Missionaries coming to China in Early Times
In Chinese history， the opium war in 1840 was a turning point.
After it， China"s door was forced open and China moved frombeing an introverted feudal society to a semi-feudal， semi-colonialsociety. The Western Christian missionaries who had been barredwhen they first attempted to enter China， took advantage of thisopportunity to gain the privilege of entering China freely. Theystarted their undertakings， namely carrying out missionaryactivities in China.
Since the British missionary Morrison came to China in 1807，Christianity had started knocking at China"s door. At that time，the then Chinese Qing government adopted a closed-door policyand had not yet lifted its ban on missionary activities by foreignpriests issued after the Chinese Rites Controversy. Therefore，foreign missionaries could not enter China legally and could onlystay in places like Hong Kong， Macao， Guangzhou， and SoutheastAsia， actively preparing for their entry into China.
R. Morrison （1782-1834）， sent by the London MissionarySociety， was the first foreign missionary coming to china .Heboarded a commercial ship from the U.S. in 1807 and reachedMacao on 4th September after a four-month voyage. Three dayslater， he entered Guangzhou. To acquire the legal right of residencein Macao and Guangzhou， Morrison disguised his identity as amissionary for a long time and worked as a translator in the EastIndia company monopolized by the English merchants. Whenstudying Chinese， he was also translating the Bible and compiling a Chinese-English Dictionary. Because of the great difficultiesof penetrating the Chinese hinterland， in 1813， Morrison suggestedto the London Missionary Society that an "Outer Heng RiverChurch‘ should be formed covering the territories east of India.
He also put forward "The Plan of the Outer Heng River Church‘that was related to such contents as setting up schools， deliveringpublications， preaching together with missionaries from otherChurches， etc. At that time， Morrison spent part of his time inGuangzhou dealing with the business of the East India company，and the rest of timetranslating the Bible andpreaching. He used theStrait of Malacca colony onthe Malayan Peninsula asthe base to carry out hismissionary activities andmainly preached amongChinese in Macao andSoutheast Asia. He alsopreached at his home inGuangzhou. Morrison secretly admitted the first Chinese Christian， Cai Gao， in 1814 and the first Chinese priest，Liang Fa， in 1823. As a part of "The Plan of Outer Heng RiverChurch‘， the Ying Hua School was established in Malacca in 1818
through Morrison"s initiative and efforts. This， on the one handtaught Chinese to those Europeans going to China， while， on theother hand， teaching English to the local Chinese population. TheLondon Mission Society established several Chinese periodicalsin Southeast Asia. During his stay in China， Morrison wasappointed the interpreter of the then special envoy of the Britishgovernment， and attended the negotiations between the Britishgovernment and the Qing government. Although the one-yearnegotiations did not achieve any result， Morrison took thisopportunity of going north to get acquainted with the situation ofinland China. His work won high praise from the Britishgovernment， and he was designated secretary and interpreter ofthe first British commercial supervisor stationed in China. Later，J.R. Morrison and M.C. Morrison， his two sons， also lived inChina. One of them took part in the talks on the China-BritainNanjing Treaty and was later a member of legislative committeeof the British colonial government in Hong Kong; the other wasonce British consul to Guangzhou.