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Jones, Francis Price (1890-1975)

Missionary Teacher, Translator, And Musician

Born in Dodgeville, Wisconsin. Jones entered Platteville Teachers’ Training College in 1907. In 1911, he went on to Northwestern University and Garrett Evangelical Theological Seminary. Upon graduation, he furthered his studies at the University of Chicago. Jones came to China (Fukien, Hinghwa) in 1915 for mission work. In 1930, during his furlough, he studied at Union Theological Seminary in New York and obtained a master of sacred theology degree.

In the same year, upon his return to China, he taught at Nanking University and served on a hymnal committee, which included Bliss Wiant, to produce the final version of Pu tian song zan (Hymns of Universal Praise). In 1937, he taught New Testament studies at Nanking Theological Seminary and founded the seminary’s school of sacred music. In 1938, Jones started to read for his doctoral degree at Union Theological Seminary. During the Sino-Japanese War, he went to Szechwan, Chentu, and began work in translating and editing Christian classical literature. The original plan was to produce 54 volumes of classics, but it had to be shelved as a result of political changes.

In 1951, Jones returned to America and taught at Drew Theological Seminary. He also worked as chief editor for China’s News in Brief for 11 years. He retired in 1960 but continued his translation work with Xu Mu Shi and Xie Fu Ya in the Association of Theological Schools in South East Asia. His translations included works of E. D. E. Schleiermacher and Von Hugel. His contribution was commended as equivalent to that of Kumarajiva, who in the Tang dynasty translated major classical works of Buddhism.

By China Group, A Collaboration of China Scholars

This article is taken, with permission, from the Biographical Dictionary of Chinese Christianity: http://www.bdcconline.net/en/stories/j/jones-francis-price.php

Maclay, Robert Samuel (1824-1907)

Methodist Episcopal Missionary To China And Japan

Born in Concord, Pennsylvania, Maclay graduated from Dickinson College, Carlisle, Pennsylvania, in 1846.

He arrived in China in 1848 and was secretary, superintendent, and treasurer for Methodist missions in China from 1852 to 1872. In 1861, he wrote Life among the Chinese. He also helped translate the Bible into Min.

In 1872, he was appointed superintendent of Methodist work in Japan. He was also asked to study the possibilities for beginning Methodist work in Korea, and in June 1884, he arrived in Seoul to make a survey. He was subsequently appointed the first superintendent of the work in Korea, working from Japan.

Much as he wanted to begin the work in Korea himself, this fell to Henry Appenzeller and William Scranton, who arrived in Japan with their wives in March 1885. Within a month—on Easter Sunday, April 5, 1885—Henry and Ella Appenzeller arrived in Juchon, the first Methodist missionaries in Korea. Maclay returned to the United States in 1887; he is buried in Los Angeles, California.

By Everett N. Hunt, Jr., Former Professor of the History of Missions, E. Stanley Jones School of World Mission and Evangelism, Asbury Theological Seminary, Wilmore, Kentucky, USA

This article is reprinted from Biographical Dictionary of Christian Missions, Macmillan Reference USA, copyright 1998 Gerald H. Anderson, by permission of The Gale Group; Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., Grand Rapids, Michigan. All rights reserved. It is taken, with permission, from the Biographical Dictionary of Chinese Christianity: http://www.bdcconline.net/en/stories/m/maclay-robert-samuel.php

Sources:

Robert S. Maclay “A Fortnight in Seoul, Korea, 1884” and “Commencement of the Korea Methodist Episcopal Mission,” Gospel in All Lands 22 (August 1896): 354-356, 498-502.

Everett N. Hunt, Jr., Protestant Pioneers in Korea (1980);

George Paik, The History of Protestant Missions in Korea, 1832-1910 (1971);

Charles D. Stokes, “History of Methodist Missions in Korea, 1885-1930” (Ph.D. diss., Yale Univ., 1947).

White, Moses Clark (1819-1900)

Methodist Episcopal Pioneer In China

Born in Paris, New York, White studied both theology and medicine at Yale University after graduating from Wesleyan University. He and his wife, Jane Atwater White, together with Judson D. Collins, arrived in Foochow (Fuzhou) in September 1847, and opened the first Methodist work in China. In 1851, three years after the death of his wife, White married Mary Seely shortly after her arrival in China.

Like the American Board and Anglican missionaries who preceded them, the American Methodists met opposition and hostility. White was beaten by a mob in 1848. In the “White-Colder” case, they encountered bitter and protracted opposition to the construction of mission residences on property they had purchased. They opened a chapel where White preached to the curious who came in from the street. They printed a hymnal, with colloquial translations of Western hymns, and printed a colloquial version of Matthew’s gospel, all translated by White. Although their primary goal was to make converts to Christianity, White and his colleagues practiced medicine and opened small day schools.

Because of Mary’s poor health, the Whites were forced to return to the United States in 1852, never to return to China; the first Methodist convert was not baptized until five years later. White undertook further medical studies and for many years was a well-known professor of medicine at Yale while continuing as a superannuated clergy member of the Methodist Church.

By Donald E. MacInnis, Formerly Director of the China Program, National Council of Churches in the USA, Coordinator for China Research of the Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers, Maryknoll, New York, USA

Sources:

Wade Crawford Barclay, History of Methodist Missions, pt. 2, The Methodist Episcopal Church, 1845-1939, vol. 3, Widening Horizons, 1845-1895 (1957);

Ellsworth C. Carlson, The Foochow Missionaries: 1847-1880 (1974);

Walter N. Lacy, A Hundred Years of China Methodism (1948);

J. M. Reid and J. T. Gracey, Missions and Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church, vol. 1 (1895).

White MSS relating to the founding of Methodist Missions in Foochow, China, are in the Methodist archives, Madison, N.J.

Anderson, Sidney (An Disheng) (1889-1978)

Leader At Moore Memorial Church, Shanghai

Sidney Raymond Anderson was born on December 7, 1889 in Rising Star, Texas, where his father ran a large farm and also the general store. Olive Watkins Lipscomb was born on October 8, 1890 in Greenwood, Mississippi, the daughter of a college dean and a Methodist minister. Sid was educated at Rising Star High School, the Polytechnic College (later Southern Methodist University) and Vanderbilt Divinity School, graduating in 1914. Olive was also a college graduate, attending Scarritt College and Vanderbilt University, where she and Sid met.

Olive’s mother (Bessie Watkins Lipsomb, 1869-1957) had been very active in the missionary movement and had been to China. This influenced Olive and Sid to choose China as their mission field and their first full time job. Sid arrived in China in August 1914 and was ordained at the East China Conference in Suzhou (Soochow) in 1915. He studied Chinese in Songjiang (Sungkiang) and became fluent in the local dialect (Shanghainese). Initially, he worked in the countryside of Jiangsu Province, riding “foot boats” around a circuit of small towns and villages that seldom saw any western faces. Meanwhile, Olive left America in September 1915, on board the SS Mongolia. She taught English at a girls’ high school in Suzhou (Soochow) until 1919 and then returned to America on furlough.

Olive and Sid were married during this first furlough, on December 17^th, 1920, in her mother’s apartment in Nashville, Tennessee, Dean Tillett of Vanderbilt performing the wedding ceremony. They returned to China after their honeymoon around the world through Europe. Their only child, Sidney Junior, was born in Kuling (Lushan) on August 29, 1922.

Olive and Sid spent the best part of the next thirty years working at Moore Memorial Church (MMC), the largest Protestant church in East Asia, located in downtown Shanghai. Moore was an Institutional Church, running many social programs. They oversaw a very busy seven day a week program, including choirs, a kindergarten, health clinics, Sunday school and many different relief organizations, touching from 1000 to 2000 persons daily. When Bob Pierce visited the church in July 1947, he was so inspired by what he saw that he went on to found World Vision.

One of the most interesting and unusual of the many community groups associated with MMC in this era was the 3Ns Club of “nine naughty but nice girls”. These girls rented a rundown building in the so-called “badlands” area of Shanghai and ran it as a community center, day school and health clinic. Some of the leaders of the local gangs gave help and support to the club, hoping that through this their children would receive an education and therefore not be forced to turn to crime when they grew up.

Another important group was the shoe shine co-operative for homeless boys. The purpose of this group was not to train boys for a life of shining shoes, but to give them a start at independence, suggesting exciting goals they had never dreamed of.

Later in life, when asked to speak about his experiences in Shanghai, Sid Anderson often told the story of one of his little shoe shine boys:

The wide reach of these groups and the interests involved may be illustrated by an incident a few years ago in Hong Kong. I was in a Barber Shop, and suddenly someone was shining my shoes. I said, “Never mind, I shine my own shoes”; and a young man said, “Never mind Pastor An, I am one of the Boot-black group in the MMC. I got across the border and temporarily am making my way by shining shoes. Your bill is already paid – and I remember our happy experiences in the MMC.”

The work of the Andersons was interrupted by the Pacific War. Olive had already returned to the United States prior to Pearl Harbor, for treatment at the Mayo Clinic for suspected breast cancer. Sid was interned by the Japanese at a camp in Pudong between February and September 1943, before being repatriated aboard the MS Gripsholm as part of a prisoner swap with the USA.

In 1945, Sid was awarded an honorary Doctor of Divinity from the Texas college he had graduated from back in 1914. From then on, he was proud to be known as “Dr. Anderson”. The Andersons returned to Shanghai after the war and resumed their busy life at Moore Memorial. But things became increasingly difficult as civil war engulfed China. They stayed on for a while after the communist takeover, hoping to continue their work under the new regime, but were eventually forced to leave, on July 25^th, 1950.

A former colleague of the Andersons, Bishop Jiang Changchuan (ZT Kaung), denounced them in June 1951, as part of the “accusation movement”. At a rally of over ten thousand people held at the former dog racing track, he attacked Sid Anderson and Bishop Ralph Ward as “jackals and wolves” draped in a religious cloak, who had worked with Bishop Chen Wenyuan to enslave the Chinese people. Friends of the Andersons sent a translation of proceedings at the meeting to them. They forgave Jiang, on the basis that he must have been pressured into reading a prepared script.

Soon afterwards, in August 1951, the Andersons arrived in Hong Kong, where they helped to found the North Point Methodist Church. They spent twelve years there, caring for refugees from the mainland Methodist conferences, opening schools and clinics, and carrying on a program of personal counseling. The helped nurture future leaders of the church in Hong Kong, such as Lincoln Leung. A plaque inside the foyer of that church commemorates the contribution that the Andersons made to Christian life in both Shanghai and Hong Kong. In July 1963, they retired to San Francisco, and were active members of the inner city Glide Memorial Church. In 1971, Sid and Olive retired to a church retirement home, “Wesley Woods” in Atlanta, Georgia. Olive passed away quietly on January 4, 1978 and Sid soon after, on February 28. On March 12, 1978, at their request, their ashes were scattered at sea off the coast of New England, hoping that they would float across the ocean and return to their beloved Shanghai.

By John Craig Keating. He holds a Master’s degree in Chinese Studies and a PhD in Chinese History. He has recently published A Protestant Church in Communist China (Bethlehem PA: Lehigh University Press, 2012), a case study of Moore Memorial Church, one of the largest Protestant churches in China. He lives in Melbourne, Australia, with his wife and four daughters.

This article is taken, with permission, from the Biographical Dictionary of Chinese Christianity: http://www.bdcconline.net/en/stories/a/anderson-sidney.php

Sources:

Unpublished

Oral interviews with Sid Anderson Jnr in New Milford CT (son of Sid and Olive Anderson), 2001-06.

Letters between the Andersons and their family in America, 1914-79.

Xie, Songsan, Moertang shilue [A summary of the history of Moore Memorial Church], unpublished manuscript, Shanghai, 1950.

Published

Anderson, Sid Jr., China My Great Teacher, Xlibris, 2005.

Keating, John Craig William, A Protestant Church in Communist China, Bethlehem PA: Lehigh University Press, 2012.

Lin, Chongzhi, Banshiji de zhufu [A half century of blessings], Hong Kong: North Point Methodist Church, 2003.

Atkinson, Virginia (1861-1914)

Mission Education Innovator In China

Virginia Atkinson became a Methodist after being brought up by her cousins in a textile mill home. Atkinson suffered an unhappy childhood, losing her mother and her stepmother early in life. Her father (a minister) then sent her to live with her cousins in Rock Mills, Alabama at the age of eight. He tied a tag on her clothing with her name and destination and told her older brother to take her to the train station, buy her a ticket, and put her on the train from Georgia to Alabama.

After graduating from LaGrange College with first honors, Atkinson became a teacher in Rock Mills. When the Methodist newspaper put out a call for nine unmarried women missionaries in 1884, Atkinson responded. She headed to China, but having received no orientation and suffering a lack of confidence because of her childhood trauma, Atkinson felt inadequately prepared for the work. Nevertheless, she left behind all that she knew and set sail for this foreign country. She traveled with a group of other Methodist missionaries, but being timid by nature, she was afraid of the strange people, the boat, the water, and the storms.

Once in Shanghai, she moved in with three other single women and began her Chinese language study. She became frustrated with the long hours of language tutoring and wanted to assume her teaching duties immediately. When her supervisor refused her request, she sneaked away to visit her school. Once there, she observed a student reciting Confucian classics, stepping to the rhythm of the words. A Chinese teacher slapped him with the ruler whenever he stumbled. Atkinson was upset by the teacher’s methods and lack of explanation of the text, but she realized by watching the student that Chinese was a matter of rhythm as well as sounds. This revelation inspired her to practice her own Chinese lessons to the rhythm of her feet.

She met with her Chinese tutor less and less, but learned more and more Chinese. Her American supervisor was wary of her system of acquiring the language and warned her that she must pass her first examination. Atkinson proved herself by achieving the highest score ever on the test. The Chinese were amazed at her skill with their language and enjoyed her playful spirit.

Although Atkinson began her teaching in Shanghai, in 1889 she moved to Suzhou (Soochow), a city some fifty miles inland from Shanghai, and spent most of her teaching career there. When Atkinson first arrived, mission schools suffered from a poor curriculum, Chinese teachers who were cruel to the students, and a low attendance, despite free tuition. Atkinson was put in charge of five Methodist day schools in Suzhou, which only averaged about thirteen pupils each. Parents saw no need to educate their daughters, which drove Atkinson to increasing frustration. She resolved to reform the devaluation of women among Chinese.

Over the next forty years, Atkinson started four innovative and different types of schools: a modern kindergarten, an industrial school for women, a teacher-training institute, and the Davidson School. Atkinson offered physical education and music classes for girls (she was the first music teacher among Methodist missionaries), and she modernized the curriculum. She recruited a Chinese co-principal for the Davidson School before the Chinese government required it, making the transition smooth when the Nationalist government decreed that schools had to be directed by Chinese principles in order to be accredited. Through these schools, much of the indigenous Methodist leadership in Central China was nurtured, including physicians, teachers, and Bible women. Atkinson’s schools gave women opportunity, which eventually led to the expansion of women’s rights over the period of time she served in China. Having received an education, women were able to take positions of leadership in Chinese society.

Atkinson began the Industrial School of Suzhou (later called the Moka Garden Embroidery Mission), where she paid women a generous salary of $7.50 a month. At first, they embroidered robes for the wealthy, but later they produced table linen and underwear, which was bought up by eager consumers in the United States. Production was limited only by the number of embroiderers. They began work at 8:30am, had a morning and an afternoon break, a chapel service, lunch, and a Bible study, and ended by 5:00pm. By Chinese standards, this was an easy schedule. The industrial school helped to relieve Suzhou’s unemployment, and it created evangelistic opportunities for Methodist missionaries.

Although Atkinson was timid and delayed her first furlough for fear of public speaking back home, in time she became a feature at missionary societies and Alabama Conference meetings. She spoke at the Women’s Missionary Council meeting in 1927, where she addressed the improving social status of Chinese women, the development of modern coeducation, and the progress of the Chinese church towards self-government, self-support, and self-propagation. She argued for Chinese sovereignty, insisting that Western nations must give China its freedom. She was so beloved among her constituents at home that the women of East Liberty Baptist Association claimed Atkinson as one of their own, despite the fact that she was a Methodist. Her work in China inspired Baptist women to organize a Woman’s Missionary Union within their Baptist Association.

Atkinson was also an effective fund raiser. When she realized the enormous demand for mission schools and asked for a teacher-training school to help expand her staff to meet this need, the Alabama Conference responded with the funds for its construction. When Atkinson wanted one of her Chinese converts to be able to come to the United States to study elementary education, an American woman gave her a check for $2,000. In later years, the Alabama Conference built a structure to house Atkinson’s embroidery mission for women. She also brought in a steady stream of money for China relief from Japanese aggression during the late 1930s.

When Atkinson moved out of the missionary compound, she lived in a Chinese-style house with forty rooms, large enough to accommodate herself, her boy’s school, her Chinese teacher and his family, another missionary, her Bible women, and an adopted Chinese infant. Atkinson received criticism for dwelling in the city as an unmarried woman with a Chinese baby, but the living arrangement allowed extensive contact with her students and their parents and was beneficial to Atkinson’s work.

Atkinson was close friends with her Bible woman. When she found out that the woman had been forced to sell a daughter in order to survive, Atkinson was so moved that she traveled to Shanghai and bought the girl back. The girl became a Christian and later took over Atkinson’s educational work.

Atkinson learned to defer to Chinese patterns of thought and action in conducting business. In one instance, she inspired a Chinese congregation to increase their contributions to their pastor by Chinese methods of indirection rather than Western style pressure. She believed in self-governance by the Chinese churches, and encouraged the American mission boards to give Chinese churches the chance to administer themselves and make their own contributions to Christianity.

During her time in China, Atkinson suffered from a variety of ailments. Soon after her arrival, she experienced a severe allergic reaction to varnish, followed by high blood pressure, chronic bronchial infections, severe arthritis, and typhoid fever. She heard a rumor that removing teeth cured arthritis, so while home on furlough, she found a dentist who agreed to pull her teeth. Although it did not help her arthritis, Atkinson was satisfied that she had done everything she could to prolong her missionary career in China.

Atkinson witnessed regularly to the children in her school, but at the age of fifty-six, she replaced a friend in women’s evangelistic work. Although the work did not fit with Atkinson’s personality because of her shy nature and desire to stay at home, she traveled throughout a wide region and stuck with the work until her retirement. As Atkinson aged, her white hair earned her the appellation of “Honorable Elderly Teacher of Teachers” among the Chinese.

When Atkinson retired, her Chinese friends built a house for her, so that she could remain in her beloved China. She received a small stipend as an emeritus missionary, which provided for her needs and left her a modest sum to help Chinese friends.

In 1941, Atkinson was forced to return to Alabama due to her poor health and the growing threat of war, but she used her time in the United States to mobilize Alabamians against Japan and to promote China missions. When she died, Atkinson asked that her ashes be transported to China. After fifty-seven years there, she thought of China as her home.

By Martha Stockment. Martha Stockment received her B.A. from The University of Virginia in 2009, with double majors in English and psychology. She joined the Global China Center in April of 2013, where she does writing and editing work, along with assisting in marketing and communications. Martha lives in Charlottesville, Virginia with her husband, Andrew.

This article is taken, with permission, from the Biographical Dictionary of Chinese Christianity: http://www.bdcconline.net/en/stories/a/atkinson-virginia.php

Sources:

Wayne Flynt and Gerald W. Berkley, Taking Christianity to China: Alabama Missionaries in the Middle Kingdom, 1850-1950.

Chen, Dayong (?? – 1900)

Methodist Evangelist And Martyr

Chen Dayong (Ch’en Ta-Yung) was born a short distance from the south-east gate of Beijing. As a child, he was described as “a plump, short, round-faced, good-natured, honest boy who enjoyed a good conscience and two meals a day. He was fond of a joke but also fond of his books. One day, a missionary passed through his village. Chen came running out of his house to see the “big nose,” and was intrigued by the books he was selling, with titles such as Entrance to Virtue and Knowledge, Glad Tidings, and Evidences of Christianity. He bought one, and within just a few days its contents had made such an impact on him that he attended the Sunday service of the London Missionary Society. He told the church leaders he was hungry to learn more about Christianity, and he went home that day armed with more material for his soul to devour.

At the time, Chen was engaged to a girl who had been chosen by his parents. Neither they nor his future in-laws were impressed with his new interest in Christianity, but he was undeterred by their opposition. Some months later, he believed and was baptized. His angry mother brought forward the date of his wedding in the hope that it would distract him from this new “doctrine of devils”, but when he announced he would marry only if the ceremony was a Christian one, she was furious and his father disowned him.

Now happily married but penniless, Chen and his new bride needed an income. The Methodist Mission in Beijing offered him work as a gatekeeper which he eagerly accepted. Not only did it afford him the opportunity to share his faith with people on the street, he was also able to continue his study of the Bible. His wife soon made a profession of faith and, though she never learned to read, she matured into a strong Christian. Years later, Chen’s elderly father took his place as gatekeeper of the mission. The man who had disowned his son came back a broken man, begging him for help. Chen was only too glad to give it.

He and his wife had four sons and six daughters, all of whom grew up committed Christians. When the Boxer violence broke out in 1900, Chen was preaching in a small town beyond the Great Wall. The local Christians urged him to flee into the mountains, where they would help conceal him from the murderers, but he replied: “No, I will not leave until all the members of my flock are first hid away.”

On 5 June, Chen, his wife and their youngest son and daughter travelled to the town of Yanqing, about 50 miles (80 kilometers) north-west of Beijing, The Christians had told him all the places they could hide in the mountains and, assisted by the chapel gatekeeper, they were on their way when a man saw them and immediately rushed into the town to tell the Boxers that a group of Christians was escaping. The Boxers quickly rode out and overtook the fleeing family. First, they stripped them of all their possessions. Then Chen’s daughter, who was nicknamed “Apple,” ran screaming to her mother’s arms, from which retreat she saw the savage Boxers and irresponsible rabble kill and behead her father, the chapel keeper and her brother [Chen Weifan], a boy as generous and noble as his three older brothers, while she in childish fear cried out, “Oh, mother, what shall we do? What shall we do?”

“We will all go to our Heavenly Father together,” said the old woman, her faith never wavering to the last, and she and her baby daughter of thirteen were hacked to pieces locked in each other’s arms.

Some months later, the Chens’ third son travelled to Yanqing and recovered their remains to give them a proper burial. It might have seemed natural for this man to long to avenge the ruthless murder of his parents and siblings, but in fact he had already forgiven those who had committed the dastardly acts. The local authorities asked him whether they should track down the murderers and inflict on them the same punishment, but he told them it was not necessary. They asked whether he wanted to apply for compensation for the property his family had lost, and again he said, “No.” The only request he made was: “I should like to go and preach the gospel to the people who murdered my parents.”

By Paul Hattaway, the international director of Asia Harvest, an organization committed to serving the church throughout Asia. He is an expert on the Chinese church and author of the The Heavenly Man and Back to Jerusalem.

This article is taken, with permission, from the Biographical Dictionary of Chinese Christianity: http://www.bdcconline.net/en/stories/c/chen-dayong.php

China’s Book of Martyrs. Carlisle: Piquant Editions, 2007. Used by permission.

Allen, Young John (1836-1907)

Methodist Missionary Printer In China

A graduate of Emory University Georgia, Young was appointed as a missionary by the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. With his family, he arrived in China in July 1860. His initial missionary activity was to preach in Shanghai and nearby villages. But the financial straits of his mission during the American Civil War forced him to combine his Christian ministry with secular employment in a government school in Shanghai, where he taught English and science. This educational experience helped him see that preaching alone would not meet China’s needs.

In May 1868, he became editor of the Chinese-language periodical Shanghai xinbao (Shanghai Daily News). He also founded the Jiaohui xinbao (Church news), which was designed to bring general news to Chinese Christians, to help Chinese know more about the West, and to print religious news. These experiences in journalism led him in 1871 to help the government-run Kiangnan Arsenal translate into Chinese material on history, current events, geography, and other subjects. In 1874 Allen changed the name of jiaohui xinbao to Wanguo Gongbao (Globe Magazine) to reflect the fact that it now included more local and world news than church news. The magazine became increasingly secular as it expanded its readership to include officials, gentry, merchants, and foreigners living in China.

During his later years, Allen continued to edit Globe Magazine and to work with his mission board, serving until 1895 as superintendent of its China mission and as director of a system of schools in Shanghai that he called the Anglo-Chinese School. Throughout his long period in China, Allen creatively combined both religious and secular activity to bring the Christian faith to the Chinese. Shortly before his death, he attended the China Centenary Missionary Conference in Shanghai (1907).

By Ralph R. Covell, Formerly Professor of World Christianity and Academic Dean, Denver Seminary, Denver, Colorado, USA

Sources:

Adrian A. Bennett, Missionary Journalist in China: Young J. Allen and His Magazines, 1860-1883 (1983);

Warren A. Chandler, Young J. Allen: “The Man Who Seeded China” (1931).

SUNG, JOHN (SUNG SHANGJIE) (1901 ~ 1944)

Leading Early 20th-Century Chinese Evangelist

Introduction

Despite his relatively short ministry of preaching, teaching, writing, and healing through prayer, he made a huge impact on his own generation and has left a lasting legacy.

Childhood

John Song was born in Hong Chek Village, Putian, Fujian Province on September 27, 1901, the sixth child and fourth son of Sung Xue Lian, a Methodist pastor. Given the name Zhu En (“God’s Grace”) at birth, he later took on another name, Shangjie (“Noble and frugal”). Song’s father was idolized and imitated by the young boy, who himself was known as “little pastor” because he accompanied his father and even preached to his classmates.

After primary and secondary education in mission schools, he was sent to America to study Bible and theology in preparation for Christian ministry in China.

Education in America

When he arrived in the United States, however, he chose to study chemistry instead, enrolling in Ohio Wesleyan University in 1920. Despite working at several manual jobs in factories and fields, he completed his work for the B.Sc. in three years. Overwork seems to have contributed to the onset of piles, for which he underwent surgery, but which afflicted him for the rest of his life and finally led to his death. After graduating in 1923, he entered Ohio State University, from which he earned a Master’s degree in Chemistry in 1924 and Ph.D. in 1926, winning high academic honors all along the way.

Although he briefly held a position as assistant professor of chemistry and was offered teaching posts at Peking University and elsewhere, in 1926 he honored his early commitment to study theology and entered Union Theological Seminary in New York. The offer of a scholarship greatly influenced his choice of schools. According to his testimony, he continued to read broadly; translated the Dao De Jing into English, and exploring philosophy and history on his own. He was at first influenced by his theologically liberal teachers, but everything changed – again, according to his testimony – when he underwent a dramatic conversion while attending evangelistic meetings in January, 1927. He also said he was born again on February 10 of that year.

Fully transformed, Song zealously evangelized his professors, warning them of eternal punishment if they did not repent. They were not amused, and had him locked up in an insane asylum, where he proceeded to read the Bible through at forty times in seven months. He was released through the efforts of an American pastor, and returned to China in 1927. That is the story which has come down from Song and his biographers, especially Leslie Lyall. Recent research, based partly on reliable archival materials from Union Theological Seminary, paint a different picture. It seems that Song really did suffer some sort of psychological breakdown, leading to hallucinations, strange dreams, visions, and bizarre behavior, including impenetrable letters and diagrams. Having been diagnosed as psychotic by three psychiatrists, he signed the self-admittance form to Bloomingdale Hospital in White Plains, New York. While in the hospital, he probably read the Bible through only three times, though that is still quite an accomplishment. He also expressed a desire to return to Union, but was rebuffed by the president, Henry Sloan Coffin, because the seminary had already spent a large sum of money for his hospital stay and feared another similar costly collapse.

While in the mental hospital, he became obsessed with a female goddess, “Shenmu, the Queen Mother,” whom he variously called, “Mary, Mother of Jesus, Queen of Queens,” “Mary Magdelen, Mother of Christ,” or simply, “Goddess.” On April 4, 1927, he “married” her in a ceremony that included a “holy kill and holy union.” His diaries contain messages that he purportedly received from her. Later, he ceased writing and filled his diaries with complicated digrams and graphs that supposedly showed the correlation between the Gospels and radio waves.

Twelve years of itinerant ministry

Song returned to China instead of resuming classes at Union. One of the first things he did was to visit the temple of Guanyin, a Buddhist figure sometimes merged with the Taoist Queeen Mother of the West.

After some hesitation, he finally married Yu Jin Hua (“Jean”) in December, 1927. The couple would go on to have five children. At first, Song taught chemistry, general science, and Bible at Methodist Christian High School in Fujian to help put his younger brother through college, engaging in evangelism on the weekends, but resigned after one year. Meanwhile, the Guomingdang (KMT; Nationalist Party) became unhappy with him for refusing to have his students bow to the picture of Sun Yat-sen, and initiated a campaign of rumors, threats, and opposition that lasted for the rest of his ministry, even though he always taught that Christians must obey the government.

He joined up with an evangelistic band and traveled around the province, preaching and teaching in small, rural churches for three years, at the request of the Methodist Bishop of the region. In 1930, the bishop appointed him to study the literacy and mass education program of James Yen (Yan Yangchu) near Beijing, but he cut short his visit because he did not think that this effort would bear spiritual fruit.

In 1931 he was invited by Shi Meiyu (Mary Stone) and Jennies Hughes to become a member of the Bethel Worldwide Evangelistic Band and served along with Andrew Gih, Frank Ling, Philip Lee, and Lincoln Neh in northeastern, northern, and southern China. During their first year together, the band preached to more than four hundred thousand people. He was told to leave the band in 1933. He claims that the leaders in Shanghai wrongly suspected him of diverting funds to his own use and intending to set up an independent ministry, but he had become the leading “star” of the group and it might have been just a matter of time before his ministry needed to separate from theirs. He then decided to become a fully independent itinerant revivalist and evangelist.

For the next eight years, he tirelessly traversed the roads and rails of China, and made five epic journeys (1935-1940) to Southeast Asia, including Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam, Myanmar, and Indonesia, as well as the Japanese-occupied island of Taiwan. Preaching in large churches and small, in major cities and rural villages, he attracted huge crowds, many thousands of whom were deeply moved by his preaching, and responded with weeping, open confession of sin, and expressions of commitment to Christ. He battled both external opposition, including slander and threats of death, and internal church division and strife, not to mention his own physical weakness and pain, but he kept pushing on, passionate in his desire to see people come to saving faith in Christ.

“China’s John the Baptist”

His preaching came from the Bible, which he studied carefully, reading eleven chapters daily. He employed parables, real-life stories, and his own personal testimony as illustrations of biblical truths. Sometimes he would call for volunteers to ascend the platform, then hang placards around their necks with specific sins (“lying,” “stealing,” “adultery”) written on them. Quite frequently, he rebuked specific wrongdoing, often pointing out or naming church leaders whose misdeeds he had learned about from their church members. He wrote that a preacher must speak on: “Repentance; Heaven and Hell, and the cross and the blood of Christ;…hating of sin and complete consecration; … being filled with the Holy Spirit; …the life of faith, as well as… love… In addition, one must live a life of hope.” In particular, he stressed the necessity of Christians to follow in the footsteps of Christ, bearing the cross of suffering with faith and joy. The return of Christ figured largely in his preaching, as did reminders that soon all our needs would be more than fully supplied in a New Heaven and a New Earth.

To make a more lasting impact, he organized several Bible conferences, some of them lasting a full month, in which he would expound the entire Bible, book by book. His oral instruction was supplemented by his published testimony and some sermons in several volumes, as well as articles in Christian periodicals.

An excellent actor, Song would play the parts of the various biblical characters whose story he was telling. He paced back and forth across the stage; used “props” such as a small coffin to represent the dark mass of sin within each of us; broke into song or prayer in the midst of his sermons, and otherwise kept his audience enthralled. He composed many songs, which he would teach the congregation to sing with him.

Everywhere he went, John Song sought earnestly to promote church unity. He attacked abuse by leaders; exhorted members to forgive and love each other; and taught them how to follow the meekness of Christ in their relationships with each other. Unlike Watchman Ni, he worked with established churches and always encouraged his converts to go back to their congregations and work for revival.

Prayer for healing

Beginning in December, 1931, John Song exercised a truly stunning ministry of physical healing through prayer. Thousands, perhaps tens of thousands, of people were delivered from all sorts of illnesses, infirmities, and addictions after he prayed for them. These miracles were witnessed by countless people, many of them originally skeptical of this aspect of John Song’s ministry. Opium addicts received instant delivery. Smokers kicked the habit “cold-turkey.” Those possessed by evil spirits were delivered. Blind people received their sight; the lame walked; disabled limbs were healed; leprosy cured instantly.

John Song did not, however, give precedence to physical well-being. At each meeting, he first preached a sermon on the need to repent and to trust fully in Christ for salvation, insisting that full repentance of sins must precede lasting healing. Nor did he emphasize spiritual gifts, but stressed faith in Christ and holiness of life.

Relationships with foreign missionaries

Especially after his peremptory dismissal from the Bethel Band, he was understandably wary of domineering foreign missionaries. In his diaries, he criticized those who opposed his ministry because they were either envious or ignorant of his message; those who lived comfortably, even luxuriously, in the midst of poverty and suffering; those who looked down on their Chinese co-workers; and especially those with liberal theological views. His experience at Union Theological Seminary had thoroughly disillusioned Song, even as it alerted him to the fundamental differences between liberalism and traditional biblical Christianity.

On the other hand, when he came across self-denying, humble missionaries, he commended them freely. Sometimes their willingness to live among the Chinese, eating and dressing like the locals, and serving faithfully for many years, greatly moved him. He gladly welcomed the cooperation of foreigners in his revival and evangelistic efforts, and rejoiced when some of them openly repented of their unbelief and sin. His friendship with the Rev. William E. Schubert was a great mutual blessing.

Personal life

John Song shared the perilous conditions of his fellow citizens. He did not shrink from traveling into combat zones, or preaching with enemy planes flying overhead. In the midst of extreme poverty, he himself lived simply, even ascetically. He insisted upon traveling third class on the train, when he could have afforded better seating. When given money for travel expenses, he typically returned it, or donated most of the funds to someone in greater need. Wearing a plain Chinese-style scholar’s gown and carried a tattered leather briefcase, he stayed wherever he found a welcome or a place to rest, no matter how uncomfortable.

The anal fistulas which he acquired while studying in America flared up whenever he taxed his body too much, which was often. This “thorn,” as he called it, caused him indescribable pain, sometimes forcing him to preach sitting down or even lying on a bed on the platform. He was aware that his own bodily frailty helped to curb his pride and remind him of his sins, especially his short temper.

At various points in his life, and especially towards the end, he realized that he had neglected his family, being gone from home eleven months of the year, including each time his wife gave birth. For the last three years of his life, as he recuperated from six different surgeries outside of Beijing, he exhorted others to spend more time in prayer, believing that he had relied too much on his own strength and not enough upon God.

His marriage had been arranged by his parents, and entered into only with reluctance and reservations, but he sought to bring his wife to faith in Christ. Together they had three girls and two boys, who were all given biblical names.

Evaluation

John Sung’s ministry shared some features with the work of other independent Protestant evangelical preachers in the first half of the 20th century, such as Wang Mingdao, Leland Wang (Wang Zai), Marcus Cheng (Chen Chonggui), Watchman Nee (Ni Tuosheng), Andrew Gih (Ji Zhiwen), and theologian Jia Yuming. They all remained free of formal ties with Western missionaries, though most would cooperate with like-minded foreigners on occasion and Song retained his membership in the Methodist church; held to a similar evangelical theology (sometimes also called “fundamentalism”); and aimed primarily to bring people to a saving faith in Jesus Christ; build a church composed of believers; and advocate holiness of life, in expectation of the return of Christ.

Sung’s distinctives included his confrontational style and ruthless denunciation of sins and of liberal theology; a willingness to confess and ask forgiveness publicly for losing his temper; effective prayer for healing; a unique combination of a simple faith with intellectual brilliance; the organization of evangelistic bands; unusual skill as a dramatic communicator in a variety of media, including song and the written word; and the huge numbers of people who were affected by him. Perhaps as many as 100,000 were lastingly converted through his ministry, which would amount to one-tenth of Protestant Christians in China. His work and that of others like him laid the foundation for the remarkable resurgence of evangelical, revivalistic Christianity in China in the last part of the twentieth century.

The discrepancies between his narrative of what happened at Union Seminary and historical fact, seem to accord with his dramatic personality. They do not discredit his later ministry, but cast light upon a complex figure whose lasting legacy remains immense.

By G. Wright Doyle, Director, Global China Center; English Editor, Biographical Dictionary of Chinese Christianity, Charlottesville, Virginia, USA.

This article is taken, with permission, from the Biographical Dictionary of Chinese Christianity: http://www.bdcconline.net/en/stories/s/song-shangjie.php

Sources:

Bays, Daniel H., “The Growth of Independent Christianity in China, 1900-1937,” in Bays, Daniel H., editor, Christianity in China: From the Eighteenth Century to the Present (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1996), pages 307-316.

Ireland, Daryl R., “John Sung’s Malleable Conversion Narrative,” Fides et Historia, Volume 45, No. 1, Winter/Spring 20-13, 48-75.

Ireland, Daryl R., “The Legacy of John Sung,” International Bulletin of Mission Research, Volume 40, Issue 4, October 2016, 349-357.

Lyle, Leslie. A Biography of John Sung (Singapore: Armour, 2004).

Reynolds, Arthur, translator, Strength for the Storm [sermons by John Sung and others] (Singapore: Overseas Missionary Fellowship, 1988).

Schubert, William E., I Remember John Sung (1976).

Sung, Levi, compiler, The Journal Once Lost: Extracts from the Diary of John Sung. Translated by Thng Pheng Soon (Singapore: Genesis Books, 2008).

Sung, John, The Diaries of John Sung: An Autobiography. Translated by Stephen L. Sheng and Luke H. Sheng (Brighton, Michigan, 1995).

Tay, Irene, Hwa Yung, and the China Group, “Sung, John,” in Scott W. Sunquist, ed., A Dictionary of Asian Christianity (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2001).

Tow, Timothy, John Sung My Teacher (1985).

Chen, Wenyuan (1897-1968)

MEC Bishop In China

Bishop W. Y. Chen, Board of Missions of the Methodist Church , “Mission Photograph Album – Portraits #06 Page 021,” UMC Digital Galleries, accessed November 8, 2017, http://catalog.gcah.org/omeka/items/show/60345.

Chen, Wen-Yuan (1897-1968), bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church in China. Chen was educated in Methodist schools in Fuzhou (Foochow), earned B.A. and M.A. degrees at Syracuse University, New York, and returned to serve as pastor of the Church of Heavenly Peace (Tianantang) in Fuzhou. He received his Ph.D. degree from Duke University in 1929 and returned to Fujian (Fukien) Christian University in Fuzhou, where he taught psychology and later became dean and acting president. In 1936, while serving in Shanghai as head of the national YMCA’s Youth and Religion department, he was elected general secretary of the National Christian Council. He was elected a delegate to the International Missionary Council at Madras in 1938 and served as a vice-chairman. In 1941 he became one of the four Methodist bishops in China, serving the west China area. As late as 1946 he continued in active service to the National Christian Council, as honorary general secretary; attending its first postwar meeting in December of that year.

Once designated by Time magazine as “China’s No. 1 Protestant,” Chen became an early target of the anti-imperialism movement in the Chinese church. At a denunciation meeting in 1951 in Beijing (Peking) attended by 151 Protestants, he was one of four Chinese church leaders attacked. In a speech entitled, “I Denounce That Christian Reprobate W. Y. Chen,” his fellow Methodist, Jiang Changchuan (Z. T. Kaung), charged him with supporting the Nationalist regime of Chiang Kai-shek, both at home and abroad. He was placed in detention in 1951 and was released in 1959 due to illness. He died of cancer.

By Donald E. MacInnis, Formerly Director of the China Program, National Council of Churches in the USA, Coordinator for China Research of the Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers, Maryknoll, New York, USA

Sources:

Francis P. Jones, The Church in Communist China (1962);

Walter Lacy, A Hundred Years of China Methodism (1948);

National Council of Churches of Christ of the U.S.A., Documents of the Three-Self Movement (1963);

Roderick Scott, Fukien Christian University (1954).

Jiang Changchuan (Z. T. Kuang) (1884 ~ 1958)

Leading Chinese Methodist Pastor, Educator, And Bishop

Jiang Changchuan, or Z. T. Kaung, was the eldest child among four boys and two girls. His father was a wealthy contractor in Shanghai. At age 14, Jiang was sent to a Methodist middle school in Shanghai. Under the influence of a teacher, Clara E. Steger, he became a Christian at age 19, over the protests of his family, who disowned him.

Between 1905 and 1909, Jiang supported himself by teaching and studying at the Anglo-Chinese College in Shanghai. He directed the church school at Moore Memorial Church, which was the largest Protestant congregation in Shanghai, and he preached at neighborhood meetings sponsored by the church. He was one of the first three students in the experimental theology department of Suzhou University. When he graduated in 1912, he became the only person ever to receive a bachelor of divinity degree from Suzhou University. (The theology department merged with Nanjing Theological Seminary in 1913). During this period, Jiang was reconciled with his family, who were eventually converted to Christianity.

Jiang was ordained in 1912, served as the assistant minister at Moore Memorial Church, and became a full-fledged pastor a year later. Ill from overwork, he was transferred in 1917 to a smaller church in Huzhou, Zhejiang, where he served for three years. In 1921, he was concurrently the presiding elder of the Suzhou district and the chaplain of Suzhou University. He was a trustee of the university (1927-31) and a board member of Nanjing Theological Seminary (1936-40). He was also chairman of the Student Volunteer Movement (1920-30), chairman of the Chinese Home Mission Society founded by Cheng Jingyi for evangelism in the interior of China, especially in the southwest (1923-41), the head of the Executive Council of the Methodist Episcopal Church (South)(1934-41), and the director of the China Sunday School Union (1937).

In 1923, Jiang became pastor of Allen Memorial Church in Shanghai, whose members included the well-known Sung (Soong) family. Jiang baptized Chiang Kai-shek (Jiang Jie Shi) in October 1930. In the early 1930s, Jiang worked mainly among university students at St. John’s in Suzhou. He returned to Shanghai in 1936 to pastor Moore Memorial Church, then the largest Protestant congregation in East Asia. He did a lot of work among the poor and the refugees. In 1941, he was elected the bishop of North China. He was under constant surveillance during the Japanese occupation of North China because of his close ties with the Sung family and Chiang Kai-shek. His diplomatic skill was manifest in his ability to resist the Japanese insistence on a union of the Chinese and Japanese churches. When the Communists came into power, Jiang was among the 19 Protestant leaders who met with Chou En-lai in Beijing in April 1950. He supported the formation of the Three-Self Patriotic Movement.

By China Group, A Collaboration of China Scholars

This article is reproduced from A Dictionary of Asian Christianity, copyright 2001 by Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., Grand Rapids, Michigan. All rights reserved. It is taken, with permission, from the Biographical Dictionary of Chinese Christianity: http://www.bdcconline.net/en/stories/j/jiang-changchuan.php

Sources:

Boorman, Howard L., ed., Biographical Dictionary of Republican China, Vol. 1 (1967).