The special lecture series on church history and text ministry was held on March 25 in Chengdu "Daily Update" Trinity bookstore. The lecture focused on the introduction of Protestantism in China and the development of the Chinese modern movable type printing industry.
According to the information posted on the WeChat account of the "Chengdu Trinity Bookstore", Brother Faith, an independent writer from the Chengdu Early Rain Church gave the lecture. He has written articles and translated some biographies, such as the biography of Hudson Taylor entitled "Love China with life--- Biography of Samuel Pollard".
In the lecture, he recalled some admirable events and people in the history of China after it adopted the opening up policy (Chinese Economic Reform of 1980). To encourage brothers and sisters to learn, explore and participate in text ministry, he shared his own experience and the rewards he received.
It is said that when the movable type printing was being used in China in a large scale, Protestantism entered into China in 1807. After it arrived in China, there were two major challenges in the text ministry. First was to translate the Bible into Chinese (including various dialects), which was directed by Robert Morrison. The second was how to print out the translated Chinese Bible in the fastest speed with high quality.
During that period, in 1838, Taylor's father-in-law, missionary Samuel Dyer from the London Missionary Society, made a great breakthrough in the research on printing out movable Chinese characters in lead. As a result, In December of 1843 Walter Henry Medhurst set up London Missionary Society's printing factory by the name of Mohai Shuguan in Shanghai, becoming the first Chinese modern printing factory.
Translated By: Alvin
