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REINTERPRETING THE HISTORY OF CHRISTIANITY IN CHINA*

Part of: Historiographical Reviews

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 May 2012

D. E. MUNGELLO
D. E. MUNGELLO*
Affiliation:
Baylor University
*
Baylor University, One Bear Place #97306, Waco, TX76798, USAD_E_Mungello@baylor.edu
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Abstract

In the last thirty-five years there has been a fundamental reinterpretation of the history of Christianity in China. This reinterpretation has resulted from a changing atmosphere in China that has greatly reduced anti-Christian feelings and allowed for more extensive study of Chinese historical documents. In addition, there has been a remarkable growth among Chinese Christian churches. These changes have led to a reconceptualization of the role Christianity played in China's long-term history. As a result, there has been a transformation from viewing Christianity as a failed foreign graft to a creative indigenous force. This historiographical review surveys the evolution of this reinterpretation as well as the most significant recent publications on the topic.

Type
Historiographical Review
Information
The Historical Journal , Volume 55 , Issue 2 , June 2012 , pp. 533 - 552
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2012

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Footnotes

*

This historiographical review deals with the continuous development of Christianity since its reintroduction into China in 1579 and excludes the earlier, ultimately abortive, attempts by the Nestorian Christians in 635–845 in the Tang dynasty and by the Franciscans and Nestorian Christians in the Mongol period (1279–1368). I would like to thank Jonathan Chaves, Ad Dudink, Nicolas Standaert, and R. G. Tiedemann for their assistance in writing this historiographical review.

References

1 Beatrice Kit Fun Leung, ‘The missionaries’, in R. G. Tiedemann, ed., Handbook of Christianity in China, ii: 1800–present (Leiden, 2010), p. 794.

2 Arnulf Camps, ‘Catholic missionaries (1800–1860)’, in Tiedemann, ed., Handbook of Christianity in China, ii, pp. 118–26.

3 Wiest, Jean-Paul, ‘Bringing Christ to the nations: shifting models of mission among Jesuits in China’, Catholic Historical Review, 83 (1997), pp. 667–8CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

4 Ibid., pp. 669–74.

5 Edward J. Malatesta, SJ, ‘Two Chinese Catholic universities and a major Chinese Catholic thinker: Zhendan Daxue, Furen Daxue, and Ma Xiangbo’, in Jeroom Heyndrickx, CICM, ed., Historiography of the Chinese Catholic church: nineteenth and twentieth centuries (Leuven, 1994), pp. 235–7.

6 Lü Tongliu (probably a pseudonym), ‘Koutong Zhong-Xi wenhua de xianquzhe – Li Matou’ (Matteo Ricci – a pioneer in linking Chinese and Western cultures), Renmin ribao, 4 Nov. 1979, p. 7.

7 Two books which emerged out of this atmosphere and which influenced me were the attempts to create a religious synthesis by the Jesuit William Johnston in his The still point: reflections on Zen and Christian mysticism (New York, NY, 1971) and Christian Zen (New York, NY, 1971).

8 Levenson, Joseph R., Confucian China and its modern fate: a trilogy (Berkeley, CA, 1958–65), i, p. 120Google Scholar.

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10 Mungello, D. E., Curious land: Jesuit accommodation and the origins of Sinology (Stuttgart, 1985), p. 14 et passimGoogle Scholar.

11 In 1988, when I was searching for a more broadly historical title to rename the China Mission Studies (1550–1800) Bulletin, 1 (1979) – 9 (1988), Fairbank helped me with several suggestions. I eventually chose to create a new title by translating the Chinese term for Sino-Western history ‘Zhong-Xi wenhua jiaoliu’ (Sino-Western cultural relations) as a bridge to build greater involvement with Chinese scholars in the field.

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15 See Jacques Gernet, Christus kam bis nach China: eine erste Begegnung und ihr Scheitern, trans. Christine Mäder-Virágh (Zurich, 1984); Jacques Gernet, Cina e cristianesimo: azione e reazione, trans. Adriano Prosperi (Casale Monferrato, 1984); Jacques Gernet, China and the Christian impact: a conflict of cultures, trans. Janet Lloyd (New York, NY, 1985); Jacques Gernet, Zhongguo he Jidu jiao: Zhongguo he Ouzhou wen hua zhi bi jiao, trans. Geng Sheng (Shanghai, 1991; supplemented and revised edn, 2003).

16 In contrast to Levenson's pessimism about the survival of Confucianism in modern China, a far more optimistic view was held by de Bary, Wm. Theodore. See the Arthur Waldron's review of de Bary's Confucian tradition and global education: the Tang Chun-I Lectures for 2005, in Sino-Western Cultural Relations Journal, 31 (2009), pp. 70–4Google Scholar.

17 Gernet's Chine et christianisme was reprinted in an ‘edited, revised and corrected’ version with a different subtitle as Chine et christianisme: la première confrontation (Paris, 1991).

18 Zürcher, Erik, The Buddhist conquest of China: the spread and adaptation of Buddhism in early medieval China (Leiden, 1959; 2nd edn, 1972; 3rd edn, 2007)Google Scholar.

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20 Zürcher, Erik, Bouddhisme, Christianisme et société chinoise (Paris, 1990), p. 24Google Scholar.

21 Possibly Gernet was responding, in part, to my review of Chine et Christianisme that appeared in the New York Times Book Review, 7 Sept. 1986, pp. 32–3.

22 Gernet, Chine et Christianisme: la première confrontation, pp. ii–iii.

23 Xing, Tan (Liu Xiaofeng), ‘Culture Christians on the China mainland’, Tripod, 6 (1990), p. 50Google Scholar.

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25 Xianqing, Zhang, Guanfu, Zongzu yu Tianzhujiao – 17–19 shiji Fuan xiangcun jiaohui de lishi xushi (State, lineage and Catholicism – a narrative of the history of the church in seventeenth- to nineteenth-century rural Fuan) (Beijing, 2009)Google Scholar.

26 Menegon, Eugenio, Ancestors, virgins, and friars: Christianity as a local religion in late imperial China (Cambridge, MA, 2009)Google Scholar. For a study on Protestants in Fujian in a later period, see Dunch, Ryan, Fuzhou Protestants and the making of a modern China 1857–1927 (New Haven, CT, 2001)Google Scholar.

27 Boxer, C. R., review of Johannes Bettray, SVD's Die Akkommodationsmethode des P. Matteo Ricci S. I. in China, in Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies. University of London, 19 (1957), p. 201Google Scholar.

28 J. S. Cummins, review of Lettere del Manoscritto Maceratese: Matteo Ricci, ed. Chiara Zeuli, and Jesuit letters from China, 1583–1584, ed. and trans. Howard Rienstra, in China Quarterly, 115 (1988), p. 495.

29 Needham, Joseph, Science and civilization in China, ii: Introductory orientations (Cambridge, 1954), p. 148Google Scholar.

30 Peter Duus, ‘The missionary and his contribution to China: science and salvation in China: the life and work of W. A. P. Martin (1827–1916)’, in Kwang-Ching Liu, ed., American missionaries in China, p. 34.

31 Cronin, Vincent, The wise man from the West (New York, NY, 1955)Google Scholar, and Fernando Bortone, SI, P. Matteo Ricci S. I. Il ‘Saggio d’ occidente’: un grande Italiano nella Cina Impenetrabile (1552–1619) (Rome, 1965)Google Scholar.

32 Mungello, Curious land, pp. 46–8.

33 The French translation was republished in 1978 as Ricci, Matthieu, Trigault, Nicolas, Histoire de l'expédition chrétienne au royaume de la Chine (1582–1610) (Paris, 1978)Google Scholar. A new and widely read English translation was made by Gallagher, Louis J., SJ, entitled China in the sixteenth century: the journals of Matthew Ricci, 1582–1610 (New York, NY, 1953)Google Scholar.

34 SI, Matteo Ricci, Fonti Ricciane: storia dell'Introduzione del Cristianesimo in Cina (3 vols., Rome, 1942–9)Google Scholar. For background to this work, see Roman Malek, SVD, ‘The legacy of Pasquale d'Elia SJ (1890–1963): mission historian and Sinologist’, Sino-Western Cultural Relations Journal, 32 (2010), pp. 18–61Google Scholar.

35 Edward J. Malatesta, SJ, ed., Matteo Ricci, SJ: the true meaning of the Lord of Heaven (T'ien-chu shih-i) trans. Douglas Lancashire and Peter Hu Kuo-Chen, SJ (St Louis, 1985).

36 Lackner, Michael, Das Vergessene Gedächtnis: die jesuitische mnemotechnische Abhandlung Xiguo jifa. Übersetzung und Kommentar (Stuttgart, 1986)Google Scholar.

37 Ricci, Matteo, On friendship: one hundred maxims for a Chinese prince, trans. Timothy Billings (New York, NY, 2009)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

38 Zeuli, Chiara, ed., Lettere del manoscritto maceratese: Matteo Ricci (Macerata, 1985)Google Scholar, and Howard Rienstra, H., ed. and trans., Jesuit letters from China, 1583–1584 (Minneapolis, MN, 1986Google Scholar).

39 Spence, Jonathan D., The memory palace of Matteo Ricci (New York, NY, 1984)Google Scholar.

40 Matteo Ricci, Chīn nāmah, trans. Muhammed Zamān, surnamed Farangīkhwān, eds. Lu Jin and Muzaffar Bakhtiytār (Tehran, 2008).

41 Hsia, R. Po-chia, A Jesuit in the forbidden city: Matteo Ricci, 1552–1610 (Oxford, 2010)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

42 Fontana, Michela, Matteo Ricci: un gesuita alla corte dei Ming (Milan, 2005)Google Scholar; Matteo Ricci: un jésuite à la cour des Ming, trans. Robert Kremer (Paris, 2010), and Matteo Ricci: a Jesuit in the Ming court, trans. Paul Metcalfe (Lanham, MD, 2011).

43 Fontana, Matteo Ricci: a Jesuit in the Ming court, p. 310.

44 Laven, Mary, Mission to China: Matteo Ricci and the Jesuit encounter with the East (London, 2011)Google Scholar.

45 Standaert, Nicolas, Yang Tingyun, Confucian and Christian in late Ming China: his life and thought (Leiden, 1988)Google Scholar, and The interweaving of rituals: funerals in the cultural exchange between China and Europe (Seattle, WA, 2008). Elsewhere, Hsia appears unaware that Michele Ruggieri's important role as the first Jesuit to work in China (and Ricci's predecessor) has long been clarified by several scholars, including in articles by Kund Lundbaek (1912–95) and Joseph Sebes, SJ (1915–90). See Lundbaek, Knud, ‘The first translation from a Confucian classic in Europe’, China Mission Studies (1550–1800) Bulletin, 1 (1979), pp. 1–11Google Scholar. and Joseph Sebes, SJ, ‘The precursors of Ricci’, in Charles E. Ronan, SJ, and Bonnie B. C. Oh, eds., East meets West: the Jesuits in China, 1582–1773 (Chicago, IL, 1982), pp. 19–61. This important collection is another work not cited by Hsia.

46 Nicolas Standaert, SJ, ‘New trends in the historiography of Christianity in China’, Catholic Historical Review, 82 (1997), p. 573CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

47 Hsia appears to miss the significance of Gernet's subtitle change from Chine et christianisme: action et réaction (1st edn, 1982) to Chine et christianisme: la première confrontation (2nd edn, 1991) and twice mistakenly combines the title of the original edition with the subtitle of the revised edition. Po-chia Hsia, A Jesuit in the forbidden city, pp. 329 and 347.

48 Erik Zürcher, trans., Kouduo richao. Li Jiubiao's diary of oral admonitions: a late Ming Christian journal (2 vols., Nettetal, 2007).

49 See Hsia, Florence C., Sojourners in a strange land: Jesuits in their scientific missions in late imperial China (Chicago, IL, 2009)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

50 A number of important works on China Jesuits have been published in other European languages. On Aleni, see the preliminary study by Menegon, Eugenio, Un solo cielo. Giulio Aleni SJ (1582–1649): geografia, arte, scienza, religion dall'Europa alla Cina (Brescia, 1994)Google Scholar. There has been a collaborative effort to publish the works of Martino Martini in an annotated edition entitled Martino Martini SJ opera omnia (Trento, 1998–2010) under the editorial direction of Franco DeMarchi. Four volumes have appeared, as follows: i: Lettere e documenti, eds. Giuliano Bertuccioli; ii: Opere minori, ed. Giuliano Bertuccioli; iii, in 2 books: Novus atlas Sinensis, ed. Giuliano Bertuccioli; and iv, in 2 books: Sinicae historiae decas prima, eds. Federico Masini and Luisa M. Paternicò. Also see the symposium collection edited by Malek, Roman and Zingerle, Arnold, Martino Martini SJ (1614–1661) und die Chinamission im 17. Jahrhundert (Nettetal, 2000)Google Scholar. On Bouvet, see Collani, Claudia von, P. Joachim Bouvet SJ – Sein Leben und Sein Werk (Nettetal, 1985)Google Scholar.

51 See Eber, Irene et al., eds., Bible in modern China: the literary and intellectual impact (Nettetal, 1999)Google Scholar; Zetzsche, Jost Oliver, The Bible in China: the history of the Union version (Nettetal, 1999)Google Scholar; and Gálik, Marián, Influence, translation and parallels: selected studies on the Bible in China (Nettetal, 2004)Google Scholar.

52 See Golvers, Noël, ed., The Christian mission in China in the Verbiest era (Leuven, 1999)Google Scholar, and Golvers, Noël, François de Rougemont, SJ, missionary in Ch'ang-shu (Chiang-nan): a study of the account book (1674–1676) and the Elogium (Leuven, 1999)Google Scholar.

53 See Standaert, Yang Tingyun, Confucian and Christian.

54 On Zhang Xingyao, see Mungello, D. E., The forgotten Christians of Hangzhou (Honolulu, 1994)Google Scholar, and Han, Qi, (Zhang Xingyao and the Collected discussions on the imperial decrees concerning the missionaries), Sino-Western Cultural Relations Journal, 22 (2000), pp. 1–10 (introduction in English)Google Scholar. On Shang Huqing, see Mungello, D. E., The spirit and the flesh in Shandong (Lanham, MD, 2001), pp. 32–54Google Scholar, or Chinese translation by Lin, Pan, Ling yu Rou: Shandong de Tianzhujiao, 1650–1785 (Beijing, 2009), pp. 35–65Google Scholar.

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56 Sachsenmaier, Dominic, Die Aufnahme europäischer Inhalte in die chinesische Kultur durch Zhu Zongyuan (ca. 1616–1666) (Sankt Augustin, 2001)Google Scholar.

57 Laarmann, Lars P., Christian heretics in late imperial China: Christian inculturation and state control, 1720–1850 (London, 2006)Google Scholar.

58 Daniel H. Bays, ‘The growth of independent Christianity’, in idem, ed., Christianity in China from the eighteenth century to the present (Stanford, CA, 1996), pp. 309–10.

59 Xi, Lian, Redeemed by fire: the rise of popular Christianity in modern China (New Haven, CT, 2010)Google Scholar.

60 Daniel H. Bays, ‘Leading Protestant individuals’, in Tiedemann, ed., Handbook of Christianity in China, ii, p. 621.

61 Lian, Redeemed by fire, p. 47. For an account of Hong Xiuquan's 1837 striking vision, see Spence, Jonathan D., God's Chinese son: the Taiping heavenly kingdom of Hong Xiuquan (New York, NY, 1996), pp. 46–50Google Scholar.

62 Lian, Redeemed by fire, p. 71.

63 Bays, ‘The growth of independent Christianity’, p. 314.

64 Lian, Redeemed by fire, pp. 118–22.

65 Ibid., pp. 137–8.

66 Ibid., p. 155.

67 Ibid., p. 152.

68 Ibid., pp. 152–4.

69 Ibid., pp. 155–78.

70 Ibid., pp. 156–67.

71 Ibid., p. 170.

72 Ibid., p. 176.

73 Bays, ‘The growth of independent Christianity’, pp. 311–12. See the hagiographical biography of Ni by Angus Kinnear, Against the tide (Wheaton, IL, 1978), and the attempt to reconstruct Ni's teaching by Angus Kinnear in Watchman Nee, What shall this man do?, ed. Angus Kinnear (Wheaton, IL, 1978).

74 Bays, ‘Leading Protestant individuals’, pp. 615–16.

75 Zhang Kaiyuan, ‘Chinese perspective – a brief review of the historical research on Christianity in China’, in Stephen Uhalley, Jr, and Xiaoxin Wu, eds., China and Christianity: burdened past, hopeful future (Armonk, NY, 2000), pp. 29–31.

76 See Caibo, Xiu, Jindai xueren yu Zhong-Xi jiaotongshi yanjiu (Modern scholars and the history of research in Sino-Western communication) (Beijing, 2010)Google Scholar.

77 The academic family of John Dragon Young (Yang) included the well-known translator Yang Xianyi (1915–2009) and his wife Gladys (née Tayler) Yang (1919–99) who remained in China after the Communist triumph and became the pre-eminent English translators of Chinese literature for the Foreign Language Press of Beijing. See Necrology of John Dragon Young, in Sino-Western Cultural Relations Journal, 19 (1997), pp. 1–5.

78 Young, John D., Confucianism and Christianity: the first encounter (Hong Kong, 1983)Google Scholar.

79 Yong, Ma, ‘Jindai Ouzhou Hanxuejia de xianqu Maerdini’ (Martino Martini – pioneer of modern European Sinology), Lishi Yanjiu (Beijing), 6 (1980), pp. 153–68Google Scholar.

80 For an Italian translation of the Martini's essay on friendship, Qiuyou pian (De Amicitia) (1661), along with a facsimile reproduction of the Chinese text, see Franco Demarchi, ed., Opera omnia/Martino Martini, trans. Giuliano Bertuccioli (5 vols., Trento, 1998), ii, pp. 173–348.

81 Lin Jinshui, ‘Chinese literati and the rites controversy’, trans. Hua Xu, in The Chinese rites controversy: its history and meaning, ed. D. E. Mungello (Nettetal, 1994), pp. 65–82.

82 See Dingping, Shen, ‘Zhongguo gudai sixiang dui Ouzhou Qimeng yundong de yingxiang’ (The influence of ancient Chinese thought upon the Enlightenment movement of Western Europe), China Mission Studies (1550–1800) Bulletin, 9 (1987), pp. 3–8Google Scholar, reprinted from Wenshi Zhishi (Cultural and historical knowledge), 1 (1986), pp. 59–64; Zhenhua, Hao, ‘Liang Shining Zhongguo Xi yu zhan tu de shishi ji yiyi’ (The historical circumstances and significance of Castiglione's war paintings of the Qianlong emperor's campaign against the Dzungars in the northwestern border region), Sino-Western Cultural Relations Journal, 13 (1991), pp. 18–32Google Scholar, reprinted from Meishu shilun (Essays on historical paintings) (Beijing), 3 (1989); and Jinshui, Lin, ‘Shilun Nan Huairen dui Kangxi Tianzhujiao zhengce de yingxiang’ (An examination of the influence of F. Verbiest on the policies of the Kangxi emperor toward the Catholic church), Sino-Western Cultural Relations Journal, 14 (1992), pp. 1–21Google Scholar, reprinted from Shijie Zongjiao Yanjiu (World religion research), 1 (1991), pp. 54–67.

83 Yilong, Huang, ‘Zong “Shi xin lu xu” xijiu Yang Guangxian de xingge’ (Explaining Yang Guangxian's temperament by drawing from the Shi xin lu preface), Sino-Western Cultural Relations Journal, 16 (1994), pp. 1–18Google Scholar.

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86 Min, Wu and Qi, Han, eds., Ouzhou suo cang Yongzheng Qianlong chao Tianzhujiao wenxian huibian (Shanghai, 2008)Google Scholar.

87 Takata, Tokio, L'inventaire des livres chinois de la Bibliothèque Vaticane (Kyoto, 1995)Google Scholar. Takata has produced this revised and edited version of Paul Pelliot's typescript ‘Inventaire sommaire des manuscrits et imprimés chinois de la Bibliothèque Vaticane’ (Rome, 1922). See also Takata's Supplément à l'inventaire des livres chinois de la Bibliothèque Vaticane (Kyoto, 1997) and Dong, Yu, Catalogo delle opera cinesi missionaire della Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana (XVI–XVIII sec.) (Vatican, 1996)Google Scholar.

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90 Courant, Maurice, Catalogue des livres chinois de la Bibliothèque Nationale (3 vols., Paris, 1902–12)Google Scholar. The Mission Étrangères de Paris Archives is located at 128 rue du Bac, Paris.

91 www.arts.kuleuven.be/sinology/cct.

92 For the Western-language books in the Beitang Library, see CM, H. Verhaeren, Catalogue le la bibliothèque du Pé-tang (Beijing, 1949)Google Scholar. During my visit to Shanghai in 1986 for the purpose of gaining access to the Zikawei Library, I was given access to two large European-style volumes (sheet size 52 cm×33 cm) of a hand-written catalogue that contained the Western-language books. (See Mungello, D. E., ‘The Xujiahui (Zikawei) Library of Shanghai in 1986’, China Mission Studies (1550–1800) Bulletin, 8 (1986), pp. 41–56Google Scholar.) According to Jonathan Chaves, who visited the Zikawei Library in May 2011, these Western-language books are available in the reopened Zikawei Library.

93 Dudink, Ad, ‘The Chinese Christian books of the former Beitang Library’, Sino-Western Cultural Relations Journal, 26 (2004), pp. 46–59Google Scholar.

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95 Dudink, Ad, ‘The Chinese Christian texts in the Zikawei Collection in Shanghai: a preliminary and partial list’, Sino-Western Cultural Relations Journal, 33 (2011), pp. 1–41Google Scholar.

96 King, Gail, ‘Couplets’ biography of Madame Candida Xu (1607–1680)’, Sino-Western Cultural Relations Journal, 18 (1996), pp. 41–56Google Scholar; King, Gail, ‘Candida Xu and the growth of Christianity in China in the seventeenth century’, Monumenta Serica, 46 (1998), pp. 49–66CrossRefGoogle Scholar, and King, Gail, ‘Four editions of Couplet's biography of Madame Candida Xu’, Sino-Western Cultural Relations Journal, 31 (2009), pp. 56–63Google Scholar.

97 See Robert Entenmann, ‘Christian virgins in eighteenth-century Sichuan’, in Bays, ed., Christianity in China from the eighteenth century to the present, pp. 180–93.

98 Menegon, Ancestors, virgins and friars, pp. 301–56.

99 Mungello, D. E., Drowning girls in China: female infanticide since 1650 (Lanham, MD, 2008), pp. 63–70Google Scholar.

100 Harrison, Henrietta, ‘“A penny for the little Chinese”: The French Holy Childhood Association in China, 1843–1951’, American Historical Review, 113 (2008), pp. 76–8CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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102 See Michelle Tien King, ‘Drowning daughters: a cultural history of female infanticide in late nineteenth-century China’ (doctoral dissertation, California, 2007).

103 Ricci, On friendship, p. 97.