MISSIONARIES WE HAVE KNOWN
During our work in Fukien Province and in various parts of Yün-nan we
came into intimate personal contact with a great many missionaries;
indeed every traveler in the interior of China will meet them unless
he purposely avoids doing so. But the average tourist seldom sees the
missionary in his native habitat because, for the most part, he lives
and works where the tourist does not go.
Nevertheless, that does not prevent the coastwise traveler from
carrying back with him from the East a very definite impression of the
missionary, which he has gained on board ships or in Oriental clubs
where he hears him "damned with faint praise." Almost unconsciously
he adopts the popular attitude just as he enlarges his vocabulary to
include "pidgin English" and such unfamiliar phrases as "tiffin,"
"bund" and "cumshaw."
This chapter is not a brief for the missionary, but simply a matter of
fair play. We feel that in justice we ought to present our observations
upon this subject, which is one of very general interest, as
impartially as upon any phase of our scientific work. But it should be
distinctly understood that we are writing _only_ of those persons whom
we met and lived with, and whose work we had an opportunity to know and
to see; _we are not attempting generalizations on the accomplishments
of missionaries in any other part of China_.
There are three charges which we have heard most frequently brought
against the missionary: that he comes to the East because he can live
better and more luxuriously than he can at home; that he often engages
in lucrative trade with the natives; and that he accomplishes little
good, either religious or otherwise. It is said that his converts are
only "rice Christians," and treaty-port foreigners have often warned us
in this manner, "Don't take Christian servants; they are more dishonest
and unreliable than any others."
It is often true that the finest house in a Chinese town will be that
of the resident missionary. In Yen-ping the mission buildings are
imposing structures, and are placed upon a hill above and away from the
rest of the city. Any white person who has traveled in the interior of
China will remember the airless, lightless, native houses, opening,
as they all do, on filthy streets and reeking sewers and he will
understand that in order to exist at all a foreigner must be somewhat
isolated and live in a clean, well-ventilated house.
Every missionary in China employs servants--many more servants than
he could afford at home. So does every other foreigner, whatever his
vocation. There is no such thing in China as the democracy of the West,
and the missionary's status in the community demands that certain work
in his house be done by servants; otherwise he and his family would
be placed on a level with the coolie class and the value of his words
and deeds be discounted. But the chief reason is that the missionary's
wife almost always has definite duties to which she could not attend if
she were not relieved from some of the household cares. She leads in
work among the women of the community by organizing clubs and "Mutual
Improvement Societies" and in teaching in the schools or hospitals
where young men and women are learning English as an asset to medical
work among their own people. Servants are unbelievably cheap. While we
were in Foochow a cook received $8.50 (gold) per month, a laundryman
$1.75 (gold) per month, and other wages were in proportion.
In Fukien Province the missionaries receive two months' vacation.
Anyone who has lived through a Fukien summer in the interior of the
province will know why the missionaries are given this vacation. If
they were not able to leave the deadly heat and filth and disease
of the native cities for a few weeks every year, there would be no
missionaries to carry on the work. The business man can surround
himself with innumerable comforts both in his home and in his office
which the missionary cannot afford and, during the summer, life is not
only made possible thereby but even pleasant.
Yen-ping is eight days' travel from Foochow up the Min River and it is
by no means the most remote station in the province. Very few travelers
reach these places during the year and the white inhabitants are almost
isolated. Miss Mabel Hartford lives alone at Yuchi and at one time
she saw only one foreigner in eight months. Miss Cordelia Morgan is
the sole foreign resident of Chu-hsuing Fu, a large Chinese city six
days from Yün-nan Fu. In Ta-li Fu, Reverend William J. Hanna, his wife
and two other women, are fourteen days' ride from the nearest foreign
settlement. In Li-chiang, Reverend and Mrs. A. Kok and their three
small children live with two women missionaries. They are twenty-one
days' travel from a doctor, and for four years previous to our visit
they had not seen a white woman.
These are some instances of missionaries whom we met in China who have
voluntarily exiled themselves to remote places where they expect to
spend their entire lives surrounded by an indifferent if not hostile
population. Can anyone possibly believe that they have chosen this life
because it is easier or more luxurious than that at home?
Some of the men whom we met had left lucrative business positions to
take up medical or evangelistic work in China where their compensation
is pitifully small--not one-third of the salary they were commanding at
home. We did not meet any missionaries who were engaging in trade with
the natives even though in some places there were excellent business
opportunities.
Consider the doctors as examples of the civilizing influences which
missionaries bring with them. We saw them in various parts of China
doing a magnificent wort Dr. Bradley has established a great leper
hospital at Paik-hoi where these human outcasts are receiving the
latest and most scientific treatment and beginning to look at life
with a new hope. In Yen-ping, at the time of the rebellion, we saw Dr.
Trimble working hour after hour over wounded and broken men without a
thought of rest. In Yün-nan Fu, Dr. Thompson's hospital was filled with
patients suffering from almost every known disease. In Ta-li Fu we saw
Mr. Hanna and his wife dispensing medicines and treating the minor ills
of patients waiting by the dozen, the fees received being not enough
to pay for the cost of the medicines. Why is it that every traveling
foreigner in the interior of China is supposed to be able to cure
diseases? Certainly an important reason is because of the work done by
the medical missionaries who have penetrated to the farthest corners of
the most remote provinces.
Aside from their medical work, missionaries are in many instances the
real pioneers of western civilization. They bring to the people new
standards of living, both morally and physically. They open schools
and emancipate the Chinese children in mind and body. They fight the
barbarous customs of foot binding and the killing and selling of girl
babies. Until recent years it was not unusual to meet the village "baby
peddler" with from two to six tiny infants peddling his "goods" from
village to village. Not many years ago such a man appeared before the
mission compound at Ngu-cheng (Fukien) with four babies in his basket.
Three of these had expired from exposure and the kerosene oil which had
been poured down their throats to stupefy them and drown their cries.
The fourth was purchased by the wife of the native preacher for ten
cents in order to save its life. This child was reared and has since
graduated from the mission schools with credit. In Foochow a stone
tablet bearing the following inscription stands beside a stagnant pool:
"Hereafter the throwing of babies into this pool will be punished by
law." This was a result of the work of the missionaries.
Their task is by no means easy and, as Mr. Hanna once remarked,
"Yün-nan Province has broken the heart of more than one missionary."
The Chinese do not understand their point of view, and it is difficult
to make them see it. A Chinaman is a rank materialist and pure altruism
does not enter into his scheme of life. As a rule he has but two
thoughts, his stomach and his cash bag. It is well-nigh impossible to
make him realize that the missionary has not come with an ulterior
motive--if not to engage in trade, perhaps as a spy for his government.
Others believe that it is because China is so vastly superior to the
rest of the world that the missionaries wish to live there. Eventually
the suspicions of the natives become quieted and they accept the
missionary at some part of his true worth.
At the time of the rebellion in Yen-ping we saw Harry Caldwell, Mr.
Bankhardt and Dr. Trimble save the lives of hundreds of people and
the city from partial destruction because the Chinese officers of the
opposing forces would trust the missionaries when they would not trust
each other.
An excellent piece of practical missionary work was done in Fukien
Province, not long after our visit there. As we have related in Chapter
III, several large bands of brigands were established in the hills
about Yuchi. Brigandage began there in the following way. During a
famine when the people were on the verge of starvation, a wealthy
farmer, Su Ek by name, decided to do his share in relieving conditions
by offering for sale a quantity of rice which he had accumulated. He
approached another man of similar wealth who agreed with him to sell
his grain at a reasonable price. Su Ek accordingly disposed of his
rice to the suffering people and, when he had remaining only enough
to sustain his own family until the following harvest, he sent the
peasants to the second man who had also agreed to dispose of his grain.
This farmer refused to sell at the stipulated price, and the people,
angered at his treachery, looted his sheds. He immediately went to
Foochow and reported to the governor that there was a band of brigands
abroad in Yuchi County under the leadership of Su Ek, and that they had
robbed and plundered his property.
Without warning a company of soldiers swooped down upon the community
and arrested a number of men whose names the informer had given. Su Ek
made his escape to the hills but he was pursued as a brigand chief, and
was later joined by other farmers who had been similarly persecuted.
Unable to return to their homes on pain of death they were forced to
rob in order to live.
Su Ek and others were finally decoyed to Foochow upon the promise
that their lives would be spared if they would induce their band to
surrender. They met the conditions but the government officials broke
faith and the men were executed. Similar attempts were made to enter
into negotiations with the brigands and in 1915 two hundred were
trapped and beheaded after pardons had been promised them. Naturally
the robbers refused to trust the government officials again.
The months which elapsed between this act of treachery and the spring
of 1916, were filled with innumerable outrages. Many townships were
completely devastated, either by the bandits or the Chinese soldiers.
Little will ever be known of what actually took place under the guise
of settling brigandage, behind the mountains which separate Yuchi from
the outer world. It is well that it should not be known.
During the spring of 1916 a missionary visited Yuchi. Business called
him outside the city wall and just beyond the west gate he saw the
bodies of ten persons who had that day been executed. Among these were
two children, brothers, the sons of a man who was reported to have
"sold rice to the brigands." The smaller child had wept and pleaded to
be permitted to kneel beside his older brother further up in the row.
He was too small to realize what it all meant but he wanted to die
beside his brother.
In the middle of the field lay a man whose head was partly severed from
his body and who had been shot through and through by the soldiers. He
was lying upon his back in the broiling sun pleading for a cup of tea
or for someone to put him out of his misery. The missionary learned
the man's story. It appeared that years ago a law suit in which his
father had been concerned had been decided in his favor. In order to
square the score between the clans, the son of the man who had lost
the suit had reported that he had seen this man carrying rice to the
brigands. He had been arrested by the soldiers, partially killed, and
left to lie in the glaring sun from nine o'clock in the morning until
dark suffering the agonies of crucifixion. Not one of those who heard
his moans dared to moisten the parched lips with tea lest he too be
executed for having administered to a brigand.
The missionary returned to the city that night vowing that he would
make a recurrence of such a thing impossible or he would leave China.
He took up the matter with the authorities in Peking in a quiet way
and later with the military governor in Foochow. He was well known to
the brigands by reputation and visited several of the chiefs in their
strongholds. They declared that they had confidence in him but none in
the government or its representatives. It was only after assuming full
responsibility for any treachery that the brigands agreed to discuss
terms.
Upon invitation to accompany him to the 24th Township, the missionary
was escorted out to civilization by twenty-five picked men to whom
the chief had entrusted an important charge. As the group neared
the township the missionary sent word ahead to the commander of the
northern soldiers to prepare to receive the brigands.
[Illustration: Seal of a Pardoned Brigand.]
As the twenty-five bandits appeared upon the summit of a hill
overlooking the city, soldiers could be seen forming into squads
outside the barracks. Instantly the brigands halted, snapped back the
bolts of their rifles, and threw in shells. The missionary realized
that they suspected treachery and turning about he said, "I am the
guarantee for your lives. If a short is fired kill me first."
[Illustration: The South Gate at Yung-chang]
[Illustration: A Chinese Bride Returning to Her Mother's Home at New
Year's]
With two loaded guns at his back and accompanied by the brigands he
marched into the city, where they were received by the officials with
all the punctilious ceremony so dear to the heart of the Chinese. It
had been a dangerous half hour for the missionary. If a rifle had been
fired by mistake, and Chinese are always shooting when they themselves
least expect to, he would have been instantly killed.
This conference, and others which followed, resulted in several hundred
pardons being distributed to the brigands by the missionary himself.
The men then returned to their abandoned homes and again took up their
lives as respectable farmers. Thus the reign of terror in this portion
of the province was ended through the efforts of one courageous man. It
is such applied Christianity that has made us respect the missionary
and admire his work.