Young John Allen (January 3, 1836 - May 30, 1907) was an American Methodist missionary

Missionary

A missionary is a member of a religious group sent into an area to do evangelism or ministries of service, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care and economic development. The word "mission" originates from 1598 when the Jesuits sent members abroad, derived from the Latin...

 in late Qing Dynasty

Qing Dynasty

The Qing Dynasty was the last dynasty of China, ruling from 1644 to 1912 with a brief, abortive restoration in 1917. It was preceded by the Ming Dynasty and followed by the Republic of China....

 China

China

Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...

 with the American Southern Methodist Episcopal Mission

American Southern Methodist Episcopal Mission

American Southern Methodist Episcopal Mission was an American Methodist missionary society operated by the Methodist Episcopal Church, South that was involved in sending workers to countries such as China during the late Qing Dynasty.- See also:...

. He is best known in China by his local name Lin Yuezhi (林乐知).

Allen's most influential work was in the field of education, as he worked at a government school before founding the Anglo-Chinese College in Shanghai. He was also a strong force in educating women at a time when that was very radical for Confucian society. His efforts helped to found the McTyreire School for girls. Allen also published several newspapers and magazines as a form of both evangelism and education, which influenced many Chinese reformers of the Self-Strengthening Movement

Self-Strengthening Movement

The Self-Strengthening Movement , c 1861–1895, was a period of institutional reforms initiated during the late Qing Dynasty following a series of military defeats and concessions to foreign powers....

 and prompted philosophical discussions comparing Christianity

Christianity

Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...

 and Confucianism

Confucianism

Confucianism is a Chinese ethical and philosophical system developed from the teachings of the Chinese philosopher Confucius . Confucianism originated as an "ethical-sociopolitical teaching" during the Spring and Autumn Period, but later developed metaphysical and cosmological elements in the Han...

. His publications were popular among many Chinese for their attention to Western concepts of international relations, economics and the natural sciences.

Early life

Allen was born in Burke County

Burke County, Georgia

Burke County is a county located in the U.S. state of Georgia. As of 2000, the population was 22,243. The 2007 Census Estimate showed a population of 22,754...

, Georgia

Georgia (U.S. state)

Georgia is a state located in the southeastern United States. It was established in 1732, the last of the original Thirteen Colonies. The state is named after King George II of Great Britain. Georgia was the fourth state to ratify the United States Constitution, on January 2, 1788...

, USA, the son of Andrew Young John Allen and Jane Wooten Allen. His father died in November before his birth in January and his mother died twelve days after his birth. His father left him a comfortable patrimony which was managed well by William Norsworthy, the guardian chosen by his parents. However, by the dying request of his mother he was given to the care of her sister, Nancy, Mrs. Wiley Hutchins. He was fifteen years old when he learned that his name was not Hutchins but Allen. His foster parents moved with him to Meriwether County, GA., where he attended the brief annual sessions of an old fashioned school from 1842 to 1850.

Although the families, his own and his foster parents, were members of the Primitive Baptist

Primitive Baptist

Primitive Baptists, also known as Hard Shell Baptists or Anti-Mission Baptists, are conservative, Calvinist Baptists adhering to beliefs that formed out of the controversy among Baptists in the early 1800’s over the appropriateness of mission boards, bible tract societies, and temperance...

 Church, Young Allen came under Methodist influence and in 1853 was converted and at the same time felt himself called to the Christian ministry. Warren Akin Candler

Warren Akin Candler

Warren Akin Candler was an American Bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, elected in 1898. He was the tenth president of Emory University.-Early life:...

 (of the Coca-Cola

Coca-Cola

Coca-Cola is a carbonated soft drink sold in stores, restaurants, and vending machines in more than 200 countries. It is produced by The Coca-Cola Company of Atlanta, Georgia, and is often referred to simply as Coke...

 Candlers) described Allen's conversion to Christianity while attending high school at Looney's school in Starrsville, Georgia

Starrsville, Georgia

Starrsville is an unincorporated community in Newton County, Georgia, United States.-Historic District:Starrsville contains the Starrsville Historic District, listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1998.-History:...

 in September 1853. After one term at Emory and Henry in Virginia

Virginia

The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...

, Young Allen entered Emory College

Emory College

Emory College may refer to:* , an academic division of Emory University, located in DeKalb County, Georgia, USA, in the Atlanta area* Oxford College of Emory University, a two-year residential college of Emory University located in Oxford, Georgia, USA....

 in the fall term of 1854 and graduated with honor on July 21, 1858. On July 22, 1858, he married Mary Houston, daughter of Samuel and Sarah Germany Houston who was born February 16, 1839 in Coweta County, Ga. She graduated on July 14, 1858 from Wesleyan College at Macon.

Work in China

On Dec. 18, 1859 Young and Mary Allen and their infant daughter, Mellie, sailed from New York

New York

New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

 and on July 13, 1860 reached Shanghai

Shanghai

Shanghai is the largest city by population in China and the largest city proper in the world. It is one of the four province-level municipalities in the People's Republic of China, with a total population of over 23 million as of 2010...

. From 1861 to 1866 while he was cut off from his church at home by the American Civil War

American Civil War

The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...

, he worked as a coal and rice broker, a cotton buyer, teacher, editor and translator. Because of the poverty in the South he continued these employments and did as much preaching as he could. He also studied the Chinese classics and published a religious weekly, Jiao Hui Xin Bao, a precursor of the later on Wan Guo Gong Bao (see below). Lack of funds from the Board of Missions compelled him to support himself and his family. Nevertheless, on May 18, 1881, he announced his withdrawal after "an almost consecutive service of nearly eighteen years, in connection with the Educational, Editorial, and Translation Departments of the Government Institution here Shanghai," in order to devote his full time to the work of Superintendent to which he succeeded when Rev. J. W. Lambuth returned to the United States because of ill health.

In 1878 Allen returned for the first time to the United States to serve as one of the delegates from the North Georgia Annual Conference to the General Conference held in Atlanta during May, 1878. On May 15 he addressed the General Conference on the "work in China." In June and July he visited old friends and delivered commencement addresses and sermons in many places. On July 17 Emory College

Emory College

Emory College may refer to:* , an academic division of Emory University, located in DeKalb County, Georgia, USA, in the Atlanta area* Oxford College of Emory University, a two-year residential college of Emory University located in Oxford, Georgia, USA....

 conferred upon him the degree of Doctor of Laws. He visited the United States again in 1888, 1893, 1898 and 1906.

In 1883 he purchased land for the site of the Anglo-Chinese College

Anglo-Chinese College

Anglo-Chinese College may refer to:* Ying Wa College, Hong Kong * Anglo-Chinese College , Fuzhou, China...

 which he served as president from its opening in 1885 until his resignation in 1895 because of impaired health. He was instrumental in founding the McTyeire Home and School (McTyeire School for Girls, where the Soong sisters

Soong sisters

The Soong Sisters were three Hakka Chinese women who were, along with their husbands, amongst China's most significant political figures of the early 20th century...

 attended before they attended Wesleyan College) which opened in 1892 with Miss Laura Haygood, sister of his old friend and Emory classmate, Atticus Haygood, as its head. He also founded the Dongwu University (now Suzhou University) in Suzhou, and later integrated the Anglo-Chinese College into it as a result of Dongwu's lack of teachers and students. The missions of his church to Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

 and Korea

Korea

Korea ) is an East Asian geographic region that is currently divided into two separate sovereign states — North Korea and South Korea. Located on the Korean Peninsula, Korea is bordered by the People's Republic of China to the northwest, Russia to the northeast, and is separated from Japan to the...

 were influenced by the success of his educational work in Shanghai

Shanghai

Shanghai is the largest city by population in China and the largest city proper in the world. It is one of the four province-level municipalities in the People's Republic of China, with a total population of over 23 million as of 2010...

.

The list of Young's literary productions includes about 250 volumes of original and translated works, published under the auspices of the Methodist Society for the Diffusion of Christian and General Knowledge Among the Chinese

Society for the Diffusion of Christian and General Knowledge Among the Chinese

The Society for the Diffusion of Christian and General Knowledge Among the Chinese was founded in 1887 in Shanghai, China. It was founded and led by a group of American and British Methodist missionaries including Young John Allen, William Alexander Parsons Martin, Timothy Richard and Alexander...

 (S.D.C.K.) in Shanghai. In Shanghai, Allen edited a Chinese tri-weekly periodical, North China Herald, 1860-1861. He founded and edited the monthly Wan Guo Gong Bao

Wan Guo Gong Bao

A Review of the Times– Traditional Chinese: 萬國公報; Simplified Chinese: 万国公报; Pinyin: Wàn Guó Gōng Bào; Wade-Giles: Wan Kwoh Kung Pao; Literally: "The Ten Thousand Nations' Common Newspaper"...

, or Review of the Times from 1868–1907, a paper "said...to have done more for reform than any other single agency in China."

The Review attracted a wide and influential Chinese readership throughout its thirty-nine year run. One of the ways in which the Review appealed to a broad, scholarly audience was through its discussion of current events and economics. During the First Sino-Japanese War

First Sino-Japanese War

The First Sino-Japanese War was fought between Qing Dynasty China and Meiji Japan, primarily over control of Korea...

 period of 1894-1895, essay titles included: “International Intercourse, by a descendent of Confucius,” “How to Enrich a Nation, by Dr. Joseph Edkins

Joseph Edkins

Joseph Edkins was a British Protestant missionary who spent 57 years in China, 30 of them in Beijing. As a Sinologue, he specialized in Chinese religions. He was also a linguist, a translator, and a philologist. Writing prolifically, he penned many books about the Chinese language and the Chinese...

,” “The Prime Benefits of Christianity, by the Rev. Timothy Richard,” and “On the Suppression of Doubt and the Acceptance of Christ, by Sung Yuh-kwei.” The articles attributed practical applications to the Christian faith and portrayed Christianity as a useful concept for the Chinese, one that Allen and his contributors intended to portray on an equal level to concepts such as market economics and international law. The Qing reformer Kang Youwei

Kang Youwei

Kang Youwei , was a Chinese scholar, noted calligrapher and prominent political thinker and reformer of the late Qing Dynasty. He led movements to establish a constitutional monarchy and was an ardent Chinese nationalist. His ideas inspired a reformation movement that was supported by the Guangxu...

 once said of the publication: "I owe my conversion to reform chiefly on the writings of two missionaries, the Rev. Timothy Richard and the Rev. Dr. Young J. Allen." Rev. Richard was Allen's colleague and a contributor to the Review.

Publication of the Review ceased shortly after Allen’s death in Shanghai in 1907.

Source: Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library of Emory University

Emory University

Emory University is a private research university in metropolitan Atlanta, located in the Druid Hills section of unincorporated DeKalb County, Georgia, United States. The university was founded as Emory College in 1836 in Oxford, Georgia by a small group of Methodists and was named in honor of...

, Atlanta, GA, USA.

Memorials

Allen Memorial United Methodist Church, Emory at Oxford, Oxford, Georgia, USA, is a memorial to Dr. Young J. Allen. Several descendants of Dr. Allen currently reside in the metro Atlanta area (Georgia).-- Contributed by: Marie S. Ledford, 2nd great-granddaughter of Dr. Young J. Allen (fourth generation).

Allen-Lee Memorial United Methodist Church, Lone Oak, Georgia, USA is also a memorial to Dr. Young J. Allen.

After The Anglo-Chinese College was relocated to Suzhou, the college's remaining site was reorganized as Dongwu University Second High School. The school renamed one of the churches on campus as Y.J. Allen Memorial Church in English while using Jing Lin Tang, 景林堂 (literary translation: Admire Lin Church) as its Chinese name in 1907. In 1923, Y.J Allen Memorial Church was rebuilt across the street from the school location. T.V. Soong was the biggest donor to the project and was actively involved in the designing and constructing process of the project. The Soong family regularly visited the church. During Cultural Revelation, religious activities were stopped at the church. The church re-initiated its service in the 1980s changing its name to the homonym, Jing Ling Tang, 景灵堂.

Sources:
Encyclopedia of Shanghai, Shanghai Lexicographical Publishing House

Old Photos of Shanghai, Shanghai People Fine Arts Publishing House

The Soong Sisters at www.wesleyancollege.edu