Recently, a Christian scholar called on people with noble aspirations to translate the English publication China’s Millions into Chinese to better serve the Chinese people.
Founded in 1875, China’s Millions was the journal of the China Inland Mission, the largest western Christian missionary organization in China. In the first half of this year, China’s Millions (1875-1911) (12 volumes) was compiled and published by Shanghai Educational Publishing House. The author’s signature was James Hudson Taylor.
China’s Millions was published monthly, and the chief editor was James Hudson Taylor. Since it was mainly aimed at English-speaking Christian readers, its seventy-seven years of editing and collection is like a grand epic, systematically recording the pioneering and development of the Church in China.
The book is an ethnography of China’s national conditions and local conditions in the 20th century, observing and recording geography, transportation, nationality, population, belief, language, education, medical treatment, epidemic diseases, customs, products, civil revolutions, social changes, and other aspects. The journal served the main window for the China Inland Mission to report back to the western society its missionary progress in China, China’s current politics, history, geography, and other information.
Although it is a missionary journal, after more than a century of accumulation, its breadth and depth have already exceeded the religious field. Therefore, it is not only a precious document to study the history of Christianity in China, but also a precious first-hand material to study the social and historical conditions of modern China.
Because the journal was mainly aimed at western readers at that time, only a few existed in mainland China and it’s little-known among Chinese churches. Although European and American libraries take this journal seriously, the collection was scattered, and it’s difficult to have a complete set.
The publication belongs to the first series of China’s Millions (1875-1911) (12 volumes), covering the period from 1875 to 1911.
- Translated by Nicolas Cao
