The Investigation And Research On Kaifeng Jewish Community By Christian Missionaries

There are lots of westerners came to Kaifeng since the Kaifeng Jewish community was found byMatteo Ricci in17thcentury, and the majority of these westerners are Christian missionaries. The formermissionaries are Jesuits missionaries, and later Protestants. Both left very important documents and textualresources on the community at that time. The missionaries’ documents are the most important historicalmaterials beside the Kaifeng Jewish community documents of its own, and left the first hand documents ofthe religious and social life on Kaifeng Jews. These documents provided great conveniences to the laterresearchers to have a deep exploration of the disappeared minority. The thesis collects these documentsand combs the formation and circulation of the documents based on the domestic and foreign works,showing the historical transition of the Kaifeng Jewish community from the17thcentury to first half of20thcentury. Analyzing the characteristics of missionaries’ documents from which discussing the missionaries’religious and cultural appeals, expounding the influences on the community caused by the missionaries’investigation and research.The formation of missionaries documents are generally divided into two stages. The documents ofearlier stage was documented by Jesuits, started by Matteo Ricci and ended in1721when emperor Kangxiprohibited the Christianity in China. The Jesuits documents were collected by Giampaolo Gozani, JeanDomenge and Antoine Gaunil who made a field survey and sent their letters to Europe. The majority of theletters described the religious condition to Kaifeng Jewish community in spite of paying less attention tosecular life of the community, and the spreading process of the letters is rather simple. The Jesuits areaimed to investigate the religion of the community for finding the evident to refute the criticism form their opponent in the Chinese Rites Controversy. The Kaifeng Jewish community still preserved strongethno-consciousness and their religion and culture despite of the obvious decline tendency during thisperiod.The formation of Protestant documents started from mid-19thcentury and ended in the first half of20thcentury. Not only Protestants but also a few non-religious visitors came to Kaifeng. They are mostlycome to Kaifeng for the sake of adventures and seeking novelty. Their documents pay more attention to thesecular life than the Jesuits, and these documents are generally published in the domestic and foreignpapers and journals. William Charles White, a Canadian missionary, is the most prominent of those. Whitelived in Kaifeng for25years and wrote Chinese Jews that made a systematic collection and research of therelated documents. During this period, there has been a obvious decline of the community. Kaifeng Jewishcommunity made efforts to revitalize with the help of missionaries who made positive influence in regainthe Jewish religion and culture. However, some missionaries obtain lots of cultural relics as the scriptures,caused quite negative influence and promote the tendency of the community’s decline and disintegration.The origin of Kaifeng Jewish community as the migrant route and time is not so clear in the Christianmissionaries’ documents, and there is no final conclusion till now. The synagogue is a typical traditionalarchitectural style of Chinese temple and the interiors are also obvious confucianization. Kaifeng Jewscherish the synagogue and scripture and repaired many times historically. However, with the growingpoverty and the weak religious belief, the synagogue dismantled and never rebuilded and the scripture hasbeen lost ever since. There has been prosperous development and higher social status and also a sharpreduction of Jewish population and give rise to a common status. Kaifeng Jewish community has maintainan amicable relationship with Han and Muslim people. The assimilation of the community is the outcomeof combination of natural and humanistic factors. The economic and social changes of Kaifeng Jewish community is the decline process of the community, and also the historical process of entering themainstream of local society and assimilated eventually.