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role as a scholar-missionary.
In the diary he kept during this furlough period (now in the Bodleian Library), there is an astounding set of reflections written during his eight-month voyage back to Hong Kong. These self-conscious re-evaluations led to certain definite decisions about the direction of his own research. His personal attachment to China and his scholarly concerns are cogently captured in these meditative jottings.
"I look at China
not as a philosopher, but with the
eye of philosophy. It is to me a great story, and my own mind demands to be satisfied as to its language, its history, its literature, and its moral and social state.
The specific terms of this commitment he proceeded to itemize:
(a) Language: "On what principles was it formed? Through
what modifications has it passed?"
(b) History: "To what point of antiquity can we trace it with any certainty? Where did the people come from originally? What relations can be discovered between them and other races and nations? What light may their language and literature mutually reflect upon each other?
(c) Literature: "principally the different religions and ethical systems that obtain in the country. "Confucianism, Taouism and Buddhism" must all be unfolded.... Their doctrines must be exhibited and these doctrines referred to principles. The truth in them must be separated from error."
Further
"Was there not a religion and an ethics in China from time immemorial which will deserve research? What of it is in Confucianism? and what of it is in Taouism? On all these topics let me get ideas
definite, palpable and precise."
(d) Finally, with regard to the "Social, Moral and Political State of China: