in the North had already been moved to Hsiwantzu in Northern Chihli, about thirty miles northeast of Kalgan and not far outside the Great Wall. Here was a Christian settlement and here a Chinese Superior with the aid of other Chinese priests held the work together.152 It was not until about 1836 that a European, Mouly, arrived to relieve him.15 In many parts of China the spiritual tone of the Church was a cause for anxiety. Christians often went for years without an opportunity for confession or instruction and as a result were conforming to their nonChristian environment. Frequently they were poverty-stricken and some had apostatized. Even in Macao the Chinese Christians were sometimes neglected and were said by one observer to be religiously in a deplorable condition. The Portuguese authorities, too, made Macao uncomfortable for priests of other nationalities and occasionally even for the members of the religious orders of their own people." There were but scant intimations of the great changes which were soon to usher in more prosperous days for Catholic missions. One era was approaching its end and only faint traces were to be seen of the dawn which was to inaugurate a new one. 154 156 155 Just how many Catholic Christians were in China at the close of the old era will probably never be known. They were scattered in so many communities and over such a large part of the country, and their supervision was necessarily so imperfect, that accurate statistics were out of the question. In some districts a fairly careful record of baptisms and confessions was kept, but attempts to give the number of Catholics must at best have the value only of rough estimates. One author places the number of Christians in 1800 at 202,000 and in 1850, after a decade of revived growth, at 330,000.*** A map of 1810 (which apparently did not include Macao) puts it at 215,000.' 162 Annales de la propagation de la foi, Vol. 19, p. 19. 153 Moidrey, op. cit., p. 140. 158 Still another 154 Letter of Rameaux from Hupeh, July 4, 1833, in Annales de la propagation de la foi, Vol. 7, pp. 248, 349; ibid., July 18, 1834, in ibid., Vol. 9, pp. 58, 59; Perboyre from Hupeh, Sept. 12, 1838, in ibid., Vol. 13, p. 146; Servière, Histoire de la mission du Kiangnan, Vol. 1, pp. 20, 21; Montgesty and Gilmore, op. cit., passim. 155 Letter of Thiou from Macao, Dec. 8, 1837, in Annales de la propagation de la foi, Vol. 12, pp. 174-179; Mouly from Macao, Nov. 15, 1834, in ibid., Vol. 9, pp. 70-75. 156 Chinese Repository, Vol. 2, p. 382, Vol. 3, p. 301. 167 Louvet, Les mis. cath. au XIXe siècle, p. 234. 158 Map of Marchini quoted in Medhurst, China, p. 244. 161 estimate places the number "at the beginning of the nineteenth century" at 290,000.1** An estimate of 1840 gives the total in 1839 as 313,000.160 In 1836 a missionary said that the largest estimate of the Christian community was 220,000 and that this was probably excessive. From a comparison of these totals with scattered figures from many districts it seems probable that in 1800 there were about two hundred or two hundred and fifty thousand Roman Catholics in all China and that this number remained fairly constant until about 1835 or 1840. Increases were registered in some districts, but these were probably offset by decreases in others. This figure may be in error by several thousands, but the true one was probably slightly above rather than below it. Christians were apparently to be found in all of the eighteen provinces, with the possible exception of Kansu, and in Formosa, Mongolia, the New Territory, and possibly Manchuria. Szechwan, with about sixty thousand, seems to have had more than any other one province, but Fukien, Chihli, Kiangsu, and possibly Shensi and Shansi, each had more than twenty thousand. The foundations were laid in widespread Christian 162 15 Schmidlin, Katholische Missionsgeschichte, p. 465. 180 Annales de la propagation de la foi, Vol. 12, p. 333. The difference is only partly accounted for by the fact that he includes Macao. 161 Perboyre, quoted in Montgesty and Gilmore, Two Vincentian Martyrs, p. 150. Perboyre said there were then in China eighty native and forty European priests, thirty of the latter having come in the past ten years. 162 The map of Marchini [sic?] quoted in Medhurst, China, p. 244, says that in 1810 there were in Kwangsi, Kwangtung, and Hainan 7,000 Christians; in Chihli, Shantung, and Eastern Tartary 40,000; in Kiangnan and Honan, 33,000; in Fukien, Chêkiang, Kiangsi, and Formosa, 30,000; in Szechwan, Kweichow, and Yunnan, 70,000; in Shansi, Shensi, Kansu, Hukwang, and Western Tartary 35,000. Les annales de la propagation de la foi, Vol. 12, p. 333, gives for 1839 52,000 Catholics for the diocese of Macao, 40,000 for that of Nanking, 50,000 for that of Peking, 9,000 for the vicariate apostolic of Chêkiang and Kiangsi, 60,000 for the vicariate apostolic of Shansi, Shensi, and Hukwang, 40,000 for the vicariate apostolic of Fukien, and 52,000 for that of Szechwan. An Abridged Account of the State of Religion in . . . China in . . . 1806-1807, p. 53, says there were then 7,000 Christians in Hukwang. Rameaux in 1833 said there were 8,000 or 9,000 Christians in Hupeh (Annales de la propagation de la foi, Vol. 7, p. 348). He says that in 1834 there were 500 Christians in Honan, and that in 1820 there were 12,000 in Hukwang (in ibid., Vol. 9, p. 58). A smaller figure is given in Annales de la propagation de la foi, Vol. 9, pp. 57 et seq., where the number of Christians in all the Lazarist missions in 1836 is put down at 40,000. The district includes Peking, Hukwang, Honan, Kiangsi, Chêkiang, and Kiangnan. An Abridged Account of Religion in ... China in . . . 1807-8-9, p. 210, gives the number of Christians in Szechwan in 1799 as 37,000, in 1804 as 47,867, and in 1809 as 56,165. In 1836 Perboyre, passing through Fukien, said that there were there seven or eight churches, "open to all the world and known to the Mandarins," and forty thousand Christians in the diocese.-Montgesty and Gilmore, op. cit., P. 148. groups for rapid growth if ever conditions in Europe and China. should make that possible. When China should be opened to the foreigner and both zeal and resources in Europe increased, the Church was to grow by leaps and bounds. CHAPTER X METHODS AND RESULTS OF ROMAN CATHOLIC MISSIONS IN THE SIXTEENTH, SEVENTEENTH, AND EIGHTEENTH CENTURIES ANY account of Roman Catholic missions from the coming of Xavier to the eve of the new era would obviously be incomplete without a summary of the methods that were used and of the results which followed. The topic naturally arranges itself around six queries: what means were employed for bringing the Christian message to the Chinese; on what did the missionaries' teaching lay emphasis; what activities of the Church were stressed; what was the organization of the Church; what was the financial cost of the missions and how was support obtained; and what results followed the work of the missionaries? This last question in turn divides itself into four others: what success did the missionaries have in attaining the ends sought; what changes did acceptance of the message of the Europeans work in the lives of the Chinese; what part did the Church have in the life of the country and what effects, if any, were there upon the nation as a whole; and what reflex influences were there upon Europe? MISSIONARY METHODS The methods by which the missionaries approached the Chinese were various. We have seen how the Jesuits emphasized the fact that they were scholars and demonstrated that in .certain branches of knowledge they were better informed than were the Chinese. They took pains, too, to learn the language and were thus able by word and pen, with the assistance of native scholars, to do what was quite as important-put their message in a literary form which was acceptable to the educated classes. They were, too, experts in Chinese etiquette and refrained as far as possible from offending Chinese sensibilities. When they presented their Christian message they emphasized its similarities to the existing beliefs of the educated classes, pointing out the passages in the classical books which seemed to teach of God, and conformed as far as possible to Chinese religious conventions. They endeavored, in other words, to come as those who would fulfil and not destroy the best of the nation's heritage. They hoped by so doing to make contacts with the dominant class, to obtain its respect, and by winning the nation's leaders to gain access to the masses. No better form of introduction could have been devised to a people which held in such honor learning, literary form, and courtesy, and had such pride in its culture and its past, and which had so acknowledged through the centuries the leadership of its educated men. In the course of time this approach was confined almost exclusively to the missionaries in Peking. After the papal decision on the rites it became in part impossible and after the dissolution of the Society of Jesus its remaining features were less and less stressed. The declining influence of the missionaries at court and the increasing severity of persecution must probably be ascribed in part to the gradual abandonment of this method. The branches of knowledge most emphasized by the missionaries were astronomy and the attendant science, mathematics. Map-making, painting, architecture, and the construction of mechanical devices as diverse as clocks, fountains, and cannon, all played their part.' The majority of the Chinese and Manchus at court probably looked upon most of the missionaries as interesting barbarians who in some matters displayed an amusing and even useful skill, but who in religious and other questions were not to be taken too seriously. A few Chinese and Manchus were, however, more impressed, and occasional missionaries of outstanding vigor and intelligence-Ricci, Schall, Verbiest, and a few others apparently commanded the respect of the majority of those about them. To the masses of the Chinese the missionary usually made his approach through the native catechist and through Chinese women who had dedicated themselves to a life of celibacy in the 1 Van Braam, The Embassy of the Dutch East India Company 1794-1795, Vol. 1, p. 251, Vol. 2, p. 69; Lettres édifiantes, passim; Catholic Encyclopedia, Vol. 2, p. 61, Vol. 6, p. 393; Pelliot, À propos du Keng Tche T'ou, in Memoires concernant l'Asie Orientale, Vol. 1, p. 65. For a list of works on astronomy, mathematics, etc., prepared by the missionaries, see Wylie, Notes on Chinese Literature, pp. 108-125. |