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The Indigenization of Christianity
in China I
As the first volume of a three-volume set on the indigenization of Christianity

in modern China, this book focuses on the presence of Christianity during the
late Qing dynasty and the early twentieth century, discussing the early waves
of Christian influence in its history.
Over the course of its growth in modern China, Christianity has faced
twists and turns in its embedding in Chinese society and indigenous culture.
This three-volume work delineates the genesis and trajectory of Christianity’s
indigenization in China over the course of the nineteenth and twentieth cen-
turies, highlighting the actions of Chinese Christians and the relationship
between the development of Christianity and modern Chinese history. In
this volume, the author discusses early missionary works from both foreign
missionaries and local churches, both of which were influential in rendering
Christianity more present and influential in China and which paved the way
for further indigenization. The book then expounds on the thinking and
practices of indigenizing Christianity prompted by historical events in the
early twentieth century, including the independence movement of the Chinese
Christian Church and religious reforms that were undertaken to reach greater
accommodation with Chinese society.
The book will appeal to scholars and students interested in the history of
Christianity in China and modern Chinese history.
Qi Duan, Professor at the Institute of World Religions of Chinese Academy of

Social Sciences, is a leading scholar specializing in the history of Christianity
in modern China and has authored numerous books and articles shedding
light on the development of modern Chinese Christianity.
China Perspectives
The China Perspectives series focuses on translating and publishing works

by leading Chinese scholars, writing about both global topics and China-
related themes. It covers Humanities & Social Sciences, Education, Media
and Psychology, as well as many interdisciplinary themes.
This is the first time any of these books have been published in English
for international readers. The series aims to put forward a Chinese perspec-
tive, give insights into cutting-edge academic thinking in China, and inspire
researchers globally.
To submit proposals, please contact the Taylor & Francis Publisher for
China Publishing Programme, Lian Sun (Lian.Sun@informa.com).
Titles in religion currently include:
The Indigenization of Christianity in China I

1807–1922
Qi Duan
The Indigenization of Christianity in China II

1922–1927
Qi Duan
The Indigenization of Christianity in China III

1927–2000
Qi Duan
For more information, please visit www.routledge.com/China-Perspectives/

book-series/CPH
The Indigenization of
Christianity in China I
1807–1922
Qi Duan
First published in English 2023
by Routledge
4 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2023 Qi Duan
Translated by Luman Wang and Zhen Chi
The right of Qi Duan to be identified as author of this work has been asserted in
accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised
in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or
hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information
storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks,
and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.
English version by permission of The Commercial Press.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN: 978-1-032-37022-4 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-032-37031-6 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-003-33496-5 (ebk)
DOI: 10.4324/9781003334965
Typeset in Times New Roman
by Newgen Publishing UK
Contents
List of tables vi
Foreword vii
Preface xi
1 Initiating the gospel mission in China 1
2 In the name of God: The God-Worshipping Society 13
3 Christianity in late nineteenth-century China 49
4 The independence movement of the Chinese

Christian Church 91
5 Chinese Christianity in the May Fourth Movement 131
Index 178
Tables
2.1 Tiantiaoshu and the Ten Commandments 24

3.1 Books on Western natural sciences and humanities 64
Foreword
Wen Yong
In 1997, Madam Duan Qi invited me to join the research team that devotes
itself to the Indigenization of Chinese Christianity, a project sponsored by
the Institute of World Religions (IWR) of the Chinese Academy of Social
Sciences (CASS). I did not think too much about it and said yes, because
I was then busy revising Christianity in China: An Historical Sketch. Soon
I realized that I had too much work to do. Most importantly, my ability
was very limited. For these reasons, I finally decided to withdraw from the
team and leave the position to those with real qualifications. I had a strong
faith in Duan’s ability to finish the project, especially considering that it was
Duan herself who collected primary sources for the research work. Duan was
undoubtedly good at the subject, on the grounds that she was unmatchably
knowledgeable about sources and information. Not unexpectedly, Duan was
a really energetic and indefatigable player. My withdrawal encouraged her
to work in a much more enthusiastic way. Sparing no pains, Duan visited
Nanjing, Shanghai and Suzhou in search of primary sources. She even went
to foreign cities such as Los Angeles and gathered materials when attending
academic conferences held in the United States. Thanks to her hard work
and many friends’ selfless help, Duan independently finished the project in
just three years. Duan’s work was an amazing exploration of the frontiers of
mainland China’s study of the history of Christianity.
Two centuries have rolled by since Robert Morrison’s 1807 pioneering
work in dissemination of Protestantism in China. This is not a short period
of time. Nevertheless, Christianity has still been unable to put down deeper
roots in China. People still, disapprovingly, albeit cryptically, brand it
yangjiao (a foreign religion). In retrospect, some hard-won achievements
in the Christian mission were really expensive. Witnessing the May Fourth,
New Culture and Condemning Christianity movements taking place in
the first two decades of the twentieth century, some enlightened and far-
sighted Chinese Christians awoke from the intoxication of success and faced
squarely the crisis endangering Chinese Christianity. They acutely and pain-
fully rethought these issues and finally reached a consensus that only when
Chinese Christianity was fully free from Western ways, influence and control
and entirely indigenized would the gospels of Jesus Christ be disseminated
viii Foreword
and accepted nationwide in China. Finding the right way of development was
not an easy job; nor would the development per se be as easy as ABC. What
exactly is indigenization? How can indigenization be fulfilled? How can the
difficulties confronting indigenization be overcome? How thorough should
indigenization be? These questions are all easier said than done. Li Zhiping,
a Taiwan-based scholar of Chinese Christian study, prefacing Indigenizing
Christianity in China, pointed out:
[There are always two contradictions in the course of indigenizing

Christianity in China.] On the one hand, the Chinese, holding fast to their
cultural stand, does worry that China’s great, glorious cultural tradition
is in the danger of being Christianized or Westernized in the wake of dis-
semination of Christianity in the Chinese land. On the other hand, [the
Chinese] Christians, observing from the viewpoint of Christian theology,
are really afraid of the abandonment of Christian faith ensued from
indigenization and question the necessity of indigenizing work. Is the
indigenized Christianity still the true Christian faith? Whenever the issue
of indigenization of Christianity is mentioned, as we find, the opinions
inexorably polarize. Scholars and Church members as well through all
ages find no way out.1
So, what is to be done? Retreat will definitely lead us down a blind alley.
Duan’s monograph, The Indigenization of Christianity in China (herein-
after referred to as Endeavour), is nothing other than a veritable record of
vacillation and hardship suffered by Chinese Christianity in the course of
indigenization.
From the very start Church members’ perceptions of indigenization differed
from one another. However, they all agreed that it was an indisputable fact
that only when a religion adapts itself to local society and culture could it take
roots; otherwise it would be ruthlessly eliminated. For Chinese Christians,
indigenization requires them to move with the times and make themselves
adaptable to Chinese society and culture. In fact, there was always the issue
of indigenization ab initio, as soon as Christianity was introduced into China.
Indigenization runs throughout the history of Chinese Christianity. Endeavour
tries its best to shed light on the religion’s historical mission, namely indi-
genization. It holds that common Chinese terminology, such as bensehua,
bentuhua and chujinghua, have the same meaning—indigenization. History is
history. Respecting history serves as the most basic criterion reigning over the
study of history.
Endeavour has four salient features. First, primary sources are amazingly
abundant and firsthand. As a rule, a successful research project is premised
on the integrity and authenticity of primary sources. Written materials
scrutinized in Endeavour are mostly taken from old publications. Most of
these publications are too old, too enormous and too scattered to be easily
collected and combed through. Among them, some are heard but never seen,
Foreword ix
while others have never been heard of before. Without the sincere help offered
by many friends, Duan herself could by no means have successfully collected
such a large number of materials. Precisely for this reason, Duan magnani-
mously says Endeavour is the fruit of that collective effort.
Second, Endeavour is original and fair. As an old saying goes: “More often
than not, the players are unable to see most of the game.” We should not
regard this as a mere platitude. Rather, it reminds us of the lessons drawn
from painful experience. We must admit even the greatest sages are unable
to be completely free from the limitations imposed by history. It is true that
everyone thinks in his own way. As early as the Tang dynasty (618–907), Liu
Zhiji, a renowned historian, had pointed out:
The effort to veraciously record what is taking place and reconstruct what
really took place is prized by genuinely good historians. … If you truly
love others, you will acknowledge that there is evil in them. If you truly
hate others, you will acknowledge that there is good in them. Good and
evil must be truthfully noted down.
(“Confusing Classics,” in Historical Perspectives)
Liu showed us one of the basic principles of the study of history. Duan
is a pure-minded researcher. She does not believe in Christianity, let alone
have any established sectarian ideas. Nor is her work individually motivated.
Precisely because of these factors, Duan is always an objective, sober and dis-
interested observer when researching the indigenization of Christianity. Her
commentary is the warning given not only to historical personages but also to
present-day researchers.
Third, Endeavour is narrative as well as argumentative. It is generally held
that only when time has passed and circumstances have changed and the truth
has been brought into daylight can historical events be, fairly and equitably,
assessed. In any case, “later-wit is better than weak-mind.” People with latter-
wit learn the lessons of history and thus are enlightened. A researcher can
achieve this as long as she or he works intensively on a large number of datum
and makes an objective, comprehensive and far-sighted analysis. Duan’s com-
mentary in Endeavour corroborates this.
Fourth, Endeavour furthers the existing periodization of the indigeniza-
tion of Christianity in China. When penning Endeavour’s preamble, Duan
points out that Rev. Cheng Jingyi pentachotomized China’s indigenization
of Christianity in the 1920s and 1930s and Cha Shijie divided the course of
indigenization into four stages extending down to 1949. Duan does not dis-
agree with the two types of periodization. The third millennium has already
dawned. More than half a century has rolled by since the founding of the
People’s Republic of China. Thus, Duan furthers the periodization and
extends it to the end of the twentieth century. Therein lies one of the salient
features of Endeavour. Due to various historical reasons, many researchers
have chosen not to research the history of Christianity in post-1949 China on
x Foreword
the grounds that it is (politically) sensitive. Unlike them, Duan tries her best
to shed light on this period. This might be controversial. Anyway, Duan does
make a groundbreaking effort.
Looking back at the two-centuries’ dissemination of Christianity in China,
we find that indeed there are many lessons. Chinese Christians have finally
taken the brightly lit road of indigenization. However, the brightly lit road
does not mean everything will go smoothly. Chinese Christianity is inevitably
greeted by a large variety of problems and difficulties. We can understand
better the present by studying thoroughly the past. Learning the lessons of
history is one of the prerequisites for Christianity’s sound development in
China. In this new century, the Chinese Church still has a long road to go.
I sincerely hope that the Church will be successful.
Endeavour grips my imagination. I read it with mixed feelings. But it was
with joy that I have spoken out and joyfully written this foreword.
Wen Yong
July 2001
Note
1 Li Zhiping 林治平, Indigenizing Christianity in China [基督教在中国本色化论文集]
(Beijing: China Today Press, 1998), “Preface.”
Bibliography
Li, Zhiping 林治平. Indigenizing Christianity in China [基督教在中国本色化论文集]
(Beijing: China Today Press, 1998).
Liu, Zhiji 刘知几. Historical Perspectives [史通] (Shanghai: Ancient Books Publishing
House, 2015).
Preface
Students of Chinese Christian studies are inevitably greeted with the subject
of the indigenization of Christianity (Protestantism) in China. What is indi-
genization anyway? The definitions made by renowned scholars in this field
in modern China differ from one another. Ying Yuandao, rethinking China’s
effort to indigenize Christianity in the 1920s, pointed out that the indigenized
Christian Church should have several characteristics.1 First, the Church must
be Chinese. Second, the Church must be set up by Chinese Christians in
the light of their own experiences. Third, the Church must have abundant
Chinese cultural elements. Fourth, the Church was a unity of Christianity
and Chinese culture. Fifth, the Church was adaptable to the Chinese spirit
and psychology. Sixth, the Church was able to make the religious life and
experience of Chinese Christians conformable to Chinese conditions and
customs. In the 1960s, Yamamoto Sumiko, a Japanese researcher, penned an
essay entitled “The Independence Movement of Chinese Christianity in the
1920s.” She prepared a much more detailed definition of the Chinese Church’s
indigenization.2 First, the members of the Chinese Church should be predom-
inantly Chinese. Second, the Church should, administratively and operation-
ally, be independent. Third, the Church should be economically independent.
Fourth, the Church should have its buildings, music, artwork and rituals
Sinicized. Fifth, the Church should accept Chinese sacrificial customs and
have them Christianized. Sixth, the Church should not detach itself from
state affairs and practical issues. Seventh, the Church should free itself from
Western influence. Eighth, the Church should govern, support and propagate
by itself. In short, this Japanese scholar suggested that Chinese Christianity
be fully independent of the West, completely congruous to Chinese culture,
and entirely self-governing, self-supporting and self-propagating. In addition,
some hoped that Chinese Christianity could develop an indigenized theology
by articulating Christian doctrines through the prism of indigenous Chinese
culture.3 The indigenization of Christianity, as they suggested, should har-
monize not only with Chinese culture but also with Chinese society.
In the 1920s and 1930s, Cheng Jingyi (C. Y. Cheng), who had been the
superintendent of the National Christian Council of China (NCCC), divided
China’s indigenization of Christianity into five phases. According to Cheng, in
xii Preface
the first phase Chinese Christians paid great attention to the way of redemp-
tion and supramundane wisdom. In the second phase, they were concerned
with social and life problems and sins. In the third phase, Chinese Christians
had already been spiritually awakened, highlighted by the fact that the
Chinese Church gradually rose to prominence and the demand for a fully
independent Chinese Church could be heard nationwide. In the fourth
phase, Western and Chinese leaders of the Church started a thorough
reform and enthusiastically advocated the grand union. In the fifth phase,
Chinese Christians greatly advanced their understanding of Christianity and
the faithful’s responsibility, and earnestly aspired to indigenize Christianity
and make it a Chinese rather than a foreign religion. Inspired by Cheng’s
pentachotomization of China’s indigenizing endeavour and other scholars’
arguments, Cha Shijie divided the Chinese endeavour into four stages.4 In
Stage I, Cha said, Western missionaries made groundbreaking efforts to
disseminate their faith. In Stage II, Western missionaries and their Chinese
comrades started to work together. In Stage III, the autonomous and predom-
inantly Chinese Church was set up. In Stage IV, the Church was vigorously
indigenized and the Chinese played a leading role. Cha did not show us the
time of commencement and termination of each phase. The present author,
taking Cha’s job into her own hands, says the first phase commenced in 1807,
when Robert Morrison pioneered the dissemination of Protestantism in
China, and extended down to the mid-nineteenth century; the second phase,
from the middle decades of the nineteenth century to the dawning of the twen-
tieth century; the third phase, from 1900 to the early 1920s; and the fourth
phase, from 1920 to the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949.
For the sake of convenience, the present author adopts the commencement
and termination of the first, second and third phases. Meanwhile, the book
points out that in the transitional period, when Westerners and Chinese were
working together, foreign missionaries still took the lead, with the exception of
a few regions, where independent and predominantly Chinese Churches were
set up. It was in the transitional period that the number of Chinese spreading
Christianity increased significantly. Moreover, the present author further
divides the fourth phase into several periods, such as the 1920s, the 1930s
(1930–1936), the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression (1937–1945)
and the War of Liberation (1945–1949). In the last part, the present author
briefly discusses the Chinese Church’s Three-Self Movement in the liberated
New China.
Notes
1 Cha Shijie 查时杰, “The Communist Party of China’s Three-Self Church and
Indigenization of Christianity in China: A Tentative Discussion” (中共三自教会
与基督教会本色化运动初探). Quoted in Lin Zhiping 林治平, ed., Christianity and
Indigenization in China [基督教与中国本色化] (Taibei, Taiwan of China: Christian
Cosmic Light Holistic Care Organization, 1990), 708.
newgenprepdf
Preface xiii
2 Ibid.
3 Li Jingxiong 李景雄, “The Indigenized Theology: Recreation or Rehabilitation?”
(“本色神学——旧耕抑新垦”). Quoted in Shao Yuming 邵玉铭, ed., The Chinese
Christianity in the Twentieth-Century China [二十世纪中国基督教问题] (Taibei,
Taiwan of China: Cheng Chung Group, 1980), 250.
4 Cha Shijie, “The Communist Party of China’s Three-Self Church and Indigenization
of Christianity in China: A Tentative Discussion.” Quoted in Lin Zhiping, ed.,
Christianity and Indigenization in China, 710.
Bibliography
Lin, Zhiping 林治平 ed. Christianity and Indigenization in China [基督教与中
国本色化] (Taibei, Taiwan of China: Christian Cosmic Light Holistic Care
Organization, 1990).
Shao, Yuming 邵玉铭 ed. The Chinese Christianity in the Twentieth-Century China
[二十世纪中国基督教问题] (Taibei, Taiwan of China: Cheng Chung Group, 1980).
1 Initiating the gospel mission in China
Christianity was brought to China as early as 635 (i.e., the ninth year of
Zhenguan reign of Tang dynasty). Nevertheless, by the nineteenth century,
the religion had experienced failure thrice. For what reason did Christianity
fail in China? The answers are greatly varied. But it is generally held that one
of the reasons for Christianity’s failure lay in its inability to assimilate into
Chinese culture and become a Chinese religion, just as Buddhism had success-
fully done. To put it another way, Christianity was frustrated in the attempt to
indigenize itself in China.
Due to historical reasons, there was no trace of Protestantism in the
first three rounds of the dissemination of the Christian faith in China. It
was in the fourth round, which commenced from the nineteenth century,
that Protestantism was introduced into China. Robert Morrison, a British
missionary, pioneered in this mission. Morrison, dispatched by the London
Missionary Society (LMS), set foot on the Chinese land in 1807 and started
to preach the Protestant faith.
China’s Qing dynasty underwent sharp decline in the period spanning the
four decades between Morrison’s arrival and the advent of the Opium War.
Since the last half of the eighteenth century, China, which had enjoyed quite
a long time of peace and prosperity, witnessed population explosion and ram-
pant corruption. In the nineteenth century, the shortage of grain brought
instability to Chinese society. The people were increasingly discontent with
the decadent Qing government. Rebellious secret societies, such as the White
Lotus Society and the Society of Heavenly Principle, grew very rapidly. In
the meantime, Western capitalist countries, all of which were baptized in the
Industrial Revolution, were all greedy to exploit overseas markets. They spon-
taneously cast their covetous eyes on China, a gigantically huge virgin market.
The Qing government then grew incredibly isolated and opposed almost every-
thing foreign. Qing’s exclusivity was applied not only to foreign tradesmen
but also to foreign culture and religion. In the wake of the Rite Controversy,
emperors such as Kangxi and Yongzheng resolutely enforced the prohibition
of all foreign religions, including Christianity. Missionary work was accord-
ingly denounced as illegal. Not only foreign tradesmen but also Western
missionaries were strongly dissatisfied with Qing’s isolation and exclusivity.
DOI: 10.4324/9781003334965-1
Western powers preferred to open China’s door by violence. Missionaries
endorsed this approach wholeheartedly. China suffered a humiliating defeat
in the First Opium War (1840–1842) and was forced to sign the Treaty of
Nanjing, the first unequal treaty in the history of China—and Western mis-
sionaries actively participated in the negotiations. As is commonly known, the
treaty dealt with politico-commercial affairs as well as missionary issues. It
haughtily demanded that China must cede Hong Kong to the British empire
and allow foreigners to build churches and preach Christianity in the five
treaty ports. From then on, Qing’s prohibition of Christianity was broken.
Soon the two other unjust treaties—the Treaty of Wangxia and the Treaty
of Huangpu—paved the way for missionaries’ promotion of Christianity.
Moreover, the 1850 Treaty of Tianjin and the 1860 Treaty of Beijing stipulated
that missionaries had the right to purchase land and build churches not only
in coastal areas but also inland. As a consequence, China’s door was forcibly
opened and Western missionaries flocked to the country.
The preparatory period of dissemination of Protestantism began with
Morrison’s arrival in 1807 and ended in 1860. It could be further divided
into Stage I (1807–1842) and Stage II (1842–1860). In Stage I, the number of
Chinese converts, most of whom were at the bottom of society, was very small,
as Christianity was still illegal. In Stage II, the number of converted Chinese
doubled and, most encouragingly, some new intellectuals were baptized.
Only when a religion was comprehensible would it be acceptable among
local people. Moreover, the religion must win the favour of residents.
Therefore, for missionaries, it was imperative to effectively communicate with
local residents through the Chinese language, and to sincerely undertake
charity work. Communication and charity were actually the prerequisites for
Christianity taking roots in China. The missionaries did their best to improve
both. As the dissemination of Christianity in China was illegal before 1842,
missionary activity was very limited and could be conducted nowhere other
than Guangzhou. Even Macau, which was then ruled by the Portuguese govern-
ment believing in Catholicism, was not welcome to the Protestant missionaries.
For these reasons, the missionaries had no alternative but to select Malacca
and Singapore, both of which were not too far away from China, as the centre
of their activities. By 1842 they had moved to Chinese cities such as Shanghai.
Among the early Protestant missionaries, Robert Morrison was most
renowned. In addition, there were some known ministers such as William
Milne and Walter H. Medhurst from LMS, Karl Gutzlaff from the Netherlands
Missionary Society, and Elijah C. Bridgman, Samuel W. Williams and Peter
Parker from the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions
(ABCFM). Their missionary work was as follows.
Translation
Whenever a foreign religion was introduced into China, it had to, first of all,
render its canons into highly readable and comprehensible Chinese. Buddhism
Initiating the gospel mission in China 3
did so as soon as it was brought to China dozens of centuries ago previously.
Missionaries of Nestorianism and Catholicism had made similar effort in the
Tang, Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties. But, for a variety of reasons, China did
not have a complete translation of the Bible until the arrival of Protestantism.
Protestant missionaries such as Robert Morrison did a great amount of work
and filled the vacuum.
Robert Morrison arrived in China in 1807.To effectively preach his faith
among local residents, Morrison overcome the difficulties imposed by the
Qing government and intensively studied Chinese. Morrison carried with him
some portions of a Chinese translation of Bible, which was rendered by Jesuit
Jean Basset. , While studying Chinese very hard, Morrison started to trans-
late the Bible into Chinese. Three years later, he finished translating the Acts
of the Apostles from the New Testament. Building on this, Morrison rendered
the entirety of the New Testament into Chinese in 1813. The first Chinese
New Testament came out in Guangzhou in 1814. Then, in collaboration
with William Milne sent by LMS, he completed the translation of the Old
Testament in 1819 and had it published in Malacca. In 1823, sponsored by the
British and Foreign Bible Society, the Chinese edition of the New Testament
and Old Testament—entitled Shentian xinjiu yizhao quanshu (“the complete
collection of posthumous decrees of God of Heaven”)—was printed. It was
generally regarded as the first, complete Chinese edition of the Bible and was
significant to the history of Christianity in China.1
Morrison died in 1834. A translation team consisting of Walter
H. Medhurst, Karl Gutzlaff, Elijah C. Bridgman and John R. Morrison
(Morrison’s son) had the Chinese Bible completely overhauled. The New
Testament was retranslated by Medhurst. The revised Chinese Bible was
published in 1840. In the same year, Gutzlaff revised the Chinese transla-
tion of the New Testament again and published the new translation separ-
ately. The title of the new Chinese New Testament was Jiushizhu yesu xin
yizhaoshu (“the collection of new posthumous decrees of Jesus, the Savior
of the World”), which was later adopted by the Heavenly Kingdom of Great
Peace (the official title of the government founded by the peasant army).
In 1843, the First Joint Meeting was convened in Hong Kong and the
missionary societies working in China dispatched their delegations. The
meeting focused on the retranslation of the Bible and set up a special committee
devoted to the translation work. But from the beginning, the participants
were split on the issue of Chinese terminology. Soon the American Baptists
withdrew from the committee. Then Josiah Goddard started to revise the
earliest translation done by John Marshman. The revised edition of the New
Testament was published in 1853. Edward C. Lord made revisions to this
Bible and printed it in 1883. Goddard and Lord collaboratively translated the
Old Testament into Chinese and published the Chinese edition in 1868.
Other members of the special committee, such as Medhurst, Gutzlaff and
James Legge, worked together and produced the committee edition of the
New Testament in 1853. One year later, the committee edition of the Old
Testament came out. In 1867, funded by the British and Foreign Bible Society,
the full Chinese edition of the Bible including the New Testament and the Old
Testament was printed. American missionaries such as Bridgman, Michael
S. Culbertson and William J. Boone were discontent with this Bible, on the
grounds that it rendered God as Shangdi (“the Lord Above”) and did not
literally translate the passage of Bible because of considerations of elegance
and decency. Precisely for that reason, they retranslated the Bible. In 1857,
these Americans published the New Testament and five years later finished
the full Bible. With the financial help of the American Bible Society, they
printed the full Bible in 1864. Because the Americans translated God as Shen
(“spirit”), their Bible was known as the Spirit Edition. The aforementioned
editions of Chinese Bible were generally referred to as the wenli Bible (i.e., the
Bible written in classical Chinese). The wenli Bible laid the foundation for the
light-wenli Bible (i.e., the Bible written in the easily understandable classical
Chinese) and the Mandarin Bible, which were published in the late nineteenth
century, as well as paving the way for the production of the 1919 edition of
Chinese Union Bible in classical and Mandarin Chinese.
Publishing
In addition to translation, missionaries prepared various religious books in
Chinese for local residents and published books about China with a view to
attracting more Westerners to preach the Christian faith in China. In doing
so, they believed, missionary work would be greatly improved. Printing China-
related books available for Western readers was imperative. Therefore, mis-
sionaries such as Morrison and Bridgman penned and published numerous
essays and books about China and printed a few English and Chinese
journals. At first, Morrison printed Chinese books in Guangzhou. Soon these
publications were banned by the Qing government. Morrison had to suggest
LMS carry out missionary work outside India.2 In line with his new plan,
Morrison, in collaboration with Milne, set up the headquarters for the pro-
motion of Christianity in Malacca. In 1815, the headquarters printed the first
Chinese monthly entitled Cha shisu meiyue tongjizhuan (“a monthly devoted
to records of secular affairs”). Soon afterwards an English magazine—Indo-
Chine Gleaner—was published. But, unfortunately, the two journals ceased
publication after the death of Milne. Inspired by Milne, Medhurst, Gutzlaff
and Bridgman tried their best to publish Chinese and English newspapers and
journals. For example, Texuan cuoyao meiyue tongjizhuan ( “selected records
of secular affairs”) was continuously published for three years (1823–1826)
in Batavia (present-day Jakarta); Tianxia xinwen (“the world news”), for two
years (1828–1829) in Malacca; and Dongxiyang kao meiyue tongjizhuan (“a
monthly about events taking place in the East and the West”), for five years
(1833–1838) in Guangzhou and Singapore. These publications contributed
to missionary work and Sino-Western cultural exchange. Zhongguo congbao
(The Chinese Repository) is particularly worthy of mention. It was the most
influential among missionary publications. The journal made its debut in
1832 thanks to Morrison and shut down in 1851. According to a researcher, it
published, in total, 20 volumes of essays, book reviews, reports, current affairs
and religious news. The journal contained 1,378 essays, among which 514
were about China, 396 about Sino-foreign relations, 142 about foreign coun-
tries and 289 about religions. These essays covered a wide range of subjects,
widely consulted the Chinese and Western classics, and as far as possible made
careful and fair analyses.3 The Chinese Repository was widely regarded as an
important primary source of the study of modern Chinese history.
To ensure all publications were in good shape, the missionaries put par-
ticular emphasis on printing. There was a printing house lying within Anglo-
Chinese School founded by Morrison in Malacca. In 1827, Samuel Dyer, a
minister from LMS, innovatively used Western printing to produce books in
Chinese. This breakthrough was greatly conducive to accelerating the publica-
tion of the Bible and sermon books. Later, LMS and ABCFM set up printing
houses in Batavia and Singapore.
In 1843, LMS’s Medhurst founded Mohai Shuguan (the London Mission
Press) in Shanghai. The printing house in Batavia was accordingly relocated
here. Lead typography was, for the first time, applied to the printing of
Chinese books in China. In Medhurst’s press, the printing machine was pulled
by oxen. The machine ran at top speed and could print thousands of papers
a day.4 The committee editions of the New Testament and the Old Testament
were precisely printed here. In addition to religious books, some scientific
books were produced in the press. In 1857, the press printed Shanghai’s first
Chinese periodical—Liuhe congtan (“miscellaneous essays on Nature”).
In sixteen years (1844–1860), the London Mission Press published 171

books and journals, among which 138 were devoted to Christianity,
making up 80.7 percent of the total; and 33 to the modern Western know-
ledge, making up 19.3 percent of the total.5
ABCFM set up a printing house in Singapore and named it the Chinese

Institution (a.k.a. the Singapore Institution). This publisher devoted itself to
the production of religious book. In 1844, it moved to Macau. One year later,
the printing house was relocated to Ningbo, where it was renamed Meihua
Shuguan (American Chinese Books). It printed Ningbo’s earliest Chinese
newspaper—Zhongwai xinwen (“the Chinese and foreign news”).
These printers played quite a significant role in the propagation of the
Protestant faith in China. In fact, among the earliest Chinese Protestants,
some—Cai Gao, Liang Fa, Qu Gao and so on—were all typographers working
in these printing houses. They were converted in the course of printing and
distributing the Bible and sermon booklets. After being Christianized, some
of them penned religious pamphlets themselves and disseminated as many of
them as possible. Take, for example, Liang Fa, who was the first Chinese
Protestant minister. He authored Quanshi liangyan (“admonishing the time
with graceful words”) and gave copies to well-educated Chinese preparing
for the Imperial Civil Examination. Precisely because of Liang’s missionary
work, Hong Xiuquan, who later led the epoch-making Taiping Rebellion and
then was heading to Guangzhou for the Examination, unexpectedly read the
booklet and was deeply influenced by the Christian faith. As a consequence,
the Taiping Rebellion was partially shaped by Christianity.
Education
In the wake of their arrival in China, Western missionaries gradually realized
that education greatly mattered to their work, because most of them knew
well neither the local conditions and customs nor the Chinese themselves,
and under such circumstances traditional Chinese culture might impede their
missionary work and make it a vain attempt to sow seeds in water.6 Some mis-
sionaries set up free schools in the hope that the Chinese might be attracted
to Christianity. Morrison, for example, in his proposal of missionary work
outside India, suggested LMS found a free Chinese school as soon as possible.
Thanks to Morrison, Milne set up the free Anglo-Chinese School in 1815 in
Malacca. The inaugural statement reads:
School’s goal is to teach the Chinese and Western literature and dis-
seminate the Christian doctrines. It resolves, on the one hand, to help
the Westerners study the Chinese language; and on the other hand, to
instruct all the peoples lying outside India, such as the Chinese, the
Southeast Asians, the Ryukyuans, the Koreans and the Japanese, to learn
the Western literature and science in English, while they are studying
Chinese. All courses of the School are based on the ideal of dissemin-
ating peacefully the Christian faith and the Eastern culture and aspires to
be efficient and resultful.7
So the school’s goal was to propagate Christianity was evident from the
start. To be specific, the school tried its best to help foreign missionaries master
Chinese and meanwhile train Chinese ministers and Christian adherents. The
School moved to Hong Kong in 1843. It was the first Western educational ser-
vice open to the Chinese. Some early Chinese ministers and preachers, such as
Liang Fa and He Futang, were educated there.
In 1836, Anglo-American tradesmen and missionaries living in Guangzhou
set up the Morrison Education Society in memory of the late minister.
Bridgman was appointed the Corresponding Secretary. The Society professed:
The objective of this institution shall be to establish and support schools

in China, in which native youth shall be taught, in connection with their
own, to read and write English language; and through this medium, to
bring within their reach all the varied learning of the western world. The
Bible and books on Christianity shall be read in the schools. Already
a Chinese, educated at the Anglochinese college in Malacca, has been
advanced to the station of governmental interpreter at Peking. And our
posterity, if not ourselves, may see the Chinese, at no very distant day, not
only visiting Europe and America, for commercial, literary, and political
purposes; but, having thrown away their antipathies, their superstitions,
and their idolatries, joining with the multitudes of Christendom in
acknowledging and worshiping the true God.8
The Morrison School, thanks to the Society’s efforts, opened in 1839

in Macau. It paid the first six students’ tuition and provided for their
living expenses. Three years later, the school moved to Hong Kong. It was
suspended in 1848. In spite of existing for less than one decade, the school
educated the earliest Chinese students specializing in natural sciences. There
were some renowned alumni. Tang Tingshu, for example, played a signifi-
cant role in China’s Self-Strengthening Movement; Rong Hong occupied an
important place in the history of Sino-Western cultural exchange; and Huang
Kuan was the first Chinese doctor trained in Western medicine. In addition
to these, a group of Chinese proponents of Christianity were educated at
the school. Some joined the Christian Church and assumed leadership roles.
Huang Sheng, for example, was the father figure of Christians in Hong Kong.
Some sympathized with Christianity and promoted the dissemination of the
Christian faith in China.
The Guangzhou-based Beiman School was the first missionary school in
mainland China. It was founded by Bridgman, a minister from ABCFM,
in 1830. In comparison with the Anglo-Chinese School, Beiman’s religious
goal was clearer and more definite. Reading the Bible in Beiman was com-
pulsory. Besides the Bible, only a few courses on the Chinese classics, English
and sciences were offered. Before 1860, the missionary schools in China were
not very different from each other. Students could attend these schools free
of charge. Sometimes, they could even enjoy free accommodation. Even so,
Chinese children, except for those who were from families in dire poverty,
seldom chose missionary schools. At that time, the Qing government imposed
many restrictions on missionary work and, to make matters worse, missionary
societies and the missionaries themselves did not yet realize the importance of
education for their work and preferred direct promotion. Precisely for these
reasons, the number of missionary schools was very small. Setting up a school
was generally an individual effort. Most schools were founded after 1842.
Ningbo Boys School, for example, was opened in 1844 (and later moved to
Hangzhou in 1867and was renamed the Yuying Private School); the Qingxin
Institution was founded in 1850 in Shanghai; and the Gezhi Academy was
built in 1853 in Fuzhou. Overall, then the missionary school had many
disadvantages. The quality of students was not good and nor was the aca-
demic standard of these schools high. Nevertheless, the missionary school did
impact upon the old Chinese system of education and cut out a path for the
propagation of Christianity and Western culture.
Medicine
Foreign missionaries used medicine as a method of promoting Christianity.
They held that local residents’ misunderstanding and hostility would be greatly
mitigated and local residents would be interested in the sermons and even visit
the church, if the missionaries could cure people.9 Most missionaries learnt
some basic medical skills before going to China, with a view to attracting the
Chinese and inculcating them with Christian doctrines, by giving medicines
and perform healing when necessary. Take Morrison for example. He had
studied medicine in 1805 in London’s St Bartholomew’s Hospital and grasped
a general medical know-how. Some—Gutzlaff and Boone, for instance—were
trained well medically. Of course, they merely used medicine as an auxiliary
means rather than a primary tool of propagating Christianity.
Morrison pioneered disseminating Christianity by means of medicine.
In 1820, in collaboration with John Livingstone, Morrison set up a clinic of
Traditional Chinese Medicine in Macau and invited Chinese doctors to join
it. In 1827, with the help of Thomas R. Colledge, he founded an ophthalmic
clinic in Macau. Six years later, Colledge set up another clinic in Guangzhou.
There were too many patients to be treated in their clinics. Therefore, Colledge
asked the Euromerican missionary societies to send more doctor-missionaries
to China. In 1834, ABCFM dispatched Parker, who was a doctor and had
studied theology, to Guangzhou, where he treated patients and, at the same
time, propagated Christianity. In December 1835, Parker founded Boji Yiyuan
(Canton Hospital) in Guangzhou, which was China’s first Western medical
centre. At first, the hospital was named the Ophthalmic Hospital. Parker was
an excellent doctor. He frequently provided free medical service. For these
reasons, the hospital was often overcrowded. In particular, Parker cured Lin
Zexu’s hernia. Lin, one of the most prominent governors of Qing, praised
him fulsomely. As a result, Parker established himself well in Guangzhou.
Parker, aspiring to promote medical missionary work, set up the Medical
Missionary Society in China (MMSC) in his own hospital in 1838. The
MMSC did its best to offer free medical service and at the same time inculcated
the Christian faith in patients and residents. Moreover, it set up agencies in
Anglo-American cities and urged on Western audiences the importance of
medical missionary work and the pressing need for doctor-missionaries. In
the wake of the ratification of the Treaty of Nanjing, Parker openly promoted
Christianity in his hospital and directly gave patients Christian literature.
There was a weekly religious service in Parker’s hospital. By performing rites,
the hospital instructed patients and visitors to pray and persuaded them
join the Church. From then on, all missionary hospitals employed full-time
ministers and asked them to do on-site missionary work.
A number of doctor-missionaries from Anglo-American missionary soci-
eties followed Parker and arrived in China. Among them were William Lockhart
and Benjamin Hobson, both of whom were physicians and founded hospitals
in China. In 1843, Lockhart set up the first Western hospital in Shanghai.
He also founded Beijing’s first Western hospital in 1861, which initiated the
history of modern medicine in the capital city. These missionary hospitals
were usually very small. However, they pioneered medical missionary work in
China and laid the foundations for the large-scale missionary endeavour by
means of medicine.
The cultural exchange

The early Protestant missionaries unconsciously promoted Sino-Western cul-
tural exchange in their effort to propagate the Christian faith. Take Morrison
for example. He realized the importance of learning Chinese for missionary
work upon his arrival in China. A practical Chinese–English dictionary was
thus indispensable to missionaries. Morrison spent over a decade editing
a Chinese–English dictionary. After consulting a huge number of Chinese
books and the authoritative and voluminous Kangxi Dictionary in par-
ticular, he finished his dictionary in 1823. Morrison’s six-volume Huaying
zidian (“Chinese–English Wordbook”) was a huge book in quarto format
and had over 40,000 entries printed on 4,595 pages. In addition to Morrison’s
giant work, some missionaries compiled dialect dictionaries. Ernest J. Eitel,
for example, edited a wordbook devoted to the dialect of Guangzhou; and
Rudolph Lechler, the German–Chinese dictionaries of Chaozhou and Hakka
dialects. These dictionaries facilitated foreign missionaries’ learning Chinese,
as well as helping them better their understanding of China. It followed that
Sino-Western cultural exchange was substantially improved.
The missionaries’ work was usually done in Southeast Asia, Hong Kong,
Macau and Guangzhou in the time prior to 1842. After 1842, missionaries
moved to the five treaty ports. Shanghai, Guangzhou and Hong Kong were
quite important for missionary work. Moreover, Christian preachers started
to advance into China’s interior. In just over half a century (1803–1860),
Western missionary societies sent 150 ministers to China, where they set up
22 preaching centres and converted approximately 350 Chinese residents.
This was mostly done after China’s signing of the first unjust treaty. But in
any case, the work done in these decades laid the foundation for Christianity
taking root and growth in China.
It must be emphatically pointed out that no matter what the foreign mis-
sionaries’ attitude was, (Protestant) missionary work was conducted in China
precisely on the heels of the West’s colonial expansion, and thus got entangled
in politics from the very beginning. In order that they could improve their
work, some missionaries chose to work for their government. Morrison, for
example, had been employed by the East India Company and then became the
secretary-cum-interpreter of William J. Napier, the London regime’s envoy
superintending Sino-British trade. Usually, missionaries acted as interpreters
in the Opium War and the signing of unequal treaties. Gutzlaff, for example,
was the translator of the invading British army in the First Opium War.
In September and October 1841, British aggressors captured Dinghai and
Ningbo, where Gutzlaff was appointed to supervise the Chinese. Gutzlaff’s
superintendency spanned seven months. When China and the British empire
were negotiating the treaty, Gutzlaff and Morrison’s son were all interpreters.
After the signing of the Treaty of Nanjing, Gutzlaff became the trade com-
missioner of Dinghai.10 In 1843, he was appointed the Chinese interpreter
of the Governor of Hong Kong. In Hong Kong, Gutzlaff was dubbed the
Superintendent Pacifying the Chinese (Fuhuadao). Parker and Bridgman
too, just like Gutzlaff, joined the delegation headed by Caleb Cushing, a dip-
lomat of Washington regime and played a role in the signing of the Treaty of
Wangxia. After that, Parker continued to be the Chinese secretary-cum-inter-
preter in the service of the ambassadors to China. From 1856, Parker became
a diplomat working for the Washington regime and was appointed one of the
members of the corps diplomatique of the United States. Finally, he spiraled
up to be the head of America’s diplomatic corps in China.
Taking advantage of their position, these missionaries, who rendered a ser-
vice to their government, preached the Christian faith and recruited a group
of followers. Gutzlaff, for example, founded the Chinese Union (Fuhanhui) in
1844 in Hong Kong. The Chinese Union grew very rapidly. Gutzlaff realized
that missionary work would be more efficient and more productive if Chinese
preachers were employed to convert the Chinese.11 This perception was a
great impetus to the development of the Chinese Union. It was through the
Chinese Union, in the form of the Moravian Brethren, that Gutzlaff had a
number of Chinese Christianized and trained a group of Chinese preachers.
The Gutzlaffian training of Chinese preachers had three stages:
In the first stage, trainees were taught the basic Christian doctrines. If
they passed the examination, they would be sent to neighboring towns
and villages, where they would be commissioned to distribute religious
books and brochures and directly preach Christianity before the local
residents. In the second stage, trainees, after finishing the required work
of Stage I, returned to the training center and continued to study the
Christian doctrines. Then they would be sent to remoter areas and do
the similar missionary work. In the third stage, those who completed
the work of Stage II would expose themselves to the much more pro-
found Christian theology. If they could pass the examination, they would
become the official missionary worker in some designated remote areas.
The commissioned preachers must return to the center on time and report
the progress of missionary work.12
The three-
stage training did work. By 1851, when Gutzlaff died in
Hong Kong, the Chinese Union “had 2,871 members and 130 preachers.”13
Undoubtedly, the Union was the hugest missionary organization in China. In
addition to Hong Kong, it set up branches in Guanghzou, Foshan, Shunde,
Sanshui, Shaozhou, Nanxiong and Chaozhou. The Union’s preachers
traversed many parts of China, such as Hainan, Guangxi, Fujian, Jiangxi,
Hunan, Hubei, Henan, Shandong, Anhui, Jiangsu and Zhejiang. The Union
played quite an important role in the early development of Protestantism in
China. It even exerted an influence on the thinking of several leaders of the
Tapiping Rebellion. The Union’s endeavour could be regarded as an efficient
tool of self-propagation that was developed by the foreign missionaries. But
on the other hand, it should be pointed out that, even before Gutzlaff’s death:
Precisely due to the founder’s [blind] trust and tolerance, some Chinese
preachers, who were addicted to smoking opium, cheated the Union. To
be specific, although they received the missionary brochures, they actu-
ally did not go to the places nor distributed them to residents. Then
they returned to the training center on schedule and made false reports
in exchange of remunerations. Quite a few foreign missionaries bitterly
resented this.14
For this reason, the Chinese Union was severely criticized. Following
Gutzlaff’s death, the Union shut down in 1855. Despite this, the Gutzlaffian
method of propagating Christianity was inherited by the Lutheran mission-
aries, among whom most were from the Rhenish Mission, Basel Mission and
Berlin Mission. It is generally held that the three Lutheran missionary soci-
eties constituted a continuation of the Chinese Union.
In short, the effort made by Western missionaries in over half a century
(1807–1860) paved the way for China’s Protestant expansion commencing
from the 1860s.
Notes
1 Protestantism was introduced by Robert Morrison into China in 1807. The first
Chinese translation of the Protestant Bible was completed by John Marshman,
who was a missionary working in India, and Joannes Lassar, Marshman’s assistant.
The Chinese edition of the New Testament came out in 1811. Eleven years later,
the complete Chinese edition of the Bible was published and was entitled Shentian
xinjiu yiazhao quanshu (“the complete collection of posthumous decrees of God of
Heaven”).
2 For detailed discussion, see: Li Zhigang 李志刚, vol. 1 of Christianity and
Modern Chinese Culture [基督教与近代中国文化论文集] (Taibei, Taiwan of
China: Christian Cosmic Light Holistic Care Organization, 1989), 23.
3 Li Zhigang, vol. 2 of Christianity and Modern Chinese Culture (Taibei, Taiwan of
China: Christian Cosmic Light Holistic Care Organization, 1993), 31.
4 Wang Tao 王韬, Jottings on A Pleasant Trip [漫游随录] (Changsha: The People’s
Press of Hunan, 1982), 51.
5 Xiong Yuezhi 熊月之, The Dissemination of Western Knowledge and the Chinese
Society in Late Qing [西学东渐与晚清社会] (Shanghai: The People’s Press of
Shanghai, 1994), 188. Quoted in Shi Jinghuan 史静寰 and Wang Lixin 王立新,
Christian Education and Chinese Intellectuals [基督教教育与中国知识分子]
(Fuzhou: Fujian Education Press, 1998), 94.
6 Paul A. Varg, Missionaries, Chinese and Diplomats: American Missionary Movement
in China, 1890–1952 (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1958), 22. Quoted
in Shi Jinghuan and Wang Lixin, Christian Education and Chinese Intellectuals, 41.
7 Li Zhigang, vol. 1 of Christianity and Modern Chinese Culture, 27.
8 “Proceeding relative to the formation of the Morrison Education Society,” Chinese
Repository, vol. 5 (December,1836), no. 8, 374.
9 Tang Qing 汤清, A Centennial Review of Christianity in China [中国基督教百年史]
(Hong Kong: Taosheng Publishing House, 1983), 128.
12 Li Kuanshu 李宽淑, A Brief History of Christianity in China [中国基督教史略]
(Beijing: China Social Sciences Academic Press, 1998),144.
14 Ibid.
Bibliography
“Proceeding relative to the formation of the Morrison Education Society.” Chinese
Repository. Vol. 5 (December,1836), no. 8, pp. 373–381.
Li, Kuanshu 李宽淑. A Brief History of Christianity in China [中国基督教史略]
(Beijing: China Social Sciences Academic Press, 1998).
Li, Zhigang 李志刚. Christianity and Modern Chinese Culture
[基督教与近代中国文化论文集] (Taibei, Taiwan of China: Christian Cosmic Light
Holistic Care Organization, 1989, 1993). Vols. 1–2.
Shi, Jinghuan 史静寰 and Wang Lixin 王立新. Christian Education and Chinese
Intellectuals [基督教教育与中国知识分子] (Fuzhou: Fujian Education Press, 1998).
Tang, Qing 汤清. A Centennial Review of Christianity in China [中国基督教百年史]
(Hong Kong: Taosheng Publishing House, 1983).
Varg, Paul A. Missionaries, Chinese and Diplomats: American Missionary Movement in
China, 1890–1952 (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1958).
Wang, Tao 王韬. Jottings on A Pleasant Trip [漫游随录] (Changsha: The People’s
Press of Hunan, 1982).
Xiong, Yuezhi 熊月之. The Dissemination of Western Knowledge and the Chinese
Society in Late Qing [西学东渐与晚清社会] (Shanghai: The People’s Press of
Shanghai, 1994).
2 In the name of God
The God-Worshipping Society
The founding of Baishangdihui (The God-Worshipping Society) might be the

most remarkable embodiment of the achievements of early Christian mis-
sionaries in China. Hong Xiuquan’s founding of Baishangdihui should be
regarded as the earliest Chinese attempt to set up an indigenized Christian
Church in China, even though it was ultimately unsuccessful and denounced,
through tainted glasses, as heretical by Western missionaries.
Hong Xiuquan and the founding of Baishangdihui

Hong Xiuquan (1814–1864) was born in a Hakka family of Hua County,
Guangdong, where there were the earliest traces of missionary activities in
modern China. Although before 1844 the Qing government strictly forbade
anyone from preaching the Christian doctrines, some missionaries made the
full use of every opportunity to spread their faith among the Chinese. The
missionaries paid particular attention to the well-educated people preparing
for Keju (the imperial civil service examination). Hong, a candidate for Keju,
was one of their targets. In 1834, Hong went to Guangzhou, where he took
Keju for the second time and, unfortunately, failed again. The depressed Hong
ran into a missionary known as Stephen and his Chinese assistant in the street.
Hong was given a copy of Quanshi liangyan (“the good words admonishing
the world,” hereinafter referred to as Quanshi) authored by Liang Fa.1 At first,
this Christian brochure did not interest Hong, who left it on the shelf. In
1837, for the third time Hong failed to pass the examination and was near the
point of breakdown. He was laid low with a serious illness for 40 days.2 It was
said that in a dream Hong was sent to heaven, where his heart was replaced
with a new one and he himself was appointed by an old, yellow-haired man
in black to a senior post, with a treasured knife plus a seal as the token of
power and authority, and asked to wipe out all demons, restore truth, and
rehabilitate the original nature of humankind as soon as possible.3 Further, a
middle-aged man known as the Elder Brother urged again and again Hong to
spare no effort to kill all demons and eliminate all evils. After this, “[a]‌feeling
of powerlessness and worthlessness had evidently been transformed, through
his fantasies, into its opposite: a conviction of total power and purity.”4
DOI: 10.4324/9781003334965-2
14 In the name of God: The God-Worshipping Society
Nevertheless, at this moment Hong did not yet want to rebel against the Qing
government. In 1843, Hong made the last attempt at Keju and, unsurpris-
ingly, he did very badly in the examination. Infuriated by this failure, Hong
went back home and threw away all ancient (i.e., Confucian) classics, angrily
saying: “In future I myself will preside over the civil service examination!”
Exactly at the time Hong was losing hope and developing a strong aversion
towards the Confucian sages, Li Jingfang, one of Hong’s cousins, happened
upon Quanshi, which had been left unread for years, and recommended it
again to Hong. At this moment this Christian brochure was attractive to
Hong, especially as it repeatedly stressed the uselessness of idolatry—the
candidates for Keju had piously worshipped Wenchang (the Chinese god of
culture and education) and Kuixing (another Chinese deity superintending
culture and education) and yet, in return, the gods gave them repeated failures.
What the brochure criticized and what Hong hated fitted in readily with each
other. In addition, the preachings of Quanshi, such as Shangdi (“the Lord
Above”), Yesu (Jesus) and moral deterioration, immediately reminded Hong
of the dream he had had six years ago. He was convinced that the yellow-
haired old man in black was Shangdi and the middle-aged man Yesu and
that both authorized him to awaken the world and lead the entire world back
to the correct admiration of the true god, namely Shangdi.5 Consequently,
Hong and Li, inspired by this Christian brochure, had themselves baptized
by sprinkling water on their heads and swore to abandon all evil ideas and
acts and refresh themselves entirely. Both went further, discarding the tablet
dedicated to Confucius in the study and having all idols worshipped at home
and even the memorial tablets to ancestors burned. At that time although
Hong, affected by Christian doctrines, objected to worshipping Confucius
as an idol, and thus had the tablet dedicated to Confucius burned, he him-
self appreciated very much Confucius and Confucianism. Soon after Hong
started his missionary work by baptizing Feng Yunshan, one of his close
friends, and Hong Ren, one of his younger brothers from the same clan. At
first few people were interested in Hong’s faith. In 1844, Hong and Feng went
to Guangxi, where they disseminated their teachings among the Hakka fam-
ilies and achieved initial success. Later, Hong and Feng lost touch with one
another. Therefore, they did their missionary work separately. Hong returned
to his homeplace and continued the Christian endeavour in his teaching.
During this time, Hong, having his writings based on the basic Christian
knowledge in Liang Fa’s Quanshi and on traditional Confucian thinking,
penned a series of religious treatises, most of which have unfortunately been
lost. Among the extant manuscripts of these writings are a few well-known
treatises such as Baizheng ge (“one hundred honorable and dishonorable
cases”), Yuandao jiushi ge (“true way to save the world”), and Yuandao xingshi
xun (“the true way to awaken the world”).
In Baizheng ge (hereinafter referred to as Baizheng), historical figures were
dichotomized into the honourable and the dishonourable. Legendary kings,
such as Yao, Shun, and Yu, and sages, such as Confucius, were honourable
In the name of God: The God-Worshipping Society 15
people, as all of them were model sovereigns, model ministers, or even model
sons and did excellent work in stabilizing the country, making the people live a
peaceful life, resisting all evils, and complying with the will of heaven and the
aspirations of the people. However, infamous rulers, such as Jie (the last king
of Xia dynasty) and Zhou (the last king of Shang dynasty), were dishonour-
able people, all of whom let their dynasties perish, failed to acquire a peaceful
end, and suffered humiliations even after death. Generally, Hong concluded,
the honourable could enjoy a happy life in heaven and, by contrast, the dis-
honourable must languish in hell. Altogether, Baizheng was ethico-morally
Confucian.
Hong composed Yuandao jiushi ge (hereinafter referred to as Jiushi) in
1845, when he was still unable to obtain the full translation of the Bible. For
this reason, Jiushi was epistemically based on Quanshi. Even though, it was
more Christian in comparison with Baizheng. An example was the promotion
of the Christian creed that everyone is equal before God. Jiushi denounced
the conventional idea that no one except sovereigns were eligible to revere
heaven and contended instead that the entirety of human beings under the
whole heaven were brothers and sisters and God treated equally all human
beings as his children. Thus, everyone should worship God and try his best
to be an honourable person, freeing him/herself from any cult of false gods.
Aside from the Christian doctrines, in the light of the Confucian ethics, Hong
praised honourable people’s good virtues, such as sincerity and kindness,
sense of honour, filial piety, observance of propriety, and willingness to suffer,
and at the same time assailed dishonourable people’s six evil doings—killing,
stealing, sorcery, gambling, illicit sextual relationships (which were denounced
as absolutely vicious) and impiety, an act against the law of heaven.
In 1847, with the help of Zhou Daoxing working for Fuhanhui (the
Chinese Union), Hong was introduced to Luo Xiaoquan (Issachar J. Roberts,
an American missionary from the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC)) in
Guangzhou, where Hong studied the Christian doctrines with great concen-
tration for three months. There, Hong directly read the Bible.6 Hong asked
Luo to baptize him. Originally, Luo had no doubt about Hong’s Christian
faith and prepared to baptize Hong; but Luo came to believe that Hong
had impure motivations and refused to perform baptism for him, on the
grounds that Hong followed the suggestion made by one of Luo’s aides,
and required the Church to support his life after converting to Christianity.
Precisely for this reason, Hong left Guangzhou and went back home.7 Was
Hong baptized and accepted as a formal member of the Christian Church?
There are diverse answers to this question. A few scholars hold that Hong
was actually baptized.8 Nevertheless, the majority of researchers do not think
Hong was formally baptized. Regardless of whether Hong was a Christian
or not, there can be little doubt that Hong himself was deeply influenced by
the Christian faith.
Shortly after his return from Guanghou, Hong, obviously influenced by
the Bible translated by Guo Shila (Karl Gützlaff, a German missionary),
wrote Yuandao xingshi xun (hereinafter referred to as Xingshi), in which he
for the first time proposed the concept of Huangshangdi (“the Lord Above
as Emperor”). Compared to Jiushi, Xingshi achieved great epistemological
progress, by which Hong advanced from a socio-moral critic to a reformer
aspiring to bring changes to the society. Some words taken from Xingshi cor-
roborate this:9
Huangshangdi [“the Lord Above as Emperor”] is the father of all human

beings under the whole heaven.… There is a myriad of men, all of
whom are brothers. There is a myriad of women, all of whom are sisters.
[Hopefully on the basis of this interrelationship there will be a World of
Grand Union, just as Confucius envisaged:] “When the Grand course
was pursued, a public and common spirit ruled all under the sky; they
chose men of talents, virtue, and ability; their words were sincere, and
what they cultivated was harmony. Thus, men did not love their parents
only, nor treat as children only their own sons. A competent provision
was secured for the aged till their death, employment for the able-bodied,
and the means of growing up to the young. They showed kindness and
compassion to widows, orphans, childless men, and those who were
disabled by disease, so that they were all sufficiently maintained. Males
had their proper work, and females had their homes. [They accumulated]
articles [of value], disliking that they should be thrown away upon the
ground, but not wishing to keep them for their own gratification. [They
laboured] with their strength, disliking that it should not be exerted, but
not exerting it (only) with a view to their own advantage. In this way
[selfish] schemings were repressed and found no development. Robbers,
filchers, and rebellious traitors did not show themselves, and hence the
outer doors remained open, and were not shut. This was [(the period of]
what we call the Grand Union.10
Differentiating himself from Confucius, Hong stressed that only when

all human beings repented and converted to the gospels would the World of
Grand Union be realized. By then, Hong had a strong aspiration for reforming
society by a combination of Confucianism and Christianity, though he had not
yet developed the revolutionary idea. Even so, he laid the intellectual founda-
tion for the uprising at Jintian Village. At the same time, Feng Yunshan, one
of Hong’s closest friends, created a base for Hong’s endeavour in Guangxi,
from which Hong started the northern expedition and fulfilled his dream.
From the time Feng and Hong had lost touch with each other in Guangxi,
Feng had chosen to stay there and continue to spread their faith among
Hakka villages in the area of Zijingshan. Due to Feng’s effort, there were
a number of followers. In approximately 1846, Feng set up Baishangdihui
there, which could be regarded as China’s first indigenized Christian Church.
Baishangdihui was completely founded by the Chinese and its basic doctrines
were based on Christian thinking developed by Hong in the light of Quanshi
and his inscrutable dreams. When spreading Hong’s teachings, Feng required
followers to convert to the belief in the true god Shangdi. By 1847, when
Hong met with Feng after three years in Zijingshan, Baishangdihui already
had over 3,000 adherents. Thanks to Feng, the visions in Hong’s dream were
well known among the followers, all of whom admired Hong very much. As
soon as Hong arrived there, he was revered as the leader.
Baishangdihui in its incipient stage

The reason why Baishangdihui could spread among Guangxi Hakka people
was inseparably related to the general situation at that time. At this point, a
researcher observed: “The anarchy that gripped Kwangsi [Guangxi] province
by the 1840s stemmed partly from the disruptive effects of foreign contact,
and partly from the region’s unique social complexity.”11 In the wake of the
Opium War, Shanghai was open to the world and Guangdong gradually lost
its original advantages. Consequently, many residents in Guangdong had to
live on the verge of subsistence and even became outlaws. In addition, the
powerful British navy forced some pirates to flee to the inland provinces. It
was in the 1840s that some led by the Triads came into Guangxi and were
very active in the area adjoining Hunan and Guangxi. Under such chaotic
circumstances, the Hakka people suffered the most. The Hakkas referred to
such a group of Han people who spoke a very special language and moved
to the south in the long march of Chinese history.12 Given the Hakkas were,
linguistically and customarily, different from the indigenous people, they
were treated like outcasts over a long period of time. The intolerance that the
Hakka people suffered was embodied not only in land ownership rules but
also in the local religion, in which the Hakkas were usually barred from mem-
bership. This made the social situation in Guangxi increasingly worse:
Kwangsi [Guangxi] society in the late 1840s was becoming rapidly

militarized as a result of chronic banditry and the rising tide of vendettas
between Hakka and indigenous communities. Throughout the coun-
tryside emerged a mélange of armed groups. ...To the Hakkas all these
contenders were hostile.13
The Hakkas as a whole were weak and often bullied by the indigenous
residents. Unsurprisingly, the local authorities were biased in favor of the indi-
genous communities. Thus, the Hakka people yearned for change so strongly
that they were not only ready to accept a new idea or new religion that was
incongruous with the indigenous ones, but also fervently aspired to have
themselves mobilized and organized into a group defending their interests.
For these reasons, as soon as the Christian missionary activities were done
in the form of Fuhanhui, quite a few Hakkas joined the Church. Precisely for
the same reason, Feng Yunshan converted a group of Hakkas in a short space
of time. Baishangdihui was more attractive to the Hakkas, on the grounds
that they lived in a chaotic time and regarded this Christian society as a safe
retreat. Even some members of Fuhanhui supported Baishangdihui and joined
the two Christian Churches simultaneously. As the story goes, Feng had paid
a visit to Guo Shila, the founding patriarch of Fuhanhui, in 1848 and was
baptized in Guo’s church.
Another reason why Baishangdihui could develop rapidly in Guangxi lay in
the fact that then the Qing government had lifted the ban on Catholicism. As
Baishangdihui said Shangdi was the only true god and Yesu the savior, the Qing
government concluded that basically it was no different from Catholicism.
Some, for example, accused Feng of beguiling the residents and organizing
a secret society and turned over Feng’s manuscript to the local authorities.
But the mayor of Guiping County examined the manuscript and drew the
conclusion that it was not an illegal publication but a foreign Catholic bro-
chure containing the name of Yesu.14 Therefore, the local authorities did not
ban Baishangdihui but instead sent Feng back to his homeplace.15 As a conse-
quence, Baishangdihui witnessed a rapid expansion.
Baishangdihui in its incipient stage was merely a religious group. Feng and
Hong did their best to build it into a fully Chinese Christian Church, even
though neither of them had the sense of indigenization. At this time, this
Christian society was different from what it became in its later stage. The
early Baishangdihui was not very political; nor did it have its own canons but
instead chose the Bible as its scripture. As far as the Bible was concerned,
Baishangdihui placed emphasis on the Old Testament rather than on the
New Testament. Although Baishangdihui in its incipient stage did not fully
recognize the meaning of Shangdi and Yesu, and its understanding of the
Holy Trinity was different from that of Western Christianity, it was still not a
Christian heresy. It was true that Baishangdihui, organizationally and ritually,
adopted some practice of Chinese popular religions. Even so, Baishangdihui
never went to extremes but instead assimilated well some forms of Western
Christian Churches. The practice of Baishangdihui in its incipient stage was
indeed different from that undertaken after the peasant army established the
capital in Nanjing, in which the rituals of Baishangdihui were implemented
by coercive means. For these reasons, the present author treats Baishangdihui
in its incipient stage as China’s earliest indigenized Christian Church and
discusses the thinking and activities of the early Baishangdihui, hoping that
such an exploration will benefit the study of the indigenization of Christianity
in China.
In order to gain an insight into Baishangdihui in its incipient stage, the pre-
sent author analyzes first Hong’s concepts of Shangdi and Jidu (Christ).
Obviously, Hong’s Shangdi was not inspired by Liang Fa’s Quanshi. There
was the word Shangdi in the Confucian classics, of which, Hong, a well-educated
Chinese who had taken the civil service examination many times, could not
have been completely unconscious. Nor could he have been entirely ignorant of
the supreme deity, namely Shangdi, referring to the legendary Sanhuang Wudi
(Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors) in the Chinese classics. Nevertheless, it
was after reading Quanshi and relating this Christian brochure with the extra-
ordinary visions in his strange dream that Hong showed an interest in Shangdi
and started to rethink the concept of the supreme god. At this moment, Shangdi
changed basically in his conception and metamorphosized into the only true
god combining Chinese and Western elements. Influenced by Quanshi, Hong
realized that (1) Shangdi was not the leading god of gods but the only true god;
2) the deities in the Confucian, Buddhist, and Daoist doctrines were all idols
and false gods; (3) Shangdi as the only true god, which had a strong will and
let poetic justice prevail, never allowed his followers to worship other gods and
could only be pleased when all idols were discarded; and (4) Shangdi was the
creator of entire universe. The four points were all congruous with Western
Christian understanding of God.
Christianity is a world religion. Whenever it was disseminated in a cer-
tain region, it had to be assimilated into the local culture. As a consequence,
the understanding of God among people living in different regions was
different from one another. This was much more so with Hong, who studied
the Christian doctrines on his own. Hong readily related the original, indi-
genous Chinese Huangtian Shangdi (“Heaven and the Lord Above”) and the
highest lords such as Pangu and Sanhuang Wudi mentioned by the Confucian
classics in particular to the Christian supreme spiritual being. In short, the
highest (legendary) lords in the Chinese classics were, in the eyes of Hong,
similar to the Christian God. Now that there was only one true god in the
entire world, this god could by no means exclusively belong to the West. Thus,
Hong held that, as early as great antiquity in China, when there was a great
Community of Grand Union in which the public spirit prevailed, Shangdi
had manifested itself and was revered unanimously by the entirety of the
people. Unfortunately, Hong contended, as time went on, that the mind of
the people was corrupted by demons and the Chinese started to worship spir-
itual beings other than Shangdi. In fact, even today some Chinese Christians
recognize Hong’s idea of Shangdi (God). This indicates that Hong’s concept
of Shangdi accords with the principle regarding the Chinese indigenization of
Christianity, even in the light of present-day standards.
Baishangdihui frequently referred to Shangdi as Tian (Heaven) or Tianfu
(Heavenly Father). Tian or Tianfu were much more easily understandable for
the Chinese on the grounds that in ancient Chinese classics the highest lord
superintending the entire world was usually revered as Tian. The well-known
Jesuit Li Madou (Matteo Ricci), for example, rendered the Western Christian
God as Tianzhu (the Lord of Heaven). Where Quanshi was concerned, there
were 13 Tian referred to as Shangdi. Hong’s concept of Tianfu was based on
the inspiration stemming from the Christian Holy Father. Although Hong did
not make any attempt to set out the concept of Father in the context of the
Holy Trinity,16 he accepted this Christian terminology “Father.” According to
Hong, as Tian (Heaven) is Shangdi, there should be the designations such as
Tianfu Shangdi (Shangdi, the Heavenly Father) and Tianshengfu (Heaven, the
Holy Father).
The concepts of Shangdi and Tianfu were inspired by the basic
Christian doctrine that God created the humankind. In this regard, Hong’s
understanding was more congruous with the original Christian teaching. In
his Jiushi, Hong penned, speaking in terms of the physical existence of human
beings, everyone had her or his own father and mother; whereas in terms of
spiritual existence, all human beings were from the unique vital breath of
Huangshangdi. Hong went further, concluding that everyone should be equal
before Shangdi because people under the whole heaven were all brothers and
sisters and their soul all originated from heaven. Objectively, Hong grasped
the Christian theological narratives respecting God’s creation of humankind.
Of course, Hong did incorporate some conventional Chinese thinking, such
as the World of Grand Union and All under Heaven as One Family, into his
own Christian thinking. Such Hong-style conceptions played a positive role
in Baishangdihui in its incipient stage.
As far as the perception of Yesu Jidu (Jesus Christ), Hong’s was very
different from that of the Western Christian Churches. Since the Reformation
led by Martin Luther, Western Christianity underlined justifictio sola fide
(“justification only through faith”), which was centered on Jesus Christ. By
contrast, Baishangdihui revolved around Shangdi only, on the grounds that
Hong himself was immune to the theoretical orthodoxies, such as the Holy
Trinity and original sin.
According to conventional Christian theology, God has three hypostases,
namely the Holy Father, the Holy Son, and the Holy Spirit, which are different
from each other and at the same time substantially interconnected with each
other. Theologists hold that Christ is the only son of God, as well as being the
God’s incarnation remaining in the flesh. However, the Bible itself has never
corroborated this theological allegation. The Christian Churches themselves
have no alternative but to treat it as a mystery that can only be apprehended
by faith itself. Hitherto few Christians have been able to shed a clear, reason-
able light on the alleged Trinity. Hong, who was completely free from any
threads of conventional Christian theology, was entirely immune to the con-
cept of the Holy Trinity. As Christ is the son of God, how can he possibly be
God as well? For many Chinese, the alleged Trinity obviously contradicted the
belief that Shangdi is the only true god. Hong had no doubts about the visions
in his dream. He did believe that Shangdi and Yesu were two different entities.
According to Hong, Shangdi was an old man and the only true god, and Yesu
was merely the eldest son of Shangdi, who acted as an aide and was fully at his
father’s command. For Hong, Yesu could by no means be the centre, around
which his faith developed.
Nor did Hong find the Original Sin preached by Christianity compre-
hensible. Since Augustine (of Hippo), Original Sin was well established in
Christian theology. The dogma of Original Sin alleges that Adam and Eve,
the two earliest ancestors of humankind, ate the Garden of Eden’s forbidden
fruit by stealth and thus became originally sinful. The sin perpetrated by
Adam and Eve was irredeemable and it was carried on by humankind gen-
eration to generation. To save humankind, the compassionate God sent his
innocent only son, who was precisely Jesus Christ and the incarnation of the
Way of God, to this world, where the son would bear the blame for human-
kind and atone for their sins with his own life. Profoundly enlightened by
the Confucian idea that all human beings are inherently good, Hong found
Original Sin impervious to reason and impossible to accept. As Hong totally
rejected either the alleged profundity of Original Sin or the significance of
Jesus Christ’s redeeming humankind at the cost of his own life, he could by no
means have his faith revolved around Jesus Christ. Precisely for this reason,
Baishangdihui never laid stress on Yesu Jidu, but instead tried their best to
make Huangshangdi much more remarkable. Accordingly, Baishangdihui
attached the greatest importance to the Old Testament, in which the role
Jehovah (God/Shangdi) played was extraordinarily prominent, and mean-
while paid much less attention to the New Testament, aggrandizing the
redemptive effort made by Jesus Christ. Herein lay a huge difference between
Baishangdihui and orthodox Western Christian Churches.
As Hong never treated Jesus Christ as God, his Shangdi, the only true
god, was undoubtedly not the highest lord of love in the New Testament,
but the Old Testament’s supreme spiritual being, which was incomparably
majestic, rigorously carried out awards and punishments, and even angrily
brought punitive disasters to humankind. To please this majestic Shangdi,
Hong stressed that humankind must follow the Way of Heaven and especially
abide by the Ten Precepts (a.k.a. the Ten Commandments). Hong himself,
acting under orders from Shangdi, implemented the Heavenly Way (i.e., the
Right Way of Shangdi) under the whole heaven. His mission in this world
was to lead humankind to revere Shangdi, abandon all evils, and do good
works. Hong compared himself to Melchizedek, who was the highest priest
in the service of God. Hong held that the soul of human being was from
Shangdi and thus all humans were inherently good. But, on the other hand,
Hong contended, humans could become evil due to the demons’ temptations
and the wrong cult of false gods. For this reason, Hong earnestly suggested
people worship the only true god and discard all idols. Baishangdihui in its
incipient stage had produced a laundry list of demons of all shades, in which
there were not only the biblical monsters, fetishes, snakes and dragons but
also the Buddhist bodhisattvas and Daoists deities, such as the judges of the
underworld.
Having been exposed to Christian doctrines, Hong himself was fully against
the Buddhist teaching of lunhui zhuanshi (rebirth/transmigration). Rather,
Hong believed that, after death, a human being would either ascend up into
heaven or go down into hell. The early Baishangdihui’s descriptions of heaven
and hell intellectually accorded with conventional Christian doctrines, even
though there were the obvious influences of the Chinese popular religions. To
be specific, Baishangdihui advocated that those who converted to Christianity
would enter heaven and enjoy eternal blessings after their death, and by con-
trast those who refused to convert would be thrown into hell and would never
be free of pain. In his Yuandao jueshi xun (“the true way to enlighten the
world,” hereinafter referred to as Jueshi), Hong penned:
Whenever you worship Huangshangdi (the Lord Above as Emperor), you

will be treated in the same way as Huangshangdi has done to his children.
Being Huangshangdi’s children, Huangshangdi takes care of you in your
lifetime; and after your death, you soul will go into Heaven, where you
will enjoy a happy life forever. By then, how cheerful and prestigious
you will be! On the contrary, if you indulge yourself in the cult of false
gods, you will be turned into despicable underlings of devils. In that case,
when you are alive, your life will always be disturbed by demons; and
as soon as you are dead, you will be caught by demons and sent to hell,
in which you will be gnawed by endless sufferings. At this time, what a
shameful and painful life you are living!17
Baishangdihui, drawing inspiration from the Christian delirious imagin-

ations of heaven and hell, produced a series of visually impactful scenes,
in which in heaven Shangdi, accompanied by Christ on his right hand and
surrounded by angels, sits upon the throne with great dignity and, contrast-
ingly, in hell there is the burning lake full of brimstone, and the evil people
are being thrown into the lake as perpetual punishment. In addition, Hong
absorbed some Chinese popular religions’ descriptions of heaven and hell,
frighteningly saying heaven had 33 layers and Shangdi lived in the highest layer,
and hell was divided into 18 levels. In short, Baishangdihui told its followers
that converts could enjoy the best and most beautiful things in heaven and
those who believed in false gods would be tortured in the most horrible ways.
According the conventional Christian doctrines, the Kingdom of God
(a.k.a. the Heavenly Kingdom) does not refer exclusively to the other world
beyond death. Aside from the place accommodating the dead, it also denotes
the spiritual realm of humans or the Churches in this world. Due to the
influence exerted by Quanshi on him, Hong held that Tianguo (Heavenly
Kingdom) had a double meaning and heaven could thus be dichotomized into
the great and lesser ones. Hong’s lesser heaven was not the Churches claimed
by Western Christianity but the World of Grand Union, which was taken
directly from the ancient Chinese social ideal known as Datong (literally, the
greatest harmony/peace) and should be precisely Hong’s Heavenly Kingdom
on earth. Herein lay the realistic goal pursued by Hong. The present chapter
holds that Hong’s social goal was very probably inspired by the Bible’s Acts
of the Apostles’ primitive Christian community, known for its symbiotic
relationships and shared wealth. Hong’s conceiving the dichotomized other
world laid the intellectual foundation of his polity—Heavenly Kingdom of
Great Peace (hereinafter referred to as Taiping Tianguo).
In order to have Baishangdihui, which was rapidly developing, strictly
disciplined, Hong and Feng set about formulating a series of ordinances
combining Chinese and Western elements. The most important ordinance
was Tiantiaoshu (“the book of heavenly laws”), which later served as the
chief military regulation governing the army of Taiping Tianguo (hereinafter
referred to as the Taiping Army). Speaking in terms of the basic content of
Tiantiaoshu, it was based on the Bible’s Ten Commandments (see Table 2.1).
According to Baishangdihui’s ten precepts, the followers must not live a
licentious life and, at the same time, must completely eradicate all bad habits
such as drinking, smoking (tobacco and opium), gambling and lying. These
precepts later played quite a significant role in making Taiping Tianguo a well-
disciplined political organization. To make the precepts more easily under-
standable to ordinary people, Baishangdihui explained them in popular ways,
such as the short poetry composed of four lines of seven-character verse.
As for the theoretical explanation of these precepts, Baishangdihui adopted
Confucian doctrines and even the Buddhist theory of transmigration. For
example, when setting out the precept requiring people to sincerely show filial
piety to their parents, Baishangdihui said:
The great King Shun fulfills the filial piety all his life
And his parents are thoroughly delightful.
The love and care received from our parents are as illimitable as Heaven
And thus, we should bountifully repay them so as not to disgrace
ourselves.
As for the interpretation of the precept prohibiting people from having
any illicit sextual relations, it read:
Promiscuity is the root of all evil
And those who perpetrate this crime will be despicably turned into
demons.
If you really want to enjoy the happy life in Heaven,
You must restrain desires and live an ascetic life.
Interpretations in such a form were readily acceptable among Chinese

Christian converts.
Speaking in terms of the organizational and ritual practice of
Baishangdihui, Hong and Feng drew inspirations stemming from Guo Shila’s
setting up Fuhanhui and at the same time mixed together some of the ways of
Chinese popular religions. In this sense, Baishangdihui was really a fusion of
the Chinese and Western elements.
Guo Shila’s Fuhanhui was actually based on the form of the Moravian
Church (MC). MC originated from the Bohemian Reformation represented
by the Hussites in the fifteenth century and later in the eighteenth century
it was remolded by Nicolaus Zinzendorf into a Christian sect paying par-
ticular attention to pious spiritual practice. This Christian sect had neither
Table 2.1 Tiantiaoshu and the Ten Commandments
Article Tiantiaoshu The Ten Commandments

No. (Exodus 20:3–17)*
1 Do worship Shangdi (Exodus 20:3) Thou shalt have no other gods

only. before me.
2 Do not worship any (Exodus 20:4) Thou shalt not make unto thee any
false gods. graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is
in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath,
or that is in the water under the earth:
(Exodus 20:5) Thou shalt not bow down thyself
to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy
God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of
the fathers upon the children unto the third and
fourth generation of them that hate me;
(Exodus 20:6) And shewing mercy unto
thousands of them that love me, and keep my
commandments.
3 Do not mention (Exodus 20:7) Thou shalt not take the name of the
the name of LORD thy God in vain; for the LORD will not
Huangshangdi (the hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.
Lord Above as
Emperor) at will.
4 Do praise the grace (Exodus 20:8) Remember the sabbath day, to keep
of God on the it holy.
seventh day of the (Exodus 20:9) Six days shalt thou labour, and do
week. all thy work:
(Exodus 20:10) But the seventh day is the sabbath
of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do
any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter,
thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy
cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates:
(Exodus 20:11) For in six days the LORD made
heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is,
and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD
blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.
5 Do show the filial (Exodus 20:12) Honour thy father and thy
piety to parents. mother: that thy days may be long upon the land
which the LORD thy God giveth thee.
6 Do not kill nor harm (Exodus 20:13) Thou shalt not kill.
others
7 Do not have any (Exodus 20:14) Thou shalt not commit adultery.
illicit sextual
relations.
8 Do not steal nor rob. (Exodus 20:15) Thou shalt not steal.
9 Do not lie. (Exodus 20:16) Thou shalt not bear false witness
against thy neighbour.
10 Do abandon greed. (Exodus 20:17) Thou shalt not covet thy
neighbour’s house, thou shalt not covet thy
neighbour’s wife, nor his manservant, nor his
maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any
thing that is thy neighbour’s.
Note: *See: King James Bible, kingjamesbibleonline.org/Exodus-Chapter-20/.

strict dogmas nor systems, attached greater importance to direct communi-
cation between humans and God, and cared nothing about the form of reli-
gious service. For example, if there were no churches, religious services could
be performed inside a simply furnished house, in which there were no altars,
crosses or rostrums. When the religious service was performed, male and
female followers would stand separately and the priest would lecture before
the audience and lead them to read the Bible, chant hymns and pray. Among
the followers of the sect, brotherhood and sisterhood prevailed, equality and
friendship were treasured, and even fortunes were shared. The followers were
divided into groups based on their sex and marital status. The head of each
group was the discipline enforcer and the instructor of spiritual practice. The
sect required its followers to live a rigorous, hardworking life and encouraged
them to actively partake in missionary work on a voluntary basis. It made
itself distinct from other Christian Churches by giving up special dogmas.
Fuhanhui followed it precisely. Influenced by Fuhanhui, Baishangdihui adopted
similar methods. An example was Baishangdihui’s regular religious service, in
which men and women sat separately and the master of the service lectured
before them and instructed them to sing and pray. But on the other hand, in
this service there were some traces of Chinese popular religions, such as sac-
rificing pure tea and foods to Shangdi and burning prayers after the rite, all
of which were distinct from that of Western Christian Churches. In reality,
Baishangdihui’s combination of Chinese and Western elements was embodied
not only in the everyday religious service but also in the rite of baptizing new
members. An expert in the history of Taiping Tianguo studied the religious
service of the early Baishangdihui and indicated that Baishangdihui’s rites
were highly indigenized:
The regular religious service was also formulated by Hong Xiuquan and
Feng Yunshan. When the ceremony was being held, at the end of the room
there was an altar (i.e., a table), flanked by male and female followers
sitting separately, on which two lamps and three cups of pure tea were
placed. At the very beginning of the service, all attendees chanted hymns
together. Then the master of the ceremony started to lecture the doctrines.
When the session of prayer began, all participants were required to face
the place through which sunlight burst and kneel down. One of the
participants prayed on behalf of all those present. All new converts knelt
and read their confessions and then burnt the confessions. The master of
ceremony asked them: Did you confess? Did you worship Shangdi? Did
you abide by the Heavenly Laws? If their answers were satisfactory, the
master would baptize them by pouring a bowl of water on the head. Then
the new members stood up and drank one cup of water. In addition,
they washed their chest with a bowl of water, indicating that they had
cleansed the heart from sin. The ceremony was finished in this cleaning
rite. Then, the new converts bathed their bodies in river while confessing
and praying for forgiveness. The new members visited the headquarters
and were given the prayers specially penned by Hong and Feng, which
were known as memorials and must be ceremonially read every morning
and evening. Whenever something in/auspicious happened or there were
special events, the ceremony of offering sacrifices (i.e., foods) to Shangdi
must be performed. As soon as the sacrificial ceremony was done, the
sacrifices would be eaten by all participants. These ritual activities were
all based on the most formal traditional Chinese sacrificial rites and
were creatively applied to a self-invented new religion. It was precisely an
embodiment of the combination of the Chinese and Western elements.
That is the truth about the religion of Heavenly Kingdom of Great Peace
in its incipient stage.18
According to this expert, Baishangdihui adopted only one of the two most
basic Christian divine services, namely baptism and communion. Put plainly,
Baishangdihui had only baptism, a symbolic act cleansing the heart from sin.
Where the communion was concerned, there were no traces of this Christian
rite in Baishangdihui. The reason for the lack of communion might lie in
Quanshi, which did not mention it at all and thus Hong was completely
ignorant of this rite. But on the other hand, by the time when Hong studied
the Christian doctrines under Luo Xiaoquan’s instruction, he should have
gained some understanding of this basic Christian rite. Even so, Hong did not
apply the communion to his Baishangdihui, on the grounds that he thought
this rite was much less significant to his endeavour. The ultimate reason why
Baishangdihui discarded communion might lie in its most fundamental creed
that Shangdi was the only true god exclusively worth of being worshipped in
the most remarkable way. As far as the rite of communion was concerned, it
was formulated in commemoration of Jesus Christ, who attempted to save
humankind at the cost of his own life. The two basic elements of commu-
nion, that is bread and wine, represent Jesus’s flesh and blood respectively.
For this reason this rite, theologically, matters to Christianity, which regards
Jesus Christ as the God that incarnates as the Way remaining in the flesh.
Some Protestant sects even hold that performing the rite of communion not
only commemorates Jesus but also showcases God blessing humans by prom-
ising to pardon them; and some say the rite is an embodiment of the union
of the Christian faithful and their Jesus. But, for Baishangdihui, because Yesu
Jidu (Jesus Christ) was not Shangdi (God) at all and he himself was inferior
to Shangdi, the communion in relation to Jesus was entirely insignificant.
In addition, in as much as Hong denounced drinking as evil and licentious
and strictly prohibited his followers from drinking, the act of drinking wine
required by the communion was totally unacceptable to Baishangdihui. In
fact, some Protestant sects, such as the Methodist Church, have wine replaced
with grape juice. But Hong did not know this as he was not epistemically
familiar with the Christian reformation.
One of the Chinese characteristics of Baishangdihui was that it had neither
any priests nor any churches. The entire religious life of Baishangdihui was led
by the highest master.
This book concludes that, in spite of being very different from the Western
Christian Church in many aspects, Baishangdihui was still an indigenized
Chinese Christian Church in as much as it tried its best to create an inter-
fusion of Chinese culture and Christian doctrines.
Although Baishangdihui in its incipient stage was per se religious, it fre-
quently conflicted with the local authorities and local gentries due to its radical
iconoclasm. It was in the special environment of Guangxi that Baishangdihui
soon metamorphosized into a political organization. Especially in the reaches
of Xijiang River, in many cases the entire family, village and even clan joined
Baishangdihui. Among these followers, most were poor peasants and labourers
and a few were from rich families. Of course, the overwhelming majority of
followers were Hakkas.
In 1848, Feng Yunshan was detained by the local authorities. In order
to free Feng, Hong visited Guangzhou and solicited help. At this moment,
Baishangdihui in Zijingshan was without a leader. Therefore, Yang Xiuqing,
who was originally a charcoal maker, and Xiao Chaogui proclaimed that
they were possessed by the Heavenly Father (Shangdi) and Heavenly Brother
(Yesu) respectively. They went further, declaring that Hong was the Sun,
Hong’s wife the Moon, and Feng, Yang, and Xiao the celestials descending to
the world. Hong, who originally objected to any forms of sorcery, approved
what Yang and Xiao had done. It was in the winter of the same year that
Hong issued Taiping tianri (“the sun of great peace”), in which Hong’s 1837
dream was sensationalized with a view to convincing followers that Hong was
the second son of Shangdi and the younger brother of Yesu and appointed by
Shangdi to the highest superintendent leading the mission of eliminating all
demons and letting justice prevail. From then on, Yang and Xiao frequently
proclaimed in front of followers that they were possessed by the Heavenly
Father and Heavenly Brother. As a consequence, the Jintian Uprising led by
Taiping Tianguo was launched under a cloak of religion. It is noteworthy that
from this time Baishangdihui was increasingly heterodox in practice, especially
compared with orthodox Christianity.
Metamorphosis of Baishangdihui, an indigenized Chinese

Christian Church
Taiping Tianguo staged an uprising against Qing in 1851. Two years later, the
Taiping Army made Nanjing the capital and had the city renamed Tianjing
(“Heavenly Capital”).
Baishangdihui worshipped the only true god, namely, Shangdi, and rev-
erentially called him Huangshangdi. According to Baishangdihui’s doctrines,
Huangshangdi was the Father of all human beings. Baishangdihui dissected the
designation “Huangshangdi” as follows: “Huang denotes the incomparable
greatness; Shang, the supreme power; and Di, the mastery of myriad things
including Heaven, earth, and humans.”19 Thus, aside from Shangdi himself,
no one was eligible to have this designation. Even Hong was no exception.
For this reason, after founding Taiping Tianguo, Hong merely called him-
self Tianwang (Heavenly King) and made no attempt to proclaim himself Di
(“emperor”).
At the beginning of Taiping Tianguo, it implemented a series of institutions,
beliefs and rites, all of which seemingly aspired to create a Christian kingdom
on earth.
The institutions implemented by Taiping Tianguo tried to realize Christian
doctrines such as everyone is equal and men and women are equals. The
examples were the 1853 Tianchao tianmu zhidu (“the land law of the Heavenly
Dynasty,” hereinafter referred to as Tianmu) and the Taiping-style civil ser-
vice examination system. Tianmu was formulated by Hong in the light of the
principles that Shangdi fathered the entire humankind and brotherhood and
sisterhood prevailed entire world. As the principles required that land and
money be publicly owned, men and women be equals, and the blessings of
the Heavenly Father be shared by all human beings, there must be an entirely
equal society in which land, money and the means of livelihood would be
evenly shared by all members of society. Surely Hong had imagined a utopia
that could by no means come true. Even so, Hong did create a beautiful social
ideal. In addition, Taiping Tianguo made a historic, unprecedented effort to
allow female candidates to take the civil service examination. This ground-
breaking social experiment was really an embodiment of the equality of men
and women. The civil service examination for women was presided over by
Hong Xuanjiao, the sworn sister of Hong Xiuquan, and Fu Shanxiang won
the first place and became the first female zhuangyuan (the most prestigious
title conferred upon the candidate with the best performance in the civil ser-
vice examination) in the history of China. Furthermore, Taiping Tianguo
eliminated some feudal systems and corrupt customs oppressing women, such
as the sale of maid servants, concubinage and footbinding.
To build a Heavenly Kingdom on earth, Taiping Tianguo did its best to
stop people from committing any evil acts that were strictly forbidden by the
Ten Precepts, such as stealing, robbery, gambling, rape, drinking and smoking
(either opium or tobacco). In particular, it launched a crackdown on pros-
titution. It was stipulated that any officials, soldiers or residents who went
whoring, or illegally ran a brothel, would be severely punished, along with
his or her family.20 Taiping Tianguo’s endeavour of social purification greatly
resembled what Calvin did in Geneva in the Reformation Movement.
As far as ritual practice was concerned, Taiping Tianguo followed
Baishangdihui in a much stricter manner. A researcher has observed:
When it came to the religious affair, the Heavenly King (i.e., Hong)
disseminated his new religion at all times. For example, he appointed two
principal superintendents and two assistant superintendents, all of whom
devoted themselves to printing the Bible and missionary works. … It was
stipulated that the entirety of imperial officials and armies must perform
the Shangdi-worshipping rite every morning and evening and before
every meal. Besides, whenever there was an event, such as something in/
auspicious took place, a great building was finished, the high lords went
out, or a military expedition was launched, there would be a grand cere-
mony offering sacrifices to the Heavenly Father (Shangdi). When the sac-
rificial ceremony was being performed, lighting up lamps, drinking pure
tea, and burning confessions were played as usual. On Sunday, all must
stop working, except those who were fighting or guarding against the
enemies. Taiping Tianguo did not set up any churches in the capital and
other cities, but instead founded Hall of Heavenly Father in the mansions
of government. It was in the Hall that there was the mass performance
of Shangdi-worshipping rite. In Tianjing, the capital, around sanjing
(11 pm– 1 am) of the night before the Shangdi- worshipping day, in
the street there would fly the huge banner reading: “The rite will be
performed in the next day and all must do it with utmost reverence!” In
the meantime, some were sent to patrol the streets, where they beat the
gong and repeated the banner aloud again and again. The worshipping
rite was composed of the sessions of kneeling, praying, reciting the Bible,
chanting hymns, baptizing, lecturing doctrines, and burning confessions,
all of which should be done as usual. But, significantly, there were not
any forms of communion at all, probably due to the ignorance of this
Christian rite. The lecture on the basic doctrines was often held in the
military camp. This lecture was conducted on a high platform surrounded
by soldiers and civilians. When a lecturer was explaining the doctrines, he
would set forth the significance of the Taiping revolution. …In view of
these, it can be concluded that Taiping Tianguo’s ritual practice played
a role not only in the missionary work but also in the work of political
propaganda. What’s more, the rite was not performed exclusively on
Sunday.21
Those who acted against ritual law would be punished severely. For
example, if a person heard the gong and did not appear at the ritual site, the
person would be flogged; and if the person committed the mistake thrice, he
might face execution.
In order to counteract the effects of Confucianism, Daoism and Buddhism
and promote the Taiping- style indigenized Christianity, Taiping Tianguo,
on the one hand, printed a huge number of Bibles (that is, Shentian xinjiu
yizhao quanshu (“the complete collection of posthumous decrees of God
of Heaven”)) and Zhen tianming zhaoshu (“the decrees of true mandate of
Heaven”) justifying Hong’s founding Taiping Tianguo; on the other hand, it
put a ban on all heterodox writings, such as books of traditional Chinese
intellectual schools and history books complied by past dynasties. In 1853,
Taiping Tianguo promulgated Zhaoshu gaixi banxing lun (“the discussions on
the issue that publication must be approved beforehand by the authorities”)
comprised of 25 treatises, which mentioned that the publication of Bibles
was of great urgency and it could prevent the people from being deluded by
heterodox books. Hong himself had his own idea respecting the alleged tol-
erance and modesty preached by conventional Christianity and in one piece
he commented: “[In as much as] being over-patient and over-modest is out of
accord with the times and no good for the mission purifying an evil world”22
we must build an ideal society known for its prevalent peace and harmony by
eliminating all evils and preserve all the good. Regardless, the Bible in Taiping
Tianguo was regarded as the unique book of the true Way. The large number
of Bibles produced since 1853 corroborated this. Taiping Tianguo is said
to have dedicated 400 people in uninterruptedly printing the Chinese Bible
translated by Guo Shila, and all these printed Bibles were distributed freely.23
The narrator of this story also observed: “Still, as they publish the Scriptures
[i.e., the Bible] without note or comment, and these in amount twenty times
greater than all other writings of theirs.”24
A few Protestant missionaries recognized Taiping Tianguo’s work. One
example was a clergyman from the London Missionary Society (LMS), who
in his 1854 book wrote: “There cannot be a doubt, that if the new movement
succeeds, China will be thrown open, throughout its length and breadth, to
the efforts of Protestant Missionaries. … The movement is big with hope.”25
As the story goes, the British and Foreign Bible Society (BFBS), encouraged
by the Taiping movement, decided to produce 1,000,000 copies of the New
Testament as rapidly as possible. Hearing about this, many British Christians
donated money. Soon they raised £52,368, which amounted to the sum of
money that BFBS spent in China in the following two decades.
Although at first Taiping Tianguo did aspire to build a Christian China,
it actually drifted away from its aspiration from the very beginning of the
uprising. As Taiping Tianguo constantly developed, Baishangdihui was
increasingly different from conventional Christianity in many aspects, such as
the basic doctrines, ethico-moral principles and interpretations of the Bible.
Finally, Taiping Tianguo decided to remold the existing Bible into its own True
Scripture. In doing so, Taiping Tianguo completely broke away from conven-
tional Christianity and became a heresy from the perspective of orthodoxy.
Speaking in terms of basic Christian doctrines, the most remarkable diffe-
rence existing between Taiping Tianguo and orthodox Christian Church
lay in the understanding of the Holy Trinity. At this point, compared with
Baishangdihui in its incipient stage, Taiping Tianguo was more distinct from
conventional Christianity. Unlike early Baishangdihui, which actually did
not know much about the alleged trichotomization of hypostasis of God,
Taiping Tianguo completely rejected such trichotomy and preferred a more
personified and more consanguine Shangdi. As for religious practice, early
Baishangdihui adopted the conventional Christian Church’s way in praise of
the Holy Trinity, extolling: “We praise Shangdi as the Holy Father of Heaven,
Yesu as the Holy Savior of the World, and Shengshenfeng (Pneuma/Spirit)
as the Holy Spirit. We do praise the True God of Trinity.”26 By then, Hong
himself made no attempt to explain Shengshenfeng in a farfetched way. But in
1853 Hong conferred serious titles such as Consoler, Master, Healer, and even
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
(1) Rattray’s Hausa version is identical with the Jamaican. The
Surinam story lacks the Dry-head ending. In the Madagascar and
Congo stories, the trick turns upon pretending that a spirit warns the
wife against poison if she partakes of her husband’s food. In Theal,
Kenkebe visits his father-in-law in time of famine, is feasted on an ox
and given bags of corn, which he conceals. Compare numbers 21c,
23, 24, 25, and 29.
(2) A Masai story (Hollis, 15) tells of two brothers who are given a
bullock to slaughter. They carry it to “a place where there was no
man or animal, or bird, or insect, or anything living,” and a devil puts
them to much inconvenience. The pursuit of Anansi by the shadow
of Death, in the Wona version of 27, has already been referred to in
the Dry-head episode. In Barker, 81–84, the stolen flour-producing
stone which Anansi is carrying off, sticks to his head and grinds him
to pieces, as referred to in the note to number 22.
In Theal, Kenkebe’s wife and son hide themselves behind the rock
which conceals his secret store, and push over a stone which
pursues him as far as his own house. [253]
In Barker, 66, the king gives to the greedy man a box so enchanted
that it can never be put down.
In Sac and Fox Indian tales, JAFL 15: 177, the monster-killing twins
bring home a rock which sticks upon their backs until they carry it to
its place again.
In the Ojibway Nanabushu cycle, Jones, Pub. Eth. Soc. 1: 117–127,

Nanabushu is cooking a deer. The branches of the tree creak and he
gets up to grease them and is caught and hung there. Meanwhile,
the wolves come and eat up the deer. He finally escapes, discovers
that the brains of the deer are still left in the deer-skull, transforms
himself into a snake and crawls into the head. Turning too quickly
back into human shape, he gets caught with the skull fast to his head
and has to carry it about with him until he manages to break it
against a rock.
(3) The regular Jamaica conclusion of the Dry-head episode seems

to be the Aesopic one in which a bird carries him in air and drops
him, not against a rock but, in Jekyll, “in the deepest part of the
woods;” in version (c), “in a sea-ball.” In another version not printed
here, Anansi takes in an old man because he has some food with
him; but when the food gives out, the man “become a Dry-head on
him,” and Anansi puts him off on Tacoomah, who leaves him by the
sea so that a wave comes up and drowns him. In version (a) Anansi
burns him up. Version (b) is a witticism in the same class as “Dry-
head and the Barber” in this collection.
In Pamela Smith’s version, Anansi shoots the bird who is doing him
the favor of carrying off Dry-head. See note to number 70 and
compare P. Smith, 59–64, in which Tiger, pursued by the “Nyams,”
begs one animal after another to hide him, but always lets his
presence be known. Finally, when Goat kills the “Nyams,” he eats
Goat with the “Nyams.”
In Dorsey, The Pawnee, 126, and Traditions of the Arikara, 146–148,

Coyote, pursued by a Rolling Stone, takes refuge with the Bull-bats
and is defended by them. In the Pawnee version, he later insults his
rescuers.
[Contents]
31. The Yam-hills. [Story]

The yam-hill story is very common in Jamaica. Parkes learned it in
Kingston. Pamela Smith tells it, page 59 and JAFL 9: 278.
Sometimes a song accompanies the story. The number of Yam-hills
varies.
Compare Cronise and Ward, 167–171; Parsons, Andros Island, 109.

[254]
The story depends upon the idea that it is unlucky to reveal to others
a marvel one has seen oneself, or to repeat certain taboo words. A
lad in the Santa Cruz mountains explained the taboo by saying that
Anansi had “six” legs. Another said that Anansi’s mother’s name was
“Six.” So in Pamela Smith (JAFL 9: 278), the Queen’s name is
“Five.” Compare Rivière, 177; Krug, JAFL 25: 120; Schwab, JAFL
32: 437, and the next two numbers in this collection.
[Contents]
32. The Law against Back-biting. [Story]
Parkes learned this story on board ship coming from Africa. It is

common in Jamaica, and the wit by which the revenge is effected
seems to be an individual invention, as it varies from story to story. In
Junod’s Ba-ronga version (156–158), Piti, the fool, amuses himself
by the roadside instead of going to herd cattle. Everyone who
reproaches him falls dead. Later he restores his victims to life by
means of fire.
[Contents]
33. Fling-a-mile. [Story]
Jekyll, 152–155, has a good version of this very popular Jamaica

story.
Compare the Bulu tales, Schwab, JAFL 27: 284–285; 32: 434.
In JAFL 27, Turtle sets a trap and by pretending to teach other

animals who come along one by one how to use it, he catches one
victim after another until he is himself caught.
In JAFL 32, Pangolin offers to initiate the animals one by one and
makes them climb a tree and jump upon a concealed rock, which
kills them. Turtle finally circumvents the trick.
In a Jamaica version collected in Mandeville, Anansi holds a

butchering at a place where there is a tree which seizes any person
who leans against it and flings him upon a lance which Anansi has
set up.
[Contents]
34. But-but and Anansi. [Story]
The very popular story of Butterfly’s revenge is a somewhat

obscured version of an old theme—the Jataka story of The Quail’s
Friends, Francis and Thomas, 247–250. Compare Steel-Temple,
Wide Awake Stories, 184; Gerber, Great Russian Animal Tales, Pub.
Mod. Lang. Asso. of Am. 6: No. 2: 19–20; Grimm 58, The Dog and
the Sparrow, discussed in Bolte u. Polívka 1: 515–519.
Though common to-day, the story seems to be of comparatively late

introduction. Old Edwards, over eighty, heard it when he was “ripe.”
Compare Tremearne, 231. [255]
[Contents]
35. Tumble-bug and Anansi. [Story]
The story of Tumble-bug’s revenge is even more common than the

last number. In Wona, 51–55, Tumble-bug is carrying butter and
Anansi only lard. Anansi proposes that they put their loads together,
sees that Tumble-bug’s is at the bottom, and makes the ruling in
order that he may get the butter and Tumble-bug the lard. Compare
number 46 and the opening episode of the last number.
The revenge story is recent. In Wona, Tumble-bug suffers further at

Anansi’s hands.
In Tremearne, FL 21: 213–214, Tortoise and Spider have a bull in

common; Tortoise eats the liver and Spider claims in compensation
the whole bull. Tortoise pretends dead and frightens Spider, who
thinks it is a spirit and gives him everything.
[Contents]
36. Horse and Anansi. [Story]
For the trick of sending after fire in order to enjoy the whole of a
common store compare Koelle, 166–167; Tremearne, 255, 263;
Hartt, 34; Harris, Friends, 79–80; Nights, 282–284; Christensen, 89;
Georgia, JAFL 32: 403.
For the trick of leaving the knife or the spoon behind, see number 11
in this collection.
For the fire-test see 21a and note to number 9.
It is clear, from the picture drawn of Horse as he starts for the Fire,
that the story-teller thinks of the actors in the story as animals, even
when he shows them behaving like human beings.
[Contents]
37. Anansi in Monkey Country. [Story]
Mrs. W. E. Wilson (Wona) thinks that the second version of the story,
told by Jekyll, 70–72, is not a true negro form, because of the great
respect in which Jamaica negroes hold the rites of the established
church.
Compare Cronise and Ward, 133–145; Fortier, 24–27.
As a device for getting victims cooked and eaten, the story is related
to numbers 16 and 38 in this collection.
[Contents]
38. Curing the Sick. [Story]
In Parkes’s version, the substitution of the human for the fish victim
not only spoils the wit of the story but obscures its relation to the
story of Anansi’s visit to fish-country as it appears in number 39. The
identity of the two is proved by the structure of the [256]story, which
falls into two parts. (1) Anansi, pretending to cure a sick relative, eats
her instead. (2) The mule offers to avenge her and plays dead
outside Anansi’s door; when he attempts to make use of her for food,
she drags him into the water and drowns him, as in number 6.
For (1) compare Cronise and Ward, 226–230, where Rabbit pretends
to cure Leopard’s children and eats them up; Nassau, 125–126,
where Tortoise pretends to bring children out of Crocodile’s hundred
eggs, and eats them all.
(2) In Parsons’s Portuguese negro story, JAFL 30: 231–235, Lob

escapes from the island where the indignant birds have abandoned
him, by bribing Horse-fish to carry him across. He promises to pay
her well, but abandons the horse-fish as soon as he touches shore.
She remains weeping on the shore. Lob thinks her dead and starts
to cut her up. She drags him into the sea and drowns him. There are
small touches in the story which prove its identity with the Jamaica
version. When Lob’s wife weeps, Lob says, “She is just playing with
me, she is not going to do anything.” In Parkes’s story, Anansi says
to the mule who is dragging him into the sea, “A little fun me mak wid
you, no mean i’.” In both Jamaica versions, Mule turns Anansi over
to the vengeance of the fishes; in the Portuguese, he is drowned.
In Jekyll, 135–137, an old lady meddles with a jar she has been told
not to touch and which, as soon as she gets her hand in, drags her
to the sea and drowns her.
In Jekyll, 125, “Cousin Sea-mahmy” makes his son Tarpon carry

Anansi to shore, and Anansi gets him into the pot by the trick of
taking turns weighing each other, as in number 16.
In Pamela Smith, 44–46, Anansi eats the sick mother under pretence
of cure, and bribes Dog to carry him across the river, but there is no
vengeance; Dog himself is swallowed by Crocodile.
[Contents]
39. Anansi, White-belly and Fish. [Story]
Jekyll, 129–131, and Milne-Home, 35–39, have excellent versions of

this very popular Jamaica story, which, in its full form, is made up of
four episodes. (1) The birds take Anansi across the water to their
feeding-place where, because of his bad behavior, they abandon
him. (2) Anansi visits Fish and claims relationship. Fish tests him
with a cup of hot pop, which he cools in the sun under pretence of
heating it hotter. (3) He is lodged for the night with a box of eggs, all
of which he eats but one; and when called upon to count the eggs,
brings Fish the same one every time, [257]after wiping off the mark.
(4) Fish sends her children to row him home. He fools them out of
heeding her call when she discovers the loss of the eggs. Once on
shore, he fries and eats the children.
Compare Tremearne, 265–266; Head-hunters, 324–326; Rattray, 2:

88–104; Parsons, Portuguese negroes, JAFL 30: 231–235; Andros
Island, 2–3.
(1) The episode of the birds’ feeding-place is to be compared with
that of Fire-fly and the egg-hunt, number 7, and with the visit “inside
the cow,” number 22. In the Portuguese version, the birds take Lob
to a dance and he sings insulting songs because there is no feast.
(2) The test of relationship occurs in Jekyll and in Tremearne, Head-

hunters. It belongs to the same class of boasts as those of the
Clever Tailor in Grimm 20 and 183.
(3) In Milne-Home, the scorpion trick is employed to guard the eggs,

as in number 7, and Anansi complains of “fleas” biting him. The
episode is lacking in Jekyll.
In Tremearne, Head-hunters, when Spider breaks the egg-shells, the

children cry out to know what is the matter and Spider says he is
hiccoughing.
The egg-counting trick generally occurs in a different connection.

The trickster visits Tiger’s house, eats all the cubs but one, and
counts that one many times. Compare Callaway, 24–27; MacDonald
1: 55–56; Theal 111; Jacottet, 40–45; Rattray, Chinyanje, 137–138;
Harris, Nights, 346–348.
(4) In Jekyll, Anansi visits “Sea-mahmy,” who is a mermaid, and her

son, “Trapong,” or tarpon, takes him home. In Milne-Home,
“Alligator” is host; a “boatman” the ferryman. Lob gets “aunt” sea-
horse to carry him to shore. In my Jamaica versions, the sons are
the ferrymen and are generally cooked and eaten at the other end.
The misinterpreted call occurs in all Jamaica versions and in
Tremearne, Head-hunters. In the Lob story, Lob mutters an insult;
when asked to repeat his words, he declares that he has merely
praised the sea-horse’s swimming; compare Parsons, Sea Islands,
54–56. For the fate of the ferryman, see also note to number 38 and
compare Anansi’s treatment of Rat in the note to number 7.
[Contents]
40. Goat’s Escape. [Story]
The story of Goat’s Escape is a favorite in Jamaica. See Milne-

Home, 58–60; 65–66. It falls into two parts. (1) Goat and Dog are
pursued and Dog escapes over a river which Goat cannot [258]cross.
(2) Goat transforms himself into a stone, which the pursuer himself
throws across the river. The introduction to the flight varies but (2)
remains constant.
Compare: Jacottet, note page 262; Parsons, Andros Island, 103 and
note; Jones, 121–123; 133–136.
Version (a). Compare Jones, and Milne-Home, 58–60.
Version (b). In Jekyll, 46–47, Puss gives the rats a ball and only
those members of the family escape who attend to little Rat’s
warning, for he has heard the cat’s song. Compare Chatelain, 189–
191, and see note to number 86, where the little brother or sister
discovers by the words of a song a treacherous intention.
[Contents]
41. Turtle’s Escape. [Story]
See number 58, part (3).

[Contents]
42. Fire and Anansi. [Story]
A less witty version of this popular Jamaica story occurs in Jekyll,

129–131.
In Dayrell, 64–65, Sun and Water are great friends. Sun visits Water,
but Water never visits Sun. At length, Sun invites Water and builds a
great compound to receive him and his friends. All come, take
possession, and crowd Sun and his wife, Moon, out into the sky.
[Contents]
43. Quit-quit and Anansi. [Story]
A story which turns upon teaching the wrong song to a dull-witted

rival, never fails to raise a laugh in Jamaica. See numbers 4, 106 in
this collection.
[Contents]
44. Spider Marries Monkey’s Daughter. [Story]
Compare Tremearne FL 21: 353–354 and number 92 of this

collection.
[Contents]
45. The Chain of Victims [Story]
Common as is the story of the “chain of victims” in Africa, Falconer

gave me the only version I heard in Jamaica.
Compare Koelle, 158–161; Dayrell, 6–10; Nassau, 245–247;

Tremearne, 373–374; FL 21: 211–212; Lenz, 39–40; Boas, JAFL 25:
207–209; Rattray, 2: 58–72.
[Contents]
46. Why Tumble-bug Rolls in the Dung. [Story]
Compare Tremearne, 261; FL 21: 498–499; Christensen, 96–98; and

note to number 35 in this collection. 1 [259]
[Contents]
47. Why John-crow has a Bald Head. [Story]
The explanatory story of “John-crow peel-head” is very popular in

Jamaica. See Pamela Smith, 25–26, and number 17d.
[Contents]
48. Why Dog is always Looking. [Story]
In Milne-Home, 121, “Jack Spaniard” (a wasp-like fly) laughs at

Mosquito’s boast till “he broke his waist in two.”
In Jones, 22, Sparrow makes the boast about his father’s crop of
potatoes. 2
[Contents]
49. Why Rocks at the River are covered with Moss.

[Story]
See Milne-Home, 94–95; Jekyll, 52.
Compare Parsons, Andros Island, 119–121 and note for references;

Bundy, JAFL 32: 412–413, and see note to number 138.
For a discussion of Grimm 110, The Jew among Thorns, see Bolte u.
Polívka 2: 490–503.
[Contents]
50. Why Ground-dove Complains. [Story]

See number 21.
[Contents]
51. Why Hog is always Grunting. [Story]
See number 10. In Pamela Smith’s “Dry-head” story, Anansi’s nose

turns long, and he goes about persuading other people to screw on
snouts.
[Contents]
52. Why Toad Croaks. [Story]
See note to number 29.
[Contents]
53. Why Woodpecker Bores Wood. [Story]
In Barker, 123, three sons wish to do honor to their mother and the
first declares that he will make her a “sepulchre of stone.”
[Contents]
54. Why Crab is afraid after Dark. [Story]
The story represents a very wide-spread folk motive—that of a weak

being who appeals to some deity for more power, but whose request
is proved to be either needless or disastrous.
In Tremearne, FL 21: 360, an old woman is to teach Spider cunning.

She sends him for a bottle of lion’s tears, an elephant’s tusk, a dog’s
skin. Spider secures them all, and escapes her when she tries to kill
him. She says, “If I taught you more cunning, you would destroy
everybody.” This story is popular in Sea Islands, according to Dr.
Parsons, JAFL 32: 404, and Sea Islands, 14–19. Compare Bundy,
JAFL 32: 416–417, and note, page 416. [260]
In Tremearne, 270–271, Snake promises Scorpion a poison that will

kill a man at once. Scorpion accidentally bites Snake, and she
refuses the poison lest he kill everybody.
In Fortier, 13–19, the Devil gives the little Earthworm his wish: “I
want to become big big and beat everybody who will come to trouble
and bother me. Give me only that and I shall be satisfied.” The
consequences are disastrous for the earth-worm.
In Folk-tales of the Malagasy, FLJ 1: 238–239, “the little Round Boy”

smokes out God’s children and so wins his desire.
In Ralston, 1–20, Sukra grants all an ambitious king’s wishes until he

finally wishes to push Sukra himself off his seat. See Grimm, 19, The
Fisherman’s Wife, Bolte u. Polívka 1: 138–148.
Compare the Panchatantra story quoted by Ralston, introduction to

Tibetan Tales, Liii, of the weaver who asks for two pairs of arms and
two heads in order to work faster, but is pelted by his terrified
neighbors for his pains.
[Contents]
55. Why Mice are no Bigger. [Story]
Compare Parsons, Sea Islands, 19–22.
[Contents]
56. Rat’s Wedding. [Story]
This story is told in Milne-Home, 63–64. 3
[Contents]
57. Cockroach Stories. [Story]
For version (a) compare number 6.
For version (b) compare Tremearne, 314; Parsons, Andros Island,

90–91 and note.
[Contents]
58. Hunter, Guinea-hen and Fish. [Story]
The story as Williams tells it is made up of three parts. (1) Bird and
Hunter set up the same home without either knowing of the other. (2)
Bird supplies Fish with wings and brings him to the feeding-patch,
then takes the wings and flies away when Hunter comes in pursuit.
(3) Fish is captured as the thief, but escapes by song and dance into
the sea.
(1) See Grimm 27, Bremen Town Musicians, Bolte u. Polívka, 1:

237–239. Compare Barker, 141–143; Tremearne, FL 21: 495; Renel
2: 12–13; Parsons, Andros Island, 135; Rattray, 2: 34.
(2) The episode is identical with Anansi and the Birds in number 39,
but motivated differently. See numbers 2b, 5b, 21b. In Bates’s
Jamaica version, JAFL 9: 122–124, Mudfish is left in [261]the
Watchman’s hands without the preliminary episode of the common
dwelling, and the escape is effected in the same manner.
(3) See number 41 and compare Renel 2: 165; Parsons, Andros

Island, 135–137 and references note 2, page 137.
[Contents]
59. Rabbit Stories. [Story]
These three and number 17b are the only Rabbit stories I heard in
Jamaica. A woman named Ellen told the stories to the lads from
whom I heard them, but she refused to be interviewed. See numbers
21a, 12, 23.
[Contents]
60. The Animal Race. [Story]
The wit of the animal race turns upon the fact that a slow animal,
contrary to all expectation, wins over a swift. The story takes three
forms. (1) The swift animal is so sure of winning that it delays and
“slow but sure wins the race.” (2) The little animal wins by hanging
on behind while the other runs, and thus slipping in ahead at the
end. (3) The slow animal arranges a relay by placing one of its kind
along the road and taking its own position in hiding near the goal.
See Dähnhardt 4: 46–96.
(1) The classic Aesopic moral appears in Parsons, Andros Island,

102–103; and in JAFL 30: 214.
(2) Compare Barker, 155–157; Madagascar, FLJ 2: 166–168;

Natchez Indians, Swanton, JAFL 26: 203; Saurière, 104; Lenz,
Estudios, 185, 187.
In Grimm 20 (Bolte u. Polívka 1: 148–165), while the giant bears the

trunk of the tree on his shoulders, the valiant tailor rides home from
the forest in the branches and pretends that he has been carrying
the heavier load of the two.
(3) The Jamaica stories always follow the form of the relay race, as
in Jekyll, 39–43. Compare Basset 1: 15; Bleek, 32; Frobenius 3: 15;
Rattray, Chinyanje 131; Renel 2: 150–152; Schwab, JAFL 27: 277;
Hartt, 7–15; Smith, 543; Christensen, 5–9; Jones, 5–6; Edwards, 69;
Harris, Uncle Remus, 87–91; Boas, JAFL 25: 214–215; Parsons,
Sea Islands, 79; JAFL 30: 174; 32: 394; and references to American
Indian stories in Boas, JAFL 25: 249; Ponape, Hambruch, Südsee-
Märchen, p. 196; note, p. 347.
The story is told in Grimm 187, discussed by Bolte u. Polívka 3: 339–

355.
For the flying-trial for a bride, compare Parsons, Andros Island, 101.
[Contents]
61. The Fasting Trial. [Story]
See number 149, where the bird in the tree starves and Hopping
[262]Dick on the ground picks up worms and wins the match. In this
story, though incomplete, it is intimated that the bird in the tree wins.
Compare Dayrell, 153–155; Harris, Nights, 370–373; Fortier, 34–37;

Parsons, Andros Island, 97—99.
In Dayrell, the birds propose to starve seven days to see which will
be king. One leaves a hole out of which he creeps unobserved to
feed.
In Harris, as in this Jamaica version, the winning bird takes up his

station in the tree; the “fool bud” stays down by the creek.
In Parsons, one bird chooses a fruit tree, the other a “dry” tree. The
song sung by the winning bird runs,—
“This day Monday mornin’
Tama tama tam!”
and so on for the remaining days of the week.
In Fortier, the lady-love brings food to her favorite bird. The cooing
song in the Jamaica versions suggests this connection.
[Contents]
62. Man is Stronger. [Story]
Compare Koelle 177–179; Harris, Nights, 33–38; 330–333; Radin,

JAFL 28: 397–398, and see Grimm 72, discussed by Bolte u. Polívka
2: 96–100, and Sebillot, Le Folk-lore de France, 3: 63.
[Contents]
63. The Pea that made a Fortune. [Story]
Compare: Bleek, 90–94; Callaway, 37–40; Theal, 102–105; Renel 2:

60–63; Rivière, 95–97; Tremearne, 237–242; FL 21: 213–214;
Barker, 177–180; Cronise and Ward, 313; Torrend, 169–172;
Elmslie, FL 3: 92–95; Krug, JAFL 25: 113–114; Harris, Friends, 182–
186, and see Grimm 83, Hans in Luck; Bolte u. Polívka 2: 201–203.

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The Indigenization of Christianity in

China I 1st Edition Qi Duan

The Indigenization of Christianity in China II 1st

The Power of the Supreme People s Court

When God Was a Bird Christianity Animism and the Re

The Care of the Brain in Early Christianity Jessica L.

Christianity Politics and the Afterlives of War in

Shortening the Distance Between Government and Public

Singapore Mandarin Grammar I China Perspectives 1st

The First Law of Cultivation: Qi = MC^2 Book One

As the first volume of a three-​volume set on the indigenization of Christianity

Qi Duan, Professor at the Institute of World Religions of Chinese Academy of

The China Perspectives series focuses on translating and publishing works

Titles in religion currently include:

The Indigenization of Christianity in China I

The Indigenization of Christianity in China II

The Indigenization of Christianity in China III

For more information, please visit www.routle​dge.com/​China-​Persp​ecti​ves/​

1 Initiating the gospel mission in China 1

2 In the name of God: The God-​Worshipping Society 13

3 Christianity in late nineteenth-​century China 49

4 The independence movement of the Chinese

5 Chinese Christianity in the May Fourth Movement 131

2.1 Tiantiaoshu and the Ten Commandments 24

[There are always two contradictions in the course of indigenizing

In sixteen years (1844–​1860), the London Mission Press published 171

ABCFM set up a printing house in Singapore and named it the Chinese

The objective of this institution shall be to establish and support schools

The Morrison School, thanks to the Society’s efforts, opened in 1839

The cultural exchange

The founding of Baishangdihui (The God-​Worshipping Society) might be the

Hong Xiuquan and the founding of Baishangdihui

Huangshangdi [“the Lord Above as Emperor”] is the father of all human

Differentiating himself from Confucius, Hong stressed that only when

Baishangdihui in its incipient stage

Kwangsi [Guangxi] society in the late 1840s was becoming rapidly

Whenever you worship Huangshangdi (the Lord Above as Emperor), you

Baishangdihui, drawing inspiration from the Christian delirious imagin-

Interpretations in such a form were readily acceptable among Chinese

Article Tiantiaoshu The Ten Commandments

1 Do worship Shangdi (Exodus 20:3) Thou shalt have no other gods

Note: *See: King James Bible, kingjamesbibleonline.org/​Exodus-​Chapter-​20/​.

Metamorphosis of Baishangdihui, an indigenized Chinese

In the Ojibway Nanabushu cycle, Jones, Pub. Eth. Soc. 1: 117–127,

(3) The regular Jamaica conclusion of the Dry-head episode seems

In Dorsey, The Pawnee, 126, and Traditions of the Arikara, 146–148,

31. The Yam-hills. [Story]

Compare Cronise and Ward, 167–171; Parsons, Andros Island, 109.

32. The Law against Back-biting. [Story]

Parkes learned this story on board ship coming from Africa. It is

33. Fling-a-mile. [Story]

Jekyll, 152–155, has a good version of this very popular Jamaica

In JAFL 27, Turtle sets a trap and by pretending to teach other

In a Jamaica version collected in Mandeville, Anansi holds a

34. But-but and Anansi. [Story]

The very popular story of Butterfly’s revenge is a somewhat

Though common to-day, the story seems to be of comparatively late

35. Tumble-bug and Anansi. [Story]

The story of Tumble-bug’s revenge is even more common than the

The revenge story is recent. In Wona, Tumble-bug suffers further at

In Tremearne, FL 21: 213–214, Tortoise and Spider have a bull in

For the fire-test see 21a and note to number 9.

37. Anansi in Monkey Country. [Story]

As the first volume of a three-volume set on the indigenization of Christianity

For more information, please visit www.routledge.com/China-Perspectives/

1 Initiating the gospel mission in China 1

2 In the name of God: The God-Worshipping Society 13

3 Christianity in late nineteenth-century China 49

5 Chinese Christianity in the May Fourth Movement 131

2.1 Tiantiaoshu and the Ten Commandments 24

In sixteen years (1844–1860), the London Mission Press published 171

The founding of Baishangdihui (The God-Worshipping Society) might be the

Note: *See: King James Bible, kingjamesbibleonline.org/Exodus-Chapter-20/.