Study On Medical Missionary Activities Of Modern Canadian Missions In North Henan

Though many researchers at home and abroad have paid their attention to the Christian medical activities of the Christian missionary activity, few focuses on the regional study of the isolated and backward area and the studies on the medical missionaries in China of the Canadian Christian mission are also rarely seen. Therefore this study is of the function of filling up the above-mentioned gaps. Moreover, as a colony of England the Canadian Christian mission came up later than those from America and the Europe, so its activities were of more religious purpose to spread the gospel of God, and North Henan, the medical missionary region of the Canadian Christian mission, was still a closed and backward virgin land at the time, which endow this study with pure and typical academic research values in the scientific and cultural exchange.Being clear about the value of the selected topic, the study starts from putting forward questions, follows up the historical clues according to the firsthand materials (files, oral historical materials, physical materials and the materials provided by the later generation of the Canadian missionaries), restores under the background of modern China as many as possible the 60 years’ medical missionary activities (1888-1947) in the North Henan of the Canadian Presbyterian Church, analyzes their periods, trends, characteristics, patterns, influences and the social interactive relationships in North Henan of modern times, and differentiates not only the function of the social Gospel movement in its transformation from religion-oriented to medical treatment-oriented but also the status of the "native-colored" movement of the Henan Christianity in the process of the localization of the western medicine and the influence of the "four-leave and four entry" of North Henan of the Canadian Christian mission on its medical missionary activities.The 60 years’ time spam from 1888 when the mission of the Canadian Presbyterian Church started to enter North Henan to spread Christianity to 1947 when it withdrew permanently from Henan is selected as the object of this study. The span is divided into five periods:pioneering period (1888-1903, medical rounds and clinics), development period (1903-1927, hospitals), flourishing period (1927-1937), volatile period (1937-1945), restoring and withdrawing period (1945-1947). But the discussion is not formalized in these five periods, but goes according to the development of three aspects of the dissemination of western culture to the orient (from objects to systems to spirits, the systematization process of western medicine in North Henan).This study consists of 10 chapters including Introduction, eight Chapters and Conclusion.Introduction is the general program of the whole study including the achievements and limitations of the previous studies, and the research train, approach, innovation and insufficiency of this study. Chapter 1 deals with the background of the medical missionary in North Henan. Chapter 2 describes the hard course of the embedding and struggling to survive of the western medicine in North Henan (the appearing of the medical missionary in North Henan of modern times). Chapters 3 centers on the early forms of hospitals in North Henan of modern times (the development of the medical missionary). Chapter 4 revolves around the founding of normalized hospitals characterized by mandating and hospitalization (the flourishing of the medical missionary in North Henan of modern times). Chapter five focuses on the medical education of North Henan of modern times (the support of the medical missionary in North Henan of modern times). Chapter 6 explains the building of public health and the rural medical network (the expansion of the medical missionary in North Henan of modern times). Chapter 7 discusses the decline of the medical missionary in North Henan of modern times and the new life of hospitals (the ending of missionary medicine and the birth of the medicine of new China). Chapter 8 deals with the caracteristics of the systematization and localization of the medical system in North Henan of modern times and its historical influence (the tangible and intangible heritage left by the medical missionary in North Henan). Discussion reviews the process, characteristic, pattern and influence of the 60 years’medical missionary of the Canadian Presbyterian Church in North Henan and its implication to the present, also has an outlook to the future studies. The history of the medical missionary in North Henan of the Canadian Presbyterian Church is itself a discourse of the normalization and localization of the western medicine in North Henan, following the principal development of three aspects (from objects to systems to spirits). Thus the thought train of this study is not only in line with the historical event and the development of the normalization and localization in North Henan of the western medicine but also the integration of logic and history.Four innovations could be found in this study:First, the material collection is innovated. The method of obtaining the materials is unique and many materials are open for the first time materials are the firsthand ones collected through 4 sources (files, oral historical materials, physical materials and the materials provided by the later generation of the Canadian missionaries). It is also the first time at home and abroad for this study to collate systematically and investigate in depth the medical missionary activities in China (North China) of the Canadian Presbyterian Church, which is not only of theoretical value but also of realistic significance. Those medical missionary activities, with whether their extrinsic objects or their intrinsic systems and spirits, have left the medical practice, the medical education and the public health administration of the modern North Henan, and even China, a precious heritage, which have been found, collated and displayed in this study, especially in humanistic care and the spirit and practice of humanitarianism.Second, with questions as the direction and the starting point, this study put forward such questions as why the Canadian Presbyterian select North Henan as their missionary base, Why they can monopolize North Henan for so long, what is their key to success (in hospital management philosophy, management mode, nursing and health, medical education and so on), what is the interaction between the social Gospel movement and the "native-colored" movement of the Henan Christianity and what is the staging, process, characteristic, pattern and influence of the medical missionary in North Henan. Then these questions are answered by empirical analysis and systematic approach, which is a kind of innovation itself.Third, this study illustrates the conclusion with its empirical materials that the medical missionary in North Henan of the Canadian Presbyterian Church is a product of reunification of systematization (hospital, administration, system, nursing, nursing school, awareness of public health and the Nursing Branch) and the localization (male nurses, coeducational schools, Chinese textbooks, lectures in Chinese, Non-higher education, personnel training mode by boarding and the rural medical network). It is the compromise, the difference splitting and the inosculation between the east and the west, with changing in both sides. It is either not thorough systematization (because of he limitations of scale and objective which means the impossible thorough systematization because of the lack of not only the North Henan’s medical "community" and its system and regulation but also the specific and fixed publications), or thorough localization (Though The Chinese staff fought with efforts, the hospitals was not completely in the hands of Chinese, especially when this kind of localization was done in the framework of systematization of the western medicine). All these led to the systematization of the western medicine with the characteristics of North Henan. In accordance with the discipline of the loop circle from contradiction to conflict to compromise to balance the Chinese culture and the western culture undergo constant run-in in the historical development, balancing themselves.Finally, not only is this study a sample for the research of the systematization and localization in China of the western medicine, filling up the gap in the case study of the dissemination of western culture to the orient and the study on the medical missionary in North Henan of modern times, but also it reveals and proves a phenomenon and law in the dissemination of western culture to the orient that compared with other subjects in science and technology such as mathematics, physics, chemistry, astronomy, geology, and other applied technology and practical engineering. Because medicine is a kind of "kind skill" with science and technology and humanity, the spread of western medicine undergoes less restrictions in economy, traffic and culture, and can become popular in the relatively isolated areas in North Henan of modern times. Tracing it to the causes, the western medicine is the direct joint of the requirements of the evangelism of the missionaries and the urgent demands for medical treatment of the poor from the lower class in China.The limitation of this study lies in the systematic correlation analysis of the interaction between the development of the systematization and localization in North Henan of the western medicine and the social economy, politics and military affairs, cultures and customs, and the Chinese and western learning.