Success or Failure? Christianity in China
By Xinzhong Yao | Published in History Today Volume: 44 Issue: 9 1994
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Christianity Religion China
As far as we know, the first contact between Christianity and China was not made until the
beginning of the Tang Dynasty (618-907). According to the inscription of 1,780 Chinese
characters on a stone tablet which dates 781 and was unearthed in 1623, the initiator of this
contact was a Syrian Nestorian called A-lou-ben (Alopen). He, with a number of others, came
from, or through, Persia and arrived at the Chinese capital in 635, and thus their churches were
called Da Qin Si, or, mistakenly, the temples of Persia. Nestorian Christianity won support and
toleration from the government, and its success earned it a Chinese name Jing Jiao, the Brilliant
or Admirable Religion. As a religion from the West, Nestorianism was taken as a sect of
Buddhism, and satisfied the curiosity as well as the religious pursuit of the Tang Chinese. It
became popular in some areas for a reasonably long period until the ninth century when a major
persecution of 'foreign religions' was carried out and Nestorianism was, partly due to their actual
or alleged relation with Buddhism, swept away from central China.
After two other major fluctuations of success and failure respectively in the thirteenth and in the
seventeenth- eighteenth centuries, Christianity made its fourth attempt of conversion of China
from the beginning of the nineteenth century. Christian conversion gained ground both because
of the hard work and self-sacrifice of the missionaries, and because of the pressure on the
Manchurian Court from the Western powers, which were clearly embodied in a series of socalled unequal treaties between the Chinese government and the Western nations. While these
treaties provided legal protection for Christian expansion, a close connection between missionary
work and political or military pressure proved to be harmful to the former and was often used to
stir a strong resistance among the natives. In 1919, a massive protest against the Western powers
broke out and made Christianity one of its targets of attack. In some sense, we may well say that
this marked the beginning of another decline of Christianity in China. By the middle of the 1950s,
under dogmatic Communist rule, almost all the foreign missionaries had been driven out of
China, and connections between foreign organisations and Chinese churches were cut off by the
'Three Self Patriotic Movement' (self-administration, self-support and self-propagation). During
the Cultural Revolution (1966-76), Christian activities, if not completely annihilated, were
reduced to their minimum, or were carried underground only.
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Since the 1970s, Christianity has recovered from its setback with the dawning of a new era.
While the faithful are proud of their courage in defiance of previous suppression, the newcomers crowd into the old buildings to look for their new faith. The services, which were
forbidden or reduced or changed, are restored to their full content. The churches, which were
confiscated or destroyed or occupied, have been returned, rebuilt or compensated. The total
number of Chinese Catholics and Protestants is not easy to give, varying between 10 million
according to the official statistics and 50 million according to the unofficial estimates.
Compared with the previous period, Christianity in China now enjoys some special advantages,
which contribute to its popularity and expansion. The most apparent is its connection with
modernization, prosperity and progress. One of the important reasons for Christianity being
welcomed in the past was its value as a symbol of an advanced civilization. Thirty years after
1949, during which China closed its door to the world, the Chinese suddenly found that the gap
between China and the Christian Western countries, in terms of science, technology and industry
as well as prosperity, did not decrease as they were repeatedly told, but increased to a surprising
level. Many people began to search for reasons, and at least some of them found that Christianity
promoted the process of modernisation and that there was an inherent connection between
prosperity and the Christian faith.
Within Christianity now came another advantage: the missionary work which helped to bring
about and sustain its previous popularity in China has been replaced by the independent
propagation of the faith by Chinese priests themselves. In any of the previous periods, the
channel between China and Western missionaries was essential for infusing vitality into the
Chinese Church. This channel had been blocked due both to the self-adjustment within
Christianity and to the peculiar situation of Christianity in China. On the one hand, Western
churches on the whole have changed greatly, and their historical associations with attitudes of
racial superiority and their dogmatic 'purism' in dealing with other cultures have, in many
instances, given way to their universal conception of Christian faith. On the other, foreign
missionary work is now of little influence in China, and the preaching and expansion of
Christianity are completely in the hands of the Chinese today. Because of this, the traditional
conflict between patriotism and Christianity, and between 'Chineseness' and 'Christian-ness', is
moderated. The changed image of Christianity serves to remove a psychological obstacle from
the path of Christian conversion.
The social circumstances have changed dramatically in favour of Christian expansion. China is
more and more open, not only to the economic world but also to the religious world. The
shortage of Chinese professionals, or priests was one of the reasons for the limited coverage of
Christian preaching in the past. Although this disadvantage still remains, it is more or less offset
by easy access to Christian information. Along with the revolution of information which is being
accelerated in China, this access will be enlarged very quickly and will provide an unprecedented
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opportunity for Christians sending their message to ordinary Chinese people. As far as the
interaction between Christian faith and the Chinese tradition is concerned the former is benefited
by a much reduced resistance from the latter due to a sequence of revolutionary movements. The
Cultural Revolution developed this kind of movement to its extreme, and left a sort of vacuum of
religiosity in the mind of the people, especially in that of the younger generations. A chance to
fill this vacancy is now open to Christianity.
Encouraged by these advantages, Chinese Christians have been working hard to push the new
wave of conversion to its peak and to make the big breakthrough into Chinese communities, long
dreamed of. The Western churches optimistically believe that a new age of Christianity in China
is approaching. However, four of its major historical weaknesses remain.
Christian inability to integrate with Chinese culture leaves it a 'foreign religion' for most Chinese
people as it was before. Its basic tenets have not yet been accepted as part of the cultural and
religious life of the Chinese as a whole. Correspondingly, the converted Chinese have remained a
very small proportion of the population, and Christianity's acceptance is essentially confined to
its traditional bases and the rapidly developing areas in the south-east of China, which are more
directly exposed to Western influence. This shows that Christian faith in China is still a religion
from without. not yet a religion from within in the past the foreign nature of Christianity did not
appeal to the Chinese people: the message for today is that Christianity cannot he embraced
without integrating with the native culture.
As a 'brought-in' religion, Christianity has not yet established its own identity in China. The tree
of Christian propagation still needs nutrition from native faiths in order to grow up, and thus, its
success or failure, in some sense, still depends on whether or not its resemblances with the latter
can be accepted. The lack of a strong identity means it is harder to win over new members and to
appeal to the ordinary people.
Divisions within Christianity are more strikingly manifest in Chinese culture than in any other
context. It is a historical fact that the development of Christianity itself produced major divisions,
and Catholicism and Protestantism purposely or unintentionally cultivated a divisive vision in
Chinese Christians, which is so dominant that their common origin seems to have long been
ignored. From the division came two names for Christianity, two versions of the Holy Scriptures,
two terms for God and two 'religions' for Christianity: The religion of the Lord of Heaven
(Catholicism) which worships Tian Zhu (Lord of Heaven) and the religion of Jesus Christ
(Protestantism) which takes Shang Ti as their God. In China, there is a long tradition which
insists that proper names be a guarantee for harmony, for correcting the chaotic situation and for
restoring social stability. Therefore, the confusion in Christian terminology as well as in its
doctrine not only leads to an unfavourable opinion of its faith, but also is held to represent its
prematurity in China.
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There is no doubt that the surveillance over religious matters today has been much relaxed and
religious communities have been granted more freedom than ten years ago. However, as a
'foreign religion', Christianity is more suspect as a possible faith leading to social disorder than
other religions and therefore more easily attracts suppression. The suspicion and suppression
mainly focus on the secrecy of its communities and on its involvement with foreign churches or
organisations. Suspiciously guarded from within and frequently cut off from the outside,
Christianity in China is left in a vulnerable position in today's society.
Many people are exploring the root of these weaknesses. For some of them, it is very convenient
to conclude that it is the political regime that should be held responsible for its shortcomings. A
deeper exploration, however, reveals that Christianity has not yet been accepted by the majority
of the Chinese as part of their culture. To this end it is worth noting that Christianity has
achieved only slow progress in other Chinese communities, such as in Hong Kong and Taiwan.
Some Christian theologians, both European and Chinese, with this problem in mind, are calling
for a so-called 'Contextual Chinese Theology' (Hans Kung) to help make it possible for
Christianity to become a part of Chinese culture, as Buddhism did nearly 2,000 years ago. The
Chinese Christians are also endeavouring to give a Chinese characteristic to their faith, however
insufficient these efforts are.
While a 'Chinese Christian theology' presents a hope for the enhancement of Christian
'indigenisation', it does not allow us to overlook the resistance from Chinese spiritual quarters. A
strong challenge to the spread of Christianity in China finds its origins in the revival of
Confucianism. With its long history as the state orthodoxy, with its deep roots in intellectualism,
and with a model from the former Confucian countries in East Asia, Confucianism is being
revived to promote China's prestige and to strengthen the national self-confidence. The first
interaction between Confucianism and Christianity in the seventeenth century began with mutual
displays of sympathy and admiration for each other and ended with their becoming enemies.
This was one of the most important factors leading to the Christian retreat from China in the
eighteenth century. Today, people look back at this incident and feel grieved for many of the
counter-productive policies that sprang from both sides, and believe that this first full-scale
attempt to understand each other made by Christianity and Confucianism perhaps could have
gone the other way and brought us a quite different history, if one or the other, or both, had
adopted a more flexible attitude. While we cannot rebuild history, we should be able to do better
for the future. Confucianism may become a severe rival to the Christian faith if Christianity and
Confucianism fail to co- operate, or it could become an ally with Christianity in their fight
against the old superstitions and the new 'modern diseases' if they can co-exist harmoniously.
The possibility of a new era of Christianity in China and an appreciation of the Christian faith for
the Chinese lie in the successful integration of Christianity with Chinese culture and in its efforts
to co-exist and co-operate with Chinese traditions.
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Xinzhong Yao is Lecturer in Chinese Religions and Ethics at St David's University College,
Wales and Deputy Director of the Institute of Ethics, People's University of China, Peking.
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