Home Is Where The Heart Dwells

The Origin of Popular Calumnies of Christianity in China

Arthur H. Smith: China in Convulsion, vol. 1, page 78, Fleming H. Revell Company (1901).

At the Missionary Conference held at Shanghai in the spring of 1890, the Rev. Timothy Richard called attention t the recent republication of a collection of documents on Chinese state questions, in 120 books, originally published in 1826, to which a supplement was added of the same number of books in 1888. These were in the catalogue of works for sale in the government bookshops, and consisted of various important memorials which had been presented to high officials, or to the Throne, and also of essays upon topics of public importance, edited with numerous comments and sundry additions, the whole forming a unique and important collection. Mr. Richard styled them the “Blue-books of China,” a somewhat inaccurate and misleading term, since it might give rise to the supposition that the papers are official reports, which is not the case. Two books of the supplement are devoted to the subject of Christian missions, and outline of which is given by Mr. Richard in all the popular calumnies of Christianity—the tales about scooping out the eyes of converts who had previously been bewitched, the miscellaneous associations of men and women in the churches, the bad character of the French priests, and much which it is impossible to put into print. The account of Christian doctrines was merely a parody, comprising fragments of Brahmanism, Buddhism, Mohammedanism, and the teaching of the Secret Sects of China. The practical object f the documents appeared in an appended account of anti-foreign risings in two hostile provinces, where the opposition was organized by an ex-provincial judge and by a Hanlin, who called on the gentry to stamp out the vile doctrines of Christianity from among them.