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A Bicentenary in Robert Morrison's Scholarship on China And his Significance for Today
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 08 April 2015
Abstract
Robert Morrison (1782–1834), the first Protestant missionary to China, was responsible for the completion of the earliest Chinese-English Dictionary in 1814. Though this work would not have reached publication without the help of Chinese assistants, and of the printer P. P. Thoms (1790–1855), even so Morrison's scholarly achievements in this and other aspects of Chinese studies were prodigious. This survey of recent research makes clear the continuing value of his writings to contemporary scholars, and also suggests that he was not simply more seriously engaged in attempting to understand China than his contemporaries but also more enlightened than a good number of his successors in missionary work.
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1 I am grateful to the Chinese Academy of Fine Arts for having suggested the lecture; to the London Confucius Institute for having organised it; and to the advice of a number of friends in its preparation, notably Charles Aylmer, Christopher Daily, Bernhard Führer and Andrew West; any errors and misconceptions are my own.
2 Shouyi, Bai, An Outline History of China (Beijing, 1982), p. 430 Google Scholar.
3 Note Lutz, Jessie Gregory, Opening China: Karl F. A. Gützlaff and Sino-Western Relations, 1827–1852 (Grand Rapids, Michigan, 2008), pp. 313–319 Google Scholar, and also pp. 77–83 on this missionary and opium smuggling.
4 Something of the remarkable diversity of the Protestant missions – and also of their non-Protestant contemporaries – may now be discerned in the masterly work of Tiedemann, R. G., Reference Guide to Christian Missionary Societies in China, (Armonk, NY, 2009)Google Scholar.
5 For a succinct account of Bell, see Spence, Jonathan, The Chan's Great Continent: China in Western Minds (Harmondsworth, 1998), pp. 44–51 Google Scholar.
6 This was the novel The Fortunate Union, presented to an English readership by Thomas Percy, on whom the latest account is by Kitson, Peter J., Forging Romantic China: Sino-British Cultural Exchange, 1760–1840 (Cambridge, 2013), pp. 26–44 CrossRefGoogle Scholar. The full story of this translation is somewhat complex.
7 For a finely judged essay on Britain and China in the eighteenth century and the impact of the Macartney mission, see Marshall, Peter. “Britain and China in the Late Eighteenth Century”, in Bickers, Robert A., ed., Ritual and Diplomacy: The Macartney Mission to China 1792–1794 (London, 1993), pp. 11–29 Google Scholar.
8 On Manning there is as yet only one monograph, namely Mary Bellhouse, My Friend M, published by the author from her home in Thatcham, Berkshire, in 2006, though Peter Kitson (see note 2, above) does cover Manning to some extent in his work. I hope to clarify some aspects of Manning's legacy in due course.
9 The first edition was Hayes, Ernest H., Robert Morrison: China's Pioneer, (Wallington, Surrey, The Religious Education Press, 1925)Google Scholar.
10 Millicent, and Thomas, Margaret, The Years Behind the Wall (London, The Livingstone Press, 1936) pp. 63–72 Google Scholar.
11 For one introductory survey in English, see Wu, Xian and Zheng, Liren, “Robert Morrison and the First Chinese-English Dictionary” Journal of East Asian Libraries 147 (February 2009), pp. 1–12 Google Scholar.
12 This is the view of the ‘Advertisement’ in Morrison, Rev. R., A Dictionary of the Chinese Language (Shanghai, London Mission Press, and London, Trübner, 1865), p, i Google Scholar. The reprint is of the second part, which first appeared at Macao in 1819.
13 Honey, David B., Incense at the Altar: Pioneering Sinologists and the Development of Classical Chinese Philology (New Haven, American Oriental Society, 2001), pp. 175–176 Google Scholar, but note that on the former page, n. 30, he also cites a criticism of a point concerning the phonology of the dictionary. The point made in the Advertisement cited by Honey appears also in Morrison's introduction to his work, A Dictionary of the Chinese Language, I, Part 1 (Macao, East India Company, 1815), p. x. For the insertion of characters in Dictionary of Chinese by Basilio Brollo de Glemona, (1648–1703), see Honey, Incense at the Altar, p. 25, and note Morrison's remarks on this work on pp. xi-xvi of the same introduction. The French movable Chinese types had been created out of wood at great expense over twenty years from 1720 onwards, but were far too big to be employed other than as head words: see Leung, Cécile, Etienne Fourmont (1683–1745): Oriental and Chinese Languages in Eighteenth-century France (Leuven, 2002), pp. 241–246 Google Scholar. For a thorough survey of printing in Chinese in Europe see Lehner, Georg, Der Druck chinesischer Zeichen in Europa (Wiesbaden, 2004)Google Scholar, of which pp. 37–41 cover Morrison.
14 John Lust, Western Books on China Published up to 1850 (London, 1987), pp. 247–248.
15 I have in mind Qian Daxin 錢大昕 (1728–1804) and Chen Zhan 陳鱣 (1753–1817), whose notes on the histories of everyday expressions, Hengyan lu 恆言錄 and Hengyan guanglu 恆言廣錄 respectively, were eventually published together with an index (Shanghai, Shangwu Yinshuguan, 1958), the latter for the first time and the former on the basis of a first edition of 1805, which is not at any rate included in Morrison's Chinese library.
16 Zhang Xiping 張西平, Anthony Ferguson, and Wu Zhiliang 吳志良, (eds), 馬禮遜文集 Malixun wenji, (Zhengzhou, Daxiang 大象 chubanshe, 2008). The other volumes reprint his grammar of Chinese, his wife's memoir of his life, and the retrospect on his mission by his colleague William Milne (1785–1822), the latter two items with Chinese translations.
17 See n. 46 on p. 338 of Harbsmeier, Christoph, “John Webb and the Early History of the Study of the Classical Chinese Language in the West”, in Wilson, Ming and Cayley, John, (eds), Europe Studies China (London, Han-shan Tang Books, 1995), pp. 297–338 Google Scholar.
18 There are plenty of examples of these in Dunhuang collections and elsewhere: see Twitchett, Denis, Printing and Publishing in Medieval China (London, 1983), p. 19 Google Scholar, for one well-known example. It must be said that in such early block prints the integration of Chinese and non-Chinese scripts is not close.
19 This feature of pre-modern Chinese printing is mentioned in most surveys; for a monograph on the topic, see Yinong, Xu 徐憶農, Huozi ben 活字本, (Nanjing, Jiangsu Renmin chubanshe, 2002)Google Scholar.
20 Thoms arrived in Canton in September 1814 and after returning to England published on Chinese topics until 1851. He is the subject of ongoing research by Patricia Sieber of Ohio State University.
21 This is the study available in Chinese as Jing, Su 蘇精, Malixun yu Zhongwen yinshua chuban 馬禮遜與中文印耍出版, (Taibei, Taiwan xueshang shuju, 2000)Google Scholar. The author's doctoral thesis was completed as Ching Su, “The Printing Presses of the London Missionary Society Among the Chinese”, at University College, London, and it is this version that Western scholars tend to cite.
22 See on this Harbsmeier, “John Webb”, pp. 331–332.
23 On this story, see the useful summary in Lundbæk, Knud, Joseph de Prémare (1666–1736), SJ: Chinese Philology and Figurism (Aarhus, 1991), pp. 178–179 Google Scholar.
24 Masako, Naitō 內藤正子 “R. モリソンとJ. マーシュマンの 中國文法書”, Nihon Chūgoku gakkai hō 日本中國學會報 47 (1995), pp. 210–222 Google Scholar.
25 I particularly have in mind here the intriguing work of Kuhn, Philip A., first published as Les origins de l’État chinois moderne, (Paris, 1999)Google Scholar.
26 I have drawn attention to this in my review of ter Haar, Barend J., Ritual and Mythology of the Chinese Triads: Creating an Identity (Leiden, 1998)Google Scholar, in the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society 11.2 (2001), pp. 313–314; cf. the remarks in ter Haar's excellent monograph, pp. 345–346.
27 See Standaert, Nicholas, Handbook of Christianity in China, Volume One, 635–1800 (Leiden, 2001), p. 622 Google Scholar. Copies of this publication exist in Paris and in the Vatican.
28 This Bible Society has also uploaded various other versions: see http://www.biblesociety-tw.org (consulted 21 May 2014); all these works may be consulted after a fashion in the websites Rare Bible section, 珍本聖經. Morrison's manuscript, which bears the title Manuscript Chinese, is described in Ride, Lindsay, Robert Morrison, The Scholar and the Man (Hong Kong, 1957), pp. 45–46 Google Scholar. In the remarks of Samuel Kidd – a figure introduced below as having had the same education as Morrison – appended to the memoir by his widow, the forty-three pages devoted to a discussion of Morrison's Bible translation adduce both Hebrew and Greek: see Morrison, Eliza A., Memoirs of the Life and Labours of Robert Morrison, D.D. (London, 1839)Google Scholar, second appendix, pp. 332–374.
29 Spillett, Hubert W., A Catalogue of Scriptures in the Languages of China and the Republic of China (London, 1975), pp. 1–7 Google Scholar, lists these translations in chronological order; cf. pp. xi-xii for Morrison's earlier source.
30 See www.streetpreaching.com/morrison.morrison_chinese_bible_1823.htm, consulted on 21 May 2014. The individual responsible is a Baptist missionary to the Philippines named Gerald Sutek. The bibliography mentioned above, at n. 16, reveals that there was also an earlier Japanese reprinting.
31 Foley, Toshikazu S., Biblical Translation in Chinese and Greek: Verbal Aspect in Theory and Practice (Leiden, 2009), pp. 42–44 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; see pp. 22–33 for some account of the various Chinese Bibles. Though this study is ahead of its time in many ways, this researcher does not appear to have worked with the Bible Society catalogue by Hubert Spillett, and the popular usage of the term bodhisattva has, it seems, not quite been grasped – Chinese religious culture remains an area somewhat obscure to many outsiders.
32 These are listed in Lai, John T. P., Negotiating Religious Gaps: The Enterprise of Translating Christian Tracts by Protestant Missionaries in Nineteenth-Century China (Sankt Augustin, 2012), pp. 249–250 Google Scholar; note also the discussion of specific examples of his work on pp. 110 (the first Protestant hymnal, versified by his assistants) and 129–130 (the first translation, a catechism). What appears to be his earliest tract, however, from 1811, is to be found catalogued as Sinica 2672 in the Bodleian Library, Oxford.
33 Lai, Negotiating Religious Gaps, p. 102. Su Jing has researched a number of Morrison's Chinese helpers in his Zhongguo, kai men! Malisun ji xiangguan renwu yanjiu 中國開門！ 馬禮遜及相關人物研究 (Hong Kong, 2005), especially pp. 203–261, but does not have a separate chapter on Liang Fa.
34 West, Andrew C., Catalogue of the Morrison Collection of Chinese Books (London, 1998), pp. vii–xv Google Scholar.
35 The range of his scholarship may be found by visiting this site, www.babelstone.co.uk, which is always rewarding, especially for those with philological interests.
36 See for example p. 313 at n. 29 of Barrett, Tim H. and Tarocco, Francesca, “Terminology and Religious Identity: Buddhism and the Genealogy of the Term Zongjiao ”, in Krech, Volkhard and Steinecke, Marion, eds., Dynamics in the History of Religions between Asia and Europe (Leiden and Boston, 2012), pp. 307–319 Google Scholar.
37 The circumstances surrounding the latter gift are illuminated in Aylmer, Charles, “Sir Thomas Wade and the Centenary of Chinese Studies at Cambridge”, Hanxue yanjiu 漢學研究7.2 (1989), pp. 405–422 Google Scholar; I do not know about Oxford.
38 Kidd was a Gosport trainee – the significance of which will become clearer below - who headed for a while the college founded by Morrison in Malacca, though I am not sure that he was a close friend, since it is not clear how much time they spent in each other's company: see Harrison, Brian, Waiting for China: The Anglo-Chinese College at Malacca, 1818–1843, and Early Nineteenth-Century Missions (Hong Kong, 1979), pp. 79–84, 190Google Scholar.
39 Lundbæk, Prémare, p. 183, quoting an anonymous comment reported by Robert Thom (1807–1846).
40 Kidd, Samuel, China, or, Illustrations of the Symbols, Philosophy, Antiquities, Customs, Superstitions, Laws, Government, Education, and Literature of the Chinese (London, 1841), pp. vii, viiiGoogle Scholar.
41 On Morrison and the study of Cantonese there is a useful preface by Kingsley Bolton to the reprint of his 1828 vocabulary: see especially Bolton, , A vocabulary of the Canton dialect (London, 2001), pp. xxvi–xxxv Google Scholar; on p. xxxi it is suggested that this work “established a precedent for missionary studies of Chinese dialects”. For Morrison and the Anglo-Chinese College at Malacca, there is much of value in Brian Harrison, Waiting for China, though for the role of Bogue as providing the template for this institution it is also necessary to consult Christopher Daily's work, introduced below.
42 He was elected a Fellow in 1825 – just about the only form of recognition he received for his Chinese studies.
43 Davis, John Francis, The Chinese: A General Description of the Empire of China and Its Inhabitants Vol. I (London, 1836), pp. 375–376 Google Scholar.
44 Wood, A. Skevington, Thomas Haweis, 1734–1820 (London, 1957), p. 170 Google Scholar.
45 Skevington Wood, Haweis, pp. 234–235, 239.
46 Skevington Wood, Haweis, p. 206.
47 Daily, Christopher A., Robert Morrison and the Protestant Plan for China (Hong Kong, 2013), pp. 25–32 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
48 Thus Austin, Alvyn, China's Millions: The China Inland Mission and Late Qing Society, 1832–1905 (Grand Rapids, Michigan, 2007), pp. 222–223 Google Scholar, initially quoting Pat Barr. Austin does even so point out that eventually the CIM set up a rather good language school in China itself.
49 Cable, Mildred and French, Francesca, A Woman Who Laughed: Henrietta Soltau Who Laughed at Impossibilities and Cried ‘It Shall Be Done’ (London, 1934), p. 216 Google Scholar.
50 Daily, Protestant Plan, p. 196.
51 In this final role Morrison, despite his relatively humble origins, was able through his religious convictions especially to win the respect and friendship of his aristocratic commander, Lord William John Napier (1786–1834): see (slightly inaccurately) Napier, Priscilla, Barbarian Eye: Lord Napier in China, 1834, the Prelude to Hong Kong (London, 1995), p. 139 Google Scholar, based on Napier's papers – Ms. Napier is, however, not the only one to assume that Morrison was a Scot.
52 See his ‘Critical Notice’ (which, as noted above, forms an appendix to Eliza Morrison, Memoirs), p. 86: “Whatever he accomplished as an ardent scholar, a zealous divine, and a steady patriot, owed its origins to his religious character”.
53 Kidd, China, p. 402.
54 Barrett, T. H., The Three Things I Learned About China (London, 2013), pp. 1–3 Google Scholar.