MARTIN, WILLIAM ALEXANDER PARSONS: 1827-1916.
" William Alexander Parsons Martin (Apr. 10, 1827-Dec. 17, 1916), missionary, educator, and author, was born in Livonia, Ind., the son of William Wilson Martin and Susan Depew, both of frontier Scotch-Irish stock. His father was a Presbyterian minister … He was graduated from Indiana University in 1846 and for three years thereafter studied theology in the Presbyterian seminary at New Albany, Ind. In 1849, the year of his graduation, he married Jane Vansant (who died in 1893) and was ordained to the ministry by the Presbytery of Salem, Ind … In the spring of 1850 he and his brother Samuel Newall and their wives arrived in China . He was assigned to page: 211[View Page 211] Ningpo and early proved himself both energetic and able. Before he had been six years in China he had worked out, through public lectures and discussions before Chinese audiences, a series of studies on evidences of Christianity which sought to present the Christian gospel convincingly to Chinese. These he put into the literary language and had published. They became very popular, and went into many editions in both China and Japan .
"Martin learned not only the local dialect and the literary language, but Mandarin, and it was his knowledge of the latter colloquial which helped to open to him the opportunity which led him away from Ningpo and into the region where the major part of his life was to be spent. During the second war between Great Britain and China , he was appointed, on his own application, as an interpreter to William B. Reed …, who obtained for the United States the treaty of 1858 with China . Martin had a share in the negotiations … For a short time [he] was connected with the Presbyterian Mission Press in Shanghai. While there he translated into Chinese Wheaton's Elements of International Law. The following year he removed to Peking, founding in that city a mission of his denomination which later grew to large proportions.
"In Peking his contact with officials, begun during the negotiation of the Treaty of Tientsin, continued, and his interest increased in the diplomatic relations with Western powers into which China was so reluctantly and awkwardly entering. In 1868, accordingly, he accepted a position as teacher of international law in the T'ungwên Kuan, a school which had recently been formed by the government to train in Western languages and learning Chinese youths who were to serve in intercourse with foreign countries … in 1869 he assumed his duties, not only as teacher, but as head of this institution. In these positions he continued until 1894, and through his translations and original works in Chinese, his contacts with officials, and his teaching, he had a significant part in introducing Western learning to China . In 1898 he was made president of the imperial university which the reform movement of that year had brought into existence. The Boxer outbreak (1900) caught him in Peking, and, although then past seventy years of age, he was active in the defense of the legations. After the raising of the siege he was in the United States for a time, lecturing on China , and then, at the invitation of the Viceroy Chang Chih-tung, he once more returned and lectured on international law in an institution which that dignitary was attempting to establish in Wuchang. With the transfer of Chang Chih-tung to Nanking, Martin deemed it advisable to withdraw. Most of the remainder of his life was spent in Peking. Here he taught individual Chinese students, wrote, and, about 1911, rejoined the staff of the Presbyterian mission, serving on it until his death.
"Martin's literary output was voluminous. It included many works in Chinese on international law, natural science, and Christianity, and a number of works on China in English … He received many honors, both in China and in the United States …"
Condensed from K. S. L.–Dictionary of American Biography, Vol. XII.
- Evidences of Christianity. 1855.
- The Three Principles. 1856.
- Religious Allegories. 1857.
- Natural Philosophy. 1866.
- Hanlin Papers. Shanghai, 1880. (Republished as The Chinese. Their
Education, Philosophy, and Letters. New York, 1881.)
- Mathematical Physics. 1885.
- Hanlin Papers: Second Series.
Shanghai, 1894.
- A Cycle of Cathay; or, China, South and North, with Personal
Reminiscences. New York, 1896.
- The Siege in Peking: China Against the World, by an
Eyewitness. New York, 1900.
- The Lore of Cathay, or the Intellect of China.
New York, 1901.
- The Awakening of China. Garden City, N.
Y., 1907.
- Chinese Legends, and Other Poems.
- Understand the Chinese. New
York, 1934.
