William Alexander Parsons Martin

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W. A. P. Martin Missionary to China Born April 10, 1827 Livonia, Indiana, USA Died 1916 Beijing

William Alexander Parsons Martin (April 10, 1827 – 1916) was an American Presbyterian missionary to China and translator, famous for having translated a number of important Western treatises into Chinese, such as Henry Wheaton's Elements of International Law.

He graduated from Indiana State University in 1846 and then studied theology at the Presbyterian seminary, New Albany, Indiana. In 1850 Martin arrived in Ningbo, Zhejiang, China, where he worked for the next ten years.

Martin served as interpreter for the United States minister William B. Reed, in negotiating the treaty of Treaty of Tientsin in 1858 with China, and in 1859 traveled with his successor, John Elliot Ward, to Beijing and to Edo, Japan.

From 1863 till 1868 he worked at Beijing. He was reputed to be the first foreigner to make the journey from Beijing to Shanghai on the Grand Canal of China, and described the trip in the "Journal of the Asiatic Society" (1866). In 1869 Martin became president of the Tongwenguan in Beijing and a professor of international law. He acted as an adviser of Chinese officials on questions of international law when disputes arose with European powers, notably during the conflict with France in 1884-1885. In the same year he was made a mandarin of the third class.

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Martin received the degree of D.D. from Lafayette College in 1860, and that of LL. D. from the University of the city of New York in 1870.

[edit] Published works

Dr. Martin edited the Peking Scientific Magazine, printed in Chinese, from 1875 till 1878, and has published in the Chinese language

• Evidences of Christianity (1855; 10th ed., 1885), which was translated into Japanese and obtained a large circulation in Japan ;
• The Three Principles (1856)
• Religious Allegories (1857)
• A Chinese translation of Henry Wheaton's Elements of International Law (1863)
• an educational treatise on Natural Philosophy (1866)
• translations of Theodore D. Woolsey's Introduction to the Study of International Law (1875)
• the Guide Diplomatique of Georg F. von Martens
• A Chinese translation of Johann K. Bluntschli's Das moderne Völkerrecht (1879)
• a work on Mathematical Physics (1885)
• He contributed to American and English reviews and to the transactions of learned societies, and published in English The Chinese : their Education, Philosophy, and Letters (Shanghai and London, 1880; new ed., New York, 1881).

[edit] References

• Covell, Ralph R. W. A. P. Martin, Pioneer of Progress in China Washington: Christian University Press, 1978.
• Spence, Jonathan D. To Change China: Western Advisers in China, 1620-1960. Harmondsworth and New York: Penguin Books, 1980.

[edit] External links

• Works by W.A.P. Martin at Project Gutenberg
• William Alexander Parsons Martin in libraries (WorldCat catalog)