Schofield and the first spread of western medicine in Shanxi

Abstract

After the Second Opium War, the signing of the Tientsin Treaty and the Peking Treaty legitimized the missionary activities and authorized the missionary the rights to enter inland China for propagating their religious doctrines. In the late 1870s, the"The extraordinary famine of the Ding Wu year"and the subsequent epidemic provided the opportunity for missionaries to enter Shanxi. Dr. Schofield, sent by the China Inland Mission, arrived in Taiyuan in 1880, set up clinics and practised there. He died of typhus after treating a typhus patient in the summer of 1883. Schofield stayed and practised in Taiyuan for 2 years and 8 months. Later, the China Inland Mission and other missionaries donated to establish a Shanxi's first western medicine Hospital to commemorate Schofield. The medical activities of Dr. Schofield enlightened and promoted the Shanxi people's understanding of western medicine.