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📖 Biography
Early Years and Calling
William Muirhead was born in 1822 in Leith, Scotland. He studied law in his early years, but was later called to give his life to God's service. He studied divinity first at the Relief Theological Hall in Glasgow and then spent a short time at Cheshunt College before sailing, and joined the London Missionary Society, preparing to go to the East to preach.
Called to China
On 6 April 1847 he was sent out by the mission to China and arrived in Shanghai on 26 August of the same year. At that time it was not long since the Treaty of Nanking had opened the ports; Shanghai had only just been opened to trade, and Western Christianity was just beginning to grow there. From then on Muirhead made Shanghai the place of his lifelong service. Alongside fellow workers who had come to Shanghai before him, such as Walter Henry Medhurst and Alexander Wylie, he carried on more than half a century of preaching, education and literature work.
Preaching Through the Written Word
In Shanghai he was deeply involved in the publishing work of the London Missionary Society Press (墨海书馆). The press was founded by Medhurst in 1843 and was the earliest modern printing and publishing house in Shanghai; Muirhead was an important member of it. While preaching the gospel and running schools to train students, he also wrote and translated, devoting himself to introducing Western history, geography and new knowledge to Chinese readers. His Dili Quanzhi (Universal Geography) was printed in two parts in 1853 and 1854; it introduced world geography systematically and was an early work to use the word dizhi (地质, geology) in introducing Western geology. His translation Da Yingguo Zhi (History of England), published in 1856 and translated from the history of England by Thomas Milner, let late-Qing scholars glimpse the development of the English system of government and the progress of its civilization. He also took part in editing Liuhe Congtan (Shanghae Serial), and in his later years wrote Wujiao Tongkao (A General Study of the Five Religions), comparing Confucianism, Buddhism, Daoism, Islam and Christianity; he never stopped writing.
Hardship and Love
His ministry was not a smooth road. He went through the Qingpu Incident of 1848 and the Small Swords uprising in Shanghai in 1853. During the great drought in North China from 1876 to 1879, when the starving dead lay everywhere, he joined the famine relief committee and worked hard to bring help to the victims, bearing witness in action to the love of his faith. For many years he was pastor of the Tian'an Church (天安堂) in Shanghai, building up believers, and he was widely respected. In about 1894 the University of Edinburgh awarded him the degree of Doctor of Divinity in recognition of his long years of service in China.
Death in Shanghai
On 3 October 1900 Muirhead died in Shanghai and went to be with the Lord, after about 53 years of service there; he was an honored elder statesman in the history of mission in Shanghai. After his death a memorial service was held for him. He spent his whole life in one city, advancing the gospel together with the written word, and deeply influenced how modern China came to know the Western world; his name remains in the records of cultural exchange between China and the West and of mission in China.
