The Jesuits had the right idea about how Christianity should be presented to the Chinese, a civilization that had thrived for centuries without the assumption of God. Matteo Ricci was the first missionary to make inroads into the Chinese elites. He was also the first missionary to be granted an audience with the Chinese Emperor. His tactic was to present Christianity as a useful complement to Confucianism, by using similar terminology. He did not demand his converts renounce Confucianism (as the Roman Catholic Church did later), but accepted ancestor worship as cultural tradition, not religious ceremony. Culturally speaking, the (Han) Chinese actually dont give a s*** whether god exists or not. Confucius himself was agnostic, but pointed out that religion should not impede social harmony. When practising religion improves peoples lives, then religion is good. If religious ceremonies and doctrine harms society, then religion should be discouraged. It was a very pragmatic view about the issue. This is roughly the same view contemporary Chinese hold about religion. The Chinese constitution recognizes religious freedom, but these freedoms are limited in the sense that the religions concerned should not harm the state. Therefore, the Catholic Church needs to persuade the Chinese that Catholicism, in its real form, is beneficial for China. The Communists see the Catholic Church as an outside power attempting to meddle with Chinas internal affairs (considering the historical track record of the Pope, who could blame them?). It is worth noting that during Chinas century of humiliation, many harmful acts towards China (as perceived by the Chinese) were done in the name of spreading Gods word. (That is part of the reason why the Boxer Revolution targeted foreign missionaries and Chinese christians.) It is also worth mentioning that the bloodiest civil war in Chinese history, the Taiping Rebellion, was also partly influenced by Christianity. (The leader of the Taiping Rebellion proclaimed himself to be the younger brother of Jesus.) All in all, Christianity has had a lot of negative PR in recent Chinese collective memory. When comparing Christianity with Buddhism (both foreign religions), the Chinese like to say: Buddha arrived in China riding an elephant, but Jesus arrived in China riding cannon balls.
Posted on: Sat, 16 Nov 2013 03:06:08 +0000
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