Calvin Wilson Mateer

{{Short description|American missionary and educator in China}}

{{Infobox person

|name = Calvin Wilson Mateer
(狄考文)

|image =CalvinMateer.jpg

|caption = Calvin Wilson Mateer

|birth_date = {{Birth date|1836|01|09}}

|birth_place = Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, United States

|death_date = {{Death date and age|1908|09|28|1836|01|09}}

|death_place = Qingdao, China

|occupation = Missionary

|known_for = Educational Mission in China

|years_active= 45 Years

| spouse = Julia Brown

}}

Calvin Wilson Mateer ({{zh|c={{linktext|狄|考|文}}|p=Dí Kǎowén}}, sometimes misspelt "Matteer") (9 January 1836 – 28 September 1908) was a missionary to China with the American Presbyterian Mission. He was of Scottish-Irish descent and a native of Cumberland County, Pennsylvania.Daniel W. Fisher: Calvin Wilson Mateer, Forty-Five Years a Missionary in Shantung, China, A Biography, The Westminster Press, Philadelphia, 1911 He graduated from Western Theological Seminary, Pittsburgh. After serving with the Presbyterian church of Delaware, Ohio, for two years,[https://books.google.com/books?id=2WHUAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA327 Ashahel Clark Crist, History of Marion Presbytery, Press of the Delaware Gazette, 1908] he arrived in Dengzhou (today part of Penglai City, Shandong) with his wife Julia Brown Mateer[https://archive.org/details/cu31924023221355 Robert McCheyne Mateer: Character-building in China: the life-story of Julia Brown Mateer, Fleming H. Revell Company, 1912] in early January 1864 and continued to work as a missionary in China for 45 years.

He was the chairman of the committee for Bible translation and presided over the translation of the widely circulated Chinese translation of the Holy Bible, The Chinese Union Version.Biblical Translation in Chinese and Greek: Verbal Aspect in Theory Page 81 T. S. Foley, Toshikazu S. Foley - 2009 "Mateer was the first American to publish a Mandarin primer. Similar to the three aforementioned missionaries, Mateer (ABCFM) had the distinguished role of chairing the translation committee of the Mandarin Union Version.89"

In 1882, Mateer founded Tengchow College as the first modern institution of higher education in China. Tengchow College became a predecessor of Cheeloo University, and finally of Shandong University.

His Course of Mandarin Lessons, based on idiom, first published in 1892,{{cite book

|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sT8HAQAAIAAJ

|title=A course of Mandarin lessons, based on idiom

|volume=

|year=1892

|author=Calvin Wilson Mateer

|editor=

|publisher=American Presbyterian Mission Press

|edition=

|location=SHANGHAI

|isbn=

|quote=

|pages=714

}} was a popular text for learners, garnering four further editions by 1922.{{cite web|title=A course of Mandarin lessons, based on idiom|url=https://www.worldcat.org/title/course-of-mandarin-lessons-based-on-idiom/oclc/77959421/editions?start_edition=1&sd=desc&referer=di&se=yr&editionsView=true&fq=|website=OCLC Worldcat|publisher=Worldcat|access-date=26 August 2017}}

He died in 1908 in Qingdao, China.

Image:Bible revision China.jpg, Chauncey Goodrich, Calvin Wilson Mateer, and Spencer Lewis, their respective Chinese language assistants on their left]]