Orientalism and Missionary Sinology

A Study of W.A.P. Martin

Supervisor: Melanie G. Wiber, Ph.D., Department of Anthropology

Examining board: Melanie G. Wiber, Ph.D., Department of Anthropology, Chair

Peter Lovell, Ph.D., Department of Anthropology, Director of Graduate Studies

External Examiner: Steven Turner, Ph.D., Department of History

June, 1997

While Edward Said's theory of Orientalism insightfully probes the production of knowledge in colonial settings, it has been criticized by other theories emphasizing more the voice of indigenous resistance, the independence of the agency from a dominating discourse of a historical period and the transformation of Orientalists in the Orient. Applying the concepts from both Said and his critics, this thesis examines the texts of American Presbyterian missionary W.A.P. Martin.

Three types of discourses are isolated from Martin's texts: colonial discourse, missionary discourse and academic discourse. It is demonstrated that Martin's Sinology was informed by the colonial culture and his texts did speak with a colonial voice. Martin was however concerned with promoting Western Christian civilization in China and most of his texts belonged to the missionary discourse. As a scholar, Martin could also suppress his colonial mentality and missionary prejudice to identify positive aspects of native intellectual tradition in his academic discourse. It is shown that these three discourses are in a complex relationship of reinforcement, contestation and subversion. The thesis also shows missionaries' sympathetic identification with native religiosity and values as a result of their contact with native intellectual tradition. Finally it is suggested that the study of missionary Sinology should consider the complexity of colonial enterprise and address the polyphonous nature of such discourse.

I should thank Professor Melanie G. Wiber for her patient guidance of my research, Professor Peter Lovell for his careful reading and his guidance in the revision and Professor Steven Turner for his examination of the thesis. I am grateful for Professor Gail R. Pool and Professor Christiane Paponnet-Cantat for bringing my attention to the needed corrections in the final draft. Professor Lovell and Professor Gail took time in guiding me in the formating of the thesis for printing, which saved me much time. I should also thank other faculty members of the Department of Anthropology of the University of New Brunswick for their comments on my on-going work, the books they kindly loaned to me and their friendly and warm encouragements. I am grateful for Professor Chris Doran of the Department of Sociology of UNB for his bibliography of discourse analysis. I am indebted to M.F. Cordato of the American Bible Society, the Historical Center of the American Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia, Eugene W. Wu of the Yenching Library of the Harvard University and Koen Wellens of the University of Oslo library for sending me documents related to my research. I should thank the following people for their correspondence with me, in which they offerred comments and/or their research papers: Dr. Ralph Covell, author of W.A.P. Martin's biography; Professor Chaudhuri of the University of London, Professor David Honey of Brigham Young University; M.C. Lazich of the State University of New York at Buffalo; Professor L.F. Pfister of the Hong Kong Baptist University; Professor M.A. Rubinstein of the City University of New York at Bruch; John Stanley of the School of Oriental and African Studies and Thomas A. Wilson of the Hamilton College. Finally I should thank Vaughn Munro of the Book and Record Depository of the University of Alberta for the timely help in the correction of a quotation through e-mail correspondence.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION

1.1 Research Rationale

1.2 A Brief History of Christian Expansion in China before 1850

1.2.1 Early Nestorians and Roman Catholic missions

1.2.2 Catholic missions in the Ming and Early Qing Dynasties

1.2.3 Protestant missions in the nineteenth century before Martin's arrival in 1850

1.3 A Chapter Summary of the Thesis

CHAPTER 2 THEORETICAL ISSUES

2.1 Said and His Orientalism

2.2 Reflections on Said from Sinologists and Other Scholars

2.2.1 Said accepted

2.2.2 Said criticized

2.3 Hybridity, Dialogics and Polyphonous Discourse

2.4 The Rhetoric of Colonial Discourse

2.5 Colonial Discourse and Missionary Texts

2.5.1 Problems with studying missionary Sinology as Saidian Orientalism

2.5.2 Problems with studying missionary Sinology as the space of confrontation

2.5.3 Studying missionary Sinology as polyphonous utterance

2.6 Insights from Former Studies of Missionary Sinology

2.7 A Methodological Problem: the Demarcation of Discourses in Missionary Sinology

CHAPTER 3 W.A.P. MARTIN'S LIFE, WORK AND SCHOLARSHIP

3.1 Martin's Early Life and Education

3.2 Entering the Field

3.3 Mission Work Among the Chinese

3.4 Opening New Fields for Christianity

3.5 Ascending the Social Ladder

3.6 Prophesying a Bright Future for China

3.7 Carve his Name with Pride

3.8 Martin's Chinese Scholarship

3.8.1 Colonialism, Christianization and missionary Sinology

3.8.1.1 The need for knowledge about China

3.8.1.2 Material Conditions of Knowledge Production

3.8.2 W.A.P. Martin's Scholarly Research

3.8.2.1 Martin's Ideology of Oriental Studies

3.8.2.2 Martin's research areas, a summary

CHAPTER 4 COLONIAL DISCOURSES IN W.A.P. MARTIN'S TEXTS

4.1 Colonial Discourse in Martin's Non-academic Texts

4.1.1 Civilization and progress brought by colonization

4.1.2 The gazing eye of colonial traveller

4.1.3 Native primitiveness

4.1.4 Legitimizing colonial aggressions

4.2 Colonial discourse in Martin's academic texts

4.2.1 Partition of China as a historical pattern

4.2.2 To "Discover" what is already there

4.2.3 The inferiority of Chinese ancient diplomacy

4.2.4 No foreign impact, no native progress

4.2.5 China, a civilizable child, the fusion of discourses

4.2.6 Moral cultivation at the cost of material progress

4.3 Colonial Discourses: Conflict and Instability

CHAPTER 5 MISSIONARY DISCOURSE IN MARTIN'S SINOLOGY, PART I

5.1 Chinese Religion Viewed from the Christian Point of View

5.2 Confucian Philosophy from the Christian Point of View

5.2.1 The Jesuits' study of Chinese religion and philosophy

5.2.2 Martin's Confucian exegesis as the continuation of missionary Confucian Scholarship

5.2.2.1 Monotheism in China's antiquity as sanctioned by Confucius

5.2.2.1.1 Ancient notion of God

5.2.2.1.2 Corruption of the original belief in one God

5.2.2.1.3 Interpretation and appropriation

5.2.2.2 Defects in Confucian philosophy

5.2.2.2.1 Religious defects

5.2.2.2.2 Intellectual defects

5.2.2.2.3 Moral defects

5.3 Internal Contradictions in Missionary Discourse

CHAPTER 6 MISSIONARY DISCOURSE IN MARTIN'S SINOLOGY, PART II

6.1 Neo-Confucianism

6.1.1 The basic concepts in Neo-Confucianism

6.1.2 Neo-Confucianism from the Christian point of view

6.1.2.1 Criticzing the basis of Neo-Confucian thoughts

6.1.2.2 Interpreting Li as divine design in Neo- Confucian cosmogony

6.1.2.3 Yin and Yang as light and darkness

6.1.2.4 The five elements: unscientific or un- divine?

6.2. Ancestor Worship

6.2.1 The accommodation of ancestor worship as mission strategy

6.2.2 Missionary sympathetic identificationwith Confucian values

CHAPTER 7 ACADEMIC DISCOURSE IN MARTIN'S TEXTS

7.1 Neo-Confucianism and Modern Science

7.1.1 Neo-Confucians as pioneers of modern scientific thought

7.1.2 Back to divine power in Neo-Confucianism: the historical construction of academic truth

7.2 The Study of Ancestor Worship as Folk Custom

7.2.1 The study of ancestor worship as religion

7.2.2 The ethnography of ancestor worship

7.2.3 Foreign parallels of ancestor worship

7.2.4 Truth and presentation

CHAPTER 8 CONCLUSION: THE PROBLEM OF COLONIAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS

8.1 A Synopsis of the Research

8.2 The Problem with the Saidian Model for Studying Missionary Sinology

8.3 The Multi-identity of Text Producers and the Polyphonous Nature of Language

8.4 The Dynamics of Orientalist Consciousness

8.5 Questions for Further Research

Chapters Threads

go to "thesis2" :Chapter one--1.2.3
go to thesis3" : 1.3--2.2.2
go to "thesis4" :2.3--2.5.1
go to "thesis5" :2.5.2--2.6

go to thesis6 Chapter 3 to 3.811
go to thesis7" 3.812-end of Chapter Three.

Chapters 8-10 follows Chapter 7.

Name: Yulan

Date and Place of Birth:

Permanent Address:

Schools:

Publications in Chinese:

Translating Figures of Speech. With Yu Yungen, China Translation, No.1, 1987.

Metalanguage and Translation. Jiaoxue Yanjiu (Teaching Research, Journal of the PLA Foreign Languages Institute), No.3, 1988.

On the Cataloguing of Books on Linguistics. Jiaoxue Yanjiu(Teaching Research, Journal of the PLA Foreign Languages Institute), social science edition, No.3, 1988.

A New Course Book on Translation. With Yu Yungen et al. Shanghai: Shanghai Foreign Languages Education Press, 1988.

Some Thoughts on Improving Extensive Reading Instruction.Journal of Beijing No.2 Foreign Languages Institute, No.3, 1991.

A Textbook of English and Chinese Translation. With Yu Yungen et al., Beijing: Beijing Industry University Press, 1992

The Art and Method of Translation. Journal of Beijing No.2 Foreign Language Institute, No.3, 1994.

XIII. Publications in English:

Chomskian Deep Structure and Translation. Perspectives: Studies in Translatology, 1996, No.1, pp103-114

Go to thesis2

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