PREFACE 



In the fall of 191 1 my wife and I, together with a number of 

 missionaries bound for West China, boarded the steamship Siberia 

 at San Francisco and started for Shanghai. Though radiograms were 

 received en route stating that China was in a state of revolution, we 

 went on to Shanghai, where we rented a building in the British con- 

 cession. There we lived and studied the Chinese language until the 

 revolution was over and the country was again peaceful. We then 

 journeyed to Szechwan Province, where we spent most of our time 

 until the late spring of 1948. 



After being stationed for 20 years at Suifu ^M) riow I-pin, I 

 was transferred to Chengtu^^, the capital of the province. At 

 I-pin I gradually assumed responsibility for missionary work, but 

 continued to study the language, completing the 5-year course being 

 given for new missionaries. Included in this course were the Three- 

 word Classic, the Four Books of Confucius and Mencius, the Sacred 

 Edict, and the Fortunate Union. Later I also read and studied the 

 Five Classics of Confucius. I found in these books high moral and 

 spiritual ideals and teachings and began to have a wholesome respect 

 for Chinese learning and culture. 



In the fall of 19 19 I entered the Divinity School of the University 

 of Chicago for a year of postgraduate study. Here my studies in- 

 cluded, besides religious education, the world's great religions, the 

 history of religions, and the psychology of religion. Further courses 

 taken at Chicago in 1926 covered anthropology, ethnology, and the 

 psychology of primitive peoples and of primitive religion. My doctor's 

 thesis, "Religion in Szechwan Province, China," was mainly the result 

 of first-hand studies and research in the religions of Szechwan. This 

 was published in 1928 by the Smithsonian Institution. During the 

 summer of 1931 I took a course in field archeology under Fay-Cooper 

 Cole of the University of Chicago, and during the following fall and 

 winter I took courses in archeology, ethnology, physical and cultural 

 anthropology, and methods of research under Professors Hooten, 

 Tozzer, and Dixon at Harvard University. 



During the period 1919 to 1939 I made 14 summer expeditions to 

 different parts of Szechwan and the China-Tibetan border and a large 

 number of shorter trips. Later, two summer vacations were spent 

 among the Ch'iang. My missionary work often involved traveling 



