Han Chinese, Min Bei April 13 ➤

Customs: The Han Chinese group expanded rapidly as it JIANGXI came into contact with other • HUNAN ethnic groups, conquered • them culturally, and assimilated their populations KONG Scale into its own. One historian 0 KM 400 notes, “In 1500 BC there was Population in : no China, and there were no 2,191,000 (1987) Chinese. The area that is now 2,561,300 (2000) China was then inhabited by a 2,894,200 (2010) Location: Fujian great number of tribes with Religion: No Religion different cultures. Though the Christians: 100,000 majority of them belonged to one or another branch of the Overview of the Mongoloid race, other races Min Bei were represented. There was no great man who created the Countries: China, Malaysia, Brunei, Indonesia first Chinese empire; it grew Pronunciation: “Min-Bay” out of a long, slow process of Other Names: assimilation and integration 5 Northern Min, Min Pei over centuries.” Population Source: 2,191,000 (1987 LAC); Religion: In ancient times the Out of a total Han population of 1,042,482,187 (1990 census); Chinese emperor offered Also in Malaysia, Brunei and annual sacrifices to Shang Di, Indonesia Paul Hattaway the Heavenly Emperor. This Location: NE Fujian: North and Location: A 1987 study listed a population has led some to believe the ancient south of the including 1 Fuging, Gutian, Fu’an, and of 2,191,000 Min Bei speakers in China. Chinese worshiped the Creator God. The Shouning Other publications have listed a much emperor recited: “Of old in the beginning, Status: Officially included under higher figure of 10.29 million Min Bei,2 but there was the great chaos, without form Han Chinese this figure includes the Min Dong group who and dark. The five elements (planets) had Language: Chinese, Min Bei have been profiled separately. The Min Bei not begun to evolve, nor the sun and moon : 0 live in eight cities and counties in the to shine. In the midst thereof there existed Religion: No Religion, Daoism, northwestern part of Fujian Province. neither form nor sound. You, O spiritual Christianity Sovereign, came forth in your presidency, Christians: 100,000 Identity: The Min Bei, or Northern Min, are and first did divide the grosser part from Scripture: Bible 1905; New Testament 1856; Portions 1852 included as part of the Han Chinese the purer. You made heaven; You made Jesus film: Available nationality by the Chinese authorities. earth, You made man. All things with their 6 Gospel Recordings: None reproducing power got their being.” Christian Broadcasting: None Language: Min Bei is one of five distinct ROPAL code: MNP00 languages spoken by the in Christianity: When Marco Polo arrived in Fujian. Other scholars divide the Min into today’s Fujian Province, he encountered “nine inherently unintelligible varieties.”3 many Christian communities along the Status of Evangelization coastal areas. The believers in Fuzhou 52% History: The (AD 265–420): The asked Marco Polo’s uncles for advice as to 44% Jin Dynasty was a period of conflict and what they should do to gain freedom to disunity in China. The Western Jin capital of worship. They told the Christians to contact Luoyang fell to Xiongnu horsemen in AD the Nestorian Metropolitan in Beijing, 4% 306. Xiongnu was a general name given to “Explain to him your state, that he may non-Chinese barbarians to the north and come to know you and you may be able A B C west — the forefathers of the present-day freely to keep your religion and rule.”7 The A = Have never heard the gospel Turks and Mongols. This resulted in “150 New Testament was translated into the Min B = Were evangelized but did not years of bloodshed as competing non-Han Bei language in 1934.8 The Jesus film is become Christians 4 C = Are adherents to any form of tribes vied for absolute power.” China was also available in Min Bei. Christianity once again divided, and the tribes contained within its borders were at enmity.

176 HAN CHINESE, MIN BEI