Most China historians have tended to dismiss the nineteenth-century Protestant missionaries as allies of Western imperialism who disparaged Chinese culture. Although much of this criticism is well deserved, there were several notable exceptions. James Legge and W. H. Medhurst acquired a knowledge of Chinese culture that enabled them to translate exceptionally difficult texts. Jessie Lutz's book Opening China makes a strong case for adding Karl Gützlaff (1803–51) to this select group.
Unlike most nineteenth-century Protestant missionaries, who criticized the Chinese language, Gützlaff was ecstatic in praising it. In 1827 he wrote, “God formed my mouth so that I could speak the wonderful Chinese language, and I look on this as His gift of grace” (p. 41). Gützlaff was a complex man filled with contradictions. In the fall of 1832, the merchant William Jardine enticed him to serve as Chinese interpreter on the opium clipper Sylph with the following words: “[T]he more profitable the expedition the better we shall be able to place at your disposal a sum that may hereafter be usefully employed in furthering the grand object you have in view” (p. 80). That “grand object” was the Christian evangelization of China, and Jardine remained true to his word in supporting it.
Karl Friedrich August Gützlaff was born into the Prussian lower middle class, the son of a tailor. His mother died early, subjecting him to the cruelty of a mean stepmother, which created a personal insecurity that he sublimated into an intense drive to succeed. He learned how to impress people, although he always had trouble maintaining long-term relationships. He attracted the attention of the king of Prussia, Frederick William III, who financed his education. Disillusioned by the Enlightenment-influenced Lutheran Church, Gützlaff underwent a conversion experience (pp. 24–27) and became a Pietist. Later, his Pietism and individualism alienated him from the denominational affiliations of most other Protestant missionaries.
Gützlaff studied for three years (1823–26) at the Dutch Missionary Society in Rotterdam and traveled to London to meet the returned Protestant missionary Robert Morrison, whose Chinese translation of the Bible inspired him. He sailed for the Dutch East Indies in 1826 and worked as a missionary in Thailand for three years before traveling to China in 1831 in the clothes of a Fujian sailor. His remarkable linguistic skills enabled him to work as an interpreter in Fujianese, Cantonese, Hakka, and Malay. He took his Chinese name, Koet Sit-lap (Guo Shili), from a Fujianese clan name (p. 41). He acquired an appreciation for China's historical culture and argued that the morality of the ancient Chinese sages was superior to that of the Greek and Roman philosophers. He regarded the Chinese, albeit heathens, as the most civilized people in Asia. However, he felt that Christianity could improve China, not only spiritually but also socially in raising the status of women (p. 133). His translation of the Bible had a significant impact through its use by the Taipings, and he was convinced that Chinese, not foreigners, had to bring Christianity to China (p. 222).
Lutz's list of Gützlaff's publications includes sixty-six Chinese books, pamphlets, tracts and translations, in addition to works in English, German, and Dutch. Most works deal with Christianity, but some treat Chinese history, such as his biography of the Daoguang emperor (r. 1821–50), published in both English and German editions. Lutz describes Gützlaff's writings as a mixture of merits and flaws (p. 148). He read voraciously in all aspects of Chinese life and culture. However, he worked at great speed and failed to check his sources, relying instead on memory. He rarely revised his work and frequently recycled used material. The editor of the periodical Chinese Repository, Elijah Bridgman, faulted Gützlaff's contributions as being mere drafts, which required extensive editorial effort before they were publishable.
Because of his lack of institutional affiliation or denominational ties, he had to combine evangelizing with employment as an interpreter (initially on opium vessels and later with the Hong Kong government) to pay his living expenses. His major institutional effort, the Chinese Union, collapsed because of criticism of its Chinese evangelists as opium-smoking profit seekers who rarely left Hong Kong to evangelize (p. 241). Gützlaff died exhausted at the age of forty-eight.
Aside from some repetition that could have been eliminated by better editing, Lutz's book is a fitting culmination to her long and productive career in modern Chinese history in the areas of Christian colleges, Protestant missionaries, and women.
