Description
Book SynopsisIn the 16th century, European missionaries brought a foreign religion to China. Converts transformed this religion into a local one. Focusing on the still-active Catholic communities of Fuan county in Fujian, this project's implications extend to the fields of religious and social history and early modern history of global intercultural relations.
Trade ReviewIn this rich reconstruction of the Dominican mission to Fujian, Menegon exposes the delicate maneuverings by which ordinary people managed a major cultural divide. His intimate portrait shows us how, in one community, Christianity became an indigenous, and resilient, Chinese religion four centuries ago. -- Timothy Brook, University of British Columbia
Combining a thorough mastery of Spanish missionary records and profound knowledge of Chinese sites and their sources, this book sets a new standard for the study of Catholic missions and cultural encounter in Late Imperial China. -- R. Po-chia Hsia, Pennsylvania State University
In this elegant and erudite book, Menegon uncovers the lost history of a four-hundred-year-old Catholic community in China, showing brilliantly how Christianity has become localized, how it has become Chinese, how it has become part of local life. The book convincingly undermines the widespread notion that what is most important about Christianity in China is its foreignness. It needs to be read not only by scholars of Christianity but also by all scholars of late imperial China, who ignore Christianity at the expense of a full understanding of religious life. As the number of Christians grows explosively in China today, this book offers an invaluable account of the past and useful material for reflecting on the future. -- Michael Szonyi, Harvard University
Table of ContentsMaps and Figures Abbreviations and Acronyms Introduction: "Truly Unfathomable"? 1. Fuan Literati, Jesuits, and Spanish Friars 2. Becoming Local: Conflict with Gods and Ancestors, 1634-1645 3. The Golden Age of Opportunity, 1645-1723 4. Suppression and Persistence, 1723-1840s 5. The Christians of Fuan 6. Christian Religious Fellowship in Mindong: Priests, Rituals, and Lay Institutions 7. Filial Piety, Ancestral Rituals, and Salvation 8. Virginity, Chastity, and Sex Conclusion-Ruptures: Fuan After the Opium Wars Notes on Sources Bibliography Index
