Guoshilie

Works

The works attributed to Guoshilie range across religious instruction, biblical and theological writing, history, geography, travel, language study, commerce, and imperial biography. Their titles present both doctrinal and narrative forms, including prayers, histories, reports, lectures, diaries, a grammar, and accounts of journeys.

Religious works in the first group address worship, redemption, eternal life, true religion, Jesus, moral distinctions, consolation, instruction, and miracles. The titles also include accounts of Jesus's life and teaching. They encompass both expository works and religious narratives.

The next group continues with human conduct, gospel maxims, Jesus's teachings and descent, the right way, and narratives of named biblical figures. It also includes a work concerning the Eastern and Western Oceans.

Further religious and biblical titles include accounts of John, Joseph, Peter, biblical ancestors, praise, moral comparison, truth, and the created world. The same body includes world histories, geography, Jewish history, statecraft, and trade, showing that the attributed writings are not confined to one form or topic.

Another group addresses faith, conversion, parables, repentance, suffering and death, preaching, exhortation, and questions about heavenly teaching. These titles extend from brief devotional formulations to commentary and question-and-answer works.

Church prayer and church history stand alongside world history, creation, salvation, truth, and the Old and New Testaments. The titles include both scriptural history and works framed around particular sacred books.

Several titles concern doctrine and gospel texts, requests involving non-Christian and Muslim audiences, and the global expansion of Christianity. Others describe life in Siam, voyages along Chinese coasts and toward Korea and the Ryukyus, a farewell address to Dutch Christian associates, and a sermon delivered in Berlin on 22 December 1822.

Historical and travel writing includes a history of the Chinese empire, reports on China, lectures on missionary work and East Asian trade, addresses delivered in Berlin in 1850, an account of a journey from China to Britain and through Europe, a study of Siamese, coastal navigation diaries, and overviews of ancient and modern Chinese history. Another title records three coastal voyages in 1831, 1832, and 1833, with descriptions of Siam, Korea, and Ryukyu.

The final group includes a report on northern Chinese ports, a comprehensive survey of China's geography, history, customs, arts, manufactures, commerce, literature, religion, and law, a Chinese grammar, and biographies of Kangxi and Daoguang.