Chapter 7

  Gulangyu—Birthplace of

      Chinese Protestantism

 

“Scarcely had the smoke from the battleships of  the British fleet, that captured Amoy on the 27th of August 1841, cleared from the horizon when Rev. David Abeel [Yabili, 雅俾理] landed on these shores,—six months before the signing of the Nankin treaty.   Rev. Wm. J. Boone, Bishop of the American Episcopal Church arrived at the same time, but as we shall see presently he remained here one or two years only.  They were the first Protestant missionaries in Amoy.” 

                              Rev. Pitcher, “In and about Amoy,” 1912, p.299

 

 

Minnan Dialect and Missions      Fujian’s endless mountains and valleys, have blessed us with an abundance of everything except flat farmland.  Thus centuries of Fujianese were forced to either terrace mountains top to bottom or to emigrate abroad—which is why most Overseas Chinese are from Fujian—and why Christian missions came first to Xiamen.

As early as 1728, the Emperor threatened wannabe emigrants with the death penalty, but nothing stemmed the tide of emigrating Fujianese—and not everyone was sad to see them go.  An 18th century Canton prefect, applauded the mass exodus, saying, “Only scum and riff-raff emigrated, the population was eased and beggars lessened.”   But the “riff-raff” thrived!

By the 1850s, there were 2 ½p times as many Overseas Chinese of Xiamen origin as there were inhabitants of Xiamen.  In 1920, Paul Hutchinson wrote that over 60,000 went out of Xiamen each year.  Today, our little island is the ancestral home of over 350,000 Overseas Chinese, including industrial tycoons throughout Southeast Asia.

Since most Chinese overseas were from South Fujian they spoke Minnan (S. Fujian) dialect.  The missionaries to these Chinese abroad also learned Minnan Dialect, and after the 1st Opium War forced China open to trade and missions, missionaries headed for the one place they could speak the language: Xiamen.

 

 

第七章

鼓浪屿——中国基督教发源地

“1841年8月27日英国军舰攻占厦门不久，《南京条约》签订前半年，雅俾理就坐船来到这里。美国圣公会主教文惠廉也同时到来，但据我们所知，他在这只住了一两年。他们两位是首批来厦门的基督教传教士。”

——选自毕腓力1912年著的《厦门方志》，第299页。

 

闽南话和传教

福建界内高山丘陵密布、生态地貌多样，同时物产丰饶——惟独缺乏平整的耕地。几百年来耕地的匮乏迫使福建人要么开垦梯田，要么移民海外。这就是为什么多数海外华人祖籍福建，以及基督教传教士会率先来到厦门。

早在1728年，当时的统治者就威胁要将出洋的人处以死刑，但是什么也阻止不了福建人的出洋潮——有人还乐见其出，如18世纪的广东行政长官。他说：“出洋的都是些乌合之众，他们走了，人口就精简了，乞丐也少了。”可就是这些“乌合之众”后来都发了财！

到十九世纪五十年代，在海外的厦门人是厦门本地居民人数的2.5倍。保罗·哈金森在1920年写道，每年有6万多人从厦门出洋。今天，有超过35万海外华人祖籍厦门，其中就有许多东南亚的工业巨头。

大部分在东南亚的华人来自福建南部，说闽南话，为他们布道的传教士们也得学说闽南话。第一次鸦片战争后，中国开放贸易，允许传教士进入，传教士们就来到能说闽南话的地方——厦门。


On April 5th, 1846, Fujian's first Chinese Protestants, Oug-Hok-kui, age 71, and Lau Un-siaage, 68, were baptized, and Xiamen is now known as the birthplace of Chinese Protestantism.   China’s oldest Protestant Church is Xinjie Church (behind the drugstore on the corner of Siming and Zhongshan Roads), and one of her most beautiful historic churches is Gulangyu’s Trinity Church.

Text Box: Rev. Carstairs Douglas (杜嘉德, Du Jiade) Pioneer in Minnan Dialect Missionary linguists such as Carstairs Douglas and Elihu Doty (如罗蒂) tackled widespread illiteracy by romanizing the Amoy dialect. Doty published the gospel of John in Romanized Amoy in 1852, and James Laidlaw Maxwell (马雅各, Ma Yage) published the first Amoy Bible in 1884. The “Dictionary of the Vernacular or Spoken Language of Amoy,” published by Rev. Carstairs Douglas in 1873, remains a standard reference work even today. But Douglas never witnessed the fruits of his work; he died only 4 years later of cholera, at the age of 46 (22 years of which were spent in China). “By overwork he had worn himself out, and made himself an old man while he was yet comparatively young in years. He came to China quite young and at the time of his death was only about forty-six years of age, and yet men who had recently become acquainted with him thought him over sixty… he did more work during the twenty-two years of his missionary life than the most of men ac-complish in twice that time… “Recently, especially during the last year, it was manifest, at least to others, that his physical strength was fast giving way. Yet he could not be prevailed upon to leave his field for a season for temporary rest, or even to lessen the amount of his work. “I never knew a more incessant worker. He was a man of most extensive general information. I think I have never met with his equal in this respect. He was acquainted with several modern European languages and was a thorough student of the original languages of Holy Scripture, as witness the fact of his study of the Hebrew Bible, even after his last sickness had commenced. As regards the Chinese language, he was already taking his place among the first Sinologues of the land.” “40 Years in China”


 

1846年4月5日，福建的首批中国基督徒，时年71岁的王福桂和68岁的刘殷舍接受了洗礼。厦门如今也被认为是中国基督教的诞生地。中国最早的基督教堂是新街礼拜堂（在中山路和思明路拐角的药店后面），而鼓浪屿上的三一堂是最漂亮和最具有历史意义的教堂之一。

 

 

                     杜嘉德，闽南语的先锋

 

当时人们普遍都不识字，于是传教士、语言学家杜嘉德和如罗蒂用罗马拼音标注厦门话来扫盲。1852年如罗蒂出版了用罗马拼音注厦门话的《约翰福音》，1884年马雅各出版了第一部用罗马拼音注厦门话的《圣经》。

杜嘉德于1873年出版的《厦英大辞典》，至今仍有重要的参考价值。

不幸的是，杜嘉德没能享受到他的劳动成果，出书4年后他死于霍乱，时年46岁。（他在中国住了22年。）

“超负荷工作令他疲惫不堪，虽然年纪不大，看上去已像个老人。他年轻时就来到中国，去世时也才46岁，但最近认识的人都以为他已60开外。在过去22年的传教生涯中，他做的工作比大部分人在双倍时间里完成的还要多……

最近一段时间，尤其是去年，大家都明显看到他的体力迅速衰竭。但他仍不肯听从劝告去休息片刻，甚至不愿减少工作量。

他是我见过的工作最勤勉的人。他知识渊博，这方面无人能及。他通晓数门当代欧洲语言，并全面攻读用希伯来原文著述的《圣经》，直到最后发病时，人们看到他还在学习这本书。至于汉语，他早已跻身第一批汉学家之列了。”  

——选自《40 Years in China》

 

Trinity Church #71 Anhai Rd   China’s 1st Protestant Church, Xinjie Church (新街礼拜堂), was followed closed by the Bamboo Church (竹树堂) and a church at Xiagang (厦港), near Xiamen University.    But these churches were inconvenient (and dangerous during bad weather) for Gulangyu Christians, so around 1927 the above three churches joined to build a new church and bought a downtown Gulangyu potato field for 8,000 silver Yuan.  (For that price, the field must have been a real hot potato!)

The American Reformed Mission gave 4,000 silver Yuan, the English Presbyterians 14,000, and the rest came from individuals.  The name, “Three-in-One Church” (Sanyi Tang, 三一堂), reflected the Holy Trinity of Father, Son and Holy Spirit, as well as three churches cooperation.

Considered the most beautiful Protestant church in Fujian (perhaps all of China), this red brick beauty was designed by Chinese architect Lin Rongting (林荣廷) after his return from Germany.  Lin designed the church for only 300-400 worshippers, but the committee expanded this to 1000 seats and added a new wall—all without consulting Mr. Lin.   The miffed Mr. Lin refused to modify his design, so construction of the roof was transferred to the Dutch Zhigang (治港) company, which had constructed the Lujiang (鹭江) embankment.  The frame’s steel girders were imported from Hong Kong because they were too large to make in Xiamen.  Steel-reinforced concrete pillars and an octagonal central belfry gave further reinforcement.  The roof was still incomplete in 1936 when Trinity Church hosted the National Missions conference, and in fact was not completed until 1945—almost 20 years after construction began.

Trinity Church was confiscated during the Cultural Revolution and used as government offices for 13 years, but on a Saturday morning in 1979, Pastor Chen was told that the church was being returned and he could begin services the following day.  He was excited, but also worried that with only one day to get the word out no one would show up.   A local official dropped by the next morning to see if anyone came, and was surprised to find the 1000 seats packed out and over 800 people waiting outside—the largest attendance since 1934!

Trinity has several pastors and evangelists, a congregation of 2,000, and is famous for its music (befitting a church on the “Isle of Music”).   Trinity has an adult choir, young adult choir, youth choir for 12-16 year olds, and children's choir for under-12s, as well as a 50-strong orchestra and a toddlers' orchestra.  Christmas music performances are so popular, with 5-6,000 in attendance, that services must be held on both the 24th and the 25th of December, and sometimes on the Sunday of Christmas week as well. 


三一堂，安海路71号

中国第一座基督教堂新街礼拜堂建成后不久，竹树堂和厦门大学附近厦港的一座教堂也落成了。但是对于鼓浪屿上的教徒们来说，去这些教堂不太方便（天气不好的时候还不安全）。于是在1927年左右，上述的这三所教堂联合起来要建一座新教堂，并花了8000银元在鼓浪屿的中心区域买下一块番薯地。（价格这么高，这块地还真是抢手！）

美国归正教会拨出4000银元，英国长老会拨出14000银元，其余款项由个人捐献。教堂的名字“三一堂”除了有圣父、圣子、圣神三位一体的含义，还有三个教堂合作的意思。

这座红砖建成的教堂被认为是福建（也许是全中国）最漂亮的一座基督教堂，它是由德国归来的中国建筑师林荣廷设计的。他设计的教堂容量是300至400人，而筹委会未和他商议，就擅自把座位增加到1000个，还加了一堵墙。林荣廷一气之下拒绝修改自己的设计方案，于是屋顶的工程就由曾建造鹭江防护堤的荷兰治港公司接手。做支架用的钢制梁太庞大了，得从香港进口。用钢筋水泥柱子和一个中间的钟阁来加固屋顶。1936年，中国基督教全国查经会在三一堂举行时，天花板还未完工，直到1945年工程才完毕，这时距开工时间已近20年。

文化大革命期间，三一堂被没收，其后13年间被用作政府办公室。1979年一个星期六的早晨，陈牧师被告知教堂已归还，第二天他就可以举行礼拜式了。陈牧师很激动，但是又担心没有人会来，因为只有一天的时间来通知大家。第二天，一位当地官员路过教堂想看看是否有人来，结果他吃惊地看到1000个座位都坐满了，教堂外面还有800个人在等候——这是自1934年以来人数最多的一次礼拜式！

三一堂有几位牧师和福音传教士，2000名会友，并以其美妙音乐而闻名（不愧是“音乐之岛”上的教堂）。三一堂有一个成人唱诗班、一个青年唱诗班、一个12岁至16岁青少年组成的唱诗班，一个12岁以下的儿童唱诗班，还有一个50多人的乐团和一个少儿乐团。圣诞节期间的音乐演出十分受欢迎，观众常达五六千人，因此除了12月24日和25日都有礼拜之外，有时在圣诞周的周日也会安排。

The Gospel Hall  #40 Sunlight Rock Rd.  (Fuyin Tang, 福音堂)   Built by the London Missionary Society in 1880 on the corner of Quanzhou Rd. and Chicken Hill (Jishan) Rd., this was originally the Memorial Hall for Carstairs Douglas (Du Jiade, 杜嘉德), the missionary linguist who spent 22 years in Amoy.  After termites destroyed the church it was rebuilt in 1905 on Sunlight Rock Rd.

An Englishman designed the Gospel Hall, which was financed by overseas Chinese Christians, but by the ‘30s it had outgrown its 1000 seat capacity; in 1930 a sister church for believers in the Neicuo’ao area (内厝澳) was built on Gongping Road (公平路).  

The Gospel Hall hosted China’s All Christian Council in 1935 but was too small to accommodate the 4,000 attendees for the 1936 convention.  The Council was moved to Trinity Church, which was also too small, and so the meeting was held in the Yinghua Middle School (英华中学). 

By the 1940s, the Gospel Hall had over 800 foreign and Chinese members and attracted guest ministers and theologians from all over China, including the “Billy Graham of China,” John Sung (see next page).  The members were very active in the community, helping to establish “Fumin (富民) Elementary School,” a school for housewives, various singing groups, and mission outreaches.   The church was used as a factory during the Cultural Revolution, when dormitories were built on the grounds, but in 1987 the factory relocated and the church was returned to the Christians.  Today it is a beautifully kept facility for retirees run by the Xiamen Christian Council.

 

Text Box: How the Little Flock Took Flight The “Little Flock” sect (or “Assembly Hall”) began as a reaction against Western domination of Chinese Christianity. Watchman Nee (Nee Tu-osheng) chafed at the rigid hierarchy and formalism of Fuzhou’s Anglican Trinity College, where he studied, so he joined Dr. Leland Wang’s informal home worship services. Nee’s subsequent call for an indigenous Chinese church was readily embraced during the 20s and 30s as many Chinese, including Christians, became anti-Western. Under Nee’s guidance the Little Flock flew, in spite of opposition by Western mission agencies, some of which dismissed missionaries who showed sympathy with the fledgling group that claimed to be neither Catholic nor Protestant but Christian. Fuxing Church (Fuxing Tang,复兴堂), was originally near the ferry but recently moved to this garden-like triangular plot sandwiched between Fuxing and Lujiao (鹿礁路)roads. Fuxing is of the “Little Flock” sect founded in Fuzhou in the ‘30s by famous Chinese evangelist Watchman Nee, who wrote his “The Messenger of the Cross” on Gulangyu in January, 1926.


福音堂，晃岩路40号

该教堂是由英国伦敦差会于1880年在泉州路和鸡山路路口建造的，开始是作为传教士、语言学家杜嘉德的纪念馆，他在厦门居住了22年。后来教堂遭白蚁损毁，1905年重建于晃岩路。

新教堂由一个英国人设计，资金则由海外的中国基督徒捐助。到1930年，1000个座位已经不够用了，于是1930年在内厝沃的公平路又为信徒建了一座教堂，作为该堂的支会。

1935年中国基督教理事会在福音堂召开。本来1936年的会议也要在福音堂举行，但是容不下4000名与会者，只好移到三一堂，但是三一堂也太小了，最后还是在英华中学开的会。

到了40年代，福音堂有800多名来自海内外的中外教友，还吸引了全国各地的牧师和神学家来访问，其中包括著有《中国的比利·格雷汉姆》的宋约翰。（见下页）

教徒们的社区活动很活跃，他们帮助建立了福民小学，为家庭主妇、合唱团体，以及教堂以外的传教服务。文革时期，教堂被征为工厂，底层建起了宿舍。1987年工厂迁走了，教堂又回归基督徒所用，现在它成了为退休人员服务的场所。

 

复兴堂

复兴堂早先是在轮渡附近，但最近迁到复兴路和鹿礁路之间花园式的三角地带上。复兴堂是上世纪三十年代由中国著名的传教士倪柝声在福州创立的“小群教会”的分支，这位传教士1926年在鼓浪屿著有《十字架的使者》。

 

                       小群教会的起源

 

遍布世界的“小群教会”最初成立的原因，是反对西方势力把持中国基督教。倪牧师不满于他就读的福州英国圣公会三一学院等级森严形式僵化，参加了王立纶博士的非正式的家庭礼拜式。倪牧师随后发出建立本土化中国人教堂的号召，在二十年代和三十年代得到许多反西方势力的中国人的响应，其中就有基督徒。在倪牧师的引导下，小群教会冲破西方传教势力的阻挠得到发展，它宣称自己既非天主教，也非新教，而是基督教。一些同情小群教会的传教士则被西方教会所驱逐。

 

Text Box: John Sung 20th Century’s Greatest Preacher? John Sung (Song Shangjie, 1901-1944) born in Putian, Fujian, (莆田笏石镇刘厝坑北村人) was one of a Methodist minister’s 11 children, and earned the nickname “Little Pastor” when at age 13 he began standing in for his father (even preaching for him!). A brilliant scholar, John completed his B.A., M.A. and Ph.D. in only 5 years, even while working to support himself. But his faith foundered when he attended New York City’s Union Theological Seminary, which he called a “theological cemetery.” After learning that God was dead and Christ had not risen, John turned to Buddhism, Taoism, and the Koran, but became depressed rather than enlightened. He was on the verge of suicide when, on the evening of Feb. 10, 1927, he had a vision of Christ, who forgave him and changed his name to John (as in John the Baptist). John straight away told his favorite teacher, the famous Harry Emerson Fosdick, “You are of the devil! You made me lose my faith!” The “theological cemetery” promptly committed John to an in-sane asylum for 193 days. The fiery youth got a crash course in patience during his incarceration, and claimed later that he read the bible cover to cover 40 times. After re-lease he sailed back to China, and tossed his awards and degrees into the ocean, keeping only his doctorate (for his father’s sake). Like Carstairs and countless others, John Sung burned the candle at both ends and died young, on Aug. 18, 1944, but not before establishing an unparalleled repu-tation. William E. Schubert said, “Dr. John Sung was probably the greatest preacher of the 20th cen-tury. I have heard almost all of the great preachers from 1910 until now, including R. A. Torrey, Billy Sunday, Henry Jowett, and Billy Graham. Yet John Sung surpassed them all in pulpit power, attested by amazing and enduring results.”

 

                 

                宋约翰，二十世纪最伟大的布道者？

 

宋约翰（宋尚杰，1901——1944）出生于福建莆田（莆田笏石镇刘厝坑北村人）一个循道公会牧师家庭，家里共有11个孩子，他13岁时就代替父亲出席礼拜式，（甚至替他布道！）大家都称他“小牧师”。

他是一个才华横溢的学者，在半工半读中，只花了五年时间就完成学士、硕士和博士学位的攻读。但是在进入纽约市联合神学院后，他的信仰幻灭了，他把这所学校称为“神学墓地”。

他认为上帝已死，基督还未出现，便转而研究起佛教、道教和伊斯兰教，但是这些宗教没能启迪他的灵魂，反而令他倍感沮丧。他一度想要自杀，但就在1927年2月10日的晚上，他目睹了基督显灵，基督宽恕了他，并将他的名字改为约翰（正如施洗者约翰的名字）。宋约翰立即对他最敬爱的老师、赫赫有名的哈里·埃默森·佛斯迪克说：“你是邪恶的！你让我失去了信仰！”于是这座“神学墓地”立即将他送进疯人院，关了193天。

在羁押期间，这个血气方刚的年轻人经受了对耐心的极度考验，据他后来说，他总共通读了四十遍《圣经》。出院后宋约翰坐船回中国，在途中他将奖章证书都抛进大海，只保留了博士学位证书（为了他的父亲）。就像杜嘉德和其他无数人那样，宋约翰透支身体英年早逝，死于1944年8月18日，但他去世前就已享有无人可及的声誉。

威廉·E·舒伯特说过：“宋约翰博士也许是二十世纪最伟大的布道者。从1910年至今，我聆听过几乎所有杰出布道者的宣讲，包括R. A. 托利，比利·桑迪、亨利·祖耶特和比利·格雷汉姆。但是宋约翰在讲坛上的表现力超过了他们所有人，其影响深远，令人惊叹。”

 

 

 

 

Catholic Church, #34 Lujiao Rd (Tianzhu Jiaotang, 天主教堂) This neo-Gothic church built between 1912 and 1917 is a vision of Old World beauty.  Resembling a cross from above, the church’s delightfully aesthetic interior has two rows of columns along the central hall and an intricate green wooden polyhedral ceiling. 

The church was designed by a Spanish architect and built by Mr. Lin (林) from Zhangzhou (漳州).  Mr. Lin built many other South Fujian churches, including a similar Catholic church near a Longhai (龙海) hillside on the way to Longhai’s volcano and beautiful white beaches. 

It’s surprising that Fujian has so few Catholic churches because Catholics made it to Fujian centuries before the Protestants.  Franciscans were in neighboring Quanzhou in the early 1300s, within a century of St. Francis’ death.  Spanish Catholic priests reached Fujian by the end of the 17th century, and Catholicism was introduced into Amoy from the Philippines in the mid 18th century.    The Xiamen and Fuzhou Diocese were established in 1883, and the Vicariate Apostolic of Amoy (Dominican), which included Taiwan in its domain, oversaw 11 European and 8 Chinese priests, 32 churches or chapels, 3 orphanages, and 13 schools.

After the Opium War, Catholic priests rented a villager’s house for worship, and then moved services to the Spanish Consulate in Lujiao（鹿礁 ）until the Spanish Gothic church was built between 1912 and 1917.

Text Box: The Beauty of Mandarin Chinese “The Chinese language is one of the most beautiful in the world in which to enshrine the sacred Scriptures, and there is a flexibility and grace about it, that render it capable of expressing all the tenderness, and pathos, and poetry, and sublime thought of that most wondrous book.” Rev. MacGowan, “The Story of the Amoy Mission,” 1889, p. 17 Today, the Vicariate Apostolic of Amoy has over 80 churches in Amoy, Zhangzhou (漳州), Quanzhou（泉州), and Putian（莆田).

 

天主教堂，鹿礁路34号

这座新哥特式的教堂建于1912年和1917年间，旧世界残留下来的美丽影子。教堂的俯视图像是个十字架，内部装饰华美，中间大厅有两排圆柱，屋顶是繁复的绿色木质多面形。

教堂由一位西班牙建筑师设计，由漳州的林先生承建。林先生在闽南还建了其他很多教堂，其中一座风格类似的天主教堂就坐落在去龙海火山和白色海滩的路边山坡上。

令人费解的是，天主教徒早于基督教徒数百年来到福建，而福建的天主教堂却很少。14世纪初，在圣方济各死后不到一百年，天主教的修士们就已经在附近的泉州了。17世纪末，西班牙的天主教牧师们就来到福建，18世纪中叶，天主教从菲律宾传到厦门。厦门和福州的教区成立于1883年，厦门天主教会的辖地包括台湾，共有11名欧洲牧师和8名中国牧师，32所教堂或小礼拜堂，3所孤儿院，以及13所学校。

鸦片战争以后，天主教牧师们租用了一所村民的房子来做礼拜，随后又迁到鹿礁路的西班牙领事馆，直到1912年至1917年间西班牙人的哥特式教堂建成。

现在，厦门天主教会在厦门、漳州、泉州和莆田共有80多所教堂。

 

                 

                             汉语的魅力

 

汉语是世界上诠释《圣经》最优美的语言之一。它优雅灵动，能充分表达所有细腻的、悲悯的、诗意的情绪，以及最奇妙书籍的崇高思想。

               摘自麦嘉湖1889年著的《The Story of the Amoy Mission》第17页。