Benjamin Hobson

Chinese

pic=File:Benjamin Hobson in Canton, portrait Wellcome L0020337.jpg |piccap=Benjamin Hobson in Guangzhou

altname=Ho-sin

Joining the London Missionary Society as a medical missionary to the Qing Empire, he departed with his wife Jane Abbey Hobson and Messrs Legge and Milne on . It left London on 28 July 1839, and reached Anyer on 12 November and Macao on 18 December. Assisted by Elijah Bridgman, Hobson found a residence and joined the local Medical Missionary Society. Its hospital reopened on August 1, 1840. When William Lockhart left for Zhoushan at the end of the month and Dr Diver retired from poor health soon afterwards, Hobson was left in sole charge of its operation. In early 1843, he left to establish the Medical Missionary Hospital Hong Kong. This opened to patients on June 1 (, Jīnlì Bù. "Golden Benefit Wharf") in the western suburbs While there, he was assisted by the Chinese ministers and missionaries Liang Fa and Zhou Xue. At the end of 1854, he traveled to Shanghai for a five-week rest for health reasons. He and his family were forced to evacuate to Hong Kong in October 1856 on account of the onset of the Second Opium War. (Chinese titles are given in modern traditional characters, some of which—such as those preceded by the silk radical—vary slightly from their 19th-century forms.) Romanizations include both modern pinyin and the contemporary romanization. Translations are Wylie's. The third part of Hobson’s book, 《博物新編》[Bówù Xīnbiān], authored by both Hobson and Chen Xiutang, was the basis of Chen’s own book, 《博物新編圖説》[Bówù Xīnbiān Túshuō] (Shanghai, 1898).