Joseph Edkins

Early Years and Calling

Joseph Edkins was born on December 19, 1823, in Nailsworth, Gloucestershire, England. He studied at the University of London, graduating in 1843; he was well educated and especially gifted in languages. In 1847 he was ordained a minister and, devoting himself to spreading the gospel in the Far East, joined the London Missionary Society.

Sent to China

In 1848, at just 25 years of age, Edkins was sent east by the London Missionary Society. He arrived in Hong Kong on July 22 that year and reached Shanghai on September 2. At first he worked at the London Missionary Society Press (Mohai Shuguan) run by the senior missionary Walter Henry Medhurst, preaching, running schools and translating books alongside colleagues such as William Charles Milne (美魏茶) and William Muirhead (慕维廉), and going deep into town and countryside to evangelize. During this period he worked with Chinese scholars such as Li Shanlan (李善兰) and Wang Tao (王韬) to translate many Western scientific works. His years in Shanghai set the course of his life, in which mission work and scholarship went hand in hand.

North to Tianjin and Beijing

In 1861 Edkins went north to preach in Tianjin; in 1863 he moved to Beijing, took charge of the London Missionary Society's work there, and founded the Gangwashi Church. From then on he lived in the north for a long time. He spent more than half a century in China in all, 30 years of it in Beijing. He made a close study of Mandarin Chinese and of Chinese religions and wrote prolifically, producing works such as Chinese Buddhism, A Grammar of the Chinese Colloquial Language, Commonly Called the Mandarin Dialect (1857), a vocabulary of the Shanghai dialect, and China's Place in Philology, covering language, Buddhism, Daoism and other fields; he became one of the important founders of Western sinology. He served on the Peking translation committee and helped translate the Peking Mandarin New Testament. In 1875 the University of Edinburgh conferred on him the degree of Doctor of Divinity in recognition of his scholarly contributions.

Introducing Western Learning

In 1880 Edkins left the London Missionary Society and, at the invitation of Robert Hart, Inspector General of the Chinese Maritime Customs, became a translator for the Customs, turning his efforts to introducing Western learning and bridging China and the West. In 1886 he published Xixue Qimeng [Primers of Western Learning], a series of 16 titles covering zoology, botany, chemistry, geography, physiology, logic and other subjects, which became important readers for bringing Western knowledge into modern China.

Humble and Encouraging

Edkins was humble, gentle and sincere, and glad to help those younger than himself. When Hudson Taylor first came to China, Edkins accompanied him on several of his canal-boat journeys inland, distributing Scriptures and tracts.

At Rest in Shanghai

In 1893 Edkins moved to Shanghai. He died there on April 23, 1905, at the age of 82. This missionary sinologist, who spent his whole life bridging the gospel and Chinese culture, gave his life to the land he loved.