The volume, edited by Tao Feiya and featuring recent Chinese scholarly articles translated into English for the first time by Max L. Bohnenkamp, traces the history of Christianity in China and explores the dynamics of Christian practices in Chinese society. Its twenty chapters, written by Chinese scholars of the history of religion, span the development of Christianity in China from the era of the Tang Dynasty to the twentieth century. The four parts of the volume explore the Sinicization of Christian texts and thought, the conflicts within China between Christianity and Chinese institutions, relations between religious groups, and societal and political issues beyond religion. Taken together, this volume places the practice of Christianity in China into the context of world history, while investigating the particular and localized challenges of Christianity’s spread in China.
Tao Feiya (Ph.D.) is Professor in the Department of History and head of the Study of Religion and Chinese Society at Shanghai University. His research focuses on the history of Christianity in China. He publishes extensively in academic journals on the topic of Christianity in China.
Max L. Bohnenkamp (Ph.D., University of Chicago) teaches on modern and contemporary Chinese literature and culture and translates academic and literary texts from Mandarin to English.
Acknowledgements List of Tables Notes on Contributors
Introduction Tao Feiya
Part 1: The Sinicization of Scripture and Thought
1 The Chronology of the Tang Dynasty Jingjiao Nestorian Theologian Jingjing’s Writings and Translations in Relation to His Thought Zhu Donghua
2 The Fountainhead of Chinese-Language Christian Theology: Matteo Ricci’s “Doctrine of the Sovereign of Heaven” and Proof for the Existence of God Ji Jianxun
3 Interpretation of the Chinese Classics in a Cross-Cultural Linguistic Context: A Case Study of Antonio Caballero’s Imprints of Heaven on the Confucian Classics Wu Liwei
4 The Transmission of Catholicism to the East and the Restructuring of Early Qing Literati Thought: A Study on the Intellectual Tide of “Venerating Heaven” Liu Yunhua
5 Interpretation and Divergence: Responses to the Dissemination of Jesus’s Image in Ming and Qing Society Xiao Qinghe
6 Mary in the Poetry of Heavenly Learning during the Ming-Qing Transition Dai Guoqing
7 Dismantling Followed by Construction: The Writing Strategies of Karl Gützlaff’s Chinese Christian Fiction John Tsz-pang Lai
8 From Children’s Instructional Textbook to Missionary Tool: The Publication History of the Christian Three-Character Classic from 1823 to 1880 Guo Hong
9 The Changing Image of Martin Luther in Late Qing China Zhang Ke
Part 2: The Diversity of Conflict
10 Communities of Catholic Virgins in the Late Ming and Early Qing Dynasties Zhou Pingping
11 The Entanglements of “Chastity” and “Sex”: A Case Study of Culture Clash in the Fu’an and Suzhou Religious Incidents (1746–1748) during the Qianlong Period Kang Zhijie
12 The 1906 Nanchang Religious Incident and the Chinese-Western Press War in Shanghai Yang Xiongwei
13 A Difficult Petition: The 1895 Christian Missionary Memorial to the Qing Emperor Tao Feiya
Part 3: Relations between Religions
14 Reflections of the Relationship between Buddhism and Christianity during the Early Modern Era in The Chinese Recorder and Missionary Journal Yang Xiongwei and Wu Wenhui
15 The Dialogue between Islam and Christianity in the Republican Era from the Perspective of Christian Missionaries: A Study of Isaac Mason’s “Conciliatory” Strategy of Literary Evangelizing Liu Qinhua
16 The Christian Fundamentalist Understanding and Critique of the “Charismatic Movement” in Republican Era China Zhang Yongguang
17 The Role of China in the Dissemination of Christianity to the Korean Peninsula in the Early Modern Era Shu Jian
Part 4: Beyond Religion
18 Chinese and the Science of Language: The Search for a Chinese Research Methodology by Comparative Linguistics and Nineteenth-Century Sinology Chen Zhe and Ding Yan
19 The International Reform Bureau and the Origins of Collaborative International Drug Prohibition: A Case Study of the 1909 “International Opium Commission” Zhang Yong’an
20 Communism in the Discourse of Protestant Missionaries in China Yang Weihua
Index
University departments, libraries, and institutes, sinologists, historians of religion and Christianity, and other scholars and students interested in the history of Christianity in China.