Timothy Richard

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Background Christianity Protestantism Chinese history Missions timeline Christianity in China Nestorian China missions Catholic China missions Jesuit China missions Protestant China missions

People Karl Gützlaff W. H. Medhurst J. Hudson Taylor Lottie Moon Timothy Richard Jonathan Goforth Cambridge Seven Gladys Aylward (more missionaries)

Missionary agencies China Inland Mission London Missionary Society American Board Church Missionary Society US Presbyterian Mission Baptist Missionary Society

Works Scripture in Chinese Chinese Colleges Chinese Hospitals Chinese Hymnody

Pivotal events Taiping Rebellion Opium Wars Boxer Rebellion Chinese Civil War Sino-Japanese Wars

Chinese Protestants Hong Xiuquan Liang Fa Wang Laijun Xi Shengmo John Sung Ming-Dao Wang This box: view • talk • edit

Timothy Richard was a Baptist missionary to China who influenced the rise of the Chinese Republic.

Richard was born on October 10, 1845, into a devout Baptist farming family in Carmarthenshire, Wales. Inspired by the Second Evangelical Awakening to become a missionary, Richard left teaching to enter Haverfordwest Theological College in 1865. There he dedicated himself to China. In 1869 the Baptist Missionary Society (BMS) accepted Richard's application and assigned him to Yantai (Chefoo), Shandong Province.

Young John Allen founded and edited the monthly Wan Guo Gong Bao, or Review of the Times from 1868-1907, a paper "said...to have done more for reform than any other single agency in China."

The Review attracted a wide and influential Chinese readership throughout its thirty-nine year run. One of the ways in which the Review appealed to a broad, scholarly audience was through its discussion of current events and economics. During the Sino-Japanese War period of 1894-1895, essay titles included: “International Intercourse, by a descendent of Confucius,” “How to Enrich a Nation, by Dr. Joseph Edkins,” “The Prime Benefits of Christianity, by the Rev. Timothy Richard,” and “On the Suppression of Doubt and the Acceptance of Christ, by Sung Yuh-kwei.” The articles attributed practical applications to the Christian faith and portrayed Christianity as a useful concept for the Chinese, one that Allen and his contributors intended to portray on an equal level to concepts such as market economics and international law. The Qing reformer Kang Youwei once said of the publication: "I owe my conversion to reform chiefly on the writings of two missionaries, the Rev. Timothy Richard and the Rev. Dr. Young J. Allen." Rev. Richard was Allen's colleague and a contributor to the Review.