PAM. 
 
 CHINA 
 
 C, 3 
 
 The 
 
 Missionary Enterprise 
 in Chma 
 
 By the Hon. CHESTER HOLCOMBE 
 
 
 AMERICAN BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS FOR 
 FOREIGN MISSIONS 
 
THE 
 
 MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE 
 IN CHINA 
 
 By The Hon. CHESTER HOLCOMBE 
 
 For 20 years connedled with the Diplomatic Staff 
 of the United States in China, 
 
 Author of “The Real Chinaman,” 
 
 “The Real Chinese Question," etc. 
 
 Reprinted by permission from 
 
 THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY 
 
 Copyright, 1906, by Houghton, Mifflin & Company 
 
 AMERICAN BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS 
 FOR FOREIGN MISSIONS 
 
 Congregational House. 14 Beacon Street 
 
 BOSTON, MASS 
 
PUBLISHER’S NOTE. 
 
 The Hon. Chester Holcombe, the writer of the following 
 paper, which first appeared in the Atlantic Monthly for Sep- 
 tember, 1906, and is now reprinted through the courtesy of 
 the publishers of that magazine, Houghton, Mifflin & Co., is 
 a graduate of Union College, N. Y., and in early life went to 
 China, where he was appointed secretary and interpreter to 
 the American Legation in Peking by Gen. Grant. Mr. Hol- 
 combe has been connected with the diplomatic service in 
 various posts, and knows thoroughly the language and the 
 people of China, has resided long in Peking and has traveled 
 throughout almost the entire empire. He is a diplomat and 
 author, his two volumes, “The Real Chinaman” and “The 
 Real Chinese Question,” having been widely circulated and 
 commended, both in this country and in Great Britain. 
 
 As a diplomat of experience, Mr. Holcombe holds no brief 
 for the defence of missions. He writes frankly of what he 
 has himself seen, and in regard to which he has had exep- 
 tional opportunity for acquiring accurate information. The 
 net result is that he makes it clear that the great mass of in- 
 discriminate condemnation and criticism of missions and mis- 
 sionaries has its foundation in lack of information and ig- 
 norance of real conditions. For this, in these days, there is 
 no valid excuse. 
 
THE MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE 
 IN CHINA. 
 
 W ITH the rising tide of American interest in 
 China, the unsatisfactory condition of our 
 relations with that great and ancient nation, 
 with the general unrest there, which is the inevitable 
 consequence of movements toward a new and modern 
 life, and the local and sporadic outbreaks of violence 
 incident to such unrest, one hears again the old and 
 familiar cry that the missionaries are responsible for 
 at least the larger portion of the varied forms of hos- 
 tility exhibited toward foreigners. Their persistent 
 and impertinent attempts to force an alien and un- 
 desired religion upon the Chinese are, so it is con- 
 fidently asserted, peculiarly offensive to officials and 
 people alike, a hindrance to trade, and a menace to 
 peaceful relations. The Boxer movement it is pointed 
 out, was an attempt, vain in result, to throw off the 
 hateful missionary incubus, to rid the Chinese of a 
 body of unwelcome interlopers who defamed their 
 ancient and cherished forms of belief, — which are as 
 good as ours, some will add, — and who sought to 
 supplant them with another, wholly unsuited to their 
 mental and spiritual conformation. The loss of life 
 in that Boxer movement, confined almost wholly to 
 missionaries and native converts, together with 
 several more recent exhibitions of violence in which 
 missionaries alone have su^ered, are cited as full 
 evidence of the correctness of this conclusion. 
 
It might be pointed out that the Boxer uprising 
 was an abortive attempt to drive all foreigners of 
 every class from China, and thus to save the 
 Empire from partition and distribution among the 
 great cormorant powers of Europe, — which was 
 believed to be the distinct purpose and inevitable 
 result of the continued presence of foreigners there ; 
 that, in fact, missionaries formed the only class of 
 alien residents who had no part in the development 
 of such a fear and frenzy ; that they suffered most 
 because they alone of all alien classes had estab- 
 lished themselves at remote parts of the interior, 
 in close touch with the people, and out of reach of 
 battleship, cruiser, or any other means of defence or 
 place of refuge. In a general raid against all for- 
 eigners, the missionary was first attacked because he 
 was first at hand, and, to put it frankly and truthfully, 
 he .suffered because he was in or part of bad com- 
 pany ; not because he was a missionary, but for the 
 crime, in Chinese eyes, of being a foreigner. 
 
 So too, in response to the charge of attempting to 
 force an alien and inappropriate form of belief upon 
 a people well suited to and with their own, it might 
 be said that, in the entire history of missionary ef- 
 fort in China, or in other parts of the Far East, 
 nothing even remotely approaching the exercise of 
 force has been attempted. To talk to persons who 
 choose to listen, to throw wide the doors of chapels 
 where natives who desire may hear the Christian faith 
 explained and urged upon their attention, to sell at 
 half cost or to give the Bible and Christian literature 
 freely to those who may care to read them, to heal 
 
the sick, without cost, who come for medical treat- 
 ment, to instruct children whose parents are desirous 
 that they should receive education, — surely none or 
 or all of these constitute methods or practices to 
 which the word force may be applied under any allow- 
 able use of the English language. And this, thus 
 briefly summarized, constitutes the entire body of 
 missionary effort in China. To put it in another form, 
 there is no difference between the work of pioneer 
 preachers in the far West, that of laborers or “settle- 
 ment workers ” in the slums of great cities, or of el- 
 oquent pastors of wealthy and fashionable churches 
 in Back Bay district of Boston or P'ifth Avenue in 
 New York, and that done by missionaries in China. 
 If the last named force the acceptance of Christian- 
 ity upon their hearers, then so do all the others. 
 
 The work is absolutely identical in character and 
 method, differentiated from the others only by simple 
 forms of presentation in order to reach the more 
 effectively, minds wholly unfamiliar with tmths pre- 
 sented. Those who assert that Christianity is wholly 
 unsuited to the Chinese character, that the Chinese 
 will not and cannot become sincere and loyal Christ- 
 ians, are most respectfully referred to the long list of 
 native martyrs, of both sexes and all ages, who read- 
 ily and gladly gave up their lives in the Boxer move- 
 ment, rather than abjure the Christian faith. 
 
 It might further be added that unselfish men and 
 devoted women, enthusiastic in what appears to them 
 at least, to be a great cause, who are ready to expa- 
 triate themselves and to abandon all their ambitions 
 and their lives to its promotion in foreign lands, have 
 
 5 
 
as good a right to carr^’ out their self-sacrificing 
 wishes, to enter China and do their chosen work 
 there by all proper methods, as have their fellow 
 citizens who seek the same Empire in order to win 
 a fortune by dealing in cotton goods, kerosene, silk, 
 tea, or possibly in opium. They have precisely the 
 same right, no greater and no less, to the protection 
 and sympathetic assistance of their own government 
 as any other class of citizens. To more than this, 
 American missionaries have never made claim. 
 
 Beyond tliese brief and general statements, intend- 
 ed to correct certain widely prevalent misconceptions 
 of fact, and to clear the ground for what is to follow, 
 it is not the purpose of this article to denounce or 
 defend evangelistic work in China or the presence of 
 missionaries there. With the quality of the work 
 done, the doctrines taught, or the agencies employed, 
 this paper has nothing to do. After all, it is a matter 
 of comparatively trifling importance what fellow for- 
 eigners may think of missionaries or missionary work 
 on the other side of the world. Their approval or 
 condemnation counts for little. What the Chinese 
 themselves think, what is their attitude and that of 
 their government toward the enterprise, are questions 
 of vastly greater moment. To answer these questions 
 from a purely secular standpoint, to deal with the 
 missionary enterprise as a factor in the moderniza- 
 tion of China, to explain the exact attitude and policy 
 of the Imperial government toward it and the causes 
 of friction, constantly growing more rare, between its 
 promotors and Chinese officials and people, these 
 together constitute the motive of this article. Neither 
 
 6 
 
conjecture nor hearsay will form the basis of con- 
 clusions reached, but facts gained through a long 
 and necessarily close study of the missionary ques- 
 tion in China, innumerable discussions, and much 
 practical experience in the adjustment of so-called 
 “missionary cases.” 
 
 In any effort to gain a correct understanding of 
 this or other questions which affect our relations with 
 the Chinese, certain characteristics of the race 
 should be kept carefully in mind. They are an in- 
 tellectual people, and possessed of fully the average 
 amount of shrewd common sense, intermingled with 
 some ancient and crude superstitions, which ser\-e as 
 a varient. With the single exception of the Emperor, 
 their officials of all grades, from the highest to the 
 lowest, are of and chosen from the people themselves, 
 and local self-government exists there to an extent 
 not seen elsewhere. In China the people are, in 
 fact, masters of the situation, and a spirit of sturdy 
 democracy is everywhere evident. They judge men 
 or nations, much as we do, by what they do rather 
 than what they say. Hence in any given conditions 
 or circumstances, if we infer Chinese feelings or con- 
 duct from what our own would be in the same sit- 
 uation, we shall not go far wrong, always, however, 
 bearing the fact in mind that they are more patient 
 than we. 
 
 Then it is necessary to keep certain facts of 
 Chinese history in plain sight. The first knowledge 
 which the Chinese had of the western world, by 
 which is meant western Europe and America, came 
 through buccaneering expeditions, or piratical attacks, 
 
as they would now be called, upon the Chinese coasts 
 by the Dutch, Portuguese, French, and Spaniards. 
 In more modern times, barely seventy years ago in 
 fact, the entering wedge to break open the barred 
 doors of Chinese seclusion was driven home by the 
 military power of Great Britain mainly in order to 
 force 'a market for Indian opium, of which that 
 Christian government held a monopoly. From that 
 day to this every form of foreign enterprise in China, 
 irrespective of character or nationality, has been 
 tainted with opium and hindered by the hatred, sus- 
 picion, and contempt engenderd by the eventual suc- 
 cess of this monstrous scheme to despoil China in 
 brain, body, and pocket, for the sake of gain to the 
 exchequer of Great Britain. To this must be added 
 more than sixty years of unjust and inexcusable di- 
 plomacy, the exploitation of China to suit the rival 
 ambitions and satisfy the ever growing greed of the 
 great European powers, robberies of its territory upon 
 every border, and a consistent disregard of ever}? 
 claim which the Chinese might put forward to the 
 ownership of their own territory and the manage- 
 ment of their own affairs. Most clearly it must be 
 understood that, not the missionary in the cabin, 
 but the opium and gunpowder in the hold, has fixed 
 the hatred and established a permanent opposition 
 among the Chinese toward all things foreign. Once 
 for all, it must be most emphatically declared that, 
 not Christian propagandism, but most unchristian 
 {X)licies and practices of aggression, dominance, and 
 spoilation upon the part of certain governments of 
 Europe brought about the horrors of the Boxer up- 
 rising. 8 
 
The earlier general treaties between China and 
 foreign governments make no special concessions 
 to any particular class of alien residents within the 
 Empire. They are not recognized as merchants, 
 missionaries, students, or travelers, but provided for 
 en masse, as citizens or subjects of the government 
 with which the treaty is negotiated. Our own 
 government is particularly careful upon this point, 
 asking special favors for none, and exerting its efforts, 
 when occasion arises, for its people as American 
 citizens only. It is not permitted even to state the 
 calling or avocation of the bearer of a passport, and 
 though the request has often been made by Chinese 
 officials that this be done in the case of missionaries 
 in order that special protection and assistance be 
 afforded them, it has been necessary to refuse the 
 request as contrary to statute or regulation. The 
 missionary possesses only such privileges, exemptions, 
 and immunities under treaty, as are granted to his 
 fellow alien of every other class and occupation. 
 The right to reside, acquire property, and to pursue 
 his calling at certain specified centres of population, 
 mostly upon the sea-coast, and to travel freely under 
 passport, throughout the interior, covers all to which 
 he is entitled under the official pledge and seal of 
 the Imperial government of China. 
 
 Yet, from the inception of what may be termed 
 modern missionary enterprise in China, the mission- 
 aries have gone beyond this narrow limit of favor, 
 gone beyond the treaty ports, until now they can be 
 found in every province and in nearly every large city. 
 Even in many mud-walled villages and rural hamlets 
 
 9 
 
missionary families are now to be found quietly and 
 permanently established in homes, in close touch and 
 intimate association with the native residents. This 
 special favor, unobtainable by any other alien class 
 in the Empire has assuredly not been won either 
 through any exercise of governmental force or dip- 
 lomatic pressure. It has been slowly gained by the 
 exercise of patience, tact and discretion upon the 
 part of the missionaries themselves, under the open 
 eyes and with the tacit, though unspoken, consent 
 of the imperial authorities. In rare cases, mission- 
 aries have been driven out of interior points by local 
 hostility ; but in no instance has the Peking govern- 
 ment demanded their withdrawal, or our own govern- 
 ment urged their right of residence there. This 
 successful missionary expansion, as it may be called, 
 speaks volumes for the wisdom and patient zeal of 
 those who have accomplished it. It does more than 
 this. It shows clearly a line of policy and procedure, 
 which has now been consistently followed by the 
 Imperial authorities for more than forty years, and 
 which may here be stated. The Emperor will 
 neither force nor forbid the residence and labors of 
 missionaries at any points beyond the treaty ports. 
 But recognizing and appreciating the self-denying 
 and philantrophic character of missionary effort, he 
 will gladly permit those engaged in it to establish 
 themselves throughout the interior, wherever they 
 may be able to do so with the consent and good will 
 of the people of the locality. It is not known that 
 this well-established line of policy has been formu- 
 lated and officially communicated to any foreign 
 
power. But it has been verbally declared to the 
 writer by members of the Cabinet and other high 
 authorities of the Empire, upon many occasions. 
 
 It would not have been surprising if the Chinese 
 authorities, while conceding so great an advantage 
 to missionaries, should have coupled with it a dis- 
 claimer of all responsibility for any mishaps, in- 
 cluding mob violence, to which they might be sub- 
 jected in seeking residence where they had no treaty 
 right to be. But it has done nothing of the sort. 
 It has never, within the knowledge of the writer, 
 attempted to shirk full responsibility for the lives 
 and property of the American citizens in any part of 
 the Empire, or to claim that missionaries, in establish- 
 ing themselves in the interior, ran their own risks, 
 took their lives in their own keeping, and must them- 
 selves bear any financial losses which local opposi- 
 tion to their presence might entail upon them. The 
 utmost in the nature of criticism or complaint that 
 can justly be made upon Imperial action in such 
 cases, is that the Peking government would perhaps 
 be more dilatory in making reparation in such a case 
 than in one simiiar which might occur within the 
 limits of a treaty port ; that it appeared to regard the 
 trouble somewhat in the light of a local quarrel 
 between missionaries and populace which should be 
 adjusted by the local authorities. And advice, rather 
 than orders, for punishment of offenders and in- 
 demnity for losses, often appeared to be the limit to 
 which the officials at the capital were willing to go. 
 At the same time it must in justice be admitted 
 that if the authorities of the legation saw fit them- 
 
selves to take the affair before the local officials, they 
 never failed to secure ample reparation. Can as 
 much be said regarding anti-Chinese mobs in the 
 United States? 
 
 Aside from this most practical evidence of the 
 appreciation and favor with which the government 
 of China regards the missionary enterprise, there is 
 a great mass of testimony from individuals high in 
 rank and authority throughout the Empire, all 
 serving to show that this unselfish effort for the good 
 of Chinese humanity has gained for itselt an honored 
 place in influential minds once suspicious of or open- 
 ly hostile to it. Large donations to mission hos- 
 pitals and schools from official or wealthy Chinese, 
 a great and rapidly increasing demand for Christ- 
 ian literature and educational works, special and un- 
 solicited courtesy and assistance shown to mission- 
 aries, all these indicate that the day of Chinese op- 
 position to missionary work among them has passed, 
 and that, whatever may be the opinion of foreigners 
 either resident in China or in their native lands, 
 China itself, as represented by the leaders of thought 
 and public opinion in it, has recognized and accepted 
 the missionary enterprise as one of the most im- 
 portant and useful factors in the creation and de- 
 velopment of new life in that ancient and antique 
 Empire. 
 
 Not to mention other evidence to this fact, take 
 one incident of recent occurrence in the good city of 
 Boston. The Chinese Imperial government has 
 recently dispatched two commissions, composed of 
 officials of high rank and a numerous staff, to visit 
 
 12 
 
and study various important subjects in America and 
 Europe. When arrangments were being made for 
 the visit of the first of these commissions to Boston, 
 and a long list of points in or near the city which 
 they might wish to see was submitted to them, 
 among the first selected were the offices of the 
 American Board, the parent of all foreign mis- 
 sionary organizations in the United States, and 
 having large interests in that work in China. The 
 selection of this active centre of foreign evangelistic 
 effort was unguided and entirely spontaneous. In 
 their addresses and informal remarks during the 
 visit to those offices, the commissioners expressed in 
 unqualified terms their appreciation and strong ap- 
 proval of the missionaiy enterprise in China, and 
 their gratitude for what had been and was being 
 done there. “ We know who are our friends,” said 
 they again and again. Yet neither of the Chinese 
 commissioners was a convert to Christianity, they 
 were under no obligation to visit one of the head- 
 quarters of the American missionaiy effort in China, 
 or, being there, to go beyond polite and non-com- 
 mittal remarks. Hence, and all the more, their dec- 
 larations must in all fairness be taken as strong 
 official endorsement and approval. 
 
 With much the same feelings they expressed their 
 delight at what they saw at Wellesley College, and 
 recognized in it the grander development of what 
 American women were attempting to do for the 
 women of China. Speaking by the way, the treat- 
 ment of the female sex is the darkest blot upon the 
 civilization of China. A revolt against the earlier 
 
practices in this direction has already begun there, 
 and probably nothing in the entire journey of this 
 commission into foreign parts will work such im- 
 mediate and lasting change for the better, as the 
 visit to Wellesley. To cite one other proof of 
 Chinese official approval of the missionary enterprise ; 
 in the later commercial treaties, rendered necessary 
 by the Boxer uprising, foreign missionary organi- 
 zations are permitted to acquire real estate in all 
 parts of the Empire, and “ to erect such suitable 
 buildings as may be required for carrying on their 
 good work.” No similar concession has been made 
 to any other class of alien residents. Thus the vol- 
 untary and unwritten policy long followed by the 
 Emperor has been formulated and shaped into a 
 solemn engagement and pledge. 
 
 To speak quite frankly and to the fact, for many 
 years more unfriendly criticism and complaint of 
 the presence of missionaries and their work in China 
 has been heard from foreigners, either like them 
 alien residents in the Ear East, or at home, than from 
 Chinese officials or people. It has even been cus- 
 tomary and the fashion with a certain class, which 
 need not be more particularly described, in speaking 
 of the missionary to prefix an offensive and con- 
 demnatory adjective to the word. Regarding the 
 the opinions and judgments of such with all possible 
 charity, they have been far more fearful of the evil 
 results of all attempts to do good in far Cathay than 
 have the Chinese themselves. Upon the other hand, 
 in many years of intimate official and friendly inter- 
 course with all classes of Chinese in every part of 
 
the Empire, the writer has never heard even one com- 
 plaint of or objection to the presence of American 
 missionaries in China or the character of their work. 
 He has heard himself, and all other foreigners of 
 every nationality and calling, cursed in most violent 
 terms for having fastened the opium horror upon the 
 Chinese race, and the suggestion made, in a parox- 
 ysm of anger and hate by some human wreck wrought 
 by the drug, that foreigners “ would do well to take 
 away that awful curse before they had the impudence 
 to talk to the Chinese about their Jesus.” But, 
 aside from crazed and mistaken denunciation, no 
 Chinaman within his hearing has had anything but 
 pleasant words to speak regarding the missionary 
 enterprise, as conducted by Americans, in his land. 
 
 In the discussion of particular “ missionary cases,” 
 as they are called, and by which is meant cases of 
 complaints made by missionaries of interference with 
 them in their work, — interference which sometimes 
 took the form of mob violence, — Chinese officials 
 have complained, in most courteous language, of the 
 indiscreet methods or conduct of particular mission- 
 aries. Yet this complaint has never been so strong 
 as the writer would himself have used, and has been 
 invariably coupled with a hearty approval and high 
 appreciation of the work of the missionary body as a 
 whole. 
 
 It would be idle to deny or ignore the fact that 
 cases of serious friction between the natives and 
 foreign missionaries have arisen in the past and are 
 still of less frequent occurrence. By far the largest 
 percentage of such most unfortunate conflicts has 
 
 '5 
 
been caused by the unwise and improper interference 
 of missionaries between their native converts and the 
 Chinese authorities, or by the assumption of civil 
 rank and authority by missionaries. Since, in the sixty 
 years of modern missionary enterprise in China, no 
 single charge or complaint of that nature has been 
 made against an American missionary, such causes 
 of trouble need not be discussed here. The conduct 
 of European governments toward China, their greed, 
 aggression, and general attitude of domination, long 
 prejudiced both officials and people against mission- 
 aries, who were popularly believed to make use of 
 their professedly philantrophic work only as a cloak, 
 and to be, in fact, spies of their own governments 
 whose aim was the seizure of the Empire and sub- 
 jugation of its people. But with greater mutual in- 
 telligence and less frequent occasions of misunder- 
 standing, these causes of friction and conflict have, 
 in great measure, disappeared. The true charac- 
 ter and great value of the missionary enterprise as 
 a factor in the modernization of China, and in bring- 
 ing it into line with the great nations of the world, is 
 almost universally recognized and appreciated, at least 
 by those who are being most radically affected by it. 
 And it should be realized and freely admitted that, in 
 a nation where popular opinion and sentiment to an 
 almost unprececlented extent guide and limit govern- 
 mental policy, — for all the nominally autocratic 
 authority of the Emperor, — the presence of such a 
 force at work quietly among the people, is of the utmost 
 value in the establishment and maintenance of good 
 relations and the development to their full limit of all 
 
mutual interests. The missionary has won his way, 
 found his work in China, which, while primarily re- 
 ligious in character, is greatly helpful in all worthy 
 secular affairs. No other foreigner comes in such 
 close and intimate touch with the native as he. And 
 he is the unrecognized and uncommissioned rep- 
 resentative of what is best in every' phase and depart- 
 ment of American life. 
 
 In these days of intense commercialism, when trade 
 appears, at least, to have relegated all other concerns 
 and interests to the background, when not only men 
 but governments are bending every energy to the 
 enlargement of existing fields of commerce and the 
 development of new lines and centres of trade, one 
 most important result, one valuable by product, as it 
 may be called, of missionary enterprise in China 
 deserves to receive more serious consideration than 
 has hitherto been accorded to it. In it is to be found 
 an agency, unequaled by any other, for the develop- 
 ment of our commerce with that vast population. 
 Every missionary is, whether willingly or unwillingly, 
 an agent for the display and recommendation of 
 American fabrics and wares of every conceivable sort. 
 Each missionary home, whether established in great 
 Chinese cities or rural hamlets, serv'es as an object 
 lesson, an exposition of the practical comfort, con- 
 venience, and value of the thousand and one items in 
 the long catalogue of articles which complete the 
 equipment of an American home. Idle curiosity 
 upon the part of the natives grows into personal in- 
 terest which in turn develops the desire to possess. 
 Did space permit, an overwhelming array of facts 
 
 >7 
 
and figures could be set forth to prove the inestimable, 
 though unrecognized, value of the missionar)' as an 
 agent for the development of American commerce 
 in every part of the globe. The manufacturing and 
 commercial interests in the United States, even 
 though indifferent or actively hostile to the direct 
 purpose of the missionarj^ enterprise, could well 
 afford to bear the entire cost of all American mission- 
 ary effort in China for the sake of the large increase 
 in trade which results from such effort. 
 
 When the government and people of the United 
 States are ready, and detennined, to return to a dig- 
 nified and decent policy in the treatment of the 
 Chinese who are within our borders or may seek to 
 come here ; when we realize that now is always the 
 time to apologize for an insult or to right a wrong ; 
 when, in short, we resume our earlier attitude and 
 practice of fair play and genuine, helpful friendliness 
 toward the Chinese race and nation, we shall easily 
 secure a renewel of their confidence in us and win 
 back all and more than all that now, thanks to our 
 own folly, appears to have been lost. And the 
 American missionary' enterprise in China will play a 
 part in our relations with that great Empire of even 
 greater value in years to come than it has in the 
 past. 
 
 iS 
 
'1 1