The church has had expatriate members worshiping in China for a few decades previous to this, but with restrictions. His theocratic and militaristic regime called for social reforms, including strict separation of the sexes, abolition of foot binding, land socialization, suppression of private trade, and the replacement of Confucianism, Buddhism and Chinese folk religion. Since the 1980s, U.S. officials visiting China have on multiple occasions visited Chinese churches, including President George W. Bush, who attended one of Beijing's five officially recognized Protestant churches during a November 2005 Asia tour,[113] and the Kuanjie Protestant Church in 2008. [72], Protestants concentrate mainly in three regions: Henan, Anhui and Zhejiang. After reading the Bible for two years, Yakuf converted and accepted Christ. One of them was conducted by the Protestant missionary Werner Bürklin, founder of "China Partner", an international Christian organisation, and his team of 7,409 surveyors in every province and municipality of China. Since then, persecution of Christians in China has been sporadic. was the largest mission agency in China and it is estimated that Taylor was responsible for more people being converted to Christianity than at any other time since The days of the apostles. This transformation can be traced to the Unequal Treaties which forced the Chinese government to admit Western missionaries into the interior of the country, the excitement caused by the 1859 awakening of faith in Britain. [84] On March 31, 2020, during its general conference, the church announced its intent to build a temple in Shanghai as a "modest multipurpose meetinghouse.". During the 1905 Tibetan Rebellion the Tibetan Buddhist Gelug Yellow Hat sect led a Tibetan revolt, with Tibetan men being led by lamas against Chinese officials, western Christian missionaries and native Christian converts. The Qing government permitted Christian missionaries to enter and proselytize in Tibetan lands, in order to weaken the power of the Tibetan Buddhist lamas, who refused to give allegiance to the Chinese. The compiler of these figures, Paul Hattaway, indicates that his figures are his own estimate, based on more than 2,000 published sources such as Internet reports, journals, and books, as well as interviews with house church leaders. [13], The first documentation of Christianity entering China was written on an 8th-century stone tablet known as the Nestorian Stele. The College was dedicated in 1902 and offered a four-year medical curriculum. The dominant ethnic group, the Uyghur, are predominantly Muslim and very few are known to be Christian. [61] They began establishing nurse training schools in China in the late 1880s, but nursing of sick men by female nurses was rejected by local traditions, so the number of Chinese students was small until the practice became accepted in the 1930s. [26] By that time, however, Tournon and Bishop Maigrot had displayed such extreme ignorance in questioning before the throne that the Kangxi Emperor mandated the expulsion of Christian missionaries unable to abide by the terms of Ricci's Chinese catechism. Taylor (Plymouth Brethren) arrived in China in 1854. Western medical missionaries established the first modern clinics and hospitals, provided the first training for nurses, and opened the first medical schools in China. [14], Some modern scholars question whether Nestorianism is the proper term for the Christianity that was practiced in China, since it did not adhere to what was preached by Nestorius. Government authorities limit proselytism, particularly by foreigners and unregistered religious groups, but permit proselytism in state-approved religious venues and private settings. In 1895, the Manchu Yuxian, a magistrate in the province, acquired the help of the Big Swords Society in fighting against bandits. Missionaries worked to abolish practices such as foot binding,and the unjust treatment of maidservants, as well as launching charitable work and distributing food to the poor. The true number is probably much higher: perhaps as many as 22m more Chinese Protestants worship in unregistered “underground” churches, according to a new study by researchers at the University of Notre Dame. As of 2012 in China Catholicism has 6,300 churches, 116 active dioceses of which 97 under the Chinese Patriotic Catholic Church, 74 Chinese Patriotic bishops and 40 Roman Catholic unofficial bishops, 2,150 Chinese Patriotic priests and 1,500 Roman Catholic priests, 22 major and minor Chinese Patriotic seminaries and 10 Roman Catholic unofficial seminaries. "[120], In April 2020, Chinese authorities visited Christian homes in Linfen and informed welfare recipients that their benefits would be stopped unless they removed all crosses and replaced any displays of Jesus with portraits of Chairman Mao Zedong and General Secretary Xi Jinping. Bibles were confiscated; pastors were locked up. [34] They encountered significant opposition from local elites, who were committed to Confucianism and resented Western ethical systems. Prior to the Church being demolished, one man was arrested and at least two women were injured. [100], The province of Hebei has a concentration of Catholics and is also home to the town of Donglu, site of an alleged Marian apparition and pilgrimage center. [86] There is often significant overlap between the membership of registered and unregistered Christian bodies, as a large number of people attend both registered and unregistered churches. The Qing government code included a prohibition of "Wizards, Witches, and all Superstitions". During the ten-year period the government began to crackdown and persecute all religions. Some prominent Chinese universities began as religious-founded institutions. [103] On 6 January 2015, David Ferguson published on the People's Daily the satirical news Merry Christmas, 100 million Chinese! In the empire we have a temple for honoring Heaven and sacrificing to Him. He attained control of significant parts of southern China, at its height ruling over about 30 million people. China General Social Survey (CGSS) 2009. Local affairs in China were under the control of local officials and the land-owning gentry. Its graduates include Dr. Lee Sun Chau. The Chinese Patriotic Catholic Church, and the Protestant Three-Self Church and China Christian Council, are the three centralised and government-approved Christian institutions which regulate all local Christian gatherings, all of which are required to be registered under their auspices. As the missionaries went to work among the Chinese, they established and developed schools and introduced medical techniques from the West. [109] Wine making vineyards were left behind by them.[110]. In the mid-1990s, Chinese government started to monitor these new religious movements, and prohibited them officially, so their activities soon turned underground. In this period the Chinese Christian churches and organizations had their first experience with autonomy from the Western structures of the missionary church organizations. The first mission was undertaken by Russians in the 17th century. Analysing the Recent Development of Religious Communities in Contemporary Rural China, People’s Republic of China: Religions and Churches Statistical Overview 2011, The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life: "Global Christianity: A Report on the Size and Distribution of the World's Christian Population - Appendix C: Methodology for China", China plans establishment of Christian theology, China – CHN39868 – Three Self Patriotic Movement (TSPM) – China Christian Council (CCC) – Shijiazhuang, "The entry "Macau history" in Macau Encyclopedia", "Yunnan Province, China's spectacular Shangri-La", "Tasting China's New, $250-a-Bottle Luxury Wine, Backed by LVMH", "Moët Hennessy set to debut first luxury Yunnan wine", "Moët's Chinese wine 'a logistical nightmare, "China now boasts more wine-making vineyards than France", "Moët Hennessy to debut Yunnan wine this fall", "Tasting China's new, $250-a-bottle luxury wine, backed by LVMH", "Billy Graham: an appreciation: wherever one travels around the world, the names of three Baptists are immediately known and appreciated--Jimmy Carter, Billy Graham and Martin Luther King, Jr. One is a politician, one an evangelist, and the other was a civil rights leader. In 2017 and 2018 Harris Doshay, a doctoral student at Princeton University, attended and analysed the sermons delivered by ministers of the Three-Self Patriotic Movement, the state-controlled Protestant church. It concluded with repeated calls for their extermination by vigilantes and the government. [116], The Associated Press reported in 2018 that "Xi is waging the most severe systematic suppression of Christianity in the country since religious freedom was written into the Chinese constitution in 1982." [35], The main goal was conversions, but they made relatively few. Mr Doshay found that congregants showed their preference by “voting with their eyelids”: if the oration stayed within party lines, many, consistently and sometimes rather demonstratively, decided to nap. But in Xi Jinping’s China, it might do the trick. Marcos was elected as Patriarch of the Church of the East, and Bar Sauma went as far as visiting the courts of Europe in 1287–1288, where he told Western monarchs about Christianity among the Mongols. Modern medical education in China started in the early 20th century at hospitals run by international missionaries. In 2014 Xia Baolong, the Communist Party chief in Zhejiang, a coastal province, oversaw a campaign to remove more than 1,500 crosses from places of worship in the province. In 2015, outspoken pastors in Hong Kong and their associates on the mainland came under close scrutiny from government officials.[70]. The TSPM reserves the right to censor and control their churches to the extent they deem necessary and appropriate. [71] There is often significant overlap between the membership of registered and unregistered Christian bodies, as a large number of people attend both registered and unregistered churches. At the same time the intense war period hampered the rebuilding and development of the churches. [53], In Pingyuan, the site of another insurrection and major religious disputes, the county magistrate noted that Chinese converts to Christianity were taking advantage of their bishop's power to file false lawsuits which, upon investigation, were found groundless. The other survey was conducted by professor Liu Zhongyu of the East China Normal University of Shanghai. The Big Swords practiced heterodox practices, however, they were not bandits and were not seen as bandits by Chinese authorities. [53] Yuxian only executed several Big Sword leaders, but did not punish anyone else. In 1979 the government officially restored the Three-Self Church after thirteen years of non-existence,[37] and in 1980 the China Christian Council (CCC) was formed. The Chinese Protestant church entered the communist era having made significant progress toward self-support and self-government. Hong's revolt against the Qing government established the Heavenly Kingdom of Great Peace with the capital at Nanjing. All of them have given Baptists and the Christian faith a good reputation. In 1827, Liang was ordained by Morrison, thus becoming a missionary of the London Missionary Society and the first Chinese Protestant minister and evangelist. Consequently, the Chinese state organized the Chinese Patriotic Catholic Church that operates without connection to the Vatican, and the Catholics who continued to acknowledge the authority of the Pope were subject to persecution. Already by 1923 China had half of the world's missionary hospital beds and half the world's missionary doctors.[64]. Sullivan, "Myth, Memory, and the Making of Lottie Moon," in Jonathan Daniel Wells, and Sheila R. Phipps, eds. Thus they generally do not include un-baptized persons attending Christian groups, non-adult children of Christian believers or othe… This has involved "destroying crosses, burning bibles, shutting churches and ordering followers to sign papers renouncing their faith," actions taken against "so-called underground or house churches that defy government restrictions. Combined, Christians and the country’s estimated 23m Muslims may now outnumber the membership of the Communist Party (92m). Regina D. American evangelist Billy Graham visited China in 1988 with his wife Ruth; it was a homecoming for her since she had been born in China to missionary parents L. Nelson Bell and his wife Virginia.[112]. The wealthiest in every community—typically, the merchants—were expected to give food, medicine, clothing, and even cash to those in need. Party officials insist that Christianity may only exist in China when it is reconciled with Chinese culture, which it defines as the doctrine of the CCP. For many Christians it has meant toppled crosses, closed churches and, in some cases, prison. The pace of missionary activity increased considerably after the First Opium War in 1842. The missionaries were forced to leave because of ethnic and factional battles during the Kumul Rebellion in the late 1930s.[111]. Ricci and others including Michele Ruggieri, Philippe Couplet, and François Noël undertook a century-long effort in translating the Chinese classics into Latin and spreading knowledge of Chinese culture and history in Europe, influencing its developing Enlightenment. In one notable case that drew international attention, Thaddeus Ma Daqin, the auxiliary bishop of Shanghai whom both the Vatican and Chinese state agreed as the successor to the elderly Aloysius Jin Luxian, the Patriotic Catholic bishop of Shanghai (whom the Vatican also recognized as the coadjutor bishop), was arrested and imprisoned after publicly resigning from his positions in the Patriotic Church in 2012, an act which was considered a challenge to the state control over the Catholic Church in China. [50] After the German government took over Shandong, many Chinese feared that the foreign missionaries and possibly all Christian activities were imperialist attempts at "carving the melon", i.e., to colonize China piece by piece. Such Chinese Protestants as the liberals David Z. T. Yui, head of the Chinese National YMCA, and Y. T. Wu (Wu Yaozong), Wu Leichuan, T. C. Chao, and the theologically more conservative Chen Chonggui responded by developing social programs and theologies that devoted themselves to strengthening the Chinese nation. [69] Christianity has grown rapidly, reaching 67 million people. Two (possibly Nestorian) monks were preaching Christianity in India in the 6th century before they smuggled silkworm eggs from China to the Byzantine Empire. Government-approved versions of traditional faiths have been promoted, and those seen as foreign and threatening have been repressed. Copyright © The Economist Newspaper Limited 2021. [73], The Chinese Independent Churches are a group of Christian institutions that are independent from Western denominations. In 1894, male medical missionaries constituted 14 percent of all missionaries; women doctors were four percent. [2] Today, it is estimated that Christianity is the fastest growing religion in China[3] with approximately 38 million Protestants and 10-12 million Catholics, with a smaller number of Evangelical and Orthodox Christians. The 150 foreign physicians operated 128 hospitals and 245 dispensaries, treating 1.7 million patients. The People's Republic of China (PRC) was established on the mainland country in October 1949 by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) led by CCP Chairman Mao Zedong, while the Republic of China led by the Kuomintang maintained its government on the insular land of Taiwan. Es gibt viel Erstaunliches, das man entdeckt, wenn man sich China jenseits der Medienmauer genauer ansieht und mit den Menschen spricht. The Jiaqing Emperor, in 1814, added a sixth clause with reference to Christianity, modified in 1821 and printed in 1826 by the Daoguang Emperor prohibiting those who spread Christianity among Han Chinese and Manchus. [102] Christopher Marsh (2011) too has been critical of these overestimations. During the Cultural Revolution believers were arrested and imprisoned and sometimes tortured for their faith. [59], Medical missions in China by the late 19th century laid the foundations for modern medicine in China. ", Jean-Guy Daigle, "Challenging the imperial order: The precarious status of local Christians in late-Qing Sichuan. ", Theron Kue-Hing Young, "A conflict of professions: the medical missionary in China, 1835-1890. [98] In these provinces the Christian population is in the millions, yet small in percentage. The leader of the Christian travelers was Alopen. [90] The survey also found that Christianity overall has a higher proportion of ethnic minority believers than the other religions. [39], Christians established clinics and hospitals,and provided training for nurses. [45], In addition to the publication and distribution of Christian literature and Bibles, the Protestant missionary movement in China furthered the dispersion of knowledge with other printed works of history and science. In the 1930s there were several hundreds of Christians among this people, but because of persecution the churches were destroyed and the believers were scattered. New Report Highlights Severe Lack of Religious Freedom in China. The whole of Orthodox Christianity is named Zhèng jiào (正教). They led the opposition to missionary work. For instance, of the 28 registered churches of Yanji, only three of which are Chinese congregations, all the Korean churches have a male pastor while all the Chinese churches have a female pastor. [21][unreliable source?] The Hong Kong College of Medicine for Chinese (香港華人西醫書院) was founded in Hong Kong by the London Missionary Society in 1887 for the training of male doctors. According to the Yu Tao survey of 2008, the Catholic population, though much smaller than that of the Protestants, is nevertheless younger, wealthier and better educated. Jews and Muslims in China shared the same name for synagogue and mosque, which were both called "Tsing-chin sze" (Qingzhen si), "temple of purity and truth", the name dated to the thirteenth century. [5] The number of Chinese Christians has increased significantly since the easing of restrictions on religious activity during economic reforms in the late 1970s; Christians were four million before 1949 (three million Catholics and one million Protestants). When William Milne arrived at Guangzhou in 1813 and worked with Morrison on translation of the Bible, he also came to know Liang, whom he baptized in 1816. 04/29/2019 China (International Christian Concern) – China is historically known for its animosity towards Christianity. https://www.economist.com/.../protestant-christianity-is-booming-in-china The intensifying persecution will purify the church in China, cut the current crossover traffic between the Three Self church and the underground church, drive true Christians into the latter, reduce the freedom of foreign missionaries, and may provide renewed impetus for smuggling Bibles into and clandestine Bible printing inside China. . A long-time ally of the president, he was promoted first to a plum job in Beijing and then, in February, to a new assignment as head of the office overseeing Hong Kong and Macau affairs. The surveys were conducted independently and along different periods of time, but they reached the same results. However, government implementation of restrictions since then has varied widely between regions of China and in many areas there is greater religious liberty.[68]. (Biography)", "Bush Attends Beijing Church, Promoting Religious Freedom", "President Bush Visited Officially Staged Church Service; House Church Pastor Hua Huiqi Arrested and Escaped from Police Custody", "Bush visits controversial Beijing church", U.S. State Department "International Religious Freedom Report 2008", "Beijing police stop protest by U.S. Christians", "U.S. Demonstrators Taken From Tiananmen Square", "Three Protesters Dragged Away From Tiananmen Square", "Group: Officials destroying crosses, burning bibles in China Group: Officials destroying crosses, burning bibles in China Associated Press", "China tells Christians to renounce faith in Jesus & worship President Xi Jinping instead", "China: 200 communist officials demolish church, beat Christians", The Ricci 21st Century Roundtable on the History of Christianity in China, Biographical Dictionary of Chinese Christianity, Preservation for the Documentation of Chinese Christianity 香港浸會大學圖書館 華人基督宗教文獻保存計劃, Documentation of Christianity in Hong Kong Database (香港基督教文獻數據庫), Christianity Rare Books Database 基督教古籍數據庫, Christianity in Contemporary China Clippings 當代中國基督教發展剪報數據庫, China Through the Eyes of CIM Missionaries, Murals from the Nestorian temple at Qocho, Architecture of cathedrals and great churches, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Christianity_in_China&oldid=1013854104, Articles with Chinese-language sources (zh), Articles needing expert attention from September 2020, Short description is different from Wikidata, Articles with unsourced statements from July 2020, Articles containing Chinese-language text, Articles with unsourced statements from August 2018, Articles lacking reliable references from August 2018, Articles with unsourced statements from December 2016, Articles lacking reliable references from August 2017, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. Alessandro Valignano, the new regional manager ("Visitor") of the order, came to Macau in 1578–1579 and established St. Paul's College to begin training the missionaries in the language and culture of the Chinese. During World War II, China was devastated by the Second Sino-Japanese War which countered a Japanese invasion, and by the Chinese Civil War which resulted in the separation of Taiwan from mainland China. Christians in China are referred to as "Christ followers/believers" (Chinese: 基督徒; pinyin: Jīdū tú) or "Christ religion followers/believers" (Chinese: 基督教徒; pinyin: Jīdū jiào tú). 2010 Chinese Spiritual Life Survey conducted by Dr. Yang Fenggang, Purdue University’s Center on Religion and Chinese Society. There are various terms used for God in the Chinese language, the most prevalent being Shangdi (上帝, literally, "Highest Emperor"), used commonly by Protestants and also by non-Christians, and Tianzhu (天主, literally, "Lord of Heaven"), which is most commonly favoured by Catholics. [121] [122], Popularity and indigenous growth (1900–1925), Era of national and social change: the war against Japan and the Chinese Civil War (1925–1949), Since 1949: Communist government on the mainland, Official organizations—the Chinese Patriotic Catholic Church and the Chinese Protestant Church. He warned them that the Manchus must follow only the Manchu way of worshipping Heaven since different peoples worshipped Heaven differently. Fairly soon after the establishment of the direct European maritime contact with China (1513) and the creation of the Society of Jesus (1540), at least some Chinese become involved with the Jesuit effort. The Holy Childhood Association (L'Oeuvre de la Sainte Enfance) was a Catholic charity founded in 1843 to rescue Chinese children from infanticide. [72], Local authorities continued to harass and detain bishops, including Guo Xijin and Cui Tai, who refused to join the state-affiliated Catholic association. [76] The pastors of the Shouwang Church, a house church in Beijing noted for having been prosecuted by the government, are Koreans. He also compiled a Chinese dictionary for the use of Westerners. The Jesuits, the secularized mandarins, and eventually the Kangxi Emperor himself maintained that Chinese veneration of ancestors and Confucius were respectful but nonreligious rituals compatible with Christian doctrine; other orders pointed to the beliefs of the common people of China to show that it was impermissible idolatry and that the common Chinese names for God confused the Creator with His creation. Results reported in: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (, Chinese names for the God of Abrahamic religions, Tang dynasty (9th century) silk painting depicting a saint, smuggled silkworm eggs from China to the Byzantine Empire, Nestorian Christians in a procession on Palm Sunday, controversy over Chinese customs and names for God, American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, Hong Kong College of Medicine for Chinese, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in China, Historical Bibliography of the China Inland Mission, List of Protestant theological seminaries in the People's Republic of China, https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail/2020/09/15/protestant-christianity-is-booming-in-china, http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/06312.htm, "The Integration of Religious Minorities in China: The Case of Chinese Muslims", "François Noël and His Latin Translations of Confucian Classical Books Published in Prague in 1711", "François Noël, SJ, and the Chinese Rites Controversy", "Lin Yutang: Astride the Cultures of East and West", http://www.cnac.org/rebeccachan_piloted_to_serve_01.pdf, Hong Kong Christians Draw New Scrutiny From Mainland, https://www.uscirf.gov/sites/default/files/USCIRF%202020%20Annual%20Report_Final_42920.pdf, 2012 Statistical Update on Religions and Churches in the People’s Republic of China and in Taiwan, "Church in Talks to "Regularize" Activities in China", "Prophet Announces Eight New Temples at General Conference", Religion in China on the Eve of the 2008 Beijing Olympics, China Survey Reveals Fewer Christians than Some Evangelicals Want to Believe, New China survey reveals fewer Christians than most estimates, A Solo, a Duet, or an Ensemble?