The Great Chinese Dynasty!

[Kevin Mowad]

Hey Guys,

More and more these days I'm seeing alot of historical movies portraying the old Chinese Dynasty! Around the period when the Great Wall of China was built. Now, I have always wondered did the early Christians get to China and Japan to spread the Gospels? If so when and who went there?

[DavidObeid]

I'll try to get my friend Thomas Kwok to come and comment on this for you Kevin. He's much more knowledgeable about this stuff than I am.

[Thomas Peregrinus]

Dear Kevin

You’ve asked if the early Christians got to China and Japan to spread the Gospels. I am unaware of any evidence that the early Christians i.e. Christians in the first few hundred years after Christ, got to China.

However, there is certainly evidence that Nestorianism spread to China by the 7th century. There is archaeological evidence of Nestorian artefacts, inscriptions, crosses in China etc. from around this time, which incidentally was around the time the Great Wall started to be built. There were schismatic Christians in the armies of Genghis Khan, and I believe that Kublai Khan's mother was a Christian, albeit schismatic. Genghis reportedly had priests as chaplains in his army to care for his Christian troops, although I am not sure about the history of this.

If we fast forward a little bit beyond the early Christians, there were Franciscan missions to China in the 12th century, or around then. They didn't really succeed, and the next wave of missions began with the missionary work of Fr Matteo Ricci SJ in the late 1500s and early 1600s. Interstingly, Fr Ricci found evidence of remnant Christianity in one of the cities in which he lived when he came across a people who would make the sign of the cross over their food before they ate. Similarly, he also came across remnant Jews in the same area, who did not eat pork, and remnant Muslims, who did not eat pork or horse meat.

It was the 16th/17th century Jesuit mission which really brought Christianity (i.e. Catholicism) to China.

One thing to note: you will often hear people say that Fr Matteo Ricci "inculturated" the liturgy by incorporating Chinese elements into it. As far as I know, this is just not correct. The documentary evidence we have shows that Fr Ricci was a very obedient Jesuit, and would not do anything without his superior's permission. A faithful post-reformation Jesuit is not about to go around fudging around with the Roman Liturgy. I believe that permission was given in the 18th century for the readings to be read in Chinese, but it is a myth that Ricci introduced Taoist, Buddhist and Confucian elements into the Mass. Some Chinese communities try to do these sort of things in "Chinese Masses" nowadays, but it really has no historical precedence and in my mind, reeks of "self racism" where you pretty much patronise your own race by saying, through liturgical practice, that you are intellectually and spiritually incompetent to understand and appreciate other cultures. In any cases, such "inculturated" Masses often incorporate elements of pagan Chinese practice which are completely foreign to most modern people in the Chinese diaspora (e.g. red candles, piles of oranges, ancestral tablets etc) which kind of defeats the purpose.

I digress. What Fr Ricci did do was use Chinese modes of literature and communication to explain the Gospel. He would do things like compose Classical Chinese explanations of the virtues, then set them to Spanish music to be accompanied by harpsicord. In this way, he truly "inculturated" the Gospel in a catechetical sense. But he did not touch the liturgy. He understood that literature and writing was a key way of winning some prestige for Christian doctrine in China, as opposed to the failed techniques of Spanish Franciscans around the same time who used European techniques of evangelisation such as preaching in the streets which in the Chinese cultural context, simply looked like a revolutionary politics. In this way, once again, Fr Matteo "inculturated" his approach to evangelisation where the Franciscans (in that instance) failed.

Of course, there is also what is known as the "Chinese Rites Controversy". Contrary to popular mistake, this does not have anything to do with the Mass. It concerns whether or not the Chinese Catholics could take part in rites of veneration to people like Confucius. I'm not sure what I think of it, but Fr Ricci was certainly of the opinion that such rites were purely civil (like laying a wreath for an unknown soldier). The Pope decided otherwise (after Ricci's time), and only lifted the ban in the reign of Pius XII, by which time (in my view) the issue was dead anyway.

Tom




I'll try to get my friend Thomas Kwok to come and comment on this for you
Kevin. He's much more knowledgeable about this stuff than I am.

[DavidObeid]

What did I tell you Kevin? :)

[GilWright]

I find the Chinese (Hong Kong) approach to Protestants interesting too. They tend to be lumped together as one "religion" in a way I don't see here in Australia. You can ask someone their religion and they might say "Christian" (Protestant) or "Old Christian" (Catholic). when you ask what flavor of Christian they have to think about it...

[DavidObeid]

Gil! Welcome to the forum! :)

[GilWright]

There is a pretty good resource site for Chinese Catholics (in Chinese): http://www.vatican.va/chinese/index.html

I am assured by someone who can read Chinese that there is history of the Chinese Catholic Church in there...

[Kevin Mowad]

Wow! So much information! I love my Christian History though! I can't get enough! Anyway, thanks guys and welcome Gil! Sorry for the late reply been working on my Bathroom Reno!