"Following the prohibition of missionary activity after 1724, China's Christians were effectively cut off from all foreign theological guidance. The ensuing isolation forced China's Christian communities to become self-reliant in perpetuating the basic principles of their faith. Left to their own devices, the missionary seed developed into a panoply of indigenous traditions, with Christian ancestry as the common denominator. Christianity thus underwent the same process of inculturation as previous religious traditions in China, such as Buddhism and Judaism. As the guardian of orthodox morality, the prosecuting state sought to exercise all-pervading control over popular thoughts and social functions. This study therefore presents the campaigns against Christians during this period as part and parcel of the campaign against 'heresy' and 'heretical' movements in general." -- Publisher description.

Defining the research parameters -- Aims and structure -- Our sources : a word of caution -- Geography -- Through inculturation to Chinese Christianity -- Accommodation and inculturation -- Japan's 'hidden Christians' -- The evolution of Chinese Christianity -- Christian missions and popular religious culture -- The philosophical background -- Christianity and the Manchurian elite -- Late imperial Christianity : popular cult or alien creed? -- Filial sons and a world of demons -- Ancestral tablets and auspicious inscriptions -- Interaction with other movements -- Peasant millenarianism and Christian theology -- Guilt, sin, universal harmony -- Healing and black magic -- Death and afterlife -- Materialism and superstition : attitudes towards religious discipline -- Matrimony and filial duty -- Inherited identity in Christian villages -- Itinerant Christians, private religious practice, and the interest of the state -- A protective father : official perceptions of Christianity and government action against sectarian movements -- The philosophical basis for anti-heresy campaigns -- The Confucian order and the importance of family ties -- State-sanctioned orthodoxy and 'heresy' -- Christianity as target : a chronology of state action -- The Yongzheng Edict of 1724 -- The Qianlong and Jiaqing reigns (1736-1821) -- The Adeodato Affair and the persecution of 1805 -- The persecution of 1811 and its aftermath -- Relaxation of anti-Christian state action during the Daoguang period -- The perplexed official : Christianity as heterodox mystery -- The official description of heresy -- 'Heretical' writings -- Christianity as internal menace -- Between social control and official paranoia -- Poverty and persecution -- The state versus Christian 'heresy' -- Christianity as alien intrusion -- Conclusion : Chinese Christianity and the fear of 'heresy'.

Expressions of Chinese christianity in texts and contexts : in memory of our mentor professor R G. Tiedemann (1941-2019) / Edited by: Laamann, Lars Peter; Lee, Joseph Tse-Hei [Li Xiexi 李榭熙]

The resilience of Chinese Christianity, characterized by diverse expressions of faith and practice, has garnered increasing scholarly attention as both a socio-cultural phenomenon and a field of study. This reprint presents innovative historical and social-scientific research on the transformations that have occurred within Chinese Christian movements. The contributors explore intra- and inter-church exchanges across Sino-Western linguistic, socio-cultural, and political boundaries, highlighting the trans-local networks that shaped Chinese Christianity. These articles argue that Chinese Christian expressions evolved either in analogy to or in resistance against Western missionary efforts, and in response to decades of socio-political upheaval that profoundly influenced Chinese churches and believers throughout the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries. All twelve articles explore the reciprocal nature of Sino-Christian encounters, highlighting linguistic innovations in knowledge exchange, Chinese Christians' engagement with nationalism, and the consolidation of Cantonese and Wenzhou Protestant identities. These findings reveal the broader spectrum of Catholic and Protestant experiences in modern China. This reprint invites esteemed researchers to engage with novel source materials and examine the dynamics of Chinese Christianity within changing historical, socio-cultural, and transnational contexts. -- editor's note 

TABLE OF CONTENTS

About the Editors .............................................. vii
Preface ......................................................... ix

Lars Laamann and Joseph Tse-Hei Lee
Editorial for Special Issue “Expressions of Chinese Christianity in Texts and Contexts:
In Memory of Our Mentor, Professor R. G. Tiedemann (1941–2019)”
Reprinted from: Religions 2025, 16, 561
https://doi.org/10.3390/rel16050561 ........................................ 1

Shin Kataoka and Yin Ping Lee
Linguistic Contributions of Protestant Missionaries in South China:
An Overview of Cantonese Religious and Pedagogical Publications (1828–1939)
Reprinted from: Religions 2024, 15, 751
https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15060751 ........................................ 5

Sixing Chen
Making Knowledge in the Local Settings: Vernacular Education and Cantonese Elementary Textbooks
Reprinted from: Religions 2024, 15, 299
https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15030299 ........................................ 23

Man Kong Wong
An Encounter between Christian Medical Missions and Chinese Medicine in Modern History:
The Case of Benjamin Hobson
Reprinted from: Religions 2024, 15, 583
https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15050583 ........................................ 35

Haiyan Zhu and Xiao Lin
Communism and the Rise of the Anti-Christian Movement in Republican China
Reprinted from: Religions 2025, 16, 228
https://doi.org/10.3390/rel16020228 ........................................ 45

Silje Dragsund Aase
Competing Loyalties in a Contested Space: The Lutheran Middle School in Hunan Province (1907–1914)
Reprinted from: Religions 2024, 15, 589
https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15050589 ........................................ 62

Zhiyuan Pan
Inculturation at Home: The Belgian Catholic Project for Chinese Students (1920–1930s)
Reprinted from: Religions 2024, 15, 327
https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15030327 ........................................ 76

Junhui Qin
Neither Eastern nor Western: Jia Yuming’s Support of Independent Churches in the Anti-Christian Movement
Reprinted from: Religions 2024, 15, 743
https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15060743 ........................................ 91

Peter Kwok-Fai Law
A Caged Bird in a Communist Pavilion: Chao Tzu-chen and the Remolding of
Yenching University’s School of Religion (1949–1951)
Reprinted from: Religions 2024, 15, 898
https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15080898 ........................................ 103

Christina Wai-Yin Wong
Contingent Companion with the Cantonese: Uncovering a Hidden History of Written Cantonese
Christian Literature in the Late Nineteenth Century
Reprinted from: Religions 2024, 15, 758
https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15070758 ........................................ 122

Shin Fung Hung
From Singing “Out-of-Tone” to Creating Contextualized Cantonese Contemporary Worship Songs:
Hong Kong in the Decentralization of Chinese Christianity
Reprinted from: Religions 2024, 15, 648
https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15060648 ........................................ 132

Yi Yang
Accommodation and Compromise in the Contact Zone: Christianity and Chinese Culture in Modern Hong Kong Literature
Reprinted from: Religions 2024, 15, 629
https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15050629 ........................................ 146

Nanlai Cao and Lijun Lin
Contextualizing Transnational Chinese Christianity: A Relational Approach
Reprinted from: Religions 2024, 15, 510
https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15040510 ........................................ 158