Hunter Corbett

Hunter Corbett (Chinese name Guo Xiande, 郭显德; December 8, 1835 – January 7, 1920), Doctor of Divinity, was born in Pennsylvania, USA, and was a missionary of the American Presbyterian Church (North). He spent 56 years in Shandong, China, walking thousands of li to preach in the countryside, eating and sleeping alongside coolies and the poor, and doing many works of charity. In his lifetime he baptized no fewer than three thousand believers. During the Boxer Uprising a popular saying went: “Among foreigners, do not kill Guo Xiande; among Chinese, do not kill Zhao Dounan (赵斗南, Corbett’s student).”

Life

Hunter Corbett was born on December 8, 1835, into a devout Christian family in Clarion County, Pennsylvania, USA, a descendant of Scottish immigrants. His father was Ross Mitchell Corbett and his mother was Fannie Culbertson Orr, who took the surname Corbett on marriage. He graduated in 1860 from Jefferson College in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania (now Washington & Jefferson College). After graduating from Princeton Theological Seminary, he sailed for China in 1863 with his first wife, Elizabeth “Lizzie” Culbertson.

They spent half a year at sea around the Cape of Good Hope and met with danger off the Chinese coast, finally reaching Chefoo (now Yantai) in midwinter 1863. In 1864 they arrived at Dengzhou, where no one would rent them a house, so they lived in an abandoned temple of Guanyin. He studied Chinese hard, and a year later chose a site in Yantai and established a mission station.

Together with his co-workers Calvin Wilson Mateer and John Nevius, he worked out methods for sowing the gospel in the soil of North China, making Shandong the strongest Presbyterian mission in China. The main feature of the Shandong plan was to work widely across the whole countryside rather than concentrating on the cities. Corbett was described as “an indomitable missionary”; he travelled the whole province on horseback, by mule cart, and on foot. Besides the hardships of travel, he also met with abuse and stone-throwing. In 1886 Washington and Jefferson College awarded him an honorary Doctor of Divinity degree.

Education

In 1866 Corbett bought land at Yuhuangding in the southwestern outskirts of Yantai and built the Yuhuangding Presbyterian Church and Yantai’s first primary school. In 1866 he founded the Wenxian Primary School (for boys) and the Huiying Primary School (for girls) at Yuhuangding, the first modern-style schools in Yantai after it was opened as a treaty port. They later developed into the Yantai Yiwen Commercial College, the predecessor of today’s Yantai No. 2 Middle School. Corbett’s wife, Su Zilan (苏紫兰), founded Yantai’s first kindergarten at Yuhuangding. Corbett also founded more than 40 primary schools in all, in Fushan, Muping, Qixia, Laiyang, Haiyang, Jimo, Jiaozhou, and Yantai.

Hospital

In 1890 Corbett’s wife Su Zilan opened a small clinic at Yuhuangding. In 1914 the Yuhuangding Hospital was completed, with Ji You’er (嵇尤尔) as its first director. The hospital had two buildings, south and north, with more than 300 rooms and 90 beds, and was fully equipped. Today it is still one of the largest hospitals in Shandong Province.

Museum

Corbett used very novel methods of mission work. In 1875, on what is now Shifu Street, he founded the first museum in Shandong. He rented a local theatre and turned the rooms at the back into a museum displaying collections from around the world. After worship the museum doors were opened, showing coral, minerals, and specimens of animals and plants. By 1900 about 72000 people had heard him preach and visited the museum.

The Shandong Presbyterian Church

His greatest achievement was organizing and building up the Shandong Presbyterian Church. By the year of Corbett’s death there were 343 organized churches and chapels in the province, with more than 15000 church members. In 1906 he was elected Moderator of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America (the Northern Presbyterian Church); the General Assembly is the denomination's highest governing body. In 1914 the government of the Republic of China awarded Corbett a “Double Dragon and Excellent Crop” (Jiahe) medal.

In 1907 his daughter Grace Corbett married Ralph C. Wells (1877-1955). In 1908 his daughter Jane Lea Corbett married John Lawrence Goheen.

On January 7, 1920, Corbett died in Yantai, Shandong, having served in Shandong for 56 years in all, at the age of 84. He was buried in the “American Cemetery”; the Yuhuangding area was packed with people, and a thousand mourners attended the funeral. His gravestone survives to this day.

His third wife and widow, Su Zilan, died in 1936.