Go to the East, harvest the soul

Author: Zhou Ning
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-01-01
Features: Is this soil of China suitable for the growth of the gospel? Christianity in the West is a "grassroots" religion, but when it came to China, it repeatedly circled among the upper class and foreign communities, drifting down like dandelion seeds, and then scattered. The author is a literary scholar, and this book uses a literary and biographical approach to write the history of Western Christianity's three entries into China with great interest. The entry of Christianity into China experienced three waves in the early stages. In the ninth year of Zhenguan in the Tang Dynasty, Alopen introduced Nestorianism to the East, which once flourished for two centuries. However, when John of Montecorvino arrived in Beijing in 1294, he found that "these regions of China had never been visited by any apostle or disciple of the apostles." Catholicism and Nestorianism were active during the Yuan Dynasty, but after a while, they became silent and invisible. Two hundred years later, Jesuits returned to China, and Father Bartolo lamented that "China had never heard of the gospel and the Incarnation of God." In the late Ming Dynasty and early Qing Dynasty, Jesuits created a honeymoon period for the entry of Christianity into China. After Yongzheng banned the religion, all efforts vanished. This book is not strictly an academic treatise; the issues it discusses are academic, but the way it discusses them has the flavor of cultural essays. It emphasizes readability, targeting readers who are interested in cultural issues and have a certain level of education but are not professional readers. Is this soil of China suitable for the growth of the gospel? Christianity in the West is a "grassroots" religion, but when it came to China, it repeatedly circled among the upper class and foreign communities, drifting down like dandelion seeds, and then scattered. The author is a literary scholar, and this book uses a literary and biographical approach to write the history of Western Christianity's three entries into China with great interest. The entry of Christianity into China experienced three waves in the early stages. In the ninth year of Zhenguan in the Tang Dynasty, Alopen introduced Nestorianism to the East, which once flourished for two centuries. However, when John of Montecorvino arrived in Beijing in 1294, he found that "these regions of China had never been visited by any apostle or disciple of the apostles." Catholicism and Nestorianism were active during the Yuan Dynasty, but after a while, they became silent and invisible. Two hundred years later, Jesuits returned to China, and Father Bartolo lamented that "China had never heard of the gospel and the Incarnation of God." In the late Ming Dynasty and early Qing Dynasty, Jesuits created a honeymoon period for the entry of Christianity into China. After Yongzheng banned the religion, all efforts vanished. This book is not strictly an academic treatise; the issues it discusses are academic, but the way it discusses them has the flavor of cultural essays. It emphasizes readability, targeting readers who are interested in cultural issues and have a certain level of education but are not professional readers.