Liang Fa was the first Chinese Protestant
ministerIn Christian churches, a minister is someone who is authorized by a church or religious organization to perform clergy functions such as teaching of beliefs; performing services such as weddings, baptisms or funerals; or otherwise providing spiritual guidance to the community.-Minister:The minister...
and
evangelistEvangelism is the practice of attempting to convert people to a religion. The term is used most often in reference to Christianity's religions, since they mandate that their followers make efforts to recruit as many people as possible into their faith...
. He was ordained by Robert Morrison, the first Protestant
missionaryA missionary is a member of a religion who works to convert those who do not share the missionary's faith; someone who proselytizes. The word "mission" is derived from the Latin missioninimus A missionary is a member of a religion who works to convert those who do not share the missionary's faith;...
to
ChinaChina is a cultural region, an ancient civilization, and, depending on perspective, a national or multinational entity extending over a large area in East Asia....
.
Liang was born in Gaoming,
ZhaoqingZhaoqing is a prefecture-level city of Guangdong province in southern China.-Administration:Zhaoqing has jurisdiction over 2 districts, 4 counties and 2 county-level cities:* Deqing County , 2,258 km², pop. 350,000...
,
GuangdongGuangdong is a province on the southern coast of People's Republic of China. The province was previously often written with the alternative English name Kwangtung Province...
, China. Coming from a poor family, he quit formal schoolling at the age of 15 and went to work, first as a
penA pen is a long, thin rounded device used to apply ink to a surface for the purpose of writing, usually paper. There are several different types, including ballpoint, rollerball, fountain, felt-tip. Historically, reed pens, quill pens, and dip pens were used. Modern day pens come in a varity of...
-maker, then in
printingPrinting is a process for reproducing text and image, typically with ink on paper using a printing press. It is often carried out as a large-scale industrial process, and is an essential part of publishing and transaction printing.-History:...
in Guangzhou. In 1810, he was employed in a printing house in Guangzhou. Even though it was illegal at the time to print materials related to Christianity, Robert Morrison sought Liang's help to print the
ChineseChinese or the Sinitic language is a language family consisting of languages mutually unintelligible to varying degrees. Originally the indigenous languages spoken by the Han Chinese in China, it forms one of the two branches of Sino-Tibetan family of languages...
version of the
BibleThe Bible contains the central religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. Modern Judaism generally recognizes a single set of canonical books known as the Tanakh, or Hebrew Bible, as it is written almost entirely in the Hebrew language, with some small portions in Aramaic...
that Morrison translated.
Liang Fa was the first Chinese Protestant
ministerIn Christian churches, a minister is someone who is authorized by a church or religious organization to perform clergy functions such as teaching of beliefs; performing services such as weddings, baptisms or funerals; or otherwise providing spiritual guidance to the community.-Minister:The minister...
and
evangelistEvangelism is the practice of attempting to convert people to a religion. The term is used most often in reference to Christianity's religions, since they mandate that their followers make efforts to recruit as many people as possible into their faith...
. He was ordained by Robert Morrison, the first Protestant
missionaryA missionary is a member of a religion who works to convert those who do not share the missionary's faith; someone who proselytizes. The word "mission" is derived from the Latin missioninimus A missionary is a member of a religion who works to convert those who do not share the missionary's faith;...
to
ChinaChina is a cultural region, an ancient civilization, and, depending on perspective, a national or multinational entity extending over a large area in East Asia....
.
Liang was born in Gaoming,
ZhaoqingZhaoqing is a prefecture-level city of Guangdong province in southern China.-Administration:Zhaoqing has jurisdiction over 2 districts, 4 counties and 2 county-level cities:* Deqing County , 2,258 km², pop. 350,000...
,
GuangdongGuangdong is a province on the southern coast of People's Republic of China. The province was previously often written with the alternative English name Kwangtung Province...
, China. Coming from a poor family, he quit formal schoolling at the age of 15 and went to work, first as a
penA pen is a long, thin rounded device used to apply ink to a surface for the purpose of writing, usually paper. There are several different types, including ballpoint, rollerball, fountain, felt-tip. Historically, reed pens, quill pens, and dip pens were used. Modern day pens come in a varity of...
-maker, then in
printingPrinting is a process for reproducing text and image, typically with ink on paper using a printing press. It is often carried out as a large-scale industrial process, and is an essential part of publishing and transaction printing.-History:...
in Guangzhou. In 1810, he was employed in a printing house in Guangzhou. Even though it was illegal at the time to print materials related to Christianity, Robert Morrison sought Liang's help to print the
ChineseChinese or the Sinitic language is a language family consisting of languages mutually unintelligible to varying degrees. Originally the indigenous languages spoken by the Han Chinese in China, it forms one of the two branches of Sino-Tibetan family of languages...
version of the
BibleThe Bible contains the central religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. Modern Judaism generally recognizes a single set of canonical books known as the Tanakh, or Hebrew Bible, as it is written almost entirely in the Hebrew language, with some small portions in Aramaic...
that Morrison translated. It was through these close contacts with Morrison and his associate,
William MilneWilliam Milne was the second Protestant missionary to China, after his colleague, Robert Morrison.-Scottish roots:Milne was born near Huntly, in the rural parish of Kennethmont in Aberdeenshire, Scotland. His father died when he was only six years old, and his mother taught him at home...
, that Liang began to have some understanding of the Christian faith.
In 1815, as a result of the restrictions against preaching of Christianity in China, Milne moved to
MalaccaMalacca is the third smallest Malaysian state, after Perlis and Penang. It is located in the southern region of the Malay Peninsula, on the Straits of Malacca. It borders Negeri Sembilan to the north and the state of Johor to the south. The capital is Malacca Town...
,
MalaysiaMalaysia is a country in Southeast Asia that consists of thirteen states and three Federal Territories, with a total landmass of . The capital city is Kuala Lumpur, while Putrajaya is the seat of the federal government. The population stands at over 28 million inhabitants...
to continue his missionary work among overseas Chinese. Liang was employed by Milne and went with him to Malacca. Gradually, Leung became a devoted Christian in Malacca. He was baptised by Milne on November 3, 1816.
Liang's interest in evangelism continued to grow. In 1821, Liang was ordained by Morrison in
MacauThe Macau Special Administrative Region , commonly known as Macau or Macao , is one of the two special administrative regions of the People's Republic of China, the other being Hong Kong...
to become a minister with the
London Missionary SocietyThe London Missionary Society was a non-denominational missionary society formed in England in 1795 by evangelical Anglicans and Nonconformists, largely Congregationalist in outlook, with missions in the islands of the South Pacific and Africa...
. Liang was accompanied by another Chinese Christian,
Keuh AgongKeuh Agong or Kew Ah Gung, Kew A-Gang, Wat Ngong, Wat Angong or simply Agong was a Chinese Protestant Christian evangelist and author from Guangzhou, Guangdong Province .-Career:...
on a 250 mile trek in 1830, distributing Christian tracts across China. Liang's evangelising eventually went beyond Guangdong to
SingaporeSingapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is an island city-state located at the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, lying north of the equator, south of the Malaysian state of Johor and north of Indonesia's Riau Islands. At , Singapore is a microstate and the smallest nation in Southeast...
and
MalaccaMalacca is the third smallest Malaysian state, after Perlis and Penang. It is located in the southern region of the Malay Peninsula, on the Straits of Malacca. It borders Negeri Sembilan to the north and the state of Johor to the south. The capital is Malacca Town...
. He also started writing books and pamphlets introducing people to Christianity. One of the books was "Good Words Exhorting Mankind" (1832), which might have prompted
Hong XiuquanHóng Xiùquán , born Hong Renkun , courtesy name Huoxiu , was a Hakka Chinese who led the Taiping Rebellion against the Qing Dynasty, establishing the Taiping tien-quo "Heavenly Kingdom of Great Peace," over varying portions of southern China, with himself as the "Heavenly King" and self-proclaimed...
to join the society of "Worshippers of Shang-ti". Hong later became the leader of the
Taiping RebellionThe Taiping Rebellion was a large-scale revolt in China from 1850 to 1864, during the Qing Dynasty, by an army led by heterodox Christian convert Hong Xiuquan...
which tried to establish a
theocracyTheocracy is a form of government in which a god or deity is recognized as the state's supreme civil ruler, or in a higher sense, a form of government in which a state is governed by immediate divine guidance or by officials who are regarded as divinely guided. In Common Greek, “theocracy” means a...
.
In 1834, Liang's missionary work was threatened by the Imperial Chinese Government and he fled to Malaysia. While there at
MalaccaMalacca is the third smallest Malaysian state, after Perlis and Penang. It is located in the southern region of the Malay Peninsula, on the Straits of Malacca. It borders Negeri Sembilan to the north and the state of Johor to the south. The capital is Malacca Town...
he worked alongside English missionary
Samuel DyerSamuel Dyer 台約爾 , was a British Protestant Christian missionary to China in the Congregationalist tradition, who worked among the Chinese in Malaysia. He arrived in Penang in 1827. Dyer, his wife Maria, and their family lived in Malacca and then finally in Singapore...
with his printing and translation efforts. He returned to China five years later at the dawn of the Opium War. Leung did not support the war. He argued that if
BritainThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was the formal name and the state form of the United Kingdom from 1 January 1801 until 12 April 1927...
waged war against China, the Chinese would not believe in the Bible and the British missionaries any more. His effort was ultimately in vain.
After the war, Liang continued his missionary work in Hong Kong and Guangzhou. He died in 1855 in Guangzhou. In the process of expanding the campus of Lingnan University (formerly Canton Christian College and now Zhongshan University) it came to light that his original grave was on property purchased for the expansion. He was reinterred in the center of the college campus on the site reserved for the college chapel. The site was dedicated June 7, 1920.
Publications
In addition to
The Benevolent Words to Advise the World (勸世良言), Liang also published:
- The Essentials on Mastering Theology (《熟學聖理略論》 Shouxue Shengli Luelun)
- Simple Explanations to the Questions and Answers of the Truth (《真理問答淺解》 Zhenli Wen Da Qian Jie)
- Seeking the Source of the True Way (《真道尋源》 Zhendao Xun Yuan)
- On Souls (《靈魂篇》 Linghun Pian)
- On Heresy (《異端論》 Yiduan Lun)
- Convenient Uses of Introductory Bible Sunday Classes (《聖經日課初學便用》 Shengjing Rike Chuxue Bianyong)
- Prayers and God-Praising Poems (《祈禱文贊神詩》 Qidao Wen Zanzhu Shi)
Liang also created
The Monthly Total Record of the Inspection of the Worldly Customs (《察世俗每月統記傳》 Cha Shisu Meiyue Tongji Zhuan), one of the first Chinese
magazineMagazines, periodicals, glossies or serials are publications, generally published on a regular schedule, containing a variety of articles, generally financed by advertising, by a purchase price, by pre-paid magazine subscriptions, or all three...
s.
External links