Seance 2 - 帝（Emperor）
Hong Kong Type #15
I thought you weren’t coming.
Why?
Hong Kong Type have already been completed.
No, they have just been born.
The story has just begun.
There are spirits in stories, and where there are spirits, there is life.
Therefore, there are myths. Without myths, there are no gods.
Gods are brought to life through myths.
Characters gain life through the spirit of the characters.
This is the true meaning of living characters.
I think I understand. So, who is the main character in your story this time?
The namer of God, Medhurst.
Only God can name, who can name God?
He insisted on calling God as “Shang Di” (the Highest Emperor), not “Shen.” (God)
For this, he wrote a 170-page book, titled An Inquiry into the Proper Mode of Rendering the Word God in Translating the Sacred Scriptures into the Chinese Language.
Hey guys, please follow the timeline!
Good, let’s start with Medhurst’s youth.
He was only twenty-one when he came to the east.
He arrived in Malacca in July 1817, a new generation of missionaries following Milne.
When he set off, his identity was just a printer. It wasn’t until he arrived in Malacca that he was ordained as a missionary.
Although Medhurst didn’t have much of an education, he was naturally intelligent, ambitious, and adventurous.
During his journey to the East, passing through Madras, India, he swiftly found his lifelong partner. His wife was a mixed-race child of a British officer and an Indian woman, a widow two years his senior, with a son of her own.
He knew it was hard to find a partner while preaching in the East, and moreover, settling down could get him a better salary from the church.
He seemed to be a decisive person.
In the ensuing twenty years, his wife, Betty gave birth to eight children for Medhurst, four of whom died young.
The early missionary work was not smooth.
In Malacca, Medhurst could not get along with his senior, Milne, so he transferred to Penang, and then to the Batavia preaching station in Java.
At that time, all the newly arrived missionaries protested against Milne’s hierarchical management, considering it a Chinese-style patriarchal autocracy, which triggered the first serious split among missionaries.
This matter was mentioned before.
Although Batavia is further away from China than Malacca, it has a large Chinese population, giving Medhurst the opportunity to flourish.
His linguistic talent is excellent, and he quickly mastered Mandarin, Hokkien, and Malay languages, authoring numerous evangelistic pamphlets, which were mass-printed using lithography and distributed widely.
Under the leadership of Medhurst, Batavia Printing House published a total of 135 books, the champion of all the London Missionary Society stations during the same period.
Medhurst imitated Milne’s Monthly Record of the Observation of Worldly Customs, and under the pseudonym “Lover of Virtues,” he published the second Chinese periodical in history, Monthly Record of Selected Digest. The content was primarily theological, with a secondary focus on humanistic philosophy, supplemented by knowledge in astronomy and geography.
He strongly criticized the traditional customs of the Chinese people, successively publishing smaller booklets such as “Congratulatory New Year Text for Chinese Brothers,” “Discourse on the Ching Ming Festival Tomb Sweeping,” “Discourse on Shang Di’s Birthday,” “Discourse on Universal Salvation through Almsgiving,” and “Discourse on the Birthday of the Goddess Mazu.”
These booklets were likely to cause resentment among the Chinese population.
However, Medhurst was fearless. He was naturally argumentative and was not afraid to engage with the crowd, countering queries with skillful rhetoric. This approach sometimes generated conflict and at times won temporary respect or retreat, but ultimately, it failed to touch the hearts of the Chinese people.
Having worked diligently in Batavia for twenty years, despite significant contributions to publishing and education, he unfortunately gained nothing in terms of recruiting followers.
It would not be unjust to call it a failure.
In comparison to his talent and ambition, he was indeed falling short of expectations.
Some may argue it was because he was too hasty and lacked the necessary tact.
I believe it was due to his lack of understanding and empathy toward other cultures.
In 1834, Morrison passed away, and Medhurst became the most senior Protestant missionary in the East. He personally visited Guangzhou to understand the condition of the local believers. This was the first time he set foot on Chinese soil.
Not long before, an independent missionary from Germany named Gutzlaff, disregarding the Qing government’s ban, boarded an opium merchant ship and travelled along the coast to the north. Under the guise of distributing religious publications, he investigated the actual situation of China’s coastal defense. He later published Three Voyages Along the Coast of China, revealing that the Qing coastal defense was virtually non-existent, as though stepping into uninhabited territory, and declared that the doors to China had essentially been opened.
The book had a tremendous impact in Europe, and opportunists immediately began to stir.
Initially, Medhurst agreed quite a bit with Gutzlaff’s approach, and the two found common ground, undertaking quite a few joint ventures.
As a missionary, Gutzlaff resorted to any means necessary without any scruples - he formed tight alliances with opium merchants and ambitious individuals. He was later exposed for exaggerating the number of believers, buying followers with money, bragging about his personal achievements, and using his missionary work for personal gain. His reputation was dragged through the mud.
Although Medhurst did have the spirit of an adventurer, he always acted within certain principles and boundaries. To prevent any connection with the opium trade, he leased the well-reputed American merchant ship, Huron, traveling north along the same route as Gutzlaff, first to Shandong, then south to Shanghai and Fujian.
He and his associates would go ashore along the way, distributing religious pamphlets to the local villagers. The residents, being curious about foreigners, generally reacted with enthusiasm, quickly snatching up all the books and pamphlets on the spot, although few probably took the time to read them carefully.
Whenever local officials gave him trouble, Medhurst would adopt a tough attitude in return, demanding courteous treatment, or simply ignoring them and doing as he pleased. The officials and soldiers had no countermeasures, some merely putting on a show of authority, others hoping simply to keep the peace, eventually, none of them could do anything about him.
Medhurst detailed this experience in his book, China: Its State and Prospects. While returning to England to report on his duties, he travelled around giving lectures, promoting the vision of converting China’s 300 million population to Christianity, indirectly fostering ambitions to forcibly open the doors of China.
How would missionaries pray about the Opium War?
We don’t desire war, but once it comes, we can’t miss the opportunity.
So, is war the will of God?
The will of God is mysterious and beyond human understanding.
Even the Qing Dynasty, which considered itself a powerful nation, could not understand its defeat by a small barbarian country.
A great reversal has occurred in Sino-British relations: “The Country of the Red-haired” suddenly changed into the Great British Empire, also known as “The Land Where the Sun Never Sets.”
The line between fighting for rightful interests and plundering for maximum benefits is blurred. There is no obvious transition from demanding equal relations to the establishment of unequal treaties. History forms irreversible trends amidst incredibly complex interactions.
Can the Messengers of God conform to the trend and yet claim absolute innocence?
Medhurst’s son Walter Henry, acquiring his father’s profound learning and proficiency in Chinese, played a pivotal role in the Opium War.
Barely eighteen, Walter served under George Elliot and Henry Pottinger as a translating officer, participating in the campaigns of the British fleet.
After the war, Walter had a successful official career. At the newly opened Shanghai port, he personally assisted his father to establish the mission station, heralding the golden era of Medhurst's missionary work.
Medhurst founded the London Missionary Society Press (墨海書館) in Shanghai and purchased advanced roller printing machines from the UK. Due to a lack of steam power, they decided to use oxen to operate the machine, which became a spectacle at that time.
This printing machine printed 55,200 books and a total of 3,383,700 pages in just half a year, with truly astonishing productivity.
In the early days of the Printing Press, the movable type of the Anglo-Chinese College in Hong Kong had not yet been completed, and Medhurst had insufficient movable type at hand. Sometimes when writing, he had to accommodate available movable type, changing words and phrases. Later, he hired craftsmen to carve movable type one by one to temporarily solve the urgent need. It wasn’t until the full set of the type in Hong Kong were cast that the printing work of the Press in Shanghai officially got on track.
Another accomplishment of Medhurst was the translation of the Bible.
The status of the Divine Heaven Bible by Morrison and Milne was highly respected, but it had many shortcomings.
For Chinese scholars, it was unbearable to read.
Because it uses a literal translation method, the sentences are stiff, the grammar is strange, the translated names are difficult to understand, and the words are sometimes obscure and sometimes vulgar - the problems are too numerous.
In fact, Morrison himself was aware of the inadequacies, and had expressed to his son John Robert of his wish to produce a revised version.
After the death of Morrison, John Robert immediately collaborated with Medhurst and Gutzlaff to complete a new translation, but it was not accepted by the London Missionary Society. Firstly, because it was inappropriate to supplant the achievements of the great pioneer so soon after his death, and secondly, because Medhurst and others acted before obtaining approval, the committee was reserved about their plan.
This translation was not perfect either, especially the Old Testament handled by Gutzlaff, the quality was very poor.
He was notoriously reckless.
However, amongst missionaries, there was a consensus that the Bible needed a better new translation, the only question was how to implement it.
In 1843, the London Missionary Society in Hong Kong, in a joint venture with five other major missionary societies, decided to revise the Old and New Testaments of the Bible in Chinese by cross-denominational collaboration. This effort came to be known as the Delegated Bible.
Preliminary drafts were first done by translators of different mission churches, then periodical meetings were held to review and finalize the translations.
Medhurst was the leader of the entire project, and in fact handled the majority of the translation work.
Actually, he had a capable assistant.
I know! Wang Tao!
No matter how proficient a missionary’s Chinese was, it could never compare to a Chinese scholar, so translators often employed Chinese assistants to help them refine the wording and polish phrases. Particularly for the Delegated Bible, the requirement was that it conforms to the elegant and profound literary style favored by Chinese scholars.
Wang Tao came from Puli of Jiangsu Province, had highly impressive intelligence, and had aspirations to leave a mark on the world. At the age of seventeen, he passed the county exams, but unfortunately, he did not do well in the province exams. Disappointed, he went to Shanghai to make a living, taking over the assistant job at London Missionary Society Press, a position his late father, Wang Changgui, used to fill.
With the support of such a talented individual, Medhurst felt he had gained an extra pair of wings, making the translation work much easier.
However, a controversy occurred among the missionaries.
It was about the translation of the word “God.”
Should it be translated as “Shang Di” or “Shen”?
The American missionary churches advocated “Shen,” while the London Missionary Society advocated “Shang Di.”
Medhurst was a supporter of “Shang Di.”
You have said so at the beginning. But why?
Because the term “Shang Di” was taken from ancient Chinese literature. This spoke to the belief that God had already made himself known to the Chinese people and they were more likely to accept this familiar title.
Additionally, Medhurst believed that “Shen,” in Chinese culture, did not refer to the one true supreme ruler, but included a multitude of evil spirits and demons.
But the American missionary churches strongly opposed the term “Shang Di,” insisting that the broader meaning of the term “Shen” is the most appropriate Chinese title.
Some people think this is due to racial discrimination.
Why discrimination?
They believe that it is impossible for God to have revealed himself to the Eastern nations earlier, or that Chinese people could not have known God earlier than Westerners.
Therefore, considering the Shang Di worshipped by ancient Chinese as the Christian God is seen as blasphemous.
Some people also say that this is actually a dispute of nationalism between the UK and the US.
Or perhaps a power struggle between the religious sects of the UK and the US.
It could also be a conflict of personal bias.
In any case, both sides couldn’t agree, so they decided to leave the position of “God” in the Chinese Bible blank and allow different factions to fill it in according to their own preference.
However, the matter has not been settled.
American missionaries constantly wrote anonymous articles in newspapers and whistleblowing letters to the Bible Society, criticizing the choice of the London Missionary Society, and even their level of translation skills.
However, at that time, the Chinese proficiency of London Missionary Society translators, particularly of senior individuals such as Medhurst, was far superior to their American counterparts.
The initial conception of collaboration between the major missionary churches was practically abandoned, and the majority of the translation work was undertaken by the British missionaries. Besides power struggles and scheming, the American missionaries hardly made any contributions.
In July 1850, the translation of the New Testament was completed and the translation of the Old Testament began. The dispute over the translated name of God still continued without end, intensifying over time.
In February 1852, the London Society missionaries withdrew from the translation committee and completed the translation of the Old Testament on their own. The remaining American members were incompetent, unable to even translate Genesis, and self-disbanded.
In February 1853, the translation of the Old Testament was independently completed by the London Society missionaries. Therefore, the real cooperative efforts of the Delegated Bible only involved the New Testament. Medhurst ignored the unproductive Americans and printed “Shang Di” in the Bible.
The fact is, for half a century after, the “Shang Di” version was adopted by the majority of missionaries.
In 1853, the British Bible Society launched the “Million New Testaments for China” campaign. The public responded enthusiastically, donating enough to print two million copies in a short period of time. The London Missionary Society Press in Shanghai combined the power of the rotary press and Hong Kong moveable type. Printers and oxen worked tirelessly to replicate the word of God. However, the supply of printed Bibles greatly exceeded demand, and they could not be distributed in time, resulting in a large stockpile.
Between 1855 and 1856, the production of the Missionary Press reached a peak of 37 million pages a year.
The divine tool of Morrison’s dream finally played its full role.
Medhurst also had a lesser-known achievement that few people mention.
In September of 1853, the Small Swords Society, in coordination with the Taiping Army, seized Shanghai. The Small Swords Society was quite tolerant of missionaries, and Medhurst was one of the few who could freely enter and leave the city, preaching and conducting ceremonies inside.
In 1854, under the leadership of Hong Xiuquan, the Taiping Army occupied Nanjing, renamed it as Heavenly Capital, and established his kingdom there. The doctrine adopted by the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was derived from a booklet that Medhurst had published years earlier in Batavia. The version of the Bible they used was translated by Medhurst and Gutzlaff in the 1830s. Medhurst obviously took pride in this.
Between the Qing Dynasty and the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, Medhurst chose the latter, despite its distortion of Christian doctrine, over the former, which worshipped Confucius and practiced Buddhism and Taoism.
The Qing army besieging Shanghai and the Small Swords Society within the city were at a stalemate, while foreigners in the concession area outside the city observed the situation with a sympathetic attitude towards the rebels. France, however, chose to side with the Qing court, sending warships to assist the Qing soldiers in bombing the Small Swords Society’s strongholds.
On February 17, 1855, the eve of the Lunar New Year, the city’s residents welcomed the New Year with grand fireworks, filling the air with joyful festivity. Medhurst and his youngest daughter admired the brilliant scene from the rooftop of their house. By dawn, the entire city of Shanghai was engulfed in flames. The Small Swords Society seized this opportunity to break out of the city, attempting to join the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom towards the south. As the Qing troops entered the city, they indiscriminately slaughtered both rebel forces and the innocent civilians.
The brutality and incompetence of the Qing court were notorious. Under the rule of Ye Mingchen, the governor of Liangguang (Guangxi and Guangdong), over 70,000 people were executed under the pretense of quelling rebels, most of them certainly innocent.
Indeed, the invasion of Western imperialism was detestable. However, the number of civilians slaughtered by the Manchu Qing was far more significant than the casualties from all external wars combined.
The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom did not bring salvation and eternal life, but only chaos and slaughter.
Medhurst remained unmoved, saying: “Our expectation for China to turn to the Lord is greater than ever before.”
In 1856, Medhurst’s health deteriorated. This veteran who had campaigned in the East for forty years decided to take his family back to his home country.
The following year, on January 21, the Medhurst family landed in the south of England and took a newly launched train for the first time.
By the time Medhurst arrived in London, he was already on his last breath, and passed away two days later.
One empire rises, one empire falls.
God clears obstacles for missionaries through guns and cannons.
God opens the doors of eternal life for the Chinese through guns and cannons.
Why do we need a heavenly emperor, or an earthly emperor?
There must be a master in the world.
Why can’t we just work at sunrise and rest at sunset? What does the emperor’s power have to do with me?
The master does not allow people to be free and easy.
Character spirits, tell me, are you free?
If you are free, then we are free.
What does that mean?
Miss Talented, don’t you know?
Know what?
We are you.