Sam Pollard (missionary)

British Methodist missionary to China

Samuel Pollard
Pollard on furlough
Born	20 April 1864 Camelford, Cornwall, England
Died	16 September 1915(1915-09-16) (aged 51) Weining Yi, Hui, and Miao Autonomous County, Bijie, Guizhou, China

Samuel Pollard (20 April 1864 in Camelford, Cornwall – 16 September 1915 in Weining, Guizhou), known in Chinese as Bo Geli (Chinese: 柏格理; pinyin: Bó Gélǐ) was a British Methodist missionary to China with the China Inland Mission who converted many of the A-Hmao (closely related to the Hmong) in Guizhou to Christianity, and who created a Miao script that is still in use today.

Biography

Born the son of a Bible Christian Church preacher, Sam Pollard initially aimed for a career in the civil service. However, a conference in London in 1885 encouraged him to instead become a missionary. He was appointed a missionary in 1886, left the United Kingdom for China in 1887, and was posted to Yunnan province in 1888. He remained in China, as a missionary, until his death from typhoid.

In 1891 he was posted to a newly opened Bible Christian mission station in Zhaotong (referred to in contemporary sources in Wade–Giles as Chaotung), where he married Emmie Hainge. He began a Christian movement with the Big Flowery Miao in 1905 that spread to Zhaotong. Pollard also invented a script for the Miao languages called the Pollard Script (also sometimes called the "Ahmao script"). He credited the basic idea of the script to the Cree syllabary, "While working out the problem, we remembered the case of the syllabics used by James Evans, a Methodist missionary among the Indians of North America, and resolved to do as he had done". He also gave credit to a non-Miao Chinese pastor, "Stephen Lee assisted me very ably in this matter, and at last we arrived at a system".

Pollard never claimed any divine inspiration or vision in creating the script. Rather, he left a record of hard work, advice from others, and ideas from other scripts. At the beginning, he wrote, he "made an experiment in getting out a written language for the Miao", even writing out some symbols in his diary. He credited the basic idea of the script to the Cree syllabary (discussed above), "While working out the problem, we remembered the case of the syllabics used by a Methodist missionary among the Indians of North America, and resolved to do as he had done". He also gave credit to a Chinese pastor, "Stephen Lee assisted me very ably in this matter, and at last we arrived at a system". In another document he wrote "Mr. Stephen Lee and I are attempting to reduce the Miao language to a simply system of writing. The attempt may succeed or it may end… stillborn". He asked himself in his diary "How shall I manage to distinguish tones?” then later wrote how he had found the solution, adopting an idea from Pitman’s shorthand. In listing the phrases he used to describe the process of creating the script, there is clear indication of work, not revelation: "we looked about", "working out the problem", "resolved to attempt", "assisted", "at last we arrived at a system", "adapting the system", "we found", "solved our problem". In all of this, we see no hint of specific revelation or any vision, only intellectual labor.

He used it to translate the New Testament. The script was unique in the fact that it used the initial consonant of a syllable, with the vowel placed above or below it, in order to indicate which tone the vowel was.

Pollard received pressure from some British sources that if the Roman script was not suitable, he should consider using the Burmese alphabet. He did not accept this suggestions, but Pollard did leave the door open for switching over to Roman letters, writing in 1906, "It is quite possible later on to turn our system into Romanised, where there is a successful Romanised system in use which will solve the tone difficulty". A large part of Pollard’s motivation for creating his script was to have a way to adequately mark the sounds of the language, especially the tones. It has remained in use for 90 years, despite efforts to supersede it.

During his mission he travelled extensively, founding churches, training other missionaries, performing the role of language examiner, and arguing the causes of Miao Christians. He also fought against the oppression of the Miao, this often led to clashes with Chinese officials. He was nearly beaten to death at the orders of a greedy landlord.

Death

After Pollard's death in 1915, he was buried in the mountains near the Shimenkan mission station, contemporary Weining Yi, Hui, and Miao Autonomous County. The mission prospered for another 35 years until 1950, when the CCP ordered all English missionaries to cease proselytizing and leave the country. His grave and the county were closed to foreigners until 1995, when Xinhua announced that work had been taken to restore Pollard's tomb which they now declared to be a national monument.

Dedications

The 100,000-square-foot (9,300 m) main building at the Hopkins-Nanjing Center in Nanjing, China, is known as the Samuel Pollard Building. It houses the Center's library, classrooms and conference space, and administration offices.

The building was dedicated in 2007 as part of the Center's twentieth anniversary celebrations, which included keynotes by former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and former Chinese Foreign Minister Qian Qichen.

Bibliography

Pollard, Sam; Smith, Henry; Dymond, F J (1909). The Story of the Miao. United Methodist Magazine. republished posthumously as:
- Pollard, Sam; Smith, Henry; Dymond, F J (1919). The Story of the Miao. London: Henry Hooks.
Pollard, Sam (1913). Tight Corners in China.
Pollard, Sam (1921). In Unknown China: observations, adventures and experiences of a pioneer missionary.
Pollard, Sam (1954). R Elliott Kendall (ed.). Eyes of the Earth: the diary of Samuel Pollard. London, Cargate Press.

References

What supports what

Mundus
Morrison 1895, p. 121
^ Pollard 1919, p. 174
Enwall 1994, p. 1.104
Enwall 1994, p. 1.105
Enwall 1994, pp. 1.170, 171
Pollard 1919, p. 174,175
Dingle 1911, p. 73
^ Enwall 1994, p. 1.108
Yu Suee Yan, "The Story of the Big Flowery Miao Bible," The Bible Translator 62.4 (2011), pp. 209–212.
Covell, Ralph (2008). "To Every Tribe". Christian History. No. 98. Carol Stream, IL: Christianity Today International. Retrieved 20 October 2022.
Becker, Jasper (2000). The Chinese. John Murray. p. 30.

Sources used

Enwall, Joakim (1994). A Myth Become Reality: History and Development of the Miao Written Language, two volumes. (Stockholm East Asian Monographs, 5 & 6.). Stockholm: Institute of Oriental Languages, Stockholm University.
Hudspeth, Will (1937). Stone-Gateway and the Flowery Miao. London: The Cargate Press.
Pollard, Samuel (1919). Gathering up the fragments. London: Hooks.
Dingle, Edwin John (1911). Across China on Foot (republished BiblioBazaar, LLC, 2009 ed.). London: Henry Hooks & Co. ISBN 978-0-559-10338-4. — Dingle describes how Sam Pollard used positioning of vowel marks relative to consonants to indicate tones
Morrison, George Ernest (1895). An Australian in China (republished BiblioBazaar, LLC, 2008 ed.). London: Horace Cox. ISBN 978-0-554-51690-5. — Morrison recounts meeting Sam Pollard and his wife at the Bible Christian Mission in 1894
"Old Shebbearian News". Archived from the original on 9 April 2005. Retrieved 29 July 2005. — reports on an article in The Sunday Times describing the continuing influence of the work of Sam Pollard after his death
Crofts, Daniel W. "The Hei Miao, the Hua Miao, and the Protestant "Civilizing Project" in Early-Twentieth-Century Guizhou". AAS Annual Meeting 2005, China and Inner Asia session 168. Retrieved 29 July 2005. — quotes Sam Pollard in his efforts to instil a "new-born sense of shame" into his converts, to curb behaviour that he regarded as being drunkenness and promiscuity
Lemoine, Jacques. "Ethnicity, Culture, and Development Among Some Minorities of the People's Republic of China" (PDF). University of Hong Kong Libraries. Retrieved 29 July 2005. — Lemoine reports that after 1949 the Pollard script was retained as a symbol of cultural identity and pride
Peter Mannion. "Re: I want to know Samuel Pollard". Pollard Family Genealogy Forum at genealogy.com. Retrieved 29 July 2005.
"Sam Pollard". School of Oriental and African Studies Library. Retrieved 29 July 2005. — the School of Oriental and African Studies Library holds most of Sam Pollard's notes, diaries, letters, and papers

External links

The Pollard script
Archive papers of Sam Pollard are held by SOAS Special Collections

v t e Protestant missions to China
Background	Protestantism in China Protestantism in Sichuan Chinese history Missions timeline Christianity in China Nestorians Jesuits Protestant missions in China 1807–1953
People	David Howard Adeney Mary Ann Aldersey Roland Allen Thomas J. Arnold Gladys Aylward Joseph Beech John Birch William Jones Boone Pearl S. Buck John Burdon Thomas Cochrane Hunter Corbett Jonathan Goforth Frederick Graves Karl Gützlaff Francis Hanson Laura Askew Haygood Elizabeth G. K. Hewat Jennie V. Hughes Robert A. Jaffray Carl C. Jeremiassen Griffith John Walter Judd James Legge Eric Liddell Robert Samuel Maclay Lottie Moon Robert Morrison George Moule Gideon Nye David Paton Karl Ludvig Reichelt Timothy Richard Issachar Jacox Roberts Charles Scott Cambridge Seven George Smith Vincent John Stanton John and Betty Stam John Leighton Stuart Elwood Gardner Tewksbury Hudson Taylor Thomas Torrance William C. White (more missionaries)
Missionary agencies	American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions American Methodist Episcopal Mission Canadian Methodist Mission China Inland Mission Church Mission Society London Missionary Society National Christian Council US Presbyterian Mission Protestant Episcopal Church Mission List of Protestant missionary societies in China (1807–1953)
Colleges and universities	United Board University of Shanghai Cheeloo University Ginling College University of Nanking Soochow University Yenching University St. John's University Hangchow University Fukien Christian University Lingnan University College of Yale-in-China Huachung University West China Union University Peking Union Medical College Methodist Episcopal Church Hwa Nan College English Presbyterian Mission Chung Hua Sheng Kung Hui Oberlin Shansi Memorial Association Reformed Church in the United States
Impact	Bible translations into Chinese Medical missions in China Manchurian revival Chinese Christian colleges Chinese hymnody Chinese Roman Type Minnan Roman Type Foochow Roman Type Anti-footbinding Anti-opium
Pivotal events	Taiping Rebellion First Opium War Second Opium War Unequal treaty Yangzhou riot Tianjin Massacre Kucheng Massacre Boxer Crisis 1911 Revolution Chinese Civil War Second Sino-Japanese War People's Republic
Publications	The Chinese Repository Chinese Recorder and Missionary Journal The Christian Occupation of China Journal of the West China Border Research Society The West China Missionary News

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