The Sheo Yang Mission
Encyclopedia
The Sheo Yang Mission was a Protestant Christian
missionary
society that was involved in sending workers to China
during the late Qing Dynasty
. It was founded by the Pigott family in 1892 (possibly accompanied by two other families Johnson and McNair), they had previously been members of the China Inland Mission
(CIM). The mission was destroyed and most members murdered in 1900, the work continued through the Baptist Missionary Society
.
Taiyuan
Sheo Yang
Pigott
Lovitt
had arrived in Taiyuan in 1877 and worked there for several years after and hence alongside Pigott and the Sheo Yang missionaries. Little is recorded of the differences between Pigott et al. and the CIM.
Given that the Sheo Yang missioners moved from the CIM to the Baptist Missionary Society (BMS) it seems most likely that this Shansi spirit was the source of the disagreement.
On 1 August 1883 Dr Schofield died of Typhus Fever
leaving Dr E H Edwards who had arrived the previous year, via the West of China with CIM, in charge of the Hospital. Dr E H Edwards later became part of the Sheo Yang mission but was on furlough
when the Boxer Rebellion caused the death of all the other Sheo Yang missionaries.
In June and July 1886 missionaries of the various societies gathered for a conference with the visiting Hudson Taylor
(CIM). Mr Sowerby (BMS) and Dr E H Edwards (CIM at the time) both questioned the level of knowledge of the local Tao-li that should be acquired. Hudson Taylors response included a recollection, thus:
The Pigott's travelled out to China in January 1888 with a group of missionaries setting out on the first Kaisar-i-Hind (Caesar of India) steam ship and later the SS Deccan. Mary Geraldine Guinness
(who later became Geraldine Taylor, daughter-in-law to Hudson Taylor the head of the CIM) was amongst their number and mentions the Pigott's in her letters home.
Around the first week of April 1900 Rev Alexander Grant (father of Mrs Lovitt) and Mr Hoddle an "independent worker" visited the Sheo Yang mission, in "A Thousand Miles of Miracles" Rev A E Glover records:
A slightly less complete summary is given on p.876. Pages 1045-46 report SYM under the headings "Shansi" or "Shansi, T'aiyuan" noting that SYM was in the capital Taiyuan of the Shanxi province of Northern China.
The Boxer Rebellion
included the death of 77 Christian missionaries (or their family members) in the Taiyuan Massacre
. Some are listed elsewhere on wikipedia. It is believed that all members of the Sheo Yang Mission died in the uprising.
, the "Last Letters" includes this letter:
, p. 512., reports:
Christian
A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...
missionary
Missionary
A missionary is a member of a religious group sent into an area to do evangelism or ministries of service, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care and economic development. The word "mission" originates from 1598 when the Jesuits sent members abroad, derived from the Latin...
society that was involved in sending workers to China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
during the late Qing Dynasty
Qing Dynasty
The Qing Dynasty was the last dynasty of China, ruling from 1644 to 1912 with a brief, abortive restoration in 1917. It was preceded by the Ming Dynasty and followed by the Republic of China....
. It was founded by the Pigott family in 1892 (possibly accompanied by two other families Johnson and McNair), they had previously been members of the China Inland Mission
China Inland Mission
OMF International is an interdenominational Protestant Christian missionary society, founded in Britain by Hudson Taylor on 25 June 1865.-Overview:...
(CIM). The mission was destroyed and most members murdered in 1900, the work continued through the Baptist Missionary Society
Baptist Missionary Society
rightBMS World Mission is a Christian missionary society founded by Baptists from England in 1792. It was originally called the Particular Baptist Society for the Propagation of the Gospel Amongst the Heathen, but for most of its life was known as the Baptist Missionary Society...
.
Spelling of names, placenames
ShanxiShanxi
' is a province in Northern China. Its one-character abbreviation is "晋" , after the state of Jin that existed here during the Spring and Autumn Period....
- Shansi (Wade-Giles form) appears to be the preferred spelling in the years around the turn of the 19th Century, since then the pinyin form Shanxi has become the standard. Other forms seen include: Shan-si, Shan-hsi. Not to be confused with ShaanxiShaanxi' is a province in the central part of Mainland China, and it includes portions of the Loess Plateau on the middle reaches of the Yellow River in addition to the Qinling Mountains across the southern part of this province...
(Shensi, Shen-si) which is a different, but local, province.
Taiyuan
Taiyuan
Taiyuan is the capital and largest city of Shanxi province in North China. At the 2010 census, it had a total population of 4,201,591 inhabitants on 6959 km² whom 3,212,500 are urban on 1,460 km². The name of the city literally means "Great Plains", referring to the location where the Fen River...
- T'aiyuan, Taiyuen, T'ai-yuan (eg in Timothy Richards "Forty-five years in China"), T’ai-yüen. This is often seen with -fu or simply fu as an extension, presumably indicating that Taiyuan is the provincial capital. OCR errors include "T ai yiien".
Sheo Yang
- Sheoyang, Shao Yang, Shou Yang or Sheo Iang.
Pigott
- Also written as Piggott.
Lovitt
- Also written Lovett.
Relationship with the CIM and other missionary societies
Timothy RichardTimothy Richard
Timothy Richard was a British Baptist missionary to China, who influenced the modernisation of China and the rise of the Chinese Republic....
had arrived in Taiyuan in 1877 and worked there for several years after and hence alongside Pigott and the Sheo Yang missionaries. Little is recorded of the differences between Pigott et al. and the CIM.
- However, in the places where he worked alongside the CIM, some were influence by his views for he was a strong and attractive character. One of the first signs of a missionary being influenced by this teaching was to give up Bible distribution and evangelism. In 1881, the CIM separated itself from common worship with the BMS on account of Richard
Timothy RichardTimothy Richard was a British Baptist missionary to China, who influenced the modernisation of China and the rise of the Chinese Republic....
and his views. TaylorHudson TaylorJames Hudson Taylor , was a British Protestant Christian missionary to China, and founder of the China Inland Mission . Taylor spent 51 years in China...
considered him ‘unorthodox’. Richard approached Taylor to discuss a comity arrangement but the idea was rejected. He found Taylor’s attitude obstructive but refrained from further fanning the flames and also passed over a school into CIM hands. Although most within Richard’s own mission, the BMS, had repudiated his views, some CIM members were influenced towards Richard’s position and Taylor had to go and deal with them. Taylor rejected Richard's approach, preferring to emphasise the preaching of Christ crucified. He believed that the imbibing of what was known as the ‘Shansi spirit’ would cause a loss of conviction and purpose.
Given that the Sheo Yang missioners moved from the CIM to the Baptist Missionary Society (BMS) it seems most likely that this Shansi spirit was the source of the disagreement.
On 1 August 1883 Dr Schofield died of Typhus Fever
Typhus
Epidemic typhus is a form of typhus so named because the disease often causes epidemics following wars and natural disasters...
leaving Dr E H Edwards who had arrived the previous year, via the West of China with CIM, in charge of the Hospital. Dr E H Edwards later became part of the Sheo Yang mission but was on furlough
Furlough
In the United States a furlough is a temporary unpaid leave of some employees due to special needs of a company, which may be due to economic conditions at the specific employer or in the economy as a whole...
when the Boxer Rebellion caused the death of all the other Sheo Yang missionaries.
In June and July 1886 missionaries of the various societies gathered for a conference with the visiting Hudson Taylor
Hudson Taylor
James Hudson Taylor , was a British Protestant Christian missionary to China, and founder of the China Inland Mission . Taylor spent 51 years in China...
(CIM). Mr Sowerby (BMS) and Dr E H Edwards (CIM at the time) both questioned the level of knowledge of the local Tao-li that should be acquired. Hudson Taylors response included a recollection, thus:
- I have heard one of the most capable Chinese gentlemen I have known in China preaching frequently, both to scholars and to poor men, and I noticed he scarcely ever made any reference to those things which he was master of. One might have expected him to deal with scholars on their own ground; I noticed he dealt with them only on the ground of salvation—“All you know, and all you have, and all you are, will not save you; but the Lord Jesus will.” The Lord wonderfully used him. It was never the Tao-li (Religion) he preached, but the Lord Jesus as his living Saviour.
The Pigott's travelled out to China in January 1888 with a group of missionaries setting out on the first Kaisar-i-Hind (Caesar of India) steam ship and later the SS Deccan. Mary Geraldine Guinness
Mary Geraldine Guinness
Mary Geraldine Guinness a.k.a. Mrs. Howard Taylor 金樂婷, was a British Protestant Christian missionary to China, and author of many missionary biographies regarding the history of the China Inland Mission Mary Geraldine Guinness a.k.a. Mrs. Howard Taylor 金樂婷(25 December 1865 – 6 June 1949), was...
(who later became Geraldine Taylor, daughter-in-law to Hudson Taylor the head of the CIM) was amongst their number and mentions the Pigott's in her letters home.
Around the first week of April 1900 Rev Alexander Grant (father of Mrs Lovitt) and Mr Hoddle an "independent worker" visited the Sheo Yang mission, in "A Thousand Miles of Miracles" Rev A E Glover records:
- THE first week in the April of the year 1900 we had the joy of welcoming to our station the veteran missionary, Mr. Alexander Grant (of Singapore
SingaporeSingapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...
and AmoyAmoyXiamen, or Amoy, is a city on the southeast coast of China.Amoy may also refer to:*Amoy dialect, a dialect of the Hokkien lects, which are part of the Southern Min group of Chinese languages...
), who was returning to the coast from the provincial capital, T'ai-yüen FuTaiyuanTaiyuan is the capital and largest city of Shanxi province in North China. At the 2010 census, it had a total population of 4,201,591 inhabitants on 6959 km² whom 3,212,500 are urban on 1,460 km². The name of the city literally means "Great Plains", referring to the location where the Fen River...
, where he had been visiting his married daughter and her husband, Dr. and Mrs. Lovitt, of the Sheo Iang Mission. He was accompanied by Mr. Hoddle, an independent worker in the city of T'ai-yüen. Though they had come from the capital, they had no evil tidings to bring us. Everything was, to all outward appearance, just as usual. How little we dreamed as we met together in happy fellowship what three months hence would have to reveal! Mr. Grant a refugee, barely escaping with his life and only with the loss of all his effects. Mr. Hoddle (together with Dr. and Mrs. Lovitt and some forty other foreign workers) beheaded and in a martyr's grave. Our own station rioted, and ourselves stripped of all and in the hands of the Boxers.
Members of the Sheo Yang Mission and reports mentioning them
The following people are variously listed as having been part of the Sheo Yang Mission (pages refer to entries in the "Chinese Recorder Index", † indicate martyrdom at Sheo Yang Mission as reported e.g. in "Last Letters" or "John Innocent".):- † Miss Duval (p.130)
- Rev Dr. E H Edwards M.D. father of George Kemp Edwards (p.135)
- † Dr Arnold E Lovitt M.E.C.S (p.295)
- † Mrs Lovitt, daughter of Rev. A Grant (who may also have died in the Taiyuan MassacreTaiyuan MassacreThe Taiyuan Massacre was one of the more bloody and infamous parts of the Boxer Rebellion. It took place on July 9, 1900, in Taiyuan, Shanxi province, North China, when the governor of Shanxi named Yuxian , or Yu-Hsien , ordered the killings of 45 Christian missionaries and of local church members,...
but is elsewhere reported to have survived). - † Lovitt child
- † Rev Thomas Wellesley Pigott, father of Wellesley Pigott (p.383)
- † Mrs Jessie Pigott nee Kemp
- † Wellesley Pigott
- † Mr John Robinson (p.411)
- Miss Mary E Shekleton (p.431) (note Google Books transcribes this as "Mery" in error)
- † Rev J Simpson (p.436)
- † Mrs Simpson
- Miss Stewart (p.454) (note Google Books transcribes this as "Stewert" in error)
- † Rev G W Stokes (p.456)
- † Mrs Stokes
- † Miss Coombs (possibly "Combs")
A slightly less complete summary is given on p.876. Pages 1045-46 report SYM under the headings "Shansi" or "Shansi, T'aiyuan" noting that SYM was in the capital Taiyuan of the Shanxi province of Northern China.
The Boxer Rebellion
Boxer Rebellion
The Boxer Rebellion, also called the Boxer Uprising by some historians or the Righteous Harmony Society Movement in northern China, was a proto-nationalist movement by the "Righteous Harmony Society" , or "Righteous Fists of Harmony" or "Society of Righteous and Harmonious Fists" , in China between...
included the death of 77 Christian missionaries (or their family members) in the Taiyuan Massacre
Taiyuan Massacre
The Taiyuan Massacre was one of the more bloody and infamous parts of the Boxer Rebellion. It took place on July 9, 1900, in Taiyuan, Shanxi province, North China, when the governor of Shanxi named Yuxian , or Yu-Hsien , ordered the killings of 45 Christian missionaries and of local church members,...
. Some are listed elsewhere on wikipedia. It is believed that all members of the Sheo Yang Mission died in the uprising.
A letter by T W Pigott
An account of the martyrdoms in Shansi which includes reports on the reoccupation of the missionary stations includes this section (p.15) with a letter written in May 1896 by Rev T W Pigott B.A., one of the martyrs:The members of the Sheo-yang Mission, with the exception of Dr. and Mrs. Edwards, who were at home on furlough, were killed to a man, and so with the B.M.S. in Shan-si. Of the latter Mission two former members who had retired from the field have felt the present need to be a special call, and have already returned to Shan-si. In the C.I.M. the stations are being reoccupied so far as it is possible to draft workers from other districts, but many more workers are needed. The following letter, written in May 1896 by Mr. T. W. Pigott, B.A., one of the martyred missionaries, should lead us all to a careful consideration of our duty in the light of Eternity :
- "I look back on 1879 when I first reached China, and am filled with thanksgiving and joy at the change God has wrought, and the more than hundred-fold He has given for the labour and treasure expended in this province (Shan-si). When I first reached this province there was not one baptized Christian here, and only two recently opened stations. Now there are many hundreds of converts, many of them earnest, faithful men, and a large number of stations where thousands are brought under Christian influence. How shall we look on the investment of our lives and labour here, even from the near standpoint of one hundred years hence ? I am, I can truly say, more grateful every day for the opportunity of serving Christ, and I believe this to be the only true and sober view of life s realities. The work pressed home
now, will make all the difference a few years hence. /page 16/ With Armenia before us we dare not count too much on future years. How suddenly the work was arrested there and the door shut against much hoped-for labour.
Dr Lovitt's last letter
Dr Lovitt was martyred in the Taiyuan MassacreTaiyuan Massacre
The Taiyuan Massacre was one of the more bloody and infamous parts of the Boxer Rebellion. It took place on July 9, 1900, in Taiyuan, Shanxi province, North China, when the governor of Shanxi named Yuxian , or Yu-Hsien , ordered the killings of 45 Christian missionaries and of local church members,...
, the "Last Letters" includes this letter:
T AI-YUAX-FU, June 28, 1900.
DEAR FRIEND We do not know whom you may be, but we thought it well to leave this letter in the hands of a trusty native to give to the first foreigner who might come along...
We would like our dear home ones to know we are being marvellously sustained by the Lord. He is precious to each of us. The children seem to have no fear. We cannot but hope for deliverance (hope dies hard), and our God is well able to do all things even to save us from the most impossible surroundings when hope is gone. Our trust is in Him entirely and alone. We at the same time are seeking to do all that is in our power, and asking guidance at every step...
There is not much time. We are ready.
ARNOLD E. LOVITT, M.E.C.S.
Aftermath
The Encyclopaedia SinicaEncyclopaedia Sinica
The ' is an English-language encyclopedia on China and China-related subjects edited by English missionary Samuel Couling, and first published in 1917. It covers a range of topics and provides insight on early 20th-century perspectives towards China...
, p. 512., reports:
- In 1900 eleven of these [the Pigott's and thirteen other workers] were killed by the Boxers, together with two children, one being the only son of Mr. and Mrs. Pigott. Of the 21 [local] church members, 10 were also killed. The surviving workers jointed[sic] the Baptist Missionary Society
Baptist Missionary SocietyrightBMS World Mission is a Christian missionary society founded by Baptists from England in 1792. It was originally called the Particular Baptist Society for the Propagation of the Gospel Amongst the Heathen, but for most of its life was known as the Baptist Missionary Society...
after the Boxer Uprising.
See also
- Protestant missionary societies in China during the 19th Century
- Timeline of Chinese historyTimeline of Chinese historyThe following is a timeline of the history of China. Between the changing of the dynasties, most dates overlap as ruling periods do not transfer immediately...
- 19th Century Protestant Missions in China
- List of Protestant missionaries in China
- Christianity in ChinaChristianity in ChinaChristianity in China is a growing minority religion that comprises Protestants , Catholics , and a small number of Orthodox Christians. Although its lineage in China is not as ancient as the institutional religions of Taoism and Mahayana Buddhism, and the social system and ideology of...