The Missionaries Of Science

John Fryer (1839-1928), an England missionary who arrived in China in the19th century. Fryer spent most of his time in China in spreading and popularizingscience from1861to1896. His work made significant contributions to thedevelopment of science in China. Strangely, as a missionary, Fryer didn’t doanything about spreading gospels. But, it is not suggested that he forgot his duty orslacked at his decent work. Because in his mind, spreading science is the Divine taskthat God entrust to westerners. This paper will introduce Fryer’s life, missionarystrategies and main works under the premise of admitted the closer relationshipbetween Fryer’s scientific spreading work and missionary work. At last, the paperwill focus on east-west cultural exchanges caused by the scientific themes.The paper will outline Fryer’s overall image and talk about how he constructsthe status of “the missionary who spread the science to China” by introducing his lifefirst which includes three phases: in England (1839-1861), in China (1861-1896),and in California (1896-1928).“Science” and “Mission” are two key words in theprocess of characterizing Fryer. The Protestant missionary movement in the19thcentury and the western culture had a large influence over him. To understandFryer’s missionary strategies better, the paper will give a detailed analysis to thecircumstance and characteristics of the Protestant missionary movement in the19thcentury and to pave the way for further discussions about Fryer’s outlook on themission, the science and Chinese culture.From the perspective of the mission, Fryer used a teleological way of thinkingto unity social prosperity caused by the development of science and the victory ofChristianity in one process. In this way, Fryer endowed meaning to his own work.Affected and directed by this thought, Fryer started his work in China. In the thirdpart, the paper will mainly discuss Fryer’s innitiated works in China: translating andpublishing western books in Department for the translation of Kiangnan ImperialArsenal, founding Ke Chih Hui Pien, establishing and operating the PolytechnicInstitution, developing a Chinese vocabulary for translating western scientificconcepts, so on and so forth. These works played an important role in Chinesescientific development, and they were also the most significant achievements ofFryer. Fryer patiently did a lot of work on disseminating science in various ways inChina. However, the diffusion of knowledge is not only a process of inculcation, butalso the course of information process. We must know that the way in which thescientific knowledge was comprehended and accepted in China. Under the context ofeast-west cultural exchanges, the last part of the paper will talk about how Chineseintellectuals understand and deal with the knowledge of western in theWesternization Movement and the Reform Movement. Judging by the response ofwesternizers and reformers, on the one hand Fryer’s efforts didn’t get the result heexpected, but on the other hand, his efforts permeated and influenced thedevelopment of Chinese in a more diverse way.In the conclusion part, the author will summarize the whole paper from twoaspects: the relationship between Protestant Missionaries and the dissemination ofthe western science in China, the influences of Fryer. At the same time, in order toobtain a more comprehensive and in-depth understanding about Fryer, the paper willadd some scattered data and use these materials as the suggestions for the furtherresearch.