Attrition Among Protestant in , 1807–1890 Jessie G. Lutz

ttrition narratives for almost every Protestant mission said, frequently centered on recent departures of ill colleagues, Arepresented in China between 1807 and 1890 paint very the death of a newborn, or the sickness of a friend. More than similar pictures.1 Consider a number of representative accounts one perceived a relationship between early departure drawn up by contemporary observers and later historians: and despondency over health problems and the lack of converts. William Lennox of Peking Union Medical College, who in 1918–19 It is estimated that it requires at least five years of residence and made a statistical study of the health of missionary families in study for a missionary to become fully effective in China, and China, concluded that a significant number of missionaries left only one of the missionaries of the M. E. [Methodist Episcopal] China because of “neurasthenia,” or nervous breakdown.9 At Church, South, who went out prior to the Civil War remained as the time, “departure for health reasons” often covered mental long as this. After a promising start and the baptism of the first health as well as physical health. Since the records rarely mention convert in 1851, health difficulties began to beset the mission.2 mental health, however, the precise proportion of those departing Of the [first] fifty-three missionaries sent out . . . by theCIM because of mental problems cannot be determined. Biographies [China Inland Mission], only twenty-two adults (and eighteen of individual missionaries do reveal that many missionaries children) remained in the mission, and of these only four or five experienced depression. Elijah Bridgman, Dr. , and men and three or four women were much good.3 Tarleton Crawford, for example, often were plagued by weeks or months of despondency. In the course of 1848 of the Health problems . . . held a special urgency since the health of London Missionary Society experienced the death of his father, mission personnel in other areas had been disastrous—forty- his infant daughter, a close friend, and his wife, in childbirth. five deaths abroad since the founding of the American Board [of His translation work appears to have provided a refuge from Commissioners for Foreign Missions], plus fifty-three returnees, the sorrows of his personal life.10 thirty-one of which were for reasons of their health or the health of members of their families.4 Periods of ill health that made active evangelism impos- sible were common, especially in South China, where malaria To say that twenty-seven missionaries and missionary wives and intestinal parasites undermined the health of missionaries arrived in Foochow between the beginning of 1847 and the end while the hot, humid summers depleted their energy. In North of 1851 could give a misleading impression of the size of the mis- China missionaries were more apt to suffer from respiratory ill- sionary force. . . . The fact is that the missionaries had serious health problems, and casualties were heavy. By the end of 1853, only fifteen of the twenty-seven who had arrived between 1847 and 1851 remained in the field; the rest had either died or left.5 More than one missionary

Although the Oberlin Band [of student volunteers for foreign perceived a relationship missions] were joined by two more couples in 1884—a total of between early departure eleven, five married couples and a single man—it remained a “feeble Mission” that at one point was down to three members.6 and despondency over health problems and the Of the three hundred and thirty-eight missionaries named in the list [of Protestant missionaries to China by 1867], the aggregate term of lack of converts. service in China has been 2,511 years, giving an average of nearly seven and a half years to each. . . . These numbers include the time that missionaries have been absent on visits to their native lands or nesses, including tuberculosis. Home furloughs at approximately elsewhere, generally on account of their health.7 seven-year intervals helped to restore health, but sometimes the Of the eleven [women] who pioneered these stations [in Shanxi] furloughs had to be extended to two or three years before the in 1886–87, two died young, one committed suicide, two were missionary was well enough to return to China. Morbidity was sent home to die, and two died at the hands of the Boxers. Only high, and missionaries were frequently unable to operate at full four survived past 1900.8 capacity. In his 1850 report on the American Episcopal Church mission in Shanghai, Elijah Bridgman noted that, on account of Inevitably the prevalence of health breakdowns and deaths ill health, fellow missionary Bishop William J. Boone, Sr., was influenced the mood and effectiveness of those who remained. unable to sit with the Committee of Delegates and had been It is not surprising that the early missionaries often seemed to forced to restrict his preaching to infrequent services at the be preoccupied with death and sickness. Conversations, it was schoolhouse chapel.11 Boone’s condition was far from unique among the missionaries. In 1851 Karl Gützlaff persevered in his Jessie G. Lutz is Professor Emerita of Chinese preaching activity among the people of Hong Kong, the boat History, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New people, and Hakka villagers on neighboring islands although Jersey. Her publications include (with R. R. Lutz) edema so hindered his walking that he had to crawl up hills.12 Hakka Chinese Confront Protestant , Peter Parker suffered a physical and mental breakdown that 1850–1900 (M. E. Sharpe, 1998) and Opening China: lasted for months; he even despaired of his life.13 Karl F. A. Gützlaff and Sino-Western Relations, One self-protection developed by the missionaries might 1827−1852 (Eerdmans, 2008). be called the martyr complex. There are numerous examples of —[email protected] missionaries who died early on the field but who expressed joy

22 International Bulletin of Missionary Research, Vol. 36, No. 1 over giving their life for the Christian cause. Missionaries on their education, publishing, and even medical work—if they were deathbed did not necessarily give way to sorrow or to regret that not accompanied by evangelism. Elijah Bridgman was under they had chosen to come to China to bring the Gospel. Rather, constant pressure from the American Board of Commissioners they looked forward to reward in heaven for bringing the Good for Foreign Missions (ABCFM) to discontinue his editing of the News to the damned. Missionaries often attempted to explain Chinese Repository, the journal he had started in 1832 to draw a death as the will of God. Bridgman, in commenting upon the death of a missionary who had appeared to have a most promising future career, could only conclude: “In the mysterious providence Converts were few and of God it was ordered otherwise.” He, like other missionaries, assumed that colleagues, “having finished their course below, far between; missionaries are now witnesses before the throne of God and the Lamb in needed a strong faith if the heavenly world.” The trials of the missionary life had their purpose: “Such afflictions are doubtless designed, while they they were to persevere. teach us our frailty, to incite us to greater diligence and purer devotion.”14 Most missionaries found such arguments sufficient; they were able to retain their faith in the cause. Some, however, together information about conditions in China. The demands of were devastated and had to leave the field. his medical work left Peter Parker with no time for evangelism, causing him pangs of guilt and eventually leading the ABCFM Costs and Tensions to discontinue its support for him. On more than one occasion the secretary of the London Missionary Society cautioned James The cost in morale, health, and the lives of missionaries who Legge against giving so much time to translating the Chinese were in their prime was deplorable; most of those who died classics that he neglected evangelistic work.16 were between the ages of twenty-five and forty-five. From the viewpoint of the home board, there was also a monetary cost. Decline in Attrition To recruit, outfit, and transport a missionary couple entailed a very considerable outlay of funds by the board. In addition, By the 1870s the attrition rate began to decline. In a report there was the expense of their settling in a home and hiring a published in 1907 the Southern Presbyterian Mission recorded language tutor. As James Cannon stated, if the young missionary of its presence in China that, “in round numbers, during forty died less than five years after reaching China, he enjoyed a very years out of 120 missionaries nearly one-third (thirty-eight) have short period of effective evangelism.15 To become proficient in a died or left the Mission, and over two-thirds (eighty-two) are in spoken Chinese dialect was neither easy nor quick and generally the harness.”17 This was almost a direct reversal of the statistics required a minimum of two years of diligent application. Pioneer for the years before the 1870s. And the Southern Presbyterian missionaries had Robert Morrison’s Chinese grammar and his Mission was not alone in experiencing a decline in the attrition dictionary, but few other aids for learning the language. The rate of its missionaries. A number of factors contributed to the usual method was to hire a Chinese tutor, none of whom knew decrease in attrition and the increase in the average years of any English or had experience in teaching a language. Western- active service. As the numbers of missionaries grew, so did the ers had had no previous exposure to a tonal language and often numbers of medical missionaries. Several Western-style hospitals found mastering the tones challenging. It was said that James were founded, one in Canton and one in Shanghai, for example. Legge, the great translator of the Chinese classics, never became Thus better and more accessible medical care became available. adept in spoken Chinese because he did not have a musical ear. Greater knowledge about the sources of malaria and intestinal Learning Chinese, therefore, could be a disheartening experience, parasites led to greater emphasis on protections such as mos- and more than one missionary suffered bouts of despondency quito netting and prophylactics in the one case and sanitation before becoming capable of preaching in Chinese. and hygiene in the other. Also, vaccinations for such diseases Westerners had initially thought that missionaries would as smallpox and typhoid fever were becoming available by the convert a few Chinese and then these converts would carry the end of the century. promise of salvation throughout China; the Gospel would be With the greater number of missionaries came the formation gladly received, and China would become a Christian nation of mission enclaves, wherein missionaries adopted a Western liv- within a relatively short period of time. Such a view had quickly ing style insofar as possible. Although the missionaries are often proved to be a pipe dream. Most Chinese were indifferent to the criticized for isolating themselves from the Chinese, the enclaves Christian message and offended by its exclusivism. Adding Jesus did make for a healthier environment. Learning Chinese, even if to their pantheon of deities was a possibility, but few Chinese still difficult, became less daunting as aids were composed. And could be persuaded to abandon their Daoist, Buddhist, and toward the end of the nineteenth century, missionaries began to Confucian beliefs and practices, most especially veneration of establish summer retreats in the cooler hills and mountains so the ancestors. Converts were few and far between. Missionaries that they could escape the debilitating heat present in summer. faced a disillusioning and in many ways unrewarding career. They needed a strong faith if they were to persevere. Tracking Missionary Attrition The high attrition rate coupled with the low conversion rate affected home supporters as well as the missionaries. Disap- In this article missionary attrition and early departure are defined pointment on the field at the paucity of converts was echoed as leaving or removal from the field of missionary service for any at home. Mission boards regularly requested reports of conver- reason (such as ill health, death, the ill health or death of a spouse sions from the missionaries as proof that their investment was or family member, resignation, personal or doctrinal conflict, or yielding results. They were often critical of missionaries who change of vocation or ministry; see table 1 on following page) engaged in activities other than direct evangelizing—for example, before old age dictated retirement.

January 2012 23 Despite the general consensus that the attrition rate among ports. Thus the number of missionaries for the period 1807–46 China missionaries was high during the first three quarters of was small, only 264 (I have data on 113 women and 151 men), the nineteenth century and began to decline during the fourth and most of them arrived during the 1840s. quarter, exact figures are lacking. I have tried to bring a degree During this period guidelines for evangelism to be done by of exactitude to this widespread impression by examining the the missionaries were lacking, and mission boards knew so little careers of 1,579 Protestant missionaries who came to China about conditions on the field that they could offer little specific between 1807 and 1890, 665 women and 914 men. One set of advice. Communication was slow, leaving missionaries largely statistics lists the length of service separately for women and free to develop their own methodology. It might take a year for men. A second set lists the causes for termination of service. an exchange of communications to occur, and missionaries often These figures represent the majority of the missionaries who complained of being neglected by the home board. When mis- arrived in China between 1807 and 1890, but not the total num- sionaries itinerated outside the treaty ports, they had to rely on ber. Furthermore, the information concerning the reason for Chinese housing and food. Medical facilities and knowledge of departure is incomplete in some cases. I think, however, that the importance of sanitary practices were lacking. That the attri- there are sufficient numbers and data to lend some specific- tion rate during this period should be exceptionally high is to be expected. That prob- Table 1. Reason for Termination lems of morale were common is not Death Ill Retirement/ Other Conflict: Withdrawal/ surprising. Ill of health of resignation employ- personal/ Retire- resignation/ Incomplete During the sec- Death health spouse spouse of spouse ment Finances doctrinal ment marriage data ond period, 1847–60, the number of mis- Period 1, 1807–46: Women (113), Men (151) sionaries coming to China increased. I Women % 46.0 14.2 11.5 3.5 15.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 6.2 0.0 3.5 have data on 146 Men % 31.8 41.4 3.9 3.3 0.0 3.3 2.6 2.0 5.6 0.0 6.0 women and 204 men, a total of 350. As new Period 2, 1847–60: Women (146), Men (204) treaty ports were

Women % 35.6 15.8 10.3 4.8 14.4 0.7 0.7 2.1 4.8 2.8 10.3 opened to foreign Men % 26.0 34.8 2.0 2.9 0.0 4.9 1.0 2.0 7.4 3.9 15.2 residence and trade, evangelism in inte-

Period 3, 1861–76: Women (141), Men (266) rior China became possible. The cause Women % 24.1 22.7 7.8 1.4 12.8 0.0 0.0 1.4 7.1 2.1 20.6 of the China field had Men % 25.6 31.2 1.1 3.4 0.0 2.3 0.8 1.9 7.5 0.0 26.3 been popularized at home by both mis- Period 4, 1877–90: Women (265), Men (293) sionaries and mis- sion boards. Mis- Women % 23.8 26.8 4.2 0.0 18.5 0.4 0.0 0.8 17.4 5.7 2.6 sion societies had Men % 28.0 30.7 0.7 1.4 0.0 3.1 0.0 1.7 24.9 3.4 5.1 strengthened ties Note: Because of rounding, percentage totals in the rows may not equal 100. with church groups, while women’s mis- sionary associations ity to the general impression of high attrition. More complete had begun to take up the cause of China missions. Although information would probably indicate an even higher attrition medical missionaries were among the new arrivals, conditions in rate, since the missionaries with short careers are the ones more the field still left much to be desired; medical care was minimal. likely to be missing from the records. The attrition rate remained high. In order to trace the changes in attrition rates, I have divided By the third period, 1861–76, the home base for China mis- the era into four periods: 1807–46, 1847–60, 1861–76, and 1877–90. sions was becoming quite well organized. A framework for (The figures and percentages in the accompanying tables show the recruiting missionaries and soliciting funds was in place. The length of service and reason for termination of service according China field had been well publicized. As a result of the Second to the missionaries’ arrival date. The term of service of a mission- Opium War, 1856–60, China had become more open and the ary who arrived during one period would frequently extend number of Western evangelists increased. I have records for 407 into or beyond the following period.) The period from 1807 to missionaries, of whom 141 were women and 266 men. As mis- 1846 embraced the pioneering years. It began with the arrival sion enclaves were established and medical care became more of Robert Morrison, the first Protestant missionary to China. readily available, attrition rates, though still high, slowly began During most of this time, Christian evangelism was illegal in to decline. The proportion of missionaries who lived to old age China; it was illegal as well for Chinese citizens to convert to becomes significant for the first time. Christianity. Quite a few missionaries worked among the Chinese The fourth period, 1877–90, saw a rapid increase in Protestant in Southeast Asia in anticipation of the opening of China, when missionaries arriving in China, and after 1890 the number grew they would transfer their residence. It was only after China’s so large as to make the task of gathering statistics overwhelming. defeat in the , 1839–42, that China was forced gives 1,272 for the number of mission- to grant tolerance to Christian evangelism and conversion. Even aries who arrived in China between 1888 and 1897, although he then, Westerners were permitted to reside only in five treaty admits that it is difficult to determine precise numbers for the

24 International Bulletin of Missionary Research, Vol. 36, No. 1 second half of the nineteenth century.18 I have, therefore, ended my (6.2 percent) remained for 31 to 40 years (see table 3). Of the male study at 1890. During this fourth period, attrition rates declined missionaries, five (3.2 percent) stayed on the field over 40 years, more rapidly, while careers lengthened. Increasing numbers lived while nine (5.7 percent) served 31 to 40 years. It was not until to old age or retirement. Fewer missionaries withdrew or resigned the third period, 1861–76, that more than a few missionaries in because of the death or ill health of a spouse. I have statistics on China lived to retire at a normal retirement age of 65. By the fourth 265 women and 293 men, for a total of 558. period, 1877–90, significant numbers were surviving for longer The specific statistics in the tables give substance to the periods: thirty women (11.3 percent) and thirty-four men (11.6 above generalizations. percent) served 31 to 40 years, while twenty-three women (8.6 percent) and thirty-one men (10.5 percent) were in China for over Differences in Attrition Rates 40 years. It was also not until the fourth period that the number of retirees became significant. There were a few exceptions, that is, During the first period, 1807–46, almost 15 percent of the women missionaries who had relatively long careers that started before and over 13 percent of the men died or left the field during 1860. Robert Morrison died in harness after a career of 27 years; their first year of service while 44 percent of the women and Elijah Bridgman served for 31 years; the independent missionary 43 percent of the men remained in China for five years or less Karl Gützlaff was active for 23 years. But such long careers were (see table 2). Well over half of the men (58.2 percent) and nearly unusual, and even so, Morrison and Gützlaff died in their early two-thirds of the women (64.6 percent) served ten years or less. fifties, and Bridgman at the age of sixty. If we correlate the length of service with the death rate and the Noteworthy during the early periods is the dependence of prevalence of health breakdown, it becomes clear that a high the women on their husband’s career. Between 1807 and 1846, proportion of the missionaries left before they had become pro- thirty-four (30.0 percent) of the women left the field because ficient in Chinese and could be effective evangelists. For those their husband retired, resigned, died, or was in poor health. Few women remained in China after the death or departure of Table 2. Percentage of Missionaries Serving Ten Years or Less their husband. They had been in China for such a short period before their loss that the West, not China, seemed like home. Years Served For males the same was not true. Only 7.3 percent of the males 0–1 >1–2 >2–5 >5–10 withdrew because of the poor health or death of their wife. If the wife died, the husband was apt to find a second wife, and Period 1, 1807–46 even third wives were not exceptional. Especially during the Women 15.0 7.1 22.1 20.4 early decades, the life of a widow or a single Western woman Cumulative 15.0 22.1 44.2 64.6 in China was not easy. She was not permitted to have a home of her own; rather, she was expected to live with a married Men 13.3 10.5 19.2 15.2 couple, compatible or not. Wives were not recognized as full Cumulative 13.3 23.8 43.0 58.2 missionaries, and neither single women nor wives had a say at mission conferences or church vestry meetings. Accord- Period 2, 1847–60 ing to Chinese mores, single women and wives were not Women 17.1 7.6 18.5 18.4 supposed to associate with males in public, nor could they Cumulative 17.1 24.7 43.2 61.6 travel freely in the countryside. As might be expected, there were a few women who ignored the rules. Mary Aldersley, Men 10.0 6.2 17.6 17.2 Cumulative 10.0 16.2 33.8 51.0 an independent missionary, operated a school in for almost twenty years, from 1843 to 1861. of the

Period 3, 1861–76 Southern Baptist Foreign Mission Board evangelized in rural Shandong for almost forty years until her death in 1912. But Women 9.9 4.4 11.9 17.8 these women were unique until the late nineteenth century. Cumulative 9.9 14.3 26.2 44.0 By the 1870s, however, quite a few women had lived in China Men 7.0 7.0 7.7 24.2 long enough to feel at home, and some remained to continue Cumulative 7.0 14.0 21.7 45.9 their work even after the death of their husband. Also, the restrictions on women lessened as mission boards began to Period 4, 1877–90 commission single women missionaries.

Women 9.4 9.1 12.1 16.2 Reasons for Attrition Cumulative 9.4 18.5 30.6 46.8 Men 5.5 11.4 12.0 16.6 Other than for poor health and death, reasons for termina- Cumulative 5.5 16.9 28.9 45.5 tion of service were relatively minor. A few men withdrew; whether because of frustration over the difficulty of learning the language or disillusionment over the paucity of con- verts is not stated. In one instance a man who had worked who left before the age of forty, attrition was overwhelmingly in China for twenty-four years was dismissed because he had due to death or ill health of the missionary or of a spouse. Not never become proficient in Chinese. Even though friction in the until the third period, 1877–90, did the attrition rate during the missionary community occurred and could become sharp when first ten years fall below 50 percent (44.0 percent for women matters of principle or doctrine were involved, only a small num- and 45.9 percent for men). ber left because of personal or doctrinal conflicts. In 1871 Jesse During the first period, 1807–46, none of the women mis- Hartwell returned home to the United States from Tengchow, sionaries were on the field for 41 years or more, and only seven in Northeast China, following the death of his wife, apparently

January 2012 25 leaving the field clear for his longstanding sparring partner and service officer, but after retiring from China in 1877, he became fellow Baptist missionary Tarleton Crawford. The following year, professor of and literature at . however, he returned, having remarried, and the highly personal His famous work The Middle Kingdom was the most widely conflict between the two men resumed.19 A number of mission- read introduction to China in the second half of the nineteenth aries left the CIM, although not China, because they had been century. Later than the period covered in this study, Kenneth forbidden by the head of CIM, , to associate with Scott Latourette likewise served briefly in China (only 1910–12) the liberal missionary .20 Most of the others who and then returned to the United States because of ill health. It left because of personal conflict appear to have been Episcopal took him two years to recover sufficiently to accept a part-time missionaries working under Bishop William J. Boone, Jr., whose teaching position at Reed College, in Portland, Oregon, but he paternalistic rule of his diocese was not appreciated by some of went on to become Sterling Professor of Missions and Oriental the missionaries under him.21 During the American Civil War, History at Yale University. His History of Christian Missions in Southern mission boards were often strapped for funds, and as China, published in 1929, was the standard work on the subject a result some missionaries had to support themselves by other for decades and is still useful as a reference work. Other returned employment. Others left the service. missionaries served as pastors in their homeland or accepted A few former missionaries accepted employment with positions on the boards of mission societies. A few went to the British, American, or Chinese government. For example, to open mission work there. Peter Parker became chargé d’affaires and then commissioner Overall in China, the leading causes of death were dys- plenipotentiary for the United States. Young J. Allen, who had entery, diarrhea, typhoid fever, respiratory diseases including arrived in China in 1860, worked as a translator at the Jiangnan tuberculosis, and cancer. CIM evangelists apparently had a Arsenal and published Wanguo gongbao (The globe magazine) to somewhat higher death rate than missionaries of other societ- promote China’s modernization. W. A. P. Martin became president ies. CIM missionaries did not receive a regular salary and were expected to live frugally. Often they were traveling evangelists Table 3. Overall Length of Service who stayed at and ate in Chinese inns. After a CIM missionary committed suicide, a member of the Oberlin Band who had Years Inadequate befriended her remarked: “I only wish they [CIM missionaries] 0–10 11–20 21–30 31–40 41–50 >50 data could have thought it their duty to live in more comfort, but they lived just about as the poorer Chinese do. I feel sure if she Period 1, 1807–46 had taken better care of herself and lived in a more homelike way with good nourishing food, she could have stood it much Women % 64.6 20.4 6.2 6.2 0.0 0.0 2.7 22 Men % 58.2 17.7 7.6 5.7 3.2 0.0 8.2 longer here.”

Period 2, 1847–60 Children and Families

Women % 61.6 15.8 6.8 5.5 4.8 0.0 5.5 I have not attempted to include infants and children in this study Men % 51.0 14.7 6.9 7.8 7.4 0.0 12.3 of attrition, even though the high death rate among children cer- tainly affected the morale of the missionary community. Annie Period 3, 1861–76 Crombie, who had lost three babies, lamented: “I often feel the grave to be very near indeed, yet many of the young and strong Women % 44.0 23.4 9.2 1.4 0.0 0.0 21.3 have gone to rest, and I am here to suffer, or to stand still and Men % 45.9 12.4 10.2 7.5 9.0 0.0 15.2 wait, not to do.”23 She was not alone. William Lennox in his Health of Missionary Families in China: A Statistical Study focused much Period 4, 1877–90 of the discussion on children. Although his data come from a Women % 46.8 20.8 12.5 11.3 7.5 1.1 0.0 later period, they are still useful for the study of attrition among Men % 45.5 22.8 10.8 11.6 8.3 2.2 0.0 missionaries in China. In 1918–19 Lennox sent out questionnaires to 2,200 missionaries and received 1,300 replies. Based on the Note: Because of rounding, percentage totals in the rows may not equal 100. answers, he reported that the birth rate among China mission- aries was higher than among college graduates in the United of the Tongwenguan, China’s first Western-language school, States: 3.5 births per missionary woman, as compared with 2.2 established in 1862, and subsequently was head of the Imperial per graduate of all-female Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania. University. and Dr. Melancthon W. Fish joined the Most of the women answering the questionnaire had suffered Imperial Maritime Customs. S. Wells Williams resigned from the at least one miscarriage. Mortality among missionary children ABCFM in 1857 and joined the U.S. legation in , where was less than one-third that of Chinese children, but three times he worked for over a decade. Numerous missionaries acted higher than among children in the English countryside. Major temporarily as interpreters and advisers in treaty negotiations. causes of death were dysentery, diarrhea, and respiratory illnesses. Asian studies in the West benefited from the early depar- With the introduction of vaccines, other causes of death became ture of certain missionaries. For example, Samuel Kidd, who readily preventable: smallpox, typhoid fever, scarlet fever, and returned to Britain in 1832 after eight years in China, became the diphtheria, for example. The purpose of Lennox’s book was to first professor of Chinese language and literature at University encourage missionary parents to take steps, especially vaccina- College, London. After three decades of service, James Legge tion and improved sanitation, that would reduce attrition among returned to Scotland in 1873 to continue his translation of the their children. Chinese classics and then in 1875 was appointed to teach Chi- The tables do not show as great a difference between nese at the University of Oxford. S. Wells Williams did have a men and women in their rates of attrition as might have been long career in China, first as a missionary and then as a foreign- expected from the literature. This may be partially because

26 International Bulletin of Missionary Research, Vol. 36, No. 1 of the women missing from or passed over in silence in the 1861, however, the attrition percentiles at the end of ten years records. After a decline between the first and second periods, on the field were almost identical for men and women. the total percentages of men and women who left the service By the fourth period both men and women were serving because of either death or ill health did not diverge greatly. longer in China. A significant minority of both sexes remained on The principal difference was that, in the first two periods, the the field for between twenty-one and forty years, and there were percentage of those who died was higher for women, while even a few who served over fifty years. Men consistently lived the percentage of those who left China for health reasons was longer than women, but women (17 percent) and men (nearly 25 greater for men throughout the century. In the case of women, percent) were increasingly living to old age. Despite the decline a significant source of attrition was departure after the death or in the rate of attrition between 1807 and 1890, however, that rate resignation of their husbands. By contrast, men often remained still remained high. Even during the fourth period, the service on the field after the death of a wife. As for length of service, of over 45 percent of both the men and the women terminated the proportion who terminated their career during the first year short of ten years, usually for health reasons or because of death. was higher for women than for men in all four periods; after Mission work in China remained a costly and risky career.24

Notes 1. Before China was open to Christian evangelism, quite a few Missionaries in East Shantung (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard Univ. missionaries went to the Straits Settlements, often to work among Press, 1976), pp. 12–58; for Hartwell’s departure and return, see the Chinese in southeast Asia. Many would transfer to China in the pp. 20 and 26. 1840s once it was open. I have included these missionaries in my 20. Between 1881 and 1895 more than fifty CIM missionaries in Shanxi, survey. I also wish to note my gratitude to Frederick H. Gregory for Richard’s home province, resigned; they either joined other societies help with the tables that accompany this article. or became independent. See Austin, China’s Millions, p. 268. 2. James Cannon, History of Southern Methodist Missions (Nashville: 21. Mei-mei Lin, “The Episcopalian Missionaries in China, 1835–1900” Cokesbury Press, 1926), p. 97. (Ph.D. diss., Univ. of Texas at Austin, 1994), pp. 85–156. 3. Alvyn Austin, China’s Millions: The China Inland Mission and Late Qing 22. Eva Jane Price, China Journal, 1889–1900: An American Missionary Society, 1832–1905 (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2007), p. 136. Family During the (New York: Scribner’s, 1989), 4. From “Report on the Return of Missionaries, 1838,” ABC Subcom- p. 69, cited in Austin, China’s Millions, p. 277. mittee Reports, no. 2, pp. 4–5, cited in Edward V. Gulick, Peter Parker 23. Annie Crombie, cited in Austin, China’s Millions, p. 136. and the Opening of China (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard Univ. Press, 24. In addition to the works already cited, much data on Protestant 1973), p. 48. missionary attrition in nineteenth-century China can be gathered from 5. Ellsworth C. Carlson, The Foochow Missionaries, 1847–1880 (Cam- the following works: Gerald H. Anderson, ed., Biographical Dictionary bridge, Mass.: Harvard Univ., East Asian Research Center, 1974), of Christian Missions (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1998); Edward p. 11. Band, Working His Purpose Out: The History of the English Presbyterian 6. Austin, China’s Millions, p. 275. Mission, 1847–1947 (: Ch’eng Wen Publishing,1972; original 7. Alexander Wylie, Memorials of Protestant Missionaries to the Chinese: ed., 1948); Alfred Bonn, Ein Jahrhundert Rheinische Mission (Barmen: Giving a List of Their Publications and Obituary Notices of the Deceased, Verlag des Missionshauses, 1928); A. J. Broomhall, Hudson Taylor with Copious Indexes (Shanghai: American Presbyterian Mission Press, and China’s Open Century, 3 vols. (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1867; new ed., Taipei: Ch’eng-wen Publishing, 1967), p. iv. 1981–82); G. G. Findlay and W. W. Holdsworth, The History of the 8. Austin, China’s Millions, p. 388. Wesleyan Methodist Missionary Society, 5 vols. (London: J. A. Sharp, 9. William G. Lennox, The Health of Missionary Families in China: 1921–24); Jane Hunter, The Gospel of Gentility: American Women A Statistical Study (Denver: Univ. of Denver, [1921?]), p. 95. Missionaries in Turn-of-the-Century China (New Haven: Yale Univ. 10. Norman J. Girardot, The Victorian Translation of China: James Legge’s Press, 1984); Thoralf Klein, Die Basler Mission in der Provinz Guang- Oriental Pilgrimage (Berkeley: Univ. of California Press, 2002), dong (Südchina), 1859–1931 (Munich: Iudicium, 2002); Walter N. pp. 48–49. Lacy, A Hundred Years of China Methodism (New York: Abingdon- 11. E. C. Bridgman, “What I Have Seen in Shanghai,” Chinese Repository Cokesbury, 1948); Michael C. Lazick, E. C. Bridgman, 1801–1861: 19 (June 1850): 338. America’s First Missionary to China (Lewiston, N.Y.: Edwin Mellen 12. Jessie G. Lutz, Opening China: Karl F. A. Gützlaff and Sino-Western Press, 2000); Richard Lovett, The History of the London Missionary Relations, 1827–1852 (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2008), pp. 245–46. Society, 1795–1895, 2 vols. (London: Oxford Univ. Press, 1899); 13. Gulick, Peter Parker, pp. 68–69. C. F. Pascoe, Two Hundred Years of the Society for the Propagation of the 14. Bridgman, “What I Have Seen in Shanghai,” pp. 332, 335, and 337. Gospel in Foreign Parts: An Historical Account of the SPGFP, 1701– 15. Cannon, History of Southern Methodist Missions, p. 97. In the period 1900 (London: SPGFP, 1901); Records of the General Conference of the Cannon is discussing, the pronoun “he” applies. Only males were Protestant Missionaries in China Held at Shanghai, May 10–24, 1877 considered missionaries; wives did not count and there were very (Shanghai: Presbyterian Mission Press, 1878); Wilhelm Schlatter, few single female missionaries. Geschichte der Basler Mission, 1815–1915, vol. 2, Die Geschichte der Basler 16. Girardot, Victorian Translation of China, pp. 63–64. Mission in Indien und China (Basel: Basler Missionsbuchhandlung, 17. “Presbyterian Church in the U. S. (South),” in A Century of Protestant 1916); James Sibree, comp., London Missionary Society: A Register Missions in China, 1807–1907: Being the Centenary Conference Historical of Missionaries, Deputations, etc. from 1796 to 1923, 4th ed. (London: Volume, ed. D. MacGillivray (Shanghai: American Presbyterian LMS, 1923); Milton T. Stauffer, ed., The Christian Occupation of Mission Press, 1907), p. 401. See also G. Thompson Brown, Earthen China (1922; repr., San Francisco: Chinese Materials Center, 1979); Vessels and Transcendent Power: American Presbyterians in China, Eugene Stock, The History of the Church Missionary Society: Its 1837–1952 (Maryknoll, N.Y.: Orbis Books, 1997). Environment, Its Men, and Its Work, 4 vols. (London: CMS, 1899–1916); 18. Kenneth Scott Latourette, A History of Christian Missions in China Sophie B. Titterington, A Century of Baptist Missions (Philadelphia: (London: SPCK, 1929), p. 406. American Baptist Publication Society, 1891); so-called Vinton 19. The conflict between Hartwell and Crawford is examined in Irwin T. Books, with short ABCFM biographies, www.archive.org/stream/ Hyatt, Our Ordered Lives Confess: Three Nineteenth-Century American vintonbookafrica01vint#page/n95/mode/2up, pp. 28–78.

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