The Study Of Christian Missionary Governance In Sichuan In The Late Qing Dynasty

After the Opium War,China’s doors were opened,and missionaries gradually entered the interior.The Qing government and Sichuan officials were very concerned about the missionary work of Christian missionaries in the interior and the various activities they carried out in the late Qing Dynasty,and issued corresponding policies and actively took measures to guide and control the regulation of missionary order and the stability of people-education relations.From the perspective of social governance,this paper explores the governance of Christian missionaries in Sichuan in the late Qing Dynasty in five aspects.The first aspect introduces the passive or active measures taken by the Qing government in the face of the missionary changes of domestic missionaries and the development of Christianity in Sichuan;The second aspect is to study the policies followed by Sichuan missionaries in the late Qing Dynasty when they moved between Sichuan prefectures and counties or between Sichuan provinces and other provinces,and the management of missionaries in Sichuan prefectures and counties,including non-resident foreign missionaries in the province,resident foreign missionaries in the province,Sichuan missionaries and parishioners receiving church materials across borders.Third,it examines the basic policies and measures taken by Sichuan prefectures and counties in maintaining the stability of civil-religious relations at the center of the whirlpool of civil-religious conflicts: On the one hand,abide by the decrees of the imperial court and actively implement the "equal and speedy handling" procedure for teaching plans;on the other hand,according to the local situation and the characteristics of the conflict between civil and religious affairs,local officials unilaterally or actively communicate with bishops to reconcile civil-religious relations,formulate civil education regulations,clarify the reward and punishment system for those involved in cases,and set up special teaching case trial bodies.In addition,it also sorts out the specific overview of the amount of compensation for major teaching plans in Sichuan since the end of the Qing Dynasty,analyzes and discusses the fundraising methods of economic compensation for teaching plans,and restores the historical image of a helpless response in Sichuan prefectures and counties in terms of compensation for teaching plans.Fourth,through the case study of missionaries in southern counties in the late Qing Dynasty,the general situation of civil education in Sichuan Prefecture and County in the late Qing Dynasty and the efforts made by the prefecture and county governments in maintaining the relationship between people and religion are specifically highlighted.The fifth aspect discusses the relationship between officials,the people and Christian missionaries,so as to see the interaction and understanding between the government and the people and religion under the changes in the missionary situation and the norms of missionary policies.By discussing the various countermeasures taken by Sichuan in the late Qing Dynasty under the missionary changes,we can peek into the commonality and individuality,compromise and resistance of Sichuan in the late Qing Dynasty and the problems reflected in the governance of civil and religious affairs.