The Catholic Church in China from 1860 to 1907

Front matter

i' r

,*1

■r

PART I The Chaos of Creeds

CHAP.

I. Not Concentration but Diffusion . . . i

II. From Confucius to Confusion . . .13

III. “Unum in Christo” ..... 27

IV. The Translation of Holy Scripture . . 42

V. The Circulation of Christian Literature . 55

VI. “ THINKEST thou THAT THOU UNDERSTANDEST WHAT

THOU READEST?” . . . . • 68

VII. The Bible and the Chinese . . • - ^9

VIII. Marriage and the Missionary . . .108

PART II China and the Christian Nations

I. The Education of China .... 133

II. China: The Land of Promise. . . . iS4

III. The Influence and Example of the European . 179

IV. The Open Door (Christian Version) . . 206

V. “Experientia Docet” . . • • .224

VI. A Chinese Opinion on the Christian Religion . 240

VI 1. China and Christian Missions . • .249

xxiii xxiv CONTENTS

PART III Catholic Missions

CHAP.

I. The Missionary at Work

II. The Catholic Missionary at Home ,

III. Catholic Missions from another Point of View

IV. Orphanages .....

V. The Litigation Question

VI. Education and Science — Nuns

VII. Various Matters. Conclusion

TABLE

A. Statistics of Catholic Missions in China by

Vicariates .......

B. Summary of Personnel of Catholic Missions in

THE Far East ••....

C. Number of Chinese Catholics in each Province

of the Empire, and in Tibet . . . .

Z>. Number of Chinese Catholics in each Mission, Increase in a year, and Number of Catechumens. The Same in Korea and Japan

E. General Summary of Catholic Missions in China,

F. Statistics of Protestant Missions in China, 1905 .

Bibliography— Authorities on China and Missions

Index .....

PAOE

The object of the following pages is to give some account of the Missionary work of the Catholic Church in China from about i860 to 1907 as seen by observers both clerical and lay — for the most part non-Catholic — as nearly as possible in their own words, and with as little comment as possible.

The work itself was suggested by the fact that, in this country, very little is known on the subject, even among Catholics themselves, except that China is included in the general scheme of missionary operations of the Church.

The peculiar method — verbatim quotation of un¬ official non- ecclesiastical) writers — has been em¬

ployed because there is very little official information immediately available in England. Catholic mission¬ aries do not as a rule publish books on their work, possibly because they have other matters demanding their more immediate attention. Principally, however, because had such Catholic material as does exist been utilised, it might have been suspect to many a non- Catholic reader who often, and no doubt sincerely, believes that Roman Catholics are taught to represent their Church and Her doings in any form that is likely to attract, quite irrespective of fact. This method has only been departed from in the case of the Table of Results at the end of the book. For obvious reasons these statistics could not possibly be obtained elsewhere, and yet appeared to be essential, if it were not to seem that the Holy Catholic Church has poured forth labour and

XXV

XXVI sacrificed lives in the “ Middle Kingdom ” in vain. The information just referred to has been obtained in every instance from China, and in most cases has been supplied for the purpose of this book by the condescen¬ sion of the Right Reverend Vicars-Apostolic in charge of the Missions.

On the other hand, during the last forty years an ever-increasing number of persons, clerical and lay, have traversed the country, not a feAv of whom have put on paper at least something of what they saw of the Catholic missionary and his doings. Often the refer¬ ence is of the slightest, but, in the aggregate it amounts to a very considerable volume of testimony.

While it is not uncommon for the casual traveller who has thus placed his experiences on record to be somewhat contemptuously dismissed as “a mere globe¬ trotter,” it must be admitted that, though such an one may not have resided in the country, he is at least a competent witness to what he saw and heard while he was there. When such individuals proceed to instruct the world as to the correct method of dealing with Chinese questions, then perhaps, their utterances are of less value ; but the examination of a very large number of works shows this to be the exception rather than the rule.

But the evidence available is not limited to the obiter dicta of travellers. Numerous Protestant missionaries have published works of more or less value on China ; while much information is to be found in Diplomatic Correspondence, Consular Reports, and newspapers issued in England and China.

Consequently, in these days when the acquisition of Mining Rights is so very much in evidence in the Far East, it appeared to be regrettable that such a mine of valuable material should remain unworked — the only mineral remaining perhaps, for the exhumation of which the Peking Administration has not been “requested” to grant a concession to a European Syndicate.

XXVll

Such being- the sources of the present work, it is hardly surprising that the amount of information on the various points is very unequal, and sometimes very meagre. Especially will this be found in regard to details of Catholic education, hospitals, etc. But this arises from the very nature of those sources, i.e., non- Catholic works. From the tabulated statement at the end it is quite evident that such good works are under¬ taken, and on a large scale. Yet, though the various authors must have seen them in operation very little has been said — be the reason what it may. How¬ ever, for the reason given above, it has been pre¬ ferred to leave the matter chiefly in the form of cold and unappetising statistics at the end, rather than to fill the void with accounts obtained from the Catholic missionaries.

The object and scope of the book being thus accounted for, it may be explained that before giving any information concerning the Catholic missions it appeared necessary to consider two difficulties which militate not only against the work of the Catholic Church, but also against the establishment of Chris¬ tianity itself. The first is a matter of universal concern throughout the world, and consists in the bewildering variety of forms under which the Christian religion is presented to the heathen by the multiplicity of agencies employed in so doing. Concerning this division into sects in China we are assured by the late Mr Alexander Michie : “That it is a great evil can hardly be doubted. Whenever Chinese converts obtain a hearing on the subject they speak with no ambiguity of the immense loss of force which Christianity sustains through these divisions ; ” ^ and not unnaturally, since, according to the same gentleman : Excepting at the

seaports, and in the case of the disciplined and regi¬ mented Catholics, the missionaries who are spread over China do pretty much what they individually like, and ^ Missionaries in China, iSgij Alexander Michie, p. 52-

XXVUl give such accounts of their work as they think sufficient.” ^

On the general question, Professor Gustav Warneck remarks “ Gladdening, as, on the one hand, is the great number of this missionary host. . . on the other hand, it signifies an amount of division which works alike to confusion and weakness. It is a fatal watch¬ word which, since a short time ago has been given forth, especially in America, by rhetorical enthusiasts,

‘ Not concentration but diffusion,’ for it leads to a kind oi franc-tireur mission work. . . . Towards this multiplication of missionary organisations, manifold causes have contributed, besides the strengthening of the sense of missionary duty — confessional peculiarities, denominational loyalty, new theological tendencies and ecclesiastical formations, differences as to missionary methods, personal eagerness to found missions, occur¬ rences in colonial politics, etc.” Further we learn on the same authority that “ women’s missionary societies have in the latter half of our century been formed in ever increasing number.” Hence the Professor con¬ cludes that: “It may be regretted that there is not a greater unity in the organisation of evangelical mis¬ sionary work, such as in the Romish. The great variety of form characterising the Protestant Church, and the tendency to freedom characterising Protestant¬ ism assert themselves even in its missions. The dark sides are undeniable : friction between the missionaries of various denominations, stumbling-blocks to the heathen, and difficulties in the subsequent formation of native national Christian Churches. Albeit in the diversity there is also considerable gain. For not only has the profusion of missionary societies at home multiplied interest in missions, but also in this way a great variety of individual, national, and denominational gifts and powers has come to be employed in the mis¬ sion field. And notwithstanding much unseemly

XXIX rivalry, the common missionary work has fostered the ‘ecumenical,’ conception within Protestantism, as e.g;., the many missionary conferences attest. . . . Instead of founding new missionary societies, the endeavour should much rather be towards the union of missionary societies. . . We have diffusion more than enough. If it is carried still further upon principle, it must ulti¬ mately lead to the breaking up of evangelical missions into atoms.” ^

The second difficulty appears in the action of the European nations in regard to China. Authorities agree that the Chinese are tolerant of religion as such. This view gains support from the fact that, previous to the legal admission of foreigners into the interior of the country by treaty, the Catholic missionaries resided there secretly yet safely — which they could only have done by the connivance of those in whose midst they dwelt — with only occasional intervals of official per¬ secution.

It would seem, however, that during the last forty years or so, missionaries have been the objects of much unpopularity. It is not a little remarkable too, that the rise and progress of this unfriendly spirit should have coincided with the inception and development of that phase of European activity known as the “opening-up of China.”

This feeling is ascribed by one writer to the mis¬ understanding, or mismanagement in the delivery, of their message, on the part of the missionaries. ^ But authorities more generally seem to concur in the opinion that the objection to Christianity — and therefore to its exponents, the missionaries — is, or was, not so much on account of itself as because it is foreign. Some, indeed, attempt to limit the antagonism to the Catholic missionaries alone ; and ascribe it to the assumption by France of the Protectorate of Catholic missions.

1 Outline of a History of Protestant Missions, 1901, Professor Gustav Warneck, pp. 85-6, 105, I43'4'

XXX

While it may doubtless be true that this and other causes affecting the Catholic missions may have played their part, the contention that the missionaries of the Church of Rome are alone of all Europeans regarded with aversion by the Chinese is not borne out by facts. These go to show that in the various outbreaks which have unhappily taken place, Protestant missionaries and other foreigners — including innocent children — have been equally the objects of attack, e.g., the Anti-foreign Riots of 1891, and the Siege of the Legations in Peking in 1900.

Wherefore the explanation must be sought in a wider sphere than that of missionary operations of any sort. And it would seem to be found in the very remarkable experiences of the Chinese at the hands of the European nations. These do not seem to have produced in the Chinese mind a very favourable impression of that Christianity which those Western nations profess, and by the principles of which they loudly proclaim — or some of them — themselves to be guided. Nor is it alone on the Chinese in his native land that this un¬ favourable impression has been made. Among the higher classes instances are not unknown of those educated in Europe who have returned home more hostile than ever to the introduction of the Western religions — any of them^ — into the Flowery Land. The lower orders as well have had their lesson in practical Christianity abroad. The Chinese labourer or small tradesman has in most cases been returned without thanks by every country where he had ventured to set his foot. From a political and economical stand¬ point such inhospitality may possibly be capable of defence, but from that of justice the Celestial may perhaps be excused when he fails to receive the European as a man and a brother, who in the West received him as the “ Heathen Chinee ” — and made haste to eject him.

On all these accounts, therefore, the relations between

XXXI

Europe and China, far from forming a mere “ regrettable incident” in the annals of Christian missions, assume a special importance of their own, and require considera¬ tion at some length.

A few general asseverations concerning the Catholic Church in China can best be dealt with here.

I. That the Catholic Church in China is French. It is true that very many of the Catholic missionaries are of that nationality ; but they are in China not as Frenchmen but as sons of the Church Universal, as they would be the first to admit. It is one of the glories of the French nation that hardly any instance of missions to the heathen in any age or clime can be quoted in which France has not been abundantly represented ; and one which, it may confidently be hoped, will bring the divine blessing on her despite the present religious perversity of her rulers. There is no heathen country the soil of which is not dyed with French blood, and the Story of the Cross of Christ throughout the world is punctuated, so to speak, by the graves of Frenchmen martyred for their Faith. Not a few of these Frenchmen, it may be noted, are Belgians, Danes, Germans, Spaniards, and we know of one case at least of an Englishman, thus giving conclusive proof that their work is not merely national.

It does sound a little curious that we in England should be chanting hymns of praise at the shrine of an Entente Cordiale with the very nation whose citizen¬ ship we make a matter of reproach in China. It can only be surmised that the Entente Cordiale in England, like anti-clericalism in France, nest pas tm article d' exportation.

Moreover, if England and America are not repre¬ sented in the Catholic missions in China, it is only because the Holy See has not chosen to send English-speaking communities to labour there ; and this, in turn, may be due to the fact that the countries referred to have, in the state of Catholicity which has prevailed

XXXll since the Reformation, had quite enough to do in providing for the work at home. From this cause, at the present day, many British Colonies and Depend¬ encies are entirely dependent on the apostolic zeal of other European nations, whose priests not only thus have to encounter the apathy of the heathen, but the not-always-veiled anti-foreign prejudices of the very citizens to whose aid they have come in their endeavours to bring Western civilisation and education to the natives. And, if England and America by voluntary severance from Catholic Unity have deprived them¬ selves of their proper share in the apostolic work of the Universal Church, whose fault is that? It has been plausibly alleged that, had England remained constant to the Faith which was for so many centuries her own, there would not now be a pagan altar in the world.

2. That these French missionaries — exiled from home by their own voluntary act, never to return thither — are still devoted to their native land, and introduce French customs into China.

This comes strangely from Englishmen and Ameri¬ cans — among the latter of whom originated the maxim, “My country, right or wrong!” — and both of whom elevate patriotism to the rank of a cardinal virtue. In England, too, one of the standard objections to the Catholic Church is that She is a foreign institution ruled from a foreign country by a foreign head ; conveniently oblivious of the fact that the Jesus Christ, whom all Christians worship as their Lord and Master, was also a foreigner and lived and died in a foreign land.

So the Englishman must be an Englishman whereever he goes, but the Catholic missionary must entirely denationalise himself I F urther, we applaud the English missionary as a pioneer of commerce when he introduces British commodities into China ; ^ and when we learn

XXXlll that : “ In my last year at Chang-sha the first Athletic Meeting on European lines, for military and civil students, was held in presence of the Governor;”^ or that at Seoul, in Korea, there is a “ Royal English School, with a hundred students in uniform, regularly drilled by a British sergeant of Marines, and crazy about football,”^ and so on, we find all things as they should be; but it is obviously insufferable that a foreigner should presume to think that the customs or products of his native land might be desirable elsewhere !

With regard to England and her missions the case is, of course, wholly different, as we learn on the authority of the late Bishop of Durham. In a sermon in St Bride’s Church, London (29th April 1895), his Lordship instructed his congregation that: — “This perception of a divine plan in the movements of human life brings home to us a fact of momentous interest. In this plan of God we have a definite place. . . . Our works are ready ; and what these are can be seen from our position and endowments. For if as Englishmen, as English Churchmen, we consider our national character, our history, our necessary influence, our possessions, we cannot fail to acknowledge that we are called as no other people have been called, to missionary labour.”® And again, 28th May 1894, in St Paul’s Cathedral: — “God has set us to be not only conquerors, or pioneers, or masters, or furnishers of the materials of outward civilisation, but, beyond all, evangelists. The call is written in our history.”^ Further: “The destiny of China,” says Rev. James Johnston, “is committed by a Higher Power as a

^ The Chinese E7npire, 1907, in section written by Mr A. H. Harris, A.C.C., Changsha, p. 188.

2 Korea and Her Neighbours, 1898, Mrs J. F. Bishop, F.R.G.S., vol. ii., p. 208.

3 The Christian Aspects of Life, 1901, Rt. Rev. B. F. Westcott,

C

XXXIV sacred deposit to the keeping of Great Britain — the Power which first broke down the wall of exclusiveness behind which the people had lived for untold ages in contented security and comparative comfort. I would earnestly appeal to the consciences of my fellow-countrymen to deal justly with a people whose future is in their hands ; to their heart that they may act generously towards a nation which we have injured while benefiting ourselves ; to their imagination that they may be tender in their treatment of an empire so ancient and so venerable, and withal afflicted with not a few of the excusable infirmities of age, but still possessed of great recuperative power.” ^ Further¬ more, Mr Pierson, who thinks “ God’s ways are strange, but they always are ‘right,’ and lead often by a circuitous route to the ‘City of Habitation,”’^ lets us know that “ He who kept back the great inventions of Reformation times until His Church put on her new garments waited to unveil nature’s deeper secrets, which should make all men neighbours, until the re¬ formed Church was mobilised as an army of conquest !”® It would be well if the following reminder conveyed in the generous language of Sir Ernest Satow to a meeting in the Albert Hall, London, were of more general acceptance. “There are two or three points wnich, it appears to me, should always be borne in mind by our missionaries. Firstly, it ought not to be forgotten that the Roman Catholic missions were the first in the field. We are celebrating the Centenary of the landing of Robert Morrison in China. But French Roman Catholics landed on its shores in 1582, more than three centuries ago. Since that day the Roman Catholics in China have endured many persecutions ; many of their missionaries and hundreds of their converts have suffered death for the Faith. If, some-

' China and Its Future^ 1899, James Johnston, pp. viii-ix.

The Modern Missionary Century^ 1901, Arthur T. Pierson, p. 186.

XXXV times, they regard us as later intruders on ground which they had made their own, should we not bear with them patiently ? I rejoice to believe that, in most parts of China the relations between Protestant and Roman Catholic missionaries are of a friendly character, and that disputes are comparatively rare. In any case toleration of others seems to be peculiarly our duty.”^

3. The Catholic Church is asserted to possess vast estates in China. Hence, converts are inferred to be attracted by temporal advantages attaching thereto.

That the Roman Catholic Church owns some property in China after three centuries’ work there, is undoubted, and only to be expected — though what the extent of it may be it is impossible to say. But it is singular, that, if She is so bitterly hated as some of her critics would have us believe, these vast estates (the precise whereabouts of which is nowhere described) should have remained intact — miraculously as would seem — throughout the various anti-foreign riots, and still be available as a source of revenue.

Equally singular does it appear, that, with the command of vast estates, the Catholic missionaries should, by universal consent, be described as living very hard lives on the scantiest of stipends ; and also that most of the forty Vicars-Apostolic throughout the Empire should be in dire need of funds to carry on the work of their missions at this moment — as several of their Lordships have admitted to the present writer.

More singular still is the fact — vouched for by sundry observers — that Chinese converts are required to contribute towards the support of their Church. Consequently, if they are converted by bribery, and practically have to refund the amount when they become so, it does not appear that their financial condition is much improved by the process.

Again, it is sometimes stated that Catholic orphanages are overcrowded, and the hospital equipments are not ^ The Times, ist Nov. 1907.

XXXVl up to modern European standards. This is quite likely, and goes to contradict the suggestion of un¬ limited resources. And unfortunately the Catholic missionaries have not wealthy societies behind them in Europe or America. This must not be understood in depreciation of the magnificent works of charity undertaken by others. Indeed the Catholic mission¬ aries themselves have reaped the benefit of them on occasions, e.g"., a French missionary informed the present writer (25th June 1907), in writing of mission¬ aries, that i)lusieurs de la Classe Mddicale ont plus dlune fois, et viennent encore de sauver la vie a quelques uns de nos meilleurs ouvriers avec un d^vouement dig ne de tout dloge.”

4. The Catholic missionaries are said to work in secret and by underhand means. Yet it is complained that they appear in the Law Courts to help their converts, and terrorise the magistrates ; while till quite recently every missionary throughout the Empire held official Chinese rank of some degree.^

5. Once more, the Catholic missionaries are censured for courting popularity by over-attention to the mundane interests of the converted. On the other hand, there are not wanting those who blame them for allowing their converts to “go along in their old ruts,” desiring only that they be good Catholics.

6. While the Catholic missionaries are said to be unscrupulous and to put their doctrines in any form that is likely to please, it is a matter of reproach that the Church proclaims in China (as elsewhere through¬ out the world) the doctrine of the “ Real Presence,” and also “introduces the Confessional” there — the last not exactly a matter to attract.

7. That conversion to Catholicity is easy — the Catholic religion being idolatrous, those joining themselves to it “only exchange one idol for another ” — but no one seems able to explain why they do so.

XXXVll

8. Catholic converts are not unfrequently referred to as “merely nominal Christians.” Many thousands of them^ — and those in recent years — have been sufficiently nominal to die for their Faith, sometimes after horrible tortures. Protestant witnesses attest this ; and the Catholic Church — always ready, in the eyes of those who know Her not, to agree to un¬ hallowed compromises — asks no more of Her children than willing martyrdom. Many others no doubt have been less satisfactory in their lives, a defect which they share with a few so-called Christians outside the Church — even some Europeans at the Treaty Ports.

9. The Roman Catholic Church in China will unite with none, share with none, nor will She submit to any. And this is true, for She was sent to teach all nations, China among the number.

Chapter I

Of all the countries whose conversion to Christianity has been the object of missionary effort since the year i860, none has figured more largely than China. Societies with that end in view, either inclusively or exclusively, have multiplied ; and private individuals have devoted their lives and their substance to her spiritual regeneration in constantly increasing numbers. Money, even the approximate amount of which will never be known, has been poured out like water by benevolent persons in Europe and America, to sustain the missionaries, and supply them with material to carry on their operations. Bibles, tracts, books of Christian instruction, all purporting to be in Chinese, have been lavished on the people, and the tale of their pages must, by now, be well into the hundreds of millions. Thus, for over forty years — to say nothing of the period antecedent to i860 — the Chinese have been preached to, exhorted, or otherwise instructed concerning the Christian Faith, till it would seem that localities where, at least, the fame thereof has not penetrated, must be difficult to find.

Yet the goal of so much effort, the Conversion of China, seems as far off as ever, and has even been said to be impossible of attainment.

What is to be understood by this last statement ? Is it to be supposed that Jesus Christ, in giving the

command to His Apostles, for themselves and their

A successors! — '‘Going therefore teach ye all nations, ^ deliberately assigned to them a task which- — as far as China is concerned— He knew to be beyond their power to accomplish? Or, may it not be, as seems much more probable, that the methods and conditions of missionary labour have so altered, that the Christianis¬ ing of China will be so indefinitely delayed as to amount to an impossibility, not merely during our own genera¬ tion, but for many of those to come ?

This view seems to be sustained by even the briefest and most general comparison of the “Missionary Question” as it appeared in China in the year i860, and for centuries previous thereto, with the same problem as it presents itself to-day.

In the first case, the Cross of Christ was introduced to the Chinese, as far as the interior of the country was concerned, by the agents of one organisation only, the Roman Catholic Church. These, as befitted men who asserted themselves to come in pursuance of a divine precept to teach, were officially connected with none of the governments of the West ; from whom they neither desired nor received countenance or protection. Working in the somewhat fitful sunshine of the Imperial favour while it lasted, they were neverthe¬ less perfectly prepared to face the horrors of the torture-chamber and the execution-ground when it was withdrawn. They came to China — as indeed they still go — for their lifetime; and, adopting the national costume and habits, they lived among and for their people, thus identifying themselves with them as far as was humanly possible. Moreover, they had the courage to carry into effect their Master’s Instruc¬ tions to missionaries, viz., “ Do not possess gold, nor silver, nor money in your purses,”^ by living in apostolic poverty and simplicity ; while their entire devotion to their missionary labours was further assisted by observance of St Paul’s monition: — “He

1 Matt, xxviii. 19. 2 Matt. x. 9.

that is without a wife is solicitous for the things that belong to the Lord, how he may please God.”^ Finally, and more important than all, these Catholic missionaries, without exception, taught one uniform doctrine, administered the same sacraments, and submitted to one Authority; thus they were a perpetual example of that Unity they preached, and which Christ desired when He prayed “that they may be one, as we also are.”^

The result generally was thus described in 1872 by H.M. Consul in Shanghai: — “Their devotion is as remarkable as their success has been astonishing, and I am one of those who believe that they have been the means of accomplishing, and still do accomplish, a vast amount of good. . . . Wherever a Romanist missionary station is found in a town or village, it is sure to be a nucleus of a more or less extended circle of Christian families, in many of which the faith has been handed down from generation to generation, and I have often been struck by the quiet and respectability which prevails among such communities, as compared to the heathen around them, as also by the respect and attachment shown by them towards their ‘spiritual fathers,’ as the priests are usually termed.”^