Sam Pollard (missionary)

Born the son of a Bible Christian Church preacher, Sam Pollard initially aimed for a career in the civil service. However, a conference in London in 1885 encouraged him to instead become a missionary.[1] He was appointed a missionary in 1886, left the United Kingdom for China in 1887, and was posted to Yunnan province in 1888. He remained in China, as a missionary, until his death from typhoid.

In 1891 he was posted to a newly opened Bible Christian mission station in Zhaotong (referred to in contemporary sources in Wade–Giles as Chaotung),[2] where he married Emmie Hainge. He began a Christian movement with the Big Flowery Miao in 1905 that spread to Zhaotong. Pollard also invented a script for the Miao languages called the Pollard Script (also sometimes called the "Ahmao script"). He credited the basic idea of the script to the Cree syllabary, "While working out the problem, we remembered the case of the syllabics used by James Evans, a Methodist missionary among the Indians of North America, and resolved to do as he had done".[3] He also gave credit to a non-Miao Chinese pastor, "Stephen Lee assisted me very ably in this matter, and at last we arrived at a system".[3]

Pollard never claimed any divine inspiration or vision in creating the script. Rather, he left a record of hard work, advice from others, and ideas from other scripts. At the beginning, he wrote, he "made an experiment in getting out a written language for the Miao", even writing out some symbols in his diary.[4] He credited the basic idea of the script to the Cree syllabary (discussed above), "While working out the problem, we remembered the case of the syllabics used by a Methodist missionary among the Indians of North America, and resolved to do as he had done".[3] He also gave credit to a Chinese pastor, "Stephen Lee assisted me very ably in this matter, and at last we arrived at a system".[3] In another document he wrote "Mr. Stephen Lee and I are attempting to reduce the Miao language to a simply system of writing. The attempt may succeed or it may end… stillborn".[5] He asked himself in his diary "How shall I manage to distinguish tones?” then later wrote how he had found the solution, adopting an idea from Pitman’s shorthand.[6] In listing the phrases he used to describe the process of creating the script, there is clear indication of work, not revelation: "we looked about", "working out the problem", "resolved to attempt", "assisted", "at last we arrived at a system", "adapting the system", "we found", "solved our problem".[7] In all of this, we see no hint of specific revelation or any vision, only intellectual labor.

Pollard and Miao teachers

He used it to translate the New Testament. The script was unique in the fact that it used the initial consonant of a syllable, with the vowel placed above or below it, in order to indicate which tone the vowel was.[8]

Pollard received pressure from some British sources that if the Roman script was not suitable, he should consider using the Burmese alphabet.[9] He did not accept this suggestions, but Pollard did leave the door open for switching over to Roman letters, writing in 1906, "It is quite possible later on to turn our system into Romanised, where there is a successful Romanised system in use which will solve the tone difficulty".[9] A large part of Pollard’s motivation for creating his script was to have a way to adequately mark the sounds of the language, especially the tones. It has remained in use for 90 years, despite efforts to supersede it.[10]

During his mission he travelled extensively, founding churches, training other missionaries, performing the role of language examiner, and arguing the causes of Miao Christians. He also fought against the oppression of the Miao, this often led to clashes with Chinese officials. He was nearly beaten to death at the orders of a greedy landlord.[11]

Protestant Gospel Church at Shimenkan

After Pollard's death in 1915, he was buried in the mountains near the Shimenkan mission station, contemporary Weining Yi, Hui, and Miao Autonomous County. The mission prospered for another 35 years until 1950, when the CCP ordered all English missionaries to cease proselytizing and leave the country. His grave and the county were closed to foreigners until 1995, when Xinhua announced that work had been taken to restore Pollard's tomb which they now declared to be a national monument.[12]

Samuel Pollard Building

The 100,000-square-foot (9,300 m²) main building at the Hopkins-Nanjing Center in Nanjing, China, is known as the Samuel Pollard Building. It houses the Center's library, classrooms and conference space, and administration offices.

The building was dedicated in 2007 as part of the Center's twentieth anniversary celebrations, which included keynotes by former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and former Chinese Foreign Minister Qian Qichen.

• Pollard, Sam; Smith, Henry; Dymond, F J (1909). The Story of the Miao. United Methodist Magazine. republished posthumously as:
  • Pollard, Sam; Smith, Henry; Dymond, F J (1919). The Story of the Miao. London: Henry Hooks.
• Pollard, Sam (1913). Tight Corners in China.
• Pollard, Sam (1921). In Unknown China: observations, adventures and experiences of a pioneer missionary.
• Pollard, Sam (1954). R Elliott Kendall (ed.). Eyes of the Earth: the diary of Samuel Pollard. London, Cargate Press.

• Christianity in Cornwall
• Christianity in Guizhou
• List of China Inland Mission missionaries in China

• Grist, William Alexander (1921). Samuel Pollard. Pioneer Missionary in China. London: Henry Hooks.
• Pollard, Walter (1928). Sam Pollard, a hero of China. London: Seeley, Service & Co.
• Hayes, Ernest H (1946). Sam Pollard of Yunnan: The Pioneer Series. Wallington: Religious Education Press., also published as:
  • Hayes, Ernest H (1947). Sam Pollard of Yunnan. Carwal Publications.
• Zai Wei Zhide Zhongguo (In Unknown China). Yunnan Minorities Press. 2002. ISBN 7-5367-2353-9. — full Chinese translations of books about the ministry of Po Geli (Sam Pollard) including The Story of the Miao, In Unknown China, Stone Gateway, and the Flowery Miao
• Crofts, Daniel W. (2005). "The symbols and sounds of the Ahmao script" (PDF). AAS Annual Meeting 2005, China and Inner Asia session 168. Retrieved 29 July 2005.
• Parsons, R Keith. "The people called "A-hmao" and their writing". A-Hmao introduction. Retrieved 29 July 2005.
• Daniel H. Bays, ed. (1996). Christianity in China: From the Eighteenth Century to the Present. Stanford University Press. — Part II includes Norma Diamond's study of Sam Pollard's work
• Samuel Pollard: missionary supreme, born 20 April 1864; a centenary tribute. 1964. OCLC 24160324.
• Kendall, R Elliot (1948). Beyond the Clouds. The story of Samuel Pollard of South-West China. Cargate Press.
• Pollard, Ernest C. (1993). Sermons in Stones. The Woodburn Press. — Written by Samuel Pollard's son, a well-known professor of physics and biophysics. "Sermon" 17, The Story of Sam Pollard, written for Atheists offers a very personal look at Sam Pollard's life and motivation
• Stone-Gateway and the Flowery Miao. London: The Cargate Press. 1937.
• Moody, Edward H (1956). Sam Pollard. Grand Rapids: Zondervan and London: Oliphants Ltd.
• Covell, Ralph R. (1999). "Pollard, Samuel". In Gerald H. Anderson (ed.). Biographical dictionary of Christian missions. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. p. 542. ISBN 978-0-8028-4680-8.
• Yu Suee Yan. (2011.) The story of the Big Flowery Miao Bible. The Bible Translator vol. 62, no. 4: 207-215.

• The Pollard script
• Archive papers of Sam Pollard are held by SOAS Special Collections