In the preceding part of this article, you have read about the
establishment of the China Inland Mission under Hudson Taylor, as well as its
various successes and challenges that shaped it to be what it was by the turn
of the 20th century. Indeed, Taylor’s principle of “faith missions”
in all of CIM’s undertakings became the missionary society’s ultimate propeller
in bringing it to the forefront of Protestant Christian missions in the late
Qing Dynasty.
Amidst all of the CIM’s successes in the
missionary field throughout the decades that followed its nadir in 1874, none
stood out more than the introduction and spread of the gospel in the northern
highland province of Shanxi (山西, Shānxī). Francis James (秀耀春, Xiù
Yàochūn) (1851 – 1900) and Joshua Turner (德治安, Dé Zhì’ān) were the first
missionaries of the CIM who pioneered missionary work in the province. Having
arrived in Shanxi in November 1876, they were greeted with a breathtaking
scenery of grand mountains and valleys adorned with rich cultivation and
self-sufficient villages in almost every corner of the region. Little did they
know at that time, however, that the spectacular scenery of the entire region
would soon turn into a ghastly sight of dying wastelands and disintegrating
villages strewn with nothing but bones and death everywhere, as the 1876-1879
Great Famine of Northern China (丁戊奇荒, Dīngwù Qíhuāng) reared its
ugly face throughout several provinces in northern China.
Location of Shanxi Province in China
The famine was so severe that by 1879,
an estimated nine million victims perished, five million being from Shanxi
alone. People had to resort to eating stones, mud, soil and dried leaves,
leaving countless dead, while those who survived sold themselves as slaves to
any passing merchants who were generous enough to buy them. As Timothy Richard
(whom I’ll discuss later) once wrote:
“January 29th [1878]. 140 li south [of
Taiyuan]. Passed four dead men on the road.…Passed two men apparently just
dead. One had good clothes on but had died of hunger….January 30th.
290 li south. Saw fourteen dead by the roadside….Saw men grinding soft
stones…into powder…to be mixed with any grain or grass seed, or roots and made
into cakes….We passed many houses without doors and window frames….The owners
had gone away and died….Saw only seven [dead] persons today, but no woman among
them. This was explained by meeting carts daily full of women being taken away
for sale.”
(Richard, 1878)
Artwork illustrating the harsh sufferings of the inhabitants of northern China during the 1876-1879 Great Famine of Northern China
Reaching the provincial capital of
Taiyuan (太原, Tàiyuán) in April 1877, James and Turner
were welcomed with similar heart-wrenching sights. Food became a luxury as the
drought prolonged and drained the entire region of all viable crops. Despite
all these, nothing was done to relieve the people’s sufferings, partially due
to the indifference of the local authorities and partially due to a lack of
proper roads and transportation systems.
Nothing but hardships and death prevailed during the great famine, and even children were not spared, as illustrated in this picture
As far as
the province of Shanxi was concerned, Protestant Christian missionaries were
not the first Christian missionaries to have introduced the gospel to the local
people. Dating as far back as the Tang Dynasty (唐朝, Táng Cháo) (618 – 907),
Shanxi received significant influences from the various major faiths of the
world, including Nestorian Christianity, as they were brought into Tang China
through the Silk Road. Catholic missionaries were also active in the province
since the early 1700s, having reportedly converted 2000 people in the vicinity
of Taiyuan. In spite of Emperor Qianlong’s proscription of Christianity in
1724, the Catholic Chinese population continued to grow, and strong Catholic
communities persisted and flourished. In fact, even as far as Protestant
Christian missionaries were concerned, James and Turner were not the only ones
to have pioneered Protestant missions in Shanxi, as they were joined by such
contemporaries as Timothy Richard (李提摩太, Lĭ Tímótài) (1845 – 1919)
of the Baptist Missionary Society (BMS) and David Hill (李修善, Lĭ
Xiūshàn) (1840 – 1896) of the English Wesleyan Methodist Society.
Church of Our Lady of Seven Sorrows, also known as the Church of Seven Sorrows Hill (七苦山圣母堂, Qīkŭshān
Shèngmŭ Táng), a famous pilgrimage spot for Chinese Catholic Christians in northern China situated near Taiyuan
In the
face of such a severe famine, the Protestant missionaries decided that
something should be done to relieve the suffering of the people. Richard took
proactive steps in coordinating the delivery of food and money into Shanxi, and
James, Turner and Hill also contributed their share of hard work and
cooperation in coordinating and distributing relief to the suffering. They
devoted nearly 2 years to active relief work, distributing food, money and basic
supplies liberally to the suffering without expecting anyone to convert or join
the church in return.
When the
famine receded in 1879, living conditions started to improve and the
missionaries could then concentrate more of their time and energy in
propagation of the gospel. By mutual agreement, the BMS missionaries would
concentrate their activities in the region north of Taiyuan, while the CIM
missionaries covered the south. They frequently met, prayed, discussed
missionary matters and planned missionary activities together in unison.
Timothy Richard (李提摩太) (1845 - 1919)
One
unique feature regarding the methods used by the Protestant missionaries in
Shanxi to propagate the gospel was the use of the Wordless Book. First employed
by Protestant missionaries in Africa in 1877, it was then introduced amongst
missionaries in Shanxi by Jeannie Taylor (1843 – 1904), Hudson Taylor’s wife.
She first used it to introduce the gospel amongst Chinese women and young girls
who were taught to sew for a living under the CIM in the aftermath of the
famine. The use of the Wordless Book proved to be so popular and effective that
other missionaries in China, beginning from Shanxi, soon utilized it in public
preaching.
Missionaries in China preaching in open air using the Wordless Book. As can be seen in this illustration, the Wordless Book comprises silk, cloth or paper of four different colours sewn together to form a continuous "book." The black represents the blackness of sin, the red represents the blood of Jesus that cleanses from all sin, the white represents purity of those who believe in Jesus as their sins are washed away, and the gold represents the golden streets of the heavenly New Jerusalem
Besides
preaching and spreading the gospel, the missionaries were also actively
involved in establishing schools, hospitals, orphanages and opium relief
centres. The aftermath of the famine left many homeless, jobless, parentless
and without families, and many resorted to opium as an escape route from the
harsh realities that faced them. Large amounts of medicines to cure opium
addiction were brought in by the missionaries to be distributed amongst the
opium addicts, who were said to have formed a whopping 70 percent of the whole
adult population in Taiyuan at that time. Schools and orphanages established by
the missionaries became centres for providing basic education and training to
the countless number of people who lost their jobs and means of living in the
wake of the great famine.
Richard,
Hill and James paid much attention to spreading the gospel not only to the
farming and working classes of society, but also to the aristocratic and
scholarly. They distributed tracts and pamphlets regarding Christian philosophy
and commentaries during such important events as the Chinese civil service
exams held by the Qing government, where many scholars and learned individuals
would gather. Although converts were not necessarily many all the time, the
tracts and pamphlets were widely received and read by the scholarly class.
Artist's impression of civil service examinations held in imperial China
In order
to promote deeper understanding and interest for the gospel amongst the general
public and the scholarly community in particular, Hill undertook a creative
idea suggested by one of the new Chinese believers in Taiyuan. An essay contest
was held, in which members of the public could write and send in essays that
covered various open-ended topics and questions, such as The Source of True Doctrine (真道之源), Rewards and Punishments (赏善罚恶), The
Regulation of the Heart (正心) and On Opium (大烟). Participants were required to write on these
topics based on a Christian viewpoint and an understanding of biblical
teachings, and the best essays would then win lucrative cash prizes.
This new
method of promoting the gospel soon became an instant success among the people.
Hill received many enthusiastic entries, some of which were written with total
disregard for the gospel, and others with varying degrees of understanding of
biblical teachings. Some made attempts to relate those topics to Christian
teachings, while others expounded them entirely based on Confucian or Buddhist
philosophies. Out of all the entries received, Hill finally selected four
essays that he felt were most well-written from a Christian standpoint. Three
of these were written by a single person under different pseudonyms, and that
person was none other than Xi Zizhi (席子直, Xí Zizhí) (1836 – 1896),
who later became the renowned and venerated Pastor Xi of Shanxi.
Pastor Xi Shengmo (席胜魔) (1836 - 1896) also known as Xi Zizhi (席子直) of Shanxi
Xi was a
broken-down Confucian scholar who had been under the influence of opium for
quite some time, having tried to break his addiction several times but to no
avail. He had a strong resentment and suspicion for anything foreign in origin,
for he believed that it was the Western powers’ fault for bringing opium into
China and thus plaguing Chinese society with the curse of opium addiction. When
Hill and the other Protestant missionaries made active efforts in spreading the
gospel to the public, Xi was highly sceptical of the gospel’s message and
distanced himself from the missionaries for fear of being bewitched by a
“foreign religion.” Nonetheless, he was at the same time interested to know
what Christianity had to offer in terms of its teachings, philosophies and
outlook towards life issues, having read some of the Christian tracts and
pamphlets that Hill distributed.
In spite
of his suspicions towards Christianity and his reluctance to meet Hill, Xi
finally made the decision to meet the missionary in person to claim his prize.
Far from what Xi had expected, Hill was a compassionate and kind gentleman who
lived a holy life by example and not merely by words. He was greatly impressed
by Hill’s kindly demeanour and godly character, which did not in any bit resemble
his initial impressions of a typical devilish Westerner who sought to corrupt
the culture and systems of China. Hill, on the other hand, was also impressed
by Xi’s depth of knowledge as reflected in the essays that he wrote, and he saw
a potential for the fallen scholar to regain his lustre and meaning in life
once again. As a result of the meeting, Xi willingly took up Hill’s offer to
become a translator and writer for Chinese Christian tracts and materials.
David Hill (李修善) (1840 - 1896)
Throughout
the time he was working under Hill, Xi acquired a lot of knowledge regarding
Christianity and the gospel. He felt that the more he studied the gospel and
understood it, the more he felt a sense of meaning and hope in his
poverty-stricken, opium-controlled life. He felt that Christianity gave him a
sense of peace and inner joy that he had never been able to attain since his
youth, and that the gospel had now given him a ray of light in his life of
darkness. Not long after, he took the major step of becoming a Christian,
thereafter declaring a personal war against his opium addiction. It was his
toughest challenge, but he persevered with desperate and fervent prayer, and
was finally able to completely break himself off the addiction. As a sign of his
new born-again life, he took on a new name, Xi Shengmo (席胜魔, Xí
Shèngmó), which literally means “Overcomer of Demons,” having overcame his
past life of addiction, spiritual poverty and hopelessness with a renewed life
of hope in Christ.
Xi became
a very active preacher and advocator of the gospel after his conversion and
subsequent baptism. Being assertive and impulsive in temperament since his
youth, his disposition now manifested itself as a firebrand preacher who was
always eager to spread the gospel wherever he went. Frequent prayers and
fasting coloured his new life, and he himself became an active missionary among
his own people. Through devoted prayer and strict fasting, Pastor Xi was able
to heal many of those who were demon-possessed or physically ill, and many came
to him for healing and prayer. In the eyes of the Chinese who came to him, one
thing stood out about the way in which he administered healing and exorcism –
he relied on prayer, fasting and verbal commands in the name of Jesus (just
like in the Bible) rather than gruesome methods such as blood-letting and self-mutilation
that was customary for Taoist exorcists in their practices.
Pastor Xi (seated at the centre) with fellow Chinese Christian missionaries
Pastor Xi embodied the very example of
an independent Chinese Christian missionary of his era. In most of his
missionary undertakings, he relied almost entirely on his own resources or
benevolent offerings from Chinese Christians. He solicited nothing from the
Western missionaries except for occasional advice pertaining to theological
questions, but he maintained a close relationship with them, especially with
missionaries from the CIM. He was an active church-planter, having constructed
several churches and established strong congregations throughout Shanxi without
the aid of Western missionaries. Having been an opium addict himself, Pastor Xi
also made curbing opium addiction a priority in his missionary efforts. He was
instrumental in setting up numerous addiction centres in Shanxi and beyond, so
much so that by 1906, that is 10 years after his death, there were as many as
45 treatment centres in four northern provinces that had managed to
successfully treat an estimated 300,000 opium addicts.
Opium was perhaps the greatest curse brought by Western powers to China, and opium dens were the centres of hallucination that led to the eventual decline of the Qing Dynasty economy and political power
Pastor Xi’s approach to propagating the
gospel and introducing Christianity to the Chinese was unparalleled by any
other Western missionary in China during his era. Having studied Confucian
literature as a scholar in the past, he came to the conclusion that Christianity
was not a foreign doctrine, but rather a return to China’s ancient monotheism
in traditional Chinese religion, in which the Chinese once worshipped a supreme
deity known as Shangdi (上帝, Shàngdì).
(Shangdi is in fact the term used to
refer to God in many of today’s Chinese Bibles and Christian literature.)
Pastor Xi made this the core principle in all of his preaching and missionary
outreach to his fellow countrymen.
Besides
all these, Pastor Xi was also a prolific writer of Christian hymns, poems and
tracts. He was a gifted poet, and many
of his hymns were well received and liked by the Chinese Christians of his era.
One of his most renowned works was a hymn entitled A Song of Sacrifice (席胜魔献身之歌, Xí Shèngmó Xiànshēn Zhīgē).
Part of the hymn is as follows:
“When Thou would
light the darkness, Lord,
Then I would be the
silver lamp,
Whose oil supply can
never fail,
Placed high to shed
the beams afar,
That darkness may be
turned to light,
And men and women see
Thy face.”
主祢要照黑夜，我愿作银灯
Indeed,
Pastor Xi’s undivided devotion to missionary work and opium relief efforts in
northern China earned even the respect and admiration of Hudson Taylor himself,
so much so that during the latter’s maiden visit to Shanxi in 1886, he
personally met and reaffirmed the great Chinese pastor’s position as
supervising pastor of Shanxi. Pastor Xi’s fame also earned him great respect
from other CIM missionaries, and he became perhaps the most well-known Chinese
Protestant in the 19th century. His death in 1896 was a great loss
to the Chinese Christian communities in Shanxi, but the work that he pioneered
during his lifetime continued to flourish throughout northern China for the
next few years.
With
that, let us now proceed to the final part of this article.
Main
References:
1. Richard,
T., 1878. Forty-five years in China. In: Austin, A., 2007. China’s millions: the China Inland Mission and late Qing society, 1832
– 1905. Cambridge: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.
2. Austin,
A., 2007. China’s millions: the China Inland
Mission and late Qing society, 1832 – 1905. Cambridge: Wm. B. Eerdmans
Publishing Co.
No comments:
Post a Comment