The Diffusion And Development Of Catholic In Hu-guang Province During The Ming And Qing Dynasties

Hunan and Hubei as a unified mission area (Hu-guang), from the late Ming until the outbreak of the Opium War in 1840, has accepted a large number of religious groups of Catholic, and provides so much material for the research of the history of the Chinese Catholic. This dissertation focus on the activites of the missionaries of Catholic during the Ming and Qing dynasties based on many reports, letters, biographies, and archives of the church. It explained why Catholic would develop during the great Prohibition, and its difference from the other neighbor provinces.In introduction part, the author explains the reason of this topic, the main idea, and then gives a review of relevant theoretical background and studies, which is followed by a brief explanation of the basic materials and analytical structure of this thesis.Chapter I, the author briefly introduced the history of Catholic in China, and the international situation in the 16th century when Catholic came to China for the third time. Also the author analyzes the Catholic Diocese of the Hu-guang and the pioneers of the mission who entered into the province in the end of the Ming dynasty.Chapter II the author describes the policy of the Chinese government and the activities of the missionaries who belong to different orders from the beginning of the Qing dynasty until the 1724 when the Emperor of Yongzhen announced the prohibition of Catholic. The author pointed out that the missionaries preached many rich persons and officials under the protection of the government in the early of the Qing dynasty. During this period, there arrived so many missionaries form different orders. Their relationship was delicate and that makes the development of the Catholic in this province has its characteristic.Chapter III author describes the development of Catholic during the Prohibition. Compared with the previous period, the situation is more complicated. During this period, there were six different religious groups working in this province. Since they come from different countries and orders, they had their own parish and different opinions on the methods of spreading Catholic. Some times that leads to disputes and it influenced on the development of Catholic in this province. Also during this period, due to official pressure from the government, the Catholic began to retreat to the edge of the province, and gained a lot of poor Christians. Due to the differences of the geography, history and culture, the development of Catholic in Hu-guang province is different from other parts, such as Shandong, Shaanxi, and Fujian.Chapter IV analyzed several important questions:the attitude of the officials during the Qianlong period, and point out that the favor of the official on Catholic gave an impetus to the development of the religion; summarized the characteristics and the disputes between the orders; discussed the establish and influences of the Chinese college in Italy, point out the native clergy is important for the localization of Catholic.Final chapter concluded the entire research, pointing out the characteristic of Catholic during the three periods in Hu-guang province. First, the clergies settled down in the big cites and preached in the rich. But during the prohibition, they moved to the country side and spread Catholic in the poor. But the development of the Catholic between the poor persons is different from the other provinces.