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William Milne (1785 – 2 June 1822) was the second Protestant missionary to China, after his colleague, Robert Morrison[1].
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Milne was born near Huntly, in the rural parish of Kennethmont in Aberdeenshire, Scotland. His father died when he was only six years old, and his mother taught him at home. While he was still very young, he worked on a farm for a period of time before being apprenticed to a carpenter. While excelling at carpentry, he also was reported to have distinguished himself by his profanity. But, at the age of sixteen, he was converted to Christianity. In 1804 he was received as a member of the Congregational church at Huntly.
About 1809, he applied to the London Missionary Society. After conferring with a group of minsters at Aberdeen, he was sent to Gosport, where he studied under David Bogue for three years. Ordained as a missionary to China in July, 1812, he proposed
| “ | to go from house to house, from village to village, from town to town, and from country to country, where access may be gained, in order to preach the Gospel to all who will not turn away their ear from it.[2] | ” |
Milne was married soon after his ordination to Rachel Cowie, the daughter of Charles Cowie, Esq. of Aberdeen. They soon departed for China, leaving about August 1812. Due to delays, they didn't arrive in Macau until 4 July 1813. Milne, with his wife and infant son were expelled by the Roman Catholic priests there after three days, and he left for Guangzhou, where he was able to begin study of the Chinese language. His quote regarding the difficulty of an English-speaker acquiring the Chinese tongue has been frequently repeated:[3]
| “ | [Learning the Chinese language requires] bodies of iron, lungs of brass, heads of oak, hands of spring steel, eyes of eagles, hearts of apostles, memories of angels, and lives of Methuselah. | ” |
After six months with Robert Morrison as his first and only help that had come to join the work from England, he took Morrison's advice to visit Java and the Chinese settlements in the Indonesian archipelago. Milne agreed and travelled south, distributing tracts and books, finally returning to Guangzhou on 5 September to spend the winter of 1813–1814 there.
Milne spent most of his missionary career in the British Straits Settlements of Malacca, beginning in the Spring of 1815. He set up a printing press and school, continuing to preach the Gospel to the local Chinese.
In January 1816, Milne visited Penang, and established a printing press there also.
Milnee was also the first Principal of The Anglo Chinese College at Malacca. He collaborated more with Morrison to produce the second complete Chinese version of the Bible, translating the books of Deuteronomy through Job.
Liang Fa, converted to Christianity in 1815 and baptised by Milne, became the first Chinese Protestant minister and evangelist. Liang Fa later became renowned as the author of the Christian literature that inspired Hong Xiuquan and the Taiping Rebellion.
In 1819 he published a tract "The Two Friends", which became the most widely used Chinese Christian tract until the early twentieth century. Milne was remarkably prolific for one who came to literary work so late in life, and twenty-one Chinese works are attributed to him. Several were of substantial length; one was the Chinese Monthly Magazine (察世俗每月統記傳 Chashisu Meiyue Tongjizhuan), the first Chinese language magazine in the modern sense of the word; that ran from 1815 to 1822 and totalled several hundred pages. In addition, he produced two substantial books and a Malacca periodical in English.
The University of Glasgow conferred on him the honorary degree of Doctor of Divinity on 26 November 1820.
Two of his children died in Asia. His wife also died in March 1819. He died on 2 June 1822 and left three surviving sons and a daughter. His son William Charles Milne also became a missionary to China.
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