HomeNewsBeritaBusinessLifestyleOpinionWorldSportsPropertyEducationCarzillaGalleryVideosAccelerator

Robert Morrison, the first Protestant missionary to China

-

He was also a pioneering sinologist, lexicographer, and translator considered the “Father of Anglo-Chinese Literature”.

0
Shares
Total Views: 1
Free Malaysia Today
A painting by George Chinnery, depicting Morrison (far right) as he worked to translate the Bible into Chinese. (Thrifty Traveller pic)

In a corner of the tranquil Protestant Cemetery in Macau lies the grave of Robert Morrison, recognised as the first Protestant missionary to China.

He translated the Bible into Chinese and compiled and published a Chinese-English dictionary.

Free Malaysia Today
Morrison’s tombstone in Macau. (Thrifty Traveller pic)

This photo was taken during a visit to his tombstone in 2015. The lighting was poor but you might just be able to make out that he was born in Morpeth in Northumberland on Jan 5, 1782.

This devout and steadfast man is generally thought to have been born on a street called Bullers Green on the outskirts of Morpeth – though some say he was born in the tiny hamlet of Wingates, about 11 miles from Morpeth and moved to Bullers Green in infancy.

The house at Bullers Green no longer stands but this is the location:

Free Malaysia Today
This is where Morrison was born. (Thrifty Traveller pic)

The inscription above the archway reads “Victoria Jubilee Year. This house replaced the one in which Robert Morrison D.D. was born”. D.D. means doctor of divinity.

When he was three, the family moved to Newcastle-upon-Tyne where his father established himself as a last and boot maker in Groat Market which might have looked like this at the time. The street has far less character today.

Free Malaysia Today
An illustration of Groat Market. (Thrifty Traveller pic)

Robert, the youngest of eight children was a serious and hard working boy and had a strict religious upbringing by his Presbyterian parents.

At age 14 he left school and trained as an apprentice in his father’s cobbler business. As a teenager he went slightly off the rails, falling into bad company and, like many a Newcastle lad, was prone to excessive drinking on occasion.

However, after having the fear of eternal damnation drummed into him by his pastor, he reformed his ways, and eventually passed his examinations as a clergyman and applied to the London Missionary Society to serve abroad.

He learned some Chinese in London and was selected to start a mission to China. Although his wish was to convert “poor perishing heathens”, the objectives set were more practical; to compile a Chinese dictionary and translate the New Testament into Chinese.

Any conversions he achieved along the way would be a bonus.

Free Malaysia Today
A second version of the painting depicting Morrison translating the Bible. (Thrifty Traveller pic)

It was no easy task and he was not made welcome. For a start, Christian missionaries were banned in China, on pain of death for the preacher and the converts. That is why he only converted ten Chinese over a period of 27 years.

Secondly, the Chinese were forbidden to teach their language to foreigners and anyone who has tried studying Chinese knows that it is one of the hardest languages in the world to master.

Thirdly, the Roman Catholic priests in Macau did not want Protestant clergymen in their territory and pressed the Portuguese authorities to expel him.

The East India Company, which controlled most of the British trade in Macau and Canton, did not allow missionaries to travel on their ships, so Morrison was forced to disguise himself as an American arriving on an American ship.

And the British and other foreign traders did not welcome criticism from a Bible-bashing Brit since they were nearly all involved, directly or indirectly, in the opium trade.

Morrison described many of his countrymen as riff-raff, unjust, covetous, avaricious, lying, drunken and debauched. They, in return, regarded him as irritating, narrow-minded, scornful and completely humourless.

Free Malaysia Today
The Casa Garden, the former Macau residence of the East India Company’s senior supercargo. The Protestant Cemetery is adjacent to the house. (Thrifty Traveller pic)

Somewhat ostracised, he was left in lonely isolation but was able to devote himself to his dictionary and, only when this had been published and he had become fluent in Chinese, did he become useful to the East India Company who employed him as a translator.

He married Mary Morton in 1809, the daughter of an East India Company surgeon, and they kept each other company in their seclusion.

They had two surviving children but she died of cholera in 1821 and, since Morrison would not have his wife buried in a Catholic cemetery, the Protestant cemetery was established in Macau.

He later remarried and had five more children.

Free Malaysia Today
The Anglo-Chinese College in Malacca. (Thrifty Traveller pic)

Morrison died in Canton on 1 Aug 1834 and his body was brought to Macau and buried next to his first wife and child.

By the time of his death, the entire foreign community in Canton and Macau had come to admire his character, even if they didn’t like him much.

A fellow missionary, an American Sinologist called Samuel Wells Williams, summed Morrison up as “not by nature calculated to win and interest the skeptical or the fastidious, for he had no sprightliness or pleasantry, no versatility or wide acquaintance with letters, and was respected rather than loved by those who cared little for the things nearest his heart”.

Free Malaysia Today
Wilne’s memorial in Christ Church in Melaka. (Thrifty Traveller pic)

Morrison’s name is also associated with Melaka; another missionary, William Milne, was sent out to assist Morrison, arriving in Macau in 1813 but he was not permitted to stay.

After some time in Canton, he moved on to Melaka where, under Morrison’s guidance, he established a school called the Anglo-Chinese College in 1818.

After Hong Kong became a British territory the school relocated there in 1843 under the name Ying Wa College, which still exists today.

Milne died in Malacca and he is commemorated in Christ Church, Melaka.

This article first appeared on Thrifty Traveller.

Stay current - Follow FMT on WhatsApp, Google news and Telegram

Subscribe to our newsletter and get news delivered to your mailbox.