The Research On The Spreadablity Of The Knowledge Of The Christian Religion Among Intelligentsia In Late Qing Dynasty

The Christianity religion is believed or accepted as true, especially by the Holy Bible. There were Protestantism and the Catholicism which were called for the Western religion by Chinese in late Qing dynasty. The Christianity's history and the religious doctrine usually composed the knowledge of the Western religion, and it spreads abroad in the Chinese intellectual circle through several ideological trends. In these ideological trends, its dissemination in the Chinese intellectual circle was steady and continuously.There are three objects of investigation, the disseminator' activity of the Western religion knowledge , the disseminator' text and the disseminator' approach ,in this article. The disseminator' activity comprises Missionary and Chinese each kind of writers. The disseminator' text is mainly those Chinese books that include the Western religion knowledge. As well as, the paper inspected the difference and the sameness which disseminates in several ideological trends displays. There are several items to conduct the research. First, Missionary's cultural activity and the Chinese intellectual circle's reply; secondly, comparison of western religion between in the propaganda religion text and in the Chinese geography work; thirdly, the comparison in dissemination way between religious books of church and books of Chinese clerisy. From these researches of comparison, author has a judgment that the dissemination of the Western religion knowledge has closeness, the stability and the continuity in the Chinese scholar class.In the first chapter of this article, author study the history how books of Christianity disseminate in Qing Dynasty's government forbiddance relaxing to Christianity. The author mainly chose missionaries' three northward inshore activities in 1832, being Daoguang emperor'12th year, and in 1835,15th year. These hazardous activities can help us to take investigation on attitude of missionaries' propagandize. In the prohibition to Christianity's dissemination time, missionaries bide in Guangzhou, Macao and the Southeast Asia, they mainly are engaged in cultural activities and so on the printing, translation. Because of the religious prohibition, propaganda religion cannot be expanded in region. But in the Daoguang era, they faced the fact that the religious prohibition became less rigorous, the ocean guards less strict, opium smuggling wearily rampant, the negotiation between the Chinese and foreign being frequent. They were the advantageous political context to missionaries' sermon. Because of these reasons, the missionary took risked along China marine for the north, pried into the possibility of expansion propaganda. Not only three coastal navigations were missionary's cultural activity, but also they were political incident which caused scare in the Qing Dynasty government. The Qing center government and the coast local officeholderes forbided and investigated whom had published the books. It urged the missionary to break off dissemination of book. This result was reverse to wish of missionary'. These books which they had spread around all cannot be accepted in the language style and the content by the Chinese traditional intellectual circle. There display initiative and urgentment of the Western church' propaganda in there events, but all officeholders and intellectual all refuted and forbids it. There is an inconsistency between Chinese intellectual's attitude and missionary' in the time of religious prohibition.Second chapter has mainly discussed the dissemination between the knowledge of the Western religion of missionary and the geographer.The knowledge of western religion in the Chinese tradition intellectual circle was chosen in the first instance by elite of intellectual, in order that it was syncretized into system of Chinese geography, so the knowledge of Western religion can spread abroad in the intellectual circle. During the era of Daoguang and Xianfeng emperor, trend of statecraft made transformation for modernization in the late Qing Dynasty, which is a symbol of political situation. Under the goal of statecraft, the Chinese intellectual circle has raised ideological trend to research history and geography of world. The technique and the object of research had new characteristic and the modern direction. There were many works from study of new geography, those works contain much knowledge of Christianity, which they directly was compiled from the missionary's religious book, the Ming Dynasty and the Qing Dynasty time ancient book and writing books ,and also from contact between intellectual circle and the missionary. These works' knowledge of Christianity become Sources of dissemination in the late Qing Dynasty, and they also make influences to spread widely the knowledge of Christianity in several generations of intellectual circle. At last it provided books for trend of anti- Christianity ideological with knowledge of Western religion.The third chapter mainly researches the trends of go-to-world rising gradually from the middle 19th century, in which the knowledge of Christianity was absorbed and disseminated. These folk and official writers arrived the Western Christianity country, and felt their religious life and the culture personally, in their diary and the travel notes; there were massive records of Christianity. Before abroad, these writers made much preparation about the West, and during abroad, they carried along with several books of geography in order to understand Western situation.Not only did they examine their Christianity' knowledge and changed the rational judgment and understanding to Christianity in these Christianity country, but also they renewed and enriched the knowledge of Christianity by oneself experience, even more to enrich. They had massively recorded the Western religion knowledge in their diary. The Qing government commanded that they must mail their diary back to China. These diaries were printed by folk and official organization in order to issue. With these text spreading, Christianity' knowledge also obtains the dissemination in the scholar class. It had even affected the domestic intelligentsia and functionary who took charge of foreign affairs, and inflected and changed their understandability to Christianity case and Christianity from anti- Christianity to impersonality, from blindness to sense perception. This is one important link which the Christianity' knowledge disseminates in the Chinese scholar class.Fourth chapter, the paper discussed intelligentsia' trend of thought of anti- foreigner and anti- Christianity in the late Qing Dynasty .At the same time, this chapter also study dissemination of Christianity' knowledge in the trend of thought. Author chooses intelligentsia as case from movement of anti- Christianity in order to study its culture reason. In fact, those local intelligentsia disseminated Christianity' knowledge by posting notice and publishing books. There are the massive misunderstood and misrepresent for Christianity' knowledge in these books, articles and posted notices.It is a key to study the dissemination of these books, articles and posted notices, and by this, we can explain why clerisy argued against or absorbed Christianity information.By corresponding study, we know that missionary's cultural propaganda and the Chinese writer's anti-Christianity is the relative existence. Against dissemination of the religion books, the local clerisy opposed it with the anonymous book, article and posted notice.All kinds of clerisy advocated speaking shengyuguangxun as a measure to limit and exclude dissemination of Christianity' knowledge, against the priest' propaganda.The knowledge of Christianity in the posted notice comes from new ideological trend of geography and the go-to-world trend.It is a result that the knowledge of Christianity disseminated in Chinese intelligentsia for long time in modern time.These measures come from the tradition of anti-Christianity from the Late Ming dynasty to the Late Ming, and this clue indicates that there is an endogenous dissemination in the Chinese tradition intellectual circle.At length, this paper tries to research that the endogenous dissemination of the Western religion in the Chinese intellectual circle transformed or transited from one state to another timely. From transformation or transition, we can conclude its dissemination's character. At the same time, the paper proved the consequence that the endogenous configuration of the Chinese religion and culture in Late Qing dynasty took disaggregating gradually, and how, in this disaggregating, the knowledge of the Western religion spread abroad. It is a must to choose a case study to affirm it to be testify that from Late dynasty to Late Qing dynasty there is a clue, fashioning in Chinese intellectual circle, that the Western religion origins from Cathay. The creation and fashion of this opinion substantiate endogenous dissemination to be existent in Chinese intellectual circle and represent its characteristic of dissemination.