CYSK 15 J Hudson Taylor

[James] Hudson Taylor (Chinese: 戴德生) (1832–1905) was a British Protestant missionary to China and founder of the China Inland Mission (CIM) (now OMF International). He spent 51 years in China. CIM was responsible for bringing over 800 missionaries to the country who were used to bring some 18,000 to faith, as well as establishing more than 300 stations of work with more than 500 local helpers in all 18 provinces and beginning 125 schools. He was known for his sensitivity to Chinese culture and zeal for evangelism. He adopted wearing native Chinese clothing, rare among missionaries of the time. Under his leadership, CIM was singularly non-denominational in practice and accepted all sorts of people. Primarily because CIM's campaign against the Opium trade, Taylor has been referred to as one of the most significant Europeans to visit China in the 19th Century. Historian Ruth Tucker summarises the theme of his life: No other missionary in the nineteen centuries since the Apostle Paul has had a wider vision and has carried out a more systematised plan of evangelising a broad geographical area than Hudson Taylor. Taylor was able to preach in several varieties of Chinese, including Mandarin, Chaozhou and the Wu dialects of Shanghai and Ningbo. The last of these he knew well enough to help prepare a colloquial edition of the New Testament written in it. He was from a Methodist background but after being converted at 17 he espoused many principles of The Brethren.