On Activities And Influences Of Catholic Missionaries In Inner Mongolia In Modern Times (1865-1950)

There were many catholic missionaries who came to Inner Mongolia to spread Catholicism since modern times. In addition to preaching, they also involved in many other activities, such as establishing hospitals, running schools, launching charity activities, making scientific researches and etc. Objectively, their activities brought profound influence upon various aspects of Inner Mongolia. On the basis of Catholicism spreading history, the author studies from the perspective of cultural history various activities of the missionaries in Inner Mongolia, focusing on social activities and scientific researches instead of their religious works. As a result, the paper sums up the influences of their activities upon the modern society of Inner Mongolia.The preface introduces the significance, purpose and innovations of this subject and shows the general situation of previous studies, materials and methods. The main body of this paper consists of three chapters. Chapter one mainly summarizes the spreading of Catholicism into Inner Mongolia based on the history. Chapter two examines the social activities of missionaries in terms of medical treatment, education, charity, Anti-Japanese War and how they deal with social issues such as opium and banditry. Following it is a summary of impacts of social activities they made upon Inner Mongolia. The chapter covers five parts. The first part takes Suiyuan Catholic Hospital for example to discuss the medical services provided by the missionaries in Inner Mongolia. The second part examines all sorts of Catholic schools operated by the missionaries in Inner Mongolia. The third part studies their public welfare and charity activities in terms of relief-extending and the building of foundling hospitals and rest homes. After consulting a lot of historical materials, the fourth part expounds their important contributions to Inner Mongolia during the period of Anti-Japanese War. In the fifth part, the author details the missionaries' attitude toward opium and banditry issues in Inner Mongolia and the measures they took. Chapter three inquires into the influence of missionaries' scientific research works upon Inner Mongolia by focusing on the introduction to their archaeological and Mongolological studies. As far as the archaeology is concerned, the author analyses archaeological activities and achievements of Emile Licent, Pierre Teilhard De Chardin, Mullie Jozef and Kervyn Louis, and explains their influences of archaeological achievements upon Inner Mongolian archaeology. As for the Mongolology, the author studies main research achievements and characteristics of Antoine Mostaert and Henry Serruys, who are masters of Mongolology, and illustrates their influences upon academic circle of Inner Mongolia.The final part puts the missionaries' activities into the background of the modern history of China and Inner Mongolia for analysis, assessment and conclusion. The author concludes that their activities brought deep influences upon the modern history of Inner Mongolia. Although the main purpose of their activities was to diffuse Catholicism, these activities objectively had a positive effect and far-reaching influence on the social and economic development of Inner Mongolia. On the one hand, the missionaries' activities promoted their understanding to China and Chinese culture. On the other hand, through these activities they also introduced Inner Mongolia to the world, and helped more people know about the region. In a word, the missionaries worked as a bridge in Sino-Foreign cultural communication in the modern times.