William Edward Soothill

Note: This entry is composed of three complementary articles from different authors, with a brief evaluation at the end.

His Background

William Edward Soothill, born 23 January 1861, came from Halifax, England, where his father, also William (1836-1893), was a textile worker. The family belonged to the United Methodist Free Churches (UMFC), a denomination created in the 1850s as an amalgamation of Methodist groups that had separated earlier from the Wesleyan Methodist Church over such issues as democratic government and ministerial authority.

Soothill became a solicitor’s clerk but a possible legal career and other studies were interrupted by his call to mission in China. A pioneer missionary had died in the seaport town of Wenzhou so he went straight to China in 1882 instead of attending the UMFC Theological Institute in Manchester. The UMFC’s work in China began at Ningbo in 1864 and reached Wenzhou, 150 miles further south in 1877. When Soothill arrived there in 1882 he found a church with thirty members.

Marriage

After two years Soothill’s work was interrupted when China was at war with France. European missionaries were regarded as ‘barbarians’ and on 4 October, 1884, a riot started during the church’s Saturday prayer meeting. The mission was attacked, set on fire and destroyed. Soothill withdrew to the British Consulate on an island in the river and services were held at a member’s house.

His fiancée, Lucy Farrar (1857-1931), from Southowram near Halifax, heard about the Wenzhou troubles but, undeterred, left England in October, 1884, to marry Soothill at Shanghai in December. At Wenzhou they remained at the British Consulate with daily expeditions to the mainland until June, 1885, when compensation from the Chinese Government and donations from England enabled church rebuilding and the construction of a new house. The Soothills had two children, Dorothea and Victor.

Language study

Known affectionately as Sing-Su by the Chinese, Soothill was energetic and gifted and quickly learned the language. His first attempts included mistakes but he soon attempted preaching in Chinese and in time became an acknowledged expert. He created a Roman script for the Wenzhou dialect, translated the New Testament into it (1902) and compiled a highly regarded Chinese dictionary.

Church extension

Along with language work Soothill was busy in church extension. Chinese Christians joined in, and as an example of spontaneous expansion he described how four men from a mountain village came to his opium refuge in Wenzhou. They also joined the church and after returning home started a church and persuaded Soothill to visit. He did, and later sent Wenzhou’s only preacher, Mr Chang, to develop the work. From meeting in a house the growing congregation was so well respected locally that it was allowed to rent a large ancestral hall which turned out to be very suitable in spite of its images. A larger hall was soon required and finally the congregation built a church. As the work grew in the area evangelists and preachers were trained to an increasingly higher standard.

Adaptation

The British Methodist system of church, circuit, and district was followed and Wenzhou became a separate district with seven circuits and 150 congregations by 1906. Soothill, however, modified some aspects of British Methodist practice. Theoretically, as Methodists, they baptised infants, but the Wenzhou church dedicated infants and baptised adults after suitable instruction. This policy was supported by the evidence that there were very few backsliders and with the ecumenical dimension in mind Soothill believed that this policy would ease the creation of a united church in Wenzhou.

On the thorny issue of polygamy Soothill adopted a relatively liberal position by concluding that existing polygamists, suitably instructed, could become members, but an actual member would never be allowed to enter into further marriages.

Soothill loved Chinese music and around 1890 started studying it seriously. His researches resulted in a paper read to the Ningbo Missionary Association in which he explored the possibility of producing Chinese Christian music. English tunes were unnatural to the Chinese, who used a pentatonic scale, so Soothill showed how hymns could be composed employing local pentatonic tunes.

Chinese Religions

Soothill believed that Chinese religions were to be fulfilled, not destroyed, and so concluded his book A Mission in China (1907) with a survey of religion in China. He began with a tour around Wenzhou, describing what happened in the Buddhist, Taoist and Confucianist temples; phenomenology before its time. His subsequent exposition of these religions resembles that in most works on the subject and included a brief, friendly treatment of Islam which had some followers in Wenzhou. He also described the history and contribution of Christianity, which he believed was more influential in China than many people realised. Following Timothy Richard, he suggested that Christianity had influenced the Mahayana school of Buddhism as well as Daoism and Islam.

Educational work

Soothill believed strongly in education and thought that the western educational style of mission schools did much to revitalise Chinese life. Indeed, the new Chinese National Colleges were modelled on Christian colleges. The Methodist school at Wenzhou began with a few boys and simple equipment using the then novel method of class teaching. In 1897, anticipating changes nationally, Soothill started a High School with 20 boys. Eventually, a College was built with financial help from Britain and opened by Timothy Richard with 200 students enrolled in 1906.

Mrs. Soothill opened a school for girls, and by 1906 more than 40 girls were learning reading, writing, arithmetic, singing and sewing. She introduced the very controversial rule that girls should have their feet unbound, but it was eventually accepted that the ancient foot binding custom needed to be abolished.

Medical work

Soothill did some simple medical work, but realising that his efforts were inadequate, he ensured that this important ministry developed by obtaining the services of a medical missionary and finally by dint of effort, administrative acumen, and generosity from Britain had hospitals built, to the lasting benefit of the city.

Shanxi

Many missionaries were massacred in the northern province of Shanxi during the Boxer Rebellion and when things settled down Timothy Richard was asked to help with putting things right. His recommendation that a fine on the Province should be used to create a Western-style university there was accepted and, organised by Richard, the university began in 1902 at Taiyuan, the provincial capital. When the first Principal died in 1906 Richard offered Soothill the position and since education was dear to Soothill’s heart he accepted gladly, with the added bonus that his health would benefit in the cooler north.

Soothill kept up his Chinese studies and in 1910 completed and published his translation of theAnalects of Confucius. In his university history lectures he tried to give a fair presentation of all religions, but was more explicit about Christianity in discussions with students, officials, and intellectuals. He invited such people to special lectures when leading missionaries came their way and on Sunday afternoons presided at YMCA meetings, where the religious aspects of general subjects were considered.

Soothill’s assignment ended when the university was transferred to Chinese authority in June 1911 and he was awarded the Red Button, a great honour in Imperial China. When the Revolution broke out in October, however, the university was closed.

Return to Britain

Soothill returned to England and was soon involved in a proposed Central China University. This joint British and North American project had been in preparation for three years but the committee was spurred on by the October revolution to appeal for funds for a project that would cost £250,000 to set up and £7000 per year to run. Soothill was appointed Organizing President and although it occupied him for some time the scheme seems to have been overtaken by World War One.

The World Missionary Conference held at Edinburgh in 1910 set up a Board for the Training of Missionaries and, in that connection, in 1912, Soothill gave twelve lectures at Queen’s College, Oxford, for students preparing to go to China. They were published as The Three Religions of China(1913). After a chapter each on Confucianism, Daoism, and Buddhism, he discussed their relationship to such themes as the idea of God, cosmology, the ancestors and morals. His general approach was to expound and evaluate with a view to finding aspects that Christians could build on; fulfilment theology, it is called now.

During the Great War Soothill was involved in the YMCA as Director of Religious Work from 1914-18. He often led Chinese interpreters around London and went to France with the Chinese Labour Corps, for which he was awarded the Order of the Striped Tiger by the Chinese.

Oxford University and further writing

Soothill was recognised as one of the foremost authorities on Chinese linguistics, and in July 1920 was appointed Professor of Chinese at Oxford. His Oxford years produced several books.

Soothill admired Timothy Richard and wrote Timothy Richard of China (1924), the life story of his friend and missionary hero. Lectures given that year, published as China and the West (1925), traced the history of this topic. Although he concentrated on the complex events of the nineteenth century, Soothill showed that for much of its history China had interacted well with the rest of the world. In fewer than 100 pages his 1927 A History of China was a masterpiece of compression.

In conjunction with Dr Lewis Hodous of Hartford Theological Seminary, Connecticut, USA, Soothill produced A Dictionary of Chinese Buddhist Terms (1937). Although that work is now dated, Charles Muller has made a digital version and commends the writers’ linguistic skills.

Lucy Soothill died in 1931 and her husband’s serious illness in 1934 turned out to be terminal. He died on May 14, 1935, and a funeral service was held at Wesley Memorial Church, Oxford on 17 May 1935.

The Hall of Light: A study of Early Chinese Kingship, edited by Soothill’s daughter, Lady Dorothea Hosie, and G. F. Hudson, was published in 1951. Lady Hosie (1885-1959) helped with several of her father’s publications and wrote and lectured as an authority on China in her own right.

Conclusions

Soothill witnessed for Christ in China, contributed significant language studies, and created infrastructures for ecclesiastical, educational, and medical institutions. He clearly encouraged Chinese initiatives, a prominent feature of twenty-first century Wenzhou Christianity. As well as introducing certain western ideas to China he and his daughter after him built understanding of China in the West. Memory of him has been revived in a website ‘My Wenzhou’ which has a page on Soothill recognising him as a pioneer Christian missionary to the city. Perhaps his greatest contribution was an attitude. Professor Hodous remarked that Soothill’s linguistic skills were immense, “But even more valuable was his profound insight into and deep sympathy with the religious life and thought of another people.”[1]

William Soothill

1861-1935

United Methodist Free Church

Zhejiang

After arriving in Wenzhou in 1882, Soothill forged an outstanding career of Christian service. Among his accomplishments, Soothill translated [parts of] the New Testament into the Wenzhou dialect, and during the 26 years he lived in the city he founded a hospital, a Methodist training college, schools and 200 mission preaching stations. Throughout his career in China, Soothill challenged some accepted Methodist traditions and exposed them as unbiblical, including the practice of infant baptism. He instead taught the Chinese to dedicate their infants to Christ, but to baptize only those adult believers who had demonstrated fruits of repentance and had a solid grasp of the truth.

In October 1884, two years after Soothill commenced his work, an anti-foreign riot broke out because of war between China and France. During the church’s Saturday morning prayer meeting, the mission was attacked and set on fire. Soothill and the other believers escaped with their lives, but the Methodist work in Wenzhou suffered a setback until new facilities were built

At the time of the riots Soothill was engaged to Lucy Farrar, also from Halifax. She was told of the dangerous developments in Zhejiang but was completely unmoved by the news and set sail for China just weeks later. William and Lucy were married in Shanghai in December 1884, and they enjoyed a long and productive union together for the kingdom of God. 

Lucy Soothil proved herself a gifted instrument in God’s hand, and she contributed greatly to the work in Wenzhou. On Thursday mornings she led a Bible class for women and girls, and the attendees were so touched by the Spirit of God that before long dozens came each week, bringing their friends and relatives with them. 

He was one of those rare individuals with the ability to mix a great academic mind with simple, practical living. Many of his writings dealt with very down-to-earth subjects. On one occasion he exhorted his fellow missionaries not to abandon common sense in their zeal to evangelize the masses of China. Soothill wrote:

Without common sense, a missionary will neglect his own health and become a burden to his colleagues, his friends, and himself, as did a certain young man, who being urged to wear a sun-hat and carry an umbrella, smiled serenely, and quoted, ‘The sun shall not smite thee by day’ … [Psalm 121:6]. He is now at home with an enfeebled brain, which, one surmises, can never have been very strong.

Without common sense, a man will change his methods of work so often that his people are quite unable to keep pace with him, or, on the other hand, he may become so conservative his church will become as lifeless as himself. There are ‘cranks’ at home; there are ‘cranks’ also in the mission field; and few of them succeed in doing enough good work with one hand to cover the harm they do with the other.

On another occasion, the always blunt William Soothill shared a humorous yet true story of how local Chinese viewed the missionaries living among them. He wrote: 

On every side there are eyes, many eyes, which apparently see nothing, yet which see everything; and lips which, behind his back, probably nickname him for whatever peculiarity asserts itself. One man of my acquaintance was known as “Old-wait-a-bit,” because of his obtuseness, and a few months ago I read of three others, living in the same compound, who were respectively known as ‘Bath every day man,’ ‘Bath once a week man,’ and ‘Never bath at all.’

Paul Hattaway

Shanxi Imperial University

After the suppression of the Boxer Uprising by foreign powers in 1900, the Chinese government had to pay heavy indemnities, because the Empress Dowager had officially endorsed the violent attempts of the Boxers to eradicate all foreigners from China.

Christian missions and their Chinese converts had suffered by far the greatest number of deaths and damages to property, so they were allowed to submit  claims for these losses to the Chinese government. Roman Catholics, working through the French government, made outrageously exorbitant demands, which were deeply resented and vigorously opposed by the Chinese.

In Shanxi, the Roman Catholics forcefully occupied the old Confucian school as part of their claim for reparations. Finally, the head of the Foreign Bureau recovered the school “by reminding [the Roman Catholics] that without consular protection, the foreign priests’ passports had become invalid; if they did not return the property they would be forcibly removed from the province” (Kaiser 113).

Though they advocated for Chinese Christians to be recompensed for their sufferings and losses, most Protestant societies refused to accept money from the government for losses of mission personnel and property. They did welcome other forms of compensation, however.

Meanwhile, Timothy Richard had been pressing a proposal for the Shanxi provincial authorities to provide funds for a Western-style school of higher learning, to be called Shanxi University, in keeping with his passionate belief that only education in Western knowledge and values would China escape from the shackles of moribund Confucian education.

After extended negotiations with [the governor] and the supervisor of the recently upgraded ‘university,’ … Richard convinced all involved to combine the local Confucian school with his own proposed school, thus creating two departments within one newly established Shanxi ‘imperial’ university. Richard also had to address local fears that this school would not actually teach anything, but would rather be a blunt tool for proselytizing and indoctrinating Shanxi’s brightest young people. Here compromise was needed, and Richard eventually agreed that religion would not be a required course; he was confident that godly teachers and extra-curricular activities would present opportunities for the gospel. He refused, however, to disallow Christian teachers and to prohibit religious activities outside the classroom … Richard was also criticized by fellow missionaries who thought he was passing up a great opportunity to set up a Christian university in China. Richard was realistic, however, and realized the difficulty of attracting students and winning official support. He also knew that such a school would only sow the seeds for further resentment and bitterness. 

Richard personally organized the school, calling six American and European teachers and translators to posts in the Western Studies Department, … [which] opened in June, 1902, with an initial enrollment of ninety-eight students (Kaiser 113-115).

The settlement in Shanxi opened the door for other similar compromises, the most notable being the establishment of Tsinghua (Qinghua) University in Beijing to prepare students to attend American universities.

The new Imperial University of Shanxi was comprised of two departments, a Chinese department under the control of Chinese, and a Western Studies Department to be led and staffed by Westerners. Moir Duncan was the first principal of the Western Studies Department. After his death in 1906, William Soothill became principal. The department had a faculty of thirty-six, of whom fifteen were foreigners.

Knowing that the influence of Christian faculty would be huge, Richard appealed for Christian teachers to come from the West and join this new effort to introduce Christianity to China. From the beginning, foreign faculty, led by the principal, held a worship service on University premises, and the missionaries were allowed to work freely among the students. Some teachers also introduced Christian beliefs into their lectures. For example, Duncan talked about “the beneficial results of Christianity” for society (Johnson 99).

William Soothill disagreed with this approach. “He did not think the University was the ‘place for religious propaganda.’” He did, however, become the first president of the YMCA club “where standing-room only crowds of young men would listen to ‘lectures on general topics considered from the religious standpoint’” (Johnson 100).

Soothill served as principal of the Western Studies Department until, in accordance with the founding agreement of the university, the school’s leadership devolved entirely into Chinese hands in 1911, just a few months before the October Revolution. 

The Three Religions of China

Soothill, like Timothy Richard, believed that Christ came not to destroy what was best in pagan culture and religion, but to fulfill. Whether Soothill went as far as Richard did in emphasizing the similarities between Buddhism and Christianity is a separate topic deserving attention. At the very least, we can say that Soothill spoke freely of “points of contact” between various Chinese religions and biblical Christianity, without ignoring fundamental differences between them.

In The Three Religions of China, composed while he was teaching at Oxford, Soothill provides a comprehensive analysis and critique of Confucianism, Daoism and Buddhism, including the animistic component of each of these.

Below are a few highlights of this long and elegantly written work.

Confucianism, Daoism and Buddhism are three, but they are not strictly separated in the minds of Chinese. Each has a different emphasis, but they are not mutually exclusive. Their founders deserve our “unfeigned reverence for the greatness of their souls and for the sincerity of their purpose” (Soothill 12).

The “water” of these religions “has done, and is doing, much good in keeping opening the channel of religion, ready for the nobler stream of Living Water, which, in its onward flow, is now beginning to pour itself into the religions of China” (Soothill 15).

We can criticize superstition, but a more effective way is to “lay hold of the excellent material which the sages and scholars of China have so laboriously gathered together” (Soothill 15).

Further, we can make good use of their observations, insofar as they are accurate, and the excellent terminology with which they express the “separate and well-defined distinctions of those observations“ (Soothill 16).

The religion handed down by Confucius was rooted in animism, which expressed itself in the worship of departed spirits. Later, Buddhism turned these into worship in temples as tutelary spirits, as part of the state religion of Confucianism.

Confucianism (Ru Jiao) also has the worship of departed men, as do Daoism and Buddhism.

Confucianism is a politico-religious system focused on the community. Daoism is ascetic-spiritualistic and individualistic. Buddhism is individualistic, marked by eschatology and soteriology and the vanity of mundane existence.

Confucius

Confucius engaged in sacrifices that pave the way for a purer worship, including the Day of Atonement. He believed in a supreme Being and secondary gods.

The moral “code of Confucius represents the wintry silver of the moon, rather than the golden glow of the sun” (Soothill 29). In other words, it’s cold and lifeless.

Confucius was far inferior to Moses and the Prophets. Still, he has been “a worthy schoolmaster, leading men to the Universal Christ whom we [missionaries] have the privilege of bringing ‘not to destroy but to fulfill’” (Soothill 241).

Ancestor worship contains much superstition, but it has good behind it, for it has “done more than anything else to keep alive the belief in immortality” (Soothill 242). We should give it sympathetic consideration rather than antagonism.

With regard to Confucian moral ideas, “We go to a people who know the right, and what we can take them is a Power that makes for righteousness” (Soothill 246). 

Mencius, the major exponent of Confucianism, was as great as the Greek thinkers with whom he was contemporaneous. He taught repentance from sin and obedience to God (Shang Ti).

In the end, however, Confucianism is “pulseless and unemotional, and… tends toward agnosticism” (Soothill 43).

Daoism

The Dao De Jing reveals to men their spiritual possibilities, and deserves great respect by missionaries. But the Dao is an impersonal principle (Soothill 49). Chuang Tse, the most influential Daoist writer after Lauzi, was monistic, like Confucius. He and Mencius are the greatest writers in Chinese history. They both describe Heaven in terms resembling God and the Dao.

Buddhism

Buddhism brought in a sense of punishment and reward in a future life, previously almost unknown in China. It should be studied and respected for its beneficial influences on millions of people. 

“A religion which has transformed savage nations, given a form of civilization to some who had none, humanized nations already partly cultivated, and given a hope of salvation to millions in the age to come, is well worthy of a careful study on the part of missionaries to the Far East. And this is advisable so that they may realise what are the forces there at work for righteousness, learn to discriminate the effective elements from the ones that are impotent or even harmful, and understand how best to sympathise with the sincere searcher after light, in order to utilize the material that is there for illuminating the pathway of men  … ” (Soothill 86).

Later legends about Buddha’s birth and life show close resemblance to the Gospels. And indicate influence by them upon later Buddhism, as Dr. Timothy Richard has shown (Soothill 97).

Like Jesus, Buddha trained a group of disciples and founded a church. He taught that his doctrines would fill the earth and arouse violent opposition from the established religion of the time.

The doctrines of Buddhism include the existence of a Supreme Being; life after death; cause and effect; impermanence; moral striving; and a very sophisticated analysis not only of the soul but of ethical duties.

Conclusion

These three religions share important similarities with Christianity, but they also include fundamental differences. Though they furnish many points of contact with biblical religion, they cannot bring salvation to their adherents

Evaluation

As a missionary, William Soothill made great contributions to the spread of Christianity in Zhejiang, founding churches, hospitals, and schools and training Chinese Christian workers.

As an educator, he skillfully guided the Western Studies Department of the Imperial University of Shanxi in a difficult environment.

As a linguist, scholar and Sinologist, he ranks among the best of them, including Robert Morrison, Walter Medhurst, Elijah Bridgman, Samuel Schereschewsky, James Legge, Calvin Mateer, W.A.P Martin, John Burdon, Samuel Wells Williams, R.H. Graves, and others.

His writing is both elegant and exact, both poetic and precise, both comprehensive and concise.

Many have raised legitimate questions about the overall effectiveness of higher education as a means for spreading the gospel, but we must remember that Soothill’s motive for serving as principal of the Western Studies Department of Shanxi Imperial University was simply to benefit the Chinese people by giving them the best of Western learning. Of his personal piety and commitment to evangelism and Christian nurture there can be no doubt.

Overall, William Soothill was an all-around missionary whose life and service in China and at Oxford serve as an example of the best of the Christian missionaries who went to China as ambassadors of Christ.

G. Wright Doyle