Hudson Taylor

James Hudson Taylor (May 21, 1832 –  June 3, 1905) is a British Protestant Christian missionary to China and founder of the China Inland Mission (CIM, now OMF International).

Taylor spends fifty-one years in China.

The society that he begins is responsible for bringing over eight hundred missionaries to the country who begin one hundred and twenty-five schools and directly result in eighteen thousand Christian conversions, as well as the establishment of more than three hundred stations of work with more than five hundred local helpers in all eighteen provinces.

Taylor was known for his sensitivity to Chinese culture and zeal for evangelism. He adopted wearing native Chinese clothing even though this was rare among missionaries of that time. Under his leadership, the CIM was singularly non-denominational in practice and accepted members from all Protestant groups, including individuals from the working class, and single women as well as multinational recruits. Primarily because of the CIM's campaign against the opium trade, Taylor has been referred to as one of the most significant Europeans to visit China in the 19th century.[3][page needed] Historian Ruth Tucker summarizes the theme of his life:

    No other missionary in the nineteen centuries since the Apostle Paul has had a wider vision and has carried out a more systematized plan of evangelizing a broad geographical area than Hudson Taylor.[4]

Taylor was able to preach in several varieties of Chinese, including Mandarin, Chaozhou, and the Wu dialects of Shanghai and Ningbo. The last of these he knew well enough to help prepare a colloquial edition of the New Testament written in it.[5]

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