Timothy Richard

Timothy Richard at the age of 34

Timothy Richard ( Chinese  李 提摩太 , Pinyin lǐ tí mótaì , W.-G. Li T'i-motai , born October 10, 1845 in Carmarthenshire , Wales, † April 17, 1919 in London ) was a Welsh Baptist missionary in China, which had a lasting influence on the reform movements at the end of the Qing Dynasty and the modernization of China and the emergence of the Republic of China .

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Richard was born on October 10, 1845 in Carmarthenshire, South Wales. His parents were Timothy and Eleanor Richard, a devout Baptist farming family. Richard was persuaded to become a missionary during a revival meeting. By then he had earned a living as a teacher and began training at Haverfordwest Theological College in 1865 . There he introduced initial reform ideas for training. He committed himself to China, where he then played an important role in the relief efforts on the occasion of the famine between 1876 and 1879. He campaigned against the inclusion of the feet and for equality.

Richard revered the China Inland Mission and its methods, but was referred to the Baptist Mission by Hudson Taylor . He was sent to Yantai (Chefoo) in Shandong in 1869 by the Baptist Missionary Society . From 1874 to 1877 he was the only representative of the Mission Society in China.

In 1897 Richard made a trip to India to learn about the mission situation there. He traveled with a young colleague, Arthur Gostick Shorrock , visiting Sri Lanka , Madras , Agra , Benares , Delhi , Calcutta and finally Bombay .

In China, Timothy Richard was one of the first missionaries to urge that Christianity in China be self-sustaining. He became an employee of the monthly Wàn Guó Gōng Bào (st. About: "Review of the times"), which had been founded by Young John Allen and appeared from 1868 to 1907. The magazine was said to have "done more for reform than any other single institution in China." The Review had a large and influential readership in China at the time of its publication. One way in which the Review found a large scholarly readership was through its review of contemporary economic and political events. During the First Sino-Japanese War , 1894-1895, published articles with the titles: International Intercourse, by a descendent of Confucius (International Relations, by a descendant of Confucius ) How to Enrich a Nation, by Dr. Joseph Edkins (How to Enrich a Nation), The Prime Benefits of Christianity, by the Rev. Timothy Richard (The Most Important Benefits of Christianity), and On the Suppression of Doubt and the Acceptance of Christ, by Sung Yuh-kwei (On the Oppression of doubt and the acceptance of Christ). The articles attributed practical successes to Christianity and demonstrated that Christianity was a beneficial concept for the Chinese, which Allen and his collaborators put on an equal footing with economic and international theories. Kang Youwei once said of the magazine, "I owe my conversion mainly to the writings of two missionaries: the Rev. Timothy Richard and the Rev. Dr. Young J. Allen."

The urn grave of Timothy Richard in Golders Green Crematorium

Richard was heavily involved in Chinese literature, not only Confucian scriptures, but also Buddhist and Daoist . He translated parts of Wu Cheng'en's novel , The Journey to the West, and worked with Yang Wenhui . He developed more and more into a "pedagogue in the broadest sense of the word. A great role model for him was Matteo Ricci , which sometimes met with incomprehension on the part of his supporters.

Richards was married twice. He died in London on April 17, 1919. He was in the Golders Green Crematorium in London cremated , where his ashes is located. His writings are kept in the archives of the Baptist Missionary Society at Regent's Park College , Oxford .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Vincent Goossaert, David A. Palmer: The Religious Question in Modern China . University of Chicago Press, April 15, 2011, ISBN 978-0-226-30416-8 , pp. 70– (accessed July 31, 2012).
2. ^ Timothy Richard: Forty-five Years in China: Reminiscences publ. Frederick A. Stokes (1916)
3. ↑ "said ... to have done more for reform than any other single agency in China."
4. ^ I owe my conversion to reform chiefly on the writings of two missionaries, the Rev. Timothy Richard and the Rev. Dr. Young J. Allen.

Fonts

• Forty-Five Years in China . Frederick A. Stokes, New York 1916.
• Conversion by the Million in China: Being Biographies and Articles, 2 vols . Christian Literature Society, Shanghai 1907.

literature

• Paul R. Bohr: Famine in China and the Missionary: Timothy Richard as Relief Administrator and Advocate of National Reform, 1876-1884 (1972)
• Edward William Price Evans: Welsh Biography Online
• William Edward Soothill ; Timothy Richard of China (1924)
• Brian Stanley: The History of the Baptist Missionary Society, 1792-1992 (1992)
• HR Williamson: British Baptists in China, 1845–1952 (1957)
• DH Chambers: Tim China . 2011
• B. Reeve: Timothy Richard, DD: China missionary, statesman and reformer . SW Partridge & Co., Ltd., London 1911

Web links

• Worldcat
• Entry on the website of "Christianity in China"
• Entry on the Baptist Mission website