China Mission Research Articles

The Role of Russian Fiction Literature in the Perception of the Russia’s Image in China

The article analyzes the process of forming the image of Russia and Russian people by means of Russian literature. Russian literature perception in China, the transformation of the Russian literature mission in China can be traced over five periods: Russian literature of the XIX century, Soviet “Red Classics”, Russian literature in the 1960s, Russian literature in the 1980s, Russian literature after the collapse of the USSR to the present time. Currently the amount of publication as well as the number of those who read modern Russian literature in China are gradually declining, this leads to the fact that its influence on Chinese society is decreasing. However, the influence of modern Russian literature in China will last for a long time, it is simply observed in the literature itself, not concerning other factors, because without understanding Russian fiction, it is impossible to understand the national mentality and to form the image of Russia.

Reorganization of Diplomatic missions of the Russian Empire in North-East China During the Early XX Century: based on Materials from the Foreign Policy Archive of the Russian Empire

In their article, author considers previously little-studied aspects of the activities of Russian diplomatic missions in China in the late XIX - early XX century in order to explore the features of the daily life of the consular offices of the Russian Empire in China. The study is based on the copies of the answers of the Russian consular office employees in Manchuria to the questionnaire compiled by a special Commission for the Reorganization of the Foreign Service under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1907. These documents are stored in the Foreign Policy Archive of the Russian Empire of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, and have been introduced used publicly for scientific use for the first time here. From the available material, it is apparent that in addition to the difficult living conditions in unusual climate, Foreign Ministry officials in China faced a large number of domestic difficulties, a lack of working materials, and funding. Disagreements over the delimitation of consular districts and the powers of diplomats led to inconsistency in the activities of Russian consuls in China. Nevertheless, despite the difficulties, under any circumstances Russian diplomats remained committed to their duty and did their best in the interests of their state, at the same time striving to establish friendly and equal relations with their Chinese counter-parts.

The Imagination of Alchemy: A Chinese Response to Catholicism in Late Ming and Early Qing

As a common cultural phenomenon in China and the West, alchemy not only embodies the scientific spirit of people before modern times, but also contains certain religious beliefs, and even creates unrealistic secular imaginations. When Catholicism entered China during the Ming and Qing dynasties, the Chinese also projected this imagination of alchemy onto the missionaries. Behind this imagination actually lays the strong interest of Chinese people in the financial resources of the missionaries. On the one hand, there is the historical influence of traditional Chinese alchemy, and on the other hand, there is the curiosity caused by the lifestyle of missionaries in China. The imagination of alchemy not only reflects a historical aspect of the encounter between China and the West during the Ming and Qing dynasties, but also reflects a complex social psychology of mixed curiosity, panic, suspicion, and vigilance in pre-modern China.

Reinterpreting and Remapping Philosophy, Evolutionism and Religion in Late Qing Missionary’s Translation of The Making of a Man

Between the Boxer Movement and the 1911 Revolution, missionaries in China confronted distinct social challenges compared to their counterparts in home countries. In response, American missionary Young John Allen and his Chinese assistant, Van Yi, co-translated James Wideman Lee’s The Making of a Man into Chinese as Ren Xue. This translation aimed to counter Spencer’s social evolutionism, introduced by native intellectuals like Yan Fu, offering a reinterpretation of the relationships among individuals, nations, and God. Additionally, it sought to remap philosophy, evolutionism, ethics, and religion tailored for late Qing China. In contrast to clergymen in America and China, Chinese native intellectuals developed their unique reinterpretations and reshaping of philosophy, science, evolutionism, ethics, and religion for China. Through a cross-comparison of works by Yan Fu, Huxley, Spencer, Lee and Allen, this study explored the diverse responses to Spencer’s evolutionary theory and related issues among the advocates of evolutionism, Chinese intellectuals, and clergies in America and China.

Exploring 19th-century medical mission in China: Forging modern roots of Chinese medicine

Exploring 19th-century medical mission in China: Forging modern roots of Chinese medicine

AntonioDe Caro: Angelo Zottoli, A Jesuit Missionary in China (1848–1902): His Life and Ideas. Singapore: Palgrave Macmillan, 2022; pp. 174.

Journal of Religious HistoryEarly View BOOK REVIEW Antonio De Caro: Angelo Zottoli, A Jesuit Missionary in China (1848–1902): His Life and Ideas. Singapore: Palgrave Macmillan, 2022; pp. 174. Xiaojia Huang, Corresponding Author Xiaojia Huang [email protected] orcid.org/0009-0007-6890-569X South China Normal UniversitySearch for more papers by this author Xiaojia Huang, Corresponding Author Xiaojia Huang [email protected] orcid.org/0009-0007-6890-569X South China Normal UniversitySearch for more papers by this author First published: 31 May 2023 https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9809.12973Read the full textAboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL No abstract is available for this article. Early ViewOnline Version of Record before inclusion in an issue RelatedInformation

A Passion for China: Norwegian Mission to China Until 1949 ed. by Tormod Engelsviken, Notto R. Thelle, and Knut Edvard Larsen

Reviewed by: A Passion for China: Norwegian Mission to China Until 1949 ed. by Tormod Engelsviken, Notto R. Thelle, and Knut Edvard Larsen Richard Carter A Passion for China: Norwegian Mission to China Until 1949. Edited by Tormod Engelsviken, Notto R. Thelle, and Knut Edvard Larsen. Oxford: Regnum Books International, 2015. 202 pp. An introduction, an overview, and nine chapters, like facets of a jewel, each enriched with documented detail and bibliography, offer a substantial view of Norwegian-grounded missionary activity in China through the mid-twentieth century. The style of writing ranges from pious to precise. Alongside the Norwegian passion one catches the passions of particular authors, for example, for feminism and equal rights. The commitment to documentation and the deep Norwegian roots of this text—translations of Norwegian terms are given—can mean that a reader is slowed down in understanding the content. [End Page 108] "Saving of Souls and the Return of the Lord …" describes an almost distracting array of mission agencies, including the Mission Covenant Church of Norway (MCCN), the China Inland Mission, the Free Mission Association, the Scandinavian Alliance Mission, the Christian Missionary Alliance, the Norwegian Missionary Alliance, and the Norwegian China Mission. At the same time, in particular following the biography and work of Swedish-American Fredrik Franson, this chapter narrates the impact of pre-millennialism in some Norwegian mission work. This includes the choice of MCCN to work as a faith-mission, so as "to avoid criticism from the older mission boards … [and] not compete for funds" (29). "Relationships—The Heart of Mission: The Evangelical Lutheran Free Church of Norway's Mission to China 1916–1949" first provides a brief history of the work of the ELFCN, including the numbers of missionaries, of schools and churches, and of Chinese workers. The chapter then works through a range of relevant relationships: with God, the Chinese community, Chinese Christians (in general and with co-workers), with other missions, between missionaries of the ELFCN, within the missionary family, and with the sending church and its members. The last portion moves beyond the title of the book: "Relationships after 1949." "Marie Monsen's Achievement" acknowledges the policy of the China Inland Mission to accept both men and women, and then details the significant work of Marie Monsen (1878–1962). The writer proposes "that God must be a supporter of women's liberation as well as modern Western civilization, since he directs his obedient female followers to become professional teachers and nurses …" (92). She adds "Marie Monsen's feminist commitment seems to have been largely overlooked when she lived as an elderly woman in Bergen" (108). One paragraph of "Diakonia" describes the turbulent era in China covered by all the chapters. During the fifty years within which the Norwegian Missionary Society (NMS) "was engaged in its work in China the country went through great political changes. The empire lasted until the revolution in 1911 "[with] both the internal conflicts [three are listed] and externally between the Chinese and the Japanese [and then] the communist takeover [which] resulted in [End Page 109] the establishment of the PRC on October 1, 1949 [sic]" (135). The chapter documents many facets of NMS diakonia: medical missions and the prevention of foot-binding of Chinese girls, discussions on women's work, promoting "human rights … by widely promoting the art of reading and writing" (137), overcoming and preventing social diseases, hospital work, sustainable development and respect for the patients' human worth, a school for the blind and an orphanage for abandoned children. Having served six years in Hong Kong, there catching glimpses of the major work of Karl Ludvig Reichelt (1877–1952), I much appreciated the closing chapter: "The Beginnings of Buddhist-Christian Dialogue in China." It documents clearly the long, deep "second fiddle" work of Notto Normann Thelle (1901–1990) that supported Reichelt. The chapter makes it possible first to honor the famous missionary and then to honor all who contribute to and support the great workers, including all those Norwegians whose passion for the Good News moved them to serve in mission in China, to 1949 and beyond. Richard Carter Concordia University Saint Paul, Minnesota Copyright © 2023 Johns Hopkins University Press and...

Mediated Orthodoxy: Mission in China

Mediated Orthodoxy: Mission in China

Revisiting the China Mission of Mikhail Borodin in 1923–1927: In Light of New Documentation

Mikhail Borodin, a Bolshevik Party member, became one of Moscow's most influential foreign operatives in China in the early 1920s. The access to many previously inaccessible Russian and Chinese archival sources after the collapse of the former Soviet Union made it possible for scholars to conduct a new study on Borodin's Mission to China. Perhaps the most extraordinary finding to emerge from the new sources is that it was not the Comintern, but the Soviet Politburo, acting on Stalin's recommendation, sent Borodin to China. His assignments there went far beyond “making revolution.” While in China, he was involved in almost every important aspect of Soviet operations, including secret diplomacy, dealing with all factions: the Nationalists, the Communists, and the various warlords, as well as the warlord-controlled Beijing government. Without a proper understanding of Borodin's Mission to China, it would be next to impossible to comprehend Moscow's policies toward China in the 1920s.

Report of the bailiff of the XII Russian Ecclesiastical Mission in BeijingN.I. Lyubimov on interaction with Chinese officials (first half of the 19th century)

The Russian Ecclesiastical Mission in China for two centuries served as an outpost of Orthodoxy and a foreign policy landmark of the Russian state in China, our task is to analyze the report of the bailiff of the XII Russian Spiritual Mission N.I. Lyubimov. For 30 years of work in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs N.I. Lyubimov collected in his collection a weighty layer of official documents, personal and business correspondence, memories that he took when leaving Russia. After his death, the documents were found and today they are stored in the Russian State Historical Archive in St. Petersburg. On the basis of a detailed reference to historical documents, the features of the relationship between Russia and China in the second half of the 19th century are analyzed. A huge role in this was played by the personality of N.I. Lyubimov, who was directly involved in compiling reports on important events and actors in Chinese politics, I analyze the possibility of using them in matters of diplomacy, it is also noteworthy that the bailiff gives valuable advice on saving state funds abroad. The authors come to the conclusion that the Russian Spiritual Mission in China, in general, and its representatives, in particular, were a link between the two countries, a source of reliable information about the internal political life of the Qing Empire, about its language, traditions, history, culture and way of life. Representatives of this mission for a long time acted as an unofficial diplomatic representation of Russia in China

Kommentarii k missionerskim perevodam kitajskih traktatov po biologii v epohu dinastii Cin

During the history of Qing Dynasty which lasted over 260 years, many biological translation works translated by missionaries in China had been published. These biological translation works were the basis of the development of the Chinese biology in Modern times; and at the same time, the process and result of the translation can not only be analyzed by modern translation theories such as Skopos theory, but also had provided materials for the research of translation theory and practice. Therefore, making research on these translation works is helpful to reappear the conditions of biological communication between China and Western countries in Qing Dynasty and make research on missionaries' scientific translation.

Xiyanglou – “Buildings of the Western Ocean”: Splendor, Poverty and Lessons of the Ruin

The paper gives a complex analysis of the Xiyanglou palace and park complex (“Buildings of the Western Ocean”), located on the current northwestern outskirts of Beijing, designed, and built in 1747–1751 by European masters, led by the Italian Jesuit artist Giuseppe Castiglione (Lang Shining, 1688–1766). Castiglione, best known as a painter, acted in this case as a visionary architect and designer who skillfully integrated the “European part” into the already existing Yuanmingyuan palace complex and received for this his main recognition at the court of the Manchu Emperor Qianlong, who personally oversaw the project. Using the example of the syncretic Sino-European style of the Xiyanglou architectural complex, incorporating European Baroque and Rococo styles and classical Chinese construction principles, the paper demonstrates the European masters’ practical application of the adaptation principles developed by Matteo Ricci, the leader of the Jesuit mission in China when preaching Christianity in China. Separately, the innovative buildings in the Chinese style located in Yuanming Yuan, which incorporated Xiyanglou, are briefly analyzed, the background of the design and creation of Xiyanglou is considered, detailed descriptions of the buildings of the Western Quarter are given, and the fate of the palace and park complex is traced. The author concludes that the Western Quarter, which became a testing ground where were practiced the principles of Occidental art, acted as a focus of mutual influence of European and Chinese artistic trends.

The Impact of Employees' Perception of Smart Cities on Employee Green Behavior: A Moderated Mediation Model

<abstract> <p>The issuance of the 2022 White Paper on Smart Cities has brought the notion of smart cities to the forefront. This conceptual framework revolves around green and sustainable development, aligning seamlessly with China's mission to strengthen ecological civilization in the contemporary era. In this study, we delve into the implications of employees' perception of smart cities on their ecologically conscious behaviors, drawing upon the frameworks of self-determination theory. The empirical analysis encompasses 306 employee respondents hailing from diverse enterprises and backgrounds. The findings extracted from this investigation reveal several crucial insights: (1) A robust and positive correlation between the employees' perception of smart cities and their eco-friendly behaviors; (2) corporate environmental responsibility assumes a partially mediating role between the employees' perception of smart cities and eco-friendly behaviors; (3) environmental awareness emerges as a constructive moderator in the interplay between corporate environmental responsibility and employees' eco-friendly behaviors; (4) notably, the impact of employees' perception of smart cities on employees' eco-friendly behaviors assumes greater prominence when environmental awareness is high, signifying an intensified indirect relationship. This dynamic underscores that during periods of heightened environmental awareness, the influence of employees' perception of smart cities on eco-friendly behaviors becomes more pronounced, reinforced by a more substantial indirect influence channeled through corporate environmental responsibility. These findings enhance the theoretical underpinnings of self-determination theory. Enterprises are encouraged to underscore and incentivize employees' pro-environmental behaviors, integrate environmental preservation paradigms into corporate culture and enhance green management initiatives, synergistically advancing shared ecological objectives for both enterprises and employees.</p> </abstract>

Astronomical Chronology, the Jesuit China Mission, and Enlightenment History.

This article examines the use of astronomical chronology in Jesuit and secular works of history between the mid-seventeenth and mid-eighteenth centuries. It suggests that the highly visible adoption of astronomical records in historical scholarship in Enlightenment Europe by Nicolas Fréret and Voltaire was entangled with debates about Chinese chronology, translated by Jesuit missionaries. The article argues that the missionary Martino Martini's experience of the Manchu conquest of China was crucial in shaping his conception of history as a discipline. Political events that unfolded in seventeenth-century China had a marked effect on discussions about emergent world history in eighteenth-century Europe.

Istoki muzykal'nogo prosveshcheniya v Kolledzhe Tenchzhou

Through inquiring and collating the historical data of schools and related music courses which were opened by foreign missionaries in China in the 1930s and 1940s, the author believes that under the influence of the skill imparting and advanced educational concepts of western musicians, the music course, music theory course, instrumental performance and singing course opened by western missionaries, especially the music textbook “Music Theory Enlightenment” compiled by Tengchow College, and ten classic songs of “Excerpt of Songs of Tengchow College” have played a very important role in promoting the enlightenment and development of modern higher musical education in China.

Prediction and politics in Beijing, 1668: A Jesuit astronomer and his technical resources in a time of crisis

In late December 1668 the Kangxi 康熙 emperor (r. 1662–1722) asked the Jesuit astronomer Ferdinand Verbiest (1623–1688) to give publicly verifiable proof that the western astronomical system introduced to China by the Jesuits was accurate. In response Verbiest proposed that he and his Chinese opponents should be set the task of predicting the length of the shadow cast by a gnomon of a given length at a given time on a given day, and his suggestion was accepted. Success in this experimental trial was vital to the future of the Jesuit mission in China. After repeating the trial at noon on three successive days, Verbiest was judged to have succeeded in showing the superiority of western methods in this respect. In this paper, we provide a detailed technical analysis of the methods used by Verbiest to make his predictions of gnomon shadows, and trace the sources of his skills back to his astronomical studies in Europe before his departure for China. In the course of this investigation, we discuss changes in European astronomical techniques up to the mid 17th century that played a decisive role in his predictive task. As a result of this analysis, we are able to explain certain previously puzzling features of Verbiest’s predictions as a rational response on his part to the contentious circumstances under which the trial was conducted.

A statistical measurement of diseases recorded in The Quarterly Reports of the Ophthalmic Hospital at Canton

The Quarterly Reports of the Ophthalmic Hospital at Canton written by Rev. Peter Parker, an American protestant missionary in China, were serialised in The Chinese Repository from 1836 to 1850. Each report provided the number of patients treated in the corresponding period and described in detail the treatment of diseases which were difficult to deal with. However, due to historical conditions, these reports were inconsistent in terms of the disease classification standards, let alone the statistical deficiencies. This paper aims to regroup the diseases recorded in the 15 reports according to the classification from the eleventh to fifteenth report and recount the patient number of each disease systematically in different periods, with reliable historical data to support such relevant studies as the history of the Ophthalmic Hospital at Canton and the introduction of Western Medicine into China and the development of International Classification of Diseases.

ETHNOCULTURE OF THE MONGOLS IN THE WORKS OF ORIENTALIST N.Ya. BICHURIN

The article is dedicated to the role of a native of Chuvashia, an outstanding learned monk, corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, founder of Russian sinology N.Ya. Bichurin (1777–1853) in the study and popularization of the ethnoculture of the Mongols in the XIX century. Mongol studies date back to the XIII century, the time of Genghis Khan, who created a vast and powerful Mongol Empire. It was a memoir of ambassadors and travelers, Western European Christian missionaries. In the XIX century, the center of world Mongolian studies was concentrated in Russia, where A.L. Leontiev, I.K. Rossokhin, Ya.I. Schmidt, O.A. Kovalevsky, A.V. Popov, I.P. Voytsekhovsky, P.Ya. Petrov and other orientalists were focusing on its problems. They studied languages, history, ethnography, geography of the peoples of China, Mongolia, Tibet, India, Kalmykia, etc. A significant trace in the study of the Mongolian language and ethnoculture was left by Professor of Kazan University O.M. Kovalevsky, a participant of expeditions to Transbaikalia and Mongolia (1828–1833), the author of grammar, anthology, and dictionaries of the Mongolian language. The Kazan school of orientalists included N.Ya. Bichurin (monk Hyacinth), the head of the IX Russian Theological mission in China (1807–1821), and a participant of ethnographic expeditions (1830–1831, 1835–1837). During 1828–1853 he published a number of fundamental works on Oriental studies, including on the ethnoculture of the Mongols and their neighbors: a translation of the “History of the Mongols”, the works “Notes on Mongolia”, “The History of the Four Khans from the Family of Genghis Khan”, “Historical Review of the Oirats or Kalmyks from the XV century to the present time”. He published more than a dozen articles in well-known Russian popular journals. Not all the judgments and conclusions of N.Ya. Bichurin on the ethnogenesis of some Eastern peoples are shared by modern scientists. Nevertheless, his works on China, Mongolia, Tibet, Kalmykia, the Uyghur territories to a certain extent helped the Russian state to learn about the internal and external problems of the Eastern countries and peoples, their original ethnic culture. The learned monk was sympathetic to the peoples of the East and predicted our rapprochement in the historical future. Laureate of four Demidov Prizes, Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences N.Ya. Bichurin received well-deserved recognition during his lifetime. Our contemporaries, residents of Chuvashia, with respect and pride treat the heritage of the outstanding countryman N.Ya. Bichurin. Settlements, streets, museums are named after him, monuments and busts are built in his honor, state and public awards (order, medal, pennant, prizes) are established.

Uzak Doğu'dan Yansımalar: Çin'deki Katolik ve Nesturî Varlığının Karşılaştırılması

Orta çağda Batı Avrupa'dan Fransisken rahipler ve Suriye'den Nesturî rahipler, kendi Hıristiyan mezheplerini ve doktrinini yaymak ve bölgede kiliselerini kurmak için Uzak Doğu'ya gittiler. Benzer hedefleri paylaşsalar da, Fransiskenler ve Nesturîler farklı ikna yöntemleri kullandılar, bu nedenle misyonerlik çalışmalarının sonuçları ve mirası, önemli ölçüde birbirlerinden farklıydı. Moğol bozkırlarındaki mezar taşlarının da kanıtladığı gibi, Nesturîler Uzak Doğu'da dikkate değer ölçüde başarılıydılar; ancak kendi ülkelerinde (Mezopotamya), ironi bir şekilde, giderek marjinalleştirildiler. Buna karşılık, Katolik Fransiskenler ve Uzak Doğu'ya giden diğer Avrupalı seyyahlar, benzer misyonerlik başarısı elde edemediler ve 14. yüzyılın ortalarından sonra bölgede neredeyse hiç izleri kalmadı. Bununla birlikte, kendi ülkelerindeki okuyucuları için yazdıkları seyahatnameler ve mektuplar, hem Orta Çağ'ın sonlarında Avrupa’yı dışa açma hırsları üzerinde hem de on yedinci yüzyıl Çin'indeki Katolik misyonunun dönüşü üzerinde büyük bir etkiye sahipti. Özetle, Nesturîlerin mirası Orta Asya’daki taş anıtlardı ve Fransiskenler ise Batı'da ilham verici metinler bıraktılar. Uzak Doğu'daki Hıristiyan misyonerlik faaliyetinin ilgili uygulamalarının karşılaştırılması, ortaçağ kültürler arası seyahatin hem menşe bölgelerini hem de varış bölgelerini çeşitli şekillerde nasıl etkilediğini daha iyi tanıtabilir. Bu nedenle, Orta Çağ'ın sonlarında Uzak Doğu'daki Hıristiyan varlığı ortadan kalksa da bu misyonerlerin geldiği toplumlar için kalıcı sonuçlar doğurmuştur.

Discussion of Medicine and Religion: Study of Missionary Hospitals in Modern Shanghai, China

Abstract In modern times, 15 missionary hospitals were established in Shanghai, including 6 Protestant hospitals and 9 Catholic hospitals. These hospitals were the products of Western missionaries in China. The establishment of missionary hospitals objectively introduced Western medicine into China and changed its original medical system. Based on documents and periodicals, Shanghai archives, Xujiahui library materials, hospital historical records, and domestic and foreign library historical materials, this paper systematically reviews the development of missionary hospitals in Shanghai, and discusses their balance between medicine and religion, to provide ideas and references for future research.