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Liang Fa

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Liang Fa
A posthumous portrait(c. 1865)
Traditional ChineseLươngPhát
Simplified ChineseLươngPhát
Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu PinyinLiáng Fā
Yue: Cantonese
JyutpingLeung4 Faat3
Liang Gongfa
Traditional ChineseLươngCungPhát
Simplified ChineseLươngCungPhát
Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu PinyinLiáng Gōngfā
Liang A-fa
Traditional ChineseLươngAPhát
Simplified ChineseLươngAPhát
Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu PinyinLiáng Āfā
Student of the Good
Traditional ChineseHọcThiện(Giả)
Simplified ChineseHọcThiện(Giả)
Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu PinyinXuéshàn(zhě)
Retired Student of the Good
Traditional ChineseHọcThiệnCư sĩ
Simplified ChineseHọcThiệnCư sĩ
Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu PinyinXuéshàn Jūshì
An engraving ofGeorge Chinnery's lostRobert Morrison Translating the Bible(c. 1828).Morrisonis assisted byLi Shigong(left) andChen Laoyi(right).
Hong Xiuquan(c. 1860).
Lam Qua's portrait ofPeter Parker(c. 1845).
In thisChinese name,thefamily nameisLiang.

Liang Fa(1789–1855), also known byother names,was the secondChineseProtestantconvert and the first Chinese Protestant minister and evangelist. He was ordained byRobert Morrison,the first Protestantmissionaryin theQing Empire.His tractGood Words to Admonish the Agewas influential onHong Xiuquan,who went on to lead theTaiping Rebellion.

Name

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Liang Fa[1]is thepinyinromanizationof Liang's usual Chinese name, which his father used.[2]Leung Faat[1][3]is theJyutpingromanization of the same name inCantonese,the usual spokendialectofGuangdong's natives. Hispersonal namePhátis the common Chinese verb for "to send" but inChinese grammarcan also be understood as itspast participle,"[he who is] sent".[2]He is also known asLiang A-fa,[4][5]"A-Fa",[6]"Afa",[7]"Ah Fa"[1]or "Ah-fa"[8]from theSouthern Chinesehabit of forming affectionatenicknamesusing the prefixĀ-(nowA,formerlyÁ).Liang Gongfawas apparently his complete name, although it was used less often.[9]It variously appears as "Leang Kung-fa",[4]"Leang Kung-fah",[1]and "Leong Kung Fa".[1][10]

Life

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Liang was born in thevillageofGulao(then known as "Lohtsun" ),[1]Gaoming County,[11]inSanzhou( "Samchow" ),Guangdong,in 1789.[1]Although he came from a poor family, they made an effort to give him a classical Chinese education at the village school. This consisted of theFour Books,three of theFive Classics,and theSacred Edict.[4]They were unable to afford his schooling until he was 11; at age 15, he was compelled to seek work as abrush-maker[11][n 1]inGuangzhou(then knownas "Canton" ).[1]He soon left this toapprenticeas aprinter,[1]for whom he carved characters onto wooden blocks.[4]After four years, he left to a nearby village to ply the trade. He returned to Gulao in 1810 to mourn his mother's death and then returned to the area around Guangzhou.[4]

In 1811 and 1812,Cai Luxing(TháiLưHưng,[9]known at the time as "Tsae Low-heen" )[1]was helpingRobert Morrisonto publish his Chinese translation of the New Testament[1]and in one of those years Liang began to assist in carving the work's printing blocks.[11]An imperial edict of 1812 prohibited the publication of Christian texts in Chinese; it declared that Christianity was a menace toChinese cultureas it "neither holdsspiritsin veneration norancestors in reverence".[3]Nonetheless, Cai's younger brother—probably namedGao—became the Protestants' first Chinese convert, baptized at a secluded seaside spring on July 16, 1814,[3]and Liang became their second.[9]The missionaryWilliam Milneemployed Liang as his Chinese teacher and Liang went with him to theMalaccamission in April 1815[1]to assist him with printing his Chinese-language tracts.[4]At his request, he was baptized by Milne at noon on November 3, 1816, so that there would be no shadows present.[12]He adopted thepen name"Student of the Good".[1]

Liang returned to China in April 1819 to see his family.[4]Under Morrison's supervision, he prepared 200 copies of a 37-page tract ofMiscellaneous Exhortations[13]for his friends and neighbors. The police reacted harshly, arresting him and burning both the copies and the printing blocks used to publish them. Morrison got him released two days later, but he had already been beaten thirty times with a bamboo cane and compelled to pay $70. He remained forty days with his family and then returned to Malacca. He returned again in 1820, successfully converting and baptizing his wife before returning to Malacca the next year.[4]

Following Milne's death, he came home in 1823. On November 20, he had Morrison baptize his son Jinde ( "Tsin-tih" ).[4]A month later, Morrison appointed him as a lay evangelist for theLondon Missionary Society[10][1][n 2]and in 1827 ordained him as a full minister, the first native Chinese to do so.[10]He preached at hospitals and chapels and, after writing his own tracts, thought to distribute Christian literature to the scholars gathered for theprefecturalandprovincialimperial exams.[12]He printed 7,000[14]or 70,000[1]tracts in a single year and personally distributed them to the thousands who came for the tests[1]in Guangzhou and in the prefectural seats of Guangdong.[13]It was at one such session thatHong Xiuquanfirst encountered Liang's workGood Words to Admonish the Age.[12]He converted a printer named Lin ( "Lam" ); Li San, who became his assistant; and others.[1]Liang accompaniedWat Ngong,another Chinese Christian printer, on his 250-mile (402 km) trek in 1830, distributing their Christian tracts across southwest Guangdong.[15]He continued the practice for three or four more years.[16]There are unclear references to some long-standing dispute between Wat and Liang that was eventually resolved;[17]they worked together in Malacca and again to continue the mission with another native worker after Morrison's death.[18]

The1833 Government of India Actended theEast India Company's legal monopoly on Britain's share of theCanton trade.Amid the diplomatic crisis occasioned by the increase inopium smugglingandLord Napier's resort to force to assert his right to act as the BritishconsulinGuangzhou,the Emperor personally expressed disbelief that westerners were responsible for the Chinese-language magazines and broadsides being distributed by the English. Qing subjects were forbidden to teach to the language, and a crackdown was ordered.[19]Morrison died in August 1834 and, several days into Liang's distribution of tracts at Guangzhou's provincial exams a few weeks later, the city's police came for him and his companions. Liang escaped toMacao,[n 3]but an assistant in Guangzhou and several family members in Sanzhou were seized.[1]Unlike his father, John Morrison helped Liang by paying the $800 for the ten captives himself.[16]

He again left for Malacca with his son Lou. He was formally attached to the London mission there in 1837[13]and, while working there withWat Ngong,caused a "spike" in conversions, netting more than thirty converts in a span of months. When many of these new converts later abandoned the faith, it prompted disputes within the LMS about the meaning and requirements for baptism.[20]Liang moved to the mission atSingaporethe next year. He finally returned to China in July 1839.[13]He then joinedPeter Parker'smissionary hospital[1]on Hog Lane in Guangzhou'sThirteen Factoriestrading ghetto. At an 1841 congressional hearing inWashington,Parker quoted Liang as saying "When I meet men in the streets and villages and tell them the folly of worshipping idols they laugh at me. Their hearts are very hard. But when men are sick and are healed their hearts are very soft".[21]For similar reasons, he opposedBritain's persecution of theFirst Opium War,saying its support of opium smugglers and assaults on China would turn its people against Christianity in general and British missionaries in particular.[citation needed]In 1845, Liang became the hospital's chaplain, leading regular services and visiting patients. Parker noted him often sharing his conversion story and scriptural passages.[1]

Liang helped Robert Morrison's son-in-lawBenjamin Hobsonlocate a residence and establishhis clinicin Guangzhou'swestern suburbsin 1848. Liang then moved his work there, since it began to treat more than two hundred patients daily. Four men and six women joined him for services, but more than a hundred might watch their ceremony.[1]He baptizedHok Chau,who worked at the hospital illustrating Hobson's medical treatises,[1]in 1852;[22]Chau later went on to succeed Liang as minister there.[1]

He was unhappy with his son Jinde's government job, which required him to work on Sundays.[1]He also had a daughter(b.1829)and a third child, who died in 1832.[4]

He died on 12 April 1855.[1]

Works

[edit]

Liang Fa wrote under thepen name"Student of the Good"[1]or "Retired Student of the Good".[13]

He is primarily remembered for hisQuànshì Liángyán(t《KhuyếnThếLươngNgôn》,s《KhuyếnThếLươngNgôn》),formerlyromanizedasK'euen She Lëang Yen[23]andCh'üan-shih Liang-yen[8]and variously translated[25]asGood Words to Admonish the Age,[7][26]"Good News to Admonish the Ages",[1]"Good News to Admonish the World",[28]"Good Words to Exhort the World",[8]"Good Words Exhorting the Age",[23]"Good Words Exhorting Mankind",[12]&c. Revised by Morrison,[23]it was printed in Guangzhou in early 1832 and in Malacca later that year.[29][n 4]It comprised a form of theNew Testamentin vernacular Chinese based upon Morrison'sclassical Chinesetranslation,[8]along with ten homilies,[30]some of Liang's tracts, an attack onChinese religions,and his conversion story.[1]Although often called a "tract",it was over 500 pages long in nine stand-alone chapters or scrolls (juan),[31]which appear to have often been printed in four-volume sets.[1]It largely dwelt on the omnipotence ofGod the Father,the degrading nature and effects ofidolatryand other sins, and the personal choice between salvation and damnation.[33]Its actual text long went unstudied since only four copies are known to have survived the suppression of the Taipings: one copy of the Malacca edition is held by theNew York Public Library,one copy of the Guangzhou edition is held byHarvard University,and two more were held by the London Missionary Society.[29][n 5]A third and fourth edition, both abridged, were also printed atSingapore.[35]

He also published:[36][37][n 6]

  • 《 cứu thế lục toát yếu lược giải 》 [Jiùshì Lù Cuōyāo LüèxièorKew She Luh Tso Yaou Leo Keae, Miscellaneous Exhortations],Guangzhou: Religious Tract Society, 1819.(in Chinese)
  • 《 thục học thánh lý lược luận 》 [Shúxué Shènglǐ LüèlúnorShuh Heo Shing Le Lëo Lun, Perfect Acquaintance with the Holy Doctrine],Guangzhou: Religious Tract Society, 1828,(in Chinese)autobiographical & probably a second edition[13]
  • 《 chân đạo vấn đáp thiển giải 》 [Zhēndào Wèndá JiānxièorChin Taou Wan Ta Ts'ëen Keae, Simple Explanations to the Questions and Answers of the Truth],Malacca: Anglo-Chinese Press, 1829.(in Chinese)
  • 《 thánh thư nhật khóa sơ học tiện dụng 》 [Shèngshū Rìkè Chūxué BiànyòngorShing Shoo Jih K'o Ts'oo Hëo Pëen Yung, Scripture Lessons for the Young],Guangzhou: Religious Tract Society, 1831,reprinted 1832 by the British & Foreign School Society.(in Chinese)
  • 《 kỳ đảo văn tán thần thi 》 [Qídǎo Wén Zànshén ShīorK'e Taou Wan Tsan Shin She, Prayers and Hymns],Macao, 1833,(in Chinese)a translation of the Morning Service of Church of England, with the prayers done by Liang and the hymns by others[38]
  • 《 chân đạo tầm nguyên 》 [Zhēndào Xún Yuán, Seeking the Source of the True Way].[citation needed]
  • 《 linh hồn thiên 》 [Línghún Piān, On Souls].[citation needed]
  • 《 dị đoan luận 》 [Yìduān Lún, On Heresy].[citation needed]

Liang also assisted Milne'sMonthly Chinese Magazine[10]and createdThe Monthly Total Record of the Inspection of the Worldly Customs(《 sát thế tục mỗi nguyệt thống ký truyện 》 Cha Shisu Meiyue Tongji Zhuan), one of the first Chinesemagazines.[citation needed]

Legacy

[edit]

Liang was an important participant in the establishment ofProtestantism in China,[1]but is most remembered for the influence of his tracts onHong Xiuquanand hisTaiping rebels,for whomGood Words to Admonish the Agebecame a sacred text.[8]

Liang's grave was found to be on land purchased for the expansion ofLingnan University(formerlyCanton Christian Collegeand nowSun Yat-sen University). He was re-interred in the center of the college campus on the site reserved for the college chapel. The site was dedicated 7 June 1920.

See also

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Notes

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  1. ^Liang is sometimes unhelpfully described as making "pens"[1]or wrongly said to have made "pencils".[4][11]
  2. ^This date is sometimes confused—as byLee[12]—with the date of his full ordination.
  3. ^Wyliemistakenly records that Liang Fa was among those arrested.[13]
  4. ^This edition was largely identical but included a five-page table of contents.[29]
  5. ^The society's records and holdings are now at the library of the School of Oriental and African Studies at theUniversity of London.[34]Other copies may exist within China, but thepartyline has held that the Taiping struggle was primarily a spontaneousclass warandpeasant revoltand that its religious elements were largely irrelevant, discouraging research on the topic.[29]
  6. ^Chinese titles are given in moderntraditional characters,some of which—such as those preceded by thealtar radical—vary slightly from their 19th-century forms. Romanizations include both modernpinyinand the contemporaryromanization.Translations areWylie's, where given.[36]

References

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Citations

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  1. ^abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzaaabacadaeBDCC.
  2. ^abMcNeur (1934),p. 10.
  3. ^abcLee (1971),p. 32.
  4. ^abcdefghijkWylie (1867),p.21.
  5. ^McNeur (1934).
  6. ^Reason (1960).
  7. ^abFischer (2008),p. 150.
  8. ^abcdeLiu (2001),p.1058.
  9. ^abcKim (2011),p. 1.
  10. ^abcdMelton (2005).
  11. ^abcdKim (2011),p. 2.
  12. ^abcdeLee (1971),p. 33.
  13. ^abcdefgWylie (1867),p.22.
  14. ^Wylie (1867),"Kew A-gang", p. 12.
  15. ^Wylie (1867),"Kew A-gang", pp. 11–2.
  16. ^abBrown (1864),p.257.
  17. ^Seitz (2015),p.57.
  18. ^Lovett (1899),p.440.
  19. ^Lutz 2008,p.89.
  20. ^Seitz (2015),p.61.
  21. ^McNeur (1934),p. 89.
  22. ^Chung, Rebecca Chan; et al. (2012),Piloted to Serve.
  23. ^abcWylie (1867),p.23.
  24. ^abMcNeur (1934),p.vi.
  25. ^Seitz's introduction toMcNeur.[24]
  26. ^Kim (2011),p. i.
  27. ^abMcNeur (1934),p.i.
  28. ^Seitz's introduction toMcNeur.[27]
  29. ^abcdKim (2011),p. 6.
  30. ^Seitz's introduction toMcNeur.[24]
  31. ^Seitz's introduction toMcNeur.[27]
  32. ^McNeur (1934),p.vii.
  33. ^Seitz's introduction toMcNeur.[32]
  34. ^Kim (2011),p. 8.
  35. ^Wylie (1867),p.24.
  36. ^abWylie (1867),p.22–5.
  37. ^Kim (2011),pp. 3–4.
  38. ^Wylie (1867),p.25.

Bibliography

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