SOAS Research Online

Abstract

Catholic Christians caught up in the anti-heresy arrests of late Imperial China defended themselves as followers of a peace-loving religion, piously passed on from their parents. That they nonetheless sometimes ended up being persecuted was because their faith took root at a time when popular Buddhist groups faced persecution as alleged “heretics”. The chapter probes this connection by examining the periods from the anti-missionary edict of 1724 to the Convention of Beijing (1860) and from Western missionary proliferation to the Boxer Rebellion (1900). Although the first phase can be described as one of general religious tolerance with only occasional state repression, the second one witnessed broader popular mistrust and violence. This was true for Christians of all denominations, but perhaps more for the followers of Catholicism, clearly distinguishable in name (“Teaching of the Lord of Heaven”) from Protestantism (“Teaching of Christ”). The nineteenth century would culminate in an orgy of violence, the Boxer Rebellion, which would leave permanent marks on the Catholic missionary enterprise in China and would serve as a catalyst for the eventual indigenization of the Catholic Church in the Republican era (1912–1949).