Chapter XIV: Preface (8)

At the time when the official examinations were held in
Tengchow, a large number of scholars came to town, hoping
to secure a degree, which should be the first step toward
official preferment. So many of these, having heard the fame
of the foreign machine, came to see and to hear, that Dr.
Mateer used to give up his time to them during the days they
were at leisure. Finally the opportunity to do good in this
way proved so great that a place was provided for the purpose,
which was also much used at the Chinese New Year, when all the
town and countryside give themselves up to recreation. After
the “Mandarin Lessons” began to bring in money, he devoted the
profits to the building of a large museum, with an entrance on
the street. One half was a big audience room, so arranged that
it could be darkened down for stereopticon or cinematograph
exhibitions. But it usually served as an audience room, where
the crowds could sit and listen to preaching, while the
detachment that preceded them was shown through the inner room
by expert assistants. What a chamber of wonders that inner room
proved to them! Here was a man, using a single hand to turn
a small crank, grinding corn as fast as a woman or a donkey
could do it on the millstones with much more labor. Here in
cases were birds stuffed, and on the walls pictures of strange
animals. Here was a man turning a large crank that in some
mysterious way made a little iron car overhead first send
out sparks, and then run all around the room on a circular
railroad. They wondered if it would not have been easier for
the man to drag the car around on the ground! There was an oil
engine at the end of the room, that was a wonder, no mistake;
and a “shocking” machine that shocked them indeed; and untold
other wonders. When the tour of the room was finished, the
crowd was let out by another door, their almond eyes quite
round, while a signal given by a steam siren showed it was time
for the next group to go in, and “open-open-eyes,” as they call
sight-seeing.

Occasionally a mandarin of high order came to witness the marvels. The report of the Shantung Mission for 1909 says that through the agency of the chapel and museum twelve thousand people were brought into touch with the gospel during the year; so the work still continues.

Another good account to which Dr. Mateer turned this peculiar gift was that of starting industries for native Christians and promoting self-help among the needy. Now it was a loom for weaving coarse Chinese linsey or bagging, or a spinning or a knitting machine, that he ordered; again, he inquired for a roller press to be used for drying and pressing cotton cloth after dyeing; and more than once he sent for a lathe for a Chinese blacksmith. In 1896 he interested himself in procuring an outfit for a flouring mill. He said: “The enterprise of starting the mill was conceived by Chinese Christians, and they are going to form a company to raise the money. I do not think that there is a roller mill in China,—certainly not in north China.... We personally will not make a cent out of it; but we are interested to get the Chinese Christians started in an enterprise by which they can make a living, and introduce improvements into their country.”

His apprentices went out in many instances master blacksmiths, machinists, and electricians, and had no difficulty in finding places. A Chinese general temporarily at Tengchow employed one of these men as a blacksmith, and his order was so evidently filled according to western methods that he paid a visit to the wonderful shop of this wonderful master. The very last man for whom he obtained a place was his most skilled electrician and his latest foreman. This man started a shop up at the capital of the province, and for its outfit Dr. Mateer carried on an extensive correspondence and procured large invoices of goods. Because of the provincial university established there under the new educational régime there was imperative need of such an establishment, and the outlook for success was excellent. Unfortunately for the proprietor, however, the Chinese officials were equally alive to the opportunity and were jealous of a rival. So they managed to compel him to sell out, though they broke the fall a little for him by retaining him as foreman. It is said that the thought of this workman’s troubles lay heavy on the heart of Dr. Mateer in his last illness. It was usually for the poor that he interested himself after this practical fashion; yet he did not refuse to lend aid to others in promoting enterprises that would be of general advantage. For a wealthy Chinaman who owned a coal mine that had been flooded with water he went to a great deal of trouble in order to put him in the way of securing a suitable pump. But whether it was for rich or poor that the opportunity came to render such services, he put aside all thought of his own ease or name or profit, and did the best in his power.

He had special satisfaction in the manufacture of electrical machines, though it was no easy matter to cut and bore the large glass wheels without breaking them, and to adjust all parts so that the greatest efficiency was attained. Ada says:

When a machine was perfected, giving an unusually long spark,
he always liked to take me over at night to the shop to see it
perform. I well remember the last time,—at Wei Hsien. At one
end of the shop was the windmill. Here he stopped to show me
a way of equalizing the stroke of the windmill pump piston,
by hanging on an old kettle of scrap iron. Then he took me
into an inner room, where on one end of a long table stood the
newly finished machine,—a beauty, no mistake. Having forgotten
some necessary key, he took the lantern and went to get it,
leaving me in the dark. I noticed sounds, the dripping of water
in the well; but what was the ticking I heard? On the return
of the lantern I saw the cause,—a number of clock dials all
hung on the wall, and all to be run by one clock by means of
electricity. These were for the college recitation rooms when
they should be finished. Then Calvin made the new machine
do its work. Adjusting carefully the mechanism, and then
measuring the spark, he exclaimed with boyish glee, “There,
isn’t that a beauty!”

Dr. W. A. P. Martin, of Peking, related in the “Chinese Recorder” of December, 1908, this incident as to Dr. Mateer: “It was once my privilege to spend part of a vacation in his hospitable home at Tengchow. I found him at work constructing scientific apparatus with his own hands and wrestling with a mathematical problem which he had met in an American magazine. When I solved the problem, he evinced a lively satisfaction, as if it were the one thing required to cement our friendship.” The problem was to find the diameter of an auger, which, passing through the center of a sphere, will bore away just one half of its bulk. It is easy to see that to a man of that sort his work and the scientific and practical problems constantly arising in connection with the making of apparatus and the adjustment of machinery must have been in themselves a rich source of pleasure, though he never allowed himself to be so fascinated by his shop as to break in on what he conceived to be his higher work. Speaking of his last years, Ada says: “He would go out wearied with the baffling search for a way of expressing clearly in Chinese a thought none too clear in the original Greek, his forehead grooved with the harrows of thought. He would come back from the shop an hour later, with well-begrimed hands, a new spot on his long Chinese gown, a fresher pink in his cheeks, a brighter sparkle in his eyes, and his lips parted with a smile. Then, having washed, he would immediately set himself again to the work of revision.”

He loved also to share this joy, so far as it could be done, with others. At the Synod of China with his apparatus he gave several exhibitions that were greatly appreciated. At Wei Hsien he rendered similar services in the high schools, and at Chefoo in the school for the children of missionaries. The Centennial Fourth of July, being quite an exceptional occasion, he celebrated not with ordinary gunpowder, but by setting off a considerable quantity of detonating chemicals. In the early days at Tengchow a home-made electric fly whisk whirled above the dining table, and a little pneumatic fountain playing in a bell glass rendered the room and the meals additionally pleasant to the family and to the guests. Ada writes:

But the thing that most of us will remember longest is an
illustrated lecture on electricity delivered to the college in
Wei Hsien, and afterward to the foreigners there. As we sat
in a darkened room in the college watching the long sparks
of fire, the twisting circles of many-colored light, half
illuminating a tall, white-bearded figure in a long black gown,
he seemed to us like some old magician, learned in the black
arts, now become bright arts, invoking to his aid his attendant
spirits. Nor was the enchantment diminished when afterward,
more wonderful than a palmister, he showed us by the x-rays the
bones of our hands. A few weeks later one of the ladies of the
compound gave an evening entertainment in which each one in the
station was hit off in some bright way, and we were to guess
the name. One number of the programme was this: A black-robed
figure with cotton beard appeared, leading a youth whom he
seated in a chair. Then the venerable personage proceeds to
examine the head of the stripling with a stereoscope covered
with black cloth, supposed to be a fluoroscope, while an
alarm clock in a tin pail near by supplies the crackling of
electricity. He gives a careful examination, shakes his head,
and pronounces the verdict in one word, “Empty.” In explanation
of the tableau it only needs to be said that between the
exhibition and the entertainment Dr. Mateer had given the young
men of the station their examination in the language.

XIII

THE MANDARIN VERSION

“I am mortgaged to the Bible revision work.... It cost me a
great effort to engage in it, but it will probably be the most
important work of my life.”—LETTER TO SECRETARY BROWN, June 13,
1896.

To tell this part of the story of Dr. Mateer’s life satisfactorily, I must begin with the first general missionary conference, held at Shanghai in May, 1877. For two years previous he had served on a committee to prepare the way for the meeting, and in this capacity he had rendered much valuable assistance. At that conference he read a paper in which he elaborately discussed the subject of “The Relation of Protestant Missions to Education.” The meeting was regarded as successful, and a second was called, to assemble at Shanghai, in May, 1890. It was at this conference that the movement for a revision of the Bible in Chinese took actual measures toward realization.

For the sake of any readers not well informed as to the Chinese language, a few preliminary statements concerning it may be desirable here. In a very broad and general sense it may be said that as to elements, one tongue prevails throughout China proper; but that there is also much important variation in this general tongue. First of all, it needs lo be noted that the language takes on two principal forms,—the classic, or Wen-li, and the spoken, or Mandarin. The classic has come down through the centuries from the times of Confucius and Mencius, and remains comparatively the same as it is found in the writings of those sages. This is accepted as the model for all writing; and for that reason Chinese students have been required to spend the greater part of their time in memorizing those ancient books, so that they might not only absorb their teaching, but also especially that they might be able to reproduce their style. The classic Chinese is stilted and so condensed that in comparison with it a telegram would seem diffuse; and though many of the characters are the same as those used in writing the spoken language, yet the meaning and often the sound of characters is so different that an illiterate person would not understand it on hearing it read. The spoken language, on the other hand, may be compared with English as to its use. Good English is very much the same throughout the countries where it is the vernacular, and though it takes on local dialects, it remains everywhere intelligible. So, broadly speaking, is it also as to the spoken Chinese in a large part of the empire. From the Yangtse up into Manchuria, though the pronunciations differ very much, the colloquial if put into writing is understood. In other words, with differences of dialect and pronunciation it is the speech of perhaps three hundred millions of people. The regions excepted lie along the coast from Shanghai down, and inland south of the Yangtse, where the distinct tongues are numerous and are largely unintelligible except in their own localities.

It has been the rule in China that a mandarin must not be a native of the province where he holds office; and, of course, it is essential that he should be acquainted with the speech which constitutes the _lingua franca_. Perhaps for this reason it is called Mandarin. But down to the time when missionary publications rendered it common in print, it was not employed in that mode. All books, business or government documents, the one newspaper of the country, which was the court gazette, and all letters were in the higher or, as it is called, the Wen-li form, the only exception being some novels, and even these were streaked with Wen-li. This, however, ran through gradations,—from the highest, which is so condensed and so bristles with erudite allusions that only a trained scholar can understand it, down to a modification which is so easy that with a slight alteration of particles it is almost the same as the Mandarin.

During the long period of the nineteenth century preceding the meeting of the second general missionary conference, a number of translations of the Scriptures, some of them of the whole, and some of parts, had been made, and had come more or less into use. The men who did this pioneer work deserve to be held in perpetual esteem, especially in view of the difficulties under which they labored. Among the missionaries who sat in that conference there was no disposition to withhold this honor, or to disparage the value of these early translations; but there was so widely prevalent among them and their associates at that time on the field a conviction that no existing version was satisfactory, that they recognized it as a duty to take up the subject, and to initiate steps looking to the production of a better. An informal consultation as to this was held by a few men, a couple of days before the conference assembled; but inasmuch as Dr. Mateer had not been invited, he did not attend. Another consultation was held the following day, and because of his great interest in the subject of a Bible revision, he attended without an invitation. The views expressed clearly indicated that there was a general agreement that a revision was desirable, but it also was made very plain that beyond this there was a wide divergence of opinion. We will allow one of his letters to a representative of the American Bible Society, under date of May 26, 1890, to tell the next step in this great undertaking:

As I walked home from the meeting, and revolved in my mind
the difficulty of the situation, the idea of an executive
committee, to whom the whole work should be intrusted, came
across my mind. When I reached my room I sat down, and in a few
minutes and without consultation with anyone, wrote out the
plan, which without essential modification was subsequently
adopted. It seemed to strike all parties very favorably. On
the second day of the conference two large, representative
committees were appointed by the conference, one on Mandarin
and one on Wen-li. I was a member of both these committees.
Each committee had a number of meetings, in which the subject
was freely and fully discussed in all its bearings. It was
evident that there was a general desire for a version in simple
Wen-li, and, the difficulties being less in regard to the work
already done, a conclusion was first reached in regard to this
version. In Mandarin the difficulties were greater.

An agreement, however, was reached. The version in the higher classic style then gave the most trouble, but a satisfactory basis for this also was agreed upon; and the reports as to all three versions were adopted unanimously by the conference. In the same letter he says: “I worked hard for these results, and felt no small satisfaction in seeing such perfect unanimity in the adoption of the plan proposed. I have never done anything in which I felt more the guiding hand of God than in drawing up and carrying through this plan.”

The selection of translators for each of the projected new versions was handed over respectively to executive committees; and Dr. Mateer was appointed on that having charge of the Mandarin, and made chairman of it. He heard that he was talked of as one of the revisers for that version, but as yet he had not decided what was his duty, if chosen. It will again be best here to take up from one of his letters the thread of the narrative. Under date of December 13, 1890, he writes to Dr. Nevius:

I can truly say that before I went to the conference I never
even dreamed of what has come to pass. It never occurred to me,
before the conference, that I should take any prominent part in
the matter of Bible translation. I felt that education was the
only field in which I should come to the front. I was never in
my life so providentially led as I was in this matter. I was
selected chairman of the Mandarin Executive Committee and have
been pushing the getting of translators. The first few months
were spent in corresponding and comparing notes as to men.
We took a ballot recently, which resulted in the election of
five, ... I being the only one who received a unanimous vote.
We are now voting for the others, to make up the seven.... My
book of “Mandarin Lessons” has no doubt brought me forward,
and its preparation has in a measure fitted me for the work.
My personal preferences are against the work of translation,
and I would fain decline it, but I don’t see how I can in view
of the circumstances. I feel my incompetency, especially in
Greek and Hebrew, and you may be sure I am very loath to give
up the educational and literary work on my hands. Much of it
is half finished. But if the Mandarin Bible is to be made,
some one must do it; moreover, the men who do it must have
the confidence of the missionary body; otherwise it will be a
failure. As it is, circumstances have led me to the position,
and the strong opinion of the men on the committee, and of
others, leads me to feel that I cannot lightly refuse.

In November, 1891, the revisers met at Shanghai. Dr. Mateer, in a letter written in the following January, said:

The scheme for the revision of the Chinese Bible set on foot
by the conference is now fairly organized, and approved by
the three great Bible societies. The work of pushing the
organization has fallen largely on me, and I feel no small
sense of relief now that it is successfully accomplished.
Contrary to my own desire, I am compelled to lake a share as
one of the revisers in Mandarin; not that I do not relish the
work, but because it will of necessity interfere with many
of my cherished plans. We had a meeting of all the revisers
of the three versions, and it was a fairly harmonious and an
altogether successful meeting. A great work is before us which
I trust we may, in the good providence of God, be enabled to
accomplish.

The interval of about a year and a half between the general conference and the organization just mentioned was required because of the difficulty of selecting and securing the translators. These for the Mandarin version, as that body was originally constituted, consisted of Henry Blodgett, George Owen, Chauncey Goodrich, J. R. Hykes, Thomas Bramfitt, J. L. Nevius and C. W. Mateer. During the years in which this work was continued there were in the membership so many changes caused by death, removal and other causes, that Dr. Goodrich and Dr. Mateer alone continued from the beginning until the translation of the New Testament, the part of the Bible first revised, was tentatively completed. Mr. Baller of the China Inland Mission stands next in length of service, having joined the committee in 1900. Dr. Mateer in the work of revision had the assistance of two Chinese Christians whose services were so large and valuable that they deserve more than a passing mention here. In a recent letter Dr. Goodrich pays them the following just tribute:

Dr. Mateer, in the work of rendering the Scriptures into a
universal Mandarin colloquial, had two exceptionally fine
teachers. The first was Mr. Tsou Li Wen, an ordained pastor,
who left his parish to engage in this work. Mr. Tsou was
trained by Dr. Mateer in his college, receiving his theological
training under Drs. Nevius, Mateer and others. He was a man
of beautiful spirit, discriminating mind, and a fine sense of
language. He was also a man of indomitable perseverance. After
a strenuous day’s work of eight hours or more, he would often
toil by himself far into the night, seeking for some phrase
or phrases which expressed more exactly or more beautifully
the meaning of the original. And before the final review, both
he and my own lamented teacher (Chang Hsi Hsin) would bestow
the greatest pains, in the hours when they should have been
sleeping, in a careful inspection of the work. Thus did Mr.
Tsou toil, while separated from his family for long periods of
time; his work on Bible revision being as truly a labor of love
as that of any member of the committee.

But alas! Mr. Tsou’s life burned out all too soon in his
exhausting labors. But how I should like to see his crown, and
his shining face!

Happily for the work, Dr. Mateer had another scholar, trained
also in his school, Mr. Wang Yuan Teh, a young man of keen,
incisive, logical mind, who had read all the best books in the
Mandarin colloquial. Mr. Wang was quick to see any fault in
the structure of a sentence, and insistent on its being put
right. He also worked most faithfully in this translation,
refusing offers which came to him of a salary several times the
amount he received. I think he was held, partly by Dr. Mateer’s
personality, which drew him strongly, and partly by his own
love for the work itself. When the chariot of fire came for Dr.
Mateer, he left us, much to our regret and loss.

The work of these two men has entered largely into the present
translation of the New Testament, and the influence of their
work, as of Dr. Mateer’s, abides, and will continue to be felt,
till the great work of rendering the Bible into a universal
Mandarin is finished.

Dr. Mateer himself, in the preface to his “Mandarin Lessons,” makes acknowledgment of the valuable services rendered in the preparation of that work by Tsou Li Wen, and also by his own wife.

The Mandarin Committee, at the meeting in 1891, after organization, proceeded to divide up the books of the New Testament among themselves for work, and adopted a plan of procedure. Each man was first carefully to revise or translate his own portion; and then to send it around to the others, who were to go over it, and write their suggestions of emendations, each in a column parallel to the proposed text. Next, the original translator was to take these emendations, and with their help was to prepare a text in Mandarin for submission to the entire committee. Broadly speaking, this was the method pursued to the end, though with some modifications compelled or suggested by experience. It was hoped that comparatively rapid progress would be made; but in reality the committee did not come together again until September, 1898; and even then, only the Acts of the Apostles was ready for general revision. For this delay there were various causes, such as the death of Dr. Nevius and the resignation of others, and the absence of Dr. Mateer on furlough home; but the chief cause was that every member was burdened with so much other work that only a fraction of his time could be given to this duty. Dr. Mateer, for example, found himself loaded down with other literary and missionary labors. At the meeting held at Tengchow, in 1898, he was elected chairman of the committee. This was an honor, but it also carried with it peculiar duties which materially added to his burden. The committee could muster only five members for that sitting, but they proceeded with their work, and at the end of two months and a half they finished the book of Acts; and then they separated.

DR. S. LEWIS (American Methodist Episcopal)

DR. GOODRICH (Congregational)

DR. MATEER (Presbyterian)

M. BALLER (China Inland Mission)]

That meeting by actual experience brought out distinctly not only the difficulties of necessity arising from the translation of particular books of the Bible, and indeed of every verse; but also others of a more general character, some of which had previously been more or less clearly seen. Should the new version take as its basis one or more of the translations already in existence; or should it go back straight to the original Greek, and use the existing translations merely as helps? In any case, constant reference to the original was a necessity. For this, which of the published texts should be accepted as the standard? The meeting also disclosed a wide divergence of opinion as to the style of Mandarin that ought to be employed. On that subject in 1900, Dr. Mateer expressed himself fully and strongly, in an article published in the “Chinese Recorder.” He said:

The Mandarin Bible, in order to fulfill its purpose, should be
such as can be readily understood by all when heard as read
aloud by another. The fundamental distinction between Wen-li
and Mandarin is that the former is addressed to the eye, the
latter to the ear. In all Protestant churches the reading of
the Scriptures has, from the first, constituted an important
part of public worship. In order that this reading may serve
the purpose intended, the Scripture must be so translated
as to be intelligible to the common people. Only thus will
they hear it, as they did its Author, “gladly.” It is not
enough that those who know “characters” should be able to
read it intelligently, but rather that those who do not know
“characters,” and who in fact constitute by far the greater
part of the Chinese people, should be able to understand it
when it is read to them. Here then is the standard to be aimed
at,—a version that represents the Chinese language as it is
spoken, and addresses itself to the ear rather than to the eye.

He summarized the chief characteristics of the proper style thus: that words should be employed which the people who commonly use Mandarin can understand; that sentences should conform to the model of the spoken language; and, concerning both of these requisites, that such care should be taken as to brevity, the order of words and clauses, the connective particles, and the evident movement of thought as expressed, that the Chinese would recognize in it a people’s book; and yet one that is free from undignified colloquialisms and localisms. All this he held up as an ideal, not likely to be fully realized by any set of translators, but if distinctly aimed at, more sure to be nearly approached. Toward the close of the work on the Mandarin version still another question of a general nature arose. Throughout most of their labors the committee had before them the revised easy Wen-li translation, and for a part of the time they also had the revised classic Wen-li Bible. Ought the three revised Chinese versions to be harmonized, so as to eliminate all variations? That, of course, would be ideal. On this question the report of the Mandarin Committee, which was as to substance prepared by the chairman, took the negative. It said:

The differences are not great, and where they exist, the
versions will serve Chinese students as a sort of commentary.
There are a multitude of questions in Biblical interpretation
which no translation can settle once for all. Moreover,
ninety-nine out of a hundred of those who use the Mandarin
will never look at any other translation. Two versions in
perfect accord seem like a fine product, but it is difficult
of realization. An attempt at reconciling the present versions
would develop many difficulties. A Mandarin sentence
especially is not easy to tamper with. The change of a single
word would often dislocate a long sentence, and necessitate
retranslation and adjustment to the context.

The Mandarin committee of translators continued their tentative revision of the New Testament until late in 1906, a period of fifteen years, counting from the date of their first meeting for organization and assignment of specific duties. They held eight different sessions, being almost one each year after they were ready with actual work; and none of the sessions were shorter than two and a half months, and one of them stretched out to six months. They assembled at Tengchow, near Peking, at Shanghai, and most frequently at Chefoo. In the final report is the record: “The chairman can say for himself that he has given the equivalent of about seven years all-day labor to this work. He was present at every meeting, and first and last missed but one day’s session.” Each of the meetings took on distinctive incidental associations. The third was held at Shanghai, and from December, 1900, ran over some months into 1901. At that time, on account of the Boxer uprising, missionaries were temporarily there as refugees from all the provinces directly concerned in the version. The sittings were in a small upper room in the Union Church, which came to be called “the Jerusalem Chamber,” and visitors were many. They saw two rows of men, one on each side of a long table, yellow faces being sandwiched alternately with white, as each translator had, as usual in this work, his Chinese assistant at his side. Often the discussions were carried on in Mandarin, so that these assistants might be able to understand and pass their opinion. Incidentally it may be noted that besides his work on the revision, Dr. Mateer often met with the refugee missionaries during this period and greatly gratified them by participating in the discussion of practical problems.

After the Mateers returned from their furlough, the sessions were all held at Chefoo, first in one of the rooms of the China Inland Mission Sanitarium, and later in a large upper room in the Missionary Home, overlooking the bay. Usually at the commencement of their meetings they sat together for three hours in the morning, and reserved the rest of the day for such private study as they wished to make; but as the time wore on they would increase the sittings to as many hours also in the afternoon, and crowd the private review into such odd moments as were left. To anyone, these protracted labors on such a work must have become exceedingly tedious and almost irksome; but to no one was it more so than to Dr. Mateer. He knew Mandarin almost as if it had been his native tongue; but the Mandarin which he knew had often to be modified and expressions adjusted, so that a Scripture written in it would suit other regions of China as well as those with which he was familiar. In writing his “Mandarin Lessons” and in preparing his educational books he had only to ascertain to the best of his ability how to express his ideas in Chinese, and that was the end of the search; but here he had to do his best, and then submit his product to the opinion of others, and often with the result of changes which did not commend themselves to his preference. Yet, on his return home from the sittings he would say: “I ought not to complain. I get my way oftener than any other man does. Only I cannot help thinking of the work I have laid aside unfinished in order to do this.” After each meeting the year’s work was printed, marked “Tentative Edition,” and with a slip inviting criticism was sent to the missionaries in north China and Manchuria. These criticisms were all to be canvassed before the edition could be printed that was to be presented to the Centenary Conference, to which they were to report.

The final meeting for the tentative revision of the New Testament lasted for more than five months, and the work was pushed with even more than the usual vigor. The Centenary Missionary Conference for China was only a year ahead when they began. After the conference the revision was to run the gauntlet of criticisms, and these were to be canvassed; and thus at last the revision was to take its permanent form. Mrs. Mateer gives the following graphic account of one of the closing incidents of that session.

Passage had already been engaged for the Goodrich family on a
steamer sailing north. The baggage was all carried down, the
family all waited on the upper veranda, with hats on, and the
Doctor’s hat was ready for him to seize as soon as he should
get out of the meeting. The “rickshaw” men were waiting, ready
to run with their loads. But still no sound of approaching
feet! Finally, as it got dangerously near the hour of sailing,
Mrs. Goodrich said, “I must go and hurry them up.” So she
marched boldly down the hall, listened a minute at the door,
and came back with her fingers on her lips. “Those dear men
are praying,” she whispered; and tears filled our eyes as our
hearts silently joined in the prayer. Of course, every morning
session was opened with prayer; but this was the consummation
of all these years of toil, the offering of the finished work
at the altar.

Although the committee completed their revision at that session, so far as this was possible until the conference should meet and approve or disapprove it, there was very considerable work of a tedious nature left to Dr. Mateer to perform. The finishing touches yet to be put upon portions of the version were not a few; but the thing that required of him the most protracted and delicate attention was the punctuation. For this he introduced a new system which seemed to him to be best for the Chinese language, and which can be estimated fairly only by a scholar in that tongue. To him also as chairman came the criticisms which were invited from all quarters, most of which were welcomed, but some of which touched him to the quick. At length, in the spring of 1907, the conference assembled at Shanghai, and the report of the Committee of Revisers was made to that body. He wrote to a friend in the United States concerning it: “We had a grand missionary conference in Shanghai, which, of course, I attended. There was more unanimity and less discussion than in the former conference.” The report received a hearty approval, and the version was started on its course of examination by all concerned, as preparatory to its final completion. It was issued from the press at Shanghai in 1910. It was called a revision, the aim being to offer it, not so much as a rival to the older versions, as an improvement upon them; but in reality it was an almost entirely new translation, though in making it advantage had been taken of the valuable pioneering done by the others. Writing to a friend after the conference had adjourned, Dr. Mateer frankly said:

Please note that we still have opportunity for final revision,
in which many defects will be eliminated. There are places
not a few with which I myself am dissatisfied, many of which
I see can be improved. I refer especially to texts that are
excessively literal, and where foreign idioms are used to
the detriment of the style. It must also be remembered that
many terms and expressions that seem strange and perhaps
inexpressive at first will on further use seem good and even
admirable. Every new translation must have a little time to win
its way. That our version will appeal strongly to the great
mass of the Chinese church I have no doubt.

During the long years he was engaged in this great undertaking he learned some valuable lessons concerning the translation of the Scriptures. He came to speak of it as an art, for which special training and experience are needed. In an article which appeared after his death, in the November issue of “The Chinese Recorder” for that year, he gave at length a discussion of “Lessons Learned in Translating the Bible into Mandarin.” He pointed out difficulties that hamper the making of a version in the Mandarin as compared with the Wen-li in either of its forms. To appreciate these, one needs to be a master in those tongues. But he also indicated others that lie in the way of a translation of the Scriptures into any sort of Chinese. Many of the very ideas of the Bible on moral and spiritual subjects had never entered the Chinese mind, and consequently there are no suitable words or phrases to express them. Just as western science has to invent its own terms when it enters China, so also within limits must the translator of the Bible introduce a vocabulary suited for his purpose. He believed that in the China of to-day prejudice had so far begun to yield that this could be effectively and wisely done. In fact, each branch of modern thought that has been grafted on the stem of the Chinese has already brought with it new words, so that hundreds of these have recently been coined and are on the tongues of the leaders. Along with the lack of an adequate vocabulary goes another thing that adds to the difficulty. In the translation of other books the main need is to express the thought, and in doing this considerable freedom is usually tolerated; but accuracy of expression, because of the very nature of the Bible, is of the first importance in a version. Besides, the Chinese Christians seem especially disposed to insist on this quality. The tendency of a translator is apt to be toward adapting the Scripture to what is conceived to be the taste of the Chinese, to write up to the style with which the educated are familiar, or down to the level of the uneducated speech. Another defect is to magnify or to minify peculiarities of expression originating in the region where the Scriptures were written. Dr. Mateer thought that he recognized very distinctly tendencies of this sort in the older versions, though abating in more recent times. His article concluded as follows:

The Bible does not need any doctoring at the hands of
translators. The Chinese church is entitled to have the Bible
just as it is, in a strictly faithful and accurate translation.
This they demand of us who translate it for them. They do not
want to know what the writers would have said if they had
been Chinese, but what they actually did say. This is the
manner in which the Chinese who have learned English are now
translating foreign books into their own language, and this
is very evidently the spirit of the times. The English Bible,
especially the Revised Version, is a monument of careful and
accurate translation. Translators into Chinese cannot do
better than follow in the same line. I have a number of times
heard students when using commentaries, or hearing lectures
on various portions of Scripture, express their surprise and
dissatisfaction that the Bible had not been more accurately
translated. I have known Chinese preachers, when quoting a
text which had a marginal reading saying that the original
says so and so, to remark with strong disapproval, “If the
original says so, why not translate it so, and be done with
it?” On one occasion in our committee, when a question was
raised about giving a metaphor straight or paraphrasing into
a comparison, one of our literary helpers said with vigorous
emphasis: “Do you suppose that we Chinese cannot understand and
appreciate a metaphor? Our books are full of them, and new ones
are welcome.” If we do not give the Chinese the Bible as it
is, they will condemn us, and before long will do the work for
themselves.

In conclusion, it is worthy of remark that no one man can make
a satisfactory translation of the Bible. There are limitations
to every man’s knowledge of truth and of language. Every man’s
vision is distorted in some of its aspects. This is a lesson we
have been learning day by day, and are still learning. If any
man wishes to find out his limitations in these respects, let
him join a translating committee.

With regard to the difficulties in the way of this revision, Dr. Goodrich thus expresses himself:

No literary work of such peculiar difficulty has been
undertaken in China since the first translation of the
Scriptures by Morrison. To produce a Bible whose language shall
run close to the original, simple enough to be understood by
ordinary persons when read aloud in the church or in the home,
and yet chaste in diction; this work to be done by a committee
chosen from widely distant localities,—from Peking on the
northeast, to Kneichow in the southwest,—might well frighten
any body of men. For the first years together the work was
almost the despair of the committee. Their efforts to make
themselves mutually understood and to unite on a rendering
were often immensely prolonged and exasperatingly amusing.

But they were trying to do for China what Wyclif did for the English and what Luther did for the Germans,—to make a translation of the Bible into a vernacular form of national speech which would be everywhere intelligible; and they took courage and pressed forward slowly but surely toward their goal. In doing this they not only have accomplished the end immediately sought, but they also have put into the hands of the people at large a model which will largely mold all their coming literature.

The conference at Shanghai in 1907 approved the report on the New Testament and decided to proceed to the revision of the Old Testament, and appointed an executive committee to select the men to do this work. The members chosen were the same five who had served toward the close of the revision of the New Testament, with the exception of a new translator needed because one of the old committee had gone home. Dr. Mateer was especially anxious that they might be saved from the necessity of breaking in and training several inexperienced members. Of course, he had foreseen that he would probably be selected, but when informed that this had been done he reserved his decision until he knew of whom besides himself the committee was to consist. To Dr. Goodrich of the American Board, with whom he had been so intimately associated, he wrote several times, urging him to accept; and in one of these letters he said: “There is a variety of reasons why I am perhaps as loath as you are to do this work. So far as money, reputation, or personal taste goes, I should rather do other work. But then it seems as if duty calls to this. Neither you nor I can ignore the fact that the experience and training of all these years have fitted us in a special manner for this work. We can do it better and faster than new men.” He was again made chairman, and as such he proceeded to distribute the first of the revision work, for which he selected Genesis and certain of the Psalms. He began his personal labors at the opening of the year, and in the summer the committee assembled at Chefoo to consider what had then been accomplished. The Goodrich and the Mateer families went into residence during their projected stay, and took for this purpose a house occupied usually as headquarters for the school for the deaf, Mrs. Goodrich, because of the condition of Mrs. Mateer’s health, having charge of the housekeeping. The meetings were held in a little chapel of the China Inland Mission, in the neighboring valley. It was while so situated that Dr. Mateer was stricken with his fatal illness.

In a letter which he addressed “To the dear ones at home,” on the occasion of his seventieth birthday, he said:

God has also blessed me in enabling me to accomplish several
of the leading purposes of my life. From my boyhood I longed
for a liberal education. My next great desire was to give at
least forty years to work in China. Soon after I came to China
I began educational work on a very small scale, but aspired
to raise up a college that might be a power for good. I early
formed the purpose of becoming an adept in the spoken language,
and in aiming at this saw the need of a text-book for learning
the language, and set about making it. All these purposes I
have been enabled, by the blessing of God, to accomplish. My
great work for the last ten years has been to lead in the
translation of the Bible into Mandarin. This has been a most
trying and laborious task, which is not yet completed. The New
Testament is nearly done, but whether the Old Testament will be
completed, who can tell? My desire and hope is to complete it.
To prepare a mature and approved translation of the Bible for
the use of two hundred and eighty millions of people will be
for the glory of God in China.

XIV

INCIDENTS BY THE WAY

“There are many trials and self-denials in missionary
life, but there are also not a few compensations and some
advantages.”—LETTER “TO THE DEAR ONES AT HOME,” at his
seventieth birthday.

The statement just quoted is general, and admits of application in the case of every faithful foreign missionary; but Dr. Mateer meant it especially as an expression of his own experience. In the story of his life work as already here told we have seen it constantly exemplified. There, however, still remain other instances that deserve permanent record. In speaking of them as “incidents by the way,” and in gathering them into a single chapter, I do not mean to indicate that they are unimportant. Some of them concerned the depths of his life. But his work after he reached China was chiefly along the lines that have been traced in the preceding chapters, and those matters now to be related, however important, were incidents by the way.

Of the trials that overtook him, none were so keenly felt as his bereavements. Only two or three of these can be mentioned here,—such as occurred within the circle of his own relatives out in China. The first was the death of Mrs. Capp, the sister of Mrs. Julia Mateer. This occurred on February 17, 1882, at Tengchow. She went down into the shadows with the tender ministrations of her sister and of Dr. Mateer. In writing to a brother of her deceased husband, he said:

On Sabbath afternoon,—yesterday,—we buried her on the hill west
of the city, with other missionary friends who have gone before
her. She was greatly beloved by the Chinese, and there were few
of the Christians here who did not weep to part with her. Mr.
Mills conducted the funeral service in English, and made some
excellent remarks, admirably adapted to the occasion. One of
our native elders made a very effective address in Chinese. Her
work is done, and it is well done. Her memory will not soon die
amongst the Chinese in this city and neighborhood. We will miss
her, oh, so much,—her help, her counsel, her genial society,
her spiritual power! Her school will miss her the most: her
place in it cannot be filled. She was ready to die, and strong
in faith, yet she longed to live, not that she might enjoy
life, but, as she several times said, that she might save some
more souls. She repeatedly assured us of her joy that she had
come to China, and declared that she had never counted it a
sacrifice, but a privilege. I told the Chinese over her coffin
to imitate her as she did Christ,—her zeal and earnestness in
all duty, and her untiring endeavor and desire to save souls.

Sixteen years later, almost to a day,—February 16, 1898,—Julia finished her earthly work and entered into the heavenly rest. I have already mentioned that sorrowful event in the life of Dr. Mateer, and said something of her character. Her biography is soon to be given to the world in a distinct volume. Under these circumstances it would be superfluous to make any extended record concerning her here. It is due, however, to her husband to quote at least a part of one paragraph from a brief memoir of her written by him shortly after her death. In telling of her varied labors and achievements he said this, which so far as it was known to her in life, must have been an immeasurable satisfaction:

Before the end of her first year in China she look an active
part in opening the little school which ultimately grew
into the Shantung College. To this school she gave the best
energies of her life, and to her in no small degree is due its
continued success. She was an accomplished teacher, especially
of young boys.... She did far more than teach, during the
earlier years of the school; she did fully two thirds of the
work involved, giving her time day and night to every detail.
She kept the accounts, looked after food and clothing and a
hundred nameless things. To the end she was the confidante
and adviser of all, in their troubles, trials, and plans, in
their marriage alliances, and in their spiritual exercises.
The thoughtful care she gave to all her pupils when they were
sick endeared her to the hearts of all who were in the college.
She studied medicine on her own account, and had no mean skill
as a physician. All the sick in the native church, and all
the sick in her own neighborhood, heathen and Christian, came
to her, and she never refused a call. There is no graduate
of the Tengchow College who does not have a place for her
in his heart, close by the side of that of his own mother.
During her illness there is probably not one of these young
men, scattered as they are over all north China, who did not
pray earnestly for her, many of them in public as well as in
private; and many of them have written her the most anxious and
affectionate letters. On her sixtieth birthday, last July, the
students of the college and graduates with their most imposing
ceremony presented her with a decorated silk gown, and placed
a large title, or sign, in gilt letters over the front door of
the house, “_Character-nourishing aged mother_.” It was the
proudest day of her life when these young men presented her
with this most fitting token of their loving reverence and
esteem.

In view of the hatred and prejudice which confronted her and her husband when they arrived in Tengchow nearly thirty-five years before, it must have almost seemed to her like the illusion of a dream.