From the ministry to diplomacy
Williams was born in Columbus, Ohio, in 1854. He graduated from Bethany College in 1875 and was ordained in the Disciples of Christ Church that year. After serving American congregations, he went to China in 1887 as a missionary. Nine years of that work, chiefly in Nanjing, gave him the opportunity to study Chinese language, history and customs.
In 1896 he became an interpreter at the American Consulate-General in Shanghai. He subsequently worked as a translator for the Chinese government before serving as Chinese Secretary of the American Legation in Beijing and Consul-General at Tianjin.
Williams moved between China and Washington during the fall of the Qing dynasty and the establishment of the republic. As chargé d’affaires in Beijing in 1913, he represented the United States when it recognised the Chinese Republic. He headed the State Department’s Division of Far Eastern Affairs from 1914 to 1918. This diplomatic background later informed books that introduced Chinese institutions and political change to English-speaking readers.
Scholarship and the history of alchemy
In 1918 Williams accepted the Agassiz professorship of Oriental Languages and Literature at Berkeley. Government work continued to interrupt his teaching: he advised the American delegation at the Paris Peace Conference in 1919 and returned to conference work in Washington in 1921–1922. His major books included China Yesterday and Today, published in 1923, and A Short History of China, published in 1928. He retired in 1927 but remained active in correspondence and writing until his later years. He died in Berkeley in 1944.
