Liang Fa

Liang Fa (梁發 in pinyin: liang2 fa1) (1789 - 1855), birth given name Gongfa (恭發), nicknamed Ah Fa (阿發 a1 fa1) was the first Chinese Protestant preacher. He was born in Gulao Village (古勞村), San District (三洲), Gaoming District (高明縣), Zhaoqing Subprefecture (肇慶府 zhao4 qing4 fu3), Guangdong. He came from a family of farmers and was unable to afford going to school until eleven. Four years later, due to a deteriorating family wealth, he dropped out of school and went to work first as a pen-maker, then in printing in Guangzhou.

In 1810, as Ling Fa was employed in a printing company near the Thirteen Foreign Company (十三洋行), he encountered Robert Morrison (馬禮遜), the first Protestant missionary to China and the author of Chinese-English Dictionary (《華英字典》), and William Milne (米憐), who were translating the Bible and asked the company Liang Fa worked for to print it.

Liang Fa went to Malacca with Milne in 1815 after Milne was not permitted to preach by the Qing government. On November 3, he was baptized by Milne.

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