Cibrarj? of Cho 'theological ^eminar^ PRINCETON . NEW JERSEY FROM THE LIBRARY OF ROBERT ELLIOTT SPEER BV 3415 .B6 1911 Bond, Geo. J. Our share in China and what we are doing with it Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2017 with funding from Princeton Theological Seminary Library https://archive.org/details/ourshareinchinawOObond REV. VIRGIL C. HART, D.D. Died February 24th, 1904. Founder of the Canadian Methodist Mission in Szechwan, West China. The pioneer party of Missionaries left Canada with Dr. Hart in 1«91. ®ttr S>lfarf in ©Ifina anil Mllfat Pf are inlng mitlf it BY GEO. J. BOND ILLUSTRATED " When Christian service is made the motive of all our missionary enterprise, whether it be medical', educational, industrial or literary, there is but one descriptive word for that wholeipropaganda : EVANGELISM." TORONTO Uiift ^iBBfonarg ^orfrty of lift lKetl|odiBt The Y oung People's Forward Movement Department F. C. Stephenson, Secretary 1911 Copyright, Canada, IV09, by Prederick Clao^ke Stophenson. TO fig iEmnJia in (Etjina AND TO AU OlanaJiiian Urn ani Ifflnmrn WHO "a RE FAITHFULLY WORKING TO WIN THAT LAND FOR CHRIST. If I have eaten my morsel alone/ The patriarch spake in scorn; What would he think of the Churchy were he shown Heathendom, huge, forlorn. Godless, Christless, with needs unfed. While the Church's ailment is fulness of bread. Bating her morsel alone? Freely ye have received, so give * — He hade Who hath given us all: How shall the soul in us longer live Deaf to their starving call. For whom the Blood of the Lord was shed. And His Body broken to give them bread. If we eat our morsel alone?** FOREWORD. This book is intended to be simply, and even severely, practical. It is a statement of the lead- ing facts connected with the Canadian Methodist Mission in West China, succinct, accurate, and up-to-date. The readers the editor has in mind are the members of the Laymen’s Missionary Movement, eager for information of things brought to pass on the Mission field, and of things that may be brought to pass by prompt and adequate investment of capital and wise and strategic allotment of labor; the members of Young Men’s Clubs, Epworth Leagues, and Sun- day Schools seeking the latest data for private study or public speech ; and that large and, thank God, growing number in our churches who are keenly, personally, and practically interested in the noblest of all objects which the human mind can set before itself as study and task- — the advancement of the Kingdom of God among men. The book is intended for busy people, anxious for facts in small compass and short order. Con- sequently, the chief literary merit aimed at is that of clearness and compactness of statement. The editor has gone to headquarters for his s Foreword facts. Most of them, as will be seen, have been furnished by the missionaries themselves. He has but collated their descriptions of places and work, and added a few chapters of general information gathered from many sources. The editor knows from personal travel and observation the ground which the facts cover. The missionaries, one and all, are his personal friends, to whom he is indebted for a thousand courtesies, and in whom, and in the success of whose work, he is deeply interested. He is optimistic in the highest degree as to the development and success of our work in West China. He loves the beautiful Province of Szechwan; he loves the Chinese people. He is eager that our glorious heritage of work and responsibility in West China, with its certain promise of immediate, vast, widespread, and enduring result, should be fully known to those at home. And if this book shall aid even in the smallest way in giving Canadian Methodists a clearer view of, and a deeper interest in, the place, the people, the missionaries, and the great and rapidly growing work, he will be amply rewarded. Gko. J. Bond. Toronto, September, 1909. 6 PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION The first edition of three thousand copies has been exhausted in little more than a year. A new edition is called for, and advantage has been taken of its issue to add considerable new matter, as well as to thoroughly revise the book and bring it completely up to date. History is being rapidly made in China; not only in the general progress of the country towards Western light and learning, but in the increase and development of missionary opera- tions within its wide borders. This is particu- larly true of the Mission of our own Church. Thanks to the wisdom and liberality of our mis- sionary policy, and the widespread and growing conviction throughout our Church that there must be no delay in pouring men and money into China if we are to do our duty and seize and hold our great opportunity, we are reinforcing our Mission in Szechwan every year, and build- ing up what promises to be the strongest detach- ment of Christ’s advancing' army in that vast province. Since the issue of the first edition, we have taken over the territory formerly occu- pied by the London Missionary Society in the great city of Chungking, and in other cities and 7 Preface to Second Edition towns along the banks of the Yangtse eastward for many miles. That means a mighty increase at once of opportunity and responsibility. We have vigorously commenced operations in con- nection with the Union Christian University in Chengtu, and are providing our full share in the building and in the teaching of that institution — an institution that is bound to be a tremendous factor in the Christian and educational develop- ment of all Western China. And so this book goes forth in its revised edition, a record and a challenge — a record of things already accomplished and in process of accomplishment, and a challenge to the Church to provide men and means for the accomplish- ment of yet greater things in the greatest and most important of all the tasks of to-day — the uplift and enlightenment of the mighty empire of China. G5:o. J. Bond. Halifax, June ist, 1911. 8 CONTENTS Chapter. Page. Introduction ----- 13 L The Psycholog’ical Moment in China 19 11 . The Empire Province - - - 31 III. The Girdle of China 41 IV. Chengtu, our Missionary Centre 51 V. Kiating ------ 95 VI. Jenshow and Junghsien - 111 VII. Tzeliutsing, Penghsien and Luchow - 123 VIII. Chungking and our New Mission Ter- ritory - - - - - 143 IX. The Programme of the Church 159 X. Making History in West China 183 XL The Work of the Woman’s Mission- ary Society in West China 193 XIL The Hill Tribes of Szechwan - 201 XIII. The Nosu Country - - - - 211 Contents Page. 219 Chapter, XIV. The Province of Kweichow XV. The Province of Yunnan - - 235 Appendices^ No. 1. Spelling: and Pronunciation of Names - - - . - 259 No. 2. Missionaries and their Stations, 1911-1912 - 260 No. 3. Itinerary of distances on the Yangtse - - - - - 262 No. 4. Good Investments - 263 No. 5. Bibliography - 264 No. 6. Reference Library on China - 266 lO LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. Note, — Illustrations, unless otherwise credited, are from photo- graphs taken by the Author. PAGE Listening to the Glad Tidings in a Street Chapel Cover Rev. Virgil C. Hart, D.D. . . Frontispiece Three of China’s Chief Gods 26 Border Scenes 36 Old Boundary Bridge at Tachienlu. Street in Tachienlu. Ascending the Yangtse .46 Leaving Ichang. With the Trackers. Ashore for a Walk. The Wushan Gorge 48 Medical Work ....... 62 Girls with Unbound Feet. {Photo by C. W. Service, M.D.) A Victim of Foot-binding. {Photo by Rev. E. W. Morgan.) The Canadian Methodist Hospital, Chengtu. {Photo by Rev. T. E. E. Shore.) Chengtu 76 Temporary College Buildings. {Photo by Rev. T. E. E. Shore.) Church and Class Rooms. {Photo by Rev. T. E. E. Shore.) Press Building. Tibetan Women of the Chinese Border Land . 92 Kiating 102 The Mission Compound. Some Hospital Patients. {Photo by C. W. Service, M.D.). List of Illustrations Jenshow ......... The City of Jenshow — Our Mission Com- pound on the Hill to the Right. Mr. Hoffman and Mr. Earle and the “Twelve Apostles ” — Colporteurs of Jenshow District. Junghsien The Canadian Methodist Church. Mrs. W. E. Smith and her School Girls. The Salt Well District Boring a Well. Evaporating Salt by Natural Gas. A General View of Tzeliutsing. Glimpses of Szechwan — Our West China Mission Field Canadian Methodist Mission Houses, West China Our Missionaries in West China . . . . Rev. G. J. Bond and Children of the Jennie Ford Orphanage, Chengtu Our W. M. S. Educational Work . . . . School at Jenshow. School at Chengtu. King Soh and His Son Rev. W. J. Mortimore and Rev. C. W. Service, M.D., among the Nosu Tribesmen. {Photo by Rev. E. W. Morgan) Travelling Through the Province of Szechwan A Glimpse of the Szechwanese Alps. Flooded Rice Fields on the Road from Chungking to Chengtu. Wayside Scenes Tea Carriers from Szechwan to Tibet Resting at an Inn. A Group of Wasi Tribesmen. PAGE ii6 120 136 150 170 188 196 198 204 216 230 248 12 INTRODUCTION AN AWAKENED CHURCH AND AN AWAKENED CHINA “ Men of action these ! Who, seeing just as little as you please. Yet turn that little to account; engage With — do not gaze at — carry on a stage — The work o’ the world, not merely make report The work existed ere their day! In short, When at some future no-time a brave band Sees — using what it sees — then shake my hand In heaven, my brother !” — Browning. “Action is the Word of God, Thought alone is but His shadow. They who disjoin Thought and Action seek to divide Duty, and deny the Eternal Unity.” — Mazzini. “ In thinking of God’s eternal choice and purpose con- cerning you, ask yourself : — Have you been grateful to God for the fact of being a Christian? Or have you regarded it as merely a matter of chance that you were born in a Christian land, and were taken to baptism in the ordinary way? Have you ever really considered the words: ‘Ye have not chosen Me, but I have chosen you’ Bishop Webb. INTRODUCTION AN AWAKENED CHURCH AND AN AWAKENED CHINA. “ The Laymen constitute the greatest unused asset of the Christian Church.” “ The Evangelization of the World in this Generation ” has been from its inception the heroic, optimistic, but often criticized as vision- ary, motto of the Student Volunteer Missionary Movement. It has embodied and set forth the highest ideal of the consecration and enthusiasm of our youth. To-day that motto is the objective of the Laymen’s Missionary Movement, recog- nized and acted upon as the only adequate and reasonable objective for business calculation and investment in missions. At once the most significant sign of the times and the most accurate criterion of the extra- ordinary and extraordinarily rapid advance of the Kingdom of God in these latter days, this Laymen’s Missionary Movement has set the solid and substantial business men of the Christian churches carefully, methodically and exactly to calculate the cost of evangelizing the world in this generation, and to set about raising the necessary capital to invest in the great enterprise. 15 Introduction ‘That is what they are doing at this moment. They can do it, and they will. In our own Church we have set the pace for the world in our Young People’s Forward Move- ment for Missions. Not another Church has anything to compare with it, in extent, in co- ordination, and in practical outcome. Be it re- membered to their honor, that it is to her young people, her boys and girls in the Sunday Schools, her young men and women in the Epworth Leagues and Young Men’s Clubs, that Canadian Methodism owes that wonderful development in Foreign Mission work in which she rejoices to- day. The glow, the enthusiasm, the practical consecration and liberality of the Student Volun- teer Movement and the Young People’s Forward Movement for Missions in our own and the other Churches, have made possible and prevailing the atmosphere in which the Laymen’s Missionary Movement has come into being — the consumma- tion and culmination of the study, the prayer, and the giving which have been for years the cumula- tive life of the godliest and most practically Christian in the Churches of our land. It is eminently fitting that with the noble self- consecration of the Student Volunteer Movement and the wonderful and self-denying liberality of the Young People’s Forward Movement for Mis- sions, there should now be given to the considera- tion and carrying forward of missionary work the business acumen and substantial wealth of the i6 Introduction Laymen’s Missionary Movement. There are mighty things ahead of the Church of Christ in the unity, the sagacity, the liberality of the men of that wonderful movement. It is a movement that bids fair to speedily move the heathen world to Christ. The Church to-day is, as never before, a Mis- sionary Church. It is coming more and more to realize that God is a .Missionary God, that the essential element in Christianity is the Mission- ary spirit, that every follower of Jesus Christ is, ipso facto, a missionary, and must go, per- sonally or by proxy, into all the world,” and “preach the Gospel to every creature.” There has come to it a vision that has stirred its pulses, and thrilled it into a purpose of high and sus- tained endeavor. There has emerged to it a task — “ the unfinished task ” — of bringing every man and woman and child of the nations that sit in darkness to the knowledge of Him who is the Light of the World. The magnitude and difficulty of that splendid task constitute the power and fascination of its challenge to the men and women of to-day. In Canada the Missionary question is no longer one of individual and church, it has become among Protestants inter- denominational and national. The epochal Mis- sionary Conference at Edinburgh in 1910 has gone far to make that true among all the English- speaking peoples. The Canadian Methodist Church has accepted 2 17 Introduction responsibility for evangelizing fourteen millions of the unevangelized inhabitants of the world. That proportion, according to the calculations of missionary experts, may be brought to the knowledge of Christ in a generation if our Church will arise to her great opportunity. An average contribution of ten cents a week from each of her members, and an average consecra- tion of one man and one woman to the life and work of a foreign missionary from every thou- sand of her members, continued every year for the next quarter of a century, will in that time enable us measurably to obey our Lord’s com- mand, and measurably to answer the appeal for help now ringing in our ears from our breth- ren and sisters in heathen lands. In the providence of God, our great share of the heathen world lies in Western China. What that share is, and how we are evangelizing it, it is the purpose of this book to show. An awakened China must be met by an awakened Church. i8 THE PSYCHOLOGICAL MOMENT IN CHINA *‘The day is coming, and that very soon, when China will have more students than any other nation of the world.” — Dr. John R. Mott. “If Christians at home only knew what a determined effort is being made to exclude Christian teachers and Christian text-books from Chinese Government schools, from the Imperial University down, they would exert themselves to give a Christian education to the youth of China .” — President W. A. P. Martin, of the Pekin University. “ China, then, is in the midst of an intellectual revolu- tion, but at present her education has a pronouncedly utilitarian end. Her one motive and desire is that she may acquire the secret of the industrial, commercial, financial, military, and naval power of the West. This is her deliberate purpose and she is succeeding in a marked degree. Is there not something ominous in a nation of 400,000,000 people moving forward into modern civilization with no higher motive than this?” — Dr. John R. Mott. “ I know of a land that is sunk in shame. Of hearts that faint and tire; And I know of a Name, a Name, a Name, Can set this land on fire; Its sound is a brand, its letters a flame, I know of a Name, a Name, a Name, Will set this land on fire.” Our Share in China CHAPTER I. THE PSYCHOLOGICAL MOMENT IN CHINA. “Jesus Christ is the only hope of China .” — A non- Christian Chinese College President of Tientsin. “The Yellow Peril becomes the golden opportunity of Christendom .” — Maltbie Babcock. The greatest opportunity for the extension of China, the Christ’s Kingdom that His Church has ever had portuSty for now lies before her in China. It is impossible of Christ’s ... - , . Kingdom. to overstate either the vastness of the opportunity or the tremendous responsibility which rests upon the Church to avail herself of it to the very utmost. Neither is it possible to overstate the importance of immediate and lavish devotion by the Church of men and means to China, because, in the very nature of things, the opportunity cannot last long at the best, and, as a matter of fact, the psychological moment for the fullest and widest impress for good on China is rapidly passing away. The oldest and most populous empire in the China is open world, with the most scholarly, most ethical, and what^a^mis®^ most conservative of all the Oriental peoples, lies may do. 21 Our Share in China open to the Gospel from end to end. Everywhere the missionary is free to go. In a thousand directions he may make his influence tell, directly and indirectly, in creating in China a Christian atmosphere and developing in China a Christian civilization. As preacher, as teacher, as physi- cian and surgeon, as litterateur, and in many other ways, he may multiply himself a thousand- fold in laying the foundations broad and deep of native agencies — evangelistic, philanthropic, edu- cational — that shall by and by reach every hamlet and every individual in all the broad land. China’s Four hundred and thirty-seven millions of population 437,000,000. people — more than one-fourth of the world's Her civUiza- , , , . , , , , , tionand^his- whole population — may be brought under the years om. influence of the Gospel of Christ, if only the the Gospel. Churches in our favored Western lands respond promptly and adequately to the opportunity before them. And what a people ! With a civili- zation and a history four thousand years old; with a code of laws and a system of morals which, despite internal discord and external aggression, have kept them homogeneous, self- sufflcient, independent, for all those forty cen- turies — a mighty nation. And in this twentieth century, for the first time, that mighty nation may be freely reached by the missionary of the Cross. China has put Napoleon once said: When China moves, she away her . greatest will move the world." And China is moving, idol— her old ^ edu^c^ionai moving mightily. For ages she has been facing 22 The Psychological Moment in China the past, and seeking to reproduce it. To-day she is facing the future and seeking to pre-empt it. The greatest social revolution in the history of the world has taken place in China. She has abandoned her old and venerated educational system and adopted instead the newest curricula of the most modern Western schools and col- leges. The old examination cells, where her scholars wrote theses on the moss-grown memorabilia of the classics, and filled their papers with venerable but practically useless classic lore, have given place to Imperial universities, where her coming leaders are being trained in law, in science, in economics, in engineering, in the thou- sand and one things that go to 'make up-to-date equipment for practical life and service. Primary and secondary schools, middle, high, normal and technical schools, are being established through- out the Empire. Thousands of young men of the best families are going abroad, many at their parents’ expense, many at the expense and by the direction of the Government, to sit for five or six years at the feet of the best teachers in the best colleges of Britain, France, Germany, Bel- gium, Japan, and the United States, and to come back to China and give their country the benefit of the training they have acquired. “There are at present,” says a letter from a spien- did effort to member of the Chinese Legation at Washington, acquire quoted in a missionary periodical of 1909, “about gaowiedge. three hundred students in the United States, over men sent abroad to study. 23 Our Share in China two hundred in England, about one hundred in Germany, two score or so in Belgium, and, say, three thousand in Japan. The students in the United States are supported partly by the Pro- vincial Governments The other stu- dents are private, including some native born. The universities largely attended by our students are: Cornell (say, 30), Harvard (over 40), Yale (about 30), Pennsylvania (24), and California. There are a few in Wisconsin, Illi- nois, Leland Stanford, Chicago, ^Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Columbia, and in the smaller colleges of New England. The courses taken are too numerous to mention, but the majority take engineering or finance The students will be given government positions on their return, without a doubt, especially those who pass the Imperial examinations in Peking. Those supported by the Provincial Governments are bound to serve in official bureaus for a num- ber of years.” That was two years ago. Since then the num- bers have increased greatly. Dr. Mott is author- ity for the statement that there are now not less than four thousand Chinese students in Tokyo, not less than six hundred in the United States and about five hundred in Great Britain and the Continent. “ In the history of education,” says Dr. Mott, there has been no such extensive migration of students from one country to an- other. At the time when Japan had the largest 24 The Psychological Moment in China number of her youth studying abroad, there were only seventeen hundred in America and a much smaller number in Europe.” In ten years’ time, in twenty, in another gen- china is eager eration, what vast changes these things will have material brought about. But such changes will not neces- o? we^stSi sarily make for the moral and spiritual better- without ment of^China. These students sent abroad will This^wouid^be return to their country, skilled in the theoretical and practical studies in which they have engaged, but not, therefore, one whit more favorably dis- posed to Christianity or more imbued with its essential spirit, than when they left their native shores. From the very centres of modern light and learning, from cities of churches, from the neighborhood of the very foci of the warmest and most aggressive evangelism, such are the environments of a Chinese student in the great universities of this continent and of Europe — not to mention those of Japan — that it is alto- gether too probable that many, if not most, of them may return, non-Christian, if not anti- Christian, to give their own personal bias to those with whom they will come in contact during their subsequent career in the positions of influence which they will undoubtedly be called to occupy. What has happened in Japan is all too likely to happen in China — the creation of an atmosphere and the assumption of an attitude subtilely but stubbornly hostile to Christianity, while eager to accept and assimilate all the 25 Our Share in China material advantages of that Western civilization which is really its product. And nothing more disastrous could be conceived than the position of China, equipped with all the material benefits of civilization, but unredeemed, unregenerated, undisenthralled by the vitalizing spirit of the religion of Jesus Christ. To save China, to save the Orient, to save the world, from such a disas- ter, the churches of Europe and America should be lavish of men and means in this hour of rapidly passing opportunity. For, as Bishop Cas- sels recently told a London audience, it is pass- ing so rapidly that its best moment may really be said to have already gone. There has come in many a battle a point when everything depended upon the promptness and energy with which rein- forcements were hurried to the field. Such a point has come in the mission work in China. All depends, for the future of that great Empire, for the future of the East, for the future of the world, upon the quickness of the home churches to see the crisis, and their faithfulness to meet it with immediate and adequate consecration. The Christian Yes, China is moving. And it is for the mn young Christian Churches of the West to direct the China ^ . through . movement. Christian schools and universities in missionaries as teachers. China itself, to Christianize this movement for Western education and to train the eager minds of China’s young people under Christian auspices and Christian influence, are of immeasurable strategic importance at this hour. In high places 26 THREE OF CHINA’S CHIEF GODS. The Psychological Moment in China and low, among the sons of the illiterate and the sons of the literati, once the bitterest oppon- ents of the Gospel, the teaching of Western learn- ing by missionaries is eagerly welcomed. We may have young China under our influence in young China’s most plastic and impressionable years, if we will not grudge the men or the money. China has made more advance during the past some changes wllicll m ?^Tlr eleven years than in all the four thousand years china’s of her previous history. Indeed, it may be said durSg^the , . , .,11 1 past eleven that m that period she has made more progress years. than any other nation in the world. In addition to the extraordinary educational revolution just spoken of, she has passed through others equally significant of her changed attitude to Western thought and civilization. She has accepted the principle of constitutional government, and is preparing for the establishment of a national Parliament in 1917. The first Provincial assem- blies met in 1910. She is projecting a fleet and drilling an army in modern methods. She has built and equipped great arsenals and factories of smokeless powder. She has multiplied her post-offices from a few score to three thousand five hundred. She has twenty-six thousand miles of telegraph lines, with about five hundred telegraph offices, and is pushing them up to the very borders of Tibet, and even to the mysterious city of Lhasa. She has over four thousand miles of railway in operation, and is projecting 27 Our Share in China nine thousand more. She is asking for the abolition of ex-territorial courts. She has issued edicts providing for the utter prohibition, within ten years, of the cultivation, manufacture, sale, and use of opium, which have already been exe- cuted with such sternness that the terrible evil has been greatlyreduced. She has issued an edict against the dreadful practice of foot-binding, which for ages has cost the life of one girl in ten throughout the Empire, and cruelly crippled all the others. Hundreds of newspapers have been established, one of them, published in Pekin and edited by a woman, being the only daily news- paper for women in the world. There are changes, from a Christian point of view, still more strik- ing. One of her great officials, the Viceroy of Fukien, recently prohibited collections for idola- trous processions ; another Viceroy ordered that each of his subordinate officials, numbering thou- sands, should possess himself of a copy of the New Testament, and a third, the Viceroy of Hunan and Hupeh, decreed that the New Testa- ment should be studied side by side with the Classics in the public schools of those great and populous provinces. The Christian Sunday has been made the weekly rest-day for the Govern- ment schools and colleges throughout the Empire. More than that, thousands upon thousands of Bibles and portions of Scripture have been bought, and Christian literature of all kinds is being purchased and read as never before. Con- The Psychological Moment in China verts are multiplying with unprecedented rapid- ity, and not long since, as a result of revival among the college students of Pekin, over two hundred of them entered the ranks of the Student Volunteer Missionary Movement. China is moving indeed, and, as Napoleon truly What does vlllllSL S said, she will move the world. But how? There awakening are not wanting those who look on her move- tke world ? ment as a portent of evils to come. They talk of “ The Yellow Peril,” and predict disaster and havoc to Western civilization, when the millions of China become conscious of their own strength. As the Goths and Vandals swooped down upon and overran the fair provinces of the Roman Empire, so, say these prophets of ill, may the swarthy nations of the Orient — Japan with her fifty millions, India with her three hundred mil- lions, China with her four hundred and thirty- seven millions, with disciplined and scientifically equipped armies commensurate with their vast populations — sweep down upon and overrun the civilization of the West. Not now the Mediter- ranean or the Atlantic, but the Pacific, is to be the theatre of the world’s most tremendous and decisive battles. That prophecy of ill is quite possible of fulfilment. But will that prophecy be fulfilled? Not if challenge to the Christian Church does her duty to-day. Not jesus^Sbr£t°* if the development of China becomes not anti- Christian, or even non-Christian, but predomi- nantly Christian. Let the Churches of the West 29 Our Share in China do their full duty by China and by Christ, and no Yellow Peril need ever rise as a portent to alarm the world. The Chinese are pre-eminently a peace-loving people. The profession of arms has never had a recognized place in the precepts of their sages or in the provisions of their body politic. It would have none to-day but for the exigencies of self-defence and the example of Christian nations. The Chinese love peace, and the development of the Chinese nation will make for peace. Sir Robert Hart, that “ greatest of living Irishmen,” as he has been called, who knows China so well and has done so much for her during the half-century of his service at the head of her Imperial Customs — by the way, he is the son of a Methodist local preacher and was trained in Methodist schools — said the other day in London that the Chinese were a singularly law-abiding people,” and he predicted that in a century or two China might be strong enough to dictate peace terms to the world, and by always throwing herself on the side of the nation attacked, make war impossible and bring in the millennium. To turn that prophecy into reality is a task worthy of the Church of Jesus Christ. 30 THE EMPIRE PROVINCE. “ Ssu hai chi nei, chieh hsiung ti yeh. — The four seas between, all are brethren.” — Confucius. “ Since things alter for the worse spontaneously, if they be not altered for the better designedly, what end will there be of evil ? ” — Bacon. “ O rock, rock, when wilt thou open ? ” — Xavier* s dying words. “ Seeing the power of Thy grace is not passed away with the primitive times, as fond and faithless men imagine, but Thy kingdom is now at hand, and Thou standing at the door, come forth out of Thy royal chambers, O Prince of all the kings of the earth; put on the visible robes of Thy imperial majesty, take up that unlimited sceptre which Thy Almighty Father hath bequeathed Thee; for now the voice of Thy bride calls Thee, and all creatures sigh to be redeemed.” — Milton. CHAPTER II. THE EMPIRE PROVINCE. “ This great idea of a world-wide religion, embracing our common humanity, is born of the idea of the one God Who made all men of one blood, to dwell on all the face of the earth. It is distinctly a divine concep- tion, a revealed idea .” — Bishop Hendrix. Szechv^an is the largest and most populous of t;J®®2a?|est the eighteen provinces of China. The name Province means “ Four Rivers,’^ from the four large rivers which intersect it, the Yalung, the Min, the Chung, and the Kialing. The province has an area of 218,533 ^puiJtion miles, and a population, according to Chinese reckoning, of 68,721,800; but as a Chinese census is never scientific, it is probably more accurate to estimate the population as from forty-five to fifty millions of people. There is said to be an average for the province of five hundred and fourteen people to the square mile, which, as a large proportion of the country is mountainous, and therefore sparsely populated, indicates a very dense population in the other parts. The province is bounded on the north by Geographical Shensi and Kansu, on the west by Tibet, on the south by Yunnan and Kweichow, and on the 33 Our Share in China east by Hunan and Hupeh. About three- fourths of it is mountainous, except for the table- lands. The mountains in the north-east average 8,200 feet in height; the glorious Szechwanese Alps, stretching from north-west to south-east, average 15,000 to 19,000 feet; and the eastern chain, stretching from north-east to south-west, average 6,000 feet. In the red sandstone basin the average height is from 600 to 1,900 feet above the sea. met.^an western and north-western portions of the invasion Held. province are really a part of eastern Tibet, absorbed gradually by the Chinese, brought under Chinese laws and administered as an integral part of the Empire. The semi-independent tribes, whose chaidzes ”.or fortified villages are found high up the slopes of the Szechwanese Alps, and the Tibetans on the vast plateaux beyond the important border cities of Tachienlu, Litang, and Batang, are under the control of their own tribal and hereditary wangs ” or princes, but these in turn are directly amenable to the resident Chinese officials. This Chinese Tibet, with its Wasi, Si fans, and other tribes, and its nomadic and pastoral Tibetans, together with the mountains farther east, the home of the wild and uncon- quered Nosu, over whom Chinese law wields a restraining and civilizing influence, affords a splendid and most needy and inviting field for heroic and successful missionary enterprise, which it is to be hoped our Canadian Methodist 34 I i J THE EMPIRE PROVINCE The mineral wealth of Szechwan. Our Share in China Mission will ere long take up and prosecute with vigor. Szechwan is composed, geologically, of a basin of red sandstone, sloping toward the south-east. It is irrigated by several rivers, besides the four from which it takes its name, and the Yangtse bisects it from south-west to north-east. The eastern portion of the province was formerly the bed of a lake. It is composed of red and grey sandstone, encircled by primitive and primary rocks, and is exceedingly fertile, while it is underlaid by what is probably one of the largest, if not the largest of the world’s coal deposits. Copper, iron, and other valuable minerals exist in large quantities. So far, mining can hardly be said to be carried on, so crude and inadequate are the methods employed; but when once suffi- cient capital and scientific methods are employed to develop its vast resources, Szechwan is bound to become one of the greatest mining centres of the world. For many centuries, in the city and district of Tzeliutsing (see page 125 for detailed account), and in other sections of the province, brine has been raised from the vast subterranean salt streams which occur at depths of two and three thousand feet, evaporated into salt, and distributed to the adjacent provinces, engaging hundreds of thousands of people in a vast and important industry. The total annual output of salt in the province has been calculated at 300,000 tons, valued at nearly five and three-quarter millions of dollars, Canadian currency. 36 ON THE BORDER ;BETWEEN SZECHWAN AND TIBET. 1. Old Boundary Bridge at Tachienlu. 2. Street in Tachienlu. The Empire Province Rice is the staple food product of the pro- The agricui- vince, and is cultivated in the rich alluvium of the plains and up the slopes of the surrounding hills as high as the indispensably constant and abundant irrigation can be carried. Wheat, bar- ley, Indian corn, buckwheat, and millet are also grown. Rape grows to a great height, and is largely cultivated, its seeds furnishing a valuable and much used oil for culinary and industrial purposes. Tea is grown extensively and for export, chiefly to Tibet, as well as for home con- sumption. The sugar cane is cultivated in con- siderable quantity. Peas, beans, and vegetables in endless variety grow in profusion. Fruit is plentiful. Oranges of fine quality, huge pomelos, excellent peaches, persimmons, loquats, pears, crab apples, apricots, plums, dates and grapes, are produced largely and sold cheaply, as are walnuts and peanuts. Tobacco is largely grown. So was opium formerly, and much valuable land was given up to the production of what has well been called China^s curse.” Happily, the recent edicts against the cultivation and use of opium have already greatly reduced the area of land given up to its cultivation, and it may well be hoped that in a few years the beautiful but bane- ful poppy field will altogether cease to be a feature in Chinese agricultural landscapes. The manufacture of silk is largely carried on The manu- in the province, and thousands and thousands szechwan- of mulberry trees are planted for the sole pur- wax, 37 Our Share in China The towns and cities of Szechwan. The people of Szechwan. pose of affording food for the silkworm. Huge trays, holding the worm in all stages of its growth, may be seen outside the houses of the villagers in the spring-time in many parts of the province, and government schools to train pupils in the selection and best development of the useful insect, and in the conservation and manufacture of its rich product, are now to be found in many of th& important cities. The manufacture of white wax, also the product of an insect, is another of the interesting and important industries of the province; and the manufacture of cotton cloth, cooking utensils, paper and India ink may be added to those already mentioned. The silk industry alone, the chief centres of which are Kiating, Paoning, Shunking, and Tungchuan, is calculated to be worth ten millions of dollars annually. The province has its own resident Viceroy, who resides in Chengtu. One hundred and twenty walled cities are found within its borders. It has eleven Fu or prefectural cities besides the capital, eight independent Chow cities, and three independent Ting cities, besides a great number of Hsien or district cities and hundreds of mar- ket towns and large villages. Its population is mixed, and very many of its people claim descent from ancestors who immigrated two or three centuries ago from other provinces. The Szechwanese are a sturdy, industrious and thrifty people, courteous to strangers, onen- 38 The Empire Province minded and ready to hear the Gospel. The inso^ lence and rudeness often met with in the pro- vinces down the river, particularly where the Chinese have come in contact with the kind of foreigners who frequent the treaty ports of cen- tral and south China, are happily not at all characteristic of the people of China’s largest province. Everywhere throughout it the mission- ary may travel and preach, sure of a good reception and an attentive hearing. The Canadian Methodist Church owes an im- Szechwan chosen as oui mense debt of gratitude to the memory of the g^iss^on late Rev. Dr. Virgil C. Hart for his foresight and v. c. Hart, enterprise in counselling the choice of this mag- nificent province as the field of her mission work in China, and for personally leading her pioneer missionary party thither, and superintending that work through its earliest and most critical stages, till he literally wore himself out, and died, made prematurely old by the cares of a life of mission- ary work in China and the ravages of disease contracted in its discharge. She may well con- gratulate herself on the possession of so splendid a field for her missionary enterprise, and for the successful and cumulative influence of her sons and daughters engaged in that enterprise, as that afforded by what has well been called the empire province of China. May our Church be wide- visioned to see the vastness of her privilege and responsibility in West China, and liberal to the point of lavishness in sending to it, year by year, 39 Our Share in China of the best of her young men and women, and in devoting of the abundance of her means to the support and expansion of their work, and may she give herself most earnestly and constantly to prayer that that work may be made everywhere and always effective, through the power of the Almighty Spirit of God. 40 THE GIRDLE OF CHINA His Excellency Tuan Fang, one of the two High Com- missioners sent by the Chinese Government around the world to study the institutions of Western lands, at a banquet given them in New York city in 1906, gave this testimony as to the influence of the missionaries on the development of China : “ They have borne the light of Western civilization into every nook and corner of the Empire. * * * The awakening of China may be traced in no small measure to the work of the missionaries.” ” If the Chinese people were to file one by one past a given point, the interesting procession would never come to an end. Before the last man of those living to-day had gone by, another and a new generation would have grown up, and so on for ever and ever.” Bishop Bashford says that at the very first service held by him in China, although he hesitated as to whether to ask the people publicly to manifest their decision for Christ, when he did so there was large response, and at the close of the meeting there were two or three hundred men and women earnestly calling on God either for forgiveness or for a deeper work of grace in their hearts. He adds : “After having made one hundred and thirty or forty appeals, in churches, in heathen temples, or on the streets, for immediate decision for Christ, I have never seen a service in which at least some one did not immediately decide to become a Christian, the number varying from two or three to as high as two hundred.” * CHAPTER III. THE GIRDLE OF CHINA. “ The missionary must either confess himself helpless, or he must to the last fibre of his being believe in the Holy Ghost. I choose to believe, nay I am shut up to believe, by what I have seen.” — Dr. Gibson. As all missionaries bound to Szechwan have The Yangtse to reach that distant province by way of the Yangtse, a brief account of that mighty river may well be in order at this point. The Yangtse is one of the greatest rivers in the world. Its total length, from its source among the mountains of Tibet to its mouth, where it enters the China Sea a little to the north-east of the city of Shanghai, is about three thousand two hundred miles. From its source to the city of Suifu, about five hundred miles, it is torrential and, therefore, unnavigable; from Suifu to Ichang, about one thousand seven hun- dred miles, it is partially navigable; and for the last thousand miles of its course, from Ichang to its mouth, it is navigable by steamships of considerable tonnage. At its estuary the Yangtse is some sixty miles The value of wide; at Hankow, six hundred and fifty miles to^cwnj?"® from its mouth, it is nearly a mile wide; at 43 Our Share in China Ichang, about one thousand miles up river, and even at Chungking, over one thousand five hundred miles from its mouth, it is many hundred yards wide. The tide is felt as far as Wuhu, three hundred and seventy-five miles from its mouth. The volume of water which passes at Ichang, i.e., before it receives the great affluents of the Tongting Lake and the Han River, is calculated as two hundred and twenty- four times that of the Thames at London. The Yangtse drains an area, in its central course, of seven hundred thousand square miles, with a population of two hundred millions of people. The inestimable value of this great waterway to the interior provinces as an artery of trade and commerce is evidenced by the immense amount of native shipping constantly traversing it. Its ports take nearly sixty per cent, of China s trade with foreign countries. Ichang is, so far, the limit of commercial steam tbe Yangtse. navigation; though British and other gunboats of light draft ascend the river to Suifu, and even go as far as Kiating, on its great affluent, the Min, which enters it at Suifu, about one thousand seven hundred miles from its mouth. For one hundred and fifty miles above Ichang the river, narrowed frequently to four or five hundred yards in width, or even less, sweeps rapidly through magnificent gorges, with a strong and deep current, except where moun- tain affluents have carried boulders into its chan- 44 CHINA’S i^GKEAT |WEST. Our Share in China Tbe house- boats for passenger traffic. nel and produced exceedingly dangerous rapids. An enormous and constant carrying trade is clone by native junks in these upper waters; and the time cannot be far distant when enterprise and skill will combine to place upon them a fleet of strong and powerful steamships to capture the tremendous business in freight and passengers now existing which the development of West- ern China is bound to vastly increase. Thirteen great rapids and seventy-two minor ones impede and make difficult the navigation of these upper waters, but none of them is beyond modern engi- neering skill and carefulness. Passengers ascend the rapids and gorges in what are termed house-boats,^^ slowly, indeed, but with considerable comfort and little risk; and the scenery through which they pass, as the mighty river sweeps through the splendid gorges in the midst of lofty mountains, rising sometimes sheer from the water’s edge, is unsurpassed by anything in the world. This passage must be made in those months of the later autumn, winter and early spring, in which the water is at its lowest. The Yangtse rises in summer forty, sixty, and, in some seasons, nearly a hun- dred feet above its winter level; and stemming its current at flood-time is exceedingly difficult and hazardous. The house-boats are hired at Ichang from the native skippers. They take each, as a rule, two missionaries and their wives, and they 46 ASCENDING THE YANGTSE. 1. Leaving Ichang. 2. With the Trackers. 3. Ashore for a walk. The Girdle of China occupy, on an average, one month in getting to Chungking, and another month, or even longer, in reaching Chengtu. The first stage in this houseboat journey, that The grand ^ -r , i -r 1- f scenery of between Ichang and Kweifu, a distance of some the Gorges. one hundred and twenty-five miles, takes one through the magnificent gorges of the Yangtse, which succeed one another at short intervals for nearly the entire distance. In this stage, too, occur most of the dangerous rapids, notably the Chin Tan and the Yeh Tan. The scenery is superb, the great river, narrowed and with a rapid current, flowing in a channel apparently cut for itself by its mighty waters through trans- verse mountain ridges of limestone, sandstone and granite. These rise on both sides from the fast flowing river, now in a succession of conical peaks, clothed with verdure and crowned with trees, now in dark, grim, rocky cliffs, that in some places, notably in the Wushan Gorge, which is twenty miles in length, rise sheer and abrupt from the very surface of the water. The most romantic of the gorges, though one of the shortest, the Fungs hiang, or Windbox Gorge, is passed just before arriving at Kweifu. At Kweifu, a halt is usually made for a day or two to replenish stores. It is a walled city of some importance, finely situated on the left bank, and is reached in about ten days from Ichang. Another week brings the houseboat to the fine city of Wanhsien, a place of consider- 47 Above the Gorges. Our nearest station. Our Share in China able trade and importance, picturesque in situa- tion and surrounded with beautiful scenery. From Wanhsien a much travelled overland route leads to Chengtu in fourteen days. Commencing with the open valley which is reached after emerging from the Windbox Gorge, the scenery along the great river changes greatly. The mountains appear at intervals, but at a distance, with more gentle ascents near by; and the river widens and flows for the most part with a more placid current. Cities, towns and villages are passed at short intervals, and the country bears evidence of much fertility and careful cultivation. A striking object, passed a day after leaving Wanhsien, is the Shih Bao Chai, a huge rect- angular rock on the left bank, some two hundred feet in height, and with sides abruptly vertical, crowned with an ancient temple, while close against its eastern side a nine-storied pagoda, said to be fifteen hundred years old, appears to form a connection with the buildings on its sum- mit. The name of this remarkable place means the Rock Treasure Fortress. A day or so further and the city of Chung- chow is passed, the farthest east of the out- stations of our new centre of mission work at Chungking, and thence onward to that city the boat passes other interesting and important places comprehended in the territory we have taken over from the London Missionary Society. 48 THE WUSHAN GORGE The Girdle of China Fungtu and Fuchow are the most interesting of these, the first for its connection with Chinese superstition, the second for its trade. The New Dragon Rapid safely ascended, ^ndtle river the thousand and one delays incident to houseboat journey ^ . . beyond. travel at length overcome, in about a fortnight after leaving Wanhsien, the traveller reaches Chungking, and, his voyage having been taken in low water, probably moors on the opposite side of the river and is conveyed in a small boat to the edge of the thickly-peopled mud flats which in winter stretch for a considerable distance out- side the walls of the city, to be covered in summer flood by the waters of the Yangtse. The populous, busy, and very important city of Chungking is now one of the chief centres of our Mission, and a chapter is devoted to it further on. Here the Methodist missionary traveller finds himself welcomed by brethren of his own and other Missions, and realizes that he has at length reached the mission ground of his Church in China. But that territory is so extensive, and travel in interior China so slow, that it may well be many days, or even weeks, if he keep to the boat, before he arrives at his destination. He may reach Chengtu in ten days overland by the Great East Road, or in a month or six weeks by continuing on the houseboat. Should he elect to do the latter, a voyage of a week or so will bring him to Luchow, another new and important mission station of ours, and 4 49 Our Share in China about another week to Suifu. There he will leave the Yangtse for its great tributary, the Min, which the boats ascend to Chengtu, calling for a day or so at Kiating, a beautifully situated and busy city, one of the oldest of our mission stations. beg^inning of ^ Chinese company has put on the upper river from Ichang to Chungking a specially built and powerful steamboat, designed to tow a barge with passengers and freight. She has success- fully made the start, and reduced the passage to a week, but it is as yet too early to predict the regular continuance of steamboat service under present conditions. It cannot be long, however, before the slow houseboat will be superseded, and passengers and freight conveyed up the whole navigable length of the great river at a much more expeditious and modern rate of speed. With steam on the upper river and the completion of the Hankow-Szechwan Railway, travel to China’s greatest province will be completely revolutionized. 50 CHENGTU, OUR MISSIONARY CENTRE “ Write and tell more missionaries to come right away. Those who have believed in Confucianism are dying off rapidly. The young believe in nothing. Now is the time.” — Dr. Yen, a young Chinese graduate in law of Columbia and Berlin. “There is some mistake when the Church can place in the Homeland one minister amongst every seven hundred and fifty people, while she sends to the heathen one missionary to every two hundred thousand; and when out of every dollar given for Christian work she uses ninety-four and one-half cents on herself and apportions the remaining five and one-half cents to evangelize the heathen.” “ The thirst among the Chinese for knowledge con- cerning Christianity is remarkable. Griffith John has said that when he reached China it was difficult even to give away copies of the New Testament, and that this had to be done in secret. Last year the Tract Society in his region sold a million and a half copies of different pieces of Christian literature, and the Presby- terian Press in Shanghai, during the same year, dis- posed of one million six hundred thousand copies.” — John R. Motfs address in London, November, 1908. 52 CHAPTER IV. CHENGTU, OUR MISSIONARY CENTRE. “After eight and a half years of journeyings among Asiatic peoples, I say unhesitatingly that the raw- material out of which the Holy Ghost fashions the Chinese convert, and oftentimes the Chinese martyr, is the best stuff in Asia .” — Isabella Bird Bishop. Chengtu is The Perfect Capital ” of the Pro- vince of Szechwan. It is an ancient and famous city. Marco Polo, the great Venetian traveller, visited it in the thirteenth century, and writes of it, under the name of Sindafu, in glowing terms. It has a wall ten miles in circumfer- ence, perhaps thirty feet in height, and sufficiently wide at the top for four or five carriages to drive abreast. The wall is pierced by four great gates, East, West, North and South, and large suburbs stretch outside from each of them. The city is estimated to have half a million of JSn ^500 ooo.' inhabitants, and it is one of the finest, wealthi- est and best-governed cities in China. It pos- sesses many ancient, famous and beautiful tem- ples, and a large number of yamens, guild houses and other buildings of note. Within its walls are two other walled enclosures, the Imperial city and the Manchu city. It is the seat of the Vice- roy of the Province of Szechwan, of the Tartar 53 Our Share in China Evidences of Western influence. Irrigation system of Chengtu plain. General, the Provincial Treasurer and a large number of very important officials. A splendid modern arsenal, a mint equipped with Western machinery, at least one private electric light plant, and a number of industries developing in modern methods are found in it. An excellent police system keeps its streets quiet and orderly, and a reformatory for beggars has cleared them of the distressing and often revolting cases of mendicancy that once thrust themselves at every turn on the attention of the passer-by. An industrial school trains and em- ploys in admirable and useful handicraft many who would otherwise be a burden or a menace to society. The city is the centre of a large and widely ramified trade. Its chief street, the Tung Ta Kai, or Great East Street, is a wide, well-paved and much-thronged thoroughfare, its sides lined with shops filled with rich and various merchandise, and its whole length surging with never-ending traffic. Outside its gates stretches the great plain of Chengtu, forty miles by ninety, one of the most fertile spots of earth’s surface, and one of the most thickly peopled. A system of irrigation, two hundred years older than the Christian era, keeps the plain from all danger of drought and ensures a succession of vast crops of rice and a variety of other valuable cereals. No fewer than five million people inhabit this rich plain, an aver- 54 Chengtu, Our Missionary Centre age of seventeen hundred to the square mile — shrewd, thrifty and most industrious people. For many centuries, as the capital of the pro- a new era for . i r 1 • the students Vince, Chengtu was the centre of the great trien- ^ nial literary examinations. Tens of thousands of students every three years occupied the long lines of cells in which the examinations were held, and wrote laboriously on the theses which they hoped might qualify them for official rank and position. To-day the large modern buildings of the Government schools occupy the site on which these examination cells once stood, and education after Western ideals is given to the students who attend the sessions. There are said to be eleven thousand students in the city. Chengtu was well chosen by Dr. Virgil Hart as the centre of the work of our Mission when it was begun in 1891. Already it had been occu- pied by the China Inland Mission, and the Metho- dist Episcopal Mission of the United States, and since then the Friends^ Missionary Association also has work there, and the American Baptist Missionary Union, uniting in the scheme for the Union Christian University, has now sent work- ers within its walls. Our few brave pioneers of 1892 have increased to a large mission, and the small properties destroyed and looted in the riots of 1895 have been succeeded, in the progress of the years, by the extensive, well-built and well- equipped buildings which now afford scope for its various activities. 55 Our Share in China THEaEVANGELISTIC WORK. Pioneer mis- Historical . — The pioneer party of missionaries sionaries to t' . t' j West China, for the West China Mission consisted of nine persons, Rev. Dr. and Mrs. V. C. Hart and their daughter, Miss Stella Hart (afterwards Mrs. Hare), Dr. and Mrs. D. W. Stevenson, Rev. G. E. and Mrs. Hartwell, and Dr. and ,Mrs. O. E. Kilborn. The pioneer party landed at Shanghai, Novem- ber 3rd, 1891, remained there over three months, leaving in February and arriving in Chengtu, May 2 1 St, 1892. The fiMt^mis- A large compound on the Yu Sha Kai was Sunday rented and occupied by part of the Mission in the opened, 1892 . month of June, 1892. On December 5th, 1892, the first Sunday school was organized, with an attendance of eighty. The first property leased by Dr. Hart surrounded a temple, and in it a house was ready to be raised, when a mob de- stroyed the materials, and the Mission was per- suaded by officials to lease our present property on the Sz Shen Tsz in 1893. The first hospital buildings were erected by Dr. Stevenson, and the first church by Dr. Hart in 1894. The first church was built on the property on which the present Mission houses Nos. 2 and 3 are situated. This church was only half the size of the present church building. The walls of it were, however, of solid brick. It had fine board floors, and was altogether very nicely fitted up. 56 Chengtu, Our Missionary Centre The sum of $i,ooo in gold, which built the The first ^ mission church, was the gift of the late Tairus Hart, Esq., buildings, of Halifax, N.S. The first school was opened in destroyed . , in 1895. the winter of 1893. Street chapel preaching and Sabbath services were begun in the same year. The first Girls’ School was opened in 1894 with a native woman as teacher. The first foreign house in Chengtu was completed by Rev. G. E. Hartwell in 1895. The property first rented was handed over to Misses S. Brackbill and Jennie Ford, of the Woman’s Missionary Society, in the spring of 1895. Churches, schools, hospital, homes, were all destroyed in the riot of May 28, 29, 1895, and the missionaries compelled to flee the city and go down river to Shanghai. Rev. Dr. Hart and Rev. G. E. Hartwell re- The work , ^ re-estab- turned to Chengtu m January, 1896, and Rev. lished, i 896 . Dr. Kilborn in the following April. Schools were reorganized under the former teachers, with addi- tional scholars, and the present No. i dwelling and the present church, with school buildings attached, were erected and ready for occupancy in May and September, 1896. The Woman’s Missionary Society took over our Girls’ School in the autumn of 1896. On September 9, 1897, a wonderful distribu-The Gospels . . ^ 11 / , 1 r . distributed, tion of Gospels took place at the doors of the our first immense examination halls in Chengtu, where Mr. Jay between ten and twenty thousand students had assembled to write for the M.A. degree. During one of these distributions ten thousand copies of 57 Our Share in China Martin’s “Evidences of Christianity” were distri- buted to every part of this great province. These distributions, it is believed, did much in securing the good will of the literati. On September 29th, 1897, Mr. Hartwell took down the names of the first class of enquirers at Penghsien, ten men. On October loth, 1897, Mr. Hartwell received by letter Mr. Jay into the Chengtu church. In 1903 he became our church’s first martyr, dying at the hand of the Boxers, and making a good confession. The first On February 9th, 1898, the first arrangement contributions j u* u 11 b7 the native was made by which the members gave regularly Christians. systematically, amounting to 84 copper cash a day. During September, October and Novem- ber, 1898, church work was disturbed by the U Man Tsz rebellion. The first awakening of offi- cials and literati to read magazines and Western literature began in 1898. Although a Sunday school had been in opera- tion from early days, it was not until the year 1901 that Sunday school work was regularly organized. There are now ten classes: four of men and boys, and six of women and girls. The aggregate attendance is 250 scholars. Before the riots of 1895 our Mission possessed a book room, situated in front of our first little church. When reconstruction took place after the riots, the book room was situated on the church property and opened by Mr. Hartwell in the year 1898. In 1906 it was transferred to the Press property. 58 Chengtu, Our Missionary Centre Church . — We sorely need a new and A^new^c^urcii larger church in Chengtu. We are overcrowded on every Sunday. The Sutherland Memorial investment. Church, which it has been decided to erect by public subscription throughout the home churches, will not only be a monument worthy of our great and lamented missionary leader, but a wonderful blessing to the people of Chengtu. The present church was erected, as previously stated, in 1896. It was built out of funds obtained as indemnity for the destruction of our property during the riots of 1895. Al- though twice as large as the former church, ac- commodating comfortably 300, and, at a pinch, 350, or even 400 (counting children in arms, and those standing in the aisles), it was built of box brick only, with cement floors. This church was opened on July 2nd, 1896, The first convert was baptized the same day. A class each for men and women members is held every Wednesday evening, which has proved very helpful. There is also a class of catechumens (men), which meets every Monday evening, at which the larger catechism by Dr. Griffith John is studied. An enquirers’ class of men meets every Tuesday evening to study the shorter catechism by Spencer Lewis. This class also meets every Sunday after the morning ser- vice. Enquirers’ and catechumens’ classes for women are held every week by the workers of our W. M. S. 59 Our Share in China Street chapel services. Four men baptized by Mr. Bond at Chong Ho Chang, March 22nd. 1908. Street Chapel . — The property on which our street chapel is situated was bought in 1899 after a great fire, when the buildings on it had been destroyed, and the land was comparatively cheap. Mr. Hartwell bought this, with assistance from others. He also had the present street chapel erected on the property, which is splen- didly situated for the purpose in view. He has been entirely recouped for his outlay, and the property now belongs to the Mission. Services are held here four nights per week, con- ducted mainly by the evangelists attending school. Outstation Work . — In the autumn of 1905 Miss Brimstin, of our W. M. S., used to cycle down to a village called Chong Ho Chang, about seven miles south of the capital, and there hold classes and teach the women and children. In the spring of 1906, about six months afterwards, the place was opened as an outstation of our Mission by Mr. Hartwell. Mr. Tsai acts as our helper there, giving his services gratuitously. It is also regularly visited by the evangelists attend- ing school. On the 22nd of March, 1908, four men were baptized at this station, Mr. Bond per- forming the ceremony. Pihsien, a fine city re- cently worked from Penghsien, has been made an outstation of the capital. 60 Chengtu, Our Missionary Centre THE MEDICAL WORK. Historical. — China, someone has said, was The medical opened to the Gospel at the point of a lancet. “^?f^spec^L The epigram emphasizes, fairly enough, immense value of the calling and work of the medical missionary in that country. Indeed, while medical work has been used under God to open almost every difficult mission field, it is of special importance in China, for, though few lands are more destitute of qualified physi- cians, it would be difficult to find a people who employ doctors and drugs more freely than the Chinese. A competent doctor is sure, there- fore, of a large and influential practice; and the prompt and practical results of skilled treatment, medical and surgical, in the relief of suffering and the cure or alleviation of disease, often of long standing, speedily win the gratitude and confidence of, not only the patients, but their relatives and friends. The medical missionary wins his way to the hearts of the people and finds opportunities multiplying upon him, every day and hour, for preaching the Gospel in the most effective way. Drs. Kilborn and Stevenson of our pioneer The first . . , - . . dispensary missionary party opened a dispensary m rooms onened in , ^ ^ ^ \ ^ i -NT i 1 Chengtu, 1892. in the first rented compound on November 3rd, 1892, the anniversary of the date of landing in Shanghai, their intention being to do medical work part of the time, and study the language the other part. But the work increased so 61 Our Share in China rapidly that they found their time completely taken up, and language study crowded out alto- gether. Hence, after three months, this dis- pensary was closed, and the doctors betook themselves once more entirely to study of the language. First hospital About the end of 1893 or the beginning of Second^hos- 1 894 the site was purchased for the erection of 189?^ the first Chengtu hospital. During 1894 the work of erecting the first two buildings was pro- ceeded with, and at the beginning of 1895 our first medical work was begun in the new foreign- style brick buildings. The riots of May, 1895, completely destroyed these structures, and the missionaries escaped, with the clothes in which they stood, to Shanghai. During the winter of 1896-7 the second hospital was erected, and regular medical work begun in March, 1897. The building comprises a dispensary with large waiting room and other accessory apartments, and two wards accommodating twenty-five patients. In it medical and surgical work have been carried on uninterruptedly, except during the Boxer year, 1900-1901. Patients from the beginning came in sufficient number to fully occupy the time of one medical man, and in later years the capacity of the hospital has been utterly inadequate to meet the demand. Besides, an urgent need has arisen for better accommo- dation than that ordinarily afforded, to meet the demands of the growing class of patients able 62 The hospital buildings inadequate. MEDICAL WORK. 1. Girls with unbound feet. 2 . A victim of foot-binding. 3. The Canadian Methodist Hospital, Chengtu. Chengtu, Our Missionary Centre and willing to pay for attendance, who would avail themselves of ward treatment under suit- able conditions. Accordingly, a new and much larger institu- The appeal - . , ^ , for a new tion, and one equipped, so far as possible, with hospital met , , , - . 1*1 .with a ready the most approved modern facilities, was decided response. upon by the missionary authorities. Under the auspices of the Forward Movement, the young people of our Sunday schools, Epworth Leagues and Young Men’s Clubs were appealed to in support of the new hospital, and right nobly did they respond. From all over the Dominion, and from Newfoundland, subscriptions for the build- ing fund promptly came in, and it was soon apparent that the young people would furnish enough money to erect and equip a hospital worthy of our Church and of our growing Mission work in the great Chinese city. New Hospital . — In 1907 the foundations of a The new splendid new modern hospital were laid. Under hegun*?n 1907. the superintendence of Dr. Ewan the work of its erection has so far progressed that it will soon be ready for occupancy. It is a handsome and substantial brick building of four stories, built from plans suggested by Dr. Ewan. It is intended when finished to be as thoroughly modern, commodious, sanitary, and scientific in its equipment as possible, and will undoubtedly be the largest and finest hospital as yet erected in all West China. It will hold 130 patients. It is situated in a fine compound already 63 Our Share in China The new occupied in part by the small building it has hospital. superseded, but through additional purchases of land affording ample room, not only for the hospital itself, but for the residences and out- buildings in necessary connection with it. It is the most conspicuous landmark in that part of the city which our Mission occupies, and with the fine Press building in its immediate neigh- borhood, affords to all who see it a significant indication of the' importance of the work which Canadian Methodism is doing in Chengtu. The aim of We have never looked upon our hospitals as to^fve^ every purely benevolent institutions. Patients are hest^med?c\i encouraged to pay for attendance and medicine, surround and it is our policy to approach as nearly as ctSsTian possible to self-support. As a matter of fact, influences. older hospitals do pay' a large percentage of their running expenses, that is, of everything apart from the stipend of the missionary. But our hospitals are first and foremost evangelistic in tone and aim. No opportunity is lost for spreading the Good News among all who come for treatment. Gospel portions, grants for the most part by the Bible Societies, are given away freely, at least one to each patient. An evange- list is required to spend many hours a week among the in-patients, besides addressing the out-patients each dispensary day in the waiting room. Morning worship is held daily in the wards, and as many patients as are able walk across the street each Sunday to the church for Chengtu, Our Missionary Centre services. We aim to give the best medical atten- tion to every patient, and at the same time to surround him with all Christian influences. The large majority of the patients are very poor people, and never pay more than the first fee of one and a half cents, even for several months of treatment; but there is always a sprinkling of the well-to-do and even of the wealthy and official classes. When these latter come out of hours, or on other than dispensary days, they are charged a fee of three hundred cash, about twenty cents, of Canadian money. And from these people, who are well able to pay, the doc- tors always reserve the right to swell the income of the hospital by reasonable fees for medical services. These fees range all the way from seven cents to about six and a half dollars, Canadian money — this for a severe operation under chloroform. Yet the doctors have done more critical operations for poor patients who not only do not pay any fees, but many of whom do not pay more than a fraction of the cost of their board. An average year’s work tabula- tion gives the number of new patients registered in the outdoor department as 2,303, return visits 6,903, a total of 9,206 cases, personally seen by the missionary. Besides, there were 168 patients treated in hospital for periods ranging from a few days to several months, 190 opera- tions and fracture cases, and 15 1 visits to The patients number 9,725 during the year. Our Share in China patients in their homes, a grand total of 9,725 for the year.* .. Our dispensary clinics provide, as a rule, a opportunity , , the^isperT audience than the average street chapel, roomTor^^°^ with far superior opportunities for preaching, preaching for while in the street chapel people come and the Gospel. .... . . go at will, m the dispensary waiting room they are compelled to wait from one to three hours, during which time the evangelist can be at work. The dispensary waiting room combines the ad- vantages of the preaching hall and the inquiry room. This is especially true if, in connection with the waiting room, there is provided a small private room, into which the evangelist can take promising cases for special dealing. Our new hospital will have such a room. The hospital No place can surpass the hospital ward in af- wards cannot ^ ... , . , for^pSSoifai^ fording opportunities for preaching the Gospel dealing with and personal dealing with souls. The patients are sick, and thoughts of the hereafter naturally arise; they are more or less isolated, and have time to think; they are receiving kindness, and are predisposed to listen. Such conditions are favorable for the operations of the Holy Spirit. There ought to be a close connection between the pastor of the church and the hospital. In fact it would seem that if the influence of the hospital is to be fully utilized and conserved, * The Report of Council for 1911 says: “The medical work shows a total of over 30,000 patients treated, with some li,500 operations. The lack here is a failure to follow up the patients with Christian influences, a need that calls for more workers, both native and foreign.” 66 Chengtu, Our Missionary Centre either a foreign missionary or at least a thorough- ly trained and experienced Chinese evangelist should devote his entire time to the evangelistic side of the work in the wards and dispensary, and as far as possible, follow the patients to their homes after they have been discharged. Patients not infrequently come from fifty to one hundred and fifty miles for treatment, and on returning to their homes carry back with them a copy of the Gospels and some knowledge of its contents. In this way the truth is scattered, and more than once such patients have become centres from which the light has spread. When our new hospital is in full working order, we shall probably have at least fifteen thousand treatments in a year; this would be equal to a congregation of three hundred for every Sunday in the year, but under much superior conditions for applying and enforcing the truth than are afforded in the average congregation. THE EDUCATIONAL WORK. The strategic importance of educating the The impor- , , . i , tance of our boys and young men was recognized by our school work. missionaries from the outset, and they very early began school work among them. The results of those small beginnings are seen to-day in many different directions, and they are out of all pro- portion, as respects influence for good, to the effort put into them, and to the crude and limited facilities possible to those engaged in the enter- 67 Our Share in China prise. Directly and indirectly, our school work has, from the very beginning, been an important factor in our missionary operations. Primary In the first place, here, there, scattered over schools necea- , r ^ i ^ m sary in every several scores of Cities, towns, and market vil- lages, men had heard, hearkened, and been held by the Gospel message. These men were in many cases heads or influential members of families, and these families in turn meant young men and boys. Were these to be allowed to drift aim- lessly, or zealously guarded and guided for future usefulness? If the latter, then how could we better secure their loyalty and intelligent co- operation than by gathering them into schools? Thus, for the conservation of our own energies, and making effective future efforts, it seemed imperative that primary schools at least should be started in every station and out-station where there appeared to be real earnest of success. But primary schools must have teachers, and to secure such high schools must be established. Moreover, a new factor came in which made this move more urgent. China’s educational policy, dating back to the early dynasties following the Christian era, was suddenly, by edict of the Emperor and Empress, annulled, and a new course of study decreed, based on Western systems. To teach the tens of millions of young men who were thus ordered to seek our educa- tion, China herself had no instructors. The mis- sionary, more than any other, held the key to 68 The Imperial edict— a new educational system. CHENGTU DISTRICT— OUR FIRST FIELD IN WEST CHINA. Our Share in China The courses of study for Government schools. the situation, and it became yet more imperative that these higher schools should be started to edu- cate, not alone our own young men, but such of China’s youth outside our borders as would avail themselves of our facilities. Needless to say, behind all was the earnest hope that with education might also be instilled that spirit of our Master toward the securing of which all true missionary efforts move. With this thought in view, our Mission in 1904 set apart one of their number definitely for this educational work. Instruction at first was along lines most attractive and essential to Chinese students, as, in addition to religious instruction, such subjects as English, mathematics, geography and botany. Soon, however, as the Government became more clear in its plans, and its course of study grew to be more defined, the student body also of necessity sought the wider field. Fortunately, the courses of study for the various grades drawn up for Government schools were the work of experts from the West, so that our Mission schools could adopt them with but few changes, such as the addition of music, Christian instruction, and a slight alteration of time. This we did all the more willingly as we wished it to be plain that our aim was in every way and everywhere possible to co-operate with the authorities. The courses of study in outline run as follows: I. Junior Primary Schools (a five years’ 70 Chengtu, Our Missionary Centre course for pupils from seven to eleven years of age) — Religious instruction; Chinese classics; Chinese Reader, Grammar and Composition ; Arithmetic ; Chinese History ; Geography ; Natural Science; English (optional); Drawing. II. Senior Primary Schools (a four years' course for pupils from twelve to fifteen years of age) — Continuation of above nine subjects, with more advanced series of text-books. III. Secondary or High Schools (a five years’ course for pupils from sixteen to twenty years of age) — Outline again much as above, with addition of : Advanced English, Western History, Physical Geography, Algebra and Plane Geo- metry, Special Sciences, Advanced Drawing. Our High School work, as soon as opened, had our High a phenomenal growth. Students came to us from all classes, ready to study everything, eat any- thing, sleep anywhere, and pay what to them were large fees, for the coveted Western know- ledge. In those days our attendance ran up, all told, to almost two hundred. Indeed, we stop- ped there, turning away all-comers after that limit was reached, for our accommodation was exhausted and our teaching force utterly inade- quate. Then came a reaction. The Government, see- why the ing that their first decree tended only to feed the a?our schools Mission schools and colleges, issued, after six diminiSted months, another edict, declaring that only certifi- cates of Government institutions would be recog- 71 Our Share in China Some of our students. A Christian college an essential part of our missionary equipment. nized. Our tide of students flowed out, regret- fully they said, but none the less almost as rapidly as it had flowed in. By the midsummer of 1905, we were down to less than half a hundred students. The reaction had, however, its compensations. It left with us the most far- seeing and diligent of our former students, the men who sought knowledge rather than immedi- ate preferment. We had, moreover, our corps of converts, and, best of all, we had an oppor- tunity through these latter to create a Christian atmosphere and develop a spirit before impos- sible among such a packed mass of non-Christian men. Results since then have been most hopeful, and speak for themselves. The returns recently tabulated showed an attendance, all told, of over eighty, of whom over fifty were church members, enquirers, or, to some extent, Christians. Of the thirty non-Christians, ten were voluntary subscribers for the Y. M. C. A. magazine, China’s Young Men, and came quite regularly to our Christian Endeavor meetings, not a few joining heartily in the discussions. In a land like China, which for many centuries has held educated men in higher regard than any other nation, and has chosen her public officials by an educational test and on most rigid com- petitive examinations, the far-reaching import- ance of establishing a first-class Christian college as an integral and essential part of missionary 72 Chengtu, Our Missionary Centre equipment in the field early became apparent. The boys and young men trained in the primary and secondary schools, some of them Christians and all of them influenced more or less by the training and atmosphere of Christian institutions, must not be allowed to lose the advantages already gained, or to have their bias in favor of Christianity weakened by contact with non- Christian teaching. On the contrary, it was of immense importance, having regard to the future of our work, that we should continue to hold them as they proceeded to further intellec- tual development, and send them out into the work of life with a complete Christian equipment. Besides, we had to think of the multiplication and extension of our own immediate influence through native agency. Our native evangelists must go out with due equipment theologically to be clear and accurate expounders of the Word of Life, able to take their places as the spiritual leaders of their people. They must be not only earnest evangelists, but thoughtful, studious, and competent preachers and pastors, trained as care- fully and wisely and widely for their work as preachers at home, if that work was to be abiding. Youths are returning from Japan, Europe and America with the best these nations can give, and if our young men in the ministry are to be capable of meeting these, and are to become real leaders of men, a college training they must have. Our native teachers must be thorough, accurate. 73 Our Share in China completely conversant with their subjects, and with the best pedagogic methods, if our schools are to receive Government recognition and their graduates recognized as fulfilling the re- quirements prescribed. The Christian schools must be not merely second to none, but, if pos- sible, ahead of all, in thoroughness of work and success in turning out scholars. One feature of enormous importance in our work must be a 'medical department of college teaching, to send out young native doctors and surgeons trained in the most modern, scientific methods and granted diplomas only after long study and rigid examination, to enter upon the vast and most needy field open to them in provinces where disease is everywhere fearfully rife, and where doctors, apart from those in the missionary com- pounds, are nowhere to be found. An appeal for Thus there grew to fruition the demand for a Methodist College for Chengtu. A young min- inchengtu Newfoundland, himself a former volun- teer for foreign missions, learning of the demand through articles in the Christian Guardian, wrote to that paper, enclosing ten dollars. Another in Manitoba suggested an appeal to the young men for help. Then followed the appeal of our chief Church organ, and the insertion week by week in its columns of a diagram of squares, each representing a ten-dollar subscription, which was continued till twelve thousand dollars had been raised. 74 Chengtu, Our Missionary Centre Meantime, in 1904, the question of union inunYversity educational work began to be discussed inform- ally in Chengtu. In 1905, about October, the first meetings were held for this purpose — first, among the missionaries in Chengtu, and a little later, by a gathering composed of representatives of four or five Missions doing educational work. It seemed a pity to the missionaries that there should be three or four separate colleges estab- lished in Chengtu, if it were possible for the schools to be brought together in one institution, whether by organic union or by federation. They wished for economy in the use of men and money, and the higher efficiency in teaching to be gained by division of labor and avoidance of overlapping. In October, 1906, the scheme was very The Christian j/'*. 1 Educational definitely worked out by a meeting of represen- union . - ^ ■!-» organized, tatives of five or six Missions m Chengtu. But a very essential part of the scheme was that of union in primary and secondary schools located throughout the three western provinces of West China. The Christian Educational Union was formed, consisting of all Missions engaged in educational work in West China, and willing to conform to the conditions of the Union. For the working of this union a central board was formed, with committees for the ment of the several parts. The Committee on schools. Primary and Secondary Education has a Board of Examiners, which sets examinations annually 75 Our Share in China for the last eleven years of a fourteen years* course ; i.e., for the last two years of the five years of Junior Primary schools, four years for the Senior Primary, and five years for the Middle or Secondary schools. The curriculum has been very carefully worked out for all three grades of schools, and printed for circulation among all schools in the Union. One hundred and two schools of three grades were reported as regis- tered in the Union in October, 1910 — an increase of one hundred per cent, over the preceding year. A uniform Some of the advantages of this union for standard. . , j 1 1 primary and secondary schools are, a common standard for all schools registering in the Union, that is to say, a common curriculum, modelled closely upon that prepared and published by the Chinese central Government; and a common examination for all Union schools, with certifi- cates and diplomas on finishing subjects, years of the curriculum, and courses. In October, 1907, at the annual meeting of the Christian Educational Union, the whole scheme was carefully reviewed, and in some minor points revised, and advanced. It was agreed that this Educational Board should meet annually in October, for the consideration of all matters affecting the welfare of Union education among the Missions of West China. The Chengtu The Union University scheme was carried University right along with the other. Four Mission Boards Sdlfl TTl ft • • • gave their hearty consent to participation — 76 CHENGTU. 1. Temporary College Buildings. 2. Church an 1 Class Rooms. 8. Press Building. Chengtu, Our Missionary Centre namely, the American Baptist Missionary Union, the Methodist Episcopal Board of the United States, the Friends' Foreign Missionary Associa- tion of England, and the Canadian Methodist General Board of Missions. The plan of union was exceedingly simple. It was proposed that the four uniting Missions take their educational work to one central site in Chengtu, where each Mission should erect its own building, own its own grounds, appoint and entirely manage its own staff, and manage its own college as thought best. By the simplest principles of co-operation, however, the four colleges would unite classes in the same subjects, and thus conserve the very highest efficiency with the greatest economy of men and money. During the winter of 1907-8, the purchase of fand^secured^ several portions of land, amounting in all to university some sixty or sixty-five English acres, was sue- cessfully negotiated by a Union Committee con- sisting of the appointed representatives of the four participating Missions. This land is situ- ated just outside the wall of the city of Chengtu, not far from the East Gate, and about one and a half miles from the present location of our Canadian Methodist work inside the city. This union site was carefully divided into six sections, of ten to eleven acres each. Four of these were allocated to the four uniting Mis- sions; one, centrally situated, was reserved as a “ Central Block," upon which, in course of time. 77 Our Share in China the uniting Missions could join in the erection of a common teaching building, and also of a library, a museum, and a science building, with well- equipped laboratories. The remaining section was reserved for a fifth uniting Mission, or for use to be determined in the future. The deeds for this union site were stamped and registered in the Chinese magistrate’s yamen, and also in the British Consulate in Chengtu, in June, 1908; so that an absolutely clear title is now held for it by the four Missions concerned. The Hart Memorial College. THE HART MEMORIAL COLLEGE The late Mr. Jairus Hart, of Halifax, N.S., whose generous donation to his friend, the Rev. Dr. Virgil Hart, splendidly started the Press work of our West China Mission, and another donation from whom built the first Methodist church in Chengtu, bequeathed a large sum for missionary purposes, and at the Mission Council held in Chengtu in the beginning of 1908, an appeal was made to the General Board of Missions to allocate fifty thousand dollars of Mr. Hart’s legacy for the purpose of erecting and maintaining a Methodist College in Chengtu, to be named the Hart Memorial College, in memory of the donor of the bequest and of the founder of our Mission in West China. That appeal received the cordial consent of the Board, and steps for the erection of the college in con- nection with the Union Christian University were at once undertaken. 78 Chengtu, Our Missionary Centre Substantial progress was speedily made. The site for the University was laid out and beauti- fied by the Missions taking part in the great enterprise. Graded walks were made through it and ornamental trees planted, and preparations for the speedy erection of the colleges pushed forward as rapidly as possible. The missionaries appointed to educational work by the Mission Councils moved out to the grounds, occupying temporarily as dwellings some of the outbuild- ings to be hereafter utilized as servants’ quarters. Students’ dormitories were temporarily fitted up by all the uniting Missions. The Union Middle School started under excellent auspices, with a total teaching force of eleven foreigners and six natives, and with an attendance of ninety-five students, several of them ready for matricula- tion. Our first educational staff in connection with it consisted of Revs. Dr. O. L. Kilborn, M.A., J. L. Stewart, B.A., C. R. Carscallen, B.A., E. J. Carson, B.A., H. D. Robertson, B.A., and P. M. Bayne, M.A. At the Council of 1911, the appointments include all the above names with the exception of that of Mr. Carson, whose lamented death so soon followed his appointment to Chungking in 1910. Our own Mission has bought, in addition to JS|giJnaries’^ its first allotment, the vacant lot adjoining, thus securing a splendidly large and well situated location for the college and residences soon to be built. Contiguously, too, the committee having 79 Our Share in China in charge the School for Missionaries’ Children have bought a good site for that building, so that our property in connection with the educational work of our Mission will be ample for all pur- poses. When the Hart Memorial College and its sister colleges of the other uniting Missions are erected, equipped, and in full swing of work, the Union Christian University of Chengtu will be a factor of enormous and most blessed po- tency, not only in the intellectual, but in the spiritual uplift of Western China. During the last three years the number of schools managed by our Mission has been nearly doubled, as has also the number of pupils in attendance. We have now about twenty-five schools of all grades, with a total enrollment of nearly eight hundred pupils, as compared with thirteen schools and four hundred and fourteen pupils in 1908-1909. The greatest difficulty in this connection is the lack of Chinese teachers with anything like proper qualifications for the work of teaching. As Mr. Carscallen says in his admirable report, “We want men, who, in the first place, are Christians ; secondly, they must know their Chinese classics, and ought to know a little of elementary arithmetic and geography ; and thirdly, they ought to have some little conception of how to manage a school. It is very rare indeed to find the first two, and fre- quently we have to put up with the second quali- fication alone, trusting to the supervision of the 80 Chengtu, Our Missionary Centre foreign missionary to supply the religious ele- ment in the schools. Almost all have no con- ception of proper teaching methods or school management.’^ This need the Union Middle School at Chengtu is endeavoring to meet by the establishment of a one-year Normal course for Christian men of the scholar class, too old to take a prolonged course, but capable of great useful- ness in primary school work if equipped with a little knowledge of arithmetic, geography, sci- ence and teaching methods. The developments in Middle School and Uni- versity work since the union took practical shape, have been such as to show the wisdom of the step taken and to afford abundant auguries as to its vast potentialities for good. Eighty-two students were enrolled in 1910. In addition to the Normal course for teachers already men- tioned, which promises to be of great service in supplying our own and other primary schools with tolerably equipped teachers, students of the school who have taken a more prolonged and extensive course are beginning to be sent out as teachers, and it is hoped that in the course of a few years a steady stream of well-equipped and well-trained men will go out annually — men vitally Christian, and in touch with Western methods of school management — into the towns and villages in which our own and other missions are planting schools. The Theological Department of the school is 6 81 Our Share in China making steady progress. Fourteen students were in attendance in 1910, of ages from twenty-one to forty- two, and of various degrees of scholar- ship. All had spent the greater part of a year as helpers with foreign pastors, and this, with previous instruction, gained as enquirers and church members, constituted all their prepara- tion for theological study. At present this is the raw material out of which evangelists must be made — and all things considered, it has produced remarkable results — ^but the day is not far distant when the graduates from the Middle School, and, a little later, from the University itself, will fur- nish material for the selection of men for the native minisitry of more adequate equipment for its great responsibilities. Our own Mission Council has done wisely in attaching several of the Chengtu outstations to the College work. These, under the supervision of one of the mis- sionaries connected with the Theological De- partment, afford a field for the evangelists while under training, giving them needed practice in preaching, and keeping them in close and vital touch with the spiritual work of the pastorate. THE UNION CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY The Union Christian University was formally opened in March, 1910. In a temporary build- ing, and in an unpretentious way, the prayers and hopes and plans of years found fruition in the practical establishment of what it is hoped 82 Chengtu, Our Missionary Centre and believed will become a centre of unparalleled influence for the uplift of Western China. The freshman class consisted of ten students, all men of genuine promise. Four of these entered in connection with our own Mission, three of them being graduates of the Chengtu Middle School. Of this first freshman class, seven students con- tinued till the close of the year, all of whom were professing Christians. In •- Middle School and University, it is matter for profound gratitude and encouragement that the general tone of stu- dent life is being transformed by the influence of the Christian students. Our own Mission has already three substantial brick residences for teachers on the University grounds, two of them furnished and occupied, and the third in course of erection. We have not yet commenced the erection of the Hart Memorial College; and the classes so far, as in the case of the other missions, are taught in tem- porary buildings. But after the plans for the several college buildings have been harmonized, as will be done by the Joint Commission of the Mission Boards concerned in the Union, work will be begun in the erection as soon as the accepted plans reach Chengtu. It will be noted in the Station List for 1911- 1912 (see a.ppendix), that Rev. Dr. O. L. Kil- born has been appointed as the senior member of the University stafif of our Mission. An impor- tant part of his multifarious duties is specified 83 Our Share in China in the Report of Council — “to organize Medical College.” That is significant, because it indicates that the first step has been taken towards the practical establishment of a work of unspeakable importance^ — ^the training of young Chinese in medicine and surgery for practice among the mil- lions of their suffering fellow-countrymen. In these favored Western lands, where skilled medi- cal attendance and the highest and latest methods of surgical treatment are so readily obtainable, it is hard to realize what it must be to live in a country utterly destitute of these. Outside the few doctors in our own and other missions, the eighty millions of the three provinces of West China have not one qualified medical man. What a field for Christian philanthrophy lies here ! To qualify young Chinese men for practice among these millions — healing, helping, pointing to the Good Physician — is surely a work worthy of the combined efforts of all the missions. And that is what the proposed medical school will do, by the grace of God and the liberality of the home churches. The Union Christian University, started under such happy auspices, has met with hearty sup- port from all the Missions concerned, and is looked upon as setting a shining mark for similar united and consolidated work elsewhere. Its curriculum has been published, its professoriate is hard at work, its Governing Board has been selected from the leaders in the home churches. 84 Chengtu, Our Missionary Centre and its development and progress are put beyond question. It seems a far cry to the day of small things, the day when the present writer, then Editor of the Christian Guardian, first gave pub- lic advocacy in the columns of that paper to a Methodist College in Chengtu. The individuals and Leagues that filled the squares ” in the Christian Guardian so generously six years ago were building better than they knew, for the pro- ject, as it has taken shape, far transcends the utmost hope and thought of those early days. And who can tell whereunto it may grow ? THE WEST CHINA MISSIONS ADVISORY BOARD. The first West China Missionary Conference, first ^ ’ West China held at Chungking in January, 1899, had as one conference, of its important results the organization of the Advisory Board. This body consists of repre- sentatives from all the Missions at work in West China, one from each Mission, except in one case, in which a Mission is practically worked as two, and is, therefore, allowed two representa- tives. For the first two or three years, the annual meetings were somewhat irregular, owing to the disturbed state of the country, and the resulting hurried movements of many of the missionaries. But of late years the meetings have been held regularly, and have grown in attendance and interest. Moreover, the powers 85 Our Share in China The West China AdvisorF Board. of this body of representatives, while recognized as purely advisory, have yet grown greatly in influence. It has come more and more to be recognized as voicing the public opinion of the body of West China missionaries, and thus its proceedings have carried increasing weight from year to year. The Advisory Board forms a medium for exchange of opinion, and for consultation upon all matters affecting any two or more Missions at work in West China. There the representa- tives of the various Missions come together, and talk over their various plans for extension and development of the work. Missions are thus enabled to see their proposed actions from the point of view of other Missions, and modifi- cations are made to bring all into harmony. It is agreed on all sides that the value of the Advisory Board to West China Missions can tant^christian scarcely be over-estimated. There is no doubt West China.” that this organization contributed largely to the movement towards union among the Chinese churches of West China, so conspicuous at the second decennial West China Missionary Confer- ence, held at Chengtu in January, 1908. At that gathering the grand ideal of “ One Protestant Christian Church for West China” found prac- tical embodiment in an agreement by which a duly accredited member of any one of the Mis- sions represented is received to similar standing by any of the others. And so long as Foreign The Confer- ence of 1908. Tne ideal, ' One Protes 86 Chengtu, Our Missionary Centre Missions carry on their work here independently of the Chinese Church, so long, doubtless, will the Advisory Board continue to exist and to minister to their harmonious working. THE CANADIAN METHODIST MISSION PRESS. The sole credit for starting this work belongs to Rev. Dr. V. C. Hart, who, without any encourage- Press work ment from the men on the field and in the face even of considerable discouragement, secured the permission of the Board to raise by private sub- scriptions sufficient funds to commence this branch of our mission work. With the funds secured. Dr. Hart brought up to Szechwan two presses, one a Gordon treadle, and one a lever hand press, together with a limited quantity of Chinese type. These were the first machines to be used in West China in connection with Pro- testant mission work. A lot of land was secured at Kiating, and on The first this a small brick building was erected during the summer of 1897. This building had less than one thousand square feet of floor space for work- ing purposes, but had a small loft above it for storing paper, etc. The first printing was done in the autumn of 1897. Chinese paper was used almost exclusively, and this paper was made by crude Chinese methods at Kia Kiang, about thirty miles from Kiating, and brought there on rafts. The work was carried on without interruption and in growing volume until the Boxer uprising 87 Our Share in China during the summer of 1900, when the mission- aries were all recalled from the Province. Dur- ing the time that the presses had been running the total output of Chinese books aggregated about five million pages. Rev. ,J. Endi- Dr. Hart was not able to return to China, but he used his waning strength while in Canada to appeal for additional funds for the Press, in order that it might be removed to Chengtu, and a greatly enlarged plant installed. At Dr. Harps personal request. Rev. J. Endicott now took charge of the work, and in the spring of 1902 the presses were once more in motion. 'As one result of the defeat of the Boxer movement, great numbers of the people flocked to the missionaries to be instructed in Gospel truth. The older Tract Societies were unable to cope with the demand for Christian books, and the recently started West China Religious Tract Society was ready to place more orders with the Press for printing than could be undertaken. The new Press By 1904 the capacity of the Press for printing Chen^u.^*^ had been more than doubled by the addition of more and better presses and a greatly increased quantity of type. The young people of Canada nobly responded to the appeal for additional funds, and in May, 1904, work was begun on the new home for the Press, erected on the fine pro- perty that had been purchased for this purpose near the East Parade Ground. In the autumn of 1904 the whole plant was removed from Kiating 88 Chengtu, Our Missionary Centre to Chengtu, but it was not until the spring of 1905 that the new building was ready to be occupied. The opening of the new building was made memorable by the coming in state to the recep- tion held in it of the Viceroy, Tartar General, Lieutenant-Governor, Provincial Judge and other important officials of the Province. No mission- ary institution in the west of China has ever been so recognized. The new building has a total floor space of nearly ten thousand square feet. It has abundance of air and light, and cost about four thousand gold dollars. A large dormitory building, put up after the Chinese fashion, but with an upstairs, was also erected for the accom- modation of the printers, who all “board and room’^ on the premises. In 1905 the Press undertook the cutting of g)w ^printing wood blocks and the printing of books for the languages. Hua Miao tribesmen. Rev. S. Pollard having in- vented an alphabet for them. Thousands of books of different kinds were printed by us for these people in this way. Now, however, our printing in the Hua Miao is being done from movable type. In 1906 Rev. J. Neave came out to join Rev. J.Neave the staff of the Press, bringing with him a we^uway* font of English type, a ruling machine and a |?ess^staff.^^ stereotyping outfit. In the autumn of 1906 the Press did its first English printing, the type-set- ting, after the first few weeks, being done by our Chinese printers, who could not read a single word of what they had composed and printed. 89 Our Share in China In 1907 one of our brightest young men went with the deputation to Shanghai, in order to spend a few weeks learning all he could about book- binding in foreign style. In 1907 Mr. P. Westa- way came out to join the staff of the Press, bringing with him special gifts and knowledge of the higher branches of the printing art. He was followed by Mr. Plewman, another well-equipped printer, in 1908. Mr. Crutcher was added to the staff in 1911. It is quite possible that the Press before many years may be turning out first-class lithographic work and color printing. Since the spring of 1902 a hundred million pages of Chi- nese literature have been issued from the Press, all but a small fraction of which have been filled with direct religious truth. For the American Bible Society alone, we have issued hundreds of thousands of Portions,” i.e., the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, and the Acts of the Apostles, each Gospel being bound as a separ- ate little book for wide circulation. We have also issued for this Society several thousand complete New Testaments. We have issued for the West China Tract Society many hundreds of thous- ands of such booklets and tracts as have been proved of greatest value in all parts of China. The value of We are now issuing two magazines per month, page in one in English, for circulation among the mis- the Gospel, sionaries of West China, and one in Chinese. The former. The West China Missionary News, circulates largely among all the missionaries ; the 90 Chengtu, Our Missionary Centre latter, The West China Christian Magazine, has a much larger circulation, and circulates freely among Chinese Christians of all denominations. Shortly after the press was started at Kia- ting. Rev. S. Lewis prepared the first Sun- day School Lessons in Chinese for use in West China. For some time the edition issued quarterly from our Press was seven hun- dred copies. Later, the West China Tract So- ciety assumed the responsibility of issuing these quarterlies and decided to have two, one Senior and one Junior, the election of the editor to be annual. The present combined circulation of these quarterlies is several thousand, and they circulate among all the various missions, and in each of the three provinces of Szechwan, Kwei- chow and Yunnan. One of the most popular ways of spreading the Gospel, by way of the printed sheet, is the circulation of attractive illus- trated calendars, of which we have issued forty thousand a year, and we are preparing to print many thousand more of these messengers. The Chengtu Book Room of our Mission is The Book now a department of the Press. Almost the first thing done when the Mission was started in city was the opening of a Book Room. During the first years comparatively few books were sold, but during the past ten years many thousands of dollars worth of books have been sold by us. The Press grounds cover over two and a half English acres. On this we have the Press build- 91 Our Share in China ing, dormitory, kitchen and outbuildings, and two homes for missionaries. During 1909 we printed nearly six million pages per month. The present Press building is large enough to enable us to more than double our present output. When the present building becomes too small for the needs of West China, we have ample room for expansion on our present property. How The salaries of the missionaries connected with mssion Press the Press are met by the Board, but all other are met. . , . . . , . expenses of the institution are met by the re- ceipts. The Press is not attempting to make pro- fits for the Mission, but to work at such moderate rates as will hasten the spread of the truth ‘'throughout all the regions round about.” There is no Mission Press in China that does its work more cheaply, yet, in spite of our low charges, we have been able to meet the wages of the work- men, add to our plant, and provide for wear and tear, as well as make some provision also for the inevitable extension of the business. Apart from the value of the land and buildings, the assets of the Press in plant, stock and cash are about ten thousand gold dollars. The total Chinese staff in the institution now numbers sixty-one, several of whom are members of the Church, and many of them are in the catechumen class. Progress, rapid progress, marks the develop- ment of lour Press work. At the Council meet- ing of 1910, Mr. Neave’s report showed that it 92 TIBETAN WOMEN OF THE CHINESE BORDER LAND. Chengtu, Our Missionary Centre had far surpassed all expectations. The output exceeded that of the year previous by no less than elighty per cent. — nearly double. An im- mense number of tracts had been printed for the West China Tract Society, and 150,000 copies of the four Gospels and the Acts, and 5,000 New Testaments for the American Bible Society. One hundred and fifty thousand tracts had been printed for distribution among the Hua Miao tribesmen, and 150,000 sheet tracts for the Tibetans. At one time,” says Mr. Neave, “ one of our printing presses was printing as many as three different languages on one sheet, namely, Hua Miao, Chinese and Tibetan.” The tracts in Tibetan were issued to ten different mis- sion stations on the border of that land. The Council Report of 1911, just to hand as this book goes to press, says : “ The Press continues to report steady pro- gress and expansion, having a total output of some 20,000,000 pages printed in four languages, as follows: Chinese, 19,283,964; English, 351,- 880; Tibetan, 100,000; Hua Miao, 43,500. The first book in Tibetan was printed from movable type recently secured from Oxford. The Press employees number 61, many of whom have be- come Christians, and an encouraging feature is the gradual devolution of authority to Chinese foremen, thus giving to the missionaries in charge an opportunity for more important work. The increased demands made upon the Press by 93 Our Share in China the Tract and Bible Societies show satisfaction with the work done, and increase its usefulness as a means of enli^tening this remote land.” Another report of the year’s work says : “ The number of pages of Chinese work has in- creased very nearly exactly 75 per cent. ; Tibetan shows an increase of nearly 500 per cent. ; Hua Miao shows an increase of 1,500 per cent.; while the increase in English work is quite 60 per cent. The total number of pages printed during the year in all languages is nearly 34,750,000, as com- pared with nearly 20,000,000 last year.” There are now four missionaries connected with the Press Department of our Mission, and it is probable that ere long it must be greatly enlarged and possibly be divided into two branches, one at Chengtu and one at Chungking. The Press is the one institution of our Mission which is able directly to reach all parts of West China. Our books go everywhere preaching the Word. Revs. Drs. Kilborn and Ewan, J. Endicott, J. Neave, J. L. Stewart and Geo. E. Hartwell have furnished much of the material in this chapter. 94 KIATING The foreign mission work needs men who believe something, who are anchored to the Rock, who believe in the Bible and in Christ as the only Saviour.” — Rev. H. H. Jessup, D.D. “I feel that God can perform for, by, or rather use me as His instrument in performing, if He has a mind to; so I am looking for His hand, gazing about among the people that come to my stand to see the ones God has sent .” — James Gilmour. “It is something to be a missionary. The morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy when they first saw the field which the first mis- sionary was to fill .” — David Livingstone. “ It is simple, calm judgment that the missionary investment of one’s life promises the most return — return, of course, not as we see it, but as the Master views it. Aside from all personal providences which have become a clear guidance, this would seem a suffi- cient answer to the query, ‘Why are you going to China ?’” — Charles L. Storrs, Jr. CHAPTER V. KIATING. “ More than any other one thing, not excepting money, do the missions of the Church feel the need of an ever-increasing volume of prayer.” — S. Bari Taylor. Kiating is a large walled city, one hundred miles almost directly south of Chengtu. It is situ- ated in the angle formed by the junction of the Chengtu and the Tong Rivers, which, by their junction, form the River Min, which enters the Yangtse at Suifu. Kiating is one hundred miles up the Min River from Suifu. The population of Kiating is about sixty thou- sand, and it is one of the largest cities in the province of Szechwan. It is a prefectural (fu) city, having seven districts (hsien) under its jurisdiction. Consequently there are resident both a prefectural and a district magistrate. Kiating is one of the greatest centres of the The indus- ° ° . tries of Silk industry in the province. It is also the great mating emporium of the valuable white wax industry, the seat of which is at Mount Omei. The wax is the product of a small insect, and is deposited on the smaller branches and twigs of a species of willow tree grown in large numbers on the lower slopes of the mountain. These when fully coated are 7 97 Our Share in China cut off and plunged into hot water, the wax rising to the surface and being made into large cakes for export. About seven miles from Kiating, down the river, is Niu-Hua-Chi, an important salt well region, which must not be, however, confounded with the most important salt well district of Szechwan, viz., Tzdiutsing. There are also not a few coal mines in the vicinity which are worked by crude Chinese methods. It is also a great centre for the purchase and sale of all kinds of lumber, which is brought down the Yah and Tong Rivers. About one mile above Kiating these rivers unite and flow past the city under the name of the Tong. Kiating is the great distributing point for all traffic up river from Ichang, Chungking, Suifu, etc. — up the Chengtu River to Chengtu, and up the Ya River to Yachow, Tachienlu, and the Tibetan border. It is the most distant point in West China to which the flat-bottomed river- gunboats of Great Britain, France, and Germany come during the high water of each summer. Till recently, it has been the destination of all our new missionary parties, and from it the mem- bers of these parties have separated to their several stations. Henceforth, however, Chung- king will be a great distributing point. The population of Kiating is a mixed one, due to the fact that several centuries ago the district was quite depopulated by a great rebellion, and Kiating subsequently repopulated by immigration from dilferent parts of China. The dialect spoken in and around the city is, as a consequence, in many respects quite different from the language pre- vailing in the rest of the province. About twenty-five miles west of Kiating is Mount Omei, one of the celebrated sacred moun- tains of China, and from the city can be seen its three main peaks, which are called the Omei Sisters.’^ The loftiest of these peaks, the King Ting, has an elevation of over ii.ooo feet. THE EVANGELISTIC WORK. Historical . — In the spring of 1894, Rev. Dr. mating Kilborn opened Kiating as a station, preaching Dr. 0. l. Kii- on Sundays and carrying on medical work during the week — this all in native buildings. A year later Dr. Kilborn was stationed in Chengtu, and Rev. Dr. Hart, Dr. H. M. Hare, and Rev. James Endicott came to live in Kiating; but they were forced to leave almost immediately on account of the 1895 riots. Kiating was reopened in June, 1896, by Mr. Endicott and Dr. Hare. The church was now built, and, on Dr. Hart’s return, was dedicated, June, 1897, Mr. Endicott being pastor. At the dedication the first convert was baptized. Dr. Hart started the Printing Press in Septem- Printing Press ber, 1897, in a small brick building which he had established, built during the summer months. In February, 1898, a free school for boys and girls was opened, and has been continued ever since. The street 99 Our Share in China chapel, still in constant use, was first rented in the conference year, 1897-98. In February, 1898, Dr. Hart opened the city of Omei as an out- station; but, through a re-division of the field under the Advisory Board, this place was after- wards allotted to the C. I. M. In the summer of 1900 the missionaries were again compelled, on account of riots, to leave for the coast. Dr. Hart im- In September, 1901, Dr. Smith returned and able to return . to China. opened the church again, taking charge, as well, of as much medical work as he was able. Early in 1902, Mr. Endicott returned, and in March again started the Press, as Dr. Hart could not, on account of ill-health, return to the field. In April, 1902, Mr. Endicott also took over the church work, thus leaving Dr. Smith more time to devote to the hospital and dispensary. During 1902 the school was under the superintendence of Mrs. Smith, who herself taught several subjects. The street chapel was under Dr. Smithes charge. Kiating In the spring of 1903, Dr. Smith and family 1903 to 1909. left on furlough, and the church work again fell to Mr. Endicott, in addition to his duties in the Press. Miss Foster, of the Woman’s Missionary Society, who had come to Kiating, now took over the supervision of the school. In the spring of 1903, Dr. and Mrs. Adams arrived and began the study of the language, and a year later Dr. Service and his family. In May, 1904, Mr. Morti- more was appointed temporarily to take charge of 100 Kiating i ffi: the Press and the church, in order to allow Mr. Endicott to go to Chengtu and erect a printing plant, and in October of the same year the whole printing establishment was moved to Chengtu. On Mr. Mortimore’s departure to Chengtu, No- vember 19, 1904, Dr. Adams took charge of the evangelistic work, much of his time, however, being taken up with necessary renovations. In February, 1906, because of ill-health. Dr. Adams returned to Canada, and Dr. Service temporarily took charge of the evangelistic work in addition to his medical duties. Mr. Morti- more was appointed to Kiating in June, 1906, and left on furlough in February, 1909, Rev. A, P. Quirmbach being appointed his successor. Church . — The church building, a lar brick structure about 25 feet by 40 feet, services, capable of seating 200 people, is situated near the west gate of the city. Conveniently adjacent stands the parsonage, originally a Chinese resi- dence, but now altered to meet the needs of the foreign missionary. Separate from the church there is a large room for class meetings, and the Chinese guest-rooms on the compound may be used for similar purposes, on Sundays at least. The regular services of the church are : Sunday morning service at 10.30, Sunday school at i, members^ class Tuesday evening, and prayer- meeting Thursday evening. The Sabbath school is divided into several classes, with Chinese and foreign teachers. A teachers’ meeting for lOI rectansfu- The church ° building and Our Share in China Our work In the heart of the city. the study of the Sunday school lesson is held after class on Tuesday evening. The mid-week prayer-meeting partakes somewhat of the nature of a Christian Endeavor meeting, the Christian Endeavor topics, translated each year for the Chinese, being used, and a general discussion on the part of the Christians being encouraged. A Bible-woman goes from home to home teaching the women and girls who cannot get out. Street Chapel . — The street chapel is situated on a busy street in the heart of the city, and about fifteen minutes’ walk from the Mission com- pounds. The building consists of a preaching hall in front; then, passing by a small open court there is a room which may be used as a down- town dispensary or an enquirers’ class-room. Along the side of this runs a hallway, leading to a small space at the rear, which has sometimes been used as a Chinese kitchen. Over the preach- ing hall there is an upstairs room, which the evangelist uses as his bedroom. Each evening, except prayer-meeting night, from dusk till the beating of the second watch (about two hours and a half), the chapel is kept open for all who are pleased to come in and listen to the preaching or informal conversation of the evangelist, or of others who may be there to assist him. The chapel will hold an audience of fifty or sixty, and, while not always filled, is rarely without some to whom the Gospel may be presented. For those who evince a special interest the pastor holds a 102 KIATING. 1. The Mission Compound. 2. Some Hospital Patients. Kiating meeting once or twice a week in the class-room mentioned above. In the chapel a library of over a hundred volumes of religious and secular litera- ture and several current magazines is kept under the charge of the evangelist and each day, except Sundays, from lo to 12 a.m., the doors are open for anyone who wishes to come in and read, or purchase the tracts that are on sale. School. — For some years the boys’ school has a junior primary been organized on the lines of the Western school. What ° ... we teach. Educational Union, and is of the junior primary grade. The pupils, divided into regular classes, study the following subjects: The Scriptures (with passages to be memorized), the Chinese classics and readers, geography, history, arith- metic and writing, elementary botany, zoology, hygiene, physiology, geology, physiography, and physics, also a little English, singing, and drill. Instruction is given by three Chinese teachers, and, for an hour or two apiece each week, by four of the foreign missionaries. The pupils are all day-scholars, ranging in age from six or seven to sixteen, and pay a small fee of fifty cents or a dollar a year, according to their means. For the senior classes examinations are held each week. The scholars are required to attend the regular services of the church. The school hours extend from 8.30 a.m. to 3 p.m., the middle of the day being broken by singing or drill. 103 Our Share in China DjinYen, an Out-Stotion Work . — The district attached to out-Btation of . Kiating. the Kiatmg station takes in fifteen towns belong- ing to the Lo Shan magistracy, two large towns of Chien Wei, and all of the Djin Yen magistracy, with its twenty towns and its central walled city, the population of the latter being 10,000 to 12,000. Djin Yen city is about thirty miles distant from each of the three stations, Kiating, Jenshow, and Junghsien; and was opened by Mr. Hartwell in May, 1904. In this city we have a rented chapel, which consists of a preaching hall (in which the men and women are seated separately), a book- store, a classroom (or, as used by the itinerat- ing missionary, a dining-room), a schoolroom, and two upstair bedrooms. At the rear there is a small plot of open ground. On market days (every other day), the chapel doors are thrown open about noon to as many men and women as can crowd in, and the evangelist, assisted by several of the members, continues to preach for two hours or more, no difficulty being experienced in securing plenty of willing listeners. In addi- tion to the regular services of the Sabbath, three week-night meetings are held. A Bible-woman, assisted by the evangelist, superintends a very promising girls’ school, well attended and of excellent influence. In almost every case the pupils voluntarily unbind their feet. In several instances the parents have been led through their children to attend regularly the public services of the church. The scholars study 104 Kiating a good deal of Scripture, some arithmetic, history, geography, physiology, and Chinese literature, and practise singing and drill. A small library, with Bible commentaries and other helpful books, both secular and religious, is at the disposal of the Christians. The Bible-woman, in addition to her school duties, at certain hours teaches the women either at their homes or at the chapel. In 1910 Kiating district reported three schools with an attendance of over eighty. At Djin Fong Sz, a town about eight miles Djin Fong sz, from Djin Yen city, there is another small chapel, of mating, with a preaching-hall, a small bedroom, and an upstairs. This place was first rented in June, 1907. The evangelist and other Christians go there at regular intervals of about ten days and preach to the crowds who come to market, but, although there are always plenty of attentive listeners, none have shown a willingness to accept the Gospel. Throughout the rest of the district the seed is being constantly sown by means of a colporteur-preacher, who keeps go-ing over the whole territory; by the Djin Yen evangelist, who, as often as possible, makes trips to the neighbor- ing towns on market days; and by a number of Djin Yen Christians, who, as time permits, also visit the surrounding market-places to preach and sell tracts. The missionary finds a marked friend- liness wherever the Gospel has been heard, and is quite often asked to preach in a teashop or in a temple court. 105 Our Share in China THE MEDICAL WORK. workfngin Hospital . — There are three missions working Kiating. in Kiating, the China Inland Mission, the Ameri- can Baptist Missionary Union, and the Canadian Methodist Mission. The China Inland Mission opened their work in the city twenty years ago, Messrs. Vale and Ririe being the pioneers, the latter still living in Kiating. From the first, missionary work of every kind has been very discouraging, owing to the intense conservatism of the people. Ours is the The Canadian Methodist Hospital is the only work. hospital in Kiating, the other missions attempting nothing in the line of medical work. Our hospi- tal has a large constituency to draw from, as the city is the centre of a very populous district, the nearest hospital being at Jenshow, two days’ journey distant. Four days’ journey distant are hospitals located at Chengtu, Suifu, and Yachow. Dr. Kiibom Dr. Kilborn opened medical work in Kiating. medical work He arrived in the spring of 1894, and left in the spring of 1895. Dr. Hare arrived in the spring of 1895, in June of which year occurred the riots, on account of which he left the city. In June of 1896, however, he returned and began the erection of the hospital plant. In July, 1900, occurred the Boxer uprising, and Dr. Hare left China for Canada. In the fall of 1901 Dr. Smith came to Kiating and remained until the spring of 1903, during which time he had charge of both 106 Kiating church and hospital, but mainly devoted his time to evangelistic work. Dr. Service was appointed to begin work in Dr. service in Kiatmg m the fall of 1904, but owing to a severe 1904 to im illness and extensive repairs to house, compound and hospital, medical work was not begun in earnest until the autumn of 1905. The hospital plant consists of three separate buildings, a men’s ward, a women’s ward, and a third building con- taining operating, waiting, dispensing, and drug rooms. The doctor’s residence is very conveni- ently situated, immediately adjacent to the hospital. The church abuts on the hospital com- pound, and the patients enter through its rear door to attend all the public services of the church. The hospital can comfortably accommodate not The hospital , i 1 ^ r accommoda- more than thirty patients, fifteen male and n f teen tion for thirty female, although there have been as many as twenty-two male patients in at once, which meant very undesirable crowding. Women come to the dispensary in considerable numbers, but the num- ber of female in-patients is much less than that of males, one great difficulty being that of leaving their homes and children. After the promulga- tion of the anti-opium edicts and the great rise in the price of opium, there was, from Janu- ary, 1908, a remarkable increase in the number of patients admitted to break off the opium habit. In common with the rest of Szechwan, formerly so largely given up to cultivation of the poppy, 107 Our Share in China Kiating’s Chinese doctors are famous. Services in the hospital. The hospital staff. Kiating district is largely, if not wholly, free from that haneful crop. The great majority of in-patients come from towns, cities, and villages outside Kiating. The city is a great drug emporium, and has some famous Chinese doctors, facts which add to the difficulty of medical work. Every dis- pensary patient is given a Gospel and several tracts, and nearly all buy a Christian calendar. Every in-patient on leaving the hospital is given a bundle of selected tracts and several Scripture portions, and some buy a New Testament or a complete Bible. Hospital prayers are conducted every morning by the doctor, assisted by a native evangelist and a Bible-woman. The Sunday school lessons and daily readings are taken up. Every afternoon a Chinese evangelist teaches the Catechism or preaches in the male ward. Dispensary days are Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Operations are usually done on other days of the week. The registration fee for all patients on dispensary days is thirty cash (less than two cents), and is good for one month. Patients who come at times other than dispensary hours pay three hun- dred cash (about fifteen cents). For food, public ward patients pay sixty cash per day (three cents), and private patients one hundred cash per day (five cents). Poor patients are never refused, even though unable to pay anything. The hospital staff consists of one doctor, two io8 Kiating dispensers, two nurses (one male and one female), one cook, one coolie, and one gateman. The total income derived from in-patients is quite sufficient to pay for all their food. Quite a. number of patients give a subscription, large or small, to the hospital, in return for medicine or operation. Most operative cases come with the thought of operation definitely in mind. Indeed, patients with hopeless eyes or other inoperable surgical conditions often plead for an operation. During the summer, while the hospital is closed, not a few patients are treated on Mount Omei, in the rooms of the Ta Wo Se temple, in which the missionaries stay during the extreme heat. Revs. Dr. C. W. Service and W. J. Mortimore, B.A. have furnished the material in this chapter. 109 JENSHOW AND JUNGHSIEN “A call, what is a call ? A call is a need, a need made known and the power to meet that need.” — Ion Keith- Falconer. “ My desire, O Lord, is to engage where laborers are most wanted.” — Robert M orison. “ Tell Horace’s mother to tell Horace that his father’s last wish is that when he is twenty-five years of age he may come to China as a missionary.” — Horace PitkiWs last message before martyrdom by the Boxers. CHAPTER VI. JENSHOW AND JUNGHSIEN. “ There is not now a general summons to ‘ all sorts and conditions of men’ to enter China, but only to the best, physically, intellectually, spiritually.” — Dr. Arthur H. Smith. Jenshow is a city of some ten thousand inhabi- The city of tants, situate about sixty miles, or two days’ journey, south-east of Chengtu. It is the same distance from Junghsien and from Kiating. The city lies in a narrow valley between two hill ranges, which sweep around so as almost to encircle it, and on the slope of one of these, in a fine, airy situation, and one commanding a pleasant and extensive view, are built contigu- ously the compounds of the General Board of Missions and the Woman’s Missionary Society. In the first of these, two fine brick dwellings have been erected, commodious and substantial, while the W. M. S. compound contains a new and well-built girls’ school of “bi to,” or bamboo finished with lime-plaster, and a dwelling for the workers recently erected. The city is over six hundred years old, and, some of • j611SllOW’S though relatively small, is the centre of a very institutions, extensive and populous district, and is the resi- 113 8 Our Share in China Industries. Mission buildings and work. Tbe out-stations. deuce of a hsien, or district magistrate. It has a post-office conducted on the foreign system, a force of policemen, a reformatory for beggars, a silk industry school, and a middle school with an attendance of from one to three hundred boys and young men. There are two salt wells in the neighborhood, the salt being almost black in color, and con- sidered stronger than the white quality. Con- siderable cotton of fair quality is produced in the district, and a good deal of raw silk is manufactured locally, and more sent elsewhere for manufacture. Limestone of an inferior quality is found, and soft coal of only fair quality is mined some thirty miles from the city. There are perhaps half a dozen large temples in and near the city, and some scores of smaller ones. Our mission comprises evangelistic, medical, and teaching work. A large native “ kungkwan/' situated on a rising ground within the city, and presented to the mission some years ago when Mr. Hartwell was the itinerator through this section of country, provides accommodation for a chapel, and also for a hospital and dispensary, though better and more commodious quarters will soon be a necessity. We have a day school for boys, and a Sunday school is regularly con- ducted. There are twelve out-stations, in several of which day schools are taught, and thirteen col- porteurs and other helpers distribute Christian 114 Jenshow District One of twenty districts in our Mission Field Population, 1,000.000 It has 75 market towns 4 over 10,000 population each 26 over 5.000 45 over 1.000 Hundreds of small villages besides PRESENT MISSIONARY FORCE is Two evangelistic missionaries One of whom has also the Mission Schools Ons medical missionary, and One Nurse Three native probationers and seven paid helpers JENSHOW DISTEICT, WHERE THE GREAT REVIVAL OF 1909 BEGAN. Our Share in China literature, and in other ways assist the mission- ary in his efforts to bring the influence of the Gospel to bear upon the people of this extensive and populous district. In 1910, two new schools were reported, making a total of five, with one hundred and fifty pupils. Medical work Medical work at Tenshow was begun by Dr. gy^Dr. j. R. James R. Cox in 1907, the dispensary being opened on May 14th, and the hospital wards in the following September. The dispensary and hospital serve a district of at least sixty miles in diameter, containing from seventy to eighty towns and villages. During the first year, nearly four thousand consultations were given, and between forty and fifty patients treated in the hospital wards, which have a total accommodation for only twelve patients. Patients are expected to pay for their board if at all possible. No fee is demanded for operation or treatment in the wards, except in the case of opium patients, who pay 1,000 cash (twenty-five cents) for medicine. Dispensary patients pay a registration fee of thirty cash (one and one-half cents) for the first visit. The hospital The buildings used are old native buildings, buiidSgs.^^^^ repaired and adapted, but considered as for tem- porary use only. Two dispensers are employed, and an evangelist gives daily religious instruc- tion in the wards, and in the waiting-room of the dispensary. The medical work is gradually win- ning its way into the confidence of the people, 116 JENSHOW. 1. The City of Jenshow — Our Mission Compound on the hill to the right. 2, Mr, Hoffman and Mr. Earle and the “Twelve Apostles” — Evangelists of Jenshow District. Jenshow and Junghsien though there is still much fear of operative treat- ment. Doubtless, as patients are cured and return home, they will by degrees change the attitude of suspicion and skepticism to one of confidence in our treatment, and we will get cases in the beginning of illness and not when the patients have tried every other treatment till their diseases have become chronic. JUNGHSIEN. Junghsien is a walled city, with a population Junghsien, a estimated at thirty thousand. It has one Con- inhabitants? fucian temple and thirty or forty Buddhist and Taoist temples and shrines, nearly all in good repair and of long standing. The new Govern- ment High School, which is installed in one of these temples, has an attendance of two hundred and twenty pupils and a staflf of six teachers, on most friendly relations with us. The silk industry college has a staff of four The sUk , , ^ industry teachers and an attendance of seventy pupils, college. three of whom are church members. The super- intendent is a local man, graduated in the Japan- ese schools, and a warm friend of our Mission. For the development of the silk industry, over fifty thousand mulberry trees have been planted during the last few years. The city also has an industrial school for boys The Govern- •' ment school. Our Share in China The develop- ment of Junghsien from an out-statlon. The first missionaries stationed in 1905. The first Christian church in th* county dedi- cated, 1907. and a reformatory for beggars. The public schools for boys are very numerous and well- attended. To date we only know of one Gov- ernment school for girls, which has already an attendance of seventy pupils, all of whom have visited the Mission. The city and county school inspector, a local man who graduated from Japanese schools, is one of our most intimate friends, and has at different times visited our schools and given addresses at our gatherings. Previous to the year 1901, irregular itinerating trips for preaching and book-selling were made throughout the county and city by various mis- sionaries of the China Inland Mission and our own Society, and only in that year was the first permanent street chapel opened by Rev. W. E. Smith, M.D., in one of the busiest streets. Regular and well-attended services are still held in this hall, and for the past two years a boys' day school, with an attendance of forty pupils, has also been conducted under its roof. The year 1905 saw the first missionaries, Revs. W. E. Smith and R. O. Jolliffe, with their families, settled in a small Chinese house in the centre of the city. Early in the following year the purchase of the present Mission premises on North Street was completed and building opera- tions begun. On September 22nd, 1907, the first Christian 3 church in this city and county was dedicated. 118 Jenshow and Junghsien It is of solid brick, with belfry and Sunday school rooms, and has a seating capacity of four hundred. It is usually well filled with an attentive congregation. Two solid brick mission houses, with servants’ quarters and guest rooms, necessary for carrying on aggressive mission work, have also been completed. At present the mission community consists of five families — four in the active work and one language stu- dents. In the city the membership numbers seventy, besides probationers and enquirers; the Sunday school has an attendance, primary and intermediate classes, male forty, female thirty- three; adult, male thirty-six, female forty; total, one hundred and fifty-nine, besides visitors. Col- lection averages about two thousand five hundred cash a month. Junghsien is the county town of Junghsien The work County. This county is almost square, but very the°c(mnty of serpentine in boundary, being over two hundred miles in circumference, while not more than forty miles across. It has forty-eight market towns, besides many hamlets. Six of these towns have each a population of over ten thousand souls. Twenty-seven of them have now preaching halls, six of which are in the eastern end of the county, and are now connected with the Tzeliutsing station. Distributed amongst these congrega- tions we have a membership of one hundred and fifty, besides probationers and inquirers, gleaned from all classes of society. To assist in this Our Share in China unlimited field, we have as yet far too few Chi- nese helpers. The county is very rich in natural resources; the greater part consists of undulating plain, which yearly produces a large crop of rice, cap- able of supporting a dense population. The east- ern end comprises quite an area of the great salt belt, while the mountain ridges are rich in coal and iron ore. Several streams of water traverse the county, minimizing the expense of irrigation. Schools . — From the beginning our work in Junghsien has been marked by a deep interest on the part of the student class. From their ranks have come many of our best members and a number of our evangelists, while many others have shown anxiety for our friendship and in- struction. Work among these seemed so im- portant that, in 1908, Rev. E. W. Wallace, B.A., was released from the college staff in Chengtu to enter this open door. Results speedily showed the wisdom of the step. In the city is a school of eighty-five boys, several of whom are in Senior Primary work. For this school a fine building has just been erected. A large inn, purchased at the East Gate for a second church, holds also a school of some fifty boys, and a girls’ school with over twenty pupils. Dozens of others have been turned away for lack of sufficient teachers. In the town of Kao Shan Pu, six miles away, is 120 JUNGHSIEN. 1. The Canadian Methodist Church. 9, Mrs, W. E. Smith and her School Girls. Jenshow and Junghsien another teacher, with thirty-five small boys ; and in still another town, sixteen miles off, is a school of over twenty-five. In 1910 Junghsien district reported two new schools opened, making a total of five schools with one hundred and ninety students in attend- ance. Rev. E. Hoffman, S.T.L., Dr. J. R. Cox and Rev. Dr. W. E. Smith have furnished most of the material in this chapter. 121 TZELIUTSING, PENGHSIEN AND LUCHOW “The essential element of a missionary call is an openness of mind to the last command of Christ and to the need of the world; and then one needs only to subject himself to the judgment of the proper authori- ties as to whether he is qualified to go .” — Robert E. Speer. “ If you thus set yourself to be placed by Him in the sphere where you can best serve Him, then we are sure that you will find your personal liking lying directly in the line of His need of you.” — Geo. Wilson. “Every young man or woman entering upon life’s opportunities owes it to his Eord who bought him to open his New Testament and put his finger on that verse where it says in positive tones, ‘Go ye,’ and loyally ask, ‘Why not I ? ’ ” — Jacob Chamberlain. CHAPTER VII. TZELIUTSING, PENGHSIEN AND LUCHOW. “A growing church among a strong people burdened by a decadent Empire — the spirit of life working against the forces of death and decay in the one great pagan empire which the wrecks of millenniums have left on the earth — surely there is a call to service that might fire the spirit of the dullest of us.” — Gibson. “ We want hopeful men in this glorious aggressive warfare. Our King and Captain is going forth conquer- ing and to conquer. It is a winning cause.” — Jessup. Tzeliutsing is an unwalled city of seven hun- .p^eiiutsing dred thousand inhabitants in the southern part foo Joo of our Mission District. The city proper lies stretched along a river, where the chief ship- ping is done, but up the valleys run populous ramifications, which make the place a group of towns and cities rather than one compact unit. The name means “ self-flowing well ” ; the whole district being engaged in the salt industry. The district thus engaged has a population of one million. The position of Tzeliutsing in our Mission District is central. If a circle were drawn through Chengtu, Kiating, and Chungking, it would be two hundred miles in diameter, and 125 Our Share in China Tzeliutsing would be thirty-five miles to the south-west of the centre of the circle. Tzeliu- tsing is a sub-division of the Fushuen district, and comes under the prefecture of Suifu. Although not of high rank, it is probably the most popu- lous, and commercially the most important, city in Szechwan province. It is situated on a small river, navigable by small boats only, but house- boats can come to within a day’s journey of the city. The salt The number of salt wells is very large. The Industry. • • jo Chinese roughly estimate them at ten thousand; including those not now in use, there must be many thousands. It is possible, from almost any elevation, to count one hundred tall derricks, each over a well. The wells are embraced within an area of about twenty English miles in length and ten in width. The general appearance of the country is rolling. How a well is ^he boring of a salt well is a most interesting appea7for proceeding. The first two hundred feet are machinery, quarried out of the solid rock, the hole being about four feet in diameter. When this is done, water pipes are placed in the hole. These are made from large pine trees, with a hole in the centre, about eleven inches across. The tree is first sawn into six-foot lengths, then split and hollowed out, and afterwards tightly bound together again. As these are placed in position the well is built up solidly about them with stone. This finished, drilling is commenced. This is 126 Tzeliutsing, Penghsien and Luchow done by means of a large flat iron drill, about a ton in weight, and measuring ten feet in length and eleven inches across the bit. The drill is worked by means of a lever that looks very much like an ordinary pump-handle. This lever is forced down by three men, who use, not their hands, but their feet in working it. The men are placed upon raised platforms, two on one side of the lever and one on the other. Leaving the platforms simultaneously, they step together upon the long end. Down it goes with their weight and up comes the heavy drill; another step and the men are off the lever and upon the opposite platform, letting the big drill drop down upon the rock below, while the end flies up against a large beam. Thus in two steps the men have changed sides and the drill has fallen once. They then turn and again step on and off. Each return of the drill means two steps and a turn for three men, or six steps and three turns for one man. Those versed in the science of physics can bring it into terms of horse or steam power at their leisure. Thus the drill rises and falls perhaps twenty times in a minute. This goes on, delaying for cleaning out only, night and day, for sometimes twenty years. As the toil is most arduous, there are fresh relays of men. In time the men grow old and stiff, but their children take their places and the work goes on. There are many difficulties to be overcome when ingenuity drilling a well. There are leaks to be stopped, verance^® stop leaks. 127 Our Share in China hard strata to be worked through, and broken drills and ropes to be raised, not to speak of years of work and expense before any returns come in. When a leak of fresh water com- mences and threatens to impair the well they have recourse to a very ingenious device. They find out at what depth the leak is, and then pound down a large bunch of coarse grass, which they leave in the well just a little below where the leak has started. Then they pour in a mix- ture of mud, lime, oil, etc., which fills up to a point above the leak, and soon hardens into cement. They then drill out the cement and pull up the grass, when the leak will be found to have been effectually stopped up. Broken ropes, tubes, etc., are grappled in the narrow hole with ingenious instruments made largely of bam- boo and iron, and altogether too intricate in their workings to describe. The general principle is that of grappling-hooks on the end of an iron rod, the whole of which is let down within a bamboo tube. When once the grappling-iron has seized the broken material the tube fits tightly over it and prevents the hooks losing their hold. Time is the one difficulty that seems to the Chinese to be no difficulty, and it is the last to be overcome. Finally, the well is drilled through and lined below with bamboo tubing; then fire- crackers are fired off, and at last the pro- prietor — or his grandson — is willing to “ let well enough alone.” 128 Tzeliutsing, Penghsien and Luchow These wells vary in depth very much. Some how the are said to be over an English mile deep, but fromisrlSed^by two to three thousand feet is a fair average. In raising the salt water a bamboo tube is used. These vary in length with the depth of the salt water below, and in some cases are one hundred feet in length. This accounts for the thousands of lofty derricks seen on every hand. In the end of this tube is a valve which opens by pressure and lets in the salt water. The tube is raised by means of bamboo ropes, the making of which gives rise to an industry in itself. ’At the other end of the bamboo rope is the expensive part of the salt-well industry, viz., the power necessary for raising the water. Of this there are two kinds, man-power and buffalo-power. The former is the more common, but the big wells use the latter, which in some cases means the keeping of ninety animals for drawing water from one well. The method is the simplest. The end of the rope is fastened to a large horizontal windlass from twenty to thirty feet in diameter, and the buffalo are hitched to the arms of it, as we would hitch horses to a horse-power machine, except that the harness consists of a noose slipped over a pole projecting from the windlass and tied to the animal’s yoke. Where man-power is used the human horse Men, women slips a band of hempen cloth attached to the employed in windlass on his or her shoulder and starts in, the^waier. yelling and pulling with might and main. Fifty 9 129 Our Share in China The fate of a ventureBome steam engine. men, women, and children all pull and sing together, answering to the call of the leader, much as the boatmen do on the river. Round and round they go, at first slowly, and then more and more quickly, until in the last few rounds they are chasing one another as fast as their legs can carry them, when suddenly the long tube shoots into the air, and they stop almost in a moment. When once the tube hangs dangling over the salt water vat beside the mouth of the well, it is only the work of a moment to force open the valve and release the contents, and send the tube flying down again into the bowels of the earth at the rate of a mile a minute. The rickety old windlass thunders and roars as the brakes are applied to keep the tube from crash- ing into the bottom of the well, but in less time than it takes to tell, the wheels have started to revolve in the opposite direction, and the salt water is again on its way up. There is a romantic . story of a venturesome steam engine that two or three years ago found its way up into this land of man and buffalo power. It fell into the hands of strange men, who could not understand its mannerisms or appreciate its capabilities. They screwed down the safety valve and turned on the steam. The machine mercifully blew up its own safety valve instead of its mismanagers and thousands of spectators; but after having done this several times it was discarded, and now, as 130 Tzeliutsing, Penghsien and Luchow far as the writer knows, it stands, deserted and rusting to pieces, on the hillside. Having reached the earth above, the next place ^®7water for the salt water to go is to the evaporators, and evaporator?^ no time is lost in getting it there. Evaporators are situated at different points throughout the city, but always with a view to accessibility of fuel; thus they are along the river, where coal comes down by boat, and at the many differ- ent points where natural gas is found. The devices to transport the salt from the wells to the evaporators are many ; but the most common is by means of bamboo piping, made water-tight by being wrapped with shredded bamboo. In many parts of Tzeliutsing, on trestles overhead, on the ground below, and in the earth beneath, there is a network of these bamboo pipes, which altogether must amount to hundreds of miles. Another method of transporting the salt water is by carrying it in pails, and thousands of coolies have this occupation for a life-work. When the wells are near the river the salt water is run down into boats and floated either down or up to the evaporators. But the great overland method is that of bamboo piping. To get water down hill is an easy matter, and always was in China, even before the great Newton discovered the law of gravity; but to get water up-hill is a somewhat harder problem. It is overcome, how- ever, by using horse-power elevators to pull the water up hill, much as grain is elevated in the Our Share in China The Process of Evapor- ation. home land. The horse, which in this case is a donkey, is placed in the top of a tower, and blindfolded — a device of the crafty Celestial to enjoy a rest while the donkey, not knowing but that his driver is at his heels, keeps on going. The water is thus pulled from the large vat below to the level of the tower. Here the elevator cups empty themselves into tubs and the water flows off to the foot of another tower, where another donkey is toiling to lift the same water another thirty feet up the bank, while a succes- sion of other donkeys still further up the bank are blindly circling around in their towers to get the weighty brine over the hill beyond. Half a dozen of these towers can be seen in a row running up the hill, looking, with their one-sided connections of bamboo piping, like the towers and cables of a half-built railway bridge. The water from the different wells, as seen in the boats lying in the river, is of widely different colors^ — yellow, black, blue, or green, depending probably on the color of the stratum from which it comes. The dark-colored water, they say, produces the largest percentage of salt, while the yellow water is the poorest. On reach- ing the various evaporators the brine is poured into large open pans, six to ten feet across, where the water is boiled off. The salt is then taken off, drained, and filled into baskets for export. The fuel, as has been said, is either coal or gas. The latter is, of course, the cheaper, and comes 132 Tzeliutsing, Penghsien and Luchow from abandoned salt wells. Millions of cubic feet of gas are wasted. At some old wells it burns away at its own sweet will, put to no use whatever. Coming from the evaporators, the salt is carried to the river banks, where it becomes Government property; for salt, as are most im- portant products in China and Japan, is a Govern- ment monopoly. This monopoly gave rise in the summer of 1908 to an altercation between the salt producers and the Government as to the price of salt. The whole salt community went on strike, and before it was settled the Govern- ment salt office was mobbed and several men killed. The salt is sold, as a rule, for one hundred The price of salt, and fifty odd taels a “ chang,” or twelve thou- many grades, sand catties — (the salt catty is one pound six and a half ounces) — though some of the finer kinds sell for two hundred taels a ‘‘ chang.’^ A ‘‘ tael ” may be any value between sixty-five and eighty-five cents of our money, according to ex- change. There are different classifications of this salt; but ordinarily it is divided into five or six classes: (i) The finest and best is, of course, transparent granules. This is produced by two wells only, and is exported to Yang Chi in Hupeh. (2) The 'ffiower-salt” is not so square or clear as No. i. It also is exported to Hupeh. (3) A white salt, commonly sold on the street, which is very much like the ordinary barrel salt at home. (4) An inferior salt, called 133 Our Share in China How the salt Is transported. ‘^green salt.” (5) The poorest kind, which goes under the descriptive name of ‘‘refuse salt.” It is well named. (6) Of the rock salt there are two kinds, dark and light, both valued by the Chinese for their strength. This variety they often use for a gift. They call it “stick-to-the-pot” salt. The finest varieties are sometimes packed in nice tin boxes and elaborately labelled, much as break- fast food is put up in the home land. To get the salt from Tzeliutsing to the Yangtse is not an easy task. The stream from the city is too small for ordinary boats; so by making the boats to suit the river and the river to suit the boats, a kind of canal has been constructed. In this happy compromise, the boats are shallow and flat-bottomed, while the river is deepened by a series of dams at intervals in its course. Even then it is necessary in low water for the boats to wait three or four days at each dam for the water to rise sufficiently to let them pass through, and this naturally makes travel very slow indeed. The opening and closing of these dams, as well as the regulation of all the important matters relative to the transporta- tion of the salt, is under the control of an official at Luchow, who is somewhat independent of the local officials of this district. Arrived at Deng- dzinkuan the salt is transhipped into larger boats, which take it as far as Chungking or Wanhsien, where it is again transhipped. The annual out- put of salt is about three thousand boatloads of 134 Tzeliutsing, Penghsien and Luchow one hundred and eight thousand catties each, or, in all, nearly one-third of a million tons. The accessory industries are many. The growing o^^dustries. fodder to feed the buffalo; the working of iron for materials; the securing of timber to build derricks; the bamboo to do duty as gas pipes and water pipes ; the coal for fuel — all create side industries that combine to make the place a manufacturing metropolis as well as a salt- producing centre, and at the same time tend to develop special lines of farming, carpentry, blacksmithing, and other tradesmanship. To see a million people thriving through the partial development of one single resource in one dis- trict cannot but raise the question, What will be the outcome when belief in “ Fung-shui ” (spirit influences) is broken down, and China free to scientifically develop in a thousand ways her boundless resources throughout her vast do- mains? Will it not mean rice for the millions, a higher scale of living all around, and a demand for workers at home that will curtail, perhaps forever, the emigration to America? A word about the people — they see salt in -me salt and everything. The well owner not only draws it from the earth beneath, but filters the earth it- self wherever the salt water has been spilt upon it, in order to get a few grains extra; and the pauper can be seen in the morning going about with a ladle and a pail to scoop up any puddles 135 Our Share in China Where the East *' hustles." Tzeliutsing opened as a mission station, 1907. The missionaries. of the precious fluid that may have leaked out of the pipes during the night. A large number of bankers and well owners of this place are from Shansi province. Most en- terprising men they are, but not more so than the men of the place. That the outstanding charac- teristic of this people is enterprise can be seen in the way they '' hustle,’’ as compared with men of other Chinese cities. Where they see a chance to make money, their aim is to get it. In this lies one of the problems of the church here. In first coming to us, they want to “ work ” the church very much as they would work a well, and with the same object. But when in time they come to see the real meaning of the church, they will provide an element of enterprise for the Chris- tian Church in Szechwan that will have vast re- sults in the future. Tzeliutsing was opened as a mission station in 1907 by the Canadian Methodist Mission. The China Inland Mission made it a station in 1908. Both missions previously had outstation work in or around the city. Our outstation was at Kongdzin, five miles away. It was first opened by Mr. Hartwell, afterwards closed, and in 1906 re-opened by Dr. Smith. Our pioneer settled missionaries at Tzeliutsing were Rev. R. O. and Mrs. Jolliffe in 1907. They were joined in 1908 by Rev. G. W. and Mrs. Sparling, and Dr. W. J. and Mrs. Sheridan as language students. 136 THE SALT WELL DISTRICT OF TZELIUTSING. 1. Boring a Well. 2. Evaporating Salt by Natural Gas. 3. A General View of Tzeliutsing. Tzeliutsing, Penghsien and Luchow Outstation Work . — There are ten outstations The in connection with Tzeliutsing at the present number ten. time. These are Kung Dzin, Lai Chia Tan, Chiao Teo Pu, Lung Tan Chang, Lien Wha Chang, Chen Chia Chang, Wei Yuen, Wu Li Hao, Hsin Chang, and Wha Chia Chang. The first six of these were added from Junghsien in the boundary division between Junghsien and Tzeliutsing, when the latter was opened as a foreign mission station. Some of these outstations deserve special mention. At Kung Dzin we own a handsome chapel with evangelist’s rooms attached, and also a room for the foreign pastor. This place was once a tem- ple. Wei Yuen is a walled “ hsien ” city about sixty-five li from Tzeliutsing. This church has had its ups and downs; it has now a regular membership with a number of enquirers and probationers. We have recently purchased at this place a fine inn, which makes an excellent chapel, evangelists’ rooms and school rooms. Wei Yuen has furnished several evangelists to our work. Lung Tan Chang is one of the old- est outstations. Wu Li Hao is one of the most flourishing outstations at the present time. We own here a fine chapel — a good place to stay at Though we have only a few members, they are a fairly constant quantity, and a large number ol probationers are ready to be baptized. Not long ago, we had a sudden increase of interest coming as a reflex from far Japan. The local superinten- dent of schools had a brother in Japan who came 137 Our Share in China under the influence of Christianity and immedi- ately wrote home to him to join the Christian* Church with his family. Without any hesitation he took his brother’s advice and connected himself with the Fu Yin Tang, bringing with him not only some of his family, but other teachers and a large number of scholars from the schools. They came to be taught ; as yet, of course, they do not know what Christianity means. Sin Chang is among the hills, two days away — the farthest outstation. The leader here is a man whose family for gen- erations has owned several large temples. He has come into the church, and sent his son to our college at Chengtu. His younger brother has be- come a helper. Although opened only in 1907, we own a large chapel with rooms for evangelists and room for a school. Tzeliutsing district in 1910 reported three new schools opened during the year, making a total of seven schools with one hundred and sixty students in attendance. PENGHSIEN. PenghBien, Penghsien is a walled city of thirty thousand thirty miles . , north-west inhabitants, situate some thirty miles north-west from Chengtu. from Chengtu. It is one of the cleanest, brightest, and busiest cities in Szechwan province, and the width, good paving and prosperous-looking shops of its principal street strike the traveller as soon 138 Tzeliutsing, Penghsien and Luchow as he enters it. A fine temple to Wen Chang, the God of Literature, stands in the south-east corner of the city, while just outside the North Gate a most interesting and picturesque rec- tangular pagoda, dating from the days of the Min dynasty, and split asunder by some natural con- vulsion or structural fault from summit to base, keeps guard, as it were, over the city clustered at its foot. Penghsien is the centre of a very important district, and has befen well chosen as a station of our mission. Sinfan, Tsunglin, Lungfungchang, all within a comparatively short distance, are in themselves important places and capable of great development from a missionary point of view. Mission work in the city dates from 1897, in opened as ... T 1 ,1 1 *1 1- . j an outstation which year, on July 29th, a building was rented in 1897 . for a chapel and book room. It was then the first outstation of Chengtu, and comprehended in the itinerating trip of the Rev. Geo. E. Hartwell, who, on September 29th of the same year, entered the names of ten men as the first class of en- quirers at Penhsien. A fine kungkwan,” or compound, with Mission . , property pur- grounds 300 feet deep by 115 feet wide, splen- chased, 1907. didly situated and having its rear boundary close to the city wall, was purchased by our Mission in 1907, and its buildings have been fitted up for residential purposes and the accommodation of two or more families. In the spring of 1908 it 139 Our Share in China was taken possession of by Rev. Geo. E. Hart- well as Superintendent, with Rev. W. E. and Mrs. Sibley, and Dr. W. and Mrs. Crawford as language students. Penghsien district in 1910 reported four schools with about one hundred scholars. LUCHOW. Luchow, an important distributing point- population 200.000. The station opened in 1908. The first missionaries. Luchow is a very important city of 200,000 people, situate on the left bank of the Yangtse, some seventy miles below its confluence with the Min at Suifu, and one hundred and thirty miles above Chungking. It is built at the confluence of the Chung River with the Yangtse, and pos- sesses great value to our Mission as a receiving and distributing point for both recruits and supplies. Luchow has for many years been a station of the China Inland Mission, and it was with the hearty concurrence of that Mission that our own Mission opened work there in the autumn of 1908. Besides the large population of the city itself, there is an extensive '‘hinterland” of terri- tory to the north and east, hitherto unworked by any mission, in which our workers will find a most promising field for itinerating. The Rev. Charles J. Jolliflfe, B.A., and Mrs. Jolliffe were the pioneers appointed by the Mis- sion Council of 1908 to the station as language students, with the duty of arranging for a suitable compound and preparing it for occupancy as 140 Tzeliutsing, Penghsien and Luchow residence and preaching place. A commodious ‘‘kungkwan” in a good central street has been secured, and a successful beginning made. In the early spring of 1909, Dr. W. D. Ferguson and Mrs. Ferguson, who had just arrived on the ground, were appointed with Mr. and Mrs. Jolliffe to Luchow. Rev. R. O. Jolliffe, B.A., has furnished the descrip- tion of Tzeliutsing in this chapter. I CHUNGKING AND, OUR NEW MISSION TERRITORY “ Without question attempts will be made to recon- struct Chinese thought on the basis of Confucian teach- ing, with a little Western science and religion thrown in.” — G. H. BondUeld. “ It is Western education that the Chinese are clamor- ing for, and will have. If the Church can give it to them, plus Christianity, they will take it; otherwise they will get it without Christianity — ^and that speedily. If in addition to direct evangelistic and philanthropic work in China, the Church can in the next decade train several thousands of Christian teachers, it will be in a position to meet this unparalleled opportunity.” — Dr. John R. Mott. “ Instances of educational and other union are becom- ing so numerous that few can keep track of them all. But in division of the field and in practical educational co-operation. West China seems to be far in advance of anything elsewhere to be found, and distant Szechwan literally leads the Empire.” — A. H. Smith. CHAPTER VIII. CHUNGKING AND OUR NEW MISSION TERRITORY “To-day all China is tingling with a consciousness or semi-consciousness of a new life.” — A. H. Smith. Chungking is the chief port of the province of Szechwan. It is one of the great cities of the Empire, with a population estimated at about seven hundred thousand, and it occupies a superb site on a rising ground at the confluence of the Kialing River with the Yangtse, one thousand five hundred miles from the mouth of the great river. It is, therefore, five hundred miles above Ichang, and eight hundred and fifty above Hankow. It stands in the same relation to the trade of the west of China that Hankow does to its central provinces, Shanghai to its northern provinces, and Canton to those of the south. It is the great distributing point for the upper river traffic, and both its import and export trade are very large. Chungking is a treaty port, the farthest west yet opened on the Yangtse. An important branch of the Imperial Maritime Customs is estab- lished in it; the river gunboats of Britain, France, and Germany lie at anchor beside it; and the consuls of the powers have their offices hard by 10 ^ 145 Chungking, the chief port of the Province of Szechwan, ten days overland from Chengtu. Our Share in China the largest of its great water-gates. Several missionary societies have strong stations within its walls, centres of work carried on in and around it. The British and Foreign Bible Society, the Scottish Bible Society, and the American Bible Society also have agencies in this strategic centre for the prosecution and expansion of missionary work, not only in Szechwan, but in the neighboring province of Kweichow, to which it is the natural gateway. Chungking is a Fu, or prefectural city, and its suburban and twin city of Kiangpeh, separated from it by the Kialing River, is a Ting or higher district city. The city is the seat of many large commercial firms, and its hongs or warehouses and its guild-houses are many and large. Both municipally and commercially it occupies an exceedingly important position. Viewed from the river or from the opposite shore, the situation and surroundings of the city are very beautiful. Its grey crenelated walls, winding along the ridge, rise high above the Yangtse, which even at this distance from its mouth is eight hundred yards wide, and in summer flood two-thirds of a mile. Shipping is crowded all along the foot of the wall, and great junks, heavily laden, move constantly up and down on the broad waters of the river. Over the crest of the hill crowd the houses of the city, in many a quaint curve of roof-line and gable, with here and there a huge yamen or guild- 146 CHUNGKING DISTRICT— OUR SECOND MISSION FIELD, TAKEN OVER FROM THE LONDON MISSIONARY SOCIETY IN 1910. Our Share in China halL standing out conspicuously above its neigh- bors. To the west, the undulating slopes of green hills stretch far away to the horizon, and over them winds the stone-paved Tung Ta Lu, the Great East Road, extending two hundred miles — ten days’ journey — to Chengtu. twenty years the London Missionary twenty years. Society, one of the oldest, most famous and most widespread in its operations of all the great mis- sionary societies, had its West China centre in Chungking, and had developed, with a small staff of devoted and heroic workers, a well organized and extensive mission in that city and in the territory for which it had assumed re- sponsibility along both banks of the Yangtse for some three hundred miles below Chungking. This territory embraced a number of very import- ant cities and towns along the river and a large and populous ‘‘ hinterland,” containing many towns, villages and hamlets, in the surrounding country, in all an estimated population of some ten millions of souls. wiiytiieL.M. But the world-wide field of the society, to us. and the tremendous and constant draft upon its resources in men and means, prevented it from occupying the ground with such a staff of missionaries, and with such plant for the due development of their work, as its importance, potentialities, and needs required, and as the experience of the workers and the statesmanship of the authorities alike saw to be essential. A 148 Chungking and Our New Territory deep but regretful conviction that in the best in- terests of the mission itself and to secure more effective concentration in its other fields in China, it would be advisable to transfer its terri- tory and plant in West China, led the authorities of the London Missionary Society to offer these on most generous terms to our General Board of Missions. After due deliberation the offer was accepted, ^he^transfer In the autumn of 1909 the negotiations for the transfer of the territory and plant of this strategic and faithfully-worked mission to our own Mission Board were completed, and at the Mission Council of 1910, arrangements were made for our entering upon the work which had been so well begun. At that Council, Rev. John Parker and Dr. Richard Wolfendale of the L.M.S., who had asked to continue their work in connection with our society, were regularly recog- nized and appointed to Chungking, and Rev. A. E. Claxton, who had agreed to lend his services for a year while the change was being made, was also appointed to that city. Mr. Claxton and Dr. Wolfendale were present at the Council, and both made addresses descriptive of the work which the mission had done since its inception, in the evangelistic, educational and medical fields. To Mr. Claxton’s address we are indebted for the historical particulars which are summarized in the following paragraphs : 149 Our"' Share in China The L. M. S. work In Chungking— the pioneer stage. The inter- mediate Stage. The final stage. Forty years ago» Griffith John, that veteran and famous missionary of the London Mission- ary Society, in company with Mr. Wylie of the Bible Society, paid a visit to Chungking, and was struck with its importance as a strategic point for missionary work. For twenty years he strenuously urged his society to plant a mission in the great city, but it was not till 1888 that the first L. M. S. missionary commenced work there. That pioneer was Rev. Wallace Wilson, who was accompanied by a devoted native evangelist from Hankow named Mr. Wang. These two pioneers established daily street chapel preaching, and began a small boys’ school. In two years’ time Dr. Davenport came and began medical mission work. All was essentially pioneer work up to 1895. From 1895 to 1901 another stage in the de- velopment of the mission was reached. The staff was increased by three more workers, Rev. Messrs. Owen and Claxton, and Dr. Wolfen- dale. The native church grew from some eight members to eighty or ninety. Three out-stations were opened, Mutung, Fuchow and Tantzeshih. A substantial brick hospital was built at a cost of seven thousand taels. A girls’ school was commenced by Mrs. Claxton and Mrs. Owen. A third stage in the progress of the mission was reached in the years 1901 to 1909. The liberality of a single church in England, which gave two hundred and twenty guineas, equal to 150 GLIMPSES OF SZECHWAN— OUR WEST CHINA MISSION FIELD. Kiatingfu, West Gate. Chengtu, Great East Street. Tzeliutsing, river and idol temple, A village street, sedan chairs emerging. ■J -t Chungking and Our New Territory eleven hundred dollars in gold, annually for five years “ to capture walled cities,” enabled the mission to increase its out-stations from three to twelve. A scheme for the training of evange- lists was carried into effect. A new church was built, on a commanding site, and of handsome proportions, at a cost of between five and six hundred taels, one hundred of which were given by the native Christians, and the rest by private friends of the missionaries. The staff was in- creased by the coming of Rev. John Parker, and for five years Dr. Wolfendale’s place was taken by Dr. Kirkwood. Mr. Claxton’s summing up of the situation, as respects the territory and the prospects of the mission at the time of transfer, is best given in his own graphic words: “ Now let me try and describe in a few words Mr.ciaxton’s estimate of what we are transferring to you. With the help the -work as . transferred, of two maps, one of the province, and the other of the territory assigned to the L. M. S., you will see that we have* three hsiens, two chows, and one ting already opened, while three more hsiens and another chow remain unopened. Chang- showhsien and Fengtuhsien on the river, and Nanchwanhsien two days south of the river, all have small organized churches, and two of them have schools. Fuchow, Chungchow, and Shih- chuting make up the number of cities we were commissioned by the Reigate Church to capture. Then we have opened some smaller stations. Our Share in China branches of the county stems. Two of these are markets of the Fuchow county, Hsinmiao and Lochiamiao, each more than a hundred li from the city; Swanglungchang, 40 li from Chang- show; and Pashansi, 140 li from Chungchow. To open up in these smaller places was the only way to give systematic teaching to the Christians. Its extent and It is asking a great deal to require members and importance. , . , , , . , probationers to travel constantly to and fro such long distances. From Pashansi to Chungchow means a day and a half’s journey each way cross- ing two high ranges. In the smaller places houses are given or rent is found by the local Christians. We have helped the members in the six cities with their rent. In Mutung and Chung- king the premises are owned by the mission. While on this point of helping with rents let me refer to the visit paid by Dr. Kilborn to several of our stations last spring. We went together to Mutung, Nanchwan, Changshow, Fuchow, Fengtu, and Chungchow. I was particularly anxious to show him the rented premises at Chungchow. We pay a heavy rent there of sixty taels a year, of which the Christians find thirty. Dr. Kilborn, as I expected, liked the premises. The Christians had for some time wanted to give them up and purchase smaller, so as to have no rent to pay. To induce them not to give up such suitable premises, and in the hope that your mission would send some workers there soon who would be glad to use them at 152 Chungking and Our New Territory least for a time, Dr. Kilborn contributed fifteen taels towards the thirty tael share due from the Christians, leaving them only fifteen to raise. In Chungchow I think we have the most satis- factory company of Christians we have any- where, excepting Chungking, the mother church. >1? 5i< >1^ ^ “ From a nineteen years’ experience of Chung- finer field king as a field of missionary work, and with slight acquaintance with other fields, I can say with fullest confidence that I do not believe there ^ is a finer field in West China I will make bold to say that I do not believe the strategic opportunity even in Chengtu surpasses that of Chungking. If the Apostle Paul were here now and had to make choice of where he would preach the Gospel, I really wonder whether he would choose Chengtu, or whether he would choose Chungking as a strategic centre from which, if you once plant the Gospel, it will spread the quicker.” In speaking of the medical side of the work, The medical Dr. Wolfendale mentioned that it was twenty- one years since Dr. Davenport had started it. It had been three years interrupted when he him- self had come on the field, and the foreign hos- pital, which he had at once made up his mind to build, had been now steadily doing its work since it was opened by the British Consul and the chief magistrate of Chungking in 1899, Last year there had been over three hundred and forty 153 Our Share in China Dr. Wolten- dale tells of the oppottun ity and need of more doc- tors and nurses. in-patients, and over twelve hundred out-patients. “ Medical work,” said Dr. Wolfendale, “ has altogether changed from what it was twelve years ago. It was difficult to get even a serious case in hospital then, but now they come and bring their sick ones, and put them at the front door, seeking admittance, and wait about until they are restored. So if we were well manned we could do double the work we are doing at the present time. There is great need for a competent nurse in those wards ; there is great need for a second doctor to come and help me in this institution. We could fill seventy or eighty beds upstairs and downstairs. Not only that, we have a ward for foreigners. ... As to hospital staff, we have three young men who are learning medicine. They not only know how to change dressings, but also are learning the ele- ments of anatomy and surgery with a view to coming up to the medical section of the Union University. There is room for two doctors, two nurses, and from fifteen to twenty Chinese nurses. We are in the habit of going across the river to dispense. The assistants go across in the afternoons and return in the evening. For ten or eleven years we have been carrying on this sort of medical work in the suburban station, Tantzeshih. Our city dispensary is open every day — Sundays excepted; we find the mornings the best time, and all operations are done in the very early morning or the afternoons and even- 154 Chungking and Our New Territory ings. In the summer months we still keep the dispensary open For teaching patients the truth, we have hospital prayers, led by the stu- dents, and we have Sunday morning services. Those who can do so attend the regular Sunday and Wednesday services. ... Not only should this central station be manned, but we need to have doctors and nurses in those beautiful walled cities that have been spoken of — Fuchow, Chung- chow, Tanchuan, Changshow, Fengtu — five at once ought to be manned.” At the Council the Revs. E. J. Carson, B.A., and E. W. Wallace, B.A., with D. M. Perley, B.A., as language student, were appointed to Chungking, the first to engage in the evangelistic department of the work, the second to commence a more direct and organized educational depart- ment than had before been practicable. All proceeded to their new field at the close of the Council, but not many weeks had elapsed before the accomplished, devoted and heroic Carson was called to higher service. Seized by typhus fever before he had completed his second round of the out-stations, he succumbed to the terrible malady Death of Rev. r 1 • r -11 1 • ,E.J. Carson, after a brief illness, leaving a young wife and two little children to mourn their irreparable loss, a band of affectionate colleagues to be startled and saddened at the unexpected taking off of one of their strongest and brightest, and a whole Church to deplore a gap in the ranks of 155 Our Share in China its foreign workers that will not be filled for many a long day. Maxtyr Already, as in the case of Chengtu, the entry of our mission into Chungking has been marked by sudden and unexpected death. Cordelia Stewart, the fair young bride, died there in January on her way up river, and Egbert Carson died there in June. Both were martyrs for Christ and China, as truly as though their blood had been shed by murderous hands. And, as the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church, we may surely look forward to glorious harvest from a field sown so early with such precious lives laid down for Christ and His com- ing Kingdom in West China. strategic The Strategic value of Chungking to our mis- value of . ^ , , • , Chungking sion cannot possibly be overestimated. The and Its terri- . . ^ tory. city is, as has been said, one of the great ports of China. Its trade is already enormous, and it is capable of almost illimitable expansion. What its development must be in the future when the immense resources of the three great Western provinces are opened up can hardly be imagined. And the three hundred miles of Mission territory bordering the Yangtse eastward includes cities of much importance, bound to develop to still greater importance as that great waterway, in its upper course, is opened up to steam naviga- tion. From Chungchow, little more than a week’s houseboat journey from the western ex- tremity of the Gorges, to Chengtu, almost within 156 Chungking and Our New Territory the shadows of the Tibetan mountains, our mis- sion stations now stretch along the Yangtse and the Min, with comparatively short intervals be- tween them, and our Mission territory, old and new, embraces a large area of the fairest and most fertile sections of the Empire Province. It is a heritage for which we should feel pro- foundly grateful. It is a responsibility for which we should seek with humble yet confident hearts the Divine guidance and the Divine grace. Ten millions of souls are committed to us to evangel- ize, to educate, to heal, to lead into the light of Christian civilization. * Did Almighty God ever honor a Church more than He has honored our Canadian Methodist Church in putting upon it so weighty a responsibility, in placing before it so vast and promising a field to be cultivated for His glory? Let us be obedient and alert to our high calling. Let us rejoice to fulfil it with our best in men and in means for the uplift of China and the salvation, in every sense of that word, of its splendid people. The Yangtse between Chungchow and Chung- a Gospel ship 1 ^ fortheYang- king, and the Yangtse land the Min, be- tse needed. tween Chungking and Chengtu, have an enor- mous riparian and floating population. Cities, towns, and villages crowd the banks of both these rivers, and junks are constantly passing to and fro with large crews. Szechwan, indeed, is stated to possess no less than ten thousand junks and two hundred thousand boatmen, and 157 Our Share in China a very large proportion of these do business on the Yangste and the Min. A more splendid field for a Gospel ship could not be found, or one more needy or surer to bear rich results. It is to be hoped that our Mission will soon have such a ship, a Fu Yin Chuan, plying regularly on these crowded and historic waters of China's ancient rivers, and bringing the Gospel message to thou- sands that otherwise will never have the chance to hear it. Who will have the joy of putting her there? 158 THE PROGRAMME OF THE CHURCH Give of thy sons to hear the message glorious, Give of thy wealth to speed them on their way, Pour out thy sold for them in prayer victorious, And all thou spendest Jesus will repay. He comes again — 0 Zion, ere thou meet Him, Make known to every heart His saving grace: Let none whom He hath ransomed fail to greet Him, Through thy neglect unht to see His facej* CHAPTER IX, THE PROGRAMME OF THE CHURCH. “The missionary idea — what is it but the Incarnation? The missionary idea — what is it but the Atonement? The missionary idea — what is it but the Ascension? The missionary idea — what is it but the risen Lord, seated upon His throne, expectant, till His enemies shall have become His footstool, waiting until the kingdoms of this world all become the Kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ .” — Bishop Hendrix. We have accepted responsibility for the evangelization of ten millions of people in Szechwan province within the next generation. These ten millions, and many more, are compre- hended within the limits of the magnificent mis- sionary territory which, in the providence and by the grace of God, has been given over to our Church as our share in China. So far it has been the object of this book to give its readers as clear and distinct an outline as possible in the space at command of the nature, extent and resources of the great pro- vince in which our responsibility lies, of the centres and stations in which our work is being done, of the history and development of that work from its inception, and of the present operations which are being carried on by our faithful workers in the field. The history of our Mission in West China has been from the beginning a history of most i6i We are re- sponsible for ten millions of people. 11 Our Share in China ou^success gratifying success. Our pioneers did splendid start. service, and laid the foundations for solid and comprehensive work. All the departments of a broad-based and well-organized mission are to be found in genuine, practical, if necessarily crude and limited, form in their very earliest plans and efforts. Few in numbers and cramped in resources, they toiled not merely with zeal, but with sagacity; not merely with devotion to present duty, but with open eye to the possibili- ties of the future. Rapid devei- But neither they nor the Church at home could MisSon.^^ for a moment have anticipated the marvellous developments which, in the good providence of God, were, even in the immediate future, ahead of the West China Mission. Four years ago we had only thirteen workers in Szechwan. To- day we have sixty-one. Four years ago we were necessarily confined in our operations to a dis- tressingly limited area of the sphere of responsi- bility originally allotted to us. To-day we are laying plans not only for measurably compassing its adequate cultivation, but for compassing also the adequate cultivation of an additional terri- tory, if not equally large, perhaps equally im- portant, needy and strategic. The most striking phenomenon in the history of the Church of Jesus Christ in the beginning of the twentieth century is what may fairly be called the Missionary Revival. Never before was the horizon of the Church so widened, its 162 The Programme of the Church conscience so aroused as to its obligation to the heathen, or its enthusiasm and liberality so thoroughly evoked to bring about as speedily as possible the evangelization of the whole world. Revolution has followed revival, and history in the matter of missionary knowledge, missionary interest, and missionary enterprise is being rapidly made to-day. The whole attitude of the Church towards the question of world evangeliza- tion has been changed, and an aggressive policy is everywhere acknowledged, and wherever pos- sible acted on, as the duty of the hour. Our Canadian Methodist Church felt and re- sponded to the first impulses of what has now become a world-wide movement. Nowhere in her history has the hand of God been more evi- dent than in the way in which she has been led to take large advance steps in the consolidation and extension of her foreign mission work, par- ticularly that largest part of it, the work in West China. Having regard to the vastness of the opportunity, the immensity of the need, and the rapidity with which the psychological moment is passing, it is matter for the deepest gratitude that we have been so markedly led to attempt great things for God in China and to expect great things from Him. Certainly we have reason to be grateful for our splendid field. There is not a missionary society in the world that has a field more in- teresting, more important, more strategic, or 163 The mission- ary revival. Our Church's participation in the world- wide mission- ary impulse. Our splendid field. Our Share in China more promising. West China includes the three provinces of Szechwan, Yunnan and Kweichow, with estimated populations of 6o,ooo,cxx), 12,- 000,000, and 8,000,000 respectively, an aggregate of 80,000,000. Some estimates give higher figures, some lower. Nine missionary societies work in these provinces, with a total force of 400 workers, including missionaries and their wives. Each missionary, male and female, has, at the above estimate, a parish of 200,000 souls. Our original centre, the ancient and famous city of Chengtu, links us to Tibet, that exclusive and mysterious land which to-day is practically the one region of earth’s surface from which the missionary is shut out. But that exclusiveness must pass, and we shall be near to the door when it finally opens. It links us also to the great province of Yunnan, with its opening railways, its border on British Burma and India, its turbulent Mohammedans and its open-minded hill tribes. Our new twin centre, the great com- mercial city of Chungking, links us with the pro- vince of Kweichow, to which it is the natural gateway, and links us with the mighty Yangtse River, its teeming littoral, its chain of trading cities west of the Gorges, and its wide highway of waters down to the Yellow Sea. Truly a glorious heritage of responsibility, opportunity and privilege is ours in West China to-day. The General Conference which met in Victoria, B.C., in the summer of 1910, put forth a pro- 164 The Programme of the Church gramme commensurate with the great enterprise. Here it is : “ We believe that the time has come when the Methodist Church should definitely accept herU|““®^j full share of the responsibility for the evangeliza- 0° tion of the world. In the fields already occupied by us in Japan and China and for the evangeliza- tion of which we -at present are solely respon- sible, there are fourteen millions of non- Christian people. We accept this as our present responsibility, and hereby call up- on our Church to provide the missionaries and the means of support for them and their work. Inasmuch as the missionary work in China and Japan involves a large expenditure of money for Mission plant, such as missionaries’ houses, churches, schools, dormitories, hospitals and orphanages, which cannot at present be sufficiently provided out of the General Mission- ary Fund, we commend the action of the General Board of Missions in authorizing the secretaries to make canvass for special donations towards these objects, without interfering with the General Fund; and we appeal to our people, especially to those of larger means, to do all within their power to provide the necessary Mission plant for carrying on this and other Mission work, as well as the funds for missionary maintenance at home and abroad. “ In view of the urgency and magnitude of our missionary responsibility, and in view of the 165 Our Share in China insufficiency of present missionary contributions to meet the current demands of the work, we recommend that our Church adopt a financial objective for her missionary support commensu- rate with the responsibilities which she has as- sumed. It is estimated that it will require a missionary income of one and a 'half million dollars annually to provide adequately for a fully-equipped Mission work in home and foreign fields. We, therefore, ask our people to make their contributions to the Mission funds of our Church with this ideal in view, so that districts and circuits assume their full share of this finan- cial responsibility.” aries’chai- In the autumn of 1907, m response to a lenge accept- from the General Board, the China Mis- sion Council met together and in answer to specific questions drew up an estimate of work to be done and of plant and workers needed for the doing of it, which was sent to Canada, widely circulated among our people, and included in the first edition of this book under the heading “ The Missionaries’ Challenge to the Home Church.” There is no longer need for that chapter. The Church has responded, and here are the details of the programme as mapped out by the mission- ary authorities. Our Church has accepted responsibility for the evangelization of ten millions in West China. Our Mission work there is divided into four departments, namely, evangelistic, educational, 166 The Programme of the Church medical and press work. To provide one mission- Thespian pro- ary of any department to every 50,000 people we should require a force of two hundred mission- aries. We have now sixty-one. Our plan is to send seventy-five additional missionaries within the next five years, an average of fifteen every year. Of course the chief difficulty will be the raising of money to purchase the plant required for the proper carrying on of our work. This it will not be possible to do by the yearly income of the Mis- sionary Society, now taxed to its last cent to provide for the salaries of the force at home and abroad. The business and professional men of our churches in this great and prosperous Canada, where wealth is increasing with phenomenal rapidity, have it well within their power to do all, and more than all, that is or can be required. And the appeal is to them, the obligation and the privilege are laid upon their conscience and their heart. That conviction found expression in the pro- Committee of nouncement of the General Conference previously solve to raise . 1 • • 1 . T. r 1 , a million and quoted m this chapter. It found more practical a half of doi- - . , lars for plant, expression m a meeting of representative laymen of our Church from the Atlantic to the Pacific, assembled at Toronto in December, 1910. At that gathering the Church’s programme was not only heartily endorsed, but a resolution was car- ried to raise the noble sum of one million and a half of dollars outside of and in addition to the 167 Our Share in China Mr. Shore’s statement of the needs of West China. The Mission Plant and Ex- tension Fund. regular givings to the Missionary Fund, among the wealthier laymen of our Church all over the Dominion and Newfoundland, to provide the required plant at home and abroad and clear the way for fully efficient work in every direction. The General Secretary of the Foreign Depart- ment, Rev. T- E. Egerton Shore, after carefully going over the situation in China and discussing the needs with the missionaries on the field, pre- pared a statement of the Mission Plant require- ments in West China, which was presented to the General Conference at Victoria, B.C. These requirements totalled $962,000, distributed as follows : Missionaries’ houses $336,600 Churches, chapels, etc 252,400 Educational institutions 213,000 Mission hospitals 110,000 Miscellaneous 50,000 It is not to be understood that this amount would provide adequately for the ultimate needs in mission buildings and equipment for the West China field, but it is an estimate of the pros- pective needs of the next five years. In order, however, to bring the Mission Plant require- ments within the compass of the combined scheme for Home and Foreign expansion, this statement was revised and reduced by the General Secretary and endorsed by the Special Com- mittee appointed by the Mission Board, which inaugurated the “Mission Plant and Extension Fund.” 168 The Programme of the Church ESTIMATE OF REQUIRED MISSION PLANT IN WEST CHINA. Arranged Under Classes oe Institutions. (1) Missionaries' Houses. Estimated cost of site, building and com- pound wall, $2,500 to $3,300, according to location. There are now twenty-six per- manent mission houses built. Houses required for Married Missionaries now on the field, 20, at average of $3,000 .... $60,000 00 Houses for 40 additional Mis- sionaries out of seventy-five to be sent within five years . . 122,000 00 Total for Missionaries’ Houses within five years $182,000 00 (2) Churches, Chapels, Preaching Halls, etc. Chengtu — Sutherland Memorial Church $15,000 00 Chengtu — 10 Preaching Halls, at $1,500 (sites and halls) . . 15,000 00 Chengtu District — 10 Out- station Chapels, at $250 2,500 00 Penghsien — Church (building and wall) 2,200 00 Penghsien — 2 District City Churches, at $2,500 (sites, buildings and walls) ....... 5,000 00 169 Our Share in China Penghsien District — 20 Out- station Chapels, at $250 5, 000 00 Pihsien — Church (site, building and wall) 5, 000 00 Pihsien — 2 District City Churches, at $2,500 $5, 000 00 Pihsien District — ^20 Outstation Chapels, at $250 $5,000 00 Jenshow District — 2 Substation Churches, at $2,500 (sites, buildings and walls) 5, 000 00 Jenshow District — ^40 Outsta- tion Chapels, at $150 6,000 00 Kiating — 2 Preaching Halls, at $1,000 2,000 00 Kiating — 5 Street Chapels, at $500 2,500 00 Kiating District — 10 Outstation Chapels, at $300 3,000 00 Tsingyuan — Church (site, build- ing and wall) 3,000 00 Tsingyuan District — 10 Out- station Chapels, at $300 .... 3,000 00 Junghsien — 5 Street Chapels, at $500 2,500 00 Junghsien District — 20 Out- station Chapels, at $300 .... 6,000 00 Weiyuan — Church (site, build- ing and wall) 2,500 00 Weiyuan District — 10 Outsta- tion Chapels, at $250 2,500 00 170 CANADIAN METHODIST MISSION HOUSES, WEST CHINA. The Programme of the Church Tzeliutsing — 5 Preaching Halls, at $1,000 5,000 00 Tzeliutsing District — 2 Sub- station Churches, at $3,000 (sites, buildings and walls) . . 6,000 00 Tzeliutsing District — 40 Out- station Chapels, at $250 10,000 00 Luchow — 5 Preaching Plalls, at $1,500 7,500 00 Luchow District — 20 Outsta- tion Chapels, at $250 5,ooo 00 Chungking — 10 Preaching Halls, at $1,500 15,000 00 Chungking District — 10 Out- station Chapels, at $300 .... 3,000 00 Changsheo — Church (site, build- ing and wall) 4,000 00 Changsheo — 2 Preaching Halls, at $1,000 2,000 00 Changsheo District — 20 Out- station Chapels, at $300 .... 6,000 00 Fuchow — Church (site, building and wall) 4,000 00 Fuchow — 5 Preaching Halls, at $1,000 5,000 00 Fuchow District — 40 Outstation Chapels, at $300 12,000 00 Lanchuan — Church (site, build- and wall 3, 000 00 Lanchuan District — 20 Out- station Chapels, at $300 .... 6,000 00 Our Share in China Fengtu — Church (site, building and wall) 3,ooo oo Fengtu District — 20 Outstation Chapels, at $300 6,000 00 Chungchow — Church (site, building and wall) 4,000 00 Chungchow District — 30 Out- station Chapels, at $300 9,000 00 Northwest Hill Tribes — Church and School 2,000 00 Northwest Hill Tribes — Out- station Chapels 1,000 00 Total for Churches, Chapels, Preaching Halls, etc $214,200 00 (3) Educational Institutions. Chengtu — ^West China Union University, contribution to- wards Central Buildings, in- cluding Medical College, Science and Engineering Halls, Eibrary and Convoca- tion Hall $50,000 00 Chengtu — School for Mission- aries' Children (the unpro* vided balance) 4,000 00 Chengtu — ^Middle School and Dormitory 10,000 00 Chengtu — Primary School .... 3,000 00 Penghsien — School and Dormi- tory 3,000 00 172 The Programme of the Church Pi'hsien — School and Dormitory 3,000 00 Jenshow — School and Dormi- tory 3,000 00 Kiating — School and Dormitory 3,000 00 Tsingyuan — School and Dormi- tory 3,000 00 Weiyuan — School and Dormi- tory 3,000 00 Tzeliutsing — Middle School and Dormitory 10,000 00 •T zeliutsing — 2 Substation Schools 6,000 00 Luchow — School and Dormi- tory . . 4,000 00 Chungking — Middle School and Dormitory 10,000 00 Chungking — Primary School . . 4,300 00 Changsheo — School and Dormi- tory 3,000 00 Fuchow — School and Dormitory 4,000 00 Lanchuan — School and Dormi- tory 3,000 00 Fengtu — School and Dormitory 3,000 00 Chungchow — ^School and Dor- mitory 3,000 00 Total for Educational In- stitutions $135,300 00 (4) Mission Hospitals. Penghsien $7, 500 00 173 Our Share in China Jenshow (the unprovided bal- ance) 5,000 oo Junghsien (the unprovided balance) 5,ooo oo Kiating 10,000 00 Tzeliutsing 25,000 00 Luchow 10,000 00 Changsheio 7, 500 00 Fuchow 10,000 00 Ijanchuan 7, 500 00 Fengtu 7,500 00 Chungchow 10,000 00 Total for Mission Hospitals. .$105,000 00 (5) Miscellaneous. Mission Press at Chungking . . $10,000 00 Missionaries’ Home at Toronto 40,000 00 Total Missionary Property.. $50,00000 Recapitulation. Missionaries’ Houses $182,000 00 Churches, Chapels, Preaching Halls, etc 214,200 00 Educational Institutions 135,300 00 Mission Hospitals 105,000 00 Miscellaneous Plant 50,000 00 Total $686,500 00 174 The Programme of the Church MISSIONARY FORCE REQUIRED IN WEST CHINA WITHIN FIVE YEARS. The following estimate of the required mission- any force for West China applies only to the pressing needs of the next five years, and does not attempt to forecast the requirements beyond that date: Chengtu City, Evangelistic — One for the Central Church and another for special Y. M. C. A. Mission Work 2 Educational — Theological 3 Arts College 3 Medical College 2 Middle School 2 Primary School i II Medical — Hospital Doctors 2 Nurses 2 Dentist i Pharmacist i 6 Mission Press 3 Literary Work i School for Missionaries’ Children 2 6 Total for Chengtu City 25 175 Our Share in China Chengtu District, Evangelistic 2 Penghsien District. Evangelistic 2 Educational i Medical i Nurse i (Eotal for Penghsien District 5 Pihsien District. Evangelistic 2 Educational i Total for Pihsien District 3 Jenshow District. Evangelistic 6 Educational 2 Medical i Nurse i Total for Jenshow District 10 Kiating District. Evangelistic 2 Educational 2 Medical i Nurse I Total for Kiating District 6 Junghsien District. Evangelistic 4 Educational 2 176 The Programme of the Church Medical i Nurse i Total for Junghsien District 8 Weiyuan District, Evangelistic 2 Educational i Total for Weiyuan District 3 Tzelkitsing District, Evangelistic 6 Educational 3 Medical 2 Nurses 2 Total for Tzeliutsing Disitrict . . . . 13 Luchow District. Evangelistic Educational Medical i Nurse i Total for Luchow District 8 Chungking City and District. Evangelistic 2 Educational 2 Medical 2 Nurse i Total for Chungking 7 177 12 to Our Share in China Changshow District. Evangelistic 3 Educational i Medical i Nurse i Total for Changshow 8 Fuchow District. Evangelistic 6 Educational 2 Medical i Nurse i Total for Euchow District 10 Nanchwan District. Evangelistic 2 Educational i Medical i Total for Nanchwan District 4 Fengtu District. Evangelistic 3 Educational i Medical i Nurse i Total for Fengtu District 6 Chung chow District. Evangelistic 4 Educational 2 178 The Programme of the Church Medical i Nurse i Total for Chungchow 8 Recapitulation — Missionary Force. Chengtu City 25 Chengtu District 2 Penghsien District 5 Pihsien District 3 Jenshow District 10 Kiating District 6 Tsingyuan District 3 Junghsien District 8 Weiyuan District 3 Tzeliutsing District 13 Luchow District 8 Chungking City and District 7 Ch'angshow District 6 Fuchow District . . . 10 Nanchwan District 4 Fengtu District 6 Chungchow District 8 Total Force within five years ...... 127 Present Missionary Force 61 Additional Force Required 66 This, then, is the programme of our Church for the next five years. It is comprehensive, it is wide-visioned, it is measurably adequate. 179 Our Share in China Those to whom this volume ap- peals, and t: point of its appeal. And it is easily within reach of our possibilities. Already a splendid beginning has been made in the establishment of the special fund of a million and a half of dollars for missionary plant. Already the wealthy men of our Church in our chief centres are contributing large sums toward it. The scheme appeals to the judgment of men used to great enterprises and the investment of adequate capital to make them successful. This volume has in view a large constituency. , It addresses the members of the Laymen’s Mis- sionary Movement, many of whom will doubt- less contribute liberally to this capital fund, and all of whom are by the very fact of their being identified with the great Movement looked to not only to promote it, but to stimulate and in- crease from year to year the general contribu- tions to the Missionary Society’s income. It addresses the Woman’s Missionary Society, which works so harmoniously with the General Board in the development and extension of mis- sion work in China, and whose agencies and agents are doing so great and indispensable a work among the girls and women of the Middle Kingdom. It addresses the young people of our church — the young men and women in the Ep worth Leagues, the boys and girls in the Sab- bath Schools — who have done such wonderful things already in the promotion of mission work, and who by God’s grace are planning to do so much more. It addresses, in short, the whole i8o The Programme of the Church Canadian Methodist Church, every member of which is by that fact a member of the Mission- ary Society, and it appeals in the name of Christ and of China for the help which is needed, and needed increasingly with every fresh success and extension, for the carrying out of the Great Commission, and the compassing of the Great Opportunity. Be it ours to help saturate with the spirit of Christianity the advancing civiliza- tion of China. Be it ours to study and pray and give to bring about the Great Consum- mation, when the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our Lord, and every man, every- where, shall hear the Good News and have op- portunity to accept it for himself. Let us aid it all we can — Every woman, every man — The good time coming; Smallest helps, if rightly given, Make the impulse stronger, ’Twill be strong enough one day. Wait a little longer. i8i I MAKING HISTORY IN WEST CHINA “ When you have travelled those twenty days westward through the mountains, as I have told you, then you arrive at a plain belonging to a province called Sindafu, which still is on the confines of Manzi, and the capital city of which is also called Sindafu. This city was in former days a rich and noble one .” — Marco Polo^ circ 1283, “ When the imperial province of Szechwan is joined by rail and steamboat to the rest of China, and likewise with the vast almost unpenetrated regions beyond, there will be a new world for the whole Empire .” — Arthur H. Smithy igro. CHAPTER X. MAKING HISTORY IN WEST CHINA. “ Szechwan is, par excellence^ the banner province for mission educational enterprise.” — E. J. Carson. In our West China Mission much water has The west , , , . , . , . • n , China Blission- gone under the bridge since the writer, its hrst ary conier- visitor from Canada, set foot in the ancient city and its key- of Chengtu, on the 24th of January^ 1908. That was on the eve of the decennial West China Missionary Conference, the sessions of which marked an epoch in mission work throughout the three western provinces, and paved the way for still further and still more rapid advance. One hundred and seventy delegates met for a week in daily session in the splendid new hos- pital of the Methodist Episcopal Mission, and the Viceroy himself appeared upon the plat- form and spoke words of welcome and con- gratulation. It was hard to realize that less than thirteen years before every missionary had been driven out of the city, and every mission building completely demolished. The keynote of that great meeting was union; its ideal, “ One Protestant Christian Church for West China.” Already the Advisory Board and the Educational Union had brought all the 185 Our Share in China Union in Mis- sion work in Szechwan. Missions together, while four of them had come into the plan of even closer union in higher educational work. And to-day that ideal domin- ates the thought and markedly influences the relationships of the missionaries of West China. It has found practical shape in the Union Christian University; it has led to proposals for the saving of men and money and the provision of better plant and equipment and maintenance in hospital work by co-operation, and concen- tration where possible among all Missions specially interested therein. Indeed, West China has set the pace for all the rest of China in the sincerity, the sanity and the scope of its union in missionary work. And surely, when the stupendous nature of the task is consid- ered — the appalling though inert opposition pre- sented by the solid ranks of heathenism, the dire need of spiritual enlightenment among the millions it holds down in darkness and degra- dation — the utmost practicable union of all forces in the field becomes everywhere an im- perative duty. The more speedily the ideal be- comes realized, the more speedily will the con- summation be reached for which all loyal fol- lowers of the Master pray and labor, and His Kingdom come, indeed, in the great and ancient Empire of China. In our Mission the keynote of progress had been struck in 1906 when the first large party of reinforcements, numbering fifteen, gladdened the 186 Making History in West China hearts of the few workers then on the field ; The Mission Council of and the party which the writer accompanied, the fifteen who landed in Shanghai on the I2th of November, 1907, was represented by its ad- vance guard at the Council of February, 1908. It was at once a pleasure and a revelation to attend that Council — a pleasure to meet the men who were representing our Church in West China, a revelation to note the sagacity, the en- thusiasm, the consecration and the breadth of outlook so manifestly in evidence. It was the second meeting within twelve months, for, in the autumn, by request of the General Board, the Council had met and formulated that com- prehensive and courageous challenge to the Home Church, which appeared in the first edi- tion of this book, and to which the Home Church responded by the splendid programme for mission work in West China printed in this volume. In 1909 the Rev. T. E. Egerton Shore, then As- sociate Secretary of our Foreign Mission Depart- shore, ment, visited the West China Missions and was present at the Counoil. For the first time in its history the Mission bad in its far-away field the benefit of the personal observation and in- formation gained on the spot by an officer of the Board. The result was marked, and the interest in West China and its Mission, already growing apace in the Home Church, received considerable impetus. The report of Mr. Shore, 187 Our Share in China Advance along after his return, was statesmanlike in its grasp Stll HUGS QG~ termined by of the salient facts of the situation, and in its proposals for an adequate advance on all lines of missionary endeavor. The General Board, the year previously, had granted the prayer of the Council for the allocation of fifty thousand dollars of Mr. Jairus Hart’s bequest for a col- lege at Chengtu and had sympathetically con- sidered the missionaries’ challenge; the General Board of 1909 listened with enthusiasm to the statements and proposals of Mr. Shore, and set itself determinately to plan and provide for such an advance as the greatness of the oppor- tunity demanded. The negotiations which had been in progress with the London Missionary Society, with a view to our taking over their plant and territory in West China, were finally ratified. The scheme for the Union Christian University in Chengtu had already received practical endorsement, and was now advanced towards comprehensive finalization. Arrange- ments were made for careful and up-to-date legislation on all missionary matters by the Gen- eral Conference to meet in the succeeding autumn. West China missions, especially, bulked as they had never bulked before in the estima- tion, the consideration, and the appropriations of the General Board. The phenomenally rapid rise and development of the Laymen’s Missionary Movement, and, in particular, the great Canadian National Con- 188 OUR WEST CHINA MISSIONARIES. Making History in West China gress of the Movement in the spring of had much to do with the wave of popular en- Movement, thusiasm on missionary lines which swept over the country, and led to large and still growing liberality on the part of all the Churches. In that Movement, our Church was from the very be- ginning deeply and prominently interested, and our missionary funds have reaped correspond- ingly large benefit. When the General Confer- ence met in Victoria in the autumn of 1910, it met under the full influence of that Movement, as well as under the immediate inspiration of the great Edinburgh Missionary Conference of the preceding June — the world’s high-water mark of missionary statesmanship, union and consecration — perhaps the most strategic and significant meeting ever held for the advance- ment of Christ’s Kingdom among the nations. It was natural to expect that in such an at- mosphere missions would have right of way. And they did. The legislation of the General Conference of 1910 set forward the cause of missions, at home and abroad, in a way that was w’orthy of the highest court ^ of our Church. Our foreign field received special attention, and, as has been already noted, the splendid programme for consolidation and extension of our work in West China had in that Conference its inception. Not only so, but there grew to fruition the conviction that to adequately provide the plant and equipment for the foreign field, 189 Our Share in China an extraordinary effort must be made — an ap- peal to men of large means to establish a special fund, apart from and in addition to the ordinary contributions to the Missionary Society. Then came arrangements for a meeting of represen- tative laymen from all over the Dominion to take the whole subject into consideration and devise means for meeting the situation and pro- viding for its needs and opportunities. At that meeting of representative laymen, which assem- bled in Toronto in December, 1910, it was de- cided, as has been said, to raise one million and a half of dollars, a large proportion of which was for plant and equipment for the West China Mission. tor? China, Thus then we have, as a Church, been making and In Canada. China — and in Canada. Our share in China has doubled in extent, in population, in opportunity and in promise since this book re- ceived its title and made its first appearance in the autumn of 1909. Our sense of obligation and of privilege in the home Church, if it has not increased in like proportion, has at least de- veloped wonderfully; and it is daily growing in knowledge, intensity and practical outcome. We know a great deal more about China than we did then ; we pray for her with petitions that are more fully up-to-date; and our interest and lib- erality are in proportion to our knowledge and our prayers. As we know more, we shall have still profounder and more practical interest, we 190 Making History in West China shall pray with more intelligence and fervency, and we shall give with greater joy and greater self-sacrifice, in amounts beyond our present thought of duty or of ability. In our magnificent field of mission work in West China, our devoted and sagacious repre- sentatives are making history so rapidly that a book that professed to give minute details would be obsolete before it issued from the press. The utmost that can be done is to present the broad outlines, and to note the salient features as they develop. We are making history, but better still, God is using us for His great purposes in leading Chinese Christians to make their own and their country’s history in the days that are approaching. The salient facts that mark the progress of years* ^ ° progress— the our Mission during the last five years are these : cMet steps. First, the steady stream of reinforcements. Five years ago we had thirteen missionaries in that field, now we have over sixty. And yearly the numbers will be increased. Second, the doubling of our territory through our acceptance of the London Missionary Society’s offer. Third, the steps towards the erection of a noble Methodist college in connection with the Union Christian University. Fourth, the completion of our new hospital in Chengtu, and the decision to build hospitals in our chief centres. Fifth, the great expansion of our press work. Sixth, the speed with which the erection of suitable residences Our Share in China The Jenshow Revival, its iminense im- port and promise. for our missionaries is being pressed forward. Seventh, the establishment of Bible Schools and Conventions for the instruction of our evangel- ists and church members in the Word of God and the development of their Christian life. Eighth, the wonderful outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon our evangelists and native Christians. No single event in the history of our Mission in West China is so pregnant and significant as the Revival of Jenshow in 1909. What Pente- cost was to the early Church, that revival was to our Mission and the other missions of West China. It was the beginning of the fulness of the operations of the Holy Spirit. Like Pentecost it has spread and is still spreading; and its in- fluences are at once cumulative, pervasive and permanent. There is no one thing for which we in Canada should pray more earnestly than that this mighty power of God should permeate, should saturate, should dominate our whole work in West China. More than anything else, it is the one thing needful. And with it in full sway, all other things will come. Building without it is building without foundations ; build- ing with it and by its energy is building with God. May it continue, may it increase, may it absolutely control the whole situation at home and abroad. 192 THE WORK OF THE WOMAN’S MISSIONARY SOCIETY IN WEST CHINA 13 “ In the East, the development of the individual is not taken into consideration: the maintenance of the family as a unit is alone of importance. Therefore, the son remains under the parental roof, and continues under his father’s authority, while his bride becomes a minor subordinate, whose relations with her former home have been severed, and whose duty it is now to serve the parents of her husband. Even her selection, which we regard as a sacred and inalienable right of the individual, subject to the woman’s free decision, is in China purely a concern of the family. The parents arrange for the marriage through the medium of a professional match-maker, sometimes when the young people concerned are mere infants, and a man usually sees the face of his wife for the first time after the wedding ceremony has been performed.” — Dr. Arthur H. Smith. CHAPTER XL THE WORK OF THE WOMAN’S MISSIONARY SOCIETY IN WEST CHINA. “ The lotus . . . roots itself in rotten mud, thrusts up the spears of its leaves and blossoms through the foul and stagnant water, and lifts its spotless petals over all, holding them up, pure, stainless and fragrant, in the face of a burning and pitiless sun. So it is with the Christian life in China. Its existence there is a continuous miracle of life — of life more abundant.” — Dr. Gibson. The Woman’s Missionary Society sent its first missionary to China in 1892, but work was not commenced till 1893. The present staff numbers twenty-six, with eight under appointment. CHENGTU. Educational . — Except for the interruptions Educational • • w^ork occasioned by the riots of 1895 and 1900, educa-i 893 . tional effort has been prominent from the begin- ning. The aim of the missionaries is to develop character and to train Christian Chinese teachers, and thus duplicate their influence and efforts many times. At first native buildings were used, but in 1906-07, a large three-story brick build- ing was erected for the boarding school, also a separate dining hall and gymnasium. 195 Our Share in China The hoarding All who enter the school must unbind their schools. feet. Half of the time is devoted to Christian teaching, Catechism, Sunday School Lessons, and Life of Christ. This year the enrolment is about sixty. The day school reaches between twenty and thirty girls. Gymnasium . — This building is the first of its kind in West China. The children have always taken great pleasure in their calisthenics, but the new gymnasium, with its proper floor for march- ing, running, and gymnastic exercises, has given new vigor and interest to their school life. It also makes possible large entertainments at special seasons. At the opening exercises one of the girl speakers dwelt on the common opinion that girls are of no use, they can do nothing for their country. “ We’ll show them that we can, and will,” was her emphatic declaration. The scholastic, domestic, and physical training given in the schools is invaluable, not only to the girls themselves, but to the Church and nation. The Orphanage. — The Jennie Ford Home is in the Orphanage, same compound with the boarding school and hospital, and shelters nineteen orphans. The children attend school and are trained in domestic arts. The eldest girl, who has been the mother and si "ter of the Home, has lately married one of the evangelists; and school girls have also married native pastors, so this depart- ment is far-reaching in its influence. 196 REV. G. J. BOND AND CHILDREN OF THE JENNIE FORD ORPHANAGE, CHENGTU. The Work of W. M. S. in West China Evangelistic . — “The root of China’s redemp- a plea for tion must be in her home life,” and that only be reached by the lady evangelist or medical worker. They only may enter that inner sanctu- ary. Lately we noticed with sadness that while fifty-six men and boys were baptized there was not one woman. We cannot hope for Christian homes if the women, especially the mothers, who are so ignorant, are not given individual teach- ing. Constant visitation with numerous Bible classes brings good results. An average of four- teen, chiefly wives of evangelists, attend the daily class in the church. Two Bible-women assist, also senior pupils to some extent. Medical . — Although there had been some per- The sonal attention to occasional patients by our lady a new physician, yet the dispensary was not open till and training November 23rd, 1896. That year witnessed the Iso, 000.^° purchase of our property in Chengtu, which has since been enlarged to three and a half acres. By 1897 the native buildings had been repaired and transformed so as to serve for a hospital for women and children, and though inadequate, is still used for that purpose. Now, a new Hospi- tal and Training School for nurses has been authorized at a cost of $30,000. This Hospital and Training School will bring a new day of hope and blessing to the seven hundred and fifty thousand women of Chengtu and vicinity. Dr. Florence O’Donnell writes: “To our Hos-someof . , , , , . , . , the patients. pital comes the little slave girl, sometimes almost 197 Our Share in China murdered by ill-treatment and neglect ; the child- less wife who, with tears in her eyes, begs us to help her, as her husband is about to discard her ; the thirteen-year-old daughter-in-law, whose mother-in-law has beaten her eye out; the weak and puny child whose poor little inflamed and suppurating feet testify to the cruel practice of footbinding ; the young woman in her teens whose hollow cheeks and sunken eyes tell us that con- sumption has claimed her; the thin, emaciated wreck in the bondage of opium; and in the midst of it all the call comes to go out at once to an opium suicide. wangNean I would like to tell you the story of Wang Jean. Nean Jean. If you saw her you would say, ' What bright, sparkling eyes and what pink cheeks!’ But if you look at her closely, you will notice that she walks with a slight limp. Why? Because tuberculosis at one time held her in its terrible grip and threatened soon to claim her as a victim. She was in the hospital for a year and a half, and during her stay there bone was removed from her knee. A hand was also so diseased that one of the bones had to be re- moved entirely. While « ..us she learned to love Jesus, and, having been taught to read the Bible, she soon began to teach others. She became one of the brightest scholars in our school, and is now a nurse in training in our Chengtu Hospital. 198 OUR W. M. S. EDUCATIOiNAL WORK. ]. School at Jenshow. •I. School at CheoKtu. t- " / i- The Work of W. M. S. in West China In the Hospital and Dispensary one year The medical , . 11, missionary 7,2 Tt; patients were received. A gospel talk has a great always precedes the seeing of patients. 1 he in- to preach patients, with very few exceptions, are eager to listen and to learn the truth, and the majority give evidence, before leaving, of their sincere be- lief in God and in the Saviour. During a visit to Sinfan, one of the out-stations, the physician saw 200 patients. During the seven days Miss Brooks and a Bible-woman held women’s meet- ings for singing and prayer and Gospel teaching.” Six women physicians have been sent to this field. Four have since been married, three of them to members of the General Board. At present the Woman’s Missionary Society is re- presented in the medical department by three physicians and six nurses. kiatIng. Work in Kiating began in 1902, our ladies living in one of the vacant houses belonging to the General Board. In 1904 a property was bought and the Boarding School opened. In 1907-08 a Home for our missionaries was erected, and the old building was left for the school entirely. There are thirty-one pupils, nearly all of whom are Christians. JENSHOW. In 1906 land was bought and a Boarding An appeal for School was established having twenty-four pupils. A Home is now being built for our missionaries. 199 Our Share in China It is the purpose of the Woman’s Missionary Society to open schools and evangelistic work in every centre where our General Board leads the way, and to this end it hopes to send to China ten workers each year for the next four years. It, therefore, most earnestly appeals to the Church at large for a share in its increasing missionary givings, so that it may keep step with all other Forward Movements. In 1910 the Day School for girls in Jung- hsien, which had been started and maintained for four years by the missionaries of the General Board, was generously transferred to the care of the Woman’s Missionary Society. Two ladies have been stationed there, and a Boarding School is now contemplated. Land has also been purchased in Tzeliutsing, Luchow and Penghsien. Homes and schools will presently be erected, and Chungking will also shortly be occupied. 200 THE HILL TRIBES OF SZECHWAN “ In China to-day, if you try to find out what the conditions are in the interior, you must go to the mis- sionary, to the men who have spent their lives in the interior, far beyond the point of safety if any rising takes place, and who have learned by association with the natives in their houses, by helping them on their feet — who have learned the secret of Chinese life. . . . “Those frontier posts of civilization are so much more important than the mere numerical count of those who are converted, or those who yield allegiance to the foreign missions, seems to make them . . . “ Christianity and the spirit of Christianity is the only basis for the hope of modern civilization and the growth of popular self-government ” — President Taft. CHAPTER XII. THE HILL TRIBES OF SZECHWAN. "Jesus Christ, by His incarnation, made all men in all periods and in every land. His brothers, and all men brothers in Him.” — Haigh. A committee consisting of the Revs. Dr. Ewan, J. Neave and J. L. Stewart was appointed by the Mission Council of 1906 to visit the semi- independent tribes in the north-west of Szechwan. Dr. Ewan was, unfortunately, prevented by ill- ness from accompanying the party, but Messrs. Neave and Stewart undertook the work, and, leaving Chengtu on July 15th, 1907, penetrated a sufficient distance into the mountain fastnesses in which these fine people have their abode to form a very clear idea of the locality, the charac- ter of the people, and the prospects for mission work among them. The following is a con- densation of the report of the journey given by Mr. Neave to the Council. After expressing regret that his own illness in the course of the journey had prevented Mr. Stewart and himself from accomplishing more than half the round they purposed travelling when they started, Mr. Neave says that the committee might certainly say that they had been instrumental in having Mr. Neave and Mr . Stewart visit the hill tribes of north-west Szechwan. 203 Our Share in China The country of the hill tribes. Mr. Fergusson, the British and Foreign Bible Society agent at Chengtu, make a journey the re- sults of which undoubtedly contributed to and confirmed the conclusions at which they had arrived. Mr. Neave then proceeds: “ The country is more or less mountainous, and in some parts exceedingly so. The road, as a rule, skirts the river pretty closely, and there seem to be rivers or torrents in most of the main valleys. Occasionally the road crosses a high pass, one of which we named the ‘ Corkscrew Mountain,’ the ascent being so tortuous. The road we followed is called the ‘ Big Road,’ and, although not deserving that name, was, as far as we went, quite passable for chairs; although we understood that for the country beyond horses are more suitable. These roads we found in pretty good repair most of the way, and only once had we to make a detour on account of a wooden trestle bridge having been carried away by the torrent. As to the extent of the country, it requires about forty days to make the round trip {vide map). That is to say, it is twenty stages from Chengtu to the farthest point, Hsutsing, on this road, keeping to the highroad throughout. And this might without difficulty be shortened to eighteen days. In other words, at the average of about twenty-five miles a day, it , is, roughly, about one thousand miles in circum- ference, or five hundred miles from Chengtu to the most extreme point reached by Mr. Fergus- son. 204 KING SOH AND HIS SON, A TU SI, OR CHIEF, OF THE HILL TRIBES. The Hill Tribes of Szechwan The people in this region are generally re- one and a half 11-- M 1 millions garded as consisting of eighteen tribes, under a Tu Si or chief. These chiefs, as far as people, your committee could learn, would seem to have at one time been directly responsible to the Tibetan authorities at Lhasa ; and, although they are still more or less independent, there seems to be no doubt that China is gradually tightening her hold upon them. Besides these eighteen tribes, there are a number of what are known as Tuen Ping, or military settlements, many of whose people are half-castes, most of them speaking Chinese. We know of at least seven of these, with a population aggregating about 350,000. These Tuen or military posts are each under the jurisdiction of a Sheo-pin, or captain, who is directly responsible to the near- est Chinese district magistrate. There are also what are called the Chiang Ming, held by some to be the aboriginal inhabitants of the country, but our information is not quite clear on this point. Dr. Giles calls these an ancient tribe in Tangut, shepherd nomads of the Ouigour race, living from early times west of Szechwan and Kansuh. They seem to be all on the east side of the Sungpan River, and are under direct Chinese rule. As the result of many inquiries, we conclude that there are, roughly, about one and a half millions of people in the region of which we have spoken. ** We do not find these people on the main The people are mostlF farmers. 205 Our Share in China Chinese and Tibetan spoken. roads (indeed, they seem rather to avoid them), so much as up the side valleys, and on the higher crests and shoulders of the hills. They live in villages which look somewhat like our square blocks of houses in the home land. Be- sides these villages, or ‘ giaidzes,” as they are called by the Chinese, there are numbers of hamlets or farm-houses, dotting most of the hills and mountain-sides. Unlike their kinsmen of the prairie, or ' grass country,’ these people are mostly farmers; and great tracts of the country through which we passed were richly cultivated. Maize, or Indian corn, forms the staple crop, although various kinds of beans are also grown. Besides the farmers, numbers of the people are engaged in trade, and many mule trains are met carrying cow and yak hides, to be exchanged for tea, etc., at such centres as Dsagulao and Weichow, where the Chinese merchants have their agents. The love of these people for hunt- ing is indulged by many of them when the crops do not demand their attention. In this way deer, bear, and the ngailuh, or precipice donkey, fall a prey to the skilled marksman. ''We found that a considerable number of them could speak Chinese, and, no doubt, many could be reached by anyone speaking that language only. As to the native language, or languages, we learned that the greater part of these tribes speak the same language as the Wa Sz, which is, we strongly incline to believe. 206 The Hill Tribes of Szechwan from samples we had given in our hearing, very much akin to, if not actually, a dialect of Tibetan. We found that many of these people understood and spoke Lhasa Tibetan, more particularly those who had travelled a bit. Some two or three of the more remote tribes, we were informed, speak a language or dialect which is said to be quite different from that of the others, and unintelligible to the latter. “ The religion of these people is mainly that The^r^iigion form of Buddhism known as Lamaism, of which a form of there are at least three sects : the Established, or ‘ Yellows L the Nonconformists, or 'Reds,’ and another sect, called ‘ Black Lamas,’ who agree, apparently, with neither of the former. Each family is expected to set apart one son, by prefer- ence the eldest, as a priest, who, in due course, goes to Lhasa to one or other of the great temples there, for two or three or more years’ training in the rules and ceremonies of his order. Besides Lamaism, there is another form of wor- ship which is presumably of phallic origin. In these temples certainly considerable prominence is given to representations of the male and female generative powers. As was the case in ancient Greece and Rome, however natural may have been the analogies which led to the use of these symbols, and however ideal the conceptions intended to be conveyed by them, there is at least room for the belief that these may be associated with degrading and licentious rites. 207 Our Share in China The people friendly. Suggested centres for work. Evangelistic, Medical, and Educational work all necessary. We found the people almost invariably friendly and well-disposed towards us, and on that score no one place or locality perhaps is to be preferred before another. The main centres throughout this district of the tribes country are these: Wenchwan-hsien, Weichow, Lifan- ting, Dsagulao, Drukugi, Dampa, Hsuching, Tsunghwa, Romi-dranku, and Mungkung. We recommend that for the first station either Wenchwan or Weichow be chosen, preferably the former. Neither of these towns is more than four days’ journey from Chengtu, and the more distant can be reached in three days and a half. That is to say, they are no farther off than Kiating or Junghsien. Again, they are on the highroad to Sungpan, and from either of them one may journey in a circle which embraces Lifanting and Dsagulao, besides numbers of im- portant villages. This tour may be made within a week, and would reach a large and important section of country, and embrace a population of something like one hundred thousand people. If another station should be thought of besides either one of the above-mentioned, we would suggest either Lifanting or Dsagulao, preferably the former. As the work developed and called for it, any one of the stations mentioned above as centres could be opened. As to the sort of work, or workers, required, we feel that, since there are no schools of any kind whatever outside the lamaseries, and since 208 The Hill Tribes of Szechwan the only teachers and doctors are the lamas — their influence being very great on that account, though their knowledge of these matters is not of great value — therefore, besides evangelistic work, school and medical work should be given considerable prominence ; and a preacher, a doc- tor, and a teacher should be placed in each station opened. “ I should like to close by citing a paragraph An apprecia- from a letter from Rev. Samuel Pollard, of the tribes^b?®^^ British United Methodist Mission, Yunnan, who is working among the tribes in that province. The letter was published in the W est China Mis- sionary News. It is as follows : ‘ I have heard with great joy that some missionaries are think- ing of starting work among the Szechwan No-su (one of the terms for these western tribes). I have some friends among these people, who are magnificent specimens of humanity. The Society which wins these great Szechwan No-su tribes will gather a church of hardy, independent people. They are worthy of the best efforts of any society.’ * A full account of the trip to the western Hill Tribes, the visit to their Tu Si, “KingSoh,” and the lamasery at his giaidze, is published in the March andjDecember (190S) numbers of the “ Missionary Bulletin.” 14 209 THE NOSU COUNTRY *‘You are going to do God’s work in the place you believe God has sent you — ask Him to give you wisdom by His Holy Spirit.” — Herbert Lankester, M.D. “ I know the campaign for money cannot be dropped ; but the most urgent campaign is for men, Christian men ; out-and-out Christian men ; men like Moody, ready to say they ‘will show the world what God can do with a wholly consecrated man.’” — Rev. John Clif- ford, D.D., LL.D. “The ideal of missionary effort is not only that we may ‘tell it out among the heathen that the Lord is King,’ but, as the Psalmist says elsewhere, that ‘the kings of Arabia and Saba may bring gifts/ that they may bring back to the treasury of Christ, multiplied a thousandfold, the gifts that they have received.” — Rev. J. H. Bernard, D.D. “ Consecration is an intelligent and not a blind act. It carries with it the conception of the rational devotion of our offerings to definite ends. We commit ourselves and our goods to God just in proportion as we discern His high purposes concerning us and enter into them.” — Rev. B. B. Hoss, D.D. CHAPTER XIII. THE NOSU COUNTRY.* “ Obedience to Christ begins by giving Him supreme leadership over personal life; it ends only in sharing His plan to redeem the world .” — Bishop W. F. Mc- Dowell. In pursuance of instructions from Council, during the past summer we made a trip to the borders of the country of the Lolos (more re- spectfully called Nosus). On account of the impossibility of making direct journeys from one section to another, we were unable to visit more than a limited part of the country ; but, even thus, we were fortunate in being able to secure not a little information. The nearest point of the Nosu border is four Nearest point T^. . r- 1 1 ^ r ' Of NOSU days from Kiatmg. The first day and a half is country, over a splendid plain, after which the road, a good one for the most part, winds in and out among villages and up and down hills and moun- tains, with the lofty ‘‘ Golden Summit ” of West China’s sacred Mount Omei often in sight. The highest point reached was an elevation of about * Report of Revs.C, W. Service, M.D., and K. W. Morgan to the West China Mission Council, 1909. 213 Our Share in China Character of people. 6,000 feet. It is a delightful and most exhil- arating journey '' in the mountains.” Our destination was Obientin, a small garri- son city on the northern border of the Nosu country. It has a population of not more than two thousand, many of whom are soldiers and their families. It is not more than one mile in circumference, and has but one main street. Yet it is a walled city and is important as a military centre. Here is resident a high military official and also a civil official. The Nosus come here regularly to market, as they have no markets of their own. The location of the country will be best seen by reference to the map. Its northern limit is south of the Tong River and somewhat south- west of Kiating. Its greatest length is about 200 miles, and runs from north to south. Its greatest width cannot be more than loo miles. The country is said to be uniformly mountainous. The people are commonly called Independent Lolos.” The Chinese fear and despise them. They have been gradually driven from pillar to post ” until they are now confined to a compara- tively small area of country, and their numbers greatly depleted. Yet these hardy, independent- spirited mountaineers cause the Chinese no little anxiety and the constant exercise of vigilance. This is evidenced in several ways. Immediately after crossing the River Tong on the morning of the last day’s journey one realizes that he is 214 The Nosu Country approaching the country of the aborigines. In every direction are seen diao fangs.” These Diao fangs, are high, two-story structures, the lower half of which is built of stone for ten or more feet above the ground, while on top of this stone wall is a second story, built of woven bamboo, and plastered, through which are made several look- out apertures about a foot and a half square. These are really crude castles, the purpose of which is a defence against the raids of the Nosus. Then again, scattered here and there along the borders, are located guard-houses, in which are stationed from a dozen to several hundred sol- diers. There are also several garrison cities located at strategic positions around the border of the coun- try. These all contain military officials and large contingents of soldiers. Under each city are a number of Nosu tribes. Each tribe has to supply a hostage or two, so that in each city there are a dozen or more hostages kept constantly under surveillance. The names of the more important of these cities are Obientin, Mabientin, Luibo, Ningyuenfu, and Yuehhsi. Twice yearly pres- ents of money and cloth are given to each tribe by the Chinese officials in the border cities, the object being to placate the people and to control them with greater ease. Let us now come to the people themselves. Dwellings Unlike the trade-loving Chinese, they do not col- lect in market-towns nor live in cities; but their 215 Our Share in China Fine physique. Manner and customs. houses are thinly scattered over the slopes of the mountains. For this reason we are inclined to agree with the conjecture of one official that the entire population would be probably less than one hundred thousand. These Nosus consist of two classes : the Black Bones and the White Bones. The former are the aborigines of the soil; while the latter are but half-breeds, the offspring of mixed marriages with kidnapped Chinese. The terms “ Black ” and “ White ” are used because the members of the original stock are of a somewhat darker hue than the others, who are of mixed blood. The White Bones are slaves, or serfs, belonging to the Black Bones, and bought and sold at their pleasure. If one could judge from one tribe, with the chief of which we became fairly well acquainted, the slave class, or wa-dz (children) as they are called, greatly outnumber their masters. In physique these people are both taller and stouter than the average Chinese, and possess a countenance more frank and open. Many of their women are queenly of carriage. The men are very fond of fighting, so that inter-tribal war- fare is common and greatly reduces the male population. Their mode of living is truly barbaric. Their rude houses are low and squatty. Within, no furniture is to be found. They sit upon the cold, bare ground, though they use a rough bamboo matting to sleep upon. The little children are 216 REV. W. J. MORTIMORE AND REV. C. W. SERVICE, M.D., AMONG THE NOSU TRIBESMEN. The Nosu Country ■v^ten carried about stark naked on the backs of ^ eir parents, even when the weather is quite cool. The people are fond of making an intoxi- cating beverage out of corn, and drink it about as freely as we would water. Their occupations somewhat resemble those of the nomad. As the hills afford plenty of grass, cattle and goats are easily reared. Their methods of agriculture are extremely crude, and do not go beyond raising meagre crops of corn and buckwheat. They sometimes have a house high up among the mountains for summer use, and another for the winter at a warmer level. There would appear to be no more government than is exercised by the heads of the different tribes over their respective followers. The White Bones, of course, are in absolute servitude to the Black Bones, who hold the power of life and death over them. They have a written language, but it is almost entirely monoplized by the sor- cerers in their books of incantation. There are no schools, nor any system of education. To cure disease they do not use medicine, but resort to witchcraft. Pulling some stalks of a certain wild grass, they twist them into various shapes, and with these (treated as fetishes) they tap the sick person’s body, while the sorcerer chants his ritual. According to the gravity of the disease, a pig, goat or cow is led in a circle around the sufferer, and its snout is finally brought close to his face, whereupon, by an ex- pulsion of breath, he is supposed to transfer the 217 Need oi missionaries. Our Share in China disease to the animal. The latter is then killed and eaten. The marriage customs are strange. Wives are purchased. Should a man die without issue, his brother or father may act the part of husband with the hope of getting offspring. Not until the birth of a child does the wife come and live permanently at her husband’s home. Their burial customs are simple. The corpse is put on a pile of wood and cremated. The ashes are then gath- ered up and put in some kind of a vessel and buried under a heap of stones, not far from the home. After a year or two the stones become scattered and the ground is cultivated as of yore. No one will dispute the need of this people. As yet but little has been done for them by any Missionary Society. Still there exist what are termed spheres of influence,” which may be seen by reference to the map. The A. B. M. U. are on east and west, and have foreigners living in Ningyuenfu, while they have out-station work in several other cities. On the south-east is the English United Methodist Mission, which, under the direction of Mr. Pollard, who is sta- tioned at Chaotongfu, in Yunnan province, has, during the last three or four years, done such a remarkable work among the Hua Miao tribes, and incidentally among the Lolos tribes. The only neutral territory, therefore, is the northern border, the centre of which is Obien- tin, and in order to reach this one has to pass through C. I. M. territory. 218 THE PROVINCE OF KWEICHOW. “The strength of any co-partnership is to be meas- ured by the resources of the strongest partner. As we are ‘ workers together with Christ/ we have the privilege under given conditions of drawing upon Him for whatever supplies are needed in the prosecution of our great task.” — Bishop B. B. Hoss. “ Eternal life is only the beginning. Eternal life must sell and give to the poor, and follow Christ in all lands, up new Calvaries, ‘ with the Cross that turns not back.’ ” — Bishop William F. McDowell. “ There is no doubt as to the ultimate outcome. The kingdoms of this world shall become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ.” — Rev. Frank D. Game- well, Ph.D. “ Heal the bodily ailments of the heathen in the name of Christ, and you are sure, at least, that He will love you and bless you, and all that you say will have a meaning and a power not conveyed by other lips.” — Dr. G. B. Post. “The whole Christian world to-day, especially the great mission fields, needs men and women who are willing and ready to spend and be spent in making Christ known to individuals.” — Bishop Thoburn. CHAPTER XIV. THE PROVINCE OF KWEICHOW. “ Nobody among us has yet been hurt by what he has given in time or money for the spread of the Kingdom. Where is the man that has worn an old coat or gone hungry for a single day in order that some poor soul might be blessed with the light of Gospel truth ? ” — Bishop B. B. Hoss. I teFT Chengtu at dawn of July 2nd, 1908, and reached Chengtu again on September 8, having been absent from my station for 69 days. Three days were spent in attendance at the Convention for Chinese Workers at Kiating the first week in July. Otherwise the whole time was spent in travel, with the briefest possible stops at various points en route. From Chengtu to Chungking the journey was made pleasant by the cheerful company of Mr. Bond. But at that point we separated. He proceeded down river, while I left by chair for Kweichow. We reached Chung- king on Saturday, July nth, and on Monday I began my journey directly south. July 15th I reached the city of Chigiang- hsien, a busy place on a small river which flows *Report of Rev. Dr. O. L. Kilborn to the West China Mission Council, 1909. 221 Our Share in China Sungkan. A long li. into the Yangtse about 40 li above Chungking. Boats come up to this point in three to five days, and go down in high water in a day or a little over. On Saturday, July i8th, I reached the town of Sungkan, located on the same little river men- tioned above. Boats come to this point, after two portages past rapids, and bring in salt and all kinds of goods from Chungking. It was in the early morning of this day, July i8th, that I crossed the boundary and entered the province of Kweichow. There were many ups and downs in the road to this point. From Chungking, which is about 1,000 feet above the sea, my aneroid showed on the i6th a height of 1,850 feet; then 30 minutes later we had descended to 970 feet ; again a little later we had risen to 2,300 feet ; and at the village where I stayed that night it was exactly 1,000 feet above the sea. The sun was hot, well above the eighties, or up to 90, even in the evening. I had passed through sev- eral heavy downpours of rain, but without being any the worse. Another thing I noticed was that in approach- ing the Kweichow border, the li showed marked evidence of lengthening — the stage of 65 li one day I estimated as the equivalent of at least 80 or 90 li in many other parts of Szechwan. Early in the morning of the i8th we began the ascent of a long incline, reaching presently 3,090 feet. Similarly the last 20 li before arrival at Sung- 222 The Province of Kweichow kan was almost continuously down hill. The way led over a well-paved road, winding through a wild, rugged canon, and presenting picturesque views of mountain, gorge, and stream. In two or three places the road had been recently almost completely washed away, making it exceedingly difficult for the coolie to squeeze past with loads and empty chair. At Sungkan the aneroid registered 1,270 feet. On July 20th the increasing length of the li was evident in that I took from 5 a.m. to 5 p.m. to do the 70 li of that stage. During the day there was a succession of low ranges to be crossed, the aneroid showing at different times 1,000, 1,600, 1,800 and 2,600 feet, coming to rest at night at 1,630 feet. In order to reach the city of Tungdzhsien on Tungdzhsien. July 2 1 St we had to make a long ascent of about 30 li in the forenoon, reaching a point 4,300 feet above the sea, and this climb marked a fairly permanent elevation, leading to the still higher tablelands of central Kweichow. Tungdzhsien is a small city eight stages from Chungking, ap- parently doing a good share of business, though all traffic is necessarily overland~no water com- munication whatever. The Roman Catholics are numerous here ; I had conversations with some ,of the Chinese Christians. July 22 and 23 the way led constantly along a narrow plateau, bordered by low ranges of hills ; in places it closed down to a gorge, again widen- 223 Our Share in China C. 1. M. at Tsunnyifu. Kweiyang. ing out beyond into a plain large enough to con- tain the prefectural city of Tsun-nyi. At Tsunnyifu, on July 23rd, I was warmly welcomed by Mr. Portway, the solitary C. I. M. missionary in charge. Mr. and Mrs. Windsor, who are ordinarily stationed here, were absent visiting their children at the C. I. M. school in Chefoo. I spent the three days, Friday, Satur- day and Sunday, with Mr. Portway. This city is reckoned to be the third city in the province, for population — variously estimated at 35,000 to 70,000 — and for trade. The C. I. M. have had a rented compound here, and have carried on work for five or six years. They have a baptized mem- bership of 20 people, and have only two out- stations. Mr. Windsor has itinerated faithfully through large portions of the surrounding coun- try, but has, apparently, organized but very little work apart from this in the city. After four days’ rather hard travel I reached the capital of the province, Kweiyang, on July 30th. Mr. Portway accompanied me. I was very kindly welcomed and entertained for the three days spent in Kweiyang, by Mr. and Mrs. Clarke, of the C. I. M. Mr. Clarke was the first resident missionary in Chengtu, though it is now many years since he left there. He has been about thirty years in China altogether. Kweiyang is a picturesque city, located on a plateau at a height of about 3,200 feet above the sea. It is surrounded by moderately high hills. 224 The Province of Kweichow which seem to enclose the city on all sides. The first view of the city which one gets on approach- ing from the north is particularly striking. The road had carried us steadily along at a height of about 4,000 feet for the most of the preceding day ; and, finally, late in the afternoon, on a sud- den turn in the road, as we were descending from the higher level, the whole city was revealed, spread out before us like a map. It would seem to me that the population as ordinarily estimated at 100,000 must fully reach this figure. The streets are well kept, and the general impression was that of a lively business centre. The Imperial Post under Mr. Newman’s care has made extraordinary progress, rolling up an ever-increasing volume of business. The only Mission at work in the province isc.i.M.oniy the China Inland. They have six stations, four province, of which I visited, and 20 to 30 out-stations. They have between two and three thousand bap- tized members, all but two or three hundred of whom are aborigines. The China Inland Mission does evangelistic work almost solely. They have no medical work whatever, and only one or two small elementary schools. There is not a medical man or woman in the province, and only 21 missionaries, distributed through their six sta- tions. These include men and women, both mar- ried and single. At the time I was in Kweiyang there were only Mr. and Mrs. Clarke and Mr. and Mrs. Cecil Smith there. They were just 15 225 Our Share in China holding their ‘‘ Half-yearly Meetings,” in which I was cordially invited to take part. Both they and Mr. Portway, of Tsunnyi, extended a most hearty invitation to our Mission to enter Kwei- chow and to open work in both these cities alongside them. They will be particularly pleased to welcome medical workers. But they urged me repeatedly to press upon our Mission the great neediness of their field and the advisability of our coming to their help as soon as possible. On the morning of Monday, August 3rd, I bade my kind hosts, the Clarkes, good-bye and started to the south-west. Two days over a somewhat lonely road, meeting long strings of coolies carrying opium from Yunnan, and pass- ing caravans convoying ammunition from Wu- chang into Yunnan, to be used in suppressing the disturbances there — I arrived early in the afternoon of August 4th at Nganpinhsien, and was warmly welcomed by Mr. and Mrs. Page. Mrs. Page is a Canadian, whose home, if I re- member rightly, is in or near Guelph. Their work lies almost wholly among the aborigines, of whom I saw many, both men and women, in the streets. Indeed, a company of eight or ten Christian tribesmen met me a half-mile from the city, to give me their welcome in. These were at that time staying for a few days in a small house in the C. I. M. compound, for study of the Scrip- tures and music. They have a great fondness for hymn-singing, and their voices were plainly The Province of Kweichow discernible till about ii o’clock that night, and again with the first streak of dawn next morn- ing. The men all, or nearly all, wear the ordin- ary Chinese dress; but the women’s dress is peculiar. The essential feature is a much-pleated skirt, which is of various colors and lengths, from the ankles in some cases to just about the knees in others. There are many tribes, ordin- arily distinguished by a term derived from the color or pattern of their garments. The women of each tribe have their own peculiar method of dressing the hair, and none of them ever bind their feet. At this place my aneroid showed a height of 3,800 feet. On August 5th, after a steady day’s travel, I Nganshuenfu. arrived about 4.30 p.m. at the city of Ngan- shuenfu, the second city for population and trade in the province after the capital. This has been for many years the C. I. M. headquarters for work among the tribesmen, or, as commonly called, the Miao. Mr. and Mrs. Adam, Miss Guest, and Mr. Oleson were the missionaries in charge at the time of my visit. They were all there, except Mr. Adam, who had left his home only a few days previously for a trip of two months or more through his territory. Much of his work (which is altogether among the abo- rigines or Miao) lies six to eight, or even ten The Miao. days distant. I spent a very pleasant evening and half of the next day there, starting at 12 noon of August 6th on the journey northward. This 227 Our Share in China The south gate shut and open. city of Nganshuenfu was, therefore, the most remote point visited on my journey, as well as the last station and the last missionaries seen until I reached Luchow. Their work is mostly among the Miao, as mentioned, although they do carry on work among the Chinese. They have a small school, and they have the site purchased for the erection of a hospital. I believe they expect a medical man to be sent from England soon to undertake medical work there. The day was warm, but the one night I spent there was decidedly cool. My aneroid showed a height of 4,100 feet above the sea. My journey from Nganshuen to Luchow occu- pied sixteen days, and was without incident. The general level of the country keeps high, until within about three or four days of Luchow. The stages are for the most part not long, but the absence of intervening villages makes it exceed- ingly difficult to break stage anywhere. At one place I succeeded in putting three stages into two, by an effort. Three days north of Ngan- shuen I reached the remote city of Pingyuen- djow. Another three days north brought me to the city of Dadinfu, at an altitude of 5,050 feet; though I had crossed a point shortly before reaching this city at 5,420 feet. Rain was badly needed there just at that time; so much so that a fast had been proclaimed, and the south gate of the city closed. As this was the gate before which I presented myself, it seemed as though 228 The Province of Kweichow my tired men must trudge away around to either the east or west gate in order to enter the city. 'A group of bystanders quickly collected, and someone suggested that a call through the wide crack between the two halves of the big city gate for the attendant, with the additional inducement of a little “ cumsha,” would probably be effectual. So it was, and presently the gate swung open, and we marched through. Strange to say, that very night there was a heavy downpour of rain, and the fast was declared off accordingly. The foreigner was a great curiosity to the people of this city. They scurried along the street to catch a glimpse of me as I passed through, and they completely filled the inn-court where I stayed. I was reminded strongly of experiences of the earlier years of life in Chengtu and the cities and villages round about. I had a pleasant conversation with an intelli- Chinese gent young man, who made bold enough to step through the crowd and enter my room. The city is small and very poor. Many of the streets have nothing better than straw-thatched houses; and even the main street had many of this poorest class of house and shop on it. As in the country through which I had just passed, I found that the tribesmen or Miao never live in village or city with the Chinese, but always in the country. They are the farmers apparently, while the Chinese, who slowly but steadily and surely drive them back and occupy their lands, are the shop- 229 Our Share in China Bidsiehhsien. keepers and tradesmen. The Chinese accuse the Miao with possessing headstrong dispositions and violent tempers, and say that they are drunken and lazy. The Miao, on the other hand, accuse the Chinese of fraud and high-handed dealing, against which they have no redress. They de- clare that their lands are taken from them, by force or fraud, and that they cannot get justice. August 13th I reached the city of Bidsiehhsien, two days west from Dadinfu. This proved to be much more of a live business centre than the last city. It is a transfer point for the enormous salt traffic which flows southward from Luchow into the western part of Kweichow province. The inn in which I stayed was one of the largest and cleanest in which I have ever stayed in China. A son of the proprietor is an ambitious student of English, and volunteered to be my guide through the city. With him I wandered over the place, visiting the telegraph office and making the acquaintance of the several intelligent young men in charge. My aneroid showed 4,400 feet. On August 14th I pressed on northward. At one point I found that I was travelling at over 5,000 feet; slept in a loft in a little hamlet that night at 4,000 feet. Next day, 15th, in the after- noon, I passed, in a distance of less than 20 li, from 3,800 to 2,100 feet, and found myself once more on the soil of — I could almost call it “my native province” — ^good old Szechwan. I had a warm reception : I was taken to a good airy inn. 230 TRAVELLING THROUGH THE PROVINCE OF SZECHWAN. 1. A Glimpse of the Szechwan Alps. 2, Flooded Rice Fields on the Road from (’hnng-king to ('lienstu. ... .1 1 \ A "I 1 i The Province of Kweichow but the thermometer registered 97° F. in the coolest room I could find. The boundary is formed at this point by a small river which flows past Renhwaihsien and joins the Yangtse at Hogiang. This stream is not navigable above Renhwaiting, two days south of Hogiang. Immediately on starting out from Chihshuiho, the little town on the Szechwan side of the border, the road rose steadily, till at 30 li the aneroid showed 5,020 feet. Shortly after noon I had finished my stage, at a little village called Mo Ni, 4,020 feet. The ranges were high and the valleys deep, and I greatly enjoyed the far- extending views which took in range after range of much crumpled-up mountains. I urged my men to go further that day, and to make Yuinlin in two days instead of three. But my proffered bribe of 100 cash a man proved utterly powerless. August i8th, rose at 1.50 a.m. and left thevuinUn. village where I had spent the night at 2.50 a.m. in order to take advantage of the bright moon- light and to avoid the mid-day heat. At 9.30 a.m. reached the city of Yuinlin, where the C. I. M. have an out-station. Stayed in the Mission premises, but that night unfortunately caught cold, resulting in an attack of acute rheumatic arthritis of my left knee and ankle. As a conse- quence the next two days and a half required to reach Luchow were somewhat unpleasant from pain and fever. At Luchow, where I arrived at noon of August 21st, Mr. and Mrs. Barham, of 231 Our Share in China Positions and routes. the C. 1. M., were kindness itself to me. I spent several days in bed, rising as soon as temperature became normal, and preparing to continue my journey. In company with Mr. and Mrs. R. O. Jolliffe I travelled from Luchow to their station, Tzeliut- sing; thence via Junghsien and Jenshow to Chengtu, arriving September 8th. Of the 73 walled cities in the province of Kwei- chow (i2 of which are of prefectural rank), the larger portion are in the middle or northern part of this half. Moreover, the only cities occupied in the north-eastern portion of the province are Tsunnyi and Chenyuenfu. The first of these is ten days by chair from Chungking; the second is in direct water communication with Hankow and Yochow, through the Tungting lake. Moreover, this latter route is highly recommended as being quite safe and as giving access to this part of Kweichow without the necessity of encountering the dangerous rapids of the Yangtse. There is still another route, however, into this north-eastern portion of the province, namely, that by the city of Fuchow, a large city situated on the Yangtse, three days east of Chungking, at the junction of a branch flowing from the south. This branch is navigable from Fuchow all the way to Szlanfu, and, for at least a part of the year, as far as Shihchienfu. The first of these is a C. I. M. out-station, one of the two which they have opened in this region. From this pre- The Province of Kweichow fectural city of Szlan then, as a base, there would be easily accessible all the ten or twelve walled cities of this part of Kweichow, with their vil- lages, and this seems to me to be, therefore, the very best route to be taken by our Mission in entering Kweichow. This would necessitate, I should say, the opening of a station in Chung- king. 233 i 1 I THE PROVINCE OF YUNNAN. “ The more we do for others the larger the outlay of our talents in the various spheres of thought, the greater the amount of comfort and of strength we receive in return.” — Dr. W. B. Edwards. “ May we not in this presence re-learn the old and oft-repeated lesson that the one world-wide and ever- recurring opportunity of the Church of Christ is found in the proclamation of her Head, ‘All power in heaven and in earth is given into my hands; as my Father hath sent me even so send I you’ ; that her one supreme responsibility, unlimited, and unredeemed while one soul waits for the message, is found in the command, ‘ Go preach my Gospel to every creature.’ ” — Rev. J. H. Pritchett, D.D. “ We open the Book of Truth, we proclaim liberty to he captive, the opening of the doors to them that are bound, the acceptable year of the Ford. We move forward to our work as they who are appointed to build up old wastes, to repair the desolations of many generations.” — Rev, D. W. Carter, D.D. “Has not God promised the world to His Son? Is not the Christian Church like the children of Israel entering the land of Canaan, not to pass rapidly through it, but to take possession in the name of the Lord?” — Rev. J. W. Tarhoux, D.D. CHAPTER XV. THE PROVINCE OF YUNNAN. “ The missionary should be a statesman, a man able to know, select, train and guide men; he should be a churchman, able to found and develop, not one church alone, but whole groups of churches.” — B. A. Lawrence. Acting on the instructions of the Mission Along journey. Council, I left Chengtu on September the 22nd last for the purpose of making a tour in the Province of Yunnan to investigate the conditions of mission work there; and to see whether, in view of the large accessions of workers, actual and prospective, to our staff of missionaries, the time had come for us to recommend to the Home Board an advance into that most needy field. After my appointment to this work we were gratified to learn that one of our Mission Secre- taries — Rev. T. E. Egerton Shore — was planning to visit our field, and that he proposed to come to us by way of Yunnan. Hence we had the additional opportunity presented to us of acting as his escort on the return journey. Taking a boat, we reached Suifu in three days. Here we began our long overland journey, which * Report of Rev. James Endicott, B.A., to the West China Mission Council, 1909. 237 Our Share in China Chaotong United Methodist Mission. was to occupy in all nearly four months. We received kind assistance from Dr. C. E. Tompkins in securing chairmen and carrying coolies for the journey; and after a delay of only one day we started on the journey of twenty-five stages to Yunnanfu, the capital of the province. The route for the greater part of the way is mountainous, and the travelling difficult and slow. There are few towns of importance along the way, although it is the main highway of commerce between Yunnan and Szechwan, and large quantities of minerals are annually exported from the former province to the latter; and, until the past year, immense quantities of opium also have been exported. Our first stopping-place was at Chaotong, which is half-way between Suifu and Yunnanfu. It is twelve stages from Suifu, and there are no mission stations between these two cities. In all the territory lying between Suifu and Yunnanfu there is only one Mission at work, viz., the United Methodist Mission. The city of Chaotong is the best-manned and best-equipped mission station in the whole pro- vince of Yunnan. In addition to their evangel- istic work they have a general and theological training school, a hospital and dispensary, and a girls’ school. The magnitude of the equipment may be illustrated by reference to the medical work. Dr. Savin, an experienced physician, was granted by the Home Board the sum of £120 238 The Province of Yunnan sterling (600 gold dollars) with which to pur- chase a site and build and equip a modern hos- pital. This fact in itself is sufficient to indicate the way in which the workers in that province are hampered for lack of adequate equipment. Our own Mission has invested more money in the city of Chengtu alone than has been expended to date in Protestant mission work in the whole of the province of Yunnan. It would be hard to find in the whole of China a Mission more richly endowed in regard to the personnel of its work- ers, or one so poorly sustained in regard to material equipment. The United Methodist Mission, in addition to Work among its Chinese work, has a very flourishing work among the Hua Miao, who dwell in large num- bers in the mountains to the east of Chaotong. The boundary of the Mission extends over into that part of the province of Kweichow which at this point juts into the province of Yunnan. The China Inland Mission is working among these same tribes from the Kweichow side, so that all the Miao dwelling in that section of the country are being brought under the influence of the Gospel through the eiforts of these two missions. Many thousands of these people, who are perhaps the most despised, impoverished and degraded of all the tribesmen in West China, have already accepted the Gospel, and the transformation of their lives in the past few years constitutes one of the most encouraging and inspiring triumphs 239 Our Share in China The capital. of the Gospel in modern times. A new era has dawned for these poor people which is full of the richest promise, and we believe that we have here but the first fruits of a much greater harvest which shall yet be reaped among the millions of hardy tribesmen who inhabit the mountains of West China. I had been looking forward with much interest to paying a visit to the headquarters of this work in the mountains, and had received a cordial invitation to be present with them on a Sacra- ment Sunday. To my disappointment, however, I found on my arrival that my time of coming was not very opportune, as Messrs. Dymond and Parsons were leaving the central station and were about to start out on a tour among the villages in the mountains holding harvest festi- vals, and it did not seem feasible for me to ac- company them at this time. The United Meth- odist Mission, both in its Chinese and Miao work, makes a specialty of the Harvest Thanksgiving services, making them occasions of special evan- gelistic effort. Five stages from Chaotong brought us to Tungchuan, the second station of the same Mis- sion. The only work carried on here in addition to the evangelistic is that of a small school. From this point it is five stages to Yunnanfu. As soon as I came to the capital I was given a cordial invitation by the resident missionaries to conduct an English service. I took advantage of 240 The Province of Yunnan this opportunity to lay frankly before them the reasons which led our Mission Council to send me as a deputation to the province and to indicate our desire to learn from them their own views in regard to our coming to the province to assist them in their work. The response was most cor- dial in favor of our coming, and deep regret was expressed that we were not coming at once. This was the attitude of the missionaries of the pro- vince as a whole in regard to our proposed going there to take up work. The city of Yunnanfu is beautifully situated on a lofty plateau over 6,000 feet above the sea. It is surrounded in the dis- tance by high mountains, and there is a very lovely lake at a short distance to the south of the city. It has a population of about one hun- dred thousand people, and the Viceroy of the province, who resides here, is also responsible to the Throne for the good government of the pro- vince of Kweichow. Since the coming of the Viceroy Hsi Liang to the province great efforts have been made by the Government to establish schools of various kinds, and the noblest site in the city has been selected for the great Provincial University now in process of erection upon it. Accommodation will be provided in these buildings for several thousand students. The building already erected may be seen for miles outside the city, and is an index of the new time dawning for this long- neglected and opium-cursed province. 16 241 Our Share in China Christian college professors The city is the terminus of the French Tong- king-Yunnan railway, now nearing completion, and it is destined also to be, before many years, linked by other railways to Burmah on the west and with the Yangtse valley on the east. While I was in the city I had the privilege of meeting five of the Chinese professors who are teaching in the Government college. All of these men had received their instruction in Christian institutions in North China. Four of them are Christian men, and they occupy very important chairs in the University. They invited us to a feast, and we had very delightful intercourse with these gentlemen. When I saw the institu- tion and heard of the prospects of thousands of students being there, and saw those Christian professors, I could not but feel deeply what a splendid opportunity was presented in this city of carrying on educational work of a more posi- tively Christian kind under missionary auspices. ioc£t/work! present time the only missionary work carried on in the city, beside that of the British and Foreign Bible Society, is that of the China Inland Mission. The staff of workers is very small, and the only work done is of an evan- gelistic character, and this of such dimensions as to make little impression. They have one small chapel, which is sufficient to accommodate at the most about three hundred people. The workers of this mission have labored here in a most de- voted fashion for about twenty years, with very 242 The Province of Yunnan little fruit for their labors. There is no medical or educational work being carried on by them. The Roman Catholics are well represented in the city, and they, as usual, have chosen excellent sites for their buildings. A quite unusual feature of the situation in the city is that the French Government keep a physi- cian there at their own charges. He is a very able man, and does medical work free of cost to all classes of Chinese. He carries on his work in a way similar to that which obtains in missionary institutions in China. By means of this work the French, while in other regards they are quite unpopular in Yunnan, have gained great prestige and have done much good. It is obvious that there is an excellent opportunity for a Mission such as ours to take up medical work in this city. The British Acting Consul-General, Mr. Wil- ton, did all in his power to make our stay in the city profitable and pleasant. He is a man of ex- ceptional experience in the service, and has tra- velled widely in all parts of West China. He gave it as his judgment that if our Mission came to the province we should lay special emphasis upon educational work, and look to extend in the direction of Bhamo, on the Burmah frontier, rather than toward the south of the province. His reasons for this suggestion are obviously not based upon purely missionary considerations. None of the missionaries with whom I consulted held this view of the situation. Mr. Wilton Visit to Viceroy 243 Our Share in China A Visit to the Hua Miao at Shapushan. kindly requested the Viceroy to give us an inter- view, although he was not sanguine that the request would be granted. He was agreeably surprised when His Excellency gave a most cor- dial consent. The interview was arranged to take place when Mr. Shore arrived in the city, and it was a most informal and pleasing experi- ence. It was a distinct pleasure to be able to utter to His Excellency direct words of praise without any consciousness of offering flattery. He has done a noble work in the province; and his encouragement of education and moral re- forms is worthy of our highest appreciation. His suppression of the growth of opium alone in this province, which until he came was almost entirely given over to this traffic, entitles him to be ranked among the great benefactors of his kind. We did not see a single blade of opium growing in any part of Yunnan through which we travelled. The gates of the city were hung with many thousands of opium pipes, trophies more noble than spoils taken in war. During our stay in the city, as also that of the whole party on our return, we were entertained most hospitably by Mr. and Mrs. Amundsen, of the B. and E. B. Society. We had the advantage of Mr. Amundsen’s very wide experience in all parts of West China in all our enquiries. After spending a few days in the capital, and having received a telegram from Mr. Shore indi- cating that his party would not be able to reach 244 The Province of Yunnan Yunnan quite as early as they had at first antici- pated, I availed myself of the opportunity of going almost due north for three days to visit the new work taken up in this section among the Hua Miao by the C. 1. M. Leaving Yunnan fu and travelling by the same road, which we took later in returning to Sze- chwan, we reached Wutingchow on the afternoon of the third day. I travelled in company with Mr. and Mrs. Allen, who were also going to Sha- pushan from a distant station. The balance of the journey to the top of the mountain was made amid a heavy downpour of rain. The mountain was shrouded in mist, and our experience in climbing up the narrow, slippery paths was weird in the extreme. From far and near the tribesmen were gather- ing for the annual thanksgiving services, carrying on their backs their offerings of money or grain for the sanctuary of God, as well as the food they required for themselves while they remained on the mountain. Some of them had been trav- elling for days in order to be present. They ate their meals by the roadside, and lay down at night on the bare hills wherever darkness over- took them. It was dark when v/e got to the top of the mountain, but we were accorded a warm welcome by Mr. Nichols and Mr. and Mrs. Porteous, who are in charge of the work here. This station was opened only two years ago by 245 Our Share in China Mr. Nichols. Up to that time the Miao in this region had been in complete heathen darkness. Having heard of the wonderful work of God among their people in the east of the province at Chaotong, they sent word asking that mission- aries might be sent to tell them also the glad tidings. The China Inland Mission was asked to take up the work, and they sent Mr. Nichols to Chao- tong to learn the language and become familiar with the people and the work. After spending part of a year at Chaotong, he went to his present station, and has been assisted from the beginning by a few of the best Miao Christian workers, who have been sent there by the native brethren at Chaotong. The conditions of life on the mountain are very primitive, but there is unquestionably a great and notable work of God in progress. Mr. Nichols has worked with great devotion and self-sacrifice during the past two years, living for most of the time in a Miao hut. He has com- pletely won the confidence and affection of the Miao people, and he and his fellow-workers have seen a complete break on the part of the tribes- men with their old and evil life. The services were carried on in a large barn- like structure which had been erected by the labors or gifts of the Miao themselves. The services began on the night that we ar- rived, with a special service of prayer and praise, 246 The Province of Yunnan in which men, women and children took part with great heartiness and reverence. The next day, being the Sabbath, was a great day. Although the rain continued throughout the day, the big building was filled almost from morning to night. The first service began at seven o’clock, and lasted nearly two hours. After breakfast — which, for the Miao, was merely a small bowl of raw oatmeal mixed with cold water — we had a service of nearly three hours, and the interest did not flag. We had much singing, some exhaustive cate- chizing of the whole congregation, prayers from many of the people, and several addresses. The singing of these people is something never to be forgotten. It seemed as though there was a conscious response to the challenge of the Psalmist, “ Let everything that hath breath praise the Lord.” The voices of the whole congregation rang out in sweet unison and in volume ‘‘ as the sound of many waters.” After a short interval for lunch, another ser- vice of a similar kind was held ; and after supper, still another one, which lasted until nine o’clock. I have not seen anything, or heard of anything like this in China, save that among the same tribes- men at Chaotong. A great and wholly unex- pected work is in progress here. Moreover, it is but a beginning. Individuals were present at these services from other and more important tribes ; and in some instances in- 247 Our Share in China vitations have been sent to the missionaries from some of the tribes not yet touched, to come and open up work among them also. They have offered to erect buildings at once in which the work may be carried on. The Hua Miao are very poor and much despised by the Chinese. They are considered the lowest in the social scale of all the tribesmen of West China. They were not much addicted to opium, but they love wine ; and sexual immorality was open and uncon- demned and even encouraged. All is now changed, however, on the part of the Christians, and but a small percentage of the people are hostile to the new life introduced. They were formerly without any written lan- guage; but Mr. Pollard has invented a system of writing based on the Cree syllabic. The people are rapidly and generally learning to read, and already the Gospels of Mark and John are printed in their tongue. The hymn books used in this remote spot were printed in our Press and for- warded to them. I would fain have stayed longer and visited the people in their homes on the mountains, but' I had left myself barely sufficient time in which to meet Mr. Shore’s party by the time they reached the end of the railway into the province. The rain still continued and the plains below us were flooded as they had not been in fifty years. We started down the mountain on Monday even- ing, and just as we were leaving the Miao gath- 248 WAYSIDE SCENES. 1. Tea Carriers from Szechwan to Tibet resting at an Inn. ' 2 . A Group of Wasi Tribesmen. The Province of Yunnan ered around my chair, disregarding the rain, and made the mountains ring as they sang the grand old hymn, “ Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah.” When we came to the foot of the mountain we found that the rough bridge over the river had been washed away by the flood and it seemed dangerous to attempt crossing, but my brave men lifted me to their shoulders and plunged into the stream, carrying me across in safety. The next few days of travelling were such as I have never experienced before. The whole country was flooded ; much of the road was under several feet of water, and in some places completely carried away. The houses of the Chinese on every side were falling down, and the people were rushing here and there seeking shelter, while their officials had closed the north gate in each city and were crying to their gods for help. We succeeded at length, by God’s good help, in reaching Yunnanfu in safety, and the day after we started south for the railway. We left the capital on November 14th and trav-Tothe elled almost due south to the city of Mengtze — a journey of nine days. In order to avoid going twice over the same roa 4 , we went south by what is known as the small road. This gave a good opportunity to visit a larger number of places. I passed through several small cities, such as Ilianghsien, Lunnan, Milai and Chuyuan, in none of which is there a single resi- dent missionary. The cities of the province do 249 Our Share in China not compare in density of population with those in Szechwan. The population is much more sparse, the cultivated lands are far less in dimen- sion, while the mountains are on every side, on which still reside various branches of the ancient aboriginal tribes. Mengtze. From Mengtze I went two days south to Shaba, the point to which the French railway had at that time been extended. Boarding a construction train, I proceeded to Laokai, on the Tongking- Yunnan border, in order to meet Mr. Shore and party, but before I had gone very far I met them on a train coming toward us. We waited in Shaba a few days to make the neces- sary arrangements for overland transport, and then proceeded from Shaba back to Mengtze, and thence direct to Yunnan by way of the main road. On this road also there is not a single mission station in any city or town through which we passed. To Szechwan. leaving Shaba the members of our party were the Rev. T. E. Egerton Shore, Mrs. Shore, Rev. M. M. Bennett and myself. It required a considerable number of chairs and carrying coo- lies, as well as pack horses, to transport our party over the long journey of more than forty travel- ling days to Yachow, in Szechwan. We reached Yunnanfu on December the 9th, and left again on the nth. Instead of taking the east road, and returning to Szechwan by way of Chaotong and Suifu, we travelled almost directly 250 The Province of Yunnan north from Yunnanfu, crossed the Yangtse on the 1 8th, and entered Szechwan on the 19th. We journeyed through the famous Chienchang val- ley, passing through the cities of Huilichow and Ningyuenfu. The latter is a station of the American Baptists, and is the only one in all that immense district. Before reaching Yachow we were for three days upon the main road leading from Szechwan to Tibet, and we saw a number of Tibetans, and long strings of coolies carrying tea into that land. We obtained truly magnifi- cent views of the mountains on the borders of Tibet, clothed with eternal snow. Altogether it was a most memorable experience for all of us. We had a great deal of difficult travelling over roads that were nothing more than ill-kept trails. We passed over many high mountain passes, the highest of which was over ten thousand feet. We were for days at a time isolated completely from the rest of the world, and in the midst of the rude but sturdy tribesmen, who on occasion are ex- ceedingly hostile ; but we are able to record with deep gratitude that we had no untoward experi- ence on the whole journey. Our Chinese servants were patient and faithful, and we were shown nothing but goodwill from the people throughout our whole journey. The good hand of our God was upon us from the beginning to the end. If we were writing as a traveller, we might attempt to describe some of the strange experiences we had or the grandeur of much of the scenery 251 Our Share in China through which we passed ; but above every other impression made upon us, and sobering us in our joy in beholding the works of God was that of the vastness of the area in this part of the world which is still unevangelized. Our hearts cried out, “ How long, O Lord!” From Tongking to Yachow we passed through only two places in which there was a resident foreign missionary. The situation is appalling in its need, and should make an appeal of the utmost urgency to our Church. Summary of In this province, with a population of about tne present , . . . - situation in ten millions, we have a total missionary force of Yunnan. . . only twenty men — the majority of whom are married — and less than ten single women. This number includes those who are on furlough as well as those who are actually on the field. There are only seven cities in the whole pro- vince in which foreign missionaries reside. Tak- ing a line running directly east and west through Yunnanfu, the capital of the province, then all the mission stations will be either on this line or north of it. Not a single station will be found south of that line. Travelling by way of Suifu and proceeding to Burmah through the province, we pass through five of these stations, viz., Chao- tong, Tongchuan, Yunnanfu, Talifu and Bhamo. The average distance between these stations is about ten travelling days. The other two stations are on the main road leading from Yunnanfu to the province of Kweichow, viz., Kuthsing and Pingi. 252 The Province of Yunnan Again taking a line running north from Tong- king through Yunnanfu, Ningyuen and Yachow, then all the territory to the west of this line will be found to include within it only the one station of Talifu. That is, there is at least a quarter of a million square miles of territory without a mis- sionary of the Gospel. As a matter of fact, many thousands of square miles of this territory have never been trodden by the foot of white man. It is full of the habitations of cruelty and super- stition. Medical work is carried on at only two stations in the province, viz., at Chaotong and at Talifu, and in each instance the work carried on is small, for want of more adequate equipment. The two hospitals are about a month’s journey apart from each other. Educational work is carried on at only one station, viz., at Chaotong, the city near- est to the Szechwan boundary. One of the most saddening aspects of the situa- tion is that the missionary staff is almost station- ary in regard to numbers. The number of work- ers among the Chinese has not increased appre- ciably in the last ten years. Although there have been such remarkably encouraging results among the Hua Miao, yet there are still but two stations in which work is carried on among the tribesmen. There is very little likelihood of any serious in- crease in the staff of the China Inland Mission workers in the province. This Mission has about reached the limit of its power of expansion, and 253 Our Share in China is consolidating the work it has already taken up. In regard to the United Methodist Mission, there is good reason to hope that the Mission will be reinforced, to some extent, in the next few years, yet the members of this Mission are very pro- nounced in their conviction that at least another strong Mission is urgently needed in the province. Again there is no prospect of any other Mis- sion now at work in West China taking up work in Yunnan. The only Mission that would even seriously consider the question is the American Baptist Mission, but this is the Mission that has the immense Chien Chang valley, lying imme- diately north of Yunnan, under its charge. This district ought to have many times its present staff of workers in order to be effectively worked. Moreover, this Mission has work in several dif- ferent parts of China, and, although it came into Szechwan at the same time as we did, its strength is no greater in workers than it was ten years ago. All the old and strong missionary societies have long-established work in various parts of the world, and in different parts of China. None of them are seriously adding to their staff of workers in any part of West China, although they all recognize the immense importance of the work here. Their work in the older stations is making increased demands on their supplies of men and means. The increase in the staff of our own Mission in West China during the past ten years has been 254 The Province of Yunnan greater than that of any other Mission at work here, while during the past five years our in- crease has been greater than the aggregate in- crease of all the other Missions combined. All the other Missions are pressing upon their re- spective Boards the claims of West China; all realize keenly how opportune is the present time for an advance all along the line ” ; yet, in view of the pressing claims from so many other places, there are grave reasons to fear that a very small proportion of the needed increase of men will be forthcoming from the other missionary societies. In the providence of God our Mission has been established in West China, and equally pro- vidential does it seem that we have not likewise gone to other parts, but have concentrated in that part of the Empire which older Missions so naturally neglected. Thus we have given to us one of the supreme opportunities of the Christian centuries to affect in a great and vital way such a large section of the human family. Here, as perhaps nowhere else in the world, is given us a field of immense magnitude, and one th'at appar- ently will not be worked unless we do it. We believe that no greater opportunity will ever be given our Church than is now presented in West China. By the grace of God, it will be impossible to say fifty years hence that there are scores of millions of people in any section of China, or of the world, still unevangelized. But this is true 255 Our Share in China to-day in West China, and that it is true is surely sufficient cause to move our whole Church to make an endeavor worthy of God. We therefore recommend that our Board be urged to take steps at an early date to open up work in the province of Yunnan, and that we begin work at the capital of the province, and gradually work out from this city as a centre into whatever directions may seem to be most urgent and advisable. In view of the strategic and growing import- ance of the capital, we recommend that work be taken up here on evangelistic, medical and edu- cational lines. We recommend that at least five experienced workers from our present staff of missionaries in Szechwan be sent to open the work there, in order that the work may be begun on a strong basis. The language spoken in Szechwan is read- ily understood in Yunnan, so that there would be no difficulties on that score, while it is of the greatest importance that men of experience be there to guide the work in its early stages, so that the best possible impression be made upon the people from the very beginning, and in order that no great delay be experienced in getting the work started. 256 APPENDICES. APPENDIX No. 1. SPELLING AND PRONUNCIATION OF NAMES. How to spell and how to pronounce the names of the missionaries’ stations is often a perplexity to those at home. The following list of spellings adopted by the Chinese Imperial Post Office, with the approximate pronunciation of the names will be interesting and valuable : Post office Name. Pronunciation. Szechwan Yunnan Kweichow Chengtu Kiatingfu Jah-din-foo Jenshow Junghsien Tzeliutsing Penghsien Pen-shan Luchow Chungking Tsingyuanhsien Pihsien Pee-shan Tsungninghsien Sinfan Wenkiang Wen-jong Weiyuanhsien Wench wan Omeihsien 0-may-shan Kwanhsien People at home addressing missionaries on the field must be sure to put the above spelling. Then they need not be afraid of their letters going astray. Put not only the name of the station, but the name of the province — Szechwan. “Via Chungking” is no longer needed. 259 APPENDIX No. 2. MISSIONARIES AND THEIR STATIONS, 1911-1912 Chengtu — ’ Church — J. Neave. Medical Work — Dr. Sheridan. College and Middle School — Dr. Kilborn, C. R. Cars- callen, J. L. Stewart, H. D. 'Robertson, P. M. Bayne. Dental Work — A. W. Lindsay. Press — J. Neave, S. P. Westaway, T. E. Plewman. Language School — Dr. Kilborn. School for Missionaries’ Children — Miss Ker, Miss Perkins, Miss Norman. Accountant — ^A. T. Crutcher. To Complete Building Hospital — W. T. Small. Students of Language — D. S. Kern, Miss Mc- Naughton, J. E. Thompson, Dr. D. F. McKinley, T. E. Bateman, F. Abrey, G. R. Jones, A. E. Johns, Miss Perkins, Miss Norman. Kiating — Church and Outstations — A. P. Quirmbach. Hospital — Dr. Service. Schools — A. H. Hockin. Student of Language — Miss Wood. Jenshow — Church and Certain Outstations — R. B. McAmmond. Medical Work — Dr. Allan. Schools and Certain Outstations — J. R. Earle. Student of Language — A. J. Elson. Penghsien — Church and Certain Outstations — W. E. Sibley. Medical Work and City School — Dr. Barter. Schools and Certain Outstations — H. H. Irish. JUNGHSIEN — Church and Certain Outstations — W. E. Smith. Second Church and lo Outstations — W. B. Albertson. Medical Work and Building Hospital — Dr. Cox. 260 Appendix No. 2. City Schools and Building — R. S. Longley. Student of Language — J. W. Henderson. Tzeliutsing — ■ Church and Outstations — G. W. Sparling. Schools (part time) — G. Batdorf. Students of Language — Dr. E. C. Wilford, G. Bat- dorf, R. E. S. Taylor, Luchow— Church and Outstations — C. J. P. Jolliffe. Medical Work — Dr. Ferguson. Schools and Street-Chapel — E. R. M. Brecken. Chungking — Church and Certain Outstations — J. Parker. Hospital — Dr. Wolfendale. Nurse — Miss Switzer. Schools — D. M. Perley. Pharmacist and Business Agent — ^M. A. Brillinger. Student of Language — G. G. Harris. Chungchow — Church and Outstations — W. J. Mortimore. Medical Work — Dr. Crawford. To Leave on Furlough — Dr. Ewan, R. O. Jolliffe, E. W. Wallace, N. E. Bowles. Returning from Furlough — A. C. Hoffman. Absent on Furlough — J. Endicott, D.D., G. E. Hartwell. 261 APPENDIX No. 3 ITINERARY OF DISTANCES ON THE YANGTSE (Abridged from Blakiston) Geog. Statute Miles Miles Shanghai 0 0 Chinkiang 155 Nanking 200 Wuhu 256 Kiukiang 451 Hankow 588 676 Yochow 718 Shaze 888 I chan g 950 1094 Kweifu 1002 Wanhsien 1159 Shih-baochai. . . 1188 Chungchow .... 1210 Fengtu 1249 F uchow 1284 Chungking 1309 1505 Luchow 1438 Suifu 1511 1710 Time ^ By steamboat in about five days. By houseboat in about four weeks. } By houseboat in about two weeks. 262 APPENDIX No. 4. GOOD INVESTMENTS. $2 sends a boy or girl to Day School for one year. $20 pays for an annual scholarship in Boarding School. $20-$30 pays for an annual scholarship in College. $20 pays for an annual scholarship in Biblical School. $20 pays for an annual scholarship in Theological School. $40 will support an evangelistic teacher for one year. $250 with native gifts will secure a church worth $500 to $1,500. 263 APPENDIX No. 5. BIBLIOGRAPHY. The Middle Kingdom. S. Wells Williams. 2 Vols. (Second Edition ’83.) Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York. Illustrated. $9.00. Tne standard reference work in English. The chap- ters on government, literature, religions, and history are especially valuable. The Lore of Cathay; or, The Intellect of China. W. A. P. Martin. Fleming H. Revell Co., New York. Illustrated. $2.50. Dealing with the commerce, sciences, literature, re- ligion, education, and history. Written after fifty years of diligent study. A Cycle of Cathay: China, North and South. W. A. P. Martin. Fleming H. Revell Co., New York. Il- lustrated. $2.00. Reminiscences covering nearly fifty years by one of the oldest living foreigners in China, ex-president of the Imperial University. Chinese Characteristics. Arthur H. Smith. Fleming H. Revell Co., New York. Illustrated. $2.00. The best work on the characteristics of the Chinese, by a judicial and truthful observer and illuminating writer. A most entertaining and readable book. Village Life in China. Arthur H. Smith. Fleming H. Revell Co., New York. Illustrated. $2.00. A description of village life in North China, its institutions, public characters, and family life. The best account of Chinese social life that has ever been written. Rex Christus; An Outline Study of China. Arthur H. Smith. Central Committee on the United Study of Missions. Paper, 35 cents ; Cloth, 50 cents. A very valuable brief survey of China and Chinese Missions. Dawn on the Hills of T’ang. Harlan P. Beach. Student Volunteer Movement. Paper, 35 cents; Cloth, 50 cents. This is the best brief summary of things Chinese to be found. Every student of China and every missionary library should have a copy for reference. 264 Appendix No. 5. The Uplift of China. Arthur H. Smith. Young People’s Missionary Movement. Illustrated. Paper, 35 cents ; Cloth, 50 cents. A study of China, specially prepared for study classes. Intimate China. Mrs. Archibald Little. C. L. Bowman & Co., New York. Illustrated. $5.00. An attractively written description of life in various parts of China, by the wife of a British merchant, who had a special opportunity for observation. Western China. Virgil C. Hart. Houghton, Mifflin & Co., Boston. Illustrated. $2.00. Describes a journey from Hankow to the great Buddhist centre. Mount Omei. Although written twenty years ago, it is one of the standard works on Western China. Heal the Sick. O. L. Kilborn, M. D. Young People’s Forward Movement for Missions, Toronto. Illus- trated, Cloth, 50 cents ; Paper, 35 cents. The story of the founding and development of medi- cal missions of the Canadian Methodist Church in West China. It throws a flood of light on the whole subject of medical mission work in West China, and affords the most convincing and irresistible argument for the utmost possible increase of our medical staff and plant in that vast and needy fleld. New Forces in Old China. Arthur J. Brown. Illus- trated. $1.50 net. An analysis of the commercial, economic, political and religious forces that are working to produce the new China. The Boston Transcript calls it eminently prac- tical,” and The O'utlook says that “the information con- veyed Is as precise and exact as possible, but conveyed in so entertaining a way that even the casual observer will be attracted, appealing at once to the student and the man in the street.” The Awakening of China. W. A. P. Martin. Double- day, Page, New York. $3.80. Through the Yangtse Gorges. A. Little. Charles Scrib- ner’s Sons, New York. $2.50. The River of Golden Sand. W. Gill (1883). Murray, London, England. $2.50. Report on Szechwan by Consul-General Hosie. (Par- liamentary Blue Book.) All 1)ooks of reference may be ordered from T. C. Stephenson, Methodist Mission Rooms, Toronto, Ont. 265 APPENDIX No. 6. REFERENCE LIBRARY ON CHINA. 10 Volumes for $5.50. Carriage Extra. (Publisher’s Price, $ 12 . 50 ,) These books are not sold separately. Chinese Characteristics. Arthur H. Smith, D.D. Illustrated, 8vo, Cloth, $2.00. “Not only one of the ablest analyses and portrayals of the Chinese character, but on the whole, one of the most truthful and judicial." — The Nation. “ Highly entertaining, showing uncommon shrewdness, with keen analysis of character.” — New York Times. Under ex- isting conditions in China it becomes indispensable. China’s Only Hope. Viceroy Chang Chih Tung. Illus- trated, Cloth, 75c. When written this was an appeal. It has become re- cognized as a prophecy. It laid the foundation for present reform. Village Life in China. Arthur H. Smith, D.D. Illus- trated, 8vo, Cloth, $2.00. As a Study in Sociology this book, as The Sunday School Times says, is “a unique contribution to litera- ture.” As a study in Chinese life, it is “an incompar- able magazine of information.” — New York Sun. As a book on missions, it gives the “fruits of twenty-five years of ripe experience.” — Outlook. Dawn on the Hills of T’ang; or, Missions in China. Harlan P. Beach, M.A., F.R.G.S. (New and enlarged edition of 1905.) Bibliography, ana- lytical index, missionary map, statistics, illustra- tions. soc. In this volume the main points are given in as brief form as possible. In the eight chapters the most inter- esting factors relating to the Empire are discussed from the missionary standpoint. The author vividly describes the land, people and religions of China, and gives an interesting account of missionary operations in this Empire, with special references to changes fol- lowing the Boxer uprising of 1900. 266 Appendix No. 6, New Forces in Old China. Arthur J. Brown, D.D. Illustrated, i2mo, Cloth, $1.50 net. An analysis of the commercial, economic, political and religious forces that are working to produce the new China. The Boston Transcript calls it “ eminently practical,” and The Outlook says that “ the informa- tion conveyed is as precise and exact as possible, but conveyed in so entertaining a way that even the casual observer will be attracted, appealing at once to the student and the man in the street.” A Typical Mission in China. W. E. Soothill. Illus- trated, i2mo. Cloth, $1.50 net. Mission problems and methods discussed by one who has had wide experience, and who has a keen sense of the needs of China. He writes with an insight and humor that maintains constant interest. It is a perfect mine of information regarding the Chinese, their cus- toms and habits. Mission Problems and Mission Methods in South China. J. Campbell Gibson. Illustrated, i2mo. Cloth, $1.50 net. An exceedingly well-written volume treating mission- ary problems, their failures, successes, and achieve- ments in a scientific and statesmanlike manner. The Real Chinese Question. Chester Holcombe. Illus- trated, i2mo. Cloth, $1.50. Written by one who was for years closely connected with Chinese life as a diplomat. The author handles the Chinese questions with a master hand. Princely Men in the Heavenly Kingdom. Harlan P. Beach. Illustrated, i2mo. Cloth, 50c. net. Interesting and instructive biographical sketches of Robert Morrison, John Kenneth Mackenzie, James Gil- mour, John Livingston Nevius, George Leslie Mackay, and Princely Martyrs of China’s Spiritual Renaissance. The Women of the Middle Kingdom. R. L. McNabb. Illustrated, i2mo. Cloth, 75c. net. A brief statement of the needs and present oppor- tunities for mission work among the women of China. Tills library may be ordered from F. C. Stephenson, Methodist Mission Booms, Toronto, Ont. 267 fB>iggionan) ^eyt-gboot^s O UR SHARE IN CHINA” is one of a Series of Missionary Text-books which have been published by tixe Methodist Young People’s Forward Movement for Missions. The Series includes: “The Evangelization of the World in this Generation.** By John R. Mott. “ The Heart of Sz-Chuan.** By Rev. E. W. Wallace, B.A., B.D. “The Heart of Japan.** By Rev. A. P. Addison, B.A., B.D. **The Methodist Church and Missions in Canada and Newfoundland.** By Rev. A. Sutherland, D.D. “Strangers Within Our Gates.** By Rev. J. S. Woodsworth. B A., B.D. “Heal the Sick.** By Rev. O. L. Kil- born, M.A., M.D. These books are well illustrated, and are sold at the uniform price of 33 cents in paper, and 50 cents in cloth. Maps, Charts, and other helps have been prepared for the use of Mission Study Classes. Other text-books, with helps prepared from an interdenominational standpoint, have been published by the Young People’s Missionary Movement. Send for Catalogue and order from F. C. STEPHENSON, Methodist Mission Rooms, TORONTO, CAN. 268 What the Author of “ Our Share in China ” Says About “ Heal the Sick I have been reading Dr. Kilborn’s new book, “ Heal the Sick,” with the greatest interest and delight. He has done an inestimable service to the Church by writing it. It throws a flood of light on the whole subject of medical mission work in West China, and affords the most convincing and irresistible argument for the utmost possible increase of our medical staff and plant in that vast and needy held. Coming from the pen of a man who has spent nineteen years in medical mission work, it has the special value and authority of having been written out of a long, prac- tical, varied and successful experience — the experience of a pioneer who has seen his work develop to un- limited possibilities from conditions at once contracted, perilous and unpromising. The book is admirably written ; its style is clear, graphic, simple and eminently readable. Any one who begins it will hardly be dis- posed to lay it aside till he has finished its last page, and those that read it through will find themselves possessed of a wonderful fund of information on things Chinese. Nowhere have I seen the appalling ignor- ance of even the rudiments of medical and surgical knowledge among native practitioners so well set forth, and the widespread and unspeakable suffering there- upon consequent. The deplorable results of the prac- tice of footbinding and other cruel conventions that hamper and handicap the women of China are also startlingly shown in this illuminating volume. I hope it will have a very large sale. Geo. J. Bond. PRICE, PAPER, 35c. ; CLOTH, 50c. Order from C. STEPHENSON METHODIST MISSION ROOMS - TORONTO M ? - rM\^' DATE DUE 1 1 GAYLORD PRINTED IN U.S A.