Training Laborers for His Harvest

A Historical Study of William Milne's Mentorship of Liang Fa

Song

• Publisher: Wipf and Stock
• Year: 2015
• eBook ISBN: 9781498207089
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Religion

In this project, Baiyu Andrew Song explores the mentorship of China's first ordained indigenous evangelist, Liang Fa (1789-1855), by Scottish Presbyterian missionary William Milne (1785-1822) in the early nineteenth century. The biblically and contextually informed model of mentorship Milne employed is examined in detail, which is placed in the historical setting of Milne and Liang's time. This project is particularly important in that it pioneers historical study in the area of the early protestant church history in China, specifically in regard to William Milne.

1

Background to the Genesis of Protestantism in China

John Fea has argued in his book, Why Study History, that the discipline of history is an “art of reconstructing the past.”1 In other words, the best historians are storytellers. As part of the construction of William Milne’s story, this chapter aims to paint the larger picture of the historical, social, cultural and spiritual backgrounds of the two different worlds in which William Milne and Liang Fa lived and will lay a foundation for understanding details of the lives and thought of Milne and Liang in their historical setting.

The Social and Political Structure in Imperial China

Sinologist Charles O. Hucker divided Chinese history into three epochs: a formative age (from the Xiao dynasty, 2205?–1766? BC to the Qin dynasty, 221–207 BC), an early imperial age (from the Western Han dynasty, 202 BC–AD 9 to the five dynasties era, AD 907–960), and a later imperial age (from Sung dynasty, 960–1127, to the Republic of China, mid-nineteenth century).2 During the Spring and Autumn (722–481 BC) and the Warring States (403–221 BC) periods in the formative age, different schools of philosophical thought rose, and each school tried hard to gain support from different kings. Though Confucianism, Taoism, and Legalism were the three major schools during this period, historically this era of cultural and intellectual expansion is both unique and significant for Chinese history, and was later called by Sinologists, “the Contention of a Hundred Schools of Thought.”3 Though China’s first Emperor Qin Shi Huang (259–210 BC) persecuted the Confucian school (213–210 BC), in what historically is called “the Burning of Books and Burying of Scholars,” Confucianism was not wiped out.4 In 134 BC, Emperor Wu of Han (156–87 BC) took advice from the scholar Dong Zhongshu (179–104 BC) and made Confucianism the official orthodoxy by both nominating government officials from the Confucian school and using Confucian classics in bureaucratic examinations. From the Han dynasty on, Confucianism became the essential doctrine in China’s worldview, even though during the later imperial age, China was controlled twice by tributary tribes of “the Inner Asian Zone,” who were the Mongols (established Yuan dynasty) and the Manchurians (established Qing dynasty).5 Moreover, one of the reasons Emperor Wu and the later emperors chose to praise and practice Confucianism was not that Confucianism held to a better teaching than the other schools of thought, but rather that Confucianism taught the common citizens to obey, to “follow and emulate a truly benevolent ruler.”6 At the same time, such teaching also satisfied the emperor’s narcissistic needs as the emperor was thought to be the “Son of Heaven, who eventually became omnicompetent, functioning as military leader, administrator, judge, high priest, philosophical sage, arbiter of taste, and patron of art and letters, all in one.”7 Under such teaching, all religions in China became a means of state control and were used by the emperors to rule over their citizens. Thus, syncretism in China is not purely a religious matter. Interestingly, both the sociologist C. K. Yang and church historian Jonathan Chao argue for the continuity of the pattern of state control of religions from imperial China to socialist China. In other words, the same state order has continued to be practiced for more than 1500 years in China.8

The East India Company and Christian Missionaries

Beginning as early as the fifteenth century, “the Age of Discovery” was marked by the rise of colonialism, led by the Spanish and Portuguese. Not until a century later did countries like Great Britain and France start their global expansion. The East India Company (EIC) was founded in 1600, under the permission of Queen Elizabeth I (r. 1558–1603). It was primarily a private international trading company importing tea, sugar and various spices, and exporting goods including saltpeter. Yet, the EIC is unique among other trading companies, in that the EIC had a private army and was jointly owned by the British government. Under the support of the state, the EIC benefited from a colonial monopoly, military expansion in India, and the opium trade in China, which caused two Opium Wars between Britain and China after China’s ban on the opium trade.9 In contrast to the other European companies, which were a means for colonial effort and went hand-in-hand with Roman Catholic missions to the indigenous people, the EIC banned Christian missionaries from evangelizing in the colonies until the British parliament passed the Charter Act of 1813.10

Anglo-Chinese Relationship During the Qing Dynasty

China’s world order is totally different from a Western world order because of the different mindsets, communication, and trade between China and the Western world (particularly with the British) that was unequal and uneasy from the beginning. “The Chinese World was hierarchic and anti-egalitarian,”11 but for the British, “they understood that trade benefited both seller and buyer, who were like two lovers, each depending on the ...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Foreword
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• Chapter 1: Background to the Genesis of Protestantism in China
• Chapter 2: The Making of China’s First Evangelist
• Chapter 3: The Theology of William Milne
• Chapter 4: The Mentorship of Liang Fa
• Conclusion
• Appendix 1
• Appendix 2
• Appendix 3
• Appendix 4
• Appendix 5
• Bibliography