Robert Morrison

Life

Early life

Morrison was born on 5 January 1782 in Bullers Green, near Morpeth, Northumberland, England. He was the son of James Morrison, a Scottish farm labourer and Hannah Nicholson, an English woman, who were both active members of the Church of Scotland. They were married in 1768. Robert was the youngest son of eight children. At age three, Robert and his family moved to Newcastle where his father found more prosperous work in the shoe trade.

Robert's parents were devout Christians and raised their children to know the Bible and the Westminster Shorter Catechism according to Presbyterian ideals. At the age of 12 he recited the entire 119th Psalm (176 verses long) from memory in front of his pastor without a single mistake. John Wesley was still alive and many foreign mission agencies were being formed during this period of the Evangelical Revival.

In 1796, young Robert Morrison followed his uncle James Nicholson into apprenticeship and later joined the Presbyterian church in 1798.

By age 14 Robert left school and was apprenticed to his father's business. For a couple of years he kept company in disregard of his Christian upbringing and fell occasionally into drunkenness. However, this behavior soon ended. In Robert's own words

It was about five years ago [1798] that I was much awakened to a sense of sin … and I was brought to a serious concern about my soul. I felt the dread of eternal condemnation. The fear of death compassed me about and I was led nightly to cry to God that he would pardon my sin, that he would grant me an interest in the Savior, and that he would renew me in the spirit of my mind. Sin became a burden. It was then that I experienced a change of life, and, I trust, a change of heart, too. I broke off from my former careless company, and gave myself to reading, meditation and prayer. It pleased God to reveal his Son in me, and at that time I experienced much of the "kindness of youth and the love of espousals." And though the first flash of affection wore off, I trust my love to and knowledge of the Savior have increased.

When Morrison was at work at his father's business he was employed at manual labour for twelve or fourteen hours a day; yet he seldom omitted to find time for one or two hours of reading and meditation. He read and re-read frequently those few books he was able to obtain. The diary, which he began to keep very early in his life, shows that he did much self-introspection; his earnestness was clearly intense, and his sense of his own shortcomings continued to be remarkably vivid.

Preparing to be a missionary

After his mother's death in 1804, he joined the London Missionary Society. He had applied to the Society in a letter dated 27 May 1804, offering himself for missionary service. The next day he was interviewed by the board and accepted at once without a second interview. The next year, he went to David Bogue's Academy in Gosport (near Portsmouth) for further training. For a while he was torn between Timbuktu in Africa and China as possible fields of service. His prayer was:

that God would station him in that part of the missionary field where the difficulties were greatest, and, to all human appearances, the most insurmountable.

In 1798, just when the young Robert had been converted, the Rev. William Willis Moseley of Northamptonshire issued a letter urging "the establishment of a society for translating the Holy Scriptures into the languages of the populous oriental nations." He came across a manuscript of most of the New Testament translated into Chinese (probably by earlier Jesuit missionaries) in the British Museum. He immediately printed 100 copies of a further tract "on the importance of translating and publishing the Holy Scriptures into the Chinese language." Copies were sent to all the Church of England bishops and the new mission agencies. Most gave discouraging replies, giving such reasons as the cost and "utter impossibility" of spreading the books inside China.

But a copy reached Dr. Bogue, the head of the Hoxton Academy. He replied that if he had been younger he would have "devoted the rest of his days to the propagation of the gospel in China". Dr. Bogue promised to look out for suitable missionary candidates for China. He chose Morrison who soon after turned his attention away from Africa and focused entirely on China. Robert wrote to a friend urging him to become his colleague in his new work,

I wish I could persuade you to accompany me. Take into account the 350 million souls in China who have not the means of knowing Jesus Christ as Savior…

He returned to London and studied medicine with Dr. Blair at St. Bartholomew's Hospital, and astronomy with Dr. Hutton at the Greenwich Observatory. After the decision of the Directors as to his destination, Morrison had most diligently and laboriously pursued the study of Chinese. He learned the Chinese language from a student that he shared lodgings with, called Yong Sam-tak from Canton City. At first they did not get on well together. Morrison absent-mindedly burned a piece of paper with some Chinese characters on it – and infuriated the superstitions of his Chinese mentor, who left for three days. From that time on, Morrison wrote his characters on a piece of tin that could be erased. They continued to work together and studied an early Chinese translation of Gospels named Evangelia Quatuor Sinice which was probably written by a Jesuit, as well as a hand-written Latin-Chinese dictionary. Yong Sam-tak eventually joined him in family worship. In this way Morrison made considerable progress in speaking and writing one of the most difficult of languages for an English-speaking person to learn. The hope of the Directors was that, first of all, Morrison would master the ordinary speech of the people, and so be able to compile a dictionary, and perhaps make a translation of the Scriptures for the benefit of all future missionaries. To accomplish this, it was first of all necessary to get a footing on Chinese soil, and not hopelessly offend the Chinese authorities. At this time, dealings of foreigners with the people, except for purposes of trade, was absolutely forbidden. Every foreigner was strictly interrogated on landing as to what his business might be; the price for giving the wrong answers might be unceremonious return on the next vessel. Morrison was aware of the dangers. He traveled to visit his family and bid them farewell in July 1806, preaching 13 times in London, Edinburgh and Glasgow.

Early missionary work

Morrison was ordained in London on 8 January 1807 at the Scotch church and was eager to go to China. On 31 January, he sailed first to America. The fact that the policy of the East India Company was not to carry missionaries, and that there were no other ships available that were bound for China, forced him to stop first in New York City. Morrison spent nearly a month in the United States . He was very anxious to secure the good offices of the American Consul at Canton (Guangzhou), as it was well known that he would need the influence of someone in authority, if he was to be permitted to stay in China. The promise of protection was made from the United States consul, and on 12 May, he boarded a second vessel, the Trident, bound for Macau.

The Trident arrived in Macau on 4 September 1807 after 113 days at sea. The first move of the newcomer was to present his letters of introduction to some leading Englishmen and Americans, in Macau and Canton. He was kindly received, but he needed a bold heart to bear up, without discouragement, under their frank announcement of the apparently hopeless obstacles in the way of the accomplishment of his mission. George Thomas Staunton discouraged him from the idea of being a missionary in China. Firstly, the local Chinese-speaking people were forbidden by the government to teach the local languages to anybody, under penalty of death. Secondly, no foreigners could remain in China, except for purposes of trade. Thirdly, Portuguese-sponsored Catholic missionaries in Macau would be bitterly hostile, and were likely to stir up the local people against a Protestant mission. On 7 September, he was expelled by the Roman Catholic authorities in Macau and went to the Thirteen Factories outside Guangzhou . The chief of the American factory at Canton offered the missionary for the present a room in his house; and there he was most thankful to establish himself, and think over the situation. Shortly afterwards he made an arrangement for three months, with another American gentleman, to live at his factory. He effectively passed himself off as an American. The Chinese, he found, did not dislike and suspect Americans as much as they did the English. Still Morrison's presence did excite suspicions, and he could not leave his Chinese books about, lest it should be supposed that his object was to master the language. Certain Roman Catholic natives such as Abel Yun were found willing to impart to him as much of the Mandarin Chinese as they could but he soon found that the knowledge of this did not enable him to understand, or make himself understood by, the common people; and he had not come to China simply to translate the Scriptures into the speech of a comparatively small aristocratic class.

East India Company

Morrison fell ill and returned to Macau on 1 June 1808. Fortunately he had mastered Mandarin and Cantonese during this period. Morrison was miserably housed at Macau. It was with difficulty he induced anyone to take him in. He paid an exorbitant price for a miserable top-floor room, and had not been long in it before the roof fell in with a crash. Even then he would have stayed on, when some sort of covering had been patched up, but his landlord raised his rent by one-third, and he was forced to go out again into the streets. Still he struggled on, laboring at his Chinese dictionary, and even in his private prayers pouring out his soul to God in broken Chinese, that he might master the native tongue. So much of a recluse had he become, through fear of being ordered away by the authorities, that his health greatly suffered, and he could only walk across his narrow room with difficulty. But he toiled on.

Morrison strove to establish relations between himself and the people. He attempted to teach three Chinese boys who lived on the streets in an attempt to help both them and his own language skills. However, they treated him maliciously and he was forced to let them go.

In 1809, he met 17-year-old Mary Morton and married her on 20 February that year in Macau. They had three children: James Morrison (b. 5 March 1811, died on the same day), Mary Rebecca Morrison (1812–1902), and John Robert Morrison (b. 17 April 1814). Mary Morrison died of cholera on 10 June 1821 and is buried in the Old Protestant Cemetery in Macau.

On the day of their marriage Robert Morrison was appointed translator to the East India Company with a salary of £500 a year. He returned to Guangzhou alone since foreign women were not allowed to reside there.

The appointment provided Morrison with financial security and a formal commercial role that did not interfere with his missionary work. His duties as a translator for the company helped him improve his proficiency in the Chinese language and provided more opportunities for interaction with the local population.

The sea between Macau and Canton was full of pirates, and the Morrisons had to make many anxious voyages. Sometimes the cry of alarm would be raised even in Guangzhou, as the pirate raids came within a few miles of the city; and the authorities were largely helpless. The perils of their position, as well as its solitude, seem to have greatly and painfully affected Mary. She was affected by unhealthy anxiety. There was no society at Guangzhou that was congenial to them. The English and American residents were kind, but had little sympathy with their work, or belief in it. The Chinese demurred about burial of their first child. Very sorrowfully Morrison had to superintend his interment on a mountainside. At that time his wife was dangerously ill. All his comrades at the company's office thought him a fool. His Chinese so-called assistants robbed him. Letters from England came but seldom.

Return to England

In 1822 Morrison visited Malacca and Singapore, returning to England in 1824.

The University of Glasgow had made him a Doctor of Divinity in 1817. Upon his return to England, Morrison was made a Fellow of the Royal Society. He brought a large library of Chinese books to England, which were donated to the London University College. Morrison began The Language Institution in Bartlett's Buildings in Holborn, London during his stay there, to teach missionaries.

The years 1824 and 1825 were spent by Morrison in England, where he presented his Chinese Bible to King George IV, and was received by all classes with great demonstrations of respect. He busied himself in teaching Chinese to classes of English gentlemen and English ladies, and in stirring up interest and sympathy on behalf of China. Before returning to his missionary labours he was married again, in November 1824 to Eliza Armstrong, with whom he had five more children. The new Mrs. Morrison and the children of his first marriage returned with him to China in 1826.

An incident of the voyage will illustrate the perils of those days, as well as Morrison's fortitude. After a terrible spell of storm, the passengers were alarmed to hear the clanking of swords and the explosion of firearms. They soon learned that a mutiny had broken out among the seamen, who were wretchedly paid, and who had taken possession of the forepart of the vessel, with the intention of turning the cannon there against the officers of the ship. It was a critical moment. At the height of the alarm, Morrison calmly walked forward among the mutineers, and, after some earnest words of persuasion, induced the majority of them to return to their places; the remainder were easily captured, flogged, and put in irons.

At Singapore, Morrison was confronted with fresh trials. The Singapore Institution, now Raffles Institution, which has one House named after him, had been in process of formation there, on his departure for England, similar to the college at Malacca. Little progress had been made with it. A new governor manifested less interest, and Morrison had not been present to see that the work went on. After a stay here for purposes of organization, the missionary and his family went on to Macau, and subsequently Morrison proceeded to Guangzhou, where he found that his property had been also neglected in his absence.

Final days in China

Together the Morrisons returned to China in 1826. Changes in the East India Company had brought him into contact with new officials, some of whom had not the slightest respect for the calling of the missionary, and were inclined to assume a high hand, until Morrison's threat to resign induced a more respectful temper. The relations, too, between British traders and the Chinese officials were daily becoming more strained. Morrison strongly disapproved of much of the correspondence which it fell to his lot to conduct with the Chinese mandarins. Morrison's time in China would preclude the outbreak of the First Opium War between Great Britain and China; during his time in Southern China, Morrison observed the growing tensions in the region. Noting the "officiousness and tyranny" of the Chinese mandarins as being hard to bear, Morrison also criticized the conduct of British traders, which threatened the activities of Christian missionaries in China. He would note that the activities of foreign traders were prioritized over that of the missionaries.

On Morrison's visit to England, he had been able to leave a Chinese native teacher, Liang Fa, one of Milne's converts, to carry on what work he could among the people. This man had already endured much for his faith, and he proved entirely consistent and earnest during the long period of Morrison's absence. Other native Christians were baptized; and the little Church grew, while at the same time it was well known that many believed in secret, who did not dare to challenge persecution and ostracism by public confession. American missionaries were sent to help Morrison, and more Christian publications were issued. Morrison welcomed the arrival of the Americans, because they could conduct the service for English residents, and set him free to preach and talk to the Chinese who could be gathered together to listen to the Gospel. In 1832 Morrison could write:

There is now in Canton a state of society, in respect of Chinese, totally different from what I found in 1807. Chinese scholars, missionary students, English presses and Chinese Scriptures, with public worship of God, have all grown up since that period. I have served my generation, and must the Lord know when I fall asleep.

The Roman Catholic bishop rose against Morrison in 1833, leading to the suppression of his presses in Macau and removing his preferred method of spreading knowledge of Christ. His native agents, however, continued to circulate publications that had already been printed. During this period Morrison also contributed to Karl Gützlaff's Eastern Western Monthly Magazine, a publication aimed at improving Sino-Western understanding.

Epitaph

Morrison was buried in the Old Protestant Cemetery in Macau. The inscription on his marker reads:

Legacy and honours

Morrison had amassed "the most comprehensive library of Chinese literature in Europe" which formed the core of his The Language Institution in Bartlett's Building, London. His widow put all 900 books up for sale in 1837 for £2,000.

The Morrison Hill district of Hong Kong and its adjoining road, Morrison Hill Road, are named for Morrison as was the Morrison School erected upon it by the Morrison Education Society and completed shortly before Morrison's death in 1843. The Morrison Hill Swimming Pool at the centre of the former hill is a present public swimming pool in Hong Kong.

The University of Hong Kong's Morrison Hall, first established in 1913 as a "Christian hostel for Chinese students", was named for Morrison by its patrons, the London Missionary Society.

Morrison House in YMCA of Hong Kong Christian College, which was founded by YMCA of Hong Kong, was named in commemoration of Morrison.

Morrison House in Raffles Institution, which was founded by Sir Stamford Raffles, was also named in commemoration of Morrison.

Morrison Building is a declared monument of Hong Kong. It was the oldest building in the Hoh Fuk Tong Centre located at Castle Peak Road, San Hui, Tuen Mun, the New Territories.

Morrison Academy is an international Christian school founded in Taichung, Taiwan.

An engraving of the painting by George Chinnery entitled Li Shigong and Chen Laoyi translating the Bible as Morrison looks on was published in Fisher's Drawing Room Scrap Book, 1838 as Dr. Morrison and his Chinese Attendants. with a poetical illustration by Letitia Elizabeth Landon.

Work

Missionary work

Morrison produced a Chinese translation of the Bible. He also compiled a Chinese dictionary for the use of Westerners. The Bible translation took twelve years and the compilation of the dictionary, sixteen years. During this period, in 1815, he left the employment of the East India Company.

By the end of the year 1813, the whole of the New Testament translation was completed and printed. The translator never claimed that it was perfect. On the contrary, he readily conceded its defects. But he claimed for it that it was a translation of the New Testament into no stilted, scholastic dialect, but into the genuine colloquial speech of the Chinese. The possession of a large number of printed copies led the two missionaries to devise a scheme for their wide and effective distribution.

At this time several parts of the Malay Peninsula were under English protection. English Governors were resident, and consequently it seemed a promising field for the establishment of a mission station. The station would be within reach of the Chinese coast, and Chinese missionaries might be trained there whose entrance into China would not excite the same suspicions that attached to the movements of English people. The two places specially thought of were the island of Java, and Malacca on the Malay Peninsula.

It was well known that many thousands of Chinese were scattered through these parts, and Milne traveled around surveying the country, and distributing tracts and Testaments as opportunity offered. The object of the two missionaries was now to select some quiet spot where, under protection, the printing press might be established, and Chinese missionaries trained. Malacca had this advantage, that it lay between India and China, and commanded means of transport to almost any part of China and the adjoining archipelago. After much deliberation it was determined to advise the directors that Milne should proceed to establish himself at Malacca.

In this year Morrison baptized the first convert on 14 May 1814 (seven years after his arrival). The first Protestant Chinese Christian was probably named Cai Gao. (His name was variously recorded by Morrison as Tsae A-fo, A-no, and A-ko.) Morrison acknowledged the imperfection of this man's knowledge and did not mention his own role in Cai's baptism until much later, but he claimed to rely on the words "If thou believest with all thy heart!" and administered the rite. From his diary the following was noted: At a spring of water, issuing from the foot of a lofty hill, by the sea-side, away from human observation, I baptised him in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit... May he be the first fruits of a great harvest.

Scholarly work

Robert Morrison's Dictionary of the Chinese Language was the first Chinese–English, English–Chinese dictionary, largely based on the Kangxi Dictionary and a Chinese rhyming dictionary of the same era. This meant that his tonal markings were those of Middle Chinese rather than those actually spoken in his age. Owing to the tutors available to him, his transcriptions were based on Nanjing Mandarin rather than the Beijing dialect.

Works

This is a list of scholarly, missionary and other works by Robert Morrison :

Robert Morrison (1812). Horae Sinicae: Translations from the Popular Literature of the Chinese. London.

Robert Morrison (1813). Hsin i Chao Shu. Retrieved 15 May 2011.

Robert Morrison (1815). A Grammar of the Chinese Language. Serampore: Printed at the Mission-Press. pp. 280. Retrieved 15 May 2011.

Authors Antonio Montucci; Horae Sinicae; Robert Morrison (1817). Urh-chĭh-tsze-tëen-se-yĭn-pe-keáou; being a parallel drawn between the two intended Chinese dictionaries, by R. Morrison and A. Montucci. Together with Morrison's Horæ Sinicæ [&c.]. Macao, China: T. Cadell and W Davies. p. 141. Retrieved 15 May 2011.

Robert Morrison (1817). A view of China for philological purposes, containing a sketch of Chinese chronology, geography, government, religion & customs. Macao, China: Printed at the Honorable the East India Company's Press by P.P. Thoms; published and sold by Black, Parbury, and Allen, Booksellers to the Honorable East India Company, London. Retrieved 15 May 2011. Alt URL Archived 13 April 2014 at the Wayback Machine

Morrison, Robert (1815–1823). A Dictionary of the Chinese Language, in Three Parts. Macao, China: Printed at the Honorable the East India Company's Press by P.P. Thoms. in six volumes:

Part I, Vol. I - Robert Morrison (1815). A Dictionary of the Chinese Language, in Three Parts: Chinese and English, arranged according to the radicals. Macao, China: Printed at the Honorable the East India Company's Press by P.P. Thoms. Retrieved 29 November 2017.

Part I, Vol. II - Robert Morrison (1822). A Dictionary of the Chinese Language, in Three Parts: Chinese and English, arranged according to the radicals. Macao, China: Printed at the Honorable the East India Company's Press by P.P. Thoms; published and sold by Kingsbury, Parbury, and Allen, Leadenhall Street. Retrieved 15 May 2011.