his being a heavy opium- smoker. He therefore came to me and asked if I would help him to break off the opium habit. I advised him to give up the opium by diminishing the quantity from day to day. He asked if he might sit with me every day. " I do not want to interrupt you in your studies, nor do I wish you to spend your time talking to me. All I wish is to avoid my companion opium -smokers. They will not come to smoke here."
So he came daily about ten o'clock to sit with me while I worked. He used to take out his tobacco-pipe, with a stem of about a yard long. Having loaded this, it was amusing to watch him light it. He always
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brought incense -sticks with him about a foot long, and having first lighted an incense -stick, his arm would be long enough then to light the pipe. He was a very intelligent man, full of good nature. It was always a pleasure to see him, and his daily visits resulted in talks on many matters. He marvelled at the foreigner's know- ledge of wonders that were utterly inexplicable to the Chinese.
5. Change of Costume. Pondering the question of costume, I wondered if I would have more visitors of the better class if I wore Chinese dress. So one day 1 put on the native dress, shaved my head, and wore an artificial queue. As I went out of the inn for my usual walk I met a little boy selling cakes who was in the habit of haunting the inn. He came carrying his cakes in a tray on his head. At sight of me in Chinese dress he was so startled that he jumped, and the trayful of cakes scattered on the ground, to the great amusement of the passers-by. As I walked down the street it seemed as if a telephone message had been sent to every house, for men, women, and children all came out to stare at the spectacle. I overheard one man say to another, " Ah ! he looks like a man now." That very afternoon I was invited into a house to drink tea. 1 understood now that there had been a sound reason for not asking me before. Being in foreign dress, the sight would have been so strange that if 1 were inside a house all sorts of onlookers would have come to the paper windows. Each would have wet the tip of his finger noiselessly and made a hole in the paper and applied an eye to it. Every visit to the house would have thus involved the mending of the window-pane. On the other hand, when the foreigner put on Chinese dress, he was like an ordinary Chinaman and not worth looking at.
6. Acting as Master of Feng-shui. Shortly after this a great calamity befell the Empire. The Emperor Tung Chih died. According to the custom of the country, in token of deep mourning, no
SETTLING IN CH'ING-CHOW FU 81
one was to shave his head. It was a strange sight to see a whole community thus unshaven. Having put on Chinese costume, I adopted the same custom, and remained unshaven like the rest.
At that time I was studying a book by Dr. Eitel on " Feng-shui " (the spirits of wind and water). This Chinese superstition has immense influence over the people. Neither railways nor telegraphs could be con- structed, as it was believed they would greatly interfere with the feng-shui of different places. People could not build a wall nor choose a cemetery, dig a grave nor change the course of a river or road without seriously affecting the feng-shui of the place. For instance, if the graveyard or road or streams on the land of a family that had produced eminent scholars and officials were interfered with, it was believed that the family would produce no more scholars nor officials, but be doomed to obscurity and poverty and even sterility.
One day the Treasurer said he wanted to select a piece of ground as a burial-place and would have to consult feng-shui professors. He asked me to go out to his native village in the country and select a site for the burying-ground. When the day arrived, we started walking together, as the distance was not great. On the way through the street of the town he bought tea and cakes. When we arrived at the farm, the water was boiled and we had refreshments, and then we went forth to look at the land. Having surveyed the prospect, I selected a likely place, and said, "If we foreigners wished to choose a place with good feng-shui, we would select such a spot as this." He placed bricks on the ground to mark the site, and we returned to the city, well pleased with the day's work.
7. How 1 Got a House.
After a month or so of daily intercourse with me at the inn, he said one day : " You are a busy man and should not be subject to constant interruptions from any idler that chooses to come to the inn. Why do you not get a house of your own? "
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I replied : "I would be very glad to have a house of my own, but I cannot rent one without some one guaranteeing me as an honest, peaceable man and becoming security for me. I am a foreigner. No one knows me. People think foreigners are all bad."
He answered, " Oh, is that your only reason? " And no more was said about the matter.
Next day, however, he told me of a house which I could get, and he was willing to become security for me. So 1 went with him to see the house. It was adjoining the Yamen of the city magistrate. A rent of nine dollars (about thirty shilHngs) a month was asked for it. In three days I took possession of it in perfect peace .
My house was built round a little courtyard facing south, about twenty yards long and ten yards broad. My landlord was fond of flowers, and he kept the yard well filled with plants in pot and with flowering shrubs, which he tended daily. On the north side were the chief apartments, which I occupied. They were three rooms, the central and largest one serving as a meeting-house at first. The side room, towards the west, was fitted with a stone floor, with flues under it, and a fire to heat it could be lit from the outside. This I found most comfortable in winter. I made it my bedroom and study, and no other stove was needed. The floors of the other rooms were of clay or mud. Behind the chief apartments was an orchard of about half an acre in size, filled with mulberry -trees, the leaves of which were used to feed silkworms. The rent for the house and grounds, together with a little furniture, cost me about four and a half Mexican dollars a moon, about £6 a year. (China still counts her time in moons, and not in months.) I paid nothing to the landlord for being my gardener. It was a labour of love with him.
My food was very simple. Breakfast consisted of millet gruel, much like oatmeal gruel, which my servant obtained outside in the street. It was usually covered with a thick layer of brown sugar, which in winter kept the gruel underneath warm for an hour. A basinful
SETTLING IN CH'ING-CHOW FU 83
of this cost five cash. I usually took with it a millet pancake, as thin as a sheet of paper, about the size of a Welsh cheese in circumference. This cost only three cash. But I was extravagant in one thing : I always used foreign butter with the pancake. My breakfast, including tea, never cost me more than ten cash, about a halfpenny at the current rate of exchange. My midday meal was also bought on the street by my servant. It consisted of four rice dumplings, each wrapped in a broad leaf, sold by hawkers in the street, and altogether cost less than a penny.
My evening meal was luxurious. Instead of taking it at home I usually went to a restaurant. There I would order one evening chi-p'ien (a course of the white meat of a chicken boiled into soup and nicely flavoured), and the next evening ii-p'ien (a dish of good fish with well -flavoured soup). After this meat or fish course I would order four little steamed loaves of bread, the size and shape of a small glass tumbler. With these I drank as much native tea as 1 liked, and the whole meal cost the extravagant sum of not more than one hundred and twenty cash, or sixpence.
In winter I used to begin my evening meal with two ounces of hot yellow rice-wine, costing about six cash, which in a few minutes would cause my cold feet to tingle with a delightful glow.
After dining I would enter into conversation with other visitors in order to practise my Chinese and to learn the news of the day.
By way of change I used to go to a Mohammedan restaurant, which had the reputation of being cleaner than the usual Chinese eating-house. There they served me with roast beef or roast mutton, deliciously flavoured.
During the time of the great famine in Shansi cook- ing was reduced to its simplest elements. No meat or vegetable of any kind was to be got. There was an excellent substitute, however, in what the natives called gu p'i (orange-peel). On arrival at an inn at noon or night all that was necessary was to order this dish. The innkeeper would then take some flour, add
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water, knead it into dough, and flatten it out into a large pancake. Then he would take the thin dough between his thumb and finger, snap it off piece by piece, and throw it into a pot of boiling water. After a few minutes these snippets were sufficiently cooked to be ladled into a basin, with some water which made the soup. Into the basin were then added a few drops of vinegar and a pinch of salt. The " orange-peel " was then ready for consumption. It was always most wholesome and very quickly made.
8. ANTI -FOREIGN EX-MAGISTRATE.
A retired ex -magistrate who lived in the city and had a violent prejudice against foreigners called on the superintendent of police, who was my landlord, and rated him soundly for daring to rent his house to a foreign devil. Now, this superintendent was a very smart man, more than equal to the occasion. He replied that the Tao-tai (who ruled over three prefectures, of which Ch'ing-chow fu was one) had lately issued a proclamation warning the people generally not to abuse foreigners and stir up international complications. What could he do ? If he refused to rent his house to the foreigner, he would get into trouble with the Tao-tai. And there was the Prefectural Treasurer to reckon with. He had become security for the foreigner.
The ex -magistrate was nonplussed. Very angry in failing to carry his point with the superinten- dent, his former subordinate, he went to the city magistrate, and complained to him that wherever foreigners went they caused trouble, and begged him not to let me remain in the city. The magistrate replied that inasmuch as his superior, the Prefect, who ruled ten counties, lived in the city, he had better interview him, and if he ordered it the magistrate could take action.
So the ex -magistrate next interviewed the Prefect, a Manchu. But the answer he received was : " There are many foreigners living in Peking, and there is no trouble there. I hear that this man gives away medicine and does a lot of good to the poor. Therefore it
SETTLING IN CH'ING-CHOW FU 85
would be a pity to make trouble without cause. If, however, you hear of him doing any wrong, let me know, and I shall attend to the matter."
In China nothing is done in secret. The whole city soon knew of the discomfiture of the ex -magistrate, and none were sorry that his fussiness had been checked by the officials in authority. After this no one of a less rank dared interfere with me, and I was allowed to live in peace.
Once again the ex -magistrate tried to stir up trouble against me. During the famine -time I established an orphanage for children whose parents had died of starva- tion. One day one of my writers, a Chinese B.A., was going along the streets with a child whom he was taking to the orphanage. He met this ex -magistrate, who said to him, " Do you mean to say that you, a scholar, are assisting the foreigner to kidnap children?"
This was more than my writer could stand, and he retorted, " Who dares to say that 1 am kidnapping children?" And he gave the ex -official such a piece of his mind there and then in the middle of the street that all the onlookers were lost in astonishment.
The ex -magistrate was furious at being thus publicly insulted, and went straight to the Prefect to report that we were kidnapping children. My landlord, the super- intendent of police, who had been friendly to me from the first, told me of the affair. In order to nip the trouble in the bud, I wrote to the Prefect complain- ing that there were mischief-makers trying to stir up public opinion against me, and begged him to put a check on these evildoers.
Next morning a proclamation from the Prefect appeared on the city wall, saying that any one who took charge of orphans whose parents had died of famine was a public benefactor, to whom all the people should be grateful, and any evil-minded men found circulating false reports would be severely dealt with. Thus the final attempt of the ex -magistrate against me failed, and public opinion sided against him in favour of the orphanage.
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9. Study of Native Religious Books.
Having settled in my own house, I was able to go on with my studies without interruption. Previous to this 1 had studied the Confucian Classics translated by Dr. Legge. I now began on popular religious books which were used by the devout sects. The most important of these was the " King Shin Lu " (" Record of Devout Faith "), a collection of the most popular Confucian and Taoist tracts in the language. On inquiry after the chief book on Buddhism, I was told of the " Diamond Classic," and a Chinese friend presented me with a beautiful little copy in two volumes, all written by hand. It was so neatly got up and the calligraphy so beautiful that I thought I could not do better than make it my copybook. So I spent about an hour every day studying and copying the Classics. After each section of the text followed a short explanation of terms.
This practice, together with the study of " King Shin Lu," gave a vocabulary of religious terms that was intelligible to the Chinese, differing in many respects from that adopted in the translation of the Bible. After absorbing the religious thought, as well as the vocabu- lary, of these books, 1 prepared a catechism in Chinese, avoiding foreign names as much as possible, as the Chinese hated foreign things, and adopting our Lord's method of appeals to conscience rather than appealing to an authority the Chinese did not recognize. I translated " The Philosophy of the Plan of Salvation " at this time, a Religious Tract Society book, also the first part of Jeremy Taylor's " Holy Living " and Francis de Sales's " Devout Life."
10. Intercourse with Mohammedans.
Another epoch-making step in my life was taken at this time. From Edward Irving's remarkable missionary sermon I had learned that the right method was to visit the leaders of thought. Now, there were in Ch'ing- chow fu two Mohammedan mosques, belonging to different sects of the faith of Islam. There was also
SETTLING IN CH'ING-CHOW FU 87
a theological college for the training of Mohammedan teachers, and in the country round were scores of mosques, with pastors over each.
I sent a messenger to the chief Mullah of the leading Mohammedan mosque at Ch'ing-chow fu, asking if I might call on him. He sent a very civil reply, appoint- ing a certain day and hour. At the time fixed I called, and found he had invited the professors of the college and the leading teachers of the country mosques to be present on the occasion. I was received by the chief, who, after introducing me to the chancel, placed me in the seat of honour there. Biscuits were laid out on the table before me, and he made tea with his own hand. While we drank tea general remarks were made about Arabia, Egypt, Europe, how 1 came to China round Africa, and such topics. The good gentleman then began a very carefully prepared sermon, lasting for about twenty minutes, on the importance and value of the Mohammedan faith, quoting frequently many wonderful miracles as proofs of the Divine origin of the religion. After referring with respect to the patriarchs and prophets amongst the Jews, and also to Christ and His Apostles, he finished by dwelling on the higher merits of Mohammed.
On the wall beside him hung a diagram of what might be called a religious genealogical tree, beginning with Adam and branching off with the names of the noted patriarchs, prophets, and apostles ; but the top- most branch of all bore an apple, representing Mohammed .
I could not but admire the great earnestness with which my host spoke and the great care with which he had arranged his arguments. When he finished I thanked him for all his kind attention, and said that I would think over all he had said and that on some future occasion we would have further talk on the matter. So saying, I took leave of them all.
When I returned home and thought over the evidence of Islam put forward by the pastor, I realized that the evidence with which 1 was then prepared to advocate
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Christianity would be useless to bring forward to the Mohammedans. For every prophecy I could quote they would match it with a similar one of their own, and for every miracle I could mention they could produce a hundred. Thus if ever I was able to win Moham- medans over to Christianity it would be necessary for me to adopt a different line of argument altogether. I therefore began to study every book I had on Moham- medanism, together with Sale's and Rodwell's transla- tions of the Koran. I examined the views of Carlyle and others, who regarded Mohammedanism as not unlike a Unitarian form of Christianity and who considered it had rendered great service in the uplifting of the Arabs from idolatry and superstition to the monotheism taught by the Jews and Christians.
I then prepared an address to deliver to the head pastor in support of the Christian faith. The Principal and about a dozen students of the theological college took advantage of a holiday to call on me. The Prin- cipal on this day had also prepared a sermon, which, after the preliminary civilities, he proceeded to deliver. Much of it was of the same nature as that given by the chief pastor. At the close 'I thanked him, and asked if he would like to hear what I had to say on Christianity. He expressed his wish to listen, and I delivered my address, during which the students more than once broke out into remarks of appreciation. Perhaps 1 went too far in my home thrusts, but certain it was that the Principal never brought his students again to see me, lest I should undermine their faith. Still, there was one old pastor who often came alone to visit me. In his case 1 had to make another new departure in tactics, which, though very bold, proved a success.
Whenever he came he was full of his faith, and used to quote both Arabian and Persian authorities in support of his views in opposition to mine. One day I said to him, " Never quote these authorities again." In astonishment he asked, "Why not?" To which I replied : " They were men more learned, it is true,
SETTLING IN CH'ING-CHOW FU 89
than the people of their day, but their knowledge is surpassed to-day. I have travelled through countries they never knew, and am intimate with the minute details of the life, customs, manners and thought of various races, and have studied their various systems of religion."
He was not taken aback by this, but added, " They wrote, however, under the guidance of the Spirit of God, which cannot err."
I replied : " And I, too, write under the guidance of God, and I would not have been here in China to- day but that the Spirit of God sent me here, a later Teacher than any you have in Islam."
After a silence he rose and made a deep obeisance to me, saying solemnly, " I grieve that I have not listened to the messenger of God."
On leaving he requested that he might often come and sit quietly in my room while I worked, for he found himself always strengthened after his visits to me. And so he frequently came to see me as long as I remained in Ch'ing-chow fu. He was one of those devout souls whose delight it was to seek God.
1 1 . Visit to Leader of Religious Sect.
My next move was to reach the head of one of the most popular native sects in the district, who lived some twenty miles off in the mountains. I sent two messengers to visit him and ask him to call on me when he came into the city. He replied that he rarely came to Ch'ing- chow fu, but that if I went his way he would be very glad to see me at his house. I therefore made a special journey to see him.
I determined to carry out on this trip the instructions of our Lord to His disciples in the tenth chapter of Matthew. It was in the month of July, and 1 made the journey on foot.
On arrival at my destination I met with one of the most hostile receptions I ever received, not from my host but from one of his evangelists, a most fanatical character, who happened to be staying over the night in the same house. During the evening meal, and after,
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far into the night, he continued denouncing the Christian religion as being cruel and inhuman. His chief proof of its inhumanity lay in the works of a medical mis- sionary, in which there were illustrations of human anatomy and surgery. Ignorant of the humane object of surgery, he regarded operations as proof of the cruelty of Christians. He was so virulent in his attack on Christianity that he refused to listen to any word of explanation. I saw it was useless to attempt any reasonable conversation .
Next morning I called my host aside, and told him that God had sent me from the other side of the world with a special message to him and to men like him who were among the best people on earth, but after what had passed the night before I judged he was not prepared to receive it, and I therefore proposed to go my way at once. Immediately upon hearing this he apologized for the conduct of his evangelist, who, he said, would be leaving at once, and begged me to remain another day so that I might explain my message. I did so, and we had a hallowed time together, when we truly felt that God was present with us.
On taking my leave the following day to visit others who were seeking after the highest truth my host sent one of his servants to show me the way over the moun- tains and put me on the main road in the direction I wished to go. Bidding farewell to this man, I told him that in showing me the way and thus helping to bring together men who sought after the highest he was co-operating with God.
12. Kindness of Country People.
I travelled alone on my way until it was getting near noon. The sun was high, and the heat was great. In spite of the Chinese straw hat on my head, with a brim almost as large as a parasol, I was very hot, and seeing a big tree by the roadside with thick branches, and abundance of leaves fluttering in the breeze, I sat down in its shade to cool myself. Presently, labourers passed by with hoes on their shoulders on their way
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from the fields to their noonday meal, and I greeted them one by one. Then I overheard two of them who had just passed saying, " Think of that. He has passed him without a word ! " Scarcely had they spoken, when I saw a man ahead of them wheel round and come back to me. He asked where I was going, and when he heard, he said : " You cannot possibly go there now. There is a great flood in the river. Come with me and wait till the water subsides."
1 gladly went with him to the village, where he took me to a school, usually one of the best buildings in a hamlet. There I was given my dinner with the school- master, and I remained talking until about five o'clock, when a man came in to say that the river was less swollen and could be crossed.
Half a dozen men out of the village came with me to the river, which was about a hundred yards wide, with a powerful current. There was no bridge, and the only way was to strip ourselves and ford it. One man made my clothes into a bundle, which he carried on his head, and led the way side by side with a second man. I had a man on each side of me, and two more followed close behind. As we proceeded, the river became deeper and deeper, till we were breast high in the water. The current was so strong that I felt big stones rolling under my feet. Whenever I stumbled the men around me at once steadied me until we safely reached the farther side. When I saw how dangerous the river had been, and that I would probably have been drowned had I attempted to ford it alone, I was greatly moved by the kindness of all these men to me, a perfect stranger, and told them; I was utterly at a loss how to thank them for their goodness.
" Oh," they cried, " do not talk like that. Do you not remember us? We know you. At New Year time we visited a famous temple near Ch'ing-chow fu to worship there. Hearing of the foreigner in the city, we called at the inn where you were staying. You received us courteously, answered all our questions, and gave us tea. This is the first opportunity we have
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had of returning your kindness." They then pointed out the way I was to go for my next appointment, and we parted, wishing each other well.
I reached my destination in another mountain village before the sun set. The friend I purposed to see was an intelligent man, who had often called on me in Ch'ing- chow fu, and had held long conversations with me. He gave me a most hearty welcome, and, as in the other village, took me to the school and introduced me to the teacher, a fine old man of about sixty years of age. It was not a primary school, but an advanced one with about twenty students, ranging from seventeen to twenty- five years of age. To these I was introduced.
As it was hot, they decided to have their evening meal out in the open courtyard. There we had a most happy time, discussing many points of contrast between the East and West. After supper the students came round me, each bringing a fan, and asking me to write some- thing on it. This is a very general custom in China, and people are very proud of showing the handwriting of noted personag'es on their fans. I made a bargain with the students, that if I wrote in English on one side of their fans, they would write the translations in Chinese on the other side. So I wrote a verse of a hymn on each fan. Thus we became friendly, and they asked me to visit them again, and tell them more about the new doctrine referred to in the hymns. On parting, I was told I would pass through a market town where one of their annual Taoist festivals was to be held.
13. Midnight Gathering of Women at Taoist Temple.
When I arrived at the town, I called on an inn- keeper who had visited me more than once in Ch'ing- chow fu. He made me very welcome, and gave me particulars about the religious gathering. It was a remarkable one, attended, not by men, but by women, and these for the most part of forty years of age and upwards. They were there chiefly to pray for a good harvest, but some had come to petition for sons.
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During the day numberless parties of women, some in twos and threes, some half a dozen in number, some a dozen together, arrived in the town, and hearing of a foreigner in the place, were curious to see me. The little inn all day long was filled with women coming in turns, and putting all sorts of questions to me about farming and harvest in my country, about parents and children, and about religion, which gave me opportunities of explaining Christianity.
The chief temple, where the service was to be held, was in charge of a Taoist priest, whose permission I asked to watch the ceremony. This took place at mid- night. Each woman brought him her thanksgiving, mostly in the form of bags of millet and in kind. He wrote down the names of all the donors, with the quantities they brought, on two long sheets of yellow paper. One of these sheets was pasted on the temple walls outside, so that passers-by could see the lists of donations. The other was laid aside till midnight, when it was burnt before the chief image of the temple, so that the names could ascend on high. During the service the priest burnt incense, and chanted prayers, but not a word of teaching or exhortation was given, so that I felt that the people were like sheep without a shepherd. The service over, some of the women retired to their lodgings in the town, others lay down in the temple courtyards, whilst the most devout continued their prayers until sleep overtook them.
The following day all departed in groups to their respective homes, and I returned to Ch'ing-chow fu, having found the devout always ready to welcome and hear me, and give me every hospitality, thus proving the soundness of the principles laid down by our Lord in the tenth chapter of St. Matthew.
14. Visit to Hermit.
About this time I visited a cave in the mountains where lived a Taoist hermit, searching after true religion. I arrived at the nearest village one evening, and at the inn I learned more about the hermit, and was told how
94 FORTY-FIVE YEARS IN CHINA
to reach the cave. At dawn of day next morning I found my way there, and began to talk to him about rehgion. He then told me that after I had visited the head of the native sects in these mountains, the latter had called together his disciples from the various villages and had described my visit. The hermit, having gone with the other disciples, had received books that I had left with the leader, which he was now carefully studying. Having realized who I was, he was very respectful, and insisted on my sharing his breakfast. It consisted mainly of millet gruel, which is as whole- some a diet as oatmeal porridge. Then he told me of the deepest truths which he was studying in Taoism, and I endeavoured to point out to him that Christi- anity explained those problems of his more fully and clearly.
Two or three years after there were many little Christian churches in the villages, the result of the inhabitants sending for Christian teachers from our station at Ch'ing-chow fu,
15. First Converts.
In order to meet the need of the native sects, I collected all the catechisms in English and Welsh that I could lay hands on, and out of these selected what was best, adding questions and answers that would appeal to the consciences of the Chinese. I also made use of the most popular native sheet tracts, leaving out what was idolatrous, and inserting clauses on the worship of the one true God.
Whilst I was preparing the new 'Catechism, a devout man, by trade a weaver of silk bands and cord, used to visit me and talk about religion. He begged for a copy of the catechism to read and commit to memory, it being a custom amongst the devout Chinese to commit sacred portions to memory. He took it home with great joy and read it every day, learning it page by page. One day, while he was thus engaged, his wife began weeping bitterly. He asked what was distressing her.
SETTLING IN CH'ING-CHOW FU 95
" You are going to heaven, and I shall be left behind," she replied, weeping still more bitterly.
" But you can also learn about this religion and get to heaven," he said.
" No, how can I learn the book when I cannot read a single character?" she cried.
" I will teach you."
" But I am so stupid. I cannot learn the characters."
" If you learn only one character a day, it will not be difficult. In ten days you will know ten characters, in one hundred days one hundred characters. It will not be long before you know all the characters in the book, if you persevere."
" I will persevere," she repUed, " if you will teach me."
So they learnt the catechism together.
Besides the catechism' I had made a selection of about thirty hymns, which would appeal to the non- Christians without need of explanation. These the weaver and his wife learnt by heart when they had finished the catechism. Their two children, a boy of seven and a girl of five, hearing them reciting the hymns every day, learnt them even more quickly than their parents. When they had committed all to memory, the weaver and his wife begged for baptism. Now, as baptism by immersion was a most unusual rite in China, I did not know how the non- Christians would regard it, so I took the two outside the West Gate of Ch'ing-chow fu, where there was a river of beautifully clear water, and no houses but a Buddhist temple near. I called on the priest and explained to him the meaning of the ceremony, asking if he would lend a room or two in the temple for our use. He readily consented, and I took the couple out in the river and baptized them, after which we changed our garments in the temple.
At the end of 1875 I had occasion to go to Chefoo on business. I had been ten months in the interior, having seen foreigners only twice. By that time only three men had become Christians, one the weaver, the second my teacher. Early the next year, however, I
96 FORTY-FIVE YEARS IN CHINA
had some fifteen to baptize.' For this occasion, I had a baptistery made in my own courtyard, and to prevent any evil reports spreading amongst the non- Christians about this unusual rite, I asked my old friend the Treasurer of the Prefecture if he would like to be present. He consented, and his presence there was sufficient guarantee to the public outside that everything done was right and proper.
' According to statistics at the end of 1876 we had in all 62 com- municants, of whom over 40 belonged to the Church in Chefoo. (See Conference Records, 1877.)
CHAPTER IV FAMINE RELIEF IN SHANTUNG
I. Failure of Crops.
The south of China is often subject to floods, while the north is subject to drought owing to the rain having been already precipitated in the south. The years 1876-8 were in North China almost rainless. More than ten provinces were said to be suffering from drought at this time, the chief centre of distress being the southern half of Shansi province, with a radius of nearly a thousand miles. The suffering in all the northern provinces was so terrible that it was said that in all history, even in that of China, the distress had never been equalled. It struck terror into the hearts of all.
In the spring of 1876, when the rain did not come after the farmers had sown their crops, the officials and people were much distressed and visited the various temples praying for it. The city magistrate in Ch'ing- chow fu issued a proclamation calling on the people to fast from eating any meat, especially beef, and on a certain day he put chains round his own neck, wrists, and feet, and walked through the city to the chief temple to pray for rain. This was an unusual sight, as Chinese officials always ride in chairs. Immense crowds of country people followed in his train, wearing chaplets of willow twigs and leaves. Whilst the magistrate pros- trated himself before the idols in the temple, the people prostrated themselves in the courtyards outside, most importunately petitioning for rain.
2. Posters Exhorting People to Pray to God. While they were all thus praying to the idols every- where I prepared some yellow placards with only a few
7 97
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words on each, saying that if the people wanted rain, the best way was to turn from dead idols to the living God and pray unto Him and obey His laws and con- ditions of life. I then rode on horseback and visited the eleven county towns of the prefecture of Ch'ing-chow fu and pasted the placards on the city gates. The result was very striking. On going into each town, I would stay for refreshment at one of the principal inns. Before I had finished my meal, deputations of elderly men would come to the inn, go down on their knees, and beg me to tell them how to worship and pray to the living God. Later on some women with tiny feet travelled some twenty miles over the mountains to visit me in Ch'ing-chow fu to inquire about the same object. Years after these became the nucleus of a Christian Church in those mountains.
3. Disturbances owing to Famine.
On the ninth day of the fifth moon I wrote in my diary : " No less than nineteen cases of robbery reported. Even a boy of twelve stabbed a man who remonstrated against his robbing."
At the end of May, as there was still no rain, the people became very alarmed and disorderly.
A band of women marched to a rich man's house, took possession of it, cooked a meal there, and then marched to the next house for the next meal. Men, seeing the success of this plan, organized a band of five hundred, pillaging from village to village. Hearing of these disorders, the Governor of the Province deprived the Ch'ing-chow fu magistrate and prefect of their buttons, and sent word that if they could not keep order they would be replaced by better men. Then the magistrate, driven to desperation, had men beheaded or exposed in wooden cases in which they could neither stand upright nor sit, and died slowly of starvation. The place of execution was adjoining my back court. After these terrible punishments, which took place daily, order was restored and the officials regained their buttons.
The poor people, however, if not robbed by their
FAMINE RELIEF IN SHANTUNG 99
neighbours, had lo endure the pangs of hunger. Visiting a village on the tenth day of the fifth moon, I found a number of little boys carrying baskets full of thistles and of vegetables, which they had gathered in the fields, and some leaves they had stripped from the trees. They sat down under a tree near the inn, where I was having some cakes for my midday meal, and began to eat their leaves. 1 asked if they would not exchange some of their food for mine. They were overjoyed to get ia. taste of flour. I noticed one of them with a very red face, so swollen that his eyes were almost buried. On asking the reason of his swollen face, 1 was told that he had eaten the leaves of the " hwai " tree, which to some are poisonous, while others find them harmless.
On the same day a minor military officer was beheaded for violent robbery. On the eleventh day of the fifth moon a young man of thirty was put in a cage. Finding that the price of grain was so high, the Governor issued a proclamation that the officials in the famine-stricken districts were to remove the taxes on the import of grain and buy grain from Kiangsu and Manchuria in large quantities and sell it to the people under cost price, the Government bearing the expense of the difference.
1 had an interview at this time with the Prefect of Ch'ing-chow fu and suggested that the Government in Peking should be memorialized to make arrangements with Korea and Japan for free trade in cereals and thus lower the price.
In the district of Lo-ngan there lived a man named Chiu who, towards the end of the Taiping rebellion in the 'sixties, had been chosen head of forty villages to resist the rebels. These villages now wanted Chiu to head a rebellion against the Government, as the people were perishing for want of food. He refused and fled to Ch'ing-chow fu. The villagers were so incensed at his action that they went to his house and killed all his family, six in number.
A few days before this a young woman of about twenty years of age arrived in the city, carrying her baby, four months old, and sat all day in front of the Yamen
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with a wisp of straw round the child's body to mark that it was for sale. My diary of that time furnishes the following particulars : —
June T.'jth. — " This morning another woman is reported to have had a severe struggle with herself in crossing a river on the way to the city. She thought that if she threw her child into the river, she herself might survive. But her maternal instinct triumphed and she brought the baby into the city and is now sitting in the street hoping some one will have pity on them both."
4. Asked to Head a Rebellion.
On June 30th two scholars, both Sui-ts'ai (B.A. degree) men, between thirty and forty years of age, one from Shiukwang, the other from the north of Itu, came to see me, but as I was too busy, they called the next day by appointment. On entering, they prostrated them- selves and asked to be accepted as my disciples. After some talk I discovered they were a deputation from a number of people who desired me to head a rebellion as the authorities were not providing food for the perishing people. They had already rented a house, and a large number of men were ready to execute my commands. I told the deputation that I could not dream of any such action, as it vi^ould only increase the suffering of the people. Once begun, no one knew where such a revolt would end, but it would certainly entail great bloodshed. 1 advised them to devise constructive instead of destructive methods for improving the condition of the people.
July 2nd {Sunday). — " The people have been circulat- ing'reports that a certain chin-tze (a Doctor of Literature) had risen from the dead, prophesying that this year one- third of the people will die. If one man tells it to ten, and each one of these tells the news to other ten, who will in their turn inform other ten, in a very short time the whole land will be aware of their danger, I took advan- tage of this rumour to preach on the attitude of Abraham towards Sodom and that of Jonah towards Nineveh, and exhorted my hearers to repent of their sins and turn to
FAMINE RELIEF IN SHANTUNG 101
God, so that He might have pity on them. The mandarins do not realize that it is their own sin of ignorance which causes the people to perish. A woman stood at my door and seeing my landlord, sat down exhausted with her baby in her arms and asked him to pluck a few leaves from a tree near by. He did so, and she ate them eagerly, saying, * Now I feel better,' It is most pathetic to see the quiet patience on the pale faces of the starving. At the sight of so much distress I could not help but distribute something in relief every few days."
5. Methods of Distributing Money.
It was difficult to devise a satisfactory way of giving money to all and at the same time ensuring that the same applicant did not return for more. One plan which occurred to me was to stand at the end of a long narrow lane in the poorest quarter of the city, and have the applicants pass me in a long queue. As each was given a small dole of money, I marked his dirty palm with aniline ink, knowing it was not easily rubbed off. After sufficient time had elapsed for some to run round to the other end of the lane and take up new positions in the queue, when suspiciously clean palms were proffered, we guessed that the owners must have received their doles before and had vigorously scoured the ink off. We therefore continued distributing to the remaining few who had dirty palms.
Another man attempted to give relief by throwing cash from the city walls to the poor outside. A mere scramble resulted.
In my diary I find also these two sentences: " The Prefect, who ruled eleven counties, memorialized the Throne to report that seven counties were suffering from famine." " Mr. Wang, principal of the prefectural college, spent two days in praying to the good Ching Hwang for rain."
At the beginning of July a report came that in a place called Yei Yuen, in the adjoining county of Ling Ku, a man who possessed five hundred mow of land wished to
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sell his property so as to get money for food. But he could get no higher offer than two dollars and a half a mow for it, though the land was worth from fifty to a hundred dollars per mow. He was so distressed at this low price, that he put some arsenic in the food which he and his family were about to take, and they ended their troubles by dying together.
I felt that I could not desert the place to save myself, nor could I keep any money while the poor, to whom God had sent me, were starving. But there was a great difficulty attending the giving of any private relief. For example, the owner of a grain shop at one time decided to give away all the grain in his possession. Thousands gathered, and in the crush for dear life one little girl was killed and people were trampled on, and many only escaped with broken bones. After this the magistrate issued a proclamation forbidding any private distribution again, and the starving people went in despair about the streets.
July yd. — " In the course of our morning worship I read the passage about our Lord feeding the multi- tudes, where He made them sit down. ,Like a flash of lightning, the secret of sitting down was revealed. A sitting crowd cannot crush. I called a dozen men to bid the starving crowd go to a large threshing floor opposite my house, and bid them sit down in rows. Men as well as women with babies in their arms sat down., I appeared and told them that I had very little money, but that all I had I would gladly give if they would remain sitting quietly. I would only distribute a small sum at first, and then a second and a third. The men commenced their distribution and not a soul stirred from his place. They were as quiet as if at a Communion Service. The magistrate's Yamen was across the street, and in a few minutes several yamen runners and one or two secretaries looked on the wonderfully quiet scene with amazement. When the last cash and the last dole had been given, I told them that I had no more, and that even the Government could not save them, unless there came heavy rain. For that we must pray to God. I called on them all to kneel down and I would pray
FAMINE RELIEF IN SHANTUNG 103
to God to look down in pity on them. So thousands of poor sufferers received the little help with gratitude and joined in prayer as far as they knew."
6. Second Request to Head Rebellion.
On the evening of July 3rd a man from Feng Hwang Tien, about eight miles east of Ch'ing-chow fu, called on me to say that the people there were ready to rise in rebellion if I would go back with him and lead them. I replied that I could not consider such an action. He continued to press me, and I was becoming very uneasy about the dangerous conversation, when a carter came in. I engaged a cart from him to start for Chi -nan fu next day, and told my visitor that on arrival there I would interview the Governor and try to induce him to render more service to the people. Before the man left, my boy came in to say that a number of people had gathered outside waiting for this man to take me with him. He went away saying he would visit me again on my return from Chi -nan fu. I gave him a large poster which I had been distributing through the city in the afternoon, consisting of the Lord's Prayer with explanations and exhortations.
Owing to the frequent small donations I was distri- buting to the needy, some women early next morning began to make comparisons between my attitude and that of the officials, saying" that the latter cared nothing for the poor. Realizing that if such talk were continued the officials would believe any reports about my stirring rebellion, I decided to leave the city at once. Before starting I paid my landlord three months' rent in advance. The monthly rent was less than five Mexican dollars.
About fifty li from Ch'ing-chow fu 1 discovered a boy of about eleven years of age sitting on the back of my cart. His father was a tailor in Ch'ing-chow fu, who had a brother, also a tailor, in Chi -nan fu, to whom the boy wished to go. Fearing that mischievous people might circulate rumours that I had kidnapped the boy, I engaged a man to take him back to his father.
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7. Proposals to Governor to Avert Future
Famine.
The Governor of Chi -nan fu was Ting Pao Ch'en, a native of Kweichow. On July 7th I arrived in his city and had an interview with him. He was a strong man, and noted as having been one of the leading officials who suppressed the Taiping rebellion. The rebels had already got possession of thirteen of the eighteen provinces of China, when Ting opposed them with the troops and prevented them from marching on to Peking. I suggested to him that arrangements should be made to import grain from Korea and Japan as well as from Manchuria, and that railways and mines should be opened to give employment to the poor. He listened very sympathetically, and said he was in favour of such reforms being carried out. But unfortunately for Shantung, he was soon promoted to the Viceroyalty of Szechuen and had no further opportunity of benefiting Shantung. His son, Ting T'i Ch'angi, I met afterwards as Taotai in Shansi, and as I had known the father, the son continued friendly to me in Taiyuenfu. He was afterwards promoted to be one of the leading provincial mandarins in Canton.
On returning to Ch'ing-chow fu I found that evil- minded persons had spread a report that I had carried a boy off to Chi -nan fu. I at once saw the tailor, the boy's father, and took him with me to the yamen, where in the presence of the magistrate's men-shang (secretary), and other clerks of the Yamen, besides a score of underlings, he testified that his son had run from home and had followed my cart, but that I had sent him back, that the parents were most grateful for my action, and that the boy was now at home.
8. Donations from Chefoo.
On the eleventh day of the sixth moon I took a small sum that had been collected by my friend Dr. Carmichael in Chefoo, on behalf of the famine-stricken people, and gave it to the Chi-hsien (city magistrate)
FAMINE RELIEF IN SHANTUNG 105
to distribute, saying that I ihoped he would not despise the smallness of the gift. He seemed very pleased, and said he would let the people know from whence the money came. I told him that the information was unnecessary, as all I desired was that some of the poor should be rescued from starvation. At the time I wrote: " The price of the land is reduced to one-third of what it was, and even then it is difficult to find a purchaser. People sell their vessels of copper and zinc for one-third of their value. The pawnshops in the spring gave five hundred cash for clothing, later the price was reduced to four hundred, then three hundred, and now only one hundred cash is given for the same articles. Indeed, they want to refuse receiving them, but the officials will not permit it, so the things are exchanged at only nominal prices,
" This evening two men were beheaded and one was put in the cage."
9. Increase of Inquiries.
Meanwhile, not only were the small posters displayed directing the people to pray to God for rain, but the Christianized sheet-tracts were circulating far and wide, bringing from time to time numbers of devout persons to Ch'ing-chow fu to see me about religion.
The knowledge that I was distributing relief to the famine sufferers was a convincing proof to the multitude that my religion was good. To all inquirers I gave the catechism and hymn-books, but only on condition that they would commit them to memory. On returning to their homes, they would talk of their books to their neighbours, with the result that in a number of centres there were many inquirers. Each centre in time became the nucleus of a Church. When the leaders had committed the catechism and hymn-book to memory, they came to me for more literature.
By this time, I had, as I have already noted, translated part of Jeremy Taylor's " Holy Living." The first part dealt with the practice of the Presence of God, which induced the readers to turn direct to God for His inspira-
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tion and guidance, instead of relying solely on the foreign missionary for teaching and advice. I also made selections from the Psalms and passages of the New Testament for the leaders to commit to memory, so as to be ahead of their followers. In order that they might learn to pray, I ordered copies of the Church of England prayers, and instructed the leaders to use these in their worship for the time being.
As the inquirers increased rapidly in number, and I was the only foreign missionary, I invited the leaders from various villages far and near, some at a distance of forty miles, to come on stated occasions to me in Ch'ing-chow fu to recite their passages of Scripture and receive further instruction. It was most interesting to note the effect of certain portions of the New Testament on the inquirers. Those who had committed Ephesians to memory all became strong Calvinists, sure of their election to do g'reat work for God. Others who had committed the Gospel according to John to memory became lovable mystics .
The largest number of leaders who at one time came to stay a few days with me in Ch'ing-chow fu was sixty. I gave them empty rooms to lodge in, and they brought their bedding and food. Besides this gathering of men, I had another meeting of women leaders, to whom I gave instructions, and appointed portions to be committed to memory. In every centre there sprang up spontaneously Sunday Schools where the Christians taught the inquirers themselves and heard them recite the catechism and hymns, and where they met for worship together ; so that within a year there were over two thousand inquirers meeting regularly for worship at some scores of centres, north, south, east, and west.
ID. My Mission Policy Adopted by Dr. Nevius. Dr. Nevius, of the American Presbyterian Mission in Chefoo, used to make two long evangelistic tours into the interior of Shantung every year, one in the spring and one in the autumn. Ch'ing-chow fu, eight hundred li from Chefoo, was his farthest point, and he generally
FAMINE RELIEF IN SHANTUNG 107
stayed there with me for a day or two, when we talked together about our various mission methods.
I had noticed that the Chinese had a method of their own in carrying on education and the propagation of their religious doctrines. Their societies were self- supporting and self-managing. It occurred to me that the best way to make Christianity indigenous was to adopt Chinese methods of propagation. The main problem was to present Christianity in such a way that it would commend itself to the conscience of the Chinese as superior to anything they themselves possessed. I had already commenced this kind of work, with the result that several natives volunteered to carry on Christian work on these lines, when Dr. Nevius heard of it. He visited some of the stations with me to see the result of my method, and was so greatly struck with it that he decided to adopt it in the main as his new policy of mission work. In my house he wrote a number of pamphlets and regulations to develop the method, and; copied them out with my hectograph. He followed this ^ method most successfully for some years, and afterwards wrote a series of articles on the subject which first appeared in the Chinese Recorder, and were then published in pamphlet form. This pamphlet was circulated by some of the Mission Boards in America and England, and was known as "Dr. Nevius' Missionary Method," a method by which the natives were to take the lead rather than the foreign missionary. I was considerably interested when my own Missionary Society reprinted the pamphlet, and sent it out to me, not knowing that the method had really begun with me. It was only when the fundamental principle underlying it was lost sight of in future years that it ceased to prosper.
II. Incidents in Famine Relief. Having explained to the district magistrate that I had sufficient funds to distribute relief to some of the greater sufferers, it was my custom, before distributing relief, to send men to a number of villages to take down carefully the names of those in the greatest want,
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and give them tickets to receive relief. A day was then fixed for the distribution, when all ticket-holders were to come to a central spot. On one occasion this was a small market town. When we arrived, we found between double and treble the number of those who had received tickets assembled, pleading for relief, their mules, donkeys, and cows having been sold or eaten up. If we gave to them all, the relief afforded would be too small. But how was it possible to give only to those with tickets ? The crowd at the gates pressed on all sides. We tried in vain to reason with them. Their sense of hunger stifled all other considerations.
After attempting various plans for about two hours, I said to my assistants : "I will go outside the city, cross the river, and walk up the hill on the other side. Those who have no tickets will probably follow me. When we are a good distance away, then you can begin distributing to those whose names are on your register."
As I expected, those who had no tickets followed me begging for alms. I walked slowly away, so that even the women with small feet could keep up with me. When I reached the top of the hill on the other side of the river, I stopped, and the people began to fall on their knees around me, imploring me for money. I then told them a parable : —
" On a summer's day a traveller, who had become very hot and thirsty, begged at a house for a drink of cold water. The woman of the house gave him the little water that she had, and he drank it all. Before he had finished, another man, in like manner, very thirsty and warm, came in and clamoured for water. The woman replied, * I have no more in the house, but if you wait a little while^ I will go to the well and fetch you some more.' The relief money in hand to-day is only a small supply, and only sufficient to satisfy the wants of those who have tickets. I am grieved that you are in such dire distress. But if you will wait patiently, I will write to the foreigners at the coast about your sufferings, and when more money arrives I will gladly distribute it to you."
FAMINE RELIEF IN SHANTUNG 109
At this an elderly woman who had been kneel- ing close to me and listening very attentively suddenly rose and told the crowd I had been speaking to them in a parable. She repeated my words and explained my meaning very clearly. The crowd, instead of becoming angry, began to disperse, perfectly satisfied with the explanation and the reasonableness of my request. Meanwhile my helpers had been busy in the town. I did not go back at once, as I wished to give those in charge of the distribution ample time to finish their work. When I did return, I learned that the ticket -holders had been admitted by one gate and had left by another, and that there had been perfect order .
12. Subscriptions from Ports.
In the early summer of 1876 I had written to my friend the Rev. James Thomas, of the Union Church in Shanghai, describing the distressing conditions in Shan- tung, and suggesting that my account should be pub- lished in the foreign papers in Shanghai. 1 had already gathered orphans together, and I appealed for funds to help them, pointing out that four dollars would support one orphan for three months, while four hundred dollars would keep a hundred orphans for that