NUMBER 17

uGrowing on Holy Ground" Keynote Presentations at The Eighteenth.National Catholic Ch ina Conference

In November 2000 the Ricci Institute joined the US Dr. Nicolas Standaert, S.]. Catholic·Chfna Bureau for its e i~hteenth National has been a professor of Catholic China Conference entitled "Christianity (n Chinese Studies at Katholieke I / China: Growing on Holy Ground." In this issue of Un iversiteit Leuven, Belgium, Pacific Rim Report, we are including two keynote pre­ . since 1993. His philosophy sentations delivered a( the meeting by Paul Rule and and theology studies were , Nicolas Standaert, S.f .. completed at the, Centre Sevres fn Paris (1 990) and Fu fen Catholic University in Dr. Paul Rule was born and Taiwan (1994}. In the early nineties he lived and educated in Melbourne, studied in . He holds a Ph.D. in Chinese Studies Australia. He holds an Honors from Leiden State University in Belgium (19 94). His Degree in History from the research interests are in the history of Christianity in University.of Melbourne and China. Dr. Standaert has produced many publications a Ph.D. in Asian Studies from on Chinese-Western cultural history, including theolog­ the Australian National ical and cultural exchanges during the Ming and Qjng Un iversity. He is senior lecturer in history and form er· dynasties. A widely sought after lecturer, his recent director of the Religious Studies Program at LaTiobe edited work is entitled Handbook of Christianity in University in Melbourne, where he also teaches courses China (Brill, 2000). Dr. Standaert is also a·member of on Chinese and aboriginal religions, religious theory the Ricci Institute Scholars' Council. and modern Catholicism. Dr. Rule's research and publi­ cations are in the areas of Confucianism and •••• Catholicism, the history of , other WE GRATEFULLY ACKNOWLEDGE the EDS-Stewart Chair for Chinese religions, and peace and justice issues. 'He is Chinese-Western Cultural History at the USF Ricci Institute for funding this issue of Pacific Rim Report and partial sponsorship Distinguished Fellow of the EDS-Stewart Chair at the of this confere nce. · Ricci Institute (2000-200 1) and a member of the Ricci Institute Scholars' Council. {(Christianity in China: , Shandong and Fujian there was a close association between the two and the Qjng government, noting this, Growing on Holy Ground" lumped them-together in condemnation.! Paul A. Rule Reversing the gaze of the mask, let us glance briefly LaTrobe University, Australia at the present situation of . We have what the government calls, in bewilderment, a state of "Christianity fever." According to .Marx, religion, espe­ cially an 'imperialist' religion like Christianity, should be n the marvelous exhibition, "The Golden Age of dying; instead, it is flourishing, perhaps more than at Chinese Archeology," which concluded in San any time within a century.z The very material achieve­ I Francisco, there was a bronze double mask looking ments of Cbina over the past two decades have genera­ in two directions at once. This is what I feel as I try to ted not content but a new search for meaning, for a look at the past of Chinese Christianity in order to , viable spirituality: something that is ~ qually evident understand its present and to think simultaneously in Taiwan .3 about its future. The Spirituality of the 'Cpnfucian ' I also want to penetrate the enigmatic expression of that mask which seemed to mock me every time I saw 'Spirituality' is a much abused term today, but I use it in its technical meaning of the quality, the tone, the char­ ~ it, challenging my conviction that I, a Christian of "A spirituality European descent, could ever understand Chinese cul­ acteristic features of the religious outlook and practices of an individual or group. Spirituality is a cultural arti­ for today must be ture or Chinese spirituality. -I can only console myself With, the thought that others like me have-clearly done fact, influenced by time and place. A spirituality for a global spirituality so in the past with success, especially with the patient, today must be a global spirituality and struggle against and struggle understanding guidance native to that culture. the forces of materialism and consumerism that are equally global. But it must also accommodate the spe­ Looking Both Ways against the forces cific historical experiences of each society. Recently I have spent much of my time trying to under­ of materialism and The spirituality of tl'le seventeenth-century Chinese stand the inner lives of Chinese Christians of the seven­ Christians was, for educated Chinese at least, that of consumerism that teenth and early eighteenth' centuries. I have come to 'Confucian Christians'. A Christian Spirituality for China are equally global." the conclusion that their time was in many ways like . today must necessarily be different. Richard Madsen in our own. It saw the collapse of an old order-that of the his challenging recent study indicated that Chin .f~ Ming-and the creation of a new, superficially foreign Catholics4 see the rural Catholic ,communities that he one, the Manchu or Qjng dynasty. Many educated studied as understandably, but regrettably, self-centered Chinese suffered from divided allegiances, disgusted · and inward-looking rather than- concern~d with civil with the corrupt old regime that had failed them and the society as a-whole. l:fowever, what strikes me about people as a whole and contemptuous of the ignorant seventeenth-century Christianity is its social concern. and arrogant new rulers. The violent restoration of order by the Qjng and the return of prosperity could not There was inward.ness, certainly, an interest in satisfy their hunger for certainty and social and meditation, prayer, self-examination. But there were also spiritual equanimity. very active -engaged in charitable activi­ ties. These were not just the now somewhat notorious One reaction was a turn inwards. Christianity was groups which baptized abandoned babies, but those but one of the spiritual reactions to this crisis of civiliza­ that looked after such children. Others visited the sick tion. Buddhism revived and new syncretic religious and dying, provided basic education, and gave spiritual , sects emerged, some preaching apocalyptic futures. The support to upper-class Cpristian women, who were sectarian movements generically labeled the White largely house-bound within their own homes. Lotus flourished, often in the sam~ regions where Christianity seemed to be undergoing ~a pid growth. In

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2 • The Ricci Institute at the USF Center for the Pacific Rim Professor Erik Zurcher of Leiden thinks seven­ Confucian moralism and popular religiosity? .And does teenth-century Christianity was "two-faced"5 (that mask this explain both the nineteenth century spread of again!) in that it presented a Confucian face to the non- Christianity and today's Christianity fever? . Christian world and that of "a living minority religion" Belief in Christ Crucified to insiders. Critics saw both faces and often deplored What were the gaps? Firstly, a belief not just in a the devotional one,6 yet I find no e~idence of tension or remote , a Tian or Shangdi, but in an incarnate strain on the part of these Christians. They were openly God, in Jesus Christ the God-Man. This was the stick­ Christian and Chinese and, for the scholars among ing point for many otherwise attracted literati and cer­ them, also Confucian. And not just for the scholars but tainly for the contributors to the major anti-Christian for their wives, children, and servants who happily writing of the seventeenth 'century, the Poxie ji. Jiang performed domestic rituals that can be loosely labeled Dejing's preface to Book 3 of that work expresses his 'Confucian' while attending mass, saying prayers in disgust on reading Christian books to discover that common and privately, and doing good works recom­ mended to them by the_ Gospel: "They consider their Tianzhu the equivalent of the Shangdi that we Chihese worship, and I had not The Role of Difference known that they think one jesus who li ved at the Preaching Christianity through the familiar was, of time of Emperor Ai of Han to be Tianzhu."7 course, a necessary and productive missionary task. "Tianzhu-ism ," as Erik Zurcher somewhat pejorativ~ly Especially it meant for the Jesuits the use of Confucian calls it,s entailed acceptance of a Jesus as savior. Giulio concepts, and the great project of 'complementing' Aleni, S.J. early in the seventeenth century wrote a trea­ "... one of the most Confucianism with Christian revelation. I believe that tise on the incarnation.9 It was the incarnation of God the 'Confucian Christian' label is an appropriate one frequently repeated as Jesus that prove_d the final obstacle to the baptism of for the educated male-literati elite Christianized by Aleni's friend, the retired Grand Secretary, Ye Xianggao, charges against the the Jesuits. who seems otherwise to have been persuaded of the Jesuits, even today, However, most of the new Christians of the seven­ truth of Aleni's teaching.w There was, according to the is that they did not - teenth century were neither literati nor male. As I have mission historian Daniello Bartoli, "a single but insuper­ preach Christ closely examined the catalogues of collections of Jesuit able obstacle," namely that; ildid not seem to him writings in Chinese of the period, I realized that I had worthy of God to become man to redeem man."11 crucified. " been skipping over the vast bulk of such publications. Even more scandalous was that Tianzhu incarnate These ·were neither works of apologetics based on had been crucified. Yang Guangxian, in his bitter anti­ Confucian texts nor polemics against Buddhism, Christian polemic, the Budeyi, which was to lead to although these, of c~urse, exist; but works of devotion. mass imprisonments and some executions of Christians Some are translations of standard European devotional in the late 1660s, makes much of the ignominious . work5-{)n the mass, the rosary, litanies to the , death of Jesus.l 2 But the Christians themselves made it treatises on prayer, lives of Jesus. Others, especially central to their religious practices. The most influential later in the seventeenth century, seem to be specifically Ming dynasty convert, Xu <;uangqi, wrote a moving written to meet the spiritual needs of ordi_nary literate meditation on the crucifixion,l3 as early as 1615. Aleni's but not scholarly C~ristians, including women. life of Jesus, which ran th~ough several editions, 14 There is little if any attempt in such works to use included powerful and realistic engravings based on the language of either Confucianism or popular Chinese European mo$1els of the passion and death of Jesus. religion. This is post-Tridentine European devotional One of the most popular early Christian confraternities Catholicism, although beginning to develop towards a was in honor of ~he passion of Jesus. It is ironic, then, new and interesting Chinese synthesis of practices and that one of the most frequently repeated charges against -sensibility. Could it be, I thought, that what was attract­ the Jesuits, even today, is that they did not preach ing many Chinese was not similarity but difference? Christ crucified. Was Christianity offering something missing in both

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February 2001 • 3 Jesus Christ crucified was, then, the "stumbling­ In my view, when anti-Christian officials claimed block,"IS and many seventeenth-century Chinese over­ . that the new religion was subversive they were right. came it to become Christians just as many who were Few in the seventeenth centuiy seriously believed in confronted by Him did not. The Confucian Christians invasions from Manila or Goa, but they rightly saw a

were like the Platonist Christian Fathers of the , challenge to the existing order even more fundamental . .~ or medieval European Aristotelean Christians, not the _than that posed by millenarian Buddhist and Daoist less Christian for expressing their faith in the categories sects. Although in the nineteenth century the outside ./ of a specific system _of though'r. In their religious life, threat was real and Christianity inextricably linked to it, -, though, they shared the practices of their less intellectu­ I agree with Paul Cohen that the anti-Christia.n move­ al Christian brothers and sisters and believed in an ment was mainly a gentry ~ led reaction against a chal­ unfashionable and ultimately incredible faith. lenge to their privileges and pretensions.J6 Christianity as an Alternative Community Difference as an Attraction Secondly, in addition to a.ccepting Jesus as savior, there At this point, I would like to raise the question of was a sense of a church, a living faith community. A whether the very foreignness of Christianity was not cohesive organized body that was not part of the top­ and is not one of its attractions. It is striking that today down structur~ of ·chinese autocracy; one that owed in the West some forms ofreligion proving enormously allegiance to foreign priests and a shadowy religious popular are those most alien to the Western religious "... although ruler, a ]iao-huang (the 'Emperor of the Religion', i.e. and cultural traditions-I am thinking of Tibetan . conforming to many the Pope): this was a direct challenge to an all-powerful Buddhi~m. the Society for Krishna Consciousness, and state. They had a God who was their ultimate 'Father many forms of New Age religion. Could this explain features of the and Mother' ((umu) rather than the Emperor. The 'Christianity fever' among the young in China today? traditional Chinese of the late seventeenth and early eigh­ And did it play a role in the seventeenth century? My social structure, teenth centuries was confident enough of his power and tentative conclusion is that it is a factor today in an age tr~sting enough of his Jesuit advisers to reject the con­ of globalization, but was less important, although pre­ Christianity was stant warnings of his Boa ~:,d of Rites, but later emperors sent, until recently. challenging others, were happy to draw no fine distinctions between the I agree that Chinese scholars were fascinated by the however gently and Lord of Heaven Religion and the White Lotus Society. - technology and new ideas brought by the Jesuits and Andcthey had good reasons. The Christians did have a gradually ... " . "- !hat they sometimes indiscriminately lumped together · king ot~er than Caesar, and they were expected to fol- astronomy and Christianity as Tianxue ('Heavenly low him on those rare occasions when allegiances Teaching'). But to join the Tianzhu ]iao ('The Lord of clashed, even if they were not seditious in the terms Heaven Religion') involved a religious commitment, a often alleged. The same holds true today. serious one that necessarily caused some painful differ- · Socially Subversive? entiation from -their own society. It was embraced not Thirdly, although conforming to many features of the for the sake of novelty but out of conviction. When that traditional Chinese social structure, Christianity was commitment demanded radica) separation after the challenging others, however gently and gradually: the Vatican decision in the Chinese Rites controversy, it· position of women (at least in its rejection of poly­ proved too much for many gentry families. Those who gamy), the low value given to human life, (as seen in remained were essentially those outside the social and infant abandonment), conscription for war, harsh legal , ritual parameters of respectability. and judicial regimes, the inequalities and injustices of However, whatever the attractions of foreignness, I Chinese society. The Confucians might proclaim that strongly reject that they included a political dimension. "within the four seas all men are brothers," but they To call such patriots as or Han Lin "lack­ scarcely acted as if this were so, and certainly did not eys of imperialism" is ludicrous, and the charge was include women in the phrase. untenable even in the nineteenth century. People do

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4 • The Ricci Institute at the USF Center for the Pacific Rim not offer their lives for imperialism. but for what they Huangzhou by Yang Tingyun and the Humanitarian believe to be true and all important, more Important Society (Renhui) founded by Wang Zheng in Xi'an, than life itself. seem to have served a combination of functions, mutu­ , The Inner Life of Seventeenth-Century Christians al help in the faith, and good work.s. One person partic­ But to turn back to the inner life which sustained such ular-ly active in founding such groups was Candida Xu, Xu Guangqi's granddaughter.26 steadfastness. Whc;~t was that 'hallowed ground' out of which Chinese Christianity grew? Mention of Candida Xu is a reminder that, as usual, Many practiced meditation. There are a consider­ the women tend to be forgotten in this story. I recently came across a 1686 report by Antoine Thomas, S.J. able number of Je ~uit and other seventeenth-century writing from Beijing on the state of Christianity in that works in Chine~ explaining various methods of medita­ tion. Some involved reflections on the life of Jesus, cjty, whith gives some interesting details on the lives of Christian women. Women, says Thomas, cannot with­ some involved the use of rosaries, some came close tQ Buddhist song nian, 'reciting sacred texts'. We must out -scandal attend church with men, nor assemble assume there was a demand for such books, that they ' together except with extreme caution. So, another were used, even if we have little in the way of personal church dedicated to the Virgin MarY has been erected writings on the subject. near the principal church and the women are accus­ tomed to come there twice ~ y~ar, in spring and There are some few books of personal reflections. autumn, in small groups throughout the month. They For example, in the Jesuit Archives in Rome there is a are' informed of the day, picked up in a carriage and are -7 "We are on the ­ manuscript treatise by the Fujian Christian Li Jiugong given instruction, have their confessions heard and entitled Shensi Lu (A Record of Night Thoughts)'? in threshold of. a new ' receive the eucharist. If ti~e allows th ~ service finishes two-way sharing which the old man during sleepless nights meditates with a brief sermon. On Sundays and feasts they gather on his relationships with others and on the moral in domestic chapels for prayers and instruction "by a of the treasures old dilemmas of his society. And there is a published work Vice-prefect or other important Christian" and they are 1 and new that from 1635, 8 the S~engjiao yuanliu (The Origin and giveq catechisms. "So it happens that often the women Christianity in its Progress of the Holy Teaching) by one Zhu Yupo, claim­ and girls of a young age are better instructed in the ing to be related to the ruling Ming house.I9 It gives Christian faith than the men."27 many cultural forms minute details of Christian practices and is written in has for us." vernacular style. Conclusion: The Test of Love It is my hope that, at last, we are on the threshold of a Confraternities abounded among these seventeenth­ new two-way sharing of the treasures old and new that century Christians.zo The Sodality of Our Lady was Christianity in its many cultural forms has for us. founded in 1609 in Beijing, on the initiative of one Luke Li, according to ,Z I buf as Ricci himself had We in the West have much to learn from the resis­ been a meinber of the qrchetypal Prima Primaria tance offered by our Chinese Christian brothers and Sodality in Rome, he probably played a major part. By sisters to an all-po'(Verful state and its formidable 1664, according to the historian of the Jesuit sodalities, machinery of conformity, just as we have things to give ­ Delplace, there were 400 such sodalities in China.zz In them derived from our experience of being Christian in 1611, Alfonso Vagnoni founded-a sodality of the Holy pluralist and democratic societies. We also have, as for women in Nanjing, putting it in the charge of Father Benoit Vermander has recently reminded us, a the Chinese Brother, Zhong Mingren, who presum~bly Christian tradition of activism for justice and peace was thought to be sufficiently advanced in age to serve -which is desperately needed in a China (or better, in that capacity.23 Others were for special groups such Chinas, including Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Singapore) as catechists, scholars, children,24 or midwives; or for with a history of so much recent violence and such special purposes: baptizing the moribund, feeding the gross social injustices.zs hungry, burying those without family.zs Some, like the There is one last lesson to be learned from those Holy Water Society (Shengshui Hui) founded in earlier Christians in China. Great distress, scandal, and

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February 2001 • 5 even final alienation was caused from the Church by 5. E. Zurcher "Conclusion: The Two Faces of Late Ming quarrels among pastors over questions of principle Christianity in Confucian and Christian Religiosity in Late and church_discipline. Most ordinary Christians were Ming China," Catholic Historical Review 83.4 (October 1997), pp. 649-50. unable to follow the issues involved-the liceity of ancestor and other rituals, the authority of Portuguese 6., The virulently anti-Christian Poxie ji which is the main · source for Jacques Gernet's equally virulent attack on seven­ bishops and French Vicars Apostolic, or incomprehensi­ teenth century Chinese Christianity in his China and the ble decrees from far off Rome. Others took sides and Christian Impact: A Confiict of Cultures , Cambridge: became embittered. In the nineteenth century, a similar Cambridge University Press, 1985. l division occurred among Chinese Protestants over the 7. Shengchao Poxie ji, Hong Kong: China ~lliance Press, question of 'terms', one still reflected in modern Bible 1996, p. 139. translations. 8. .E . Zurcher, "Jesuit Accommodation and the Chinese I do not want to enter into the details of those quar­ Cultural Imperative" in D.E.Mungello (ed.), The Chinese Rites rels, or to draw the dbvious parallels with the present Controversy: Its History aud Meaning, (Monumenta Serica day disputes between 'open' and 'underground' Chris­ Monograph Series XXXIII) , Nettetal: Steyier Verlag, 1994, tians, except to note theirtragic consequences and their p. 50. flagrant contradiction of the teaching of the Gospel of 9. The Tianzhu jiangsheng yinyi, Archivum Romanum Love. The .First Epistle of John warns us, "in these last Societatis Jesu (ARSJ): JS I. ??a days," against antichrists,29 but it also insists that love 10. The dialogue between Aleni , Ye Xianggao, and Cao comes first: Xuequan, is published as the Sanshan lunxue ji in the "If the test Tianzhujiao dongchuan wenxian xubian, Taibel: Xuesheng "Anyone who says, 'I love Gqd', Shuju, 1966, vol. I, pp.419-493. of Christianity And hates his brother, 11. Quoted in Fonti Ricciane, II, p. 43, note from Daniello is love, does the 1s a liar, Since a man who does not love the brother that he Bartoli's LaCina , 1663. church in China , can see 12. Budeyi, pp. lllS-1117 in Tianzhujiao dongchuan we Cannot love God whom he. has never seen. wenxian xubian. and do its So this is the commandment that he has given us, 13. Zaowuzhu chuixiang lueshuo, in Tianzhu jiao dongchuan · That anyone who loves ..God must also love his supporters, wenxian sanbian, Taibei: Xuesheng Shuju, -1972, vol. II, brother."3° always meet it?" pp. 549-563. If the test of Christianity is love, does the church in 14. The Tianzhu jiangsheng jilue, and the Tianzhu jiangsheng China, and do we its supporters, always meet it? Chu xiang jingjie, ARSJ: JS I. 58/187. 15. 1 Cor. 1:23 • • • 16. P. A. Cohen, China and Christianity: The Missionary ENDNOTES Movement and the Growth of Chinese Antiforeign ism, 1860- l. R.G. Tiedemann, "Christi

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6 • The Ricci Institute at the USF Center for the Pacific Rim 20. D. de Gossart, S.J., "Esquisse historique sur les congrega­ uWisdom for the Journey: tions de Ia Sainte Vierge dans l'ancienne mission de Chine (1609-1664)," in Col/ectanea Commissionis Synodalis (Peking), Historical Perspectives on 8 (1935), pp. 34--41. ' Inculturation of Christiani-ty 21. P.M. D'Elia, ed., Fonti Ricciane, II, Rome: Libreria dello Stato, 1949, N. 906, p. 4827 in China" I 22. De Gossart, p. 34 Nicolas Standaert, 5.]. I 23. De Gossart, p. 37 Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium 24. For example, writing from Changzhou in 1679, the newly arrived missionary Juan de Yrigoyen, S.]. Clescribes three ith this presentation I would like to congregations flourishing the ~e . They were Tianshen Hui . (Angels Society) for children, the Ren Hui (Humanitarian achieve two goals: 1) to show how the Society) for scholars,. and the largest, the Xu Hui (Condolence W process of inculturation ts rooted m the Society). which organized devotions to Christ crucified. See history of the local church; and 2) to show that our the letter of Juan de Yrigon S.]. in Spanish to ]uan Andres opinions are influenced by the perspective of historical Palavicino, Provincial of the Philippines, Chamxo events. I will take Christianity in China in the seven­ (Changzhou), 14 Sept. 1679, in The Far Eastern Catholic teenth andeighteenth centuries as a 'reference point Mission, 1663-1 711, Tokyo: Tenri Central Library, 1975, vol. III , n. 83, p. 209. See also partial translation in Maggs and mainly concentrate on its social, rather than theo­ Brothers Cat. 455 , Bibliotheca Asiatica, Part II , #1336, p. 124. logical, aspects. I hope it will become apparent that the "Accommodation (The Maggs translator mistranslates "Ju11ta de Anxelitos" as experience of Chinese Christians in the past has rele­ "Meeting of the LitTle Loves"). vance for understanding their experience today. means adapting 25. G. King, "Christian Charity in Seventeenth-Century What is Inculturation? to locql language China ," in Sino-Western Cultural Relations ]ournal22 (2000), It may be helpful to explain the difference between ~o and customs. pp. 13-30. terms used in mission theology: 'accommodation' (or 26. Phillipe CoupletS.]. Histoire d'une dame Chn!tienne de Ia Missionaries should 'adaptation') and 'inculturation'. They may be distin­ Chine. Ou Par occasion les usages de ces peuples, l'etablissment not impose their guished with regard to primary ageiJcy' and goals.' de Ia Religion, les maximes des missionnciires et les exercises de culture but adapt piete des nouveaux chretiens sont expliquez. Paris: Estienne The term accommodation was very common in mis­ Michallet, 1688; and Gail King "Candida Xu and the Growth sion theology, especially in the 1950s and 1960s. In the to the new." of Christianity in China in the Seventeenth Century," accommodation method, the primary agents with Monumenta Serica 46 (1998), pp. 49-66. responsibility for initiative and actions are the pro­ 27. Antoine Thomas, "Annotationes, seu commentarii rertim claimers of the Gospel; the missionaries. They are praecipuorum ad propagationem fidei in Sina, et Tartaria spec­ asked to adapt themselves to the culture of the country tantium, quae gestae sunt a mense Septemri anni 1686 ad where they were sent. Acc~mmodation means adapting mensem ]unium anni 1687, scripti a R.P. Antonio Thomas Societatis ]esu Missionario in Curia Pekinensi. Qui per­ to local language an'f customs. Missionaries should not venerunt Romam 31. Decemb. an. 1689," ARS]: ]S150, ff. imp6se their culture but adapt to the new. The goal of 135v-!36r (photocopy in Ricci Institute, San Francisco). accommodation is a local church that is an extension of 28. Op. cit. , pp.l2-15. the Universal Church. Using this method, the Gospel as such is not subject to adaptation. Unchangeable and t 29. I John 2:18-27. universal, it may be made more understandable or r 30. 1 John 4:20-21. mru acceptable to non-Christians through translation and use of images or texts. In the inculturation process, a term originating in the 1970s, the chief actor is not the missionary but the people belonging to the culture in which the Gospel takes root. Only people who are fully formed in th~ir

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February 2001 • 7 own culture can give it new form. The goal of-incultura­ Christianity was, in majority, Chinese. Finally, while the tion is the incarnation of evangelical life in a particular number of Chinese Christians reached 200,000 by cultural context in such a way that the Christian experi­ 1700, by 1800 there were probably only about 135,000. ence is expressed not only in terms of that culture (that This was after all a very small number compared with would be simple accommodation), but in becoming a . the total population of 150 to 200 million inhabitants.4 source of inspiration, direction, and unification, trans­ Degree-holders within this group are estimated at less forming and remaking it so as to bring about 'a new cre­ than one percent of the entire Christian population for ation' , which enriche~ not only the.specific culture but the late Ming period. During the Qjng their number was the Universal Church.2 further reduced. ·For the entir~ period from the late Ming · Inculturation takes pla~e at all levels of religious until the end of the Kangxi reign (1722) only sixty-eight expression; 1) thought or theology (e.g., God as great­ Christian degree holders have been identified by name. While these numbers may approximate at certain "Until recently, father-mother) : 2) activity or action, including cetemoni- . al action (liturgy; e.g., ceremonies of ancestor worship) moments the percentage of degree-holders in reference Christianity in and social behavior (ways of social sharing and solidari­ to the total population, it is clear that "Christianity in China in the - ty; e.g., burying the dead); and 3) structure, organ~zation China was not at all the elite Church-which eXists in our imagination. In short, our attention went to less than seventeenth and and various services and charisms (e.g., charitable orga­ nizations, lay community leaders). It is the latter that is one percent of Chinese Christians and to the activities eighteenth centuries the focus of this present~tion. of a tiny minority of missionaries and priests. was often associated Inculturation is the result of a complex process of Christianity as a Marginal Religion with calendar interpretation in which at least four factors are involved: One way of looking at Christianitywithin broader reform, the 1) the cultural roots, of a given society (e.g., Confucian, Chinese society is to consider it a 'marginal religion'. Buddhist, Taoist); 2) the socio-economic and political Such apoint of view is proposed by Erik Zurcher who, · Astronomical context of present-day Chinese Christians; 3) Christian as a historian of religions in China, approaches the cen­ Bureau in Beijing, scripture; and 4) the Christian memory and the commu­ tral issues of Christianity as part of a special phenome­ or Jesuit painters nion of churches. Christian memory involves the tradi­ non in late imperial Chinese culture. He examines the tions ,and history not only of the Universal Church but way in which sinicized marginal religions of foreign at court, also of the local Church. Our focus will be the latter: origin adapted to the central ide6lolr>:' of Confucianism. while numerically Chinese Christian theologians of the seventeenth The two pivotal concepts proposed by Zurcher are speaking, these century, and the history of the Chinese Church .3 'marginal religion' and 'cultural imperative·.s Marginal religions, such as Judaism, Christianity, Islam and in an Statistics aspects occupied earlier period Buddhism, shared the patterns of adapta­ Until recently, Christianity in China in the seventeenth a limited place tion intrinsic to the same "deep structure in Chinese and eighteenth centuries was often associated with cal­ religious life" in late imperial China: congruity, complec in the whole endar reform, the Astronomical Bureau in Beijing, or mentarity, historical precedent, reductionism. Just like , Jesuit painters at court, while numerically speaking; of the mission." other foreigli religions, the Jesuit missionaries in the these aspects occupied a limited place in the whole of seventeenth century were faced with a 'cultural impera­ the mission. tive': "no marginal religion penetrating from the outside Between 1582-1800 the total number of missionar­ could expect to take root in China (at least at that social ies in China at one time never exceeded 140. No more level) .unless it conformed to that pattern which in late than twenty were p~marily occupied with 'scientific imperial times was more clearly defined than e_ver. activities' at ~ourt, while all of the others were involved Confucianism represented what is zheng, 'orthodox' in in missionary and pastoral activities outside the capital a religious, ritual, social and'politital sense; in order not ~ in cities and villages. A second relevant statistic is the to be branded xie, 'heterodox' and thus to be treated as number of Chinese priests. In 1800, they numbered a subversive sect, a marginal religion had to prove that about fifty, two-thirds of the total number of priests in it was on the side of zheng."6 China at that time. In terms of local leadership, then,

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8 • The Riq:i Institute at the USF Center for the Pacific Rim Zurcher points out that the survival of Christianity stances, such as the hostility of certain officials or the largely depended on the attitude of local authorities anp Rites Controversy, that prevented Christianity from -gentry toward Christian beliefs and practices and their becoming more than a 'marginal' phenomenon in pre­ compatibility with Confucian norms and values. Under modern China. Christianity "could not confine itself to such circumstances Christianity lost some of its mono­ one of those spheres as Confucianism and Buddhism polistic character. It could 9evelop into a small but not . did; true to its nature as a monopolistic Mediterranean negligible religious mov~ ment by grafting itself onto tre religion, it had·to encompass both ..The two faces of dominant Confucian tradition, which it claimed to 'com­ early Chinese Christianity constituted an internal con­ plement' (bu ru) , or even to restore to its original purity. tradiction that was never solved, and that no doubt has In his studies of writings of Chinese converts, Zurcher contributed to its final breakdoWn in the early eigh­ shows how this dialogue between Chinese and mission­ teenth century."7 This approach, then, insists on some aries produced a sophisticated and highly original particular aspects of the encounter between Christianity hybrid: a monotheistic and purist version of Confucian­ and China, and reveals _peculiarities of both actors . . ism, strongly opposed to Buddhism, Taoism, and popu­ Communities of Effective Rituals "... the survival of l

February 2001 • 9 kinds of fear (disease, death, demons, natural disas­ yearly gatherings; the regular intervention of miraculous ters). The regular intervention of the supernatural (by events): It seems that just in the same way as Chinese way of miraculous healing, 'rescue from disaster, appear­ popular devotions and rituals shaped the life of com­ ance of auspicious objects, revival from temporary · mon people, Christian practices also provided inspiring death, etc.) in such a community constituted the way in ceremonies which mediated Heaven's salvation in the which the efficacy of the faith was sustained. There are daily struggle for survival. sufficient indications that the elite was not less-suscepti­ While there are good reasons to approve of this ble to these interventions. The difference-between elite concept of Chinese folk religion, there are also reasons and common society in appropriation II ofthese super­ to assume that this type of religio~ity is characteristic of . natural interventions is that they were basic to the for­ Christianity. This conclusion can be reached by com­ mation of the ~e communities among the common peo­ parison with Christianity in medieval and renaissance. ple, while the elite had looser and more individualized Europe (in the study of which a similar downward _ relationships with-the priests, partly because they had move has taken place).I 3 Taking into acc~unt that mis­ higher potential mobility. "It seems that just sionaries tend to reproduce in the mission areas the in the same way as Rituals "\'ere patterned according to the Christian type ofreligiosity they have known at home, popular liturgical calendar. Thus, by introducing a new calendar . Christi~nity in China may also be a reflection 'of popular Chinese popular in China, the missionaries did not just accommodate Christianity in Europe in which ritual-took an equally devotions and some technical aspects of a neutral divisi,on of time. important plat:e. rituals shaped the They consciously or unconsciously challenged what A good way to describe the purpose of the mission- _ was the basis of ritual life: the transformation of cultural life of common aries who went to China in the seventeenth century is time itself. The introduction of a 'Sunday' and of to say that they aimed at the installation of christianitas people, Christian .Christian1religious feasts made people live according to (Christendom). This term, which medieval writers practices also a time rhythm different from the one practiced in applied to themselves and their civilization, is in my Buddhist or Taoist communities of effective rituals. provided inspiring eyes fully appropriate not only for the activities of the These practices may not-have been introduced effective­ Jesuits, but also for what happened with Christianity in ceremonies which ly at all places, but it is at this ritual revel that itinerant­ China.I4 As John Van Engen has pointed out, in the mediated Heaven's missionaries most strongly competed with Buddhist broad sense of the wor,d christianitas referred to a com­ monks, Taoist priests, or local shamans and that they salvation in the mon religious observance (cultus) overseen and often inflated their differences. enforced by the king together with his lords and daily struggle for There are different ways of evaluating these bishops. It referred not only to religious faith but also to survival." Christian comml;lnities. Anyone acquainted with the practice. "Christianitas is the rite and/or propriety by Chinese context is struck by the similarity with other which people are called Christians." IS The case of communities of effective rituals existing in China, espe­ Christianity in China seems to corroborate that ritual cially in the Buddhist and Taoist traditions. As a result life was at the heart of Christian life in medieval and of this resemblance, Christian communities seem to renaissance Europe. In line with this research, the "real reveal ~orne essential characteristics of Chinese religios­ measure of Christian religious culture on a broad scale ity: communities which are very much lay-oriented and must be the degree to which time, space, and ritual which have lay responsibles; the important role of opservances came to be defined and grasped essentially women as the transmitters of rituals and traditions with­ in terms of the Christian liturgical year."I6 The existence in the nei-sphere of the family; 12 a service-oriented con­ of Christian communities of effective rituals in China ' cept of priesthood (priests who travel and are present are confirmation of 'Christian' imbedding in China. only at important feasts or celebrations); a simple doc­ The communities of effective rituals seem to be trine (recitative prayers, simple and clear moral princi­ · characteristic of both Chinese and Christian folk tradi­ ples, a pastoral of fear supplem~ nted by relief through tions, and likely of religion as such. Yet therejs an confession); a belief in the transformatfve power of ritu­ important question that is still subject to further als (patterned by a liturgical calendar with feasts and

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lO • The Ricci Institute at the USF)~:enter for the Pacific Rim ~ ) research. Did the Christian communities in China show specialists. At the level of the latter (together with some the charact~ristics of an exclusive group that is clearly very active lay people) one has an exclusive doctrinal identified by the members therjlselves and that seems to · or ritual distinction and identification (the difference be typical of the East-Mediterranean religions (Judaism, _ between a Buddhist monk and Taoist priest) which Christianity, Islam)? resembles the Western situation. The reason for this assumption is rhe research on What is important for our subject is that, although_ religious belonging in Chinese society conducted by Joel in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries there was Thoraval. Thoraval analyzed two surveys that had been only one in China, Christianity conducted in Hong Kong (in 1881 and 1911) _17 The sta­ appears to contain·characteristics that are expressed in tistics led to some astonishing results: more than half this analysis of the Hong Kong surveys. Indeed, when (in 1881) or three-quarters (in 1911) of the population Eastern-Mediterranean religions came to settle in , declare themselves Confucians (fujia), while one third China, they tended _to reproduce their exclusive com­ are lay (sujia; in 1881) or animists (in ~ 911). Even more munities which unite both lay people and specialists significant is that while Chin.a is considered the country around ritual and doctrine. Unlike Buddhist monks who "No matter of 'three religions' the total number of Taoists and would hardly intervene in the private lives of the faith­ how many questions Buddhists does not represent one percent of the total ful , Western missionaries applied the European model, population. Finally, Chinese Christians, who can be which implied an interference in and guidance of the we rats~, the most clearly distinguished according to their denomination, private lives of the converts. As a result, lay people important fact exceed the number of Taoists and Buddhists. While sta­ seem to have beeri much more dependent on priests is that the history , tistical analysis based on a Western concept of religion than in Buddhism. This also explains why Chinese leads to debatable results in the analysis of the phe- , belonging to an originally Western religion easily distin­ of Christianity · nomenon of 'religion' in China, it stiJI may reveal-some guish themselves from other Chinese, whether lay in China is not only aspects of"how people identify their religious belonging people or specialists. the history of ideas, with regard to ~ Western ' and 'Chinese' religions. · Conclusion structures, or Here Thoraval's distinction between the status of This presentation has probably raised more questions the lay people and the religious 'professionals' may be than it answers. Questions.were raised about our way . organizations, very useful. In the modern West, people who claim to of looking at Christianity in.China: Do we consider if a but the history h;:we a religious belo.nging can be divided into commu­ failure or success? Do we look at the missionary or at of an encounter nities or churches that can be easily distinguished. Each the local chorch? Do we focus on the elite ~ron the of these communities has its own priests, its own place popular levels of society? Other questions originate from between of cult, its own creed and-own - rituals~ They tend to be the historic~! experience of Christianity in China. Since living beings." an exclusive belonging, which unites both the believers Christianity has. the experience o~ a minority religion, and the religious specialists (priests, rabbis, pastors, will it remain a marginal religion? If it has to adapt to a imams) , who are exclusively at their service. Except for cultural imperative, to what extent can Christianity special circumstances, a Methodist would not appeal to remain subject to an official orthodoxy? It also has the an Anglican p;iest, a Catholic would not pray in a experience of lay-oriented communities of effective ritu­ Protestant c.hurch, and a Baptist would not use a als, which resemble Chinese folk religions but also con­ CatholiC Bible, etc. tain characteristics of exclusivity. To what extent wilt In China the situation tends to be quite different, these communities survive in modern society? . since a stronger distinction can be made between the No matter how many questions we raise, the most 'lay' community and the religious specialists (Buddhist important fact is that the histoi)' of e hristianity in China monk, Taoist master, or female shaman) to whom one is not only the history of ideas, structures, or organiza­ may appeal at any time. It is important to point out, in ti-ons, but the history of an encounter between living ,.. principle, the undivided character of the lay community, beings. The center of this history is the experi.ence of a as opposed to the multiple worlds of the religious personal encounter with the living Christ '

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February 2000 • 11 ENDNOTES Religion und Philosophie in Ostasien; Festschrift fiir H. I. L. Luzbetak, The Church and Cultures, Mal)'knoll: Orbis, Steiniger, Wur.zburg: Konigshausen & Neumann, 1985, 1988, esp. pp. 80-83. See also N. Standaert, Inculturation: p. 3 71. The Gospel and Cultures, trans. A. Bruggeman and R. II. See also Roger Chartier, The Cultural Uses of Print in Murray, Manila: Paul Publications, 1994. Early Modem France, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2. P. Arrupe, "Letter and Working Paper on Inculturation," 1987, pp. 6-7. Acta Romana Societatis lesu XVII. 2 (1978), pp. 256-281. 12. In the final decades of the eighteenth centul)', there are 3. See for' example Agnes Kim Mi-jeung, "La theologie du cases where Christianity is transmitted as a kind of family peche pour une societe de l'harrnonie" (Paris: Centre cult without any intervention of a missional)' or priest. See Sevres), Th.D., 2000. . for example, studies on the emergence of popula·r Christiani­ ty in Northern China (eighteenth centul)') by Lars Peter 4. Handbook of Christianity in China: Volume One Laamann (SOAS). (635-1800) , Leiden: Brill, 2000: "2.1.1. General Character­ istics: Number of Missionaries;", 2.5.1. General Character­ 13. For a good synthesis see Isabelle Brian and Jean-Marie istics: Number of Chris(ians; Social Stratification." Le Gall, La vie religieuse en France: XVle-XVIIle siecle, Paris: Sedes, 1999. 5. These ideas are developed in E. Zurch.er, "Guilio Aleni et ses relations dans le milieu des lettres chinois au XVIIe 14. Seventeenth-centul)' texts by Jesuits prefer this term siecle," in L. Lanciotti (ed.), Venezia e /'Oriente , Firenze: "Christian" to "Catholic." See "Trent, Jesuits and All That: Olschki, 1987, p. 107-135 .' See also "A Complement to Fifty Years Tl)'ing to Name It," in John O'Malley, et al, The Confucianism: Christianity and Orthodoxy in Late Imperial jesuits, Cultures, Sciences and the Arts, 1540-1 773 , Toronto: China," in Chun-Chieh Huang & Erik Zurcher (eds.), Norms University of Toronto Press, 1999. Christianitas is the word and the State in China, Leiden: Brill, 1993, pp. 71 - 92; "Jesuit . and reality retrieved by John Van Engen in his article "The Accommodation a!Jd the Chinese Cultural Imperative," in Christian Middle Ages as an Historiographical Problem," in David E. Mungello (ed.), The Chinese Rjtes Controversy: American Historical Review 91, 3 (1986), pp. 519-552. Its History and Meaning, (Monumenta Serica Monograph 15. J. Van Engen, op.cit. , pp. 540-541. 1994, 31-64. ' Series XXXIII) , Nettetal: Steyler Verlag, pp. See 16. J. Van Engen, op.cit. , p. 543. also "Confucian and Christian Religiosity in Late Ming 17. Joel Thoraval, "Pourquoi les 'religions .chinoises' ne peu China," Catholic Historical Review 83,4 (1997), pp. 614-653; vent-elles apparaltre dans les statistiques occidentales?" "4.1.3. Key theological issues: General Reception" in Perspectives chinoises I (1992), pp. 37--44: ~ Handbook of Christianity in China. 6. E. Zurcher: "Jesuit Accommodation and the Chinese Cultural Impe;ative ," in David E. Mungello (ed.), The Chinese Rites Controversy: Its tfistory and Meaning, (Monu­ menta Serica Monograph Series XXXIII) , Nettetal: Steyler Verlag, 1994, pp. 40-41.

7. E. Zurcher, "Confucian and Christian Religiosity in Late Ming China ," Catholic Historical Review 83,4 (1997), p. 653. 8. Handbook of Christianity in China: "2.5.6. Social organi­ zation of the Church: Associations for la~ peop~e ." 9. Handbook of Christianity in China: "2.5.2. Well-known Individuals;" Eugenio Menegon, "De 'l'histoire des mis sions' a 'l'histoire des chretiens chinois' ," in B. Vermander (ed.), Le Christ chinois: Heritages et esperance, Paris: Desclee · de Brouwer, 1998, pp. 99-119; E. Zurcher, "The Jesuit Mission in Fujian in Late Ming Times: Levels of ~esponse ," in E. B. Vermeer (ed.), Development and Decline of Fukien Province in the Seventeenth and Eig/>lteenth Centuries, Leiden: Brill, 1990, pp. 41 7--45 7. 10. E. Zurcher, "The Lord of Heaven and the Demons: Strange Stories from a Late Ming Christian Manuscript," in G. Naundorf & K.-H. Pohl & H.-H. Schmidt (eds.),

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February 2001 • 12