Christian missionaries and The Social Gospel in Nationalist China, 1929-1937: Evidence from the Chinese Recorder. Jordan McCluskey HISTORY 489 Supervisor: Pauline Keating Honours Coordinators: Cyble Locke and Adrian Muckle October 10, 2014 Contents Introduction...............................................................................................................1 Rural Education.4 Rural Health.12 Disaster Prevention and Relief.18 Views of Communism in The Chinese Recorder.23 Conclusion....31 Notes on Authors..36 Bibliography.38 List of Abbreviations ABCFM American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions CCCChurch of Christ in China CCP Chinese Communist Party CIFRCChina International Famine Relief Commission CR The Chinese Recorder KMT/GMD Kuomintang/Guomindang MEMMass Education Movement N.C.C National Christian Council SFPE Sino-Foreign Protestant Establishment Y.M.C.A Young Men's Christian AssociationY.W.C.A Young Women's Christian Association A note on spellings. There are two main kinds of Romanisation of the Chinese language into English. The older Wade-Giles system, and the current Pinyin system. The Pinyin system is now the official Romanisation system of the Peoples Republic of China, and the United Nations. However during the time period studied for this dissertation, Wade Giles was the Romanisation system in place, and was used for names, places and spellings throughout The Chinese Recorder. For this reason, Wade Giles Romanisation is used throughout this dissertation. Dedication This dissertation is dedicated to the loving memory of my grandmother who passed away during the first week of honours. Jean Price 1924-2014. 1 Introduction This dissertation examines The Chinese Recorder, an English language Christian newspaper in China during 1929 to 1937, for evidence of the social gospel. Mostly Protestants wrote for the newspaper, however Christians of all denominations were also involved in its writing. Authors were both foreign and Chinese. They wrote on a wide range of issues from spiritual issues, like theological arguments, to more worldly issues like natural disasters and political troubles. The Chinese Recorder was published from 1867 to 1941, and monthly in Shanghai in the time period assessed.1 This dissertation tries to find evidence of the social gospel within the pages of The Chinese Recorder. The purpose of this study is to assess the ways Christian missionaries viewed and assessed the social gospel efforts. In 1927 the Northern Expedition, led by the General Chiang Kai-Shek, sought to reunify China under one central political authority, the Kuomintang (The Chinese Nationalist Party). What followed from 1927 was an attempt to reform rural China by both Christian missionaries and the Kuomintang government. Christian missionaries during the 1920s and 1930s debated whether the best way to solve Chinas problems was through the social gospel helping with material problems in order to save Chinese souls. This study begins in 1929, after the United States stock market crash caused the worldwide Great Depression, and ends in 1937, with the beginning of the Sino-Japanese war.Before the time period this study examines, the previous consensus between conservative and progressive Christian denominations, in what Daniel Bays calls the Sino-Foreign Protestant Establishment (SFPE), fell apart. The Modernists had been advocates for the social gospel since the beginning of the twentieth century. Differences in the theological basis of missions, whereby

1 Daniel H. Bays, A New History of Christianity in China (West Sussex, Wiley-Blackwell, 2012), p.70. 2 missionaries on the ground in China took a Modernist approach to theology, and the missionary societies that sent them back in the West took a Fundamentalist approach to theology, caused conflict and division throughout the 1920s.2The best definition of social gospel is that of Lawrence Kessler, which is worth quoting at length: Schools also fit in with the social gospel approach to promoting Christianity that was then taking hold in the church. Instead of concentrating on saving individual souls, the modernists as adherents of the social gospel were called sought a total transformation of society through good works such as schools, hospitals, and various relief agencies. Such a transformation would create an environment supportive of missionary work as well as of individuals who converted to Christianity.3

and Integral to the social gospel approach was the notion that the problems of the age must be solved in a social way4

Jun Xing in his book on the Y.M.C.A in China argues that all Protestant missionary societies in China had some Liberal Christian ideology. Native Chinese and their American Y.M.C.A secretaries were more resolute and responsive to the Christian liberalism as embodied in the social gospel.5 Many of the social gospel initiatives in this dissertation were undertaken by the Y.M.C.A and Y.W.C.A. During the time period examined, scholars argued that China was in the grips of an agrarian crisis, causing peasant immiseration. Jonathan Spence draws on the arguments of Chinese sociologist Fei Xiaotong, who was sympathetic to the view that the exploitation of peasants and foreign imperialism had impoverished the Chinese

2 Bays, A New History of Christianity in China, pp.106-107. 3 Lawrence D. Kessler, The Jiangyin Mission Station: An American Missionary Community In China, 1895-1952, (North Carolina, University of North Carolina Press, North Carolina, 1996) p.38. 4 Kessler, p.157. 5 Jun Xing, Baptized in the Fire of Revolution: The American Social Gospel and the YMCA in China 1919-1937 (London, Associated University Press, 1996) p.42. 3 peasantry. Spence also draws on the arguments of R.H Tawney and John Lossing Buck, who stated that Chinese land was environmentally exhausted, the peasants were exploited, overpopulation was a drain on resources and that technology was primitive.6 During the 1930s, most of the Chinese peasant Christian missionaries that tried to help suffered from serious economic and social problems. The Chinese Recorder (hereafter CR) was the major publication of the informal Christian hierarchy of the SFPE. Ecumenical, it incorporated all denominations of Protestantism that wished to contribute to it. Foreign missionaries and Chinese Christians wrote for the CR after 1910.7Frank Rawlinson was editor of the CR between 1929 and 1937. Rawlinson was born in Langham, England in 1871, before journeying to America in 1889 and becoming a Baptist. Later, Rawlinson became aSouthern Baptist missionary to China in 1902.8 The personal tragedy of his first wifes death led Rawlinson to reconsider his beliefs, and he became more interested in Chinese ideas of Christianity and the social gospel.9 As Rawlinson became more Liberal, it caused a break between him and the Southern Baptist Foreign Mission Board that sponsored him in 1921. Rawlinson left and joined the more Liberal, interdenominational American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM) in 1922.10 The CR was where debates about the social gospel were chronicled between modernist and fundamentalist missionaries, as well as foreign and Chinese Christians. It provides evidence of accounts of the social gospel in action, and whether the social gospel initiatives were successful.

6 Johnathan Spence, The Search for Modern China (New York, W. W. Norton and Company, 1990) pp.429-430. 7 Bays, p.100. 8 Lian Xi, The Conversion of Missionaries: Liberalism in American Protestant Missions in China, 1907-1932 (Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania State University Press, 1997). Pp.59-61. 9 Xi, pp.68-71. 10 Xi, pp.73-74. 4 This dissertation examines the social gospel in three areas of reform activism by Christian missionaries in China during the Great Depression. The first area to be examined is that of rural education. The next area is that of rural health. The final area of reform activism is disaster relief and prevention. Missionaries originally only wanted to relieve victims of natural disasters of their suffering, however they quickly began engaging in the process to prevent future disasters. In addition to these three areas of reform activism, the way in which missionaries viewed the communist movement is also examined. This dissertation seeks answers on the ways that missionaries assessed their social gospel endeavours, and whether they became more positive or negative about them over time. Rural EducationFrank Diktter argues that modern schooling had appeared in China after 1900, aided by government organisations, private societies and religious associations, funded by local elites, merchant guilds or foreign benefactors and that religious expression was allowed to thrive in a climate of relative tolerance.11Diktter also argues that the 1920s was a decade in which Catholic and Protestant made the most use of religious freedom to open institutions like schools, and to make conversions of Chinese elites. Chiang Kai Shek converted to Methodism in 1931 and had promised in 1926, even before his conversion, to protect clergymen, pastors and mission property.12

There was, however, strong anti-Christian sentiment among the populace in late 1920s China.13 This section shows that the social gospel was present in missionary-provided education, despite the difficulties faced as a result of government hostility. The anti-Christian sentiment found its way into schools, with Nationalists opposing religious instruction in schools. The

11 Frank Diktter, The Age Of Openess, China Before Mao (Berkley and Los Angeles, University of California Press, 2008) p.5. 12 Diktter, The Age Of Openess, p.67. 13 Dikotter, The Age Of Openess, p.68. 5 Nationalists viewed education as the prerogative of the state and insisted that all private and foreign schools register with the state and abide by certain regulations, the regulations included the teaching of the Christian faith.14 The ban would not be lifted until April 1938 at a conference by Madame Chiang, Chiang Kai-Sheks wife, in an effort to secure American help in the war against Japan.15 Lloyd Eastman argued that Chiang Kai-Shek was himself a complicated figure. Chinese people viewed him alternatively as a national leader or a militarist. Foreigners thought Chiang to be an outmoded Confucian and ruthless dictator or as a Christian and defender of democracy.16

Eastman also argued that Chiang was ideologically flexible and absolutely ruthless in acquiring power. Chiang tolerated no opposition to his leadership.17 Chiangs sincerity about Christianity has been challenged but his most recent biographer, Jay Taylor believes Chiang to have been a faithful Christian. After marrying Soong Mei-Ling (Madame Chiang) in 1927 Chiang read the bible regularly until he decided to be baptised. For Chiang his Confucian sense of shame and morality complemented the Christian emphasis on sin and atonement.18

Now that China had the beginnings of a central authority under the Kuomintang from 1927, the greatest needs were for economic development and education, with Christian principles as part of these policies.19 Writers of the CR were aware that eighty percent of the population was rural, and believed that the best way to Christianise rural people was to improve their material situation. Agricultural education was provided at Yenching, Peiping and

14 Lawrence D.Kessler, The Jiangyin Mission Station: An American Missionary Community In China, 1895-1952, (North Carolina, University of North Carolina Press, North Carolina, 1996) p.82. 15 Kessler, The Jiangyin Mission Station, p.90. 16 Lloyd Eastman Nationalist China during the Nanking Decade In Fairbank, John K. and Feuerwerker, Albert (eds.) The Cambridge History of China Volume 13: Republican China 19121949, Part 2 (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1986), p.130. 17 Eastman, Nationalist China during the Nanking Decade pp.133-134. 18 Jay Taylor,The Generalissimo: Chiang Kai-Shek and The Struggle For Modern China (Cambridge, Massachussets and London, England, The Belknap Press Of Harvard University Press, 2009) pp.91-92. 19 Ting Shu-Ching, Needs that Western Christians Can Help Meet The Chinese Recorder,June 1929, p.379. 6 Nanking universities to try and better rural life.20 Women in Fu Shan Hsien, near Cheefoo had been contacted through the One Thousand Character programme. It was believed that by improving the education of women in the village, it would improve economic conditions. A rural Y.W.C.A had been requested for the village by the women.21

The Y.W.C.A studied villages in Kwangtung province, surveying the economic conditions. In most of the villages the opportunities for the education of women were totally inadequate. The market town of Toi Shan was different. In Toi Shan, church schools provided education to women. The literacy rate greatly varied based on church membership, for example only 25% of the men and 3% of the women are literate; within the church membership these figures were 37% of men and 25% women.22 In a lengthy article in 1930 Fu Liang Chang an associate and brother in law of James Yen, wrote about how rural illiteracy held back the development of rural and spiritual life for Chinese Christians. According to statistics cited by Chang, ninety five percent of rural men were illiterate and ninety nine percent of women. Chang wanted literate and bible reading Christians to improve the position of rural Christians.23 Chang was also the National Secretary of the N.C.C (National Christian Council). The N.C.C was convened in 1922 when the National Christian Conference met to discuss how the Protestant churches could co-operate with each other during a period of national upheaval in China. The N.C.C committed itself to social service in rural areas, where it believed three quarters of the Chinese population lived. It considered the problems of agriculture and economic livelihood.24 It decided its rural platform would include a social program and it set up a study

20 Y.Y Tsu, Needs that Western Christians Can Help Meet, The Chinese Recorder, June 1929, p.384. 21 No Author, Work and Workers: Y.W.C.A in rural The Chinese Recorder, July 1929, p.469. 22 No Author, Work and Workers: Life of Women in South China The Chinese Recorder, July 1929, pp.470-471. 23 Fu Liang Chang, Religious Education and the Rural Church The Chinese Recorder, January 1930, pp.18-22. 24 William A. Brown, The Protestant Rural Movement In China (1927-1937) in Liu Kwang-Ching (ed.) American Missionaries in China, Papers from Harvard Seminars (Cambridge, Massachusetts, East Asian Research Centre Harvard University, Harvard University Press, 1966) p.222. 7 committee to investigate rural economic conditions, rural evangelism, the village primary school in relation to the church, rural churches as possible community centresagricultural education and extension, agricultural institutions and the possibilities of a rural medical service.25 The N.C.C was an organisation clearly influenced by the social gospel.Hugh Hubbard, an ABCFM missionary linked what was beginning to be called the Literacy Movement, with an evangelistic drive in rural areas, and rural reconstruction. Hubbard identified the James Yens Mass Education Movement (MEM) from Ting Hsien in Hopei, as a successful way to increase literacy through the Thousand Character classes. Hubbard argued that increased literacy opens a new door for the Masses into abundant life, through which all poor Christians may become intelligent and the intelligent poor may become Christian.26 In an article in June 1931, Dr Kenyon Butterfield gave a list of what the priorities of the church in Rural China should be. The first was unsurprisingly Evangelism and Religious Education, followed by Education. Under education, the article argued for a completely literate churchfor every child a primary education sufficient for a permanent literacycontinuing education for all, both young and old, literate and illiterate. Health, livelihood, recreation, and the needs of women and girls followed in that order.27

The Christian churches had gained respect through leadership by their initiative in matters of public welfare. In an article in February 1932, the author argued for moving on from education and directly into literacy efforts. The relationship over education between the churches and the Kuomintang government was troubled throughout the Nanjing Decade. By moving on to literacy as their main focus, missions will still contribute toward the raising of

25 Brown, p.223. 26 Hugh Hubbard, The Literacy Movement Gathers Momentum The Chinese Recorder, January 1931, pp.37-40. 27 Kenyon Butterfield, The Christian Church in Rural China The Chinese Recorder, June 1931, p.342. 8 educational standards among rural people and will open a door of opportunity for evangelism.28 O. J Goulter argued on June 1933 that educational opportunities were of great service to villages. A free night school in the area he is working in (not identified) was very popular with men and women. Goulter also argues that schools are door openers par excellence and prepare the way for some other step in the rural program.29

Debates over the morality of providing material help occurred in the CR. Social services were powerful tools of evangelism. The power of social help was to evangelism so apparent that missionaries had been tempted to use education and medicine simply as bait.30 An article by with no authordescribed the Huping Private Middle School near Yochow in Hunan province. The school, run by the Reformed Church of the United States (Part of the Church of Christ in China, the CCC) had as its statement of purpose to promote interest in rural life and to extend the benefits of agricultural research and social uplift (emphasis mine) to rural communities. Reading, writing, hygiene and agriculture were all taught to farmer boys eighteen to twenty five years of age.31 In a The Present Situation column, it was argued that Rural China needed to have the focus of Christian leaders on education, to improve the rural condition. The article in the CR mentions that there are two ways to improve rural conditions: education through the MEM or the alternative of communism.32

James A. Hunter, writing in May 1933 argued strongly for education to help improve rural life, particularly that of children. Hunter also argued that agricultural education alone will not improve the rural social environment. Evangelists must not rely on the gospel alone and through the church must endeavour to establish

28 B.M Flory, New Foundations of Chinese Church The Chinese Recorder February 1932, p.85. 29 O.J Goulter, The Crucial Problem of Rural Missions The Chinese Recorder, June 1933, p.367 30 J.S Kunkle, Religion in Rural Community The Chinese Recorder, July 1933 p.426. 31 No Author, Work and Workers: Preparing Students For Village Leadership The Chinese Recorder, September 1933,p.616 32 No Author. The Present Situation: Kuliang Religious Education Conference, October 1933, p.685. 9 communities through the country which will be self-perpetuating because they contain the true leaven of altruistic and mutual service for the good of all Hunter wrote.33 Fu Liang Chang, a Chinese Christian intensely involved in rural reconstruction efforts, argued in a long article in 1934 for a joined up, broad approach to dealing with rural problems. Rather than agriculture, education and health efforts all being made by separate departments of Government in rural areas, Chang wanted an approach that considered both spiritual, social, and material needs.34 The next opinion is from an unsigned article which describes bible schools for men and women in Fenchow, Shansi, which were then combined into one middle school. The school provided a variety of schools that improved rural life, combining practical subjects (economics, health, agriculture, and sociology) with the religious education that Christians wanted to provide. Literacy courses, a library, and mass education had become part of village.35 An article in 1935 records progress of the Rural Service Center of the North China American Board Mission, and a survey of that work by a Reverend S. H. Leger from the viewpoint of religious education. The Rural Service Center was located in Tunghsien, Hopei and the Rev. Leger looked positively on their activities: agricultural fairs, a winter short term farmers course, and schools for church workers. There was a focus on agricultural work, horticulture and animal husbandry. The article notes these efforts were a success because they had focussed on both of the word or relationship, by both preaching the gospel and providing active help. The active help took the form of literacy, family, agricultural and economic help. The kind of rural reconstruction going on, to quote the CR quoting Rev. Leger may be thought of with reference to the many sided development of the

33 James A. Hunter, The Church As Rural Rebuilder, The Chinese Recorder, May 1933, p.288. 34 Fu Liang Chang, What Must Christian Leaders Know? The Chinese Recorder, September 1934, pp.558-560. 35 No Author The Present Situation: A Ruralised Bible Training School The Chinese Recorder, May 1935, pp.315-316. 10 individual and social life towards the Christian ideal, and was a form of the social gospel in action.36 A part of the November 1935 editorial opens with the forceful line the mind of China is set on liquidating the illiteracy. It credits James Yens MEM with leading the drive to reduce illiteracy, in which there had been long Christian engagement. Mass education had begun to receive strong government support; forty eight percent of the 1935 government education budget was to go into free popular education like the MEM program. Education programs are mentioned as opening up in Szechwan, Shanghai and Hunan. As important as the MEM was, the plan of the government was to provide free education for school age children, and the beginnings of a state education system was planned. By attempting to make more children literate with free schooling, and more adults literate with free popular education, illiteracy could be eliminated.37 In another editorial article on illiteracy, it clarifies that the forty eight percent of the education budget is to go into free education for school age children. The schemes now included free schools opening in Shantung and Kwangtung. It again reiterates the governments goals of creating a free State school system, and trying to get to grips with the problems of illiteracy.38 Frank Wilson Price, a Presbyterian Church of the United States Missionary, wrote in the recorder on the connections between evangelism, education and rural reconstruction. Price emphasises service in the community as the beginnings of evangelism, but is worried that if some Christians provided help to people without explaining that it is their Christian faith that inspired them to help others, the efforts are pointless. Only a better evangelism, Price argues, of providing social assistance and being open about the Christian faith, was the kind acceptable to him.

36 No Author The Present Situation: Putting Religion Into Life, The Chinese Recorder,June 1935,p.376-377 37 The Editor Editorial The Chinese Recorder, November 1935, pp.645-646. 38 The Editor, Editorial: Chinas Drive Against Illiteracy, The Chinese Recorder, January 1936, p.3. 11 Price was especially concerned with Christian ideas being used to form groups that were theologically unsound to him.39 The December 1936 editorial describes a meeting of the Y.M.C.A that has been scheduled after its World Conference in India, to focus on rural issues. It notes the good programs the Y.W.C.A and the Y.M.C.A had implemented at Fu Shan, Shantung and Toi Shan (in Kwangtung) but laments the attention the two Ys (among other Christian groups) had placed on education, medicine and helping youth rather than strengthening Christian churches.The CR editorial instead favours more village-oriented rural reconstruction measures that work more directly with the Church. The editorial approving highlights the provincial government of Kiangsi province which focussed on village self-government, village self-protection, education and economic improvement. A rural church with a rural focus stood the best chance of evangelising Chinese souls.40

F. E Baguley, a scientist and London Missionary Society missionary based in Hankow, Hupeh, offered his assessment of what had been done by Christian education in China. Baguley has a positive view of illiteracy initiatives and credits the Christian churches for driving the effort, he also warns that there will be no more Y.M.C.A government Christian education has already ceased to count as an important influence in the direction of public affairs. Baguely then makes the point that the amount of people made literate by such schemes was small compared to the large population, but Christians should continue to try and improve the education of the Chinese people because it is the correct Christian thing to do. The major reason why mission schools seemed to still be favoured by some Chinese according to Baguley was the valuable teaching of English to students in Christian schools.41

39 F.W Price, Evangelism and Religious Education The Chinese Recorder, April 1936, pp.232-233. 40 The Editor Editorial: Meeting the New Challenge in China The Chinese Recorder, December 1936, p.736. 41 F.E Baguley A Newcomer Views Christian Education The Chinese Recorder, February 1937, p.79-81. 12 The final article on education is an article that has been translated from Chinese and is not undersigned by any author. It is a fascinating and long article on educational work done at Yutang, a rural district twenty kilometres south of Shanghai. Run and funded by a Mrs New Yong-kee (formerly Wang Mei-sai) a devoted Chinese Christian, and married to a Kuomintang politician Mr New Yong-kee. The Yutang project ran five initiatives devoted to improving rural conditions, with a special emphasis on women. The first is a womens self-help institute which focused on general knowledge and technical education. The next is a nursery school where unemployed young men learned a mixture of practical agriculture and classroom learning. The nursery school had not been effective due to a high drop-out rate. The third measure is the standard MEM classes. The next is the Womens Household Discussion Association, where women were divided into groups to discuss the problems of their households and learn from each other. The final initiative in Yutang is The Directory Committee of the Educational Work of Yutang functioning as an agency of co-ordination. Though the article is positive about Yutang, it seems to have been managed very bureaucratically.42 Despite the hostility from the Kuomintang government and other Chinese Nationalists, social gospel initiatives in education did take place, though it was difficult. Initiatives in rural education, primary schooling, womens education and literacy were successful when they were used. However, missionary efforts suffered due to a lack of resources and government hostility to teaching religion alongside other more practical subjects. Education efforts seem to have been carried out right up until the beginnings of War with Japan, and missionaries viewed their education efforts with wary optimism. Rural HealthIn Charles Hayfords book on James Yen, the major rural reconstruction expert, there is a description of a rural health program

42 No Author (Translated) Chinese Christian Women Rebuilder The Chinese Recorder June 1937, pp.366-369. 13 in Yens Homebase of Ting Hsien. It would be a model for health initiatives that sought to propagate the social gospel which would follow. The program included posters and a week of lectures, clinical demonstrations, vaccinations, and observation.43 In James Thomsons When China Faced West, Thomson records that when George Shepherd, a rural reconstruction expert had been brought into Lichuan, Jiangxi after the Communists had fled to rebuild it, experts assessed the health of the peasants. Two Methodist women found the peasantry suffered from malnutrition, diseases, and poor sanitation.44 This section attempts to locate the social gospel within medical and health initiatives. The Chinese Medical Association opened its nineteenth biennial conference in February 1929. In the first part of the meeting a State Health Service modelled on that of India was called for, for China which would provide services to personal health, advice on how to avoid disease, and sanitation. Government health officials were present to observe the proceedings. The conference at its end moved six motions, the second of which was about rural health. The motion asked that the Missionary Division of the Chinese Medical Association move to employ at each hospital a health educator to go out to rural areas and spread the work of health education. It passed.45 Emma Horning, a Brethren Church missionary based in Sanyuan, Shensi wrote about Hygiene and Evangelism at length in January 1930. In the community where Horning lived the majority of the babies die of tetanus before they are ten days old. Why? Because of unsanitary, superstitious care of the child.46 Tuberculosis was also present. Dwellings were poorly ventilated. Bathing was rare, except for very warm days when the risk of catching a chill was lower. The

43 Charles Hayford, To The People: James Yen and Village China (New York, Columbia University Press, 1990) p.132-133. 44 James C. Thomson Jr, While China Faced West: American Reformers in Nationalist China, 1928-1937 (Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press,1969) p.106 45 No Author The Present Situation: China Medical Association Conference The Chinese Recorder,March 1929, pp.195-196. 46 Emma Horning, Hygenie and Evangelism The Chinese Recorder, January 1930, pp.39-40.14 gospel was taught alongside modern sanitation and hygiene. Horning links the good physical hygiene with the mental hygiene of Jesus, a clean body and a clean soul.47 Later in the year in March 1930, Horning extolls the virtues of field work. Disease treatment, hygiene and health education are forms of medical evangelism and Horning looked forward to providing help to the untouched millions in the villages.48

The next few articles analysed are about health education. The first article of interest is in May 1932. An office of the West China Council on Health Education is described with charts on all the all the walls for people to read, and exhibits on health. The centre combines medical education with rural evangelism.49In May 1933 Fu Liang Chang wrote about the need for simple posters and booklets for distribution. Small boxes of home remedies should be purchased and distributed by church laypeople. Cleanliness should be taught in the church and then extended out to public areas.50 Reverend F.H Crumpacker, a Brethren missionary based in Ting Ping, urges much the same things as Fu Liang Chang: vaccinations, lectures on health, literature distribution, clinics and to teach the people about ventilation. Crumpacker was particularly concerned that people could have been breathing in chimney smoke.51

A project of the Presbyterian Union Medical College in rural health involved a nurse being dispatched to villages to dispense remedies for minor ailments. The nurses and a doctor would go out to the village of Ching Ho to provide the medical help. An attempt to train midwives was also underway.52 Dorothy M. Doidge, a United Methodist church member writing in July 1933 argued for preventative medicine in the form of ante natal clinics, clinics for

47 Ibid. 48 Emma Horning. Research Spirit in Christian Work The Chinese Recorder, March 1930, p.170. 49 No Author, The Present Situation The Chinese Recorder, May 1932, p.322. 50 Fu Liang Chang, Christian Leaven, The Chinese Recorder, May 1933, p.279-281.51 F.H Crumpacker, Urgent Needs In Rural Improvement The Chinese Recorder, May 1933, p.289. 52 No Author, The Present Situation The Chinese Recorder, May 1933, p.324. 15 infant welfare, course[s] in first aid and nursing. Once these preventative medical measures were established in the big towns, they could have been expanded out to rural areas once funds were found to support expansion.53 Meanwhile in Chengtu in Szechwan, the United Church of Canada reported that National Health week was celebrated with great interest in Chengtu. The churches sponsored special services where the sermon was given by a doctor or a dentist. The Red Cross, the Y.M.C.A and Y.W.C.A all spoke at additional services, talking about health. Public lectures were given and children under three were weighed to ensure they were at a healthy weight.54 One of the most pressing needs for rural women was health, according to Josephine Brown, a staff member of the National Committee of the Y.W.C.A. Women in rural areas suffered from a lack of sanitation, little knowledge about personal hygiene and the difficulty of childbirth. Women found it hard to leave the home, which added the extra complexity of medical help needing to visit them in their homes.55

Edward H. Hume, was a distinguished medical missionary from the Yale in China centre in Changsa, Hunan Province. Hume in June 1935 gave an appraisal on Christian Medicine in China as he saw it. Hume believed that the government valued mission hospitals because it could not afford to replace them. Plans for provincial health schemes, the first of which would be in Hunan, had been approved by the government. Plans were being made to allocate resources more effectively in each region. Local hospital boards were being set up with local missions leading the way. Public health campaigns for vaccinations were taking place. The Christian Churches and Christian Hospitals were working together to try work together in a common purpose. Hume argues that the Christian Church and the Christian

53 Dorothy M.Doidge, Use of Western Christian Money, The Chinese Recorder, July 1933, p.442. 54 No Author, The Present Situation: News From West ChinaThe Chinese Recorder, September 1933, pp.610-611. 55 Josephine Brown, Needs of Rural Women, The Chinese Recorder, February 1934, p.95. 16 Hospital should link themselves together in their single religious service, and to become so rooted in the community as to belong there, endearing themselves to all the men, women and children that make up the local citizenship.56 Hume is mentioned again nearly a year later in April 1936. Dr Hume was still attempting to create a national health program, and to get the churches to focus on the Christian component of their medical objectives. Hume argued that the vast need of the rural regions calls for health promotion through rural reconstruction units, seeming to agree with healthcare as a form of social reconstruction and social gospel for rural areas.57Ralph A. Felton, a rural expert visiting the Nanking theological seminary, wrote about what was needed to improve health for rural Chinese Christians. Felton advocated for the setting of a council with representatives from all the groups within a village, including the health centre. Felton then elaborates on what rural pastors can do to improve the health of their congregation: hang health charts in the church, deliver vaccinations in the church and the pastor may occasionally preach on health. Improving public health and hygiene can be improved through community action and education. Felton also argued that as well as improving the physical health, a good rural pastor needs to confront the poverty caused by poor agricultural practices and illiteracy.58

In June 1937, Margaret Shih (Shih Hung-Yueh),who was head of the Department of Health at the University of Cheeloo Village Service Centre, at Langshun in Shantung, wrote a long article about the Church and Rural Health.59 Public health had risen to become a greatest ally of the medical profession in alleviating the health problems of society. Personal hygiene and preventative medicine had made great advances in public health, which was part of the rural

56 Edward H. Hume, Christian Medicine In The New Day in China June 1935, pp.346-350 57 No Author, The Present Situation, The Chinese Recorder, April 1936, p.251. 58 Ralph A. Felton, Whats Right With the Chinese Rural Church, The Chinese Recorder, December 1936, pp.737-739. 59 Margaret Shih, Church and Rural Health The Chinese Recorder, June 1937, p.359. 17 reconstruction program.60 China had a very large population of 400 million people, and the death rate was believed to be 12.6 million people a year, twice the rate of Western Countries. A third of deaths were mothers and children. Most of the other deaths occurred due to diseases that were easily preventable with vaccination or proper sanitation. Shih believed that as Christians, members of the church should support rural reconstruction to save lives.61 Margaret Shih then elaborated what her plans for health-oriented reform would have been, which werea combined church and church hospital, with short training for those engaging in health work, especially mothers. A national health program, like that wanted by Edward H. Hume was also wanted. In schools, centres should be set up to assess the health of children, provide health education and improve sanitation at school, and in homes. Maternity care should also be implemented. Communicable diseases in the event of an outbreak should be managed to lower the risk of other people falling ill. Finally, Shih wanted regular public health campaigns with help from the church.62 Shih was held back by the lack of doctors and nurses to provide health personnel to run these proposed initiatives.63 Experiments in rural medicine and public health were successful social gospel initiatives. However their scope and funding issues limited their effectiveness. Efforts were undertaken in vaccination, sanitation, dentistry, nursing, nutrition and midwifery. The attempts to improve the health of rural peasants in the countryside was hampered by the superstitions of the peasants, lack of resources, inadequate medical personnel, and Chinas large population. Doctors and nurses were also unwilling to go out to the countryside in large numbers, due to other dangers like bandits.

60 Shih, Church and Rural Health The Chinese Recorder, June 1937,p.359. 61 Shih, Church and Rural Health The Chinese Recorder, June 1937 p.360. 62 Shih, Church and Rural Health The Chinese Recorder, June 1937 p.361. 63 Shih, Church and Rural Health The Chinese Recorder, June 1937pp.361-362. 18 Nevertheless, missionaries again seemed cautiously optimistic that social gospel initiatives in health would be successful in time. Disaster Relief and PreventionThe major non-governmental organisation that involved itself with relieving and preventing famine in 1920s and 1930s China was the China International Famine Relief Commission (CIFRC). On 21 February 1921 the Peking United International Famine Relief Committee, which was at the time dealing with the 1920-1921 famine, moved a motion to create the CIFRC which would pool the resources of eight famine relief funds to make them more effective. 64 In setting out its policies, it is clear that the CIFRC envisioned itself as working more toward the prevention of famine than relief of famines. It explicitly set out to improve the economic conditions under which most Chinese people lived. The CIFRC operated under five active principles: that it would intervene in the cases of naturally caused hardship not just death, that relief would be provided for work on famine relief projects, that labour projects should have provided an economic benefit for the community, that communities economically benefiting from labour projects should pay the CIFRC back, and that active flood prevention work should be done.65 What I am looking for is whether evidence of the social gospel can be found in disaster relief and prevention initiatives. The February 1930 editorial of the CR opened with two sentences on the 1928-1930 North China Famine that would set the tone for the remainder of the decade Free relief for famine victims is indispensable. But it is not enough. Famines recur.66 Drought was the major cause of famine in Northwest China and the editorial argues that imagination should be applied to the problem of droughts. Tests had begun at the American Board Mission at Kenchow, Shansi to find

64 Andrew Nathan,A History of The China International Famine Relief Commission (Cambridge, Massachusetts, East Asian Research Centre Harvard University, Harvard University Press, 1965) p.11. 65 Nathan, A History of the China International Famine Relief Commission, pp.14-16. 66 The Editor Editorial: Famine Prevention, The Chinese Recorder, February 1930, pp.70-72. 19 seeds and crops that could resist drought and import them into China. In an experiment where 100 farms in Shansi used the seed, the crop yield doubled or even quadrupled.The editorial commented that here is something that means permanent prevention of famine! It took time and grit to discover it. The church had become involved in famine prevention to save lives.67 The second part of the February 1930 editorial on famine prevention encouraged Christian co-operation to prevent future famines. Agricultural conditions needed to be studied in depth. Seeds that could potentially saves the lives of many people were a better investment of funds into schemes that improved the lives of the average farmer only marginally. The editorial believes that the money given directly to farmers is usually wasted and the various agencies set up to administer famine help were inefficient and did not co-operate effectively. It was hoped that famine prevention agencies would begin to co-operate to concentrate their experience and fund, and that the newly set up North China Agricultural Institute would hopefully serve the purpose.68 In an article in August 1930, Robert F. Fitch, Emeritus President of Hangchow College (and acting editor of the CR while Frank Rawlinson was on leave) wrote about the need to move from famine relief to famine prevention.Fitch believed that education in forestry, soil and crops could greatly improve rural life.69 An editorial in March 1931 notes the generosity of American donors for relieving the 1920-1921 famine had exceeded the donations that were received for the (then) current 1931 China Floods. Although donations were not as forthcoming as in the past, the CIFRC noted that eight percent of donations had been received from American sources.70 Reflecting on the floods and what had caused them in November 1932, George G. Stroebe, a hydraulic

67 Ibid. 68 Ibid. 69 Robert F.Fitch, The Slaughter Of The Innocents The Chinese Recorder, August 1930,p.498. 70 The Editor, Editorial The Chinese Recorder, March 1931, pp.139-141. 20 engineer, stated that heavy rainfall in June, July and August of 1931 when the Yangtze and Hwai rivers were already high had caused the flood, which covered an area the size of England.71 When it came to drought it was also reported that in the search for the potential loan to fund famine relief, American interest was commercial, not humanitarian. The drought resistant seeds in Shansi previously mentioned were again written about. The famine prevention project had ended in mixed results when farmers, distrustful of the seeds had planted them with millet, or not planted them in the right soil. The seeds had not germinated due to poor communication, not due to poor seeds. A positive had been that new varieties of drought resistant Kaoliang had proven to be a success in the dry Northwest.72

The government was believed to be supportive of famine relief and prevention. Irrigation schemes were planned for north of the Wei river.The Satachu Canal was built by the CIFRC with the help of uniformed soldiers. The provincial governments of Chekiang and Kiangsu had agreed to work on plant breeding work another form of famine prevention to be patterned after that of Nanking University and have secured Dr H. H Love of the Department of Plant Breeding, Cornell University, to assist them for three years.73 The Editor of the CR made it known in the November 1932 editorial that famine relief was a special focus for the issue. Many of the authors who had written for the Chinese Recorder in the past had long experience in helping with famine relief. It then moved on to the say that the best thing the CIFRC had done has was to be devoting its main efforts toward famine prevention rather than almsgiving, and its greatest work by far had been along the lines of constructive service. Christians did need to respond to suffering of course, like they had to foot binding and opium addiction, but prevention was need to prevent

71 George G. Stroebe, The Great Central China Flood of 1931 The Chinese Recorder, November 1932, pp.667-668. 72 The Editor, Editorial The Chinese Recorder, March 1931, pp.139-141. 73 The Editor, Editorial The Chinese Recorder, November 1931, p.676. 21 further needless human suffering. Practical prevention work was favoured by the writers of the CR as the best response to famine.74

O. J (Oliver Julian) Todd was the Chief Engineer of the CIFRC, who offered an experienced, detailed view of Famine Prevention in November 1932.Todd wrote about reducing the poverty hazard, the notion that famine sufferers would become dependent on famine relief. Agricultural improvement was one of the suggestions. Todd also mentions small industries, rural credit societies, education, and hospital work and roading projects as being good initiatives to help prevent famine. Famine prevention served many purposes. It helped to prevent further disasters, it provided jobs and training, as well as wages into local economies. The most critical work was in flood prevention. Dyke building provided employment and helped to stop future floods.75 H.D Lamson, a Baptist missionary, wrote in May 1933 of the advancement in medicine that would have prevented contagious diseases that killed famine victims even if they survived the initial disaster. Famine prevention had made progress in the form of irrigation, dykes and transport networks.76

Fu Liang Chang also had thoughts on disaster prevention and rehabilitation, stating that so long as China is run over recurrently by famine and so long as the rural giant is dwarfed by degenerating poverty, the abundant life, which Jesus came to the world to give to all men, is hopelessly beyond the reach of her teeming millions. Relief work only gave famine victims temporary assistance. Chang argued for rehabilitation and famine prevention, to be carried out through the rural programs of the Church.77

Two long articles by the same author appeared in September 1936, and then in July 1937 in the CR. Dr J. E (John Earl) Baker was

74 The Editor, Editorial The Chinese Recorder, November 1932, pp.661-662. 75 O.J Todd, Some Altruistic Aspects of Famine Prevention Work, The Chinese Recorder, November 1932, pp.680-684. 76 H.D Lamson, Social Problems and The Christian Movement, The Chinese Recorder, May 1933, p.299. 77 Fu Liang Chang, Uplift Chinas Dwarfed Giant, The Chinese Recorder, January 1934, p.13. 22 the Director of the American Red Cross China Famine Relief Commission. The first longer article was an in-depth and detailed review of famine relief and prevention since 1920. Beginning in the early 1920s, the American Red Cross and the CIFRC adopted a policy of paying for famine relief and expecting work from those receiving relief, which then changed to pursuing active policies of preventing famines.78 Highways were built by famine prevention schemes in 1930 in Shensi and then in 1934 in Kansu. These highways were popular with central and provincial governments. The roads allowed for easier confrontation of the Communists and bandits. It also aided commerce by providing a transport network for goods.79

The other methods of famine prevention concerned mainly the control of water, and the providing of credit. The primary method of river control was the construction of dykes and dyke maintenance. By doing so, crops were protected for local harvests. Due to the decentralised nature of the control of the dyke system, it was difficult to improve one dyke without creating pressure on another dyke elsewhere. The responsibility for repairing the dyke system after the 1931 Yangtze flood and the 1935 Yellow river flood eventually reverted to the government.80 Credit was lent out to farmers in Hopei in 1931, just before the Yangtze flood of 1931.The credit was then used to help rehabilitate farms and rebuild businesses. The scheme was so successful that the CIFRC expanded credit into rural areas and almost all of it was paid back. The government eventually took over the scheme and added the production of cotton, animal husbandry projects and improved seeds.81 The second article by J. E Baker is from July 1937. Baker again gives an overview of the methods and success of famine relief and prevention. Public improvements, highways, dykes, irrigation and

78 J.E Baker, Growth of Famine Relief and Prevention, The Chinese Recorder, September 1936, pp.562-563. 79 Baker, Growth of Famine Relief and Prevention, The Chinese Recorder, September 1936,p.563. 80 Baker, Growth of Famine Relief and Prevention, The Chinese Recorder, September 1936,p.564. 81 Baker, Growth of Famine Relief and Prevention, The Chinese Recorder, September 1936, p.567. 23 rural credit/aid had helped lift rural areas up. The policies of CIFRC had been adopted by the government and Baker argued A National Famine Relief Bureau and National Relief Reserve witness that the government accepts, within broad limits, responsibility for preserving lives of the people when threatened by natural disasters.82What Baker calls for is a national organisation along the lines of the American Red Cross to co-ordinate in every area volunteer groups of citizens who would prepare for, and immediately get to work in, the event of an emergency. During the time that there is no emergency, these volunteers would focus on rural improvement, in other words famine prevention.83 Disaster relief had come full circle in China, from passive relief in the face of famine, to actively working to prevent it with famine prevention measures. Efforts in disaster relief and prevention do show evidence of the social gospel in action. The CIFRC was formed in the early 1920s with the explicit aim of preventing further natural disasters through preventative action. During the 1928-1930 North China Famine, and the 1931 Yangtze and Hwai river floods, these efforts were at the forefront of famine relief. Preventative action was then carried out to try and lift the economic livelihood of the peasantry. Eventually, famine and disaster prevention efforts became part of larger rural reconstruction efforts and became subsumed into government bureaucracy. The way Missionaries writing in the CR viewed disaster relief and prevention changed as time went on, from passive relief, to aggressive preventative action. Views of Communism in The Chinese RecorderThe Chinese Communist Party (CCP) was one of the largest threats to Christian missionaries from 1929 to 1937. However views of the CCP were not the same among all missionaries, and those views sometimes changed. In 1927 the CCP left the United Front they had formed with

82 J.E Baker, New Areas of Relief, The Chinese Recorder, July 1937, p.417. 83 Baker, New Areas of Relief, The Chinese Recorder, July 1937, p.420. 24 the Kuomintang, and moved away from urban revolution to a philosophy of peasant-led rural revolution, favoured by Mao Tsetung.84 In 1931 the Chinese Soviet Republic was formed by the CCP in Kiangsi, a rural soviet which would last until 1934. It was in 1934 that Chiang Kai-Sheks fifth encirclement and annihilation campaign took place, forcing the CCP to abandon the Kiangsi Soviet, and begin their Long March to Yanan.85 Even as early as 1934, Chou En-Lai within the CCP was discussing a new United Front with the Kuomintang, but it would not be realised until after the Sian incident, when Chiang was kidnapped by the warlord Chang Hsueh-Liang and forced to forge a truce with the CCP which began to break down previous Kuomintang hostility towards the CCP (though it was not formally solidified until April 1937).86 James Thomson put it best when he argued that the view of Communism among missionaries was that the reaction was complex: outrage at its godlessness, revulsion from its brutality, but sympathy for its note of social protest, and respect for its desire to change the world.87 In this section I am looking for evidence of the diversity of views on the Communists in the CR. An article by Archie T. L Tsen, a Nanking businessman argued that most anti-Christian hostility in Shensi is because of Communist agitation. In the city of Sian, the Communists attempted to take hold of the missions property in the city, even writing a letter asking for it to be lent to them. The missionaries held out hope that by improving the situation, Communists could be led to Christ.88 In the editorial beginning 1930, the author argues that both Christianity and Communism are largely failing to win Chinas best youth;

84 Jean Chesneaux, Francoise Le Barbier, Marie-Claire Bergere, China from The 1911 Revolution to Liberation trans. Paul Auster, Lydia Davis, and Anne Destenay (New York, Pantheon Books, 1977) p.212 85 Jack Gray, Rebellions and Revolutions: China from 1800s to 2000 (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2002) pp.261,266-267. 86 Jerome Chen, The Communist movement 1927-1937 Decade In Fairbank, John K. and Feuerwerker, Albert (eds.) The Cambridge History of China Volume 13: Republican China 19121949, Part 2 (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1986) pp.221, 226-229. 87 Thomson, While China Faced West, p40. 88 Archie T.L Tsen, Chinese Mission in Shensi The Chinese Recorder, January 1929, pp.45-46. 25 Communism because it threatens the foundations of society and Christianity because it is assumed quite wrongly! that is indifferent to social weal, putting both causes on equal basis in the contest to attract young people.89 Dr Timothy Tingfang Lew, Assistant Chancellor of Yenching University, criticized the efforts to engage with Communism, believing they had led to chaos. Dr Lew was especially worried that young people and working people had begun to think along Communist lines, even if Communist organisations had been chased away.90 W. E Wilkinson. Secretary of the Peiping Y.M.C.A in 1930, argued that intelligent Chinese students are attracted to Communism because it provides a simple view of the world by dividing it into two classes, and promises utopia when the proletariat overthrow the bourgeoisie. In dividing the world in two, Wilkinson argued that Communism copied Christianity which divides the world into believers and non-believers. Wilkinson also believed that Communism was winning the allegiance of Chinese students. The solution proposed by Wilkinson is that students need to learn what both Communism and Christianity are in-depth, so they know what the weaknesses of Communism are, and what the strengths of Christianity are, in argument. Wilkinson wants Christians to have an intelligent and sympathetic knowledge of Communism, and a new Apologetic for Christianity in face of these new claims.91

Dr Rowland M. Cross, at the end of 1930, articulated what Christianity disagreed with about Communism in three points. Firstly, that Communism was violent in contradiction to Christianity, which in theory was for peace. Secondly, that Communism destroys individualism, and Christians believed in saving individual souls. The final point Dr Cross raised is that Communism prohibits freedom of

89 The Editor Editorial The Chinese Recorder, January 1930, p.5. 90 Timothy Tingfang Lew, Changing Intellectual and Social Conditions The Chinese Recorder, August 1930, p.485. 91 W.E Wilkinson, Christian Students The Chinese Recorder, August 1930, pp.490-493.26 speech.The only way to fight Communism was to pursue a program of social reconstruction, and to adopt an aggressive use of the printed word like the Communists.92 At the beginning of 1932, Communism was on the mind of the editors of the CR. The author of the article made the argument that both Communism and Christianity aimed for a more human and fairer social order than now obtains and that Communism aims at economic minus spiritual freedom; Christianitys social aim includes both.93 The author continues to argue that only Christianity can socially reconstruct China, but that Communism, with its relentless energy and clear aims, was a powerful enemy. Only by offering a better program of social reconstruction could Christianity hope to win.94Nettie Mabelle Singer, a Brethren missionary in Liaochow, Shansi, wrote in June 1932 that the reason the Communists were winning the fight for Chinese souls was because Communists are ready to suffer and die for their cause.95 The Communists thought about the welfare of ordinary people, and had created a program designed to appeal to people whose needs were not being meet.96 An editorial by the CR in 1932 seeks to educate its reader about what they should know about Communism and where Christians disagree with it. The first is that Communism itself is not necessarily Atheistic, but the Marxian Communism adopted by Chinese Communists is. The others are common themes previously discussed in this dissertation: the Communists use of violence, the loss of individuality, and the loss of liberty. Yet again, the solution called for the creation of a better society, and to fight the Communists is a society reorganised on the principles of Jesus, scientifically

92 Rowland M.Cross, The Present Situation: Communism Vs Christianity, The Chinese Recorder, December 1930, p.796-797. 93 The Editor Editorial, The Chinese Recorder, January 1932, p.4. 94 Ibid. 95 Nettie Mabelle Singer, The Gospel of Abundant Life, The Chinese Recorder, June 1932, p.363. 96 Ibid. 27 applied. It could be argued that the CR is calling for the social gospel to be vigorously applied.97

The CR argued that in order to improve, rural China needed the attention of Christian leaders concerned with the education of the people of this country98 The education issue could be resolved in two ways: through Christian involved efforts like the MEM, or by Communism. The Rev. George Shepherd, a New Zealand-American missionary in Fukien, believed that the Communists had some success in the province because of the high taxes put on everything by officials and tax collectors.99 Y.T. Wu, a Y.M.CA secretary, wanted to make Christianity socially dynamic, buthe did not, he argued, like to call it the Social Gospel, as if there were some other gospel that was not social. Religion goes through all the phases of mans life like warp through the woof; and it is necessarily social.100The argument about the social function of the church continued, with the threat of Communism in the background.101The editorial of April 1934 stated that those who did not wish to deal with the problems of the world could retreat into religious life, but in doing so would not confront the social problems that needed to be confronted.The statement is also made that Capitalism is suspect; Communism is violent and suppressive. But Christianity has many Capitalists within its fold and the Communists strive for an application of the Golden Rule that Christians cannot ignore (emphasis mine)102 In the June 1934 issue of the CR, two lengthy articles appeared. The first of these was a long editorial asking the Christians readership to move Beyond Communism. Christians were seeking to increase economic equality like the Communists, but wanted to

97 The Editor, Editorial The Chinese Recorder, September 1932, p.536. 98 No Author, The Present Situation, The Chinese Recorder, October 1933, p.685. 99 Ibid. 100 Y.T Wu, Make Christianity Socially Dynamic The Chinese January 1934, p.10. 101 The Editor, Editorial The Chinese Recorder,April 1934, p.215. 102 Ibid.28 work beyond that goal. Christianity was willing to question the inequalities of Capitalism, without destroying it. The editorial also reports that Fu Liang Chang of the N.C.C had been requested to help Kiangsi by the government, using rural reconstruction techniques now that the Communists had been forced out. Christians admired and shared the Communist drive to create a better economic life, but deplored their political methods. The editorial ultimately argues that although the Communists could improve economic life, they would destroy the social life that Christians seek to improve through their good works.103

The second long article from the June 1934 issue of the CR is by Lewis S.C Smythe, who taught Sociology at Nanking University. Smythe argued that Communism presented Christianity with its greatest challenge. Communism and Christianity shared a sympathy for improving the position of the common people and changing the social order. Smythe also believed that if the Communists were successful in China, the Communist Party would form an oligarchy resembling that of the Churches of Western Europe during Medieval times. Smythe argued that an opportunity to show it can do better than the Communists had presented itself in the form of the reclaim Kiangsi province. Reconstruction work in rural areas on the economy, education, health and communities of rural Kiangsi would win these areas to Christianity after years of Communist rule. Ultimately, Smythe argued that Communism challenges Christianity everywhere in the world to make more effective in social, economic and political life the brother hood that it proclaims so that all men who desire to live the better and more abundant life will be helped in doing so.104 An article the next year in 1935 by T.L Lin, a Professor of Political Science and History at Fukien University, was far less conciliatory towards Communism. The areas of Anhwei, Kiangsi and Fukien had been under Communist control until the fifth encirclement

103 The Editor Editorial: Beyond Communism, The Chinese Recorder, June 1934, pp.343-348. 104Lewis S.C Smythe, Communism Challenges Christianity!, The Chinese Recorder, June 1934, pp.354-359. 29 and annihilation campaign drove them out. Most of Fukien province had for a long time been governed by the Communists. Lin argued that the main cause of communism in China is not merely political or economic; it is social.105 The provincial government, in attempting to reconstruct the province, had begun administering farm loans, and to sort out confusing land tenure problems. Education initiatives in citizenship duties and teacher training had also been undertaken by the provincial government. Smythe cautioned that it must be remembered that all such measures must be undertaken with social reconstruction as their final goal in order to prove that Christianity could rebuild the social order than the Communists.106

Jonathan Spence argues that the Long March became a powerful propaganda tool for the CCP, with Mao using it as a weapon against Chiang Kai-Shek. Spence also argues that millions of the Chinese people had no ideological commitment and were waiting to see who won the conflict.107 It was at this time the Guomindang, who had yet to find an appealing ideology that could combat the Communists, in convincing the Guomindang realised that the students, the intellectuals, and especially the urban workers were to be convincedsome means more effective than intellectual repression, repeated attacks on the communists, and appeasement of the Japanese would have to be found108 Later on in 1936, argued Lloyd Eastman, China had a new mood, beginning in the autumn of 1936, a new sense of optimismand national unity suffused the nation.109 The new mood came about for several reasons. Civil strife had ceased with the suppression of a revolt in Kwangtung and Kwangsi provinces.Chiang Kai-Shek moved his stance from appeasement towards Japan to being prepared to wage total war.The economy had

105 T.L Lin Communists in Fukien, The Chinese Recorder, May 1935, p.272-273.. 106 Lewis S.C Smythe, Communism Challenges Christianity!, The Chinese Recorder, June 1934, pp.354-359. 107 Spence, The Search for Modern China, p.410. 108 Spence, The Search for Modern China, p.414 109 Eastman, Nationalist China during the Nanking Decade, 1927-1932, p.160. 30 also rebounded due to the Nanking government abandoning silver as its reserve currency, restoring confidence in prices and credit. Towards the end of the time period studied, The CR became quiet about Communism and comparative articles became less common, which may have been due to the change in the national mood. In an editorial in December 1936, the CR urged more focus and money should be directed to the on rural church. To not do so would be to make the program implemented in Soviet Russia attractive to the young people and the students, because they believed that Communism could fix rural issues. The CR argued that the Christian Community must be earnest in its programme of outdying the Communists, and that rural livelihood needed to be paramount in the decisions made by the Church if China is to be saved from Communism.110

Dr T. C Chao, the Dean of Religion at Yenching University in 1937 defended Christianity against the extremes of Fascism and Communism. Christianity had been attacked for not being having a plan for social and economic reconstruction, for being revolutionary, and for not having a political party or organ.111 Dr Chao argues against compromise and surrender to extreme political doctrines, as to do so would make the message of Christianity pointless. Christianity is opposed to Communism and Dr Chao stated that in real Christianity love is intolerant towards hatred which communism utilizes its own ends.112

Views of the Communists varied from missionary to missionary, and changed over time. Some missionaries hated the Communists for their violence and atheism, others found common ground with them, because the Communists wanted greater social equality as well. During the time period studied, missionaries were

110 The Editor Editorial, The Chinese Recorder, December 1936, p.734. 111 T.C Chao, Christianity and National Crisis, The Chinese Recorder, January 1937, p.10. 112 Ibid. 31 hostile from 1929 to 1934, and then less so from 1935 to 1937, though there were exceptions in both time periods.Conclusion This dissertation has argued that there was evidence of the social gospel, the act of evangelism through good social works, within the pages of The Chinese Recorder. How Christian missionaries viewed social gospel efforts and their effectiveness was also assessed.I would argue that through the pages of the Chinese Recorder, a cautious and wary optimism toward social gospel measures can be seen. After the reassertion of the beginnings of a central political authority after the Kuomintang following the Northern Expedition in 1927-1928, missionaries debated amongst themselves the best way to solve Chinas problems. The SFPE was divided. The modernists favoured the social gospel, the fundamentalists favoured traditional theology and preaching. It was throughout the time period studied, 1929 to 1937, that the social gospel may have been most needed. The Chinese peasantry suffered from peasant immiseration, with different explanations as to why it occurred. The Chinese Recorder was the paper of record for the SFPE. It recorded the debates about the social gospel. It showed the social gospel in action. This dissertation examined four subjects. The first was that of rural education, where the social gospel could easily be viewed in action. The next was that of rural health, also an area where the social gospel could be viewed clearly in action. The final area of social gospel activism was that of disaster relief and prevention. Lastly, I looked at the way missionaries viewed the Chinese Communists, and whether that view changed over time.Modern education and schooling appeared in the early twentieth century in China, funded by both government and non-government sources, including the Christian churches. The 1920s were a period of comparative religious freedom. It helped that Chiang Kai-Shek eventually converted to Christianity, though there was an 32 anti-Christian sentiment among the wider populace. Other Chinese Nationalists viewed education as the sole domain of the Chinese state, and during the time period examined there was a ban on teaching the Christian religion to schools registered with the government. Nevertheless, the government and the Christian community shared a common goal in wanting to lift the educational achievement of the Chinese people. The best example of this were literacy efforts.Literacy was low amongst rural Chinese, though better among members of the churches. Efforts to lift literacy took many forms, like the MEM and its thousand character classes. Literacy and education were viewed by missionaries as not only helping the Chinese people, but as an effective means of social evangelism. Despite the problems over school registration, churches set up primary, middle and high schools, night schools for farmers, education for women, and libraries were also set up as social gospel initiatives. Missionaries were enthusiastic and optimistic about social gospel initiatives in education being able to make a difference. Social gospel projects in health and medicine often resembled those in education, and there was some overlap. Where education projects focussed on literacy or knowledge, health projects focussed purely on health in the broadest possible terms. The Chinese peasantry suffered from a wide variety of diseases and conditions caused by poverty. The most common afflictions were diseases easily treatable in the West with the proper medicine or diet. However, in impoverished circumstances, missionaries had to make do with the resources they had available to them. Sanitation and hygiene measures were taught to rural villagers in an attempt to make their living environments cleaner. Some missionaries linked the physical hygiene of the body to the mental hygiene of the Christian religion, cleaning up bodies and souls. The missionaries provided a wide variety of services in their attempts to medically evangelise the populace, an example of the social gospel in action. From providing remedies that were cheap for Westerners but expensive for the 33 average Chinese, to midwifery, dental care, nursing, vaccinations and rural doctors. All of these measures sought to improve the situation of the Chinese peasant, and hopefully win their soul to Christianity.More large scale, yet impersonal, disaster relief and prevention measures were also examples of the social gospel in action. Beginning in the early 1920s, in the face of the 1920-1921 famine, the CIFRC was formed to not only relieve the suffering of famine, but to try and prevent new occurrences of natural disaster. The policies the CIFRC were set up under advocated for intervention in cases of hardship not just widespread death, and an economic model of famine relief whereby those relieved by the CIFRC had to help construct prevention projects, and economic benefits were paid back to the CIFRC. Although towards the end of the time period examined, the CIFRC become redundant, largely due to the emergency of a government disaster management bureaucracy, the work it carried out was a clear example of a the social gospel on a bigger level than person to person. Scientific research was funded in attempts to try and find more drought resistant breeds of crops. Famine prevention measures also took the form of the construction of irrigation, dyke maintenance and repair, and the building of new roads. Disaster relief and prevention went from being a passive response to aggressive action to stop new disasters, save lives and put money into local economies. It was the social gospel writ large.Missionaries viewed the Communists in a few different ways. It could be expected to find outright hostility in the pages of The Chinese Recorder to the CCP, but instead different opinions are found. The Communists, with their commitment to Atheism and violent upheaval in order to bring about a Communist revolution, were anathema to most Christians writing in the Chinese Recorder. However, there was a minority view which sometimes came through of sympathy for Communists aims. The Communists, like most Protestant Christians, wanted a more socially equal society where Chinese people were free of economic suffering. Some authors 34 sympathised with them solely for that reason. They also admired the Communists patriotism in opposing Japan. The Communists were not always viewed as enemies, but as competitors for the hearts, minds and souls of young Chinese. Some even compared the early Communism of Jesus and his apostles to Communist efforts in China. Nevertheless, the majority view in most articles in the Chinese Recorder was a negative one. Most missionaries could simply not forgive the Communists for their violence and atheism, even if they shared similar goals for a more equal society.There was evidence of the social gospel in The Chinese Recorder. The social gospel, the idea that to apply Christian ethics to the social problems which caused so much suffering in China, was clearly present in the time period discussed. Applying the social gospel was both humanitarian and strategic. Evangelical Christians wished to alleviate suffering, they also wanted to make converts. In education in rural China, they taught literacy and opened schools. In health in rural China, they led public health campaigns. The social gospel was applied on a large scale through disaster relief and prevention. In the form of the Chinese Communists the evangelical Christian found both a foe, and someone they could admire for having a similar goal of greater social equality. All four of these subjects, and how the related to the social gospel could be found within the pages of The Chinese Recorder between 1929 and 1937. 35 36 Notes on Authors mentioned in The Chinese Recorder Baguley, F.E A scientist and London Missionary Society missionary based in Hankow, Hupeh. Baker, Dr J.E (John Earl) Advisor to the Ministry of Communications and Director of American Red Cross China Famine Relief Commission. Brown, Ms Josephine A staff member of the national committee of the Y.W.C.A. Butterfield, Dr Kenyon An American agricultural scientist. Chang, Fu Liang National rural secretary of the National Christian Council, worked with Brother in Law of James Yen and worked with Yen on the Mass Education Movement. Chao, Dr T.C Dean of the School of Religion, Yenching University. Cross, Dr Rowland M. - Far Eastern Missions secretary of the National Council of Churches. Crumpacker, Reverend F.H A Brethren missionary based at Ting Ping, Shansi.Doidge, Dorothy M A member of the United Methodist Church Mission, based in Wenchow, Chekiang.Felton, Ralph A. A visiting professor at Nanking theological seminary and an expert on rural work.Goulter, O.J An Australian Agricultural Missionary. Fitch, Robert F. President Emeritus of Hangchow College. Flory, B M Member of the Brethren Mission located at Showyang, Shansi. Horning, Emma A member of the Church of Brethren Mission, based in Sanyuan, Shensi. Hubbard, Hugh - An American missionary serving in North China under the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions. Hume, Dr Edward H. A medical missionary connected to the Yale mission to China in Changsa, Hunan. Hunter, James A. A Missionary serving under the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, in Tunghsien, Peiping. Lamson, Professor H.D A missionary of the American Baptist Foreign Missionary Society.He was also on the faculty of the University of Shanghai. Lew, Dr Timothy Tingfang Assistant Chancellor and Professor of Psychology at Yenching University.Lin, T.L A Professor of History and Political Science at Fukien University Price, Frank Wilson (F.W) A Presbyterian Church of the United States Missionary.Shih, Margaret (Shih Hung-Yueh) Was the head of the Department of Health of the University of Cheeloo Village Service Centre, Langshun, Shantung. 37 Shu-Ching, Miss Ting General Secretary of the Y.W.C.A Smythe, Dr Lewis S.C Missionary of the United Christian Missionary Society, and taught Sociology at Nanking University. Singer, Nettie Mabelle A missionary of the Church of Brethren Mission, based in Liaochow, Shansi. Stroebe, George G. Survey Engineer with the Yangtze River Commission in Nanking.Todd, O.J (Oliver Julian) Chief Engineer of the CIFRC. Tsen, Archie T.L A Nanking Businessman. Tsu, Y.Y., (Yuyue Zu) A Chinese Christian Sociologist. Wilkinson, W.E Secretary to the Chinese Y.M.C.A in PeipingWu, Y.T A Y.M.C.A secretary, member of the Congregational Church and advocate for the Social Gospel. 38 Bibliography Primary Sources The Chinese Recorder, 192941, Shanghai, Presbyterian Mission Press, 18771941; monthly from 1886. Accessed through the China: Trade, Politics and Culture, 17931980 database. Baguley, F.E, A Newcomer Views Christian Education The Chinese Recorder, February 1937, p.79-81. Baker, J.E Growth of Famine Relief and Prevention, The Chinese Recorder, September 1936, pp.562-564. Brown, Josephine, Needs of Rural Women, The Chinese Recorder, February 1934, p.95. Butterfield, Kenyon The Christian Church in Rural China The Chinese Recorder, June 1931, p.342. Chang, Fu Liang Religious Education and the Rural Church The Chinese Recorder, January 1930, pp.18-22. Chang, Fu Liang Christian Leaven, The Chinese Recorder, May 1933, p.279-281.Chang, Fu Liang Uplift Chinas Dwarfed Giant, The Chinese Recorder, January 1934, p.13. Chang, Fu Liang, What Must Christian Leaders Know? The Chinese Recorder, September 1934, pp.558-560. Chao, T.C., Christianity and National Crisis, The Chinese Recorder, January 1937, p.10. Cross, Rowland M. The Present Situation: Communism Vs Christianity, The Chinese Recorder, December 1930, p.796-797. Crumpacker,F.H Urgent Needs In Rural Improvement The Chinese Recorder, May 1933, p.289. Doidge, Dorothy M., Use of Western Christian Money, The Chinese Recorder, July 1933, p.442. Felton, Ralph A., Whats Right With the Chinese Rural Church, The Chinese Recorder, December 1936, pp.737-739. Fitch, Robert F., The Slaughter Of The Innocents The Chinese Recorder, August 1930,p.498. Flory, B.M, New Foundations of Chinese Church The Chinese Recorder February 1932, p.85. Goulter, O.J The Crucial Problem of Rural Missions The Chinese Recorder, June 1933, p.367 Horning, Emma, Hygenie and Evangelism The Chinese Recorder, January 1930, pp.39-40.39 Horning, Emma, Research Spirit in Christian Work The Chinese Recorder, March 1930, p.170. Hubbard, Hugh, The Literacy Movement Gathers Momentum The Chinese Recorder, January 1931, pp.37-40. Hume, Edward H.,Christian Medicine In The New Day in China, June 1935, pp.346-350. Hunter, James A. The Church As Rural Rebuilder, The Chinese Recorder, May 1933, p.288. Kunkle, J.S Religion in Rural Community The Chinese Recorder, July 1933 p.426. Lamson, H.D Social Problems and The Christian Movement, The Chinese Recorder, May 1933, p.299. Lew, Timothy Tingfang Changing Intellectual and Social Conditions The Chinese Recorder, August 1930, p.485. Lin, T.L, Communists in Fukien, The Chinese Recorder, May 1935, p.272-273.. No Author The Present Situation: China Medical Association Conference The Chinese Recorder,March 1929, pp.195-196. No Author, Work and Workers: Y.W.C.A in rural The Chinese Recorder, July 1929, p.469. No Author, Work and Workers: Life of Women in South China The Chinese Recorder, July 1929, pp.470-471. No Author, The Present Situation The Chinese Recorder, May 1932, p.322. No Author, The Present Situation The Chinese Recorder, May 1933, p.324. No Author, The Present Situation: News From West ChinaThe Chinese Recorder, September 1933, pp.610-611. No Author, Work and Workers: Preparing Students For Village Leadership The Chinese Recorder, September 1933,p.616 No Author. The Present Situation: Kuliang Religious Education Conference, October 1933, p.685. No Author The Present Situation: A Ruralised Bible Training School The Chinese Recorder, May 1935, pp.315-316. No Author The Present Situation: Putting Religion Into Life, The Chinese Recorder, June 1935,p.376-377 No Author, The Present Situation, The Chinese Recorder, April 1936, p.251. No Author (Translated) Chinese Christian Women Rebuilder The Chinese Recorder June 1937, pp.366-369. Price, F.W Evangelism and Religious Education The Chinese Recorder, April 1936, pp.232-233. 40 Shu-Ching, Ting, Needs that Western Christians Can Help Meet The Chinese Recorder,June 1929, p.379. Shih, Margaret, Church and Rural Health The Chinese Recorder, June 1937, pp.359-362. Singer, Nettie Mabelle, The Gospel of Abundant Life, The Chinese Recorder, June 1932, p.363. Smythe, Lewis S.CCommunism Challenges Christianity!, The Chinese Recorder, June 1934, pp.354-359. Stroebe, George G., The Great Central China Flood of 1931 The Chinese Recorder, November 1932, pp.667-668. Tsu, Y.Y Needs that Western Christians Can Help Meet, The Chinese Recorder, June 1929, p.384. The Editor Editorial The Chinese Recorder, January 1930, p.5. The Editor Editorial: Famine Prevention, The Chinese Recorder, February 1930, pp.70-72. The Editor, Editorial The Chinese Recorder, March 1931, pp.139-141. The Editor, Editorial The Chinese Recorder, March 1931, pp.139-141. The Editor, Editorial The Chinese Recorder, November 1931, p.676. The Editor Editorial, The Chinese Recorder, January 1932, p.4. The Editor, Editorial The Chinese Recorder, September 1932, p.536. The Editor, Editorial The Chinese Recorder, November 1932, pp.661-662. The Editor, Editorial The Chinese Recorder, April 1934, p.215. The Editor Editorial: Beyond Communism, The Chinese Recorder, June 1934, pp.343-348. The Editor Editorial The Chinese Recorder, November 1935, pp.645-646. The Editor, Editorial: Chinas Drive Against Illiteracy, The Chinese Recorder, January 1936, p.3. The Editor Editorial, The Chinese Recorder, December 1936, p.734. The Editor Editorial: Meeting the New Challenge in China The Chinese Recorder, December 1936, p.736. Todd, O.J., Some Altruistic Aspects of Famine Prevention Work, The Chinese Recorder, November 1932, pp.680-684. Tsen, Archie T.L Chinese Mission in Shensi The Chinese Recorder, January 1929, pp.45-46. Wilkinson, W.E Christian Students The Chinese Recorder, August 1930, pp.490-493.Wu, Y.T Make Christianity Socially Dynamic The Chinese Recorder January 1934, p.10. 41 Secondary Sources Books Bays, Daniel H., A New History of Christianity in China (West Sussex, Wiley-Blackwell, 2012). Chesneaux, Jean, Le Barbier, Francoise, Bergere, Marie-Claire, China from The 1911 Revolution to Liberation trans. Auster, Paul, Davis, Lydia, and Destenay, Anne (New York, Pantheon Books, 1977). Diktter, Frank, The Age Of Openess, China Before Mao (Berkley and Los Angeles, University of California Press, 2008). Gray, Jack, Rebellions and Revolutions: China from 1800s to 2000 (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2002). Hayford, Charles W. To The People: James Yen and Village China (New York, Columbia University Press, 1990). Kessler, Lawrence D. The Jiangyin Mission Station: An American Missionary Community In China, 1895-1952, (North Carolina, University of North Carolina Press, North Carolina, 1996). Spence, Jonathan D., The Search for Modern China (New York, W. W. Norton and Company, 1990). Taylor, Jay, The Generalissimo: Chiang Kai-Shek and The Struggle For Modern China (Cambridge, Massachussets and London, England, The Belknap Press Of Harvard University Press, 2009). Thomson Jr, James C., While China Faced West: American Reformers in Nationalist China, 1928-1937 (Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press,1969). Xi, Lian, The Conversion of Missionaries: Liberalism in American Protestant Missions in China, 1907-1932 (Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania State University Press, 1997). Xing, Jun, Baptized in the Fire of Revolution: The American Social Gospel and the YMCA in China 1919-1937 (London, Associated University Press, 1996). Chapters in edited collections Chen Jerome, The Communist movement 1927-1937 Decade In Fairbank, John K. and Feuerwerker, Albert (eds.) The Cambridge History of China Volume 13: Republican China 19121949, Part 2 (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1986), pp.168-229. Eastman, Lloyd. Nationalist China during the Nanking Decade In Fairbank, John K. and Feuerwerker, Albert (eds.) The Cambridge History of China Volume 13: Republican China 19121949, Part 2 (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1986), pp. 11667. Papers 42 Brown, William A. The Protestant Rural Movement In China (1927-1937) in Liu Kwang-Ching (ed.) American Missionaries in China, Papers from Harvard Seminars (Cambridge, Massachusetts, East Asian Research Centre Harvard University, Harvard University Press, 1966) pp.217-247. Nathan, Andrew A History of The China International Famine Relief Commission (Cambridge, Massachusetts, East Asian Research Centre Harvard University, Harvard University Press, 1965).