In 1845, Wang Yuanshen traveled to Hong Kong, where he was in contact with Christianity for the first time, and in 1847, at the age of 30, he was baptized by Rev. Karl Gützlaff 郭实腊. After that he accompanied Rev. Ferdinand Genähr on his mission journeys all over Guangdong and became an ardent preacher. In this service he remained for 33 years and thus was one of the important pioneers of the Berlin Mission Society (Bn) and (since 1872) the Rhenish Mission.
Since 1872 he served in the area of Humen 虎门, Guangdong. In 1880, he retired and spent his old age in Hong Kong, where he died. He is buried in the Protestant Pok Fu Lam (Bofulin) 薄扶林Cemetery, Hong Kong.
He wrote Shengdao Donglai Kao《圣道东来考》(How the Holy Faith came to the East) and an auto-biography, Liyan mingzheng ji 历眼明证记. His grandson was Wang Chonghui 王宠惠.
Sources
Taken with permission from:
Leopold Leeb, "Christians Born Before 1830: Pioneers and Partners of Foreign Missionaries in the Coastal Areas, Courageous Witnesses in the Hinterland," in Dictionary of the History of Christianity in China, ed. Wojciech Rybka, Piotr Adamek, and Sonja Meiting Huang (Fu Jen University Press: Taipei, Taiwan, 2024), 56.
