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Evangelist at the Gate: Robert Morrison's Viewson Mission

FUK-TSANG YING

The Journal of Ecclesiastical History / Volume 63 / Issue 02 / April 2012, pp 306 - 330DOI: 10.1017/S0022046910001107, Published online: 15 March 2012

Link to this article: http://journals.cambridge.org/abstract_S0022046910001107

How to cite this article:FUK-TSANG YING (2012). Evangelist at the Gate: Robert Morrison's Views onMission. The Journal of Ecclesiastical History, 63, pp 306-330 doi:10.1017/S0022046910001107

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Evangelist at the Gate : RobertMorrison’s Views on Mission

by FUK-TSANG YINGChinese University of Hong Kong

E-mail : [email protected]

The arrival of Robert Morrison in Macau on 4 September 1807 marked the beginning of the nineteenth-century Protestant missionary movement in China. The most familiar and important legacy of Morrisonis his translation of the Bible into Chinese and the compilation of A dictionary of the Chineselanguage. When Morrison concluded his work in 1832, only ten Chinese had been baptised. However,the true measure of his accomplishment is not to be sought in the harvest of souls, but in the foundationsthat he laid for future work. As a pioneer missionary in the nineteenth century, Morrison lived in an alien‘heathen ’ world for twenty-five years. How did he hold on to his evangelistic vision and passion in such anadverse and unfavourable environment ? This article aims to sketch Robert Morrison’s views on mission,focusing on the way in which he responded to traditional Chinese culture and religion and the huge politicalobstacles in early nineteenth-century China.

O n Tuesday 4 September 1832 Robert Morrison read the final proofsof a report co-signed by E. G. Bridgman that reviewed his missionin China. He recalled his missionary work with a joyful heart :

Twenty-five years have this day elapsed, since the first Protestant Missionary arrivedin China, alone, and in the midst of perfect strangers, – with but few friends, andwith many foes. Divine Providence, however, prepared a quiet residence for him;and, by the help of God, he has continued to the present time, and can now rejoice inwhat God has wrought.1

As Morrison wrote this, he must have recalled the day, twenty-five yearspreviously, on 12 May 1807 when, as a twenty-five-year-old, he boarded theTrident to China from New York. When the captain of the ship found out that

CR=Chinese Repository ; CWM=Church World Mission Archives ; EMS=The Evangelist andMiscellanea Sinica

1 Robert Morrison (comp. Eliza A. Morrison), Memoirs, London 1839, ii. 470.

Jnl of Ecclesiastical History, Vol. 63, No. 2, April 2012. f Cambridge University Press 2012 306doi:10.1017/S0022046910001107

he was a missionary to China, he asked him scornfully, ‘And so, Mr.Morrison, you really expect that you will make an impression on the idolatryof the great Chinese Empire? ’ Morrison answered with the assertion, ‘No,Sir, … I expect God will. ’2

The Trident reached the Portuguese colony of Macau on 4 September.Two days later, Morrison took a ship along the Pearl River to Guangzhou(then known in English as Canton). Under the ‘one-trading-port ’ policy ofthe Qing government, Guangzhou and Macau were the most importanttrading ports at that time, and many British and American merchants weredoing business there despite the many restrictions. These merchants wantedwestern governments to build up normal and equal diplomatic relations withthe Qing government in order to improve the business environment, thusallowing them to realise their dream of opening up China. As the firstmissionary of the London Missionary Society (LMS) to China, Morrison hada clear view of his objective. Although he had to join the East India Company(EIC) in 1809 to obtain legal permission to stay in Guangzhou, he neverforgot his identity as an evangelist. His greatest dream had always been tolead the Chinese to God. He lived in China for twenty-five years except forthe period when he returned to Britain on furlough in 1824–6, and from 1833published the occasional journal The Evangelist and Miscellanea Sinica in Macau,the name of which explicitly reveals his attachment to his ‘evangelist ’identity. Morrison died in Guangzhou on 1 August 1834, at which time theQing government was still maintaining its policy against foreign religions.Morrison was a pioneer of the modern western missionary movement in

China. William Milne and Walter H. Medhurst of the LMS had come to theEast in 1813 and 1817 respectively but, restricted by the policy againstforeigners, had worked mainly in Malacca and Batavia. The missionary workin Malacca was undertaken as part of the Ultra-Ganges Mission establishedby Morrison, and its main products were the establishment of the Anglo-Chinese College and the compilation and publication of Chinese religioustracts.3 For most of his years in China, Morrison stayed on the frontline inGuangzhou andMacau. Much of our knowledge of Morrison comes from hisChinese translation of the Bible and his other written works, such as A dictionaryof the Chinese language.4 Scholars have lauded these ‘preparatory’ works aslaying an important foundation for future missionary work in China.5

2 Ibid. i. 136.3 Brian Harrison,Waiting for China : the Anglo-Chinese college at Malacca, 1818–1843, Hong Kong

1979.4 Alexander Wylie, Memorials of Protestant missionaries to the Chinese : giving a list of their

publications, and obituary notices of the deceased, Shanghai 1867, 3–9.5 Paul A. Cohen, ‘Christian missions and their impact to 1900’, in Denis Twitchett and

John K. Fairbank (eds), The Cambridge history of China, X: Late Ch’ing, 1800–1911, I, Cambridge1978, 548; J. Barton Starr, ‘The legacy of Robert Morrison’, International Bulletin of MissionaryResearch xxii (1998), 73.

ROBERT MOR I SON’ S V I EWS ON MI S S ION 307

Morrison’s work in China was certainly important. This paper aims tosketch his views on mission in two ways. First, as a pioneer of the missionarymovement in China in the nineteenth century, Morrison lived in a ‘pagan’environment for a long time. It would thus be interesting to examine howMorrison perceived the traditional Chinese culture and religions, and toexplore his thought from the perspective of cultural adaptation. Second,during his years in China, Morrison faced many political obstacles from theChinese empire that he could not affect. His internal struggles and hisspiritual journey, especially his insistence on attempting to evangelise theChinese in this disadvantaged environment, are aspects that merit attentionin exploring his thought.

Exploring a kingdom of heathens

Thousands of Poo Saat !6

After arriving in Guangzhou, Morrison encountered both the Qinggovernment’s policy against foreign religions and the East India Company’sunfriendly attitude toward missionaries. In the beginning, he could only workin Guangzhou as an ‘American’,7 and it was not until February 1809 that hewas able to resolve his residency status by working for the Company as aninterpreter. Morrison understood his role as a pioneer well, and knew that inorder to spread the Gospel to the Chinese he must first learn the Chineselanguage.8 In his efforts to learn the language, he did not miss a chance todiscover more about Chinese society, especially the religious traditions andpractices of the Chinese.

On the first day of the journey to Guangzhou by boat, Morrison wasattracted by the other boats going to and fro and by the boat-people, whowere burning incense.9 This first encounter with the ‘Poo Saat ’ (pusa) deitiesof the Chinese was a great shock to him, and he could not help but ask in his

6 Strictly speaking, Poo Saat (pusa) is a Buddhist term (bodhisattva). In MahayanaBuddhism, an ordinary person who has ‘engendered bodhictta ’ (generated a desire forenlightenment in order to save all beings from suffering) and taken a bodhisattva vow is abodhisattva, but there are also ‘celestial bodhisattvas ’ such as Manjusri and Avalokitesvara,who are almost Buddhas in their attainments. See John Bowker (ed.), The Oxford dictionary ofworld religion, Oxford 1997, 155. However, in the context of Chinese popular religion, ‘pusa’become a general term refering to all kind of deities. It was very difficult for Morrison, in hisearliest accounts, to understand the complexity of the relationship between Buddhism,Taoism and Chinese popular religion.

7 Christopher Hancock, Robert Morrison and the birth of Chinese Protestantism, London 2008, 42.8 Morrison, Memoirs, i. 218. 9 Ibid. i. 152.

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journal : ‘Who is sufficient … to turn this crowd of people from their burialidols to the living God? What can I do?’10

During his early days in Guangzhou, Morrison had a pressing urge to findout about the religious world of the Chinese. On 16 September heexperienced his first traditional festival, the mid-autumn festival. The ritualsof the Chinese on that day opened his eyes, and he described what he saw indetail in his journal. The experience helped him to understand the ‘oldChinese custom’ but also pained him because the Chinese made sacrifices tothe ‘evil spirit ’. ‘Will any day [come when] the Chinese are not idolaters? ’,he asked, and sought to know the ‘reason’ behind these religious practices.11

Morrison put many questions about the Chinese religious practice to amerchant named Ting-qua, whom he met on 17 September. He found outthat praying to Poo Saat was a kind of reward for the help of the deities.Ting-qua took him to ‘a temple of Poo Saat ’ on 21 September,12 and fourdays later to a Buddhist temple in Guangzhou. Morrison wrote seven pagesin his journal for this day, describing in detail what he saw.13 On 7 Octoberhe revisited the temple, where a young Buddhist monk introduced him to themain ‘ idol ’ and to the Buddhist Scriptures there.14 On another occasionMorrison asked a monk called Sau Laum, ‘How many Poo Saat do theChinese have?’ Sau Laum answered, ‘Ten millions’. ‘Ten millions?’Morrison doubtfully repeated. ‘Yes, ten millions’, Sau Laum asserted.Morrison sadly recalled the biblical quote ‘ like sheep without a shepherd’.15

When Morrison recounted the situation in China to the headquarters ofthe LMS in Britain and to his relatives, religion was naturally one of the maintopics. In a letter dated 9 October 1807 he wrote that ‘ In Canton the grossestidolatry prevails. The gods are innumerable : the rites are cumbrous andfrequent. ’ However, he could not yet conceive any relation between prayingto the Poo Saat and religion. He only knew that ‘ this shrewd and polishedpeople in all their wisdom know not God. But they shall know – for the wholeearth shall be filled with his glory ’.16 Later, he told the board of directors ofthe LMS that the Chinese people ‘have no idea of one intelligent,independent, and perfect Being, the Creator and Governor of the world.They have, however, lords many and gods many’.17 Surrounded by thisstrange and profound religious atmosphere, he asserted more firmly thanever that the Chinese needed ‘missionaries of Jesus ’.18

From these early accounts, it is clear that Morrison took a very negativeview of Chinese religions. Like many other early missionaries he regardedall non-Christian cultures and religions as ‘heathenism’, and to him the

10 Morrison journal, journals, South China, London Missionary Society, CWM, entry for 7Sept. 1807. 11 Ibid. entry for 16 Sept. 1807.

12 Ibid. entries for 17, 21 Sept. 1807. 13 Ibid. entry for 25 Sept. 1807.14 Ibid. entry for 7 Oct. 1807. 15 Ibid. entry for 19 Oct. 1807.16 Idem, Memoirs, i. 172. 17 Ibid. i. 274. 18 Ibid. i. 176–7.


religions in China were a representation of such heathenism. Only theGospel of Christianity brought real salvation,19 as ‘ the influence of religion inthe foundation of human character, individually and nationally, is greaterthan that of any other cause ’.20

According to Morrison, of the three religions prevailing in the world atthat time – Christianity, Islam and paganism – Christianity was preeminentand predominant.21 The idolatry of the Chinese thus came as a great shock tohim, especially as the Chinese people were so involved and zealous in theirworship. For example, he was deeply moved by the fervent faith of aBuddhist monk whom he saw when visiting a Buddhist temple.22 In anotherletter he described the Chinese as ‘wandering in ignorance of God and hisChrist ’ but zealous in their idolatry, noting that those Chinese who werecommitted to their religious world seemed more fervent than somesuperficial western Christians. ‘But if the heathen are so exact in theirworship of idols, what must we think of those who have the Bible, and yetworship him not? ’ he asked.23 He found many foreign merchants ‘who werecalled Christians’ in Guangzhou but whose actions contravened the beliefsthat they espoused. To his disappointment, these merchants busiedthemselves with all kinds of business, even on Sundays.24

Christ meets ConfuciusMorrison not only learned about the religious activities of the ordinarypeople in Chinese society, he also instructed himself in traditional Chineseculture. To teach him the Chinese languague he hired several Confucianscholars through whom he learned about Chinese culture. Every Sunday,Morrison would ask these scholars to worship with him and read the Bible,and taught them how to pray. Once, he talked with one of his assistants aboutthe undesirable customs of the Chinese of worshipping idols and burningincense in the temple. The assistant pointed out that he had also seen idolatryand worship among the Portuguese in Macau.25 Thus, in the eyes of theConfucian scholars, Christianity was just another kind of ‘worship to the PooSaat ’. These intellectuals not only helped Morrison to understand thediversity of Chinese culture, and especially the complicated relations betweenConfucianism and other Chinese religions, but also gave him a profoundexperience of the secularised Confucian tradition that would prove to be oneof the main challenges in spreading Christianity to China.

19 Clifton Jackson Phillips, Protestant America and the pagan world : the first half century of theAmerican board of commissioners for foreign missions, 1810–1860, Cambridge 1969, 270–80.

20 Robert Morrison, ‘The influence of religion’, CR i (1832), 147.21 Ibid. 22 Morrison journal, entry for 7 Oct. 1807.23 Idem, Memoirs, i. 174. 24 Ibid. i. 157. 25 Ibid. i. 205.

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On 24 April 1808 the name ‘Kung-foo-tsze’ (Confucius) appears for thefirst time in Morrison’s journal. On that day Low-heen (one of the Chineseassistants), who taught Morrison the Cantonese dialect, introduced Morrisonto the Confucian temple in Guangzhou and to the worship of Confucius.Morrison had an in-depth talk with Low-heen on this subject. Low-heen toldhim that ‘ the Chinese must have been mere brutes, and that not to worshiphim [Confucius] would be the highest ingratitude’. Morrison agreed thatConfucius was ‘a wise and good man’, respected by many people. However,‘we allowed that he should be esteemed and venerated; but then theAlmighty, who was the Creator of the world, created him, and gave him thewisdom which he processed’. Morrison thought that ‘ to pay equal honour tohim as to God, or worship him instead of God, was altogether indefensible ’.Low-heen, in contrast, did not think that there were any apparent differencesbetween Confucius and Jesus. Morrison reiterated that Confucius was only ahuman being, whereas Jesus was ‘God manifest in the flesh, ’ and that ‘he[Confucius] regards only to the Chinese, but Jesus extended his regards tothe world’. Morrison’s comments on Confucius disturbed Low-heen,26 andMorrison came to understand from his interaction with his assistants that theChinese people would not readily accept that Christianity placed Confuciusbelow God and Jesus Christ.Morrison understood that there were two traditions in Chinese society.

The first the belief of the ordinary people who ‘compose nine-tenths of theheathen world’, while the second is the belief of the Confucian philosophers‘who despise the popular worship’ and they ‘are atheists in the world’.Morrison felt that the superstitious elements were ‘ found only amongst thevulgar, and those who do not listen to the voice of reason’.27 His educatedassistants were ‘of [the] opinion that the notions of foreigners and of theChinese are very similar in religious concerns’, and Morrison acknowledgedthat there were many truths common to both, particularly respecting theduty of one man to another; ‘but respecting God, our duty to him, and theway in which a sinful creature is accepted of God, they were widely different ’.Many Chinese people ‘burned candles, offered incense, slew sheep, etc. tomake God propitious ; but Jesus gave himself a sacrifice, to make atonementfor sin ’. His Chinese assistants immediately and scornfully pointed out that‘ those who abounded in those offerings were bad people ; good people hadno occasion to do so’. Morrison replied ‘That some who worshipped werebad people was true; but it would not make those good who neglected it. ’The Chinese assistants were perplexed and asked him if he ‘ thought all themen in China were bad men’. He immediately replied that ‘All the men inthe world had offended God.’ His assistants thought that Jesus andConfucius were alike, but Morrison pointed out the ‘striking difference that

26 Ibid. i. 207–8. 27 Ibid. i. 209–10.


appears in one atoning for the sins of men, and teaching so largely the way ofa sinner’s being accepted of God, whilst the other never mentioned God’sname, nor taught anything respecting him’.28

After this dialogue on Confucianism and Christianity, the Chineseassistants recommended that Morrison read the ‘Four Books ’ (Sishu),29

which not only helped him to learn the Chinese language but also furtheredhis understanding of Confucius and Confucianism. Morrison found that hisChinese assistants had infinite respect for Confucius, and when they werestudying the ‘Four Books ’ with him seemed ‘quite enraptured’.30 Afterstudying the ‘Four Books ’ in depth, Morrison better appreciated the attitudeof Confucius who rejected ‘ the superstitions of the times’, but also pointedout that Confucius ‘had nothing that could be called religion to supply theirplace ’. Thus, the mass of Chinese people could not find satisfaction in the‘cold system’ of Confucius, and due to ‘ the defect of the cold system ofKung-foo-tsze, they generally practice the rites … They teach that assistanceis to be derived from the gods’.31

After living in China for more than ten years, and as his knowledge ofChinese traditional culture increased, Morrison had more criticisms ofConfucius. He came to perceive the main difference between Christianityand Confucianism to be the essential difference in nature between religionand ethics. ToMorrison,Confucius was a ‘moral philosopher ’ whose teachingwas morality, not religion. Ethical morality mainly involved interpersonalrelationships and responsibility, such as the Confucian teaching of the ‘fivetraditional cardinal human relations ’ (wulun). Religion, in contrast, dealt withthe relations between human and God. Morrison admitted that Confucianteaching was ‘very good’ but nevertheless ‘ impious in what Confucius taught,about the wise man being equal to Heaven’. In his view, Confucian teachingtended to ‘make the Chinese that proud and irreligious people whichthey are. Confucius taught the people nothing about God and a future stateof existence’.32 Morrison felt that ‘ the influence of Confucius opinionand practice has been injurious to China ever since, and is so at the presentday’.33

Morrison found that many Confucian scholars unwaveringly praisedConfucius. For example, every year in the worship of Confucius, more than60,000 herds were sacrificed in some 1,560 Confucian temples across thecountry, a practice that Morrison described as the act of ‘ learned heathen’who ‘generally teach that death is annihilation; and sometimes affirm thatthere is neither God, angel, nor spirit . . . their worship must be addressed

28 Ibid. i. 227–8. 29 Ibid. i. 229.30 Ibid. i. 231. 31 Ibid. i. 281–2.32 Idem, China ; a dialogue for the use of school : ten conversations, between a father and his two children,

concerning the history and present state of that country, London 1824, 70–2. See also Memoirs, i. 342–3.33 Idem, ‘Confucius ’, EMS iii (1833), 12.

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merely to a nominis umbra ’.34 The Confucian scholars who treated Confuciuslike an idol in this way were considered by Morrison to be ‘ idolatrousatheists ’.35 Morrison was particularly discontented with the righteousnessof Confucian scholars, describing them as ‘ intellectuals ’ and ‘Sadducees ’.36

He reminded the Europeans that they should not believe easily that theChinese would really act in accordance with their doctrine: ‘The Europeanstudent must not consider what the Chinese teach, and what they do, asalways the same. ’ He believed that the moral maxims of the Chinese did notregulate their inner mind and deeds. He opined that the Chinese knew whatwas right, but as the nature of man was depraved and fallen they oftencommitted sin.37

Chinese ancestorsOn 20 December 1812 Morrison wrote in his journal of the traditionalfuneral of a Chinese merchant who had been in business with the British,where he heard for the first time about the concept of spirits among theChinese: ‘It is supposed that the spirit returns every seventh day’ until seventimes seven days.38 By then Morrison better understood that the Chineseattached special importance to the afterworld in their funerals and in theirancestor worship. In his book, View of China, which introduced Chinesecustoms, he dedicated a chapter to funerals, explaining in detail how thebereaved handled funerals. When introducing Chinese festivals, he alsodescribed how the Chinese ‘ sacrifice and sweep’ during the Qing-mingfestival.39

It is interesting to note from Morrison’s journal how as a missionary hedescribed the nature of ancestor worship. Morrison candidly noted thatancestor worship was ‘neither rational nor innocent, but superstitious andidolatrous ’.40 He observed that when worshipping ancestors, the living oftenprayed ‘ for prosperity in their particular callings and in their families ’. ToMorrison, such prayers to the deceased violated the Bible’s teachings ; incriticising them he did not mention that the Jesuits had also tried to justifyancestor worship. He instead stressed that Christians should take a clearstance against such practices.41

34 Idem, ‘The worship of Confucius ’, CR i (1833), 502.35 Idem, A parting memorial ; consisting of miscellaneous discourses, London 1826, 185.36 Idem, ‘The influence of religion’, 147.37 Idem, View of China, philological purposes : containing a sketch of Chinese chronology, geography,

government, religion and customs, London 1817, 122. 38 Idem, Memoirs, i. 349.39 Idem, View of China, 114–16, 106.40 Idem, ‘Tombs of ancestors ’, CR i (1833), 502.41 Idem, ‘Worshipping at the tombs’, CR i (1832), 201–2.


Morrison was not unaware of the ethical dimension of ancestor worship,especially the spirit of filial piety and commemoration, and he understoodthat a Chinese person who did not engage in ‘pae shan’ (worship of thetumuli) or ‘ sao fun-moo’ (sweeping the tombs) would be regarded asunfilial.42 However, he asserted that the ‘worship-blessing’ of praying to thedeceased for prosperity that he observed among many Chinese was nodifferent from praying to idols, and was a means to ‘bribe ’ the deity.43 In hisbook Miscellaneous essays, Morrison opposed worshipping ancestors as if theywere gods: ‘Sweeping tombs should be for fulfilling filial piety. But theancestors must not be regarded as god in heaven. ’44

He also noticed that the Chinese engaged in ‘Yu-lan-shing-hwuy’( yulan shenghui)45 on the fifteenth day of the seventh month of the Chineselunar calendar. The idea behind the rite was that the deceased who weresuffering in hell needed the living to ‘elevate ’ them.46 He also mentionedthat the Chinese celebrated throughout the year the birthdays of differ-ent deities, such as the birthdays of the land god, the god of luck, theBuddha and the furnace divinity Tae-suy.47 Clearly, China was a polytheisticnation.

A Christianised way outChristianity claims the world as the sphere of its operations : it knows no otherlocality. It commands the nations to give up nothing but what it is injurious for themto retain ; and proposes nothing for their acceptance but what they are miserablewithout. It casts no slight on any one country, by exalting the virtues and glory ofanother. It represents ‘all peoples and nations ’ as on a level in the eyes of God – asequally offenders against him – equally subject to the decisions of his awfuljustice – and equally welcome to the benefits of his abundant mercy. Its moral andpositive duties are equally binding on all to whom the Gospel is made known – itssalvation and privileges are open on the same terms to all who will receive them,without distinction of age, rank, talent, or country ; – and its tremendous sanctionswill be executed on all who reject or abuse it, without partiality, and without thepossibility of appeal or escape.48

42 Idem, ‘Tombs of ancestors ’, 500.43 Idem, ‘Worshipping at the tombs’, 201–244 Idem, ‘Shanfen jiahen lun’ [‘Worshipping at the tombs’], in Shentien daosui jichuan

[Miscellaneous essays], Malacca 1819, as cited in Su Ching, ‘Malixun de zhongwen yinshuachuban huodong’ [‘Robert Morrison and his Chinese printing and publication’], in SuChing, Malixun yu zhongwen yinshua chuban [Robert Morrison and Chinese printing and publication],Taipei 2000, 45.

45 ‘Yu-lan-shing-hwuy’ (yulan shenghui) is the Buddhist name for the ghost festival :Stephen F Teiser, The ghost festival in medieval China, Princeton 1988, 8.

46 Morrison, View of China, 106–7. 47 Ibid. 105–9.48 William Milne, Retrospect of the first ten years of the Protestant mission to China, Malacca 1820, 3.

This book was drafted by Morrison and revised by Milne.

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This quotation represents Morrison’s and Milne’s basic understandingof Protestant mission overseas. It was with such enthusiasm for missionwork that Morrison came to China in the first place and came tounderstand the country. He truly believed that missionary work was aresponse to God’s call to implement the Great Commission of Christianisingthe ‘pagans’.49

Unsurprisingly, as a missionary Morrison was particularly interested inreligions in China, but he was critical of them, asserting that ‘ the Fuh(Buddhists) and Taou (Taoists) did not pay sufficient attention to morals.Confucius neglected religion, while Jesus united them both in their highestperfection’.50 At the same time, ‘superstition and idolatry usurp the place oftrue Religion; and Chinese, like the rest of mankind, are inclined to lie satis-fied with external observances, instead of Religious and Moral Rectitude’.51

Although Chinese culture was deeply ingrained with ‘paganism’, Morrisontried to distinguish civilisation from religion. He refrained from describingthe Chinese as an ‘uncivilised’ race, noting that ‘ In China, for example,there is quite as much mildness and civility in the intercourse of humanbeings, as in Europe, and sometime more. And men’s actions are as muchregulated by law and by etiquette, and so are as much polished, as in anynation they can be. ’ The biggest difference that he perceived between Chinaand Europe was that China was ‘unchristianised’, and noted that relying oncivilisation alone would not sweep away paganism and idol worship: ‘Art,and science, and civilization, never have, by themselves, turned men fromsuperstitious idolatry to the worship of God. ’ He found China to have a richliterary tradition, but that idol worship was everywhere, and only wor-shipping the true God could help the country move away from idolatry.52

In May 1825, while Morrison was in Britain on furlough, he gave anaddress to the LMS in which he pointed out that China had abundantnatural resources and cultural traditions, and that the empire had a socialorder as good as any other country. Thus, ‘What then do the Chinese requirefrom Europe? – Not the arts of reading and printing; not merely generaleducation; not what is so much harped on by some philanthropists – civiliz-ation: – they require that only which St. Paul deemed supremely excellent,and which it is the sole object of the Missionary Society tocommunicate – They require, the knowledge of Christ. ’ He stated this clearly :

For with all their antiquity, and their literature, and their arts and refinement, theyare still infatuated idolaters ; they are still given up to what Heaven regards asabominable idolatries and to vile affections, workings that is unseemly. Not liking toretain God in their knowledge, they worship and serve the creature rather than theCreator ; they are haters of the true God, are filled with all unrighteousness,

49 Morrison, Parting memorial, 301, 309–10. 50 Idem, Memoirs, i. 233.51 Idem, View of China, 123. 52 Idem, Parting memorial, 184–5.


fornication and wickedness. With all their civilization, still envy and malice, deceitand falsehood to a boundless extent, pride and boasting: a selfish ungenerous,scarcely honest prudence, and a cold metaphysical inhumanity, are the prevalentcharacteristics of the people of China.53

China’s paganism had motivated Morrison to spread the Gospel to theChinese people to fulfill the goal of Christianising China. He realisedthat Christianity, as a monotheistic belief system, was the direct oppositeof China’s polytheism. He observed that, superficially, religions in Chinapromoted tolerance among the Chinese people, yet the prerequisite of suchtolerance was that one had to be ‘ tolerant to the principle of a multiplicity ofgods ’. In this sense religions in China were not tolerant of the challenge ofmonotheism.54 How to explain to the Chinese the grace of Jesus Christ andthe one God was thus Morrison’s ultimate concern as a missionary.

Preaching Christ to the Chinese

Religious tractsMorrison finished the Chinese translation of Acts and St Luke in 1810. Inaddition to his work on the Chinese version of the Bible he also began topublish religious tracts in Chinese. When he wrote to the LMS in 1810, hesuggested the publication of religious tracts to be distributed along with theBible as supplementary tools for evangelisation.55 His idea was believed tohave been inspired by the morality books (quan shan shu) that were commonlyfound in China.56

In 1811 Morrison wrote his first religious tract, which bore the titleShendaolun shujiushi zongshui [A true and summary statement of the divine doctrine], as afundamental book on faith. The next year, he published a book on catechismentitledWenda quanzhu yesujiaofa [An easy explanation of the doctrine of Jesus]. Later,he published several other books for evangelistic purposes, including Shentiendaosui jichuan [Miscellaneous essays, 1819], Quandou shenlu shuzhiwen [Homilies onreading the Scripture and on the misery of mankind, 1821], and Gushen feng shentian qishidiao jiaxun [Domestic instructor, 1823–33].57

Compared to those penned by his fellow missionary Milne, Morrison’sreligious tracts were fewer in number and less creative in style. Milne usedthe device of fiction to write his religious tracts, the most famous of which was

53 Ibid. 239. 54 Idem, View of China, 112. 55 Idem, Memoirs, i. 297–8.56 For studies on morality books see Sakai Tado, Chugoku zensho no kenyu, Tokyo 1960, and

Cynthia J. Brokaw, The ledgers of merit and demerit : social change and moral order in late imperial China,Princeton 1991.

57 Su Ching, ‘Malixun de zhongwen yinshua chuban huodong’, 44–50.

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Changyuan liangyou xianglun [Dialogues between Chang and Yuen], published in1819.58 Patrick Hanan, a scholar of the modern Chinese novel, states thatalthough Milne was the first and most famous of the missionary-novelwriters, Morrison’s earlier works Gushi rudiyaguo lidai luezhuan [Outline of OldTestament history] and Gushi rudiya guo lidai luezhuan [Tour of the world] alreadyshowed some features of vernacular fiction.59 Morrison was willing to use thenovel style to write primers, but was reluctant to adopt that style in religioustracts, which indicates that he was more conservative and cautious thanMilne. Morrison tended to be unidirectional in his teaching and preaching.He reported that Milne had wished to modify the Nianzhong meiri zaowan qidaoxushi [Daily morning and evening prayers of the Church of England] that he had editedand translated ‘so as to render them more suitable to our peculiar circum-stances, and the state of the heathen’.60 This Morrison rejected, and did notelaborate what had been meant by ‘suitable to the heathen’. This incidentindicates that Milne had greater creativity and flexibility than Morrison. Thecommon concern of the missionaries who published religious tracts washow to spread the Gospel to the Chinese. Morrison, who was a pioneerin this area, was inclined to use a more traditional means of preaching in hispublications.From Morrison’s journal, it is clear that, despite the ban on the preaching

of foreign religions by the Qing government, he still strove for opportunitiesto distribute religious tracts to the Chinese. For example, on 16 October 1812he gave some tracts to a Taoist priest in a Taoist temple. After a few weeks hecontacted the priest again, who ‘said that the books were good … He askedwho Yay-soo (Jesus) was ; whether or not he were Poo-saat, an epithet of theChinese gods? I told him that he was God, the Saviour of the world. ’61 On7 March 1813 he gave religious tracts to a poor man and ‘explained to himthe doctrine of the unity of God, and the sin of idolatry ’.62 On 15 Octoberhe wrote that a Chinese man to whom he had given tracts before had cometo ask for more books for his friends.63 Morrison also hired Chinese people todistribute the Bible and his tracts. In his reports to the LMS he mentionedthat he had sent several hundred books to Fujian province in the summer of1812.64

58 WilliamMilne’s Dialogues between Chang and Yuen was published in 1819 in Malacca: DanielH. Bays, ‘Christian tracts : the two friends ’, in Suzanne W. Barnet and John K. Fairbank (eds),Christianity in China : early Protestant missionary writings, Cambridge 1985, 19–34. For the writings ofMilne see Wylie, Memorials, 12–20.

59 Patrick Hanan, ‘The missionary novels of nineteenth-century China’, Harvard Journal ofAsiatic Studies lx (2000), 418–19. 60 Morrison, Memoirs, i. 477–8.

61 Ibid. i. 343, 346–7. 62 Ibid. i. 359.63 Ibid. i. 371. 64 Ibid. i. 352.


Morrison’s works clearly violated the ban of the Qing government, andperhaps even provoked Emperor Jiaqing’s ‘Edict against Christianity ’ of1812, which proclaimed that

The Europeans worship God, because in their own country they are used to do[ing]so ; and it is quite unnecessary to inquire into the motive : but then, why do theydisturb the common people of the interior? – appointing unauthorizedly priests andother functionaries, who spread this through all the provinces, in obvious infractionof the law; and the common people deceived by them, they succeed each other fromgeneration to generation, unwilling to depart from their delusion. This mayapproach very near to bring[ing] a rebellion. Reflecting that the said religion neitherholds spirits in veneration, nor ancestors in reverence, clearly this is to walk contraryto sound doctrine ; and the common people, who follow and familiarize themselveswith such delusions, in what respect do they differ from a rebel mob? If there is notdecreed some punishment, how shall the evil be eradicated? And how shall thehuman heart be rectified? From this time forward, such European[s] as shallprivately print books and establish preachers, in order to pervert the multitude, andthe Tartars and Chinese, who, deputed by Europeans, shall propagate their religion,bestowing names, and disquieting numbers, shall have this to look to: – the chief orprincipal one shall be executed ; – whoever shall spread their religion, not makingmuch disturbance, nor to many men, and without giving names, shall beimprisoned, waiting the time of execution; and those who shall content themselveswith following such religion, without wishing to reform themselves, they shall beexiled to He-lau-keang [Heilongjiang province], etc. As for Tartars, they shall bedeprived of their pay. [text translated by Robert Morrison]

Morrison was very concerned about the religious ban of the Qinggovernment, and translated the edict into English to send to the LMS.However, he decided he must ‘go forward, trusting in the Lord. We willscrupulously obey governments as far as their decrees do not oppose what isrequired by the Almighty’.65

Morrison’s work had also caused discontent among the board of the EastIndia Company, who feared that it would affect their commercial interests inChina. In 1815 the board ordered the Guangzhou office to terminateMorrison’s employment immediately, claiming that he was working againstthe interests of the company. The Guangzhou office informed Morrison ofthe decision on 14 October, but as it valued Morrison’s contribution to thecompany, it delayed the execution of the order. The senior official of theCompany in Guangzhou, George Thomas Staunton, hoped that he couldpersuade Morrison to promise not to translate and print the Bible. ButMorrison refused, claiming that the Chinese government’s edict was aimed atthe Catholic Church and that Chinese official documents had never namedhim. He admitted that he distributed religious tracts, but claimed that thiswas conducted in great secrecy. In the event that he were found out, he

65 Ibid. i. 334–6.

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would accept responsibility for it and would not involve the Company. In theend, the Guangzhou office accepted his assurances.66

The true saviourThe other important use of the religious tracts was to help Morrison toexplain the Christian doctrine to his Chinese assistants during Sundayfellowship. In his reports to the LMS in 1812 he stated that there were elevenChinese who were regular attendees of Sunday worship at his home:Ko-seen-sang, Low-heen, A-tso, Tsang-pin, A-ing, Hwang-chin, Ayun,A-sam, Tung-yung, Tsae-a-fo and Yong-sam.67

How did Morrison introduce the Gospel to these Chinese men, whowere steeped in their own traditional culture and religions? In the ‘Prefacefor Acts ’, his earliest publication, he summarised the core values ofChristianity :

The Creator of all creatures is the only living God. He created man with good naturebut after man violated the command of God, man’s innate nature became depravedand thus he has to encounter difficulties and death. And after death, man enters hell.Therefore Jesus, who comes from Heaven, came to save the world. In His lifetime,He preached to people to let them know God and know what is good. Yet Hesacrificed himself for the sins of humans. After He was crucified on the cross, He wasresurrected on the third day and ascended to the Heaven. He will judge the world.When Jesus was alive, He called twelve apostles and sent them to different places topreach before He returned to God. Thus, His acts were preached and recorded. Forthose who believe in Jesus, they will be forgiven their sin and will become goodagain. They will be resurrected after death, enjoying eternity. The deeds of Jesus andthe command of God were recorded by ancient people of goodwill. It was written inother scriptures. Believers should take reference from it.68

Morrison clearly particularly emphasised the issue of ‘human nature’. TheChristian doctrine regards all men as sinners, a viewpoint unlikely to beacceptable to followers of Confucius, who held strongly to the ideology thathuman nature is inherently good. Morrison understood this well, and thustried to blend the doctrines. He did not totally reject the inherently goodnature of humans, but limited it to the original state of God’s creation. Hestressed that after man committed sin, his innate nature became depraved.69

66 Ibid. i. 418–24.67 Su Ching, ‘The first Protestant convert of China, Tsae A’ko (1788–1818) ’, Ching Feng v

(2004), 234.68 Morrison, ‘Preface for the Acts of the Apostles ’, in Yesu jiushi shitu xingchuan zhenben [Acts of

the Apostles in Chinese], Guangzhou 1811. For the full text of the preface see Su Ching, ‘Malixunde zhongwen yinshua chuban huodong’, 37.

69 Morrison wrote in a tract that ‘God created man with a good nature. Man becamedepraved after offending God. Thus, there is no one in this world who has not offended God’ :Shendao lunshu jiushi zongshui [A true and summary statement of the divine doctrine], Guangzhou 1811, 1a.


In another catechism he asked, ‘God created man. Was he inherently good?’The answer given was ‘Yes, when man was first created, that is, Adam – theforefather of human beings, his innate nature was good. But after he violatedthe command of God, he became depraved. ’70

Morrison noticed that Confucius could not show sinners the way tosalvation, which was the essence of the Christian doctrine.71 He spoke aboutsin from the perspective of broken relations between man and God (de zuishen), stressing that as a result of sin man ‘should enter hell ’72 and would die‘ in eternal pain’.73 The pain of ordinary people came from offending God,and they might have to suffer punishment forever.74 Morrison saw thatactually the Chinese also admitted that they committed ‘wrongdoing’ (guo) or‘ sin ’ (zui), but believed that they could use ‘merit ’ (gong) to offset their‘wrongdoing’. For example, Buddhism’s ascetic tradition holds that one canearn credits and atonement by good deeds and praying. According toMorrison, these were all means by which Satan cheated and controlledpeople to make the Chinese believe that they did not need the Saviour.75 Healso noted that the Chinese people accorded strong importance tomeritorious deeds, especially the use of a ‘ table of vices and virtues ’, tomeasure their behaviour, which reflected their inclination toward self-salvation.76 Thus, the Chinese people regarded their own righteousnesshighly, which was a ‘ false religion’.77

In contrast to the ‘own righteousness ’ of the Chinese, Morrison believedthat the way to absolution came only from God, and emphasised that God’sson Jesus Christ, who made ‘self-sacrifice to atone the sins of man’, wascrucified on the cross and resurrected on the third day,78 and that ‘Thosewho believe in him will not die but gain eternity. ’79 To Confucians, theconcept of ‘eternity ’ was difficult to understand. Morrison also had to clarifythe concepts of ‘ soul ’ and ‘resurrection’, explaining that ‘A believer’s soul issanctified when he dies. That is, it enters eternal heaven while his body andsoul are buried on earth until the day of resurrection. ’80

Morrison’s assistants had doubts about the uniqueness of Jesus Christ, andthe question of what good it did to be a follower of Jesus was one that hecould not evade. He explained that those who believed that Jesus is the son ofGod would be counted as sinless.81 However, although Morrison stressed the

70 Idem, Wenda qianzhu yesu jiaofa [An easy explanation of the doctrine of Jesus], Guangzhou1812, 3b. 71 Idem, China ; a dialogue for the use of school, 74.

72 Idem, Shendao lunshu jiushi zongshui, 1b. 73 Idem, Wenda qianzhu yesu jiaofa, 13b.74 Idem, Quandou shenlu shuzhiwen [Homilies on reading the Scripture and on the misery of mankind],

Malacca 1821, cited in Su Ching, ‘Malixun de zhongwen yinshua chuban huodong’, 46.75 Idem, China ; a dialogue for the use of school, 80.76 Idem, Parting memorial, 9. 77 Ibid. 243.78 Idem, ‘Preface for the Acts of the Apostles ’, in Su Ching, ‘Malixun de zhongwen

yinshua chuban huodong’, 37. 79 Idem, Shendao lunshu jiushi zongshui, 2a.80 Idem, Wenda qianzhu yesu jiaofa, 19a. 81 Ibid. 17a–18a.

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salvation of Jesus Christ and his grace of atonement for man, he also usedsome Confucian concepts to explain how Christians avoided evil. Forexample, on the cover of a hymn book, Morrison used a quotation fromZhuangzi82 in the subtitle : ‘Different kinds of evil thoughts will arise if onedoes not have righteous thoughts for just one day. ’ He also wrote in thepreface that ‘The poems of the secular people mostly do not carry goodintentions and could harm the soul and are not good for nourishing the heart.Here I have collected several poems to help people to do good deeds, and toglorify the Creator who created heaven and earth and who is honoured forsaving human beings. ’83 Here, Morrison borrowed the Confucian concept of‘nourishing the heart ’ (yangxin) and Zhuangzi’s ‘ thinking righteously ’(nianshan) and blended them with Christian poems in the hope that theywould help believers to do good deeds. In another tract, he also borrowed theConfucian concept in the Book of the Great Learning (daxue) that ‘ if one canone day renovate oneself, do so from day to day; there should be dailyrenovation’ to stress that Christians could ‘change day by day to becomegood’.84 Of course, Morrison did not neglect the importance of the HolySpirit in the Trinity, positing that people could ‘do away with evils andreturn to goodness ’ with the help of the Holy Spirit.85

Morrison also noticed that Confucianism had a high regard for moralethics, and was thus similar to Christianity in this respect. However, hewanted to go beyond the concept of senior and subordinate behind the ‘fivetraditional cardinal human relations ’ (wulun) and bring in the Christian ideaof equality and mutual love.86 Taking the status of women as an example, hecriticised the Confucian teaching of the Chinese moralists for itsdiscrimination, which was in direct contrast to Christian education whichelevated women’s status. This had been demonstrated in India and Malacca,and Morrison hoped that the same could be realised in China. He stressedthat the Bible teaches that a husband must love his wife, which gave women abetter position than they were accorded in Chinese teaching,87 and pointedout that the Christian commandments ‘ love thy God’ and ‘ love thyneighbour as thyself ’ show the close relations between moral ethics and theChristian religion.88

Morrison apparently did not want publicly to criticise Chinese culture andreligious customs. In his Chinese religious tracts, he did not compare

82 Zhuangzi was an influential Chinese philosopher who lived around the fourth centuryBCE during the Warring States Period. He was considered one of the major founders of theDaoist philosophy.

83 Morrison, Yangxin shenshi [Hymn book], Guangzhou 1818, cited in Su Ching, ‘Malixun dezhongwen yinshua chuban huodong’, 42–3.

84 Idem, ‘Preface for the Acts of the Apostles ’, in Su Ching, ‘Malixun de zhongwenyinshua chuban huodong’, 37. 85 Idem, Shendao lunshu jiushi zongshui, 3a.

86 Ibid. 4a. 87 Morrison, ‘Female education’, EMS ii (1833), 5.88 Idem, China ; a dialogue for the use of school, 72–3.


Christianity with Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism to encourage respectfor Christianity and avoidance of Chinese religions. He also did not criticisethe idolatry of the Chinese. Indeed, the word ‘ idol ’ appeared only in histracts when he mentioned the Ten Commandments : ‘You shall not make foryourself any idol ’. He was very aware of the sensitivity of ancestor worship,and merely observed that ‘ sweeping tombs should be for fulfilling filial piety.But the ancestors must not be regarded as God in Heaven’.89 This reflectsthat he did not want to arouse resentment while teaching the Christianmessage. Morrison’s criticism of Chinese religions and culture in his Englishwriting is essentially absent in his Chinese religious tracts. This not onlyshows that his Chinese and English audiences were not the same, but alsoreveals something about his strategy for spreading the Gospel.

Morrison was a pioneer in introducing ‘God’ to the Chinese. Heconceded that some pagan concepts could be retained with certain additionalelements. For example, the word ‘heaven’ (tian) could be kept, but had toshow at the same time the glory of God’s reign:

I do not bring to them another god, but endeavour to convince them that their ideasof Shin (shen) are erroneous ; that there are not many gods but one … I even let themretain the word Teen (heaven) ; but ingraft upon it proper ideas, as we do in our ownlanguage. Those who know any thing of religion, have lost the heathen idea ofheaven, and mean by it the God who reigns in glory there. It is a matter of smallimportance to give to the heathen new words in comparison to the giving of rightideas of things.90

Therefore, in his translations of the Scriptures and his religious tracts, heborrowed much terminology from Buddhism, Confucianism and Taoism,such as god (shen), heaven (tian), goodness (shan), evil (e), retribution (baoying),paradise (tiantang), hell (diyu), repent (hui), sin (zui), redeem (shu) and soul(linghun). As Daniel H. Bays notes, borrowing concepts from ChineseBuddhism and folk religions to express Christian concepts was verycommon in the Chinese writings of the western missionaries in thenineteenth century.91 Morrison’s journal reveals that he often used hisreligious tracts to talk about the way to God with his assistants and to answertheir questions.92 He baptised Tsae A-ko, the first baptised ProtestantChristian in China, on 16 July 1814 in Macau,93 and had baptised tenChinese by 1832.94

89 Idem, ‘Shanfen jiahen lun’, cited in Su Ching, ‘Malixun de zhongwen yinshua chubanhuodong’, 45. 90 Idem, Memoirs, i. 200–1.

91 Daniel H. Bays, ‘Christianity and the Chinese sectarian tradition ’, Ching-shih Wen-ti iv(1982), 33–55, and ‘Christianity and Chinese sects : religious tracts in the late nineteenthcentury ’, in Barnet and Fairbank, Christianity in China, 121–34.

92 Su Ching, ‘First Protestant convert ’, 235–7.93 Morrison, Memoirs, i. 410. 94 Ibid. ii. 472.

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Evangelist at the gate

China opened?When Morrison first arrived in China, he understood the close relationshipbetween the opening of China and the freedom to preach. The fact that hejoined the East India Company indicates that he was prepared tocompromise and make sacrifices to resolve his residency status.95 His realismabout the situation in China is revealed in his letter to the LMS in January1816, in which he described the station as one which did not present animmediate prospect of extended efforts, nor of immediate success : ‘ toprepare materials for future years, or for succeeding labourers, was as muchas the most sanguine of our Society anticipated. It is with the same views thatwe must still persevere, in the hope that the Almighty Disposer of events willfinally remove the obstacles which at present impede the full and freediffusion of the truths of revelation in China. ’96

The obstacles to which he referred were obviously political, and inparticular the attitude and policies of the Qing government. Simply waitingfor the Chinese government to change its mind would make it impossible torealise his dream. The diplomatic efforts of the British government were thusvery important.In July 1816 Lord Amherst97 and his delegation came in Guangzhou to

negotiate with the Qing government on Sino-British relations. Morrison wasinvited to be the Chinese secretary and to travel north with the delegation,which arrived in Beijing on 29 July. Yet the mission was unable to meetEmperor Jiaqing, and returned without success to Guangzhou in January1817. Morrison was not interested in joining the delegation initially, worryingthat his work might be affected, but he changed his mind when he realisedthat he might have the chance to meet senior Chinese officials.98 The tripnot only gave him a chance to leave Guangzhou to broaden his knowledge,it also gave him great hope of improving Sino-British relations. He saw theimpasse on evangelisation, and recognised that his goal to help the Chineseknow God could only be achieved through securing free movement inChina.99

As the Chinese secretary to the delegation, Morrison recorded what hesaw and heard during the trip and wrote a chronicle of the journey that waspublished in 1820. In his introductory remarks he wrote that ‘As individualsare improved by an amicable intercourse with each other ; and as parts of the

95 Morrison wrote, ‘ It occupies a great part of my short life in that which does notimmediately refer to my first object. Whilst I am translating official papers, I couldbe compiling my Dictionary, which I hope will be of essential service to future missionaries ’ :ibid. i. 270. 96 Ibid. i. 433–4.

97 William Pitt Amherst, 1st Earl Amherst (1773–1857).98 Morrison, Memoirs, i. 428. 99 Ibid. i. 378.


same empire are gradually ameliorated in proportion as they have an easyintercourse amongst themselves ; so separate and independent nations aremutually benefited by a liberal and amicable intercourse. ’ He firmly believedthat ‘national and commercial intercourse will proceed best under an idea ofthe equality and reciprocity of the two countries ’. However, he felt strongly thearrogance of China toward other countries on the subject of ritual, and es-pecially the insistence of the Chinese officials that the delegation make ‘ thricekneeling andnine timesbeating theheadagainst the ground’ to the emperor.100

In addition to Morrison’s chronicle, Chinese official documents alsorecorded the episode.101 From a letter to the throne, it is clear that both theChinese officials and Morrison insisted on upholding their own standpointsover ritual. At the Yuanmingyuan Palace in Beijing, Lord Amherst refused tomeet Emperor Jiaqing straight away as they had only just arrived. As a resultthe delegation was ordered to leave the capital. The British envoy failed toimprove relations, and the trip ended abruptly in farce.102

When Morrison reported to the LMS about this trip, he could not hide hisdiscontent : ‘A British nobleman, representing his sovereign, and who hadcome 50,000 miles to the Court of China, demurred, as was natural, to enterthus into the imperial presence, and pleaded with the duke, who came out tourge the Ambassador into the hall of audience. ’ This unhappy experiencewasMorrison’s closest encounter with the ‘character of this despotic and semi-civilized court ’.103 Later, in his memoirs, he condemned the Chinese govern-ment as a ‘military despotism’ and described the Chinese as barbarous :

If ‘barbarity ’ or being ‘barbarous ’ express something savage, rude and cruel, thepresent inhabitants of China do not deserve the epithet ; if it expresses a cunning,selfish policy, endeavouring to deceive, to intimidate, or to brow-beat, as occasionmay require, connected with an arrogant assumption of superiority on all occasions,instead of cultivating a liberal, candid, friendly intercourse with men of othernations, they are Barbarians.104

This was his most severe criticism of China.

Desperation and hope‘Their land also is full of idols ; they worship the work of their own hands,that which their own fingers have made’ (Isaiah ii.8). Morrison believed that

100 Idem,Memoir of the principal occurrences during an embassy from the British government to the court ofChina in the year of 1816, London 1820, 7–9.

101 National Palace Museum, Qing Jiaqingchao waijiao shiliao [Historical sources on Sino-westernrelations under the Qing Jiaqing emperor], Taipei 1968, v. 29a–b.

102 Murray A. Rubinstein, The origins of Anglo-American missionary enterprise in China, 1807–1840,London 1996, 118–26. 103 Morrison, Memoirs, i. 451, 453.

104 Idem, Memoir of the principal occurrences, 95–6.

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China was the image of the Jewish kingdom that Isaiah had described sometwo thousand years previously.105 Yet this country of idols had closed itsdoors tightly. What could he do?After returning from Beijing, Morrison faced his greatest inner struggle

since arriving in China, where he had now been for ten years. He revealedthis in a letter :

I have been here these ten years now. I wish I could see it my duty to go whereI might enjoy the sweets of liberty and religious society. I am under continual dreadof the arm of the oppressor, and more than that, the natives who assist me arehunted from place to place, and sometimes seized.106

In another letter, he even expressed his intention to leave the country forMalacca. However, he eventually managed to overcome his inner struggle.107

On 4 September, the tenth anniversary of his arrival in Macau, he wrote areview of his work over the foregoing decade. On the one hand he admittedthat ‘our difficulties are many, and our prospects very limited … Little hasbeen done, and it must be acknowledged that our progress has been butsmall ’. On the other hand, amid such obstacles, he had learned to focus onthe progress that had been made, that is, the completion of the translation ofthe New Testament and the establishment of a base in Malacca, with othertranslation works in progress. Relying on God’s grace was the greatestsupport that he had.108

There was no change in China’s political environment with the passage oftime. In 1822, the fifteenth year of his stay in China, Morrison wrote that ‘Ihave now been fifteen years in this country ; and one-half of those years quitealone. ’ Yet he did not give up. He knew that if he left China for Malacca, thefruits of the seeds that he had sown would wither.109 In his review of hisfifteen years of work, he addressed the question of what he had done topromote the diffusion of Christianity, and reaffirmed the fruitful results thathe had learned Chinese, translated the Bible, set up a base in Malacca anddistributed Christian tracts in Chinese.110

In the face of the closed-door policy of the Chinese government, Morrisonupheld a peaceable policy. He felt that ‘Christian Britain ought to useprudent and peaceable means to convey the light of divine revelation toChina … In order to do this, the Chinese language should be more studiedby the Christian world’, and he wondered ‘how shall the truths of divinerevelation be conveyed, opened, and expounded, without the thoroughknowledge of the language and the literature of China?’111 He criticisedBritish merchants who were trafficking opium to China for engaging in

105 Ibid. 95. 106 Idem, Memoirs, i. 473.107 Robert Morrison to [?] Burder, 23 Feb. 1817, in Harrison, Waiting for China, 32–3.108 Morrison, Memoirs, i. 475–6. 109 Ibid. ii. 162–3.110 Ibid. ii. 180–2. 111 Idem, China ; a dialogue for the use of schools, preface.


‘a traffic which is far from being reputable either to the English flag, or to thecharacter of Christendom’.112 In a speech made when he was back in Britain,Morrison admitted that there were many difficulties with his mission: ‘Thedifficulties which exist to impede the prosecution of this work are many andgreat … But notwithstanding all these difficulties, greater is he that is for us,than all they that can be against us. ’113

The new era

Changes in Sino-British relationsIn 1834 the East India Company’s monopoly of British trade with Chinaexpired, and the British monarch sent a superintendent of trade to bestationed in China. Sino-British relations entered a new era, as the links withChina that had been managed by the Company were now taken over by theBritish government. In the past, Sino-British relations had been mainlycontrolled by the Board of the East India Company and the Taipan, who wasbased in Guangzhou, and their focus had been commercial interests. Now,with diplomacy returned to the hands of the British government and thesuperintendent of trade, the status of Britain and of the superintendent inChina had to be considered in addition to commerce: political mattersassumed gained importance.114 Some scholars assert that 1834 was a turningpoint for Britain in its diplomatic relations with China, with the East IndiaCompany’s attitude of compromise with the Qing government beingreplaced by a more aggressive policy of invasion by force.115

In July 1834 the first superintendent of trade, William J. Napier, arrived inMacau, and Morrison was appointed as his Chinese secretary andinterpreter. Morrison’s feelings were mixed. He wrote on his journal : ‘Prayfor me, that I may be faithful to my blessed Saviour in the new place I have tooccupy. It is rather an anomalous one for a Missionary. A vice-consul’suniform instead of the preaching gown! ’116 Since 1809 Morrison had been anemployee of the East India Company and had used his spare time for hismissionary work. It was not easy, but he managed to accomplish both tasks atthe same time. Now he worried whether, as a civil servant of the Britishgovernment, he could strike a balance between his double identities inpolitics and religion, and clearly felt the tension between the two roles.

112 Idem, Memoirs, ii. 175. 113 Idem, Parting memorial, 308.114 Guo Tingyi, Jindai Zhongguo shigang [History of modern China], Hong Kong 1983, i. 46.115 Guo Weidong, Zhuanzhe : yi zaoqi zhongying guanxi he ‘‘Nanjing tiaoyue ’’ wei kaocha zhongxin

[Turning point ; with special reference to early Anglo-Chinese relations and the treaty of Nanjing],Shijiazhuang 2003, 155. 116 Morrison, Memoirs, ii. 524.

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In accordance with the instruction of the British foreign minister LordPalmerston,117 Napier was to make direct contact with Beijing to establishdiplomatic relations. However, immediately after his arrival in Guangzhou,Napier had several confrontations with Lu Kun, the viceroy of Guangdongand Guangxi, over the nature of his appointment and the system of greetingsand official relations. Morrison’s son, John R. Morrison, and other officialsreceived documents from Napier to negotiate with the viceroy in late July,but Lu Kun refused to accept them on the basis that such documents shouldbe presented through the merchant system [Gonghang]118 in Guangzhou.However, Napier refused to accept the middleman role of Gonghang. Bothsides came to an impasse, which worried Morrison deeply : ‘There is a feud atthe very outset. John was recognized by the Mandarins as Morrison’s son.I expect no good to us to arise from it. May the Lord overrule all for thefurtherance of the Gospel ’, he wrote in his journal.119

In early September Napier ordered a British cruiser to enter the inner riverat Guangzhou by force and opened fire on the Humen Fort. Lu Kunexpelled Napier to Macau, thus creating a further crisis in Sino-Britishrelations. Napier died in Macau in October. After his failed mission, morevoices in Britain rose in support of taking a hard stance to force China toopen its doors. Coupled with the opium issue, Sino-British relations were onthe verge of the breakdown which would ultimately lead to the outbreak ofthe Opium War a few years later. However, Morrison did not have thechance to see these changes and confrontations. He was bed-ridden by 29July 1834, and died on 1 August. His death drew the old era to a close andmarked the beginning of a new era both for Britain and for Christianmissionaries in China.

A new phase in the missionary movementIn addition to the changing nature of Sino-British relations in the 1830s, therewere also new developments in the missionary movement. Morrison was formany years the only missionary in Guangzhou. However, after 1830, E. G.Bridgman and David Abeel of the American Board of Commissioners forForeign Missions arrived in Guangzhou, and in 1831 Karl Gutzlaff of theNetherlands Missionary Society decided to leave his society and his work insouth-east Asia to preach in China.120 The missionary movement in Chinathus entered a phase that differed greatly from the adverse environment thatMorrison faced in the beginning.121 The new missionaries in China were

117 Henry John Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston (1784–1865).118 Gonghang was the Chinese import-export monopoly in Guangzhou during the early Qing

dynasty. 119 Morrison, Memoirs, ii. 529.120 Rubinstein, Origins, ch. vii.


discontented with the closed door policy. As Bridgman observed in May1834, ‘China must come down from the lofty heights which she has so longheld in her estimate. She must be enlightened and elevated and take herproper rank among the nations of the world. Free, unrestricted intercoursemust be urged vigorously. Merchants are wide awake on the subject. Shall weslumber? ’122 After Napier’s mission, Bridgman wrote to the Chinese Repositoryto express his strong grievances over the Western countries’ continued use ofa ‘quiet system’ :

Nations are under obligations to each other ; that China, as it regards her relation toother nations, is in a position of open violation of the law – thou love thy neighbor asthyself ; and that, in such an attitude, they not only may, but must, remonstrate withher, and, if they cannot persuade, compel her, if they can, to a course moreconsistent with their rights and her obligations.123

Bridgman’s comments reflect both the discontent and the hope of westernersin China, including the missionaries, with the new circumstances.124 Gutzlaffeven travelled north along the coast of China in 1831–3 to explore thesituation there and to distribute religious tracts.125 Gutzlaff was of the strongopinion that ‘We want here no gentlemen-missionaries ’ :126 ‘ the call to openChina pervaded Gutzlaff’s writings ’.127 The newmissionaries in China wouldnot tolerate the Qing government’s closed-door policy as Morrison had done.Some of them suggested taking a strong stance to force China to open up andlater even justified engaging in war, which stigmatised the early missionarywork in China.128

121 Su Ching, ‘Fuyin yu qiancai : Malixun wannian de jingyu’ [‘Gospel and money: thelater years of Robert Morrison’], in Su Ching, Zhongguo kaimen : malixun ji xiangguan renwu yanjiu[Open up, China ! studies on Robert Morrison and his circle], Hong Kong 2005, 91.

122 E. G. Bridgman to [?] Anderson, 24 May 1834, cited in Rubinstein, Origins, 307.123 E. G. Bridgman, ‘British authorities in China: petition to the king in council from the

British residents in this country ’, CR iii (1834), 362–3.124 Michael C. Lazich, E. C. Bridgman (1801–1861), America’s first missionary to China, Lewiston

2000, 165–75; Stuart C. Miller, ‘Ends and means: missionary justification of force innineteenth century China’, in John K. Fairbank (ed.), The missionary enterprise in China andAmerica, Cambridge 1974, 249–51.

125 Karl Gutzlaff, Journal of three voyages along the coast of China, in 1831, 1832, & 1833, London1834.

126 ‘Church Missionary Society – extracts from Rev. C. Gutzlaff’s reply to the society,dated, Macao, 13 Oct. 1835’,Missionary Register (July 1837), 326, as cited in Su Ching, ‘Guoshilahe qita chuanjiaoshi de jinzhang guanxi ’ [‘The tensions between Gutzlaff and othermissionaries ’], in Shangdi de renma: shijiu shiji zaihua chuanjiaoshi de zuowei [Under God’s command :papers on early Protestant missionaries in China], Hong Kong 2006, 40.

127 Jessie G. Lutz, Opening China : Karl F. A. Gutzlaff and Sino-western relations, 1827–1852, GrandRapids 2008, 3.

128 Miller, ‘Ends and means ’, 251–7; Paul A. Varg, Missionaries, Chinese, and diplomats : theAmerican Protestant missionary movement in China, 1830–1952, Princeton 1958, 4–6.

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Morrison of course hoped to see China open its doors, as this would haveallowed him to realise his mission and his dream. His opinion on how Chinahandled diplomatic relations, such as over the issues of ritual (bowing) andconsular juridiction for foreigners reflected the mainstream opinion amongwesterners. Having no trust in the Chinese judicial system, he had suggestedconsular jurisdiction as early as 1822.129 He never managed to overcome hissense of the superiority of western culture, yet he never suggested using forceto open up China. He accepted the limitations of the environment and triedto create conditional freedom in the circumstances. His literary achievementsreflect this strategy, and demonstrate his belief that China should beevangelised in a peaceful way.130

As the first Protestant missionary to China in the nineteenth century,Morrison was inevitably faced with the challenge of making theChristian faithknown in the non-Christian world. Affected deeply by western Christiancivilisation and the values and world view of Christianity, like other earlymissionaries in China Morrison had a negative attitude toward Chinesetraditional religions, regarding them as forms of paganism, idolatry andsuperstition. He believed that Christianity was the only means of redemptionfor humankind. Themissionary movement in the nineteenth century was thuslargely driven by the belief that western Christian civilisation had come toredeem the soul of the pagan.131 If there had been no such religious call andpassion, it would be hard to explain why somanywesternmissionaries came tothe east. Of course, it cannot be denied that the Christian missions rode on thetide of western colonialism. However, Morrison had from the outset placedhis missionary work at the forefront, and his real concern was the spreading ofthe Gospel and the fight against Satan on pagan soil. The total rejection ofnon-Christian culture by the missionaries could be interpreted as a ‘moralequivalent of Imperialism’,132 but this would not reflect the truth. ‘Clearly, he[Morrison] shared some of the prejudices of his early nineteenth-centuryBritish contemporaries and the desire of evangelicals to share the Gospel withthe ‘‘heathen’’ of China. It is equally clear, however, that as Morrisoncontinued to live, learn, and work among the Chinese, he gained a profoundrespect for Chinese culture, language and some of the people. ’133

Despite his opposition to ‘paganism’, Morrison had studied Chinesetraditional religions and culture. He recognised that Confucian moral ethicsstressed self-perfection, which ran contrary to the idea of the redemption ofJesus Christ and reflected the basic contradiction between Chinese culture

129 Morrison, Memoirs, ii. 139–43. 130 Idem, Parting memorial, 84–7.131 Phillips, Protestant America, 270–80.132 William R. Hutchison, ‘A moral equivalent for imperialism: Americans and the

promotion of Christian civilization, 1880–1910’, in Torben Christensen and William R.Hutchison (eds), Missionary ideologies in the imperialist era : 1880–1920, Aarhus 1982, 167–77.

133 Starr, ‘The legacy of Robert Morrison’, 75.


and Christianity. Thus, when he wrote his religious tracts in Chinese, heavoided using sharp words and did not obviously reject Chinese culture.Instead he responded directly to Chinese doubts about the Christian faith.This can be understood as Morison’s strategy when handling sensitive issuesin the early stage of missionary work, although he never totally accepted orappreciated Chinese culture. The means by which he might spread theGospel to the Chinese against the background of Chinese religious cultureand how he could preach about sin and the importance of Jesus Christ’sredemption were key issues in Morrison’s mission thought.

On Sunday 27 July 1834 Morrison held his last Sunday worship from hissickbed in Guangzhou. Twelve Chinese joined the service. John Morrisonnoted that in this pagan country, in this corrupted city, it was wonderful tohave this group of people praying and glorifying God together.134 Thesetwelve followers were the church that Morrison established in China. On theafternoon of 1 August, Morrison prayed with Edwin Stevens for his wife andson and for the China Mission. He prayed for God’s grace and the presenceof peace on those who worked for God in China.135 He died at 10.00 p.m.,and his body was moved to Macau the next day. The inscription on his gravereads as follows.

Sacred to the Memory ofROBERT MORRISON, D.D.,The first Protestant Missionary to

CHINA:Where, – after a service of Twenty-seven years,

Cheerfully spent in extending the kingdom of the blessed Redeemer,during which period he compiled and published

A DICTIONARY OF THE CHINESE LANGUAGE;Founded the Anglo-Chinese College at Malacca;

And, for several years laboured alone on a Chinese version ofTHE HOLY SCRIPTURES,

Which he was spared to see completed, and widely circulatedamong those for whom it was destined,—

He sweetly slept in Jesus.He was born at Morpeth, January 5th, 1782;

Was sent to China, by the London Missionary Society, in 1807 ;Was for twenty-five years Chinese Interpreter, in the employ of

the East India Company;And died at Canton, August 1st 1834.

- - - - - -Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord, from henceforth:

Yea, saith the Spirit ;that they may rest from their labours ;and their works do follow them.136

134 Morrison, Memoirs, ii. 533. 135 Ibid. ii. 539. 136 Ibid. ii. 541.

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