Seance 2 - 火 (Fire)

Hong Kong Type #13

火（Fire）

I feel feverish all over.

Miss Talented, are you okay?

My heart is very hot and painful.

Maybe we should go away for now and come back another day?

Don’t go! Please stay! I want to hear what you have to say.

What we’re saying, you can learn from books too.

No, it’s different. You are character spirits, you can say things that are not in the books.

Books are also composed of words, aren’t they?

So, you’re saying that I read the books, and then imagined you?

It would be better to say summoning.

What’s the difference, if you are not real?

Of course we are real, but we are also fake at the same time.

How can you be fake? I am obviously talking to you.

Then let’s keep talking.

Am I awake, or am I dreaming?

What's the difference between dreaming and awakening?

A séance when awake, and one during a dream, have the same effect, right?

Let’s turn back the time a little bit and talk about the second missionary to China, William Milne.

Oh, the young shepherd boy.

The education he received was even less than that of Morrison.

He grew up in a poor and remote area in the north of Scotland. He was very crude when he was a child, but later he was moved by the divine wind, devoted to the Lord, and even conceived the ambition to preach abroad.

The missionary training he received three years before departure was his only educational experience.

On July 4, 1813, twenty-eight-year-old Milne and his newlywed wife arrived in Macau by boat.

It had been six years since pioneer Morrison first set foot on Chinese soil.

After waiting anxiously for six years, Morrison was finally joined by the assistant sent by the mother church.

But things did not go as planned. The Portuguese governor who practiced Catholicism immediately issued an eviction order. Milne went to Guangzhou alone, but he was not allowed to reside by the trading quarters. Having no choice, he had to follow the direction of his predecessor, Morrison, and set up a preaching station in the South Seas.

Eager to proselytize in China, Milne found himself languishing in despair when he couldn’t enter the country.

Ah! Young people are inevitably governed by sentiment.

However, he quickly collected himself and embraced a new mission.

He and his engraver, Liang Fa, crossed the ocean to Malacca, where they established a missionary station and set up a printing press to assist with Morrison’s printing work in Guangzhou.

Malacca had originally been a Dutch territory, but later came under British governance, and there was a significant number of Chinese immigrants.

The New Testament of the Bible, translated by Morrison, was revised and reprinted in Malacca, titled The New Testament of Our Savior Jesus Christ.

At the same time, Milne studied Chinese fervently and began writing works under the pen name of “The Philanthropist.” His literary work, A Discussion Between Two Friends, was one of the most widely distributed and printed missionary booklets of the 19th century.

The periodical he founded and wrote, Monthly Record of the Observation of Worldly Customs, was the first Chinese-language periodical in history.

Since everything and everyone in the world is created by God, natural scholars cannot merely scrutinize the things in one place or question the customs of one type of people. Instead, they should diligently inquire about all times, all places, and all kinds of people to make comparisons and discern right from wrong, true from false. It does not exist that one type of people is all right and another is all wrong. Similarly, there is no place where all things are the best, and there is no place where all things are the worst. The same applies when talking about people or truth.

Is that an explanation of the title? It sounds very reasonable.

Can’t you see the deeper meaning in it?

What deeper meaning?

It challenged the mindset of the Manchu Qing, who thought they were the center of the world and encouraged the Chinese to discard their prejudice and impartially explore Western culture to distinguish right from wrong, true from false. What he subtly wanted to say was not to resist or reject Western faith.

On the surface, he was observing the customs, but in essence, he was spreading the sacred way.

Disseminating knowledge and promoting religion concurrently was a technique consistently adopted by missionaries in the years to come.

Therefore, missionaries placed great importance on education.

Before long, Morrison personally funded and established the Anglo-Chinese College in Malacca, appointing Milne to oversee its construction and serve as its first principal. Because the funding did not come from the London Missionary Society, the relationship between Anglo-Chinese College and the Society’s preaching station was somewhat unclear, and the printing house of the station was also referred to in the name of the College, which caused a lot of trouble in the future.

The college was built on a vacant lot by the sea, housed in a two-story building with a traditional Chinese flying eave roof.

Its mission is twofold: firstly, to provide free education for local students; secondly, to train missionaries coming to China. However, this initiative was not proposed by the London Missionary Society, but seems to be another example of Morrison’s unilateral actions.

For a long time, Anglo-Chinese College continued to print books with the traditional method of woodcut engraving, under the administration of Liang Fa.

Liang Fa was born in Gaoming County, Guangdong Province. As a young man, he went to Guangzhou to learn how to make pens but later became a carver. He was four years younger than Milne and was 26 years old when he followed the latter to Southeast Asia.

After spending a long time with Milne’s family, he was deeply moved by their religious zeal. After much confusion and struggle regarding faith and life, Liang Fa finally requested Milne to baptize him.

However, his wish to be baptized at noon seemed to hint at a superstitious belief in choosing auspicious times.

He naturally possessed a strong sense of religiosity and once he made up his mind, he threw himself wholeheartedly into it, never wavering for the rest of his life.

Another fanatic one might say, or it should be suggested more as passion, or intense emotion perhaps.

Only a passionate person can achieve extraordinary things. But passion does not imply a lack of calm, patience, and perseverance.

Morrison was once described as being aloof, indifferent, overly stern, and lacking in a sense of humor.

The pioneers seemed to experience very little joy, and Milne’s experiences were particularly tragic.

He had just finished helping Morrison translate the Old Testament when his beloved wife passed away in Malacca, leaving him with four children.

At this time, the first conflict among the missionaries at the station broke out. The newly arrived young missionaries were dissatisfied with the way Milne governed, ranking based on seniority. They wrote letters complaining to their mother church, criticizing it as Chinese paternalistic dictatorship.

But Milne’s approach was actually only following the orders of Morrison. The principles of equality and senior leadership, which are incompatible, would become the cause of many disputes among missionary brothers.

Missionaries are also human and have human weaknesses.

Milne, burdened with the roles of both father and mother, coupled with the heavy work of evangelism, teaching, translation, and publishing, developed an illness due to overwork. Tormented by tuberculosis, he died a year before the complete Chinese Bible was published.

In 1823, the monumental task of translating the Bible into Chinese was completed, known as the Divine Heaven Holy Bible, printed and published at the Anglo-Chinese College in Malacca.

The words “Holy Emperor in the Divine Heaven” refer to the supreme ruler who originally created the universe and all its creatures.

Liang Fa played an indispensable role in the carving and printing of the first Chinese Bible. His sweat and tears must have been left their mark in it.

As Robert Morrison put it, “The Bible started with Liang Fa and ended with Liang Fa.”

Could some of the characters carved by him became the blueprint for creating movable type in the future?

This could be a possibility.

When Milne’s four orphans left Malacca to return to England, Liang sent them off tearfully, deeply missing his deceased friend.

Robert Morrison, mourning the loss of his partner and most loyal supporter, was deeply saddened. Many years later, he reflected that since the death of Milne, he had not come across such a heartfelt colleague again, nor seen such a steadfast flame.

But Milne’s flame was taken over by Liang Fa.

Liang Fa returned to China, shuttling between Guangzhou and Macau, assisting Morrison with printing and preaching work. When Morrison returned to England, to ensure the continuity of missionary work in China, he ordained Liang Fa as a missionary, making him the first Chinese pastor.

Liang Fa did not disappoint Morrison’s high expectations. Although Morrison once criticized him for his temper and poor interpersonal skills, Liang Fa’s faith was extremely firm.

Faced with repression from the Qing government, experiencing numerous arrests and escapes, he never lost his enthusiasm for preaching.

He found glory in being persecuted for the sake of God.

He was also a diligent publisher. Under the penname of “Good Scholar,” he personally wrote and printed various pamphlets, which he distributed with fellow worker Wat Ong.

I know - it is Good Words to Admonish the World.

Truly a rare and extraordinary book. This book triggered the greatest social revolution in China in the 19th century.

God of Fire and Brilliance said, “Apart from me, no other gods exist. Although you people in the world have not known me in the past, I want to be surrounded by you all, so that from where the sun rises, and from where the sun sets in the west, everyone can know that apart from me, there are no other gods. I am God of Fire and Brilliance, and there is no other.

The title of God of Fire and Brilliance is very impressive.

That is the translation of Robert Morrison, which Liang Fa follows.

Later it was changed to the transliteration of Jehovah, which is gentler.

In 1833, Hong Xiuquan, a Hakka youth from Guangdong, received this book while he was in Guangzhou for the imperial examination. Initially, he did not pay much attention to it and casually placed it on a bookshelf at home.

Afterwards, Hong Xiuquan failed the exam again and fell seriously ill, running a high fever. In a state of delirium, he dreamt that he was carried to a palace where sat an elderly man in a white robe with golden hair. The venerable elder identified himself as the Creator of the World, lamenting how people worshipped the devil and indulged in wrongdoings. He gave Hong a precious sword, a seal, and a delicious fruit, assigning him the task of felling demons and exorcising evil from the earth.

Ten years later, a friend borrowed Good Words to Admonish the World from Hong Xiuquan's home. When returning it, he commented that this book was quite special. Hong opened it and found that what was written in it was exactly what he had seen in his dream years ago. Therefore, based on the doctrines in the book, he established the Society of Worshiping God, destroyed idols everywhere and encouraged people to worship the only God, the Heavenly Father.

The Heavenly Father, in silent illumination, moved Prophet Isaiah and stated, all crafted idols are therefore all in vain, and their intricate workmanship also provides no benefit.

What Robert Morrison prayed for on his first day in Guangzhou – the elimination of Chinese people’s superstitions towards gods, buddhas, and bodhisattvas – truly came to pass, and was carried out by the Chinese themselves.

However, he could not have anticipated that the person who fulfilled his dreams would proclaim himself as the son of God, the brother of Jesus.

Despite this, the Western missionaries of the time still held hopes for Hong Xiuquan.

Or perhaps it should be called an illusion.

Hong Xiuquan, the so-called son of God, joined with like-minded individuals to launch the Jintian Uprising and establish the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. They took Nanking, swept across the Middle Kingdom, pressed towards Beijing, waged wars, created chaos for ten years, resulting in tens of millions of deaths and injuries, and almost wiping out the Qing Dynasty.

Too fast! You talk too fast! Morrison didn’t live to see it all.

By the way, how was this other fire extinguished?

Death is a compulsory lesson for every missionary.

Morrison’s first wife Mary died of cholera in Macao in 1821, leaving behind a son and a daughter. Because of the local Catholics’ obstruction, they almost couldn't find a burial place.

During his vacation and report duty in England, Morrison remarried. However, when he returned to China, the London Missionary Society’s attitude changed and their correspondence became sparse, causing Morrison to fall into solitary depression, lamenting that “the pioneers are forgotten.”

Furthermore, with the revision of British trade policy and the abolition of the East India Company’s trade monopoly, Morrison, who had long been employed as the company’s translator, felt a bleak future. His five young children born to his new wife Elisabeth became a heavy burden. He began to consider his post death arrangements.

On December 14, 1833, in the stormy seas off Macau, the wife and children of Robert Morrison boarded the England-bound ship Inglis. He returned alone to an empty home, looking at the chairs where his children used to sit, and realizing that they may never meet again in this life, he was filled with sorrow.

In July 1834, the newly appointed Chief Superintendent of Trade, Lord Napier, arrived and began trade negotiations with the Qing Dynasty. Morrison, weakened by old age, reluctantly accepted the invitation to serve as translator, donning the uniform of a deputy consul. Less than half a month later, he fell ill due to being caught in the rain while rushing to Guangzhou. Exhausted and sick, he died while in office.

In the end, even a fire as resilient as Morrison’s eventually went out.

Not long after Morrison’s death, his loyal servant, Liang Fa, while distributing missionary books and publications outside the imperial examination hall, was pursued by the authorities. He escaped to Singapore with the help of Morrison’s eldest son, John Robert, and later made his way to Malacca.

The fire did not go out completely. Through Liang Fa, it spread to Malacca.

In Malacca, another flame was burning.

Who was it?

The new generation missionary Samuel Dyer was creating metal punches and matrices by the furnace every day, attempting to cast Chinese lead types.

That was our prototype.

The birth of Hong Kong Type.