John Robert Morrison (; 17 April 1814 – 29 August 1843) was a British interpreter and colonial official in

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

. Born in

Macau Macau or Macao is a special administrative regions of China, special administrative region of the People's Republic of China (PRC). With a population of about people and a land area of , it is the most List of countries and dependencies by p ...

, his father was Robert Morrison, the first

Protestant Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that emphasizes Justification (theology), justification of sinners Sola fide, through faith alone, the teaching that Salvation in Christianity, salvation comes by unmerited Grace in Christianity, divin ...

missionary in China. After his father's death in 1834, Morrison replaced him as Chinese Secretary and Interpreter to the Superintendents of British Trade in China. In 1843, he was appointed as Acting Colonial Secretary of

Hong Kong Hong Kong)., Legally Hong Kong, China in international treaties and organizations. is a special administrative region of China. With 7.5 million residents in a territory, Hong Kong is the fourth most densely populated region in the wor ...

and a member of the

Executive Executive ( exe., exec., execu.) may refer to: Role or title * Executive, a senior management role in an organization ** Chief executive officer (CEO), one of the highest-ranking corporate officers (executives) or administrators ** Executive dir ...

and Legislative Councils, but died eight days later in Hong Kong from fever.

Early life

Morrison was born on 17 April 1814 in the Portuguese colony of

. He was the second son and third child of missionary Robert Morrison's marriage to Mary Morton. Morrison left Macau on 21 January 1815 with his mother and elder sister aboard a ship bound for England. They returned to Macau on 23 August 1820, but less than two years later his mother died and he was sent back to England to receive an education. Over the next four years, he was educated in

Manchester Manchester () is a city and the metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. It had an estimated population of in . Greater Manchester is the third-most populous metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, with a population of 2.92&nbs ...

and at Mill Hill Grammar School in London. When his father left for China on 1 May 1826, he took John Robert with him. He learned the Chinese language from his father, and attended the Anglo-Chinese College in

Malacca Malacca (), officially the Historic State of Malacca (), is a States and federal territories of Malaysia, state in Malaysia located in the Peninsular Malaysia#Other features, southern region of the Malay Peninsula, facing the Strait of Malacca ...

between 1827 and 1830.

Career in China

From 1830, Morrison acted as translator for English merchants in Canton (

Guangzhou Guangzhou, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Canton or Kwangchow, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Guangdong Provinces of China, province in South China, southern China. Located on the Pearl River about nor ...

), China. From 1832 to 1834, he accompanied American merchant and diplomat Edmund Roberts to

Siam Thailand, officially the Kingdom of Thailand and historically known as Siam (the official name until 1939), is a country in Southeast Asia on the Mainland Southeast Asia, Indochinese Peninsula. With a population of almost 66 million, it spa ...

and

Cochin China Cochinchina or Cochin-China (, ; ; ; ; ) is a historical exonym for part of Vietnam, depending on the contexts, usually for Southern Vietnam. Sometimes it referred to the whole of Vietnam, but it was commonly used to refer to the region south o ...

as his personal secretary and translator. Morrison also compiled a ''Chinese Commercial Guide'' to provide information on British trade in China and contributed to

Karl Gützlaff Karl Friedrich August Gützlaff (8 July 1803 – 9 August 1851), anglicised as Charles Gutzlaff, was a Germans, German Lutheran missionary to the Far East, notable as one of the first Protestant missionaries in Bangkok, Thailand (1828) and in ...

's ''

Eastern Western Monthly Magazine ''Eastern Western Monthly Magazine'' was the inaugural modern-age Chinese language magazine first published on August 1, 1833 in Canton (Guangzhou), China by the Prussian Protestant Missionary Karl Gützlaff at a time when foreign missionaries ...

'', a publication aimed at improving Sino-western understanding. Morrison succeeded his father in 1834 and was appointed Chinese Secretary to the

British East India Company The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company that was founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to Indian Ocean trade, trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (South A ...

on behalf of the British government. He was then involved in diplomacy during the

Opium War The First Opium War ( zh, t=第一次鴉片戰爭, p=Dìyīcì yāpiàn zhànzhēng), also known as the Anglo-Chinese War, was a series of military engagements fought between the British Empire and the Chinese Qing dynasty between 1839 and 1 ...

from 1839 to 1842, which resulted in the

Treaty of Nanking The Treaty of Nanking was the peace treaty which ended the First Opium War (1839–1842) between United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, Great Britain and the Qing dynasty of China on 29 August 1842. It was the first of what the Chinese ...

, which he translated. Along with interpreter Robert Thom, he assisted the British expedition up the Broadway River from Macau to Canton in 1841. On 21 August 1843,

Governor

Henry Pottinger Lieutenant-general (United Kingdom), Lieutenant-General Sir Henry Pottinger, 1st Baronet (3 October 1789 – 18 March 1856) was an Bombay Army officer and colonial administrator who served as the first governor of Hong Kong from 1843 to 1844. ...

appointed Morrison as Acting Colonial Secretary in the absence of Colonel George Malcolm, and a member of the

and Legislative Councils.

Translation work

Apart from official duties, John Morrison continued his father's work of the English Protestant Church in Canton and supported those Chinese converts persecuted by the Chinese authorities. He revised his father's translation of the Bible and appealed to the

London Missionary Society The London Missionary Society was an interdenominational evangelical missionary society formed in England in 1795 at the instigation of Welsh Congregationalist minister Edward Williams. It was largely Reformed tradition, Reformed in outlook, with ...

to continue its missionary work in Canton. In February 1838, he was made Recording Secretary of the

Medical Missionary Society The Medical Missionary Society in China was a Protestant medical missionary society established in Canton, China, in 1838. The first work of the society was to support the ophthalmic hospital in Canton run by Dr. Peter Parker, a medical missionar ...

. In 1840,

Walter Henry Medhurst Walter Henry Medhurst (29 April 179624 January 1857), was an English Congregationalist missionary to China, born in London and educated at St Paul's School. He was one of the early translators of the Bible into Chinese-language editions. Ear ...

Elijah Coleman Bridgman Elijah Coleman Bridgman (April22, 1801November2, 1861) was the first American Protestant Christian missionary appointed to China. He served with the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions. One of the first few Protestant missionar ...

, and Morrison cooperated to translate the Bible into Chinese. The translation of the Hebrew part was done mostly by Gützlaff from the

Netherlands Missionary Society The Netherlands Missionary Society (Dutch: ''Nederlandsch Zendelinggenootschap'' - NZG) was a Dutch Protestant missionary society founded in 1797 in Rotterdam that was involved in sending workers to countries such as Indonesia during the Dutch occup ...

, with the exception that the Pentateuch and the book of Joshua were done by the group collectively. This translation, produced in a version of

classical Chinese Classical Chinese is the language in which the classics of Chinese literature were written, from . For millennia thereafter, the written Chinese used in these works was imitated and iterated upon by scholars in a form now called Literary ...

known as High Wen-li (), was completed in 1847 after John Robert's death and is well known due to its adoption by the revolutionary peasant leader

Hong Xiuquan Hong Xiuquan (1 January 1814 – 1 June 1864), born Hong Huoxiu and with the courtesy name Renkun, was a Chinese revolutionary and religious leader who led the Taiping Rebellion against the Qing dynasty. He established the Taiping Heavenly K ...

of the

Taiping Rebellion The Taiping Rebellion, also known as the Taiping Civil War or the Taiping Revolution, was a civil war in China between the Qing dynasty and the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. The conflict lasted 14 years, from its outbreak in 1850 until the fall of ...

as the basis for some of the reputed early doctrines of the organisation.

Death

Morrison died on 29 August 1843 following a nine-day episode of "Hong Kong fever" (possibly malarial fever). This was the same outbreak in Hong Kong that took the life of fellow missionary

Samuel Dyer Samuel Dyer (, 20 February 1804 – 24 October 1843) 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 t ...

. Morrison's death was described by the

Hong Kong Governor The governor of Hong Kong was the representative of the British Crown in Hong Kong from 1843 to 1997. In this capacity, the governor was president of the Executive Council and commander-in-chief of the British Forces Overseas Hong Kong. ...

at the time as a "positive national calamity". He is buried in the Old Protestant Cemetery in Macau, close to the grave of this father.

Literary works

* * *

Early life

Career in China

Translation work

Death

Literary works

References

Further reading