The Sheo Yang Mission

The Sheo Yang Mission (referred to as SYM in some accounts) was a Protestant Christian missionary society that was involved in sending workers to China during the late Qing Dynasty. It was founded by the Pigott family in 1892 (possibly accompanied by two other families Johnson and McNair), they had previously been members of the China Inland Mission (CIM). The mission was destroyed and most members murdered in 1900, the work continued through the Baptist Missionary Society.

Shanxi

Taiyuan

Sheo Yang

Pigott

Lovitt

Timothy Richard had arrived in Taiyuan in 1877 and worked there for several years after and hence alongside Pigott and the Sheo Yang missionaries. Little is recorded of the differences between Pigott et al. and the CIM. {{citation name?}}, chapter 6 entitled "The Bible in J. Hudson Taylor's Missionary Teaching and Preaching" reports at section 6.2.3:

Given that the Sheo Yang missioners moved from the CIM to the Baptist Missionary Society (BMS) it seems most likely that this Shansi spirit was the source of the disagreement.

On 1 August 1883 Dr Schofield died of Typhus Fever leaving Dr E H Edwards who had arrived the previous year, via the West of China with CIM, in charge of the Hospital. Dr E H Edwards later became part of the Sheo Yang mission but was on furlough when the Boxer Rebellion caused the death of all the other Sheo Yang missionaries.

In June and July 1886 missionaries of the various societies gathered for a conference with the visiting Hudson Taylor (CIM). Mr Sowerby (BMS) and Dr E H Edwards (CIM at the time) both questioned the level of knowledge of the local Tao-li that should be acquired. Hudson Taylors response included a recollection, thus:

The Pigott's travelled out to China in January 1888 with a group of missionaries setting out on the first Kaisar-i-Hind (Caesar of India) steam ship and later the SS Deccan. Mary Geraldine Guinness (who later became Geraldine Taylor, daughter-in-law to Hudson Taylor the head of the CIM) was amongst their number and mentions the Pigott's in her letters home.

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