40 Facts About Hudson Taylor

James Hudson Taylor was a British Protestant Christian missionary to China and founder of the China Inland Mission.

Hudson Taylor adopted wearing native Chinese clothing even though this was very rare among missionaries of that time.

Primarily because the CIM campaigned against the opium trade, Hudson Taylor has been referred to as one of the most significant Europeans to visit China in the 19th century.

Hudson Taylor was able to preach in several varieties of Chinese, including Mandarin, Chaozhou, and the Wu dialects of Shanghai and Ningbo.

Hudson Taylor was able to borrow a copy of China: Its State and Prospects by Walter Henry Medhurst, which he quickly read.

Hudson Taylor was baptized by Andrew John Jukes of the Plymouth Brethren in the Hull Brethren Assembly in 1852, and convinced his sister Amelia to take adult baptism.

The great interest awakened in England about China through the civil war, which was then erroneously supposed to be a mass movement toward Christianity, together with the glowing but exaggerated reports made by Karl Gutzlaff concerning China's accessibility, led to the founding of the Chinese Evangelisation Society, to the service of which Hudson Taylor offered himself as their first missionary.

Hudson Taylor left England on 19 September 1853 as an agent of the Chinese Evangelisation Society before completing his medical studies, departing from Liverpool and arriving in Shanghai on 1 March 1854.

Hudson Taylor made 18 preaching tours in the vicinity of Shanghai starting in 1855 and was often poorly received by the people, even though he brought with him medical supplies and skills.

Hudson Taylor made a decision to adopt the native Chinese clothes and queue with a shaven forehead and was then able to gain an audience without creating a disturbance.

Previous to this, Hudson Taylor realized that wherever he went he was being referred to as a "black devil" because of the overcoat he wore.

Hudson Taylor distributed thousands of Chinese Gospel tracts and portions of Scripture in and around Shanghai.

In 1858, Hudson Taylor married Maria Jane Dyer, the orphaned daughter of the Reverend Samuel Dyer of the London Missionary Society, who had been a pioneer missionary to the Chinese in Penang, Malaysia.

Hudson Taylor met Maria in Ningbo where she lived and worked at a school for girls which was run by Mary Ann Aldersey, one of the first female missionaries to the Chinese, and they were married at the British Consulate there.

Hudson Taylor used his time in England to continue his work, in company with Frederick Foster Gough of the Church Mission Society translating the New Testament into a Romanised Ningbo dialect for the British and Foreign Bible Society.

Hudson Taylor completed his diploma at the Royal London Hospital with the Royal College of Surgeons in 1862, and with Maria's help, wrote a book called China's Spiritual Need and Claims in 1865 which was instrumental in generating sympathy for China and volunteers for the mission field, who began to go out in 1862, the first being James Joseph Meadows.

Hudson Taylor travelled extensively around the British Isles speaking at churches and promoting the needs of China.

On 25 June 1865 at Brighton, Hudson Taylor dedicated himself to God for the founding of a new society to undertake the evangelization of the "unreached" inland provinces of China.

Hudson Taylor founded the China Inland Mission together with William Thomas Berger shortly thereafter.

In early 1866 Hudson Taylor published the first edition of the Occasional Paper of the China Inland Mission which later became China's Millions.

When other missionaries sought to preserve their British ways, Hudson Taylor was convinced that the Gospel would only take root on Chinese soil if missionaries were willing to affirm the culture of the people they were seeking to reach.

Hudson Taylor began practicing much sought-after medical work and preaching every day under an exhausting schedule.

The international outrage at the Chinese for the attack on these British nationals caused the China Inland Mission and Hudson Taylor to be criticized in the British press for almost starting a war.

Hudson Taylor never requested military intervention, but some voices in the British Parliament called for "the withdrawal of all missionaries from China".

In 1869 Hudson Taylor was influenced by a passage on personal holiness from a book called "Christ Is All" by Henry Law that was sent to him by a fellow missionary, John McCarthy.

Hudson Taylor's death shook Taylor deeply, and in 1871 his health began deteriorating further, leading to his return to England later that year to recuperate and take care of business items.

Back in England, Hudson Taylor was married to Jane Elizabeth Faulding who had been a fellow missionary since 1866.

In 1876 Hudson Taylor returned to China, followed by the 18 requested missionaries.

From 1876 to 1878 Hudson Taylor travelled throughout inland China, opening missions stations.

Hudson Taylor returned to England in 1883 to recruit more missionaries, and he returned to China with a total of 225 missionaries and 59 churches.

In 1887 their numbers increased by another 102 with The Hundred missionaries, and in 1888 Hudson Taylor brought 14 missionaries from the United States.

Hudson Taylor had been instrumental in leading many Chinese women to Christianity during her short life.

Jennie died of cancer in 1904 in Les Chevalleyres, Switzerland, and in 1905 Hudson Taylor returned to China for the eleventh and final time.

Hudson Taylor was buried next to his first wife, Maria, in Zhenjiang, in the small English Cemetery near the Yangtze River.

However, the marker for Hudson Taylor was stored away in a local museum for years.

The biographies of Hudson Taylor inspired generations of Christians to follow his example of service and sacrifice.

Descendants of James Hudson Taylor continued his full-time ministry into the 21st century in Chinese communities in East Asia.

James H Taylor V continued the family legacy by singing with a middle school choir.

Hudson Taylor was a follower of Jesus, without being superficial.

Manuscripts and letters relating to James Hudson Taylor are held as part of the China Inland Mission collection by the Archives of the School of Oriental and African Studies in London.