Missionary Methods of Propagation

The European missionaries, in order to open the way for missionary work, took great care to combat the Sinocentric cultural outlook of the Chinese with the fact that highly developed civilizations also existed in Europe. Their translations of Western scientific and technological works, and their introduction to world geography and extra-territorial civilizations were all subordinated to this purpose.

During the Ming Dynasty, European missionaries imported both religion and science into China, spreading science no less than religion, because the Chinese needed scientific knowledge and could not gain the respect and faith of the scholars by talking only about religion. There were also missionaries in the early Kangxi period of the Qing Dynasty, but they seldom talked about science (except for some astronomical calendars), this is because the Han people did not dare to approach the Westerners, the missionaries lost the support of the scholars, and the religion was oppressed by the Manchu rulers, and could not be developed as smoothly as in the end of the Ming Dynasty. And at that time the missionaries who came to China were not much more scientifically literate than the scholars of Ming China.

The dominant factor in European thought in the 16th century was still theology, and science was still in the position of an auxiliary. The Jesuits organized education only to equip missionaries with the necessary knowledge to argue for the existence of God. The spread of the Principia Geometria is a good example. The most wonderful thing about the Principia is its strict logical system, and the purpose of the missionaries' study of the Principia was to apply this formal logic to religious arguments. In the eyes of the missionaries, science was merely a means of realizing God. Matteo Ricci, a missionary of the Ming Dynasty, was one of the pioneers of the Catholic mission in China, and was also the first Western scholar to read Chinese literature and to delve into the Chinese canon. As he said in his "Notes on China," "Compared with the mysteries of the Catholic faith, that [science] is a mere trifle." After Matteo Ricci, another president of the Chinese diocese, Long Huamin, even directly excluded science from the missionaries' words and deeds. It can be seen that the missionaries' knowledge of science and technology is far from the level of Xu Guangqi.

Take Matteo Ricci and Tang Ruowang for example. In the beginning, Matteo Ricci preached for the sake of preaching, and the result was quite unsuccessful as he bumped into nails everywhere. Matteo Ricci changed his strategy and decided to take a curvilinear approach to missionary work, first opening libraries to the public, displaying maps, publicizing western science and technology, etc., and then waiting for an opportunity to take action, which immediately changed the situation. These actions of Matteo Ricci not only attracted a lot of common people, but also recruited a lot of intellectuals, recruited to a large number of Chinese scholars pro-recruitment, and the influence is growing. First, Qu Taisu followed him, and Qu learned and made the celestial globe and astrolabe with his own hands. Later, more people learned mathematics from Matteo Ricci: there were famous scholars such as Gu Qiyuan, the governor Wang Pan, the son of the famous scholar Li Xinzhai and two of his students, and Zhang Yangmo, a student of Wang Kendang, a Hanlin at that time.

Fifteen years before Xu Guangqi's translation of Geometry (1592), some people had already begun to make attempts in this regard. The pioneer was Qu Taisu. However, it is clear that this translation is not Ricci's initiative and conscious, it is Qu Taisu for his own learning convenience and to show their own talent translation. The content of the translation was only the first volume of the Original Geometry.

When Matteo Ricci asked Zhang Yangmo to spread Christianity, Zhang said it was a waste of time and thought that teaching math to enlighten the Chinese would be enough to achieve his goal. When Zhang Yangmo tried to translate The Principles of Geometry, he was also rejected by Matteo Ricci. But when Ricci arrived in the capital, he found that if he did not provide the Chinese scholarly class with Western scientific and technological knowledge, the mutual interaction would be negative, and the number of people who came to visit him was far from what it used to be. Xu Guangqi insisted that "the arithmetic, the workers of the axe catty searching feet, the calendar and law of the two families next to all things, which made the palace apparatus, this matter can not be thorough, all things can not be easy to discuss", Matteo Ricci only reluctantly agreed to *** with the translation of the "Geometry Originally" requirements. In the process of translation, many of China's highest-ranking officials and scholars are involved in the discussion, such as Yang Tingjun, Li Zhizao, Ye Xianggao, Feng Yingjing, Cao Yubian, Zhao Kehuai, Zhu Zaibe, Wu Dasen. Among them, Ye Xianggao served three times after the 36th year of the Wanli reign as the highest-ranking civil official of the Ming Dynasty - the chief minister of the Cabinet.

In 32 years of the Wanli reign, Matteo Ricci said in a letter to Fan Li'an, the president of the Jesuits in the Far East, "We have had dealings with the eminent men of the capital, among whom there are university scholars, Shanglangs, ministers, and members of the clan of the nearest branch. We taught them that the earth is in the center of the universe, and that the sun and moon eclipse. We also made them an armillary sphere, a globe, and a map of the world, and answered their numerous questions. From then on, they could no longer think that the Westerners were ignorant." To Chongzhen 9 years (1636), the Ming officials scholar into Catholicism, there are 14 first-class officers, 10 jinshi, 11 people, students 300 people. Chongzhen 13 years, the court of the Ming Dynasty and the royal family baptized into the religion of the Consort 3 people, 50 palace girls, eunuchs more than 40 people, more than 140 members of the royal family. Nationwide, it is estimated that by the end of the Ming Dynasty, up to 40,000 to 50,000 people were baptized into the Church. It can be seen that the late Ming dynasty has been quite strong up and down the reverence for Western learning, Western education atmosphere. Although the contradictions between Chinese and Western cultures were manifested in the treatment of missionaries and their missionary activities, but the general trend is that the degree of Western learning is more and more in-depth.

Matthew Ricci's success made the missionaries realize that in order to succeed in their missionary work in China, they had to learn the Chinese language and script and respect the Chinese rituals and customs of respecting heaven, worshipping their ancestors, and worshipping Confucius, and that "the best way to do that is to collect people's hearts and minds through scholarship". So most of the missionaries came to China were the learned men of the West at that time, with high attainments in science, to propagate the Western scientific civilization as an important means of missionary work. One of the largest is the French missionary Jinnige in 1620 with 7,000 books, "Jinnige far to repair the tribute, in addition to the square object has more than 7,000 decorative books ...... books to see ton Xiangshan Ao, so that one day to offer the Ming court." Among these books, "in addition to our libraries have studied the humanities, philosophy, theology, doctrine and other masterpieces, the rest of the search for medicine, jurisprudence, music, but also a lot of books, and today's invention of mathematical books, it can be said that everything." The missionaries compiled and published on the one hand, but also with the cooperation of Chinese scholars, writing directly in Chinese, to China to spread the knowledge of Western natural science. It was in this context that advanced Western firearms technology began to be introduced to China.

And look at the situation of the German missionary Tang Ruowang in China. Tang Ruowang in the Ming Dynasty when a lot of writing, he participated in the preparation of translations of the works are "far mirror said", "the main system of group signs", "kunyi gezhi", "armillary sphere said" five volumes, "Western measurement of the calendar" volume, "civil calendar to supplement the explanation of the confusion" volume, "the big test" volume, "eight star charts," "sidereal table" volume, "the eclipse calendar refers to the" seven volumes, "measurement of the eclipse said" volume, "measurement of the sky said" volume, "the new law of the calendar" introduction A volume, "Calendar Western Biography", "the main system of group levy" two volumes, "ancient and modern cross-eating test" a volume, "academic small defense" a volume of curricula: "a," Stellar out of the "and" cross-eating table "and so on, which involves astronomical calendars, basically are included in the" Chongzhen Calendar "or" Chongzhen Calendar "is related to. The end of the Ming Dynasty, Tang Ruowang also wrote the entire manufacturing process of Western artillery, "Fire Attack" book. Under Manchu rule, "from 1644 to 1663, Tang Ruowang had no more creative writings."

Chongzhen twelve years, the Catholic missionary Bi Fangji directly to the Chongzhen Emperor on the rich country and strong military four said Ming calendar to show that the great system, one said that the identification of mineral veins in order to rich military needs, one said that through the Western business to the official sea profit, one said that the purchase of Western cannons in order to capitalize on the war defense." Chongzhen emperor with an enlightened attitude to play. But soon Ming died, did not play a role.

Matthew Ricci died in Beijing in 1610 (Wanli 38) at the age of 59. During his lifetime, his followers had amounted to more than 200 people. According to customary practice, foreigners should be buried in Macao after death, but the Chinese in order to commemorate Matteo Ricci, petitioned the imperial court, applying for a land grant, buried in Beijing. Emperor Shenzong of Ming Dynasty made an exception and granted the request, personally gave the burial fee, and gave the western suburb of Beijing "Erligou Buddhist Temple, thirty-eight houses, twenty acres of land, to give burial to Matteo Ricci", "set up a stone for the text to remember", and the tombstone was set up by the Shuntian prefectural magistrate, Wang Yinglin. When he was buried in October of this year, all the civil and military officials attended the funeral, which was very solemn and solemn. Italian Jesuit missionaries have recorded, "when an internal eunuch said to the Minister Ye Wenzhong (cited note: that is, the Cabinet Chief Ye Xianggao) said: 'all the guests from afar, from ancient times are not given a funeral, why is it only thick in the Lizi?', Wenzhong said: 'the guests, from ancient times are not given a funeral, why is it only thick in the Lizi? , Wenzhong said: 'I see from the ancient guests, their moral learning has as Li Zi person? If no matter what else, namely its translation 'geometry originally' a book, that is appropriate to give burial place.'" Cabinet chief so valued "Geometry originally", the ruling class of the Ming Dynasty can be seen on the importance of science and extraordinary mind. After the death of Matteo Ricci, the church authorities in Macao, under the pretext that missionary work should be fundamental, did not allow missionaries to spread science. When Xiong Sanpai in Xu Guangqi asked for a joint translation of the "Thai and Western water law" showed absent-mindedness, so that Xu Guangqi was very dissatisfied, said "you can see his people".

In the 44th year of the Wanli reign (1616), the Minister of Rites, Mr. Shen Qiao, arrested the Catholic missionary Wang Fengsu and others in Nanjing, which is known as the Nanjing Case. After the death of Matteo Ricci, the Catholic Church prohibited the practice of rituals such as heavenly worship, ancestor worship, and worship, in direct opposition to traditional Chinese thought. Xu Changzhi compiled a collection of articles on Catholicism, arguing that the Catholic Church undermined the Chinese ethical order and sought to do wrong, and argued for the expulsion of foreign missionaries. In the collection of anti-Catholic writings at the end of the Ming Dynasty, the Sacred Pilgrimage of the Breaking of Evil Collection, there are the following five typical materials criticizing the soul of the Catholic Church: 1) Huang Zhen's "Invitation to Mr. Yan Zhuangqi to Expel the Catholic Church"; 2) Xu Dashou's "The Sacred Pilgrimage of the Breaking of Evil Collection" No. 3 "Expel the Breaking of Evil"; 3) Lin Qilu's "Theory on the Execution of the Barbarians"; 4) Yuan Wou's "Three Sermons on the Defense of Heaven"; and 5) Feiyin's The original path to dispel the evil" of the third "to reveal the evil not to follow the original to three souls to confuse the world". It was not until 1629, when the Chongzhen Emperor re-calendared the calendar, that the missionaries' plight took a turn for the worse.

Early in the 17th century, Francis of Assisi, Dominican and other European religious missionaries came to China under the good missionary situation opened by Matteo Ricci. They were both envious and jealous of the Jesuits' achievements, but at the same time they did not agree with the Jesuits' strategy of taking the upper line, and they were very dissatisfied with the prevalence of ancestor worship and funeral ceremonies, and with the Jesuits' practice of allowing Chinese parishioners to enter ancestral shrines and Confucian temples, believing that the Chinese ceremonies were of a religiously superstitious nature, and that they should be put to an end.

In 1643 the Dominican Fathers, Lai Yuk Fan, traveled to Rome to present to the Pope seventeen accusations against the Jesuits.

In Japan, a large number of people have voluntarily converted to Roman Catholicism since the first Jesuit missionary, St. Francis Xavier, arrived in Kyushu in 1549. But the Spanish conquest of the Philippine Islands in 1571 and their subsequent domination of the Philippines with the Portuguese in 1580 made Toyotomi Hideyoshi and the Tokugawa Shogunate, which succeeded him, fear that the Spaniards would use Japanese converts to Catholicism as a "fifth column" in their attempts to conquer Japan. As early as 1587, Toyotomi Hideyoshi ordered the expulsion of Christian missionaries, and in 1614, the Tokugawa Shogunate issued a royal decree banning Christian activity in Japan, where Christianity was brutally persecuted between 1622 and 1638.

The Manchu rulers, unlike those of the Ming Dynasty, rejected all Western science and technology, which was a far cry from the attitude of the late Ming scholars who actively studied the West. The change from theoretical refutation to political prohibition of Yelpism was in fact a retrograde step. For example, in 1805 (10th year of the Jiaqing period), the Manchu Qing Dynasty prohibited Westerners from inscribing books, preaching and establishing schools in China. (1842-1860) The relationship between missionary work and unequal treaties has always been avoided by the Chinese churches; in addition to the sensitive political factors involved, it is also related to many complex theological issues, such as the relationship between church and state and the evaluation of the history of missionary work, so it is difficult to teach people to discuss it in a peaceful manner. However, if we go a little beyond the circle of Christianity, we will realize that it is really difficult to escape this issue, nor can we brush it off lightly. From a historical point of view, over the past hundred years or so, Chinese people have continuously made similar accusations against Christianity, such as Christianity being a tool of imperialist invasion of China, missionaries being the vanguard of the invasion of China, etc. This historical phenomenon, of course, cannot be explained away by the misunderstanding and prejudice of the Chinese people alone. From a practical point of view, such historical accusations still exist to a considerable extent in the historiographical circles, and are by no means confined to Chinese historians; their views are at least partly based on facts. Therefore, even if we are emotionally resistant to accepting, or even understanding, these attacks on Christianity, we still have to face them, or at least understand why they have arisen.

When Protestantism came to China in the nineteenth century, it did so at a time when the country was facing a great change of fortune the likes of which it had not seen for ages. The Western imperialist countries, with their superiority in ships and artillery brought about by the industrial and technological revolutions, were blasting through China's gates with overwhelming force. In the face of the invasion, China was forced to make concessions again and again, since the Treaty of Nanking, and continuously with the West to conclude a number of unequal treaties; cession of land and compensation, the loss of rights, more importantly, as a country, her sovereignty and independence has been seriously jeopardized. How strong the sense of humiliation and the sense of national crisis felt by the people of the country can be imagined.

Only when we recognize this background of the introduction and development of Christianity can we understand the xenophobic mentality of the Chinese people; why the anti-Christian incidents occurred one after another, and why the irrational treatment of Christianity by the Chinese people did not become incomprehensible. If we look at the situation of the church in isolation from modern Chinese history, we will never be able to reach that true picture.