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). In large cities with international links such as Beijing, foreign visitors have established Christian communities which meet in public establishments such as hotels and, sometimes, local churches. [45] The mission schools were viewed with some suspicion by the traditional Chinese teachers, but they differed from the norm by offering a basic education to poor Chinese, both boys and girls, who had no hope of learning at a school before the days of the Chinese Republic.[46]. [citation needed], The Chinese called Muslims, Jews, and Christians in ancient times by the same name, "Hui Hui" (Hwuy-hwuy). [78] Yanbian Korean churches and house churches in China have been a matter of controversy for the Chinese government because of their links to South Korean churches. The Chinese constitution states that ‘Citizens of the People's Republic of China enjoy freedom of religious belief’ (Article 36); however, the provisions of the constitution are not justiciable. [72], Local authorities continued to harass and detain bishops, including Guo Xijin and Cui Tai, who refused to join the state-affiliated Catholic association. 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. Acting on the complaint of the Bishop of Fujian,[23][24] Pope Clement XI finally ended the dispute with a decisive ban in 1704;[25] his legate Charles-Thomas Maillard De Tournon issued summary and automatic excommunication of any Christian permitting Confucian rituals as soon as word reached him in 1707. 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. In 986 a monk reported to the Patriarch of the East:[16]. Western medical missionaries established the first modern clinics and hospitals, provided the first training for nurses, and opened the first medical schools in China. They were a prime target of attack and murder by Boxers in 1900.[36]. By the 1840s China became a major destination for Protestant missionaries from Europe and the United States. [69] Christianity has grown rapidly, reaching 67 million people. A major role was played by J. Hudson Taylor (1832–1905). Russian Orthodoxy was introduced in 1715 and Protestants began entering China in 1807. [10] Members of such groups are said to represent the "silent majority" of Chinese Christians and represent many diverse theological traditions.[11]. In this period the Chinese Christian churches and organizations had their first experience with autonomy from the Western structures of the missionary church organizations. Harrison, Henrietta, "'A Penny for the Little Chinese': The French Holy Childhood Association in China, 1843–1951. The Communist Party remains officially atheist, and has remained intolerant of churches outside party control. The Ming dynasty decreed that Manichaeism and Christianity were illegal and heterodox, to be wiped out from China, while Islam and Judaism were legal and fit Confucian ideology. Around 1552–1553, they obtained temporary permission to erect storage sheds onshore, in order to dry out goods drenched by sea water; they soon built rudimentary stone houses around the area now called Nam Van. With the Portuguese establishing an enclave on Zhongshan Island's Macau Peninsula, Jesuits established a base nearby on Green Island (now the SAR's "Ilha Verde" neighborhood). It concluded with repeated calls for their extermination by vigilantes and the government. 04/29/2019 China (International Christian Concern) – China is historically known for its animosity towards Christianity. [121], In June 2020, state officials oversaw the demolition of Sunzhuang Church in Henan province. [109] Wine making vineyards were left behind by them.[110]. The mission hospitals produce 61 percent of Western trained doctors, 32 percent nurses and 50 percent of medical schools. The College was dedicated in 1902 and offered a four-year medical curriculum. [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. 2007: two surveys were conducted that year to count the number of Christians in China. [68] In 1992 the government began a campaign to shut down all of the unregistered meetings. . The body of Christ must rise up again both inside and outside China to confront … The Taiping rebellion was eventually put down by the Qing army aided by French and British forces. [40], Some early leaders of the Chinese Republic, such as Sun Yat-sen were converts to Christianity and were influenced by its teachings. Religions in China began to recover after the economic reforms of the 1970s. One tract featured foreign missionaries praying to crucified pigs—the Catholic term for God was Tianzhu (Heavenly Lord), in which the Chinese character "zhu" had the same pronunciation as the word for "pig". I have never said that he [Urcen, a son of Sun] could not honor heaven but that everyone has his way of doing it. It was a target of Chinese anti-Christian protests notably in the Tianjin Massacre of 1870. A daily email with the best of our journalism, Published since September 1843 to take part in “a severe contest between intelligence, which presses forward, and an unworthy, timid ignorance obstructing our progress.”. the Late Nineteenth Century,", George E. Paulsen, "The Szechwan Riots of 1895 and American 'Missionary Diplomacy'. Chinese over the age of 18 are permitted to join only officially sanctioned Christian groups registered with the government-approved Chinese Patriotic Catholic Church and China Christian Council and the Protestant Three-Self Church. [60] By 1901, China was the most popular destination for medical missionaries. Contacts with Western Christianity also came in this time period, via envoys from the Papacy to the Mongol capital in Khanbaliq (Beijing). They are almost entirely Muslim and very few are Christian. By the 16th century, there is no reliable information about any practicing Christians remaining in China. [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. Several local governments, including Guangzho city, offered cash bounties for individuals who informed on underground churches. [13], The first documentation of Christianity entering China was written on an 8th-century stone tablet known as the Nestorian Stele. At Kaifeng, Jews were called "Teaou-kin-keaou", "extract-sinew religion". Chinese authorities raided or closed down hundreds of Protestant house churches in 2019, including Rock Church in Henan Province and Shouwang Church in Beijing. Missionaries were often seen as part of Western imperialism. [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. [34] They encountered significant opposition from local elites, who were committed to Confucianism and resented Western ethical systems. Amid wars, natural calamities, and social turmoil, the number of Christians has grown in spite of persecution and suppression. 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. [68] Though still predominantly Buddhist and animistic, the region of Guangxi was first visited in 1877 by Protestant missionary Edward Fishe of the China Inland Mission. 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. For instance, in Zhejiang 2.8% of the population is officially Protestant as of 1999, higher than the national average. While some bishops who joined the Chinese Patriotic Catholic Church in its early years have been condemned and even excommunicated, the entire organization has never been declared schismatic by the Vatican and, at present, its bishops are even invited to church synods like other Catholic leaders. [98] In Wenzhou, a city of Zhejiang, about one million people (approximately 11%) are Christians, the highest concentration in one city. [68] Bibles were destroyed, churches and homes were looted, and Christians were subjected to humiliation. Dr. Sun Yat-Sen, the first graduate of this College and the Founder of Modern China, graduated in 1892. Government authorities limit proselytism, particularly by foreigners and unregistered religious groups, but permit proselytism in state-approved religious venues and private settings. 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. These fellowships, however, are typically restricted only to holders of non-Chinese passports. Western governments could protect them in the treaty ports, but outside those limited areas they were at the mercy of local government officials and threats were common. He was baptized by Robert Morrison at Macau in 1814. 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. [8] Similarly, missionary researcher Tony Lambert has highlighted that an estimate of "one hundred million Chinese Christians" was already being spread by American Christian media in 1983, and has been further exaggerated, through a chain of misquotations, in the 2000s. The dominant ethnic group, the Uyghur, are predominantly Muslim and very few are known to be Christian. As of 2010 approximately 5% of the population of Macau self-identifies as Christian, predominantly Catholic. In 845, at the height of the Great Anti-Buddhist Persecution, Emperor Wuzong decreed that Buddhism, Christianity, and Zoroastrianism be banned, and their very considerable assets forfeited to the state. Thus they generally do not include un-baptized persons attending Christian groups, non-adult children of Christian believers or other persons under age 18 and they generally do not take into account unregistered Christian groups. [102] Christopher Marsh (2011) too has been critical of these overestimations. China has begun using a dystopian-type 'social credit' system to rank its citizens. The educated gentry were afraid for their own power. Christianity was a major influence in the Mongol Empire, as several Mongol tribes were primarily Nestorian Christian, and many of the wives of Genghis Khan's descendants were Christian. [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. As China continues its crackdown on religion, Christians in the Communist country are fleeing for their lives. Seven days a week, faculty lead morning prayers at 5 a.m. and evening prayers at 9p.m. The pamphlet also showed Christian clergy engaging in orgies following Sunday services and removing the placentas, breasts, and testicles from kidnapped Chinese. [72], Protestants concentrate mainly in three regions: Henan, Anhui and Zhejiang. More secret societies started emerging after this. The Lord of Heaven is Heaven itself. Some prominent Chinese universities began as religious-founded institutions. Christianity first reached China in the 7th century AD, brought by Nestorian Eastern Syriac believers. Christianity also has a strong presence in the Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture, in the Jilin province of China. For about a century they worked in parallel with the Nestorian Christians. The Big Swords proceeded to attack the bandits' Catholic churches and burn them. Bibles were confiscated; pastors were locked up. Sun and Wan practiced Western Medicine together in a joint clinic. In recent years, however, the Communist Party has looked with distrust on organizations with international ties; it tends to associate Christianity with it deems to be subversive Western values, and has closed churches and schools. [77], The Christianity of Yanbian Koreans has a patriarchal character; Korean churches are usually led by men, in contrast to Chinese churches which more often have female leadership. [81][82] They primarily operate in a form similar to the "house churches",[81][82] small worship groups, outside of the state-sanctioned Three-Self Church, that meet in members' homes. Under Communist ideology, religion was discouraged by the state and Christian missionaries left the country in what was described by Phyllis Thompson of the China Inland Mission as a "reluctant exodus", leaving the indigenous churches to do their own administration, support, and propagation of the faith. In 1294, Franciscan friars from Europe initiated mission work in China. They were established in China in the late 19th and early 20th century, including both the Little Flock or Church Assembly Hall and True Jesus Church. Pastor Cao became a Christian in his twenties after meeting an American Christian family. The Holy Childhood Association (L'Oeuvre de la Sainte Enfance) was a Catholic charity founded in 1843 to rescue Chinese children from infanticide. For example, Gerda Wielander (2013) has claimed that estimates of the number of Christians in China that have been spread by Western media may have been highly inflated. China’s constitution nominally guarantees freedom of religious belief. [33] It is difficult to determine an exact number, but historian Kathleen Lodwick estimates that some 50,000 foreigners served in mission work in China between 1809 and 1949, including both Protestants and Catholics. In 1895, the Manchu Yuxian, a magistrate in the province, acquired the help of the Big Swords Society in fighting against bandits. Rioting sparked by false rumors of the killing of babies led to the death of a French consul and provoked a diplomatic crisis. Thompson, Phyllis. One of the reasons they gave for being there was to help the poor Chinese. Among the leaders were Cheng Jingyi, who was influential at the Glasgow Conference with his call for a non-denominational church. It certainly did Mr Xia’s career no harm. He warned them that the Manchus must follow only the Manchu way of worshipping Heaven since different peoples worshipped Heaven differently. The 13th century saw the Mongol-established Yuan dynasty in China. Copyright © The Economist Newspaper Limited 2021. 'Eastern Orthodox religion'). Christian missionaries and their schools, under the protection of the Western powers, went on to play a major role in the Westernization of China in the 19th and 20th centuries. The father-in-law of Wan was Au Fung-Chi (1847–1914), the secretary of the Hong Kong Department of Chinese Affairs, manager of Kwong Wah Hospital for its 1911 opening, and an elder of To Tsai Church (renamed Hop Yat Church since 1926), which was founded by the London Missionary Society in 1888 and was the church of Sun Yat-sen.[67]. In practice, however, the Vatican and the Chinese State have been, at least unofficially, accommodating each other for some time. Because Christianity teaches freedom of choice and responsibility, the atheistic communist government views it as a threat. Out of the 8,500 Protestant missionaries that were at one time at work in China, 1000 of them were from the China Inland Mission. Modern medical education in China started in the early 20th century at hospitals run by international missionaries. [44] Besides the London Missionary Society, and the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, there were missionaries affiliated with Baptists, Presbyterians, Methodists, Episcopalians, and Wesleyans. 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. Hong's revolt against the Qing government established the Heavenly Kingdom of Great Peace with the capital at Nanjing. Two (possibly Nestorian) monks were preaching Christianity in India in the 6th century before they smuggled silkworm eggs from China to the Byzantine Empire. China General Social Survey (CGSS) 2009. Historian Kenneth Scott Latourette wrote that Hudson Taylor was "one of the greatest missionaries of all time, and ... one of the four or five most influential foreigners who came to China in the nineteenth century for any purpose. In 1582, Jesuits once again initiated mission work inside China, introducing Western science, mathematics, astronomy, and cartography. [63], Of the 500 hospitals in China in 1931, 235 were run by Protestant missions and 10 by Catholic missions. Due to the essential non-existence of Chinese doctors of Western medicine in China and Hong Kong, the founding of colleges of Western medicine was an important part of the medical mission. In the mid-1990s, Chinese government started to monitor these new religious movements, and prohibited them officially, so their activities soon turned underground. 1979. Antonio, one of these two Christian Chinese, accompanied St. Francis Xavier, co-founder of the Jesuits, when he decided to start missionary work 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. They also opposed the opium trade and brought treatment to many who were addicted. Whereas the clergy at state-sanctioned churches are told to lecture on party-favoured topics, such as blending Christianity with secular Chinese culture, underground pastors often touch on taboo subjects, such as the existence of demons and miracles, or even worse, the importance of proselytising to friends and co-workers. For hundreds of thousands of Uighur Muslims in the western province of Xinjiang, this has meant detention, “re-education” and forced secularisation. [58] His journey of faith from Christianity to Taoism and Buddhism, and back to Christianity in his later life was recorded in his book From Pagan to Christian (1959). Doctor Wan was also the chairman of the board of a Christian newspaper called Great Light Newspaper (大光報) that was distributed in Hong Kong and China. The Reluctant Exodus. The leader of the Christian travelers was Alopen. [57], After World War I, the New Culture Movement fostered an intellectual atmosphere that promoted Science and Democracy. According to Caroline Reeves, a historian at Emmanuel College in Boston, that began to change with the arrival of American missionaries in the late 19th century. A tablet indicated that Judaism was once known as "Yih-tsze-lo-nee-keaou" (Israelitish religion) and synagogues known as "Yih-tsze lo née leen" (Israelitish temple), but it faded out of use. Thousands in China are turning their back on communism in favour of obscure Christian sects, one of which worships a female Jesus … The missionaries were forced to leave because of ethnic and factional battles during the Kumul Rebellion in the late 1930s.[111]. As the missionaries went to work among the Chinese, they established and developed schools and introduced medical techniques from the West. Missionaries were harassed and murdered, along with tens of thousands of converts. Government figures only count adult baptized members of government sanctioned churches. [76] The pastors of the Shouwang Church, a house church in Beijing noted for having been prosecuted by the government, are Koreans. Paul A. Cohen, "Christian missions and their impact to 1900" in John King Fairbank, ed. [7] On the other hand, some international Christian organizations estimate there are tens of millions more, who choose not to publicly identify as such,[8] but these estimations are usually controversial and even suspected as deliberate inflation.