Notable Women of Modern China

Part 1

Notable Women of Modern China

BY MARGARET E. BURTON

Notable Women of Modern China

Illustrated, 12mo, cloth. Net $1.25

The author's earlier work on the general subject of Women's Education in China, indicates her ability to treat with peculiar interest and discernment the characters making up this volume of striking biographies. If these women are types to be followed by a great company of like aspirations the future of a nation is assured.

The Education of Women in China

Illustrated, 12mo, cloth. Net $1.25

"Thrilling is a strong word, but not too strong to be used in connection with The Education of Women in China. To many it will prove a revealing book and doubtless to all, even those well-informed upon the present condition of women. Miss Burton's book will interest all the reading public."--CHRISTIAN ADVOCATE.

Notable Women of Modern China

MARGARET E. BURTON

AUTHOR OF

"THE EDUCATION OF WOMEN IN CHINA"

NEW YORK CHICAGO TORONTO

Fleming H. Revell Company

LONDON AND EDINBURGH

Copyright, 1912, by

FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY

New York: 158 Fifth Avenue Chicago: 125 N. Wabash Ave. Toronto: 25 Richmond St., W. London: 21 Paternoster Square Edinburgh: 100 Princes Street

TO MY FRIEND GRACE COPPOCK WHO TAUGHT ME TO KNOW AND LOVE THE WOMEN OF CHINA

Preface

During a stay of some months in China in the year of 1909, I had an opportunity to see something of the educational work for women, and to meet several of the educated women of that interesting country. I was greatly impressed, both by the excellent work done by the students in the schools, and by the useful, efficient lives of those who had completed their course of study. When I returned to America, and spoke of some of the things which the educated women of China were doing, I found that many people were greatly surprised to learn that Chinese women were capable of such achievements. It occurred to me, therefore, that it might be worth while to put the stories of a few of these women into a form which would make them accessible to the public.

It will be noted that the majority of the women of whose work I have written received a part of their education in America. My reason for selecting these women is not because those whose training has been received wholly in China are not doing equally good work, but because it is difficult to gather definite information in regard to the women whose lives have been spent entirely in their native country. The fact that most of the biographies in this book are of women in professional life is due to the same cause. The great aim of the girls' schools in China is, rightly, to furnish such training as shall prepare their students to be worthy wives and mothers, and the large majority of those who attend the schools find their highest subsequent usefulness in the home. But in China, as in other countries, the life of the woman in the home remains, for the most part, unwritten.

I have therefore told the stories of the women concerning whose work I have been able to obtain definite information, believing that they fairly represent the educated women of China who, wherever their education has been received, and in whatever sphere it is being used, are ably and bravely playing an important part in the moulding of the great new China.

For much of the material for these sketches I am indebted to friends of the women of whom I have written. To all such my hearty thanks are due. For personal reminiscences, letters, and photographs, I am most grateful.

M. E. B.

Contents

DR. HÜ KING ENG

I. CHILDHOOD IN A CHRISTIAN HOME 15

Part 2

II. EDUCATION IN CHINA AND AMERICA 23

III. BEGINNING MEDICAL WORK IN CHINA 39

IV. THE BELOVED PHYSICIAN 44

V. THE FAVOUR OF THE PEOPLE 58

MRS. AHOK

I. THE MISTRESS OF A HOME OF WEALTH 73

II. WORK AMONG THE WOMEN OF THE UPPER CLASSES 82

III. A JOURNEY TO ENGLAND 90

IV. PATIENT IN TRIBULATION 101

DR. IDA KAHN

I. CHILDHOOD IN THREE COUNTRIES 115

II. AT THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN 121

III. SEVEN YEARS IN KIUKIANG 126

IV. PIONEER WORK IN NANCHANG 140

DR. MARY STONE

I. WITH UNBOUND FEET 161

II. THE DANFORTH MEMORIAL HOSPITAL 169

III. WINNING FRIENDS IN AMERICA 183

IV. A VERSATILE WOMAN 190

YU KULIANG 221

ANNA STONE

I. EAGER FOR EDUCATION 233

II. AMONG HER OWN PEOPLE 244

III. THE POWER OF AN ENDLESS LIFE 254

Illustrations

Dr. Hü King Eng at the Time of Her Graduation from the Medical College Frontispiece

Dr. Hü's Medical Students 41

Dr. Hü's Christmas Party 61

Part 3

Mrs. Ahok and Her Two Granddaughters 73

Reception Rooms in Chinese Homes of Wealth 83

Dr. Ida Kahn 115

A Nurse in Dr. Kahn's Hospital 138

One of Dr. Kahn's Guests 141

A Village Crowd 141

Dr. Mary Stone 161

Elizabeth Skelton Danforth Memorial Hospital, Kiukiang, China 172

Dr. Stone, Dr. Kahn, and Five of the Hospital Nurses 174

General Ward of the Danforth Memorial Hospital 182

Nurses of the Danforth Memorial Hospital 192

Yu Kuliang 221

Anna Stone 233

The Anna Stone Memorial 257

* * * * *

DR. HÜ KING ENG

I. CHILDHOOD IN A CHRISTIAN HOME

II. EDUCATION IN CHINA AND AMERICA

III. BEGINNING MEDICAL WORK IN CHINA

IV. THE BELOVED PHYSICIAN

V. THE FAVOUR OF THE PEOPLE

* * * * *

DR. HÜ KING ENG

CHILDHOOD IN A CHRISTIAN HOME

Among the earliest converts to Christianity in South China was Hü Yong Mi, the son of a military mandarin of Foochow. He had been a very devout Buddhist, whose struggles after spiritual peace, and whose efforts to obtain it through fasting, sacrifice, earnest study, and the most scrupulous obedience to all the forms of Buddhist worship, remind one strongly of the experiences of Saul of Tarsus. Like Saul too, Hü Yong Mi was, before his conversion, a vigorous and sincere opponent of Christianity. When his older brother became a Christian, Hü Yong Mi felt that his casting away of idols and abolishing of ancestral worship were crimes of such magnitude that the entire family "ought all with one heart to beat the drum and drive him from the house." He tells of finding a copy of the Bible in his father's bookcase one day, and how, in sudden rage, he tore it to pieces and threw the fragments on the floor, and then, not satisfied with destroying the book, wished that he had some sharp implement with which to cut out "the hated name Ya-su, which stared from the mutilated pages."

But when, through the efforts of the very brother whom he had persecuted, he too came to recognize the truth of Christianity, he became as devoted and tireless a worker for his Lord as was Paul the apostle, preaching in season and out of season, first as a layman, afterwards as an ordained minister of the Methodist Church. His work often led him to isolated and difficult fields; he was "in journeyings often, in perils of rivers, in perils of robbers, in perils from his countrymen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness." But, alike in toil and persecution, he remained steadfast.

He was made a presiding elder at the time of the organization of the Foochow Conference in 1877, and from that time until his death, in 1893, he was, in the words of one of the missionaries of that district, "a pillar of strength in the church in China, because of his piety and wisdom and his literary ability, having, withal, an eloquent tongue which in the ardour of pulpit oratory gave to his fine six-foot physique a princely bearing."

A striking testimony to the power and beauty of this Christian man's character is a picture, painted by a Chinese artist, an old man over eighty years of age. This man was not a Christian, but after hearing Mr. Hü's preaching, and watching his consecrated life, he embodied in a painting his conception of the power of the "Cross Doctrine" as he knew it through Hü Yong Mi. The picture, which is five feet long and nearly three wide, and is finely executed in water colours, was presented to Mr. Hü by the artist. At first glance its central figure seems to be a tree, under which is a man reading from a book. Lower down are some rocks. But looking again one sees that the tree is a cross, and that in the rocks are plain semblances of human faces, more or less perfect, all turned toward the cross. The thought which the artist wished to express was that the "Cross Doctrine," as preached and lived by such as Hü Yong Mi, would turn even rocks into human beings.

Part 4

The wife of Hü Yong Mi was brought up in a home of wealth and rank in Foochow. Her aristocratic birth was manifested by the size of her tiny embroidered shoe, which measured exactly three inches. When Hü Yong Mi was asked by the missionaries to become a minister, he was somewhat dismayed to learn that in the Methodist Church the minister's family must frequently move from place to place. In his own words, "The Chinese greatly esteem the place of their birth; if a man goes abroad it is considered a matter of affliction; for a family to move is an almost unheard of calamity." He replied, however, that although he had not known of the existence of the custom, he was entirely willing, for Christ's sake, to undertake the work of a minister in spite of it. The missionaries then asked if his wife would be willing to go with him. He answered that he could not tell until he went home and asked her. But when he had talked the matter over with her, this dainty, high-class lady replied, "It matters not to what place; if you are willing to go, I will go with you."

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