History of Christianity in China

Background

Christianity entered China several times, and each time its presence was eventually cut off. Whether a dynasty protected or persecuted the faith, and how the church stood in relation to Western powers, largely determined its rise and decline. This pattern is regarded as a distinctive feature of the history of Christianity in China.

Development

The Church of the East and Catholicism

• In 635 a Syrian monk named Alopen (Aluoben) and his companions arrived in Chang'an, the capital of the Tang dynasty, and began missionary work. Their faith belonged to the Nestorian tradition and was called Jingjiao (景敎, "the Luminous Teaching"). In 638 a monastery known as the Daqin Monastery (大秦寺) was built in Chang'an, and in 781 the Xi'an Stele (the Stele of the Propagation of the Luminous Religion of Daqin in China) was erected, inscribed with the teachings of the Church of the East and an account of its transmission to China.
• In the mid-ninth century Emperor Wuzong suppressed Buddhism and other foreign religions in what is known as the Huichang Persecution. As a result, the Church of the East declined in China proper.
• In 1583 the Jesuit priest Matteo Ricci began missionary work in Zhaoqing, Guangdong Province. Ricci adopted the dress of a Confucian scholar and pursued a mission adapted to Chinese culture, for example by using the term Shangdi (上帝, "Lord on High"), found in the Confucian classics, to explain God.
• The Chinese Rites Controversy (a dispute over rituals and terminology) arose among the missionary orders over whether to permit ancestor rites and what term to use for God. The Holy See issued decrees in 1704, 1715, 1742, and other years prohibiting ancestor rites and the use of the term Shangdi.

Protestant Missions

• In 1807 Robert Morrison arrived in Guangzhou (Canton), began Protestant missionary work, and translated the Bible into Chinese. In 1865 Hudson Taylor founded the China Inland Mission to evangelize the interior.
• After the Opium Wars of the 1840s, the unequal treaties that the Qing dynasty concluded with the Western powers permitted missionary activity, and the number of missionaries grew sharply. During the Boxer Uprising of 1900, many missionaries and Chinese Christians lost their lives.
• John Ross, who worked in Manchuria, translated the Bible into Korean together with Korean collaborators. In this way, missionary work in China also contributed to the introduction of Protestantism to Korea.
• In the first half of the twentieth century, independent Chinese churches emerged that sought to free themselves from foreign mission boards. The movement led by Ni Tuosheng (Watchman Nee) is one example.

After the Communist Takeover

• After the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, foreign missionaries left the country. In 1950 Wu Yaozong (Y. T. Wu, 吳耀宗) and others issued the so-called "Three-Self Manifesto." The "three selves" are self-governance, self-support, and self-propagation—that is, the church governing, financing, and evangelizing on its own. In 1954 the National Committee of the Three-Self Patriotic Movement of the Protestant Churches in China was officially established. Wang Mingdao, Watchman Nee, and others who refused to join the Three-Self organization were imprisoned in the 1950s.
• During the Cultural Revolution, which lasted from 1966 to 1976, churches were closed and believers met secretly in homes.
• After the launch of reform and opening, churches began reopening in 1979. In 1980 the China Christian Council was established.

Results and Influence

Today Chinese Protestantism is divided between the government-registered Three-Self churches and the house churches, which meet without registering. The Catholic Church has likewise been divided between a government-approved church and an underground church. Official statistics and outside estimates of church membership differ widely, making accurate figures difficult to determine. In the 2010s, crosses were reportedly removed from churches and house churches were subjected to crackdowns in some regions. Korean churches became actively engaged in mission work in China after South Korea and China established diplomatic relations in 1992.

Assessment

• The Chinese government and the Three-Self churches regard the Three-Self principles as marking the Chinese church's independence from foreign influence.
• The house churches contend that state control of the church is incompatible with the belief that Christ is the head of the church.
• Regarding the missionary era, some critics argue that missions depended on the unequal treaties and the might of the foreign powers. Others, however, credit missions with contributing to China's modernization through schools, hospitals, and Bible translation.
• Overseas churches and mission organizations are also divided over whether to cooperate with the Three-Self churches or to support the house churches.