The China Mission
On October 25, 1833, Samuel Wells Williams stepped off the Morrison at Whampoa and ferried up to the foreign factories. He moved into the American Factory, where he lived without paying rent in the quarters of D.W. Olyphant, an American merchant who possessed a strong passion for missions.[10] At that time, the Protestant mission, though charged with transforming China into a Christian stronghold, consisted of only a small handful of men, the most important of whom were Robert Morrison (British) and Elijah Bridgman (American). To date, the mission had secured but two Chinese converts.[11] Clearly, much work remained to be done in the district of Canton's foreign factories.
Williams quickly learned why conditions were so unfavorable for missionary work. First of all, missionaries constituted a small minority in what was otherwise a colony of foreign merchants. “Collected from all parts of the world,” Williams wrote, the merchants were animated by “the single desire to make money.” The avarice of these “wicked men” increased the difficulty of his job. Since the merchants were so visible, the Chinese viewed their behavior as reflective of the morals and values of Christian lands. And when these men trafficked in opium, it was that much harder for Williams and others to sell the Gospel. For this reason, he referred to merchants as “active guerilla parties of the evil one,” meaning Satan.[12]
Second, the Qing government thwarted the ambitions of the missionaries by erecting obstacles. Williams and the others were barred from venturing beyond the narrow perimeter of Canton’s foreign factories, a limitation on their mobility that severely curtailed their evangelism. Making prospects bleaker still, the Qing government also built barriers designed to block meaningful communications between foreigners and Chinese. The most important of these concerned language: Chinese subjects were forbidden from teaching their language to foreigners.
Despite this restriction, Williams understood language to be the key to the success of the Protestant mission. If he could not speak to the people of China and could not print religious tracts in Chinese, the Christian cause was obviously hopeless. To learn Chinese, Williams undertook a clandestine Chinese language program, hiring teachers who took him on as a student only at tremendous personal risk. One teacher brought shoes to every lesson so that, should Chinese officials abruptly intrude upon a lesson, “he could pretend he was a Chinese manufacturer of foreign shoes.” Robert Morrison’s instructor resorted to more drastic measures. He carried poison to each session, believing a quick death preferable to the torture that would result from the discovery of his illegal activity.[13]
In addition to tutorials, Williams launched an ambitious program of self-study. For an average of five to six hours a day, he adhered to a strict regimen that required him to write Chinese characters over and over again, in meticulous and methodical fashion.[14] To add an element of practical experience, he sought out conversations with ordinary Chinese during walks that he took on an average of twice each day. Arising each morning half an hour before sunrise, Williams typically would stroll out into the public square to enjoy the cool morning air and chat with the Chinese vendors preparing to sell vegetables. After dark, he would venture out again. He found that the Chinese would react to him varying degrees of cooperation; while some called him a “teacher” or a “gentleman,” others spurned him as a “foreign devil.”[15] As he got better, he tried to engage the Chinese in serious conversations about the Savior but discovered they preferred to “ask the price of your jacket” or “discuss the size of your nose.”[16] This work formed the basis of Williams' 1844 language dictionary, English and Chinese Vocabulary in Court Dialect.
As Williams placed language study at the top of his list of priorities, other ambitions necessarily suffered, one of which was science. “I have latterly paid but little attention to natural science,” he wrote his brother in 1835, “having concluded to wait until I have acquired sufficient knowledge of the Chinese language. It is now the chief end of my desires & of my life to promote the cause of Christ among this people.” Though Williams regarded natural history as a worthy intellectual pursuit, he also understood it as a decidedly personal ambition. He knew that to be a missionary, he needed to adhere to God’s divine plan – even if that meant subordinating his own interests. However, while deemphasizing natural history, Williams did not abandon it completely. In a letter to his brother, he wrote excitedly about 300 species of fish he had examined. Yet amid all this exuberance, one senses the concomitant pang of guilt of one who felt he was shirking his religious responsibilities. In the same letter, he admitted apologetically, “I cannot keep my fingers off these pretty flowers and curious bugs.”The implication was that he should.[17]
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[10] Andrew T. Kaiser, “S. Wells Williams: Early Protestant Missions in China” (M.A. Thesis, Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, 1995), 33.
[11] Samuel Wells Williams, “Autobiographical Sketch” (April, 1878). Box 13. Series 2. SWWFP.
[12] Letter to Sarah Walworth, August 30, 1847. Box 1. Series 1. SWWFP.
[13] Frederick Wells Williams, 58-59.
[14] Letter to Peter Parker, August of 1839 (the letter does not contain a precise date). Box 1. Series 1. SWWFP. Approximate two of the hours were devoted to the study of Japanese. In 1836, Williams met three Japanese sailors in Macao whose vessel had been blown away from the Japanese coast by a storm. In 1837, Williams and others failed in their attempt to repatriate the men (and establish contact with the Japanese) in what was called the “Morrison Expedition.” Yet after their efforts were repulsed, Williams employed them in his printing office and studied Japanese with them regularly. Frederick Wells Williams, 83, 93-100.
[15] Frederick Wells Williams, 107-108.
[16] Letter to Frederick Williams, July 29, 1840. Box 1. Series 1. SWWFP.
[17] Letter to Frederick Williams, May 15, 1841. Box 1. Series 1. SWWFP.
