John Robert Morrison
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John Robert Morrison (Chinese: 馬儒翰; April 17, 1814 - August 29, 1843) was the second son from Robert Morrison's first marriage with Mary Morton. He was a translator, diplomat and missionary in China and the Far East, most closely associated with Canton City and Hong Kong. John Morrison participated in the negotiation of the Treaty of Nanking and was appointed the first Colonial Secretary of Hong Kong[1].
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[edit] Early life
The year following his birth, on January 21, 1815 John Morrison was taken by his mother, along with his elder sister, aboard a ship bound for England.
They returned to Macau on August 23, 1820, but in less than two years his mother died and he was sent back to England to receive his education. During the next four years he lived near London.
When his father left for China on May 1, 1826, he took John with him. He learned the Chinese language from his father, and attended the Anglo-Chinese College in Malacca in 1827 - 1830.
[edit] Career in China
He had been a translator for English merchants in the Canton City, China from 1830. In 1832, he accompanied Edmund Roberts, a merchant and diplomat of United States of America, to Siam and Cochin China and establisted trade treaties. He compiled the Chinese Commercial Guide, which provided information on British trader in China.
John Morrison succeeded his father in 1834 and was appointed Chinese Secretary to the British East India Company on behalf of British government. He then involved in the diplomacy amist the opium wars from 1839 - 1842. In the negotiations, the Treaty of Nanking was formed.
The Government of Hongkong formed after the treaty and he became a member of the Legislative Council and Executive Council, and the first Colonial Secretary of the government under Sir Henry Pottinger.
[edit] Missionary Work
Apart from official duties, John Morrison continued his father's work of the English Protestant Church in Canton and supported those Chinese converts persecuted by the Chinese authorities. He revised his father's translation of the Bible and appealed to the London Missionary Society to continue the missionary work in Canton. In February 1838 he was made Recording Secretary of the Medical Missionary Society.
[edit] Translation of the Bible
In 1840, a group of four people (Walter Henry Medhurst, Charles Gutzlaff, Elijah Coleman Bridgman, and John Robert Morrison) cooperated to translate the Bible into Chinese. The translation of the Hebrew part was done mostly by Gutzlaff from the Netherlands Missionary Society, with the exception that the Pentateuch and the book of Joshua were done by the group collectively.
This translation, completed in 1847, after John Robert's death is very famous due to its adoption by the revolutionary peasant leader Hong Xiuquan of the Taipingtianguo movement (Taiping Rebellion) as some of the reputed early doctrines of the organization. This Bible translation was a version (in High Wen-li, Traditional Chinese: 深文理) marvelously correct and faithful to the original.
[edit] Death & Memorial
John Robert Morrison died young in the late summer of 1843 from a nine day episode of malarial fever. This was the same outbreak in Hong Kong that took the life of fellow missionary Samuel Dyer. He is buried in the Old Protestant Cemetery in Macau, close to the grave of this father.
[edit] Works authored
- Some Account of Charms, Talismans, and Felicitous Appendages worn about the person, or hung up in houses, &c. used by the Chinese. London. 1833
- Companion to the Anglo-Chinese calendar. 1832.
- A Chinese Commercial Guide, consisting of a collection of details respecting foreign trade in China. Canton. 1834
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- American Presbyterian Mission (1867). Memorials of Protestant Missionaries to the Chinese. Shanghai: American Presbyterian Mission Press.
[edit] Notes
- ^ American Presbyterian Mission (1867), p. 10-11
External Links
| New Creation | Colonial Secretary of Hongkong 1843-1844 |
Succeeded by: Sir Frederick William Adolphus Bruce |
| Persondata | |
|---|---|
| NAME | Morrison, John Robert |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | 馬儒翰 |
| SHORT DESCRIPTION | translator, diplomat and missionary in China |
| DATE OF BIRTH | April 17, 1814 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Macau, China |
| DATE OF DEATH | August 29, 1843 |
| PLACE OF DEATH | Guangzhou, China |
