Elijah Coleman Bridgman

Elijah Coleman Bridgman (April 22, 1801 – November 2, 1861) was the first American Protestant Christian missionary appointed to China. He served with the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions. One of the first few Protestant missionaries to arrive in China prior to the First Opium War, Bridgman was a pioneering scholar and cultural intermediary, and laid the foundations for American sinology. His work shaped the development of early Sino-American relations. He contributed immensely to America's knowledge and understanding of Chinese civilization through his extensive writings on the country's history and culture in publications such as "The Chinese Repository" — the world's first major journal of sinology. Bridgman became America's first "China expert." Among his other works was the first Chinese language history of the USA: "Short Account of the United States of America" (or "Meilike Heshengguo Zhilüe") and "The East-West Monthly Examiner" (or "Dong Hsi Yang Kao Meiyue Tongji Zhuan"). As a translator he contributed greatly to the formulation of America’s first treaty with the Chinese government under the Qing Dynasty.

Early life and Missionary career

Bridgman was born in Belchertown, Massachusetts to a Lieutenant Theodore Bridgman and his wife Lucretia (Warner) who owned a farm at Pond hill which had belonged to his father, grandfather, and great grandfather, Ebenezer. Elijah was his second son, converted to Christianity when only eleven years old during a revival in Hampshire county.

Elijah graduated from Amherst College (1826) and Andover Theological Seminary (1829). In response to the urging of Robert Morrison of the London Missionary Society and of Christian American merchants who offered free sailing passage, Bridgman was ordained and was appointed for service in China by the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions on October 6, 1829 as their first appointee. In 1829 he sailed to China with David Abeel aboard the ship "Roman". They arrived in Canton in 1830, where they were welcomed by Morrison. Bridgeman and Abeel studied Chinese and Elijah soon began the literary labors to which he devoted much of his life. In 1832 Bridgman started a mission press and began publication of "The Chinese Repository", which he edited until 1847.In 1834 he became the first joint secretary of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge; he was a founder of the Morrison Education Society and its president for many years, and active in organizing the Medical Missionary Society in China (1838). Later he edited the journal of the North China branch of the Royal Asiatic Society. From 1839 to 1841 he worked at Macau, preparing a Chinese chrestomathy to aid in language learning. During negotiations to secure American access to China, Bridgman assisted as translator and adviser from 1842 to 1844.

In 1840, Bridgman was part of a group of four people including Walter Henry Medhurst, Charles Gutzlaff, and John Robert Morrison who cooperated to translate the Bible into Chinese. The translation of the Hebrew part was done mostly by Gutzlaff from the Netherlands Missionary Society, with the exception that the Pentateuch and the book of Joshua were done by the group collectively. This translation, completed in 1847 is very famous due to its adoption by the revolutionary peasant leader Hong Xiuquan of the Taipingtianguo movement (Taiping Rebellion) as some of the reputed early doctrines of the organization.

From 1845-1852 he continued to work as a translator. On June 28, 1845 Bridgman married Eliza Jane Gillett, an American Episcopalian missionary. They worked together at Guangzhou and adopted two little Chinese girls. Eliza later, in 1850, founded and managed for 15 years the first girls' school in Shanghai. After her husband's death she moved to Peking, secured substantial property and started Bridgman Academy, noted for educating a large number of Chinese women leaders.

Shortly after baptizing his first convert Bridgman moved to Shanghai in 1847, where he was primarily occupied in working on Bible translation, his version appearing shortly after his death. Bridgman published a translation of the Hebrew Bible, characterized by the accuracy of the translation and its loyalty to the original Hebrew texts.

Elijah Bridgman died in Shanghai. He and his wife are both buried there.

Bibliography

* E.C. Bridgman, [http://www.archive.org/download/pioneerofamerica00brid/pioneerofamerica00brid.pdf The pioneer of American missions in China: the life and labors of Elijah Coleman Bridgman] (New York : A. D. F. Randolph, 1864)
* Eliza Jane Bridgman, "The Pioneer of American Missions to China: The Life and Labors of Elijah Coleman Bridgman" (1864)
*"Missionary Herald 58" (1862): 75-78 and 68 (1872): 110-112, provides informative obituaries of Elijah and Eliza Bridgman, respectively
*"Eliza's Daughters of China, or Sketches of Domestic Life in the Celestial Empire" (1853) has an introduction by Elijah.
*Bridgman, Elijah; "Letters to Children from China"; 1834
*Lazich, Michael C.; "E. C. Bridgman (1801-1861), America’s First Missionary to China"

Persondata
NAME=Bridgman, Elijah Coleman
ALTERNATIVE NAMES=Bridgman, E. C.
SHORT DESCRIPTION=First American missionary to China
DATE OF BIRTH=April 22, 1801
PLACE OF BIRTH=Belchertown, Massachusetts
DATE OF DEATH=November 2, 1861
PLACE OF DEATH=Shanghai, China