THE WEDGED SCENERY

The Forbidden City stands for the power center of the Qing Dynasty. Of its more than 70 palaces, large or small, and more than 8,000 houses, Hall of Supreme Harmony is the best to show the majesty of emperors. Being the largest in size and the highest in level, it represents the supreme imperial power and is a symbol of the feudal imperial system in China.

In 1792, the 57th year under the reign of Emperor Qianlong (1736 - 1796), the British government sent a mission headed by George McCartney to visit China with the purpose of celebrating the 80th birthday of the Emperor, and expected to get the approval of the Emperor to open the doors of China.

The first official contact between the tw countries, however, ended with an unpleasant result, and the Qing government, who thought China a great country, did not find a plot behind.

The Emperor Qianlong even gave a great reward to the 12-year old George Thomas Staunton, [ - please click on the blinking smiley !] the son of British deputy envoy George Leonard Staunton. Just over 40 years later, it was Thomas who incited the British Parliament to launch a war against China.

After the Opium Wars, the Qing government allowed missionaries to preach in China. As a result, large and small churches, like bamboo shoots, appeared in China one after another.

Many of them are still preserved

MAP OF WEIHSIEN

In the Han dynasty, there appeared city in Weihsien, but the recorded large-scale construction of city was in the Ming Dynasty. In 1639, the 12th year under the reign of Emperor Chongzhen (1627 — 1641), the Ming dynasty was beset by domestic problems and foreign invasion. To enhance defense, Xing Guoxi, the magistrate of Weihsien, ordered to replace the mud walls with stony ones. After two major repairs and several minor repairs in the Qing dynasty, an orderly and symmetrical city was formed. At its peak, there were 48 streets in Weihsien, with county governing front street as the center. Around it were military government, procuratorum [sic], Chenghuang Temple, the Emperor Guan Temple, college examination academy, Confucius' temple and so on. There were also many places of interest, temple monasteries and gardens in the city. According to records, the City housed dozens of archways and there was a saying that taking a hundred steps, you would see a temple and taking only ten steps, you would see an archway.

In 1900, the German prospecting team discovered coal seams with total reserves of 3 to 3.5 million tons in the southeast of Weihsien. In the following year, the first coal well was drilled here, which marked the beginning of Weifang Fangzi District today.

After the opening of Jiaozhou-Jinan Railway, the Germans began to plunder the resources of Fangzi Coal Mine, which lasted for 17 years. After the First World War, Japan occupied the huge mineral and exploited it for 30 years. According to statistics, during the 40 years of Germany and Japan occupation, more than 4 million tons of coal were plundered. These invaders left behind a large number of colonial buildings, and nearly 200 are still in good condition, including consulate, hospitals, train stations, locomotive repair sectors, telegraph buildings, post offices, churches, schools, command barracks, water stations, senior officer's residential areas, and the like.

Weihsien is an important node on Jiaozhou-Jinan Railway. The picture shows the old Weihsien Station, which has just been built and put into use at the beginning of the 20th century. Its external walls and dormer windows are obviously German style, and the roof adopts Chinese cross ridge, tube tile and carves with rigid beast. The mixture of architectural style precisely reflects the collision and integration of Chinese and Western cultures at that time. Perhaps the German architect deliberately mix in the Chinese elements, or compromise to the aesthetic taste of the local gentry.

These group of pictures reflects the Weihsien national industry in the 1930s. In the early days, Weihsien's industry was greatly affected by foreign countries. For example, in 1917, the British tobacco factory built a factory in Ershilipu, Weihsien. The earliest and largest tobacco factory in China had, to some extent, contributed to the development of Weihsien tobacco industry. Later, Weihsien gradually formed its own national industry.

As early as 1866, Calvin Wilson Mateer, an American missionary who had been in China for three years, and his companion Hunter Corbett went from Dengzhou (now Penglai) to Jinan by train. When they passed Weihsien, they found it was a prosperous city. At that time, Calvin Wilson Mateer was determined to build a church here and to preach. A few years later, he came to Weihsien again. Li Shiyuan (a native of Weihsien, who was doing business in Yantai at that time) helped him to inspect Weihsien. However, his idea was not put into practice.

In 1881, Calvin Wilson Mateer's younger brother, Robert M. Mateer, arrived in Dengzhou. Before sailing across the sea to China, this young man had just graduated from Princeton Theological Seminary in the United States. Under the care of his brother, he studied Chinese for a few days and learned some Chinese culture, and then he set out with his wife for Weihsien. Along him were minister John Hood Laughlin, Doctor Ming and other people. When they first arrived in Weihsien, they temporarily lived at Li Shiyuan's house. One day, when he went to Lijiazhuang in the south of the city to visit Li Fanggui, who had graduated from Dengzhou Wenhui Academy, he saw the beautiful scenery of the area. So with the help of Li Fangling (a member of Christian Presbyterian Church of the Courtyard of the Happy Way), the brother of Li Fanggui, he bought a land and built the Courtyard of the Happy Way.

Picture introduction: Robert M. Mateer bought 16.5 mu of land in the northwest of Lijiazhuang to the south of Yuhe River. One year later, the Courtyard of the Happy Way, which was composed of bungalow and covered an area of 11000 square meters, had been initially built. The whole building area could be divided into three parts: school, clinic and church. At the beginning, Robert M. Mateer and his wife managed the specific affairs, mainly preaching, by themselves.

When the Courtyard of the Happy Way was first built, few people came here. There were few households around and even Lijiazhuaiig, the nearest place was more than 1 li away (1 li = 0.5 kilometers) and the road was rough.

So few Chinese would come to "this remote temple run by foreigners".

Robert M. Mateer and other missionaries had to change the way of sermon, and expanded the influence of the church through secular undertakings such as schools and hospitals.

The cornerstone shows the age and function of the cross building: 1924, hospital.

There is usually a paradigm in the structure of European architecture, such as "L" shape and "H" shape, which may be commonly seen in palaces or houses. The "shape" of the cross building is very rare, and experts speculate that it is likely to be related to religion.

Vertical sliding window is the characteristic of American architecture, which is featured by good sealing and not easy to fall. There is a special structure on the window frame, so that the window sash can stay in different positions.

The skylight on the slope roof, like a tiger stretching its head out of the roof, is a typical feature of Western architecture.

The outer wall of the cross building is made of gray ganged bricks. It is said that all the grey bricks were shipped from the United States all the way, presumably because of the poor quality of the local tiles at the time.

After the western church entered Shandong, it actively carried out missionary activities, and with the efforts of the missionaries, an extensive preaching network was established and organised in cities of Shandong . According to the data, in 1931, Nanguan Church became the Catholic Tudor Cathedral in Weihsien, administering Masu Church, East Jinmazhuang Church, Miaobu Church, Xingbu Church, Qingchi Church and Fangzi Church. At the same time, it was also responsible for the management of affairs in Changyi and areas around Nanliu, Anqiu.

After the Courtyard of the Happy Way was burned, under the charge of the church, the Qing government arrested Chen Xiqing and others. After negociation, the Qing government would pay 50,000 teals of silver to reconstruct it. When Robert M. Mateer returned from Ynatai in which he soughed refuge, he decided to expand and reconstruct the Courtyard of the Happy Way and expand the clinic into a hospital. The entire expansion project cost more than 400,000 taels of silver, some of which came from the "Boxer indemnity" (100,000 teals of silver was invested in the Couryard of the Happy Way), and the rest came mainly from donations from the American church ($26,125.00).

When the Boxer movement ended, Robert M. Mateer and his wife, and other 16 people, went from Yantai to the Yangjiaogou, Shouguang County, which was located in the estuary of Xiaoqing River, by boat .

Yuan Shikai. the governor of Shandong Province, had sent troops to welcome them and escorted them back to Weihsien .

The Courtyard of the Happy Way had been burned into rubble, and they had nowhere to settle. Then Local officials arranged them to live in the hotel temporarily.

Yuan Shikai also made a special call from Jinan and ordered the local officials to send a present for him (In the picture is the fat sheep that Yuan Shikai sent to the missionaries), and to set up a banquet to welcome them. The magistrate didn't dare to decide how to deal with the burned Courtyard without authorization, and after asking Yuan Shikai, he began to discus reconstruction with Robert M. Mateer and others.

After reconstruction, the Courtyard of the Happy Way expanded its area to 200 mu with a large scale and different building tykes. Robert M. Mateer and others realized the importance of the gentry class in promoting the missionary cause, and they began to woo them.

In 1916, the anti-Yuan war spread to Weihsien, and the Courtyard of the Happy Way became a refuge for wealthy families. After the war, the gentry in the city was very grateful for its assistance. The made a special plaque for it with four characters of "Loving people. Caring neighbors" on it.

Guangwen Middle School selected and recruited outstanding graduates from Chefoo University and other famous universities, and experienced, competent and famous teachers, paying close attention the quality of teaching. The school attached great importance to the cultivation of public moral, so it established the principle of moral, intellectual, physical and collective education, and combining learning and use. And it formulated the school motto of "mutual assistance service and sacrifice". In view of the tense situation in North China, Guangwen Middle School has also added military training courses to strengthening students' body.

In l904, the Wenhui Academy founded by the American missionary Calvin Wilson Mateer, was moved to Weihsien and merged with the Guangde Academy run by the British baptist church in Qingzhou. The new school was situated in the Courtyard of the Happy Way with the name of Guangwen School (later renamed Guangwen University).

When the courtyard of the Happy Way was first built, only some Chinese people could work in nursing care, and all the doctors were foreigners. In 1913, the hospital gradually had Chinese doctors, such as Yang Xiushan, Luv Youqing, Zhang Tongxin, Zhang Xuejian, Han Bingnan, and so on. However, for religious reasons, both doctors and nursing staff are church members. in addition, the medical level of hospitals was also improving increasingly. According to records, by 1918, such operations could be performed as cataract extraction, total eyeball extirpation, amputation, fetal shredding, sternoctomy, breast cancer resection, esophageal stenosis dilatation, iridectomy, breast sinus surgery and so can in the hospital

The hospital was an important part of the Courtyard of the Happy Way. When Robert M. Mateer came to Weihsien, two doctors were with him: the male doctor was William Hong, and the female doctor was Madge Dickinson. The history of the Hospital in the Courtyard of the Happy Way can be roughly divided into three periods: The period before Boxer indemnity (1901) was the early stage of the establishment of the hospital. During this period. the hospital had fewer personnel and poor equipment, and its size \V as slightly the same as that of the clinic. The period from 1900 to 1924 was the development stage of the hospital. During this period, the Outpatient Department is still the main business, while the simple wards had been gradually added, and some patients could he hospitalized. In this period, male and female clinics were separated. The period after the completion of the ward building (cross building) in 1925 was the third stage for the development of the hospital. With complete medical facilities, the hospital had become a large-scale and high-grade comprehensive hospital in Jiaodong at that time.

In 1925, when the building was completed, the Hospital in the Courtyard of the Happy Way held an inauguration ceremony to celebrate it and renamed it as Weihsien Christian Hospital. More than a hundred celebrities came to congratulate and took photos to mark the occasion. It could accommodate 120 beds and had heating system, X-ray room, laboratory and well-equipped operating room with over 80 personnel. And it had become a large-scale and high-grade hospital around the area of Jiaodong and the number of patients coming from far and near had increased day by day.

Zhang Tongxin, alias Zhang Zhifu, was a famous doctor and a native of Weihsien. He graduated from Medical College of Cheeloo University in 1914. In the same year, he was admitted to the Hospital in the Courtyard of the Happy Way as a physician, and then promoted to attending physician and dean. After the War of Resistance against Japan, he was appointed Honorary President and Director of the Board of Directors of Qingdao Lutheran Church Hospital. After the founding of the people's Republic of China, Lutheran Church Hospital was renamed Qingdao Hospital and he still served as President.

Yin Huanzhai, a native of Weihsien, graduated from Guangwen University. In 1925, Ralph C. Wells, the former president of Wenhua Middle School, was transferred to Shanghai and replaced by him. In 1931, Wenhua Middle School, Wenmei Girls' Middle School and Peiji Primary School merged to Guangwen Middle School, and Yin Huanzhai left. Yin Huanzhai was a famous industrialist in Weihsien. He founded Xinfeng Printing Ltd., which ranked top in Shandong printing and dyeing industry at that time, and co-founded Huafeng Machinery Factory with Teng Huchen.

Xu Huanzi, who studied at Yenching University, was invited to Weihsien as president of Wenmei Girls' Middle School in 1927. She was the third principal of the school and her office term ended in 1930. During her tenure as principal, she funded some progressive youth to find and join the Communist Party of China.

Cui Derun, born in 1902, was a native of Weihsien, Shandong Province. After graduating from primary school in 1914, he was admitted to Wenhua School in the Courtyard of the Happy Way and Kvas admitted to School of Arts and Sciences of Cheeloo University in 1919. After graduation, he stayed in school and became a teaching assistant. After the establishment of Guangwen Middle School, Cui Derun was elected by the school board of directors to serve as president.

Calvin Wilson Mateer, born in Pennsylvania. America, was a missionary of Presbyterian Church in the United States of America, a modern educator, a translator, a philanthropist, and pioneer of modern Chinese science education.

He came to China at the end of 1863 and preached in Dengzhou, Shandong Province and set up Wenhui Academy there.

In 1904, the Academy moved to Weihsien and merged with the Guangde Academy, which was run by the British Baptist Church in Qingzhou, and the new school was called Guangwen School (later Guangwen University). After working on education in China for decades, he had always advocated the wide dissemination of western science and culture in order to promote China's progress.

In 1908. this educator who had lived in Shandong for decades passed away in Qingdao.

Robert M. Mateer was the brother of Calvin Wilson Mateer.

He graduated from the Seminary at Princeton University in 1881. At the end of the year, he came to China.

With the assistance of local church friends in Weihsien, he then set up the Courtyard of the Happy Way to preach and sermon, develop education and open clinics. He had preached in China for nearly 40 years and died in Weihsien on September 5. 1921.

He devoted his whole life to China.

Madge Dickinson, the wife of Robert M. Mateer, was president of Wenmei Girls' Middle School and hospital physician. She was in charge of the church affairs after Robert M. Mateer died.