A Look at China Part Three

Following the movement of Christians in China shows the potential of cross influences of Western and Eastern Culture over the millinea. General population may not have been aware of the two civilizations, but the awareness of religious, merchants and political leaders is a different story.

Christianity may have been in China as early as the first century.

The alleged visit to China of Thomas is mentioned in the books and church traditions of Saint Thomas Christians in India (Mar Thoma Syrian Church and the Syro-Malabar rites) who, for a part, claim descent from the early Christians evangelized by Thomas the Apostle in AD 52. For example, it is found in the Malayalam ballad Thomas Ramban Pattu (The Song of the Lord Thomas) with the earliest manuscript being from the 17th century. The sources clearly have Thomas coming to India, then to China, and back to India, where he died.

The common understandings of China as being isolated from the rest of the world has been slowly unraveling as we learn more about the civilization.

Christianity appears to have arrived in China in 6 major waves. Each time leaving a small pocket of believers.

1.) Christian Infancy - soon after the death of Jesus and the following first few centuries.

2.) Nestorian missions - during the Tang dynasty of the 7th century(600's).

The Tang dynasty (618-907) was “young and vigorous in 635” and ruled a much larger territory than any previous Chinese authority. Peace had been re-established between Persia and China and thus international trade along the Old Silk Road, the terminus of which was Chang’an, was flourishing. Along this route, Aluoben made his way, garbed in white robes to the emperor, carrying his sacred Christian scriptures. Once translated, and after the emperor had familiarized himself with their teachings, he issued the following edict:

The way does not have a common name and the sacred does not have a common form. Aluoben, the man of great virtue from the Da Qin Empire, came from a far land…his message is mysterious and wonderful beyond our understanding. The message is lucid and clear; the teachings will benefit all; and they shall be practiced throughout the land.
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A massive internal rebellion nearly toppled the Tang dynasty in the 750’s such that native elements began to revive. Confucianists and other cultural conservatives began to decry the foreign influence among them and, in turn, an anti-foreign-religion sentiment began to emerge. In 845 this culminated with an imperial edict limiting all foreign religion, including Christianity. Emperor Wuzong (814-846) a zealous Taoist, decreed “all foreign religions be banned.

3.) Mongol Rule and the Spread of Catholicism - during the Yuan dynasty (1206-1368).

Prior to the Ming ascension the Mongol court was open to Christian missionaries and even turned over the administration of parts of northern China to Christian tribesmen from Central Asia. From Rome, as already mentioned, the pope also sent Franciscan and Dominican missionaries, in an effort to establish ties with Eastern Christians and to form an alliance with the Mongol empire.

4.) The Jesuits, Matteo Ricci, and the Spread of Catholicism - during the Ming (1368–1644) and Qing (1636–1911) dynasties.

For the Chinese, it was common to practice whatever indigenous folk religion was common in a geographical region along with a syncretic blending-in of Buddhism and Taoism. Why couldn’t Christianity just be grafted onto the beliefs that they had been practicing for generations?

Ricci’s approach, therefore, was to try to “tie Christianity to traditional Chinese beliefs and practices by pointing out the similarities between them.”[60] Ricci and his colleges even adopted native dress, unheard of among the missionaries of his time, in order to better relate to and gain the respect of the people. He learned rapidly and made adjustments as needed. Initially, upon his arrival he adopted the dress of a Buddhist monk (bonz), only to soon learn that the bonzes were despised among certain influential people. When this mistake was pointed out he and his fellow Jesuits accommodated, and began dressing as Confucian scholars, complete with long beards.

The Dominicans and Franciscans disagreed with continuting the practice of Chinese Rites and after about 60 years of theological arguments Rome condemned the rites in 1704 and 1715.

1724, that the legal status of Christianity was rescinded. Yongsheng, upon assuming the throne, began to tighten his control over both the state and society at large, being very alert to what he perceived as possible departures from, threats to, or disloyalty towards imperial Confucian ideology. He labeled Christianity a heterodox sect, “subversive of Chinese culture and values… and renewed the expulsion of missionaries outside Beijing, calling for all of them to be taken to Guangzhou and held under detention.”[81] Christianity would remain an “illicit religion” until the 1840’s.

5.) Protestantism and Evangelicalism – missionaries, mainly from Western Europe and America, arrive and evangelize during the 19th and early 20th centuries.

First missionaries were restricted to the coastal trade cities. they were expanded into mainland China after the first Opium War.

The most important provisions of the first set of treaties (those enacted at the end of the first Opium War – more were to come at the conclusion of the second) were: 1) extraterritoriality (foreign citizens coming under the authority of their own consular as opposed to Chinese jurisdiction), 2) Christianity would no longer to be legally outlawed, 3) the opening up of five coastal cities for trade and residence for all foreigners as well as the right to build churches, schools, missionary residences etc. in these cities, and 4) the return of all former Church buildings to the Christians, regardless of their present status

6.) Indigenous Movements

The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, literally the Heavenly Kingdom of Great Peace, later shortened[2] to Heavenly Kingdom (simplified Chinese: 天国; traditional Chinese: 天國; pinyin: Tīanguó) or Heavenly Dynasty (Chinese: 天朝), was an unrecognized oppositional state in China and Christian-Shenic theocratic absolute monarchy from 1851 to 1864, supporting the overthrow of the Qing dynasty by Hong Xiuquan and his followers. The unsuccessful war it waged against the Qing is known as the Taiping Rebellion. Its capital was at Tianjing (present-day Nanjing).

A syncretic mystic called Hong Xiuquan led an army that controlled a significant part of southern China during the middle of the 19th century, eventually expanding to a size of nearly 30 million people. The rebel kingdom announced social reforms and the establishment of Bài Shàngdì Huì, holding that he was the second son of Shangdi and the younger brother of Jesus. The Taiping areas were besieged by Qing forces throughout most of the rebellion. The Qing government defeated the rebellion with the eventual aid of French and British forces.

‘The True Jesus Church”, “The Jesus Family”, “Little Flock”, and “Local Church” which, especially after the Cultural Revolution of the 1960’s and 70’s, began to grow.

A 1902 lecture on Taoism by Herbert Giles, a British diplomat to Manchu Qing dynasty, 1867 to 1892. (43 min.) Interesting on how much our general knowledge of Taoism has grown over the years.

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gv8_ggaAPj0]

A Look at China Part One
A Look at China Part Two

Open thread all discussions are welcome.