Career
He was perhaps the most notable Chinese connected with the China Inland Mission."
Wang was a painter and skilled artisan living in his native Ningbo when he was hired by the pioneer Christian missionary Hudson Taylor to work in his home. As he was working one day on a ladder he overheard a local basket-maker, Feng Ninggui, who had professed faith in Jesus Christ, explaining why he no longer made incense containers that were used for idol worship. Wang put his new faith into immediate service and worked at the local mission hospital that Taylor had taken charge of – with no promise of income other than what he believed that the Lord would provide as needed.
Wang soon learned from Taylor how to read and write the Romanized Ningbo dialect and began teaching others what he had learned about God from the Scriptures.
In 1860 Taylor’s health was deteriorating and Wang accompanied the Taylor family to London, in 1860 as a helper and language tutor for new missionaries. Wang’s native language expertise assured that the final translation would be accurate and trustworthy.
While in, Wang became part of the Taylor family in many ways: helping with laundry, helping Maria take care of the little children, and joining with Taylor in close personal discipleship training and even medical studies. Taylor took him to meet the famous London Baptist preacher, Charles Spurgeon at the Metropolitan Tabernacle.
Together they influenced Spurgeon to promote the cause of missionary work in China with his sermons and writings.
Taylor promoted Wang"s abilities as a preacher even in and acted as interpreter for him when he spoke to English congregations. After returning to China he was appointed pastor of the church in Hangzhou begun by the China Inland Mission in 1866-1867. He served as a pastor for 40 years.