At the frontier of God's empire : a missionary odyssey in modern China / Ji Li.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 217-229) and index.

Manchuria: migration and Christianity -- Letters and conversations -- The missionary -- The village -- The battlefield -- The church -- The bandits -- Conclusion: the murder and the imperial legacy.

"Manchuria, or northeast China, is strategically located at the intersection of four major powers in Northeast Asia: China, Russia, Japan, and Korea. Its inhabitants include Chinese, Russians, Japanese, Koreans, Manchus, Mongolians of various ethnicities, and other indigenous populations. The Manchus conquered China proper in 1644 and founded China's last imperial dynasty, the Qing. In the two hundred years that followed, the Manchu rulers established a multiethnic and multicultural empire. However, as the homeland of the Manchus, Manchuria became emblematic of "the Manchu Way," and from the seventeenth century onward, the Qing government enforced strict but fluctuating policies to prevent the migration of Han Chinese to Manchuria. The restrictions lasted until the mid-nineteenth century, when the Qing began to loosen its prohibition on immigration to Manchuria amid challenges posed by domestic crises and the expansion of Western imperialism. In 1858, Niuzhuang (Newchwang), a small town on the upper reaches of the Liao River in the Liaodong Peninsula, became the first treaty port open to the West on China's northeast frontier following the Treaty of Tianjin, signed after the Second Opium War. A few years later, in 1864, a British customs office was established there. The British chose this small river town in southern Manchuria to open up the market of northeast China and spearhead its strategic interests in the region, particularly in response to the regional imperial competition between Russia and Japan. But before the Anglo-Japanese Alliance of 1902, British policy in Manchuria was weak and indecisive"-- Provided by publisher.

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God's little daughters : Catholic women in nineteenth-century Manchuria / Ji Li.
Outgrowth of the author's thesis (Ph. D.--University of Michigan, 2009) under title: Becoming faithful : Christianity, literacy, and female consciousness in Northeast China, 1830-1930.
Includes bibliographical references and index.

Preface : Discovering the Du letters -- Acknowledgments -- Christianity, gender, and literacy in Northeast China -- Religion, women, and writing in rural China -- Religious knowledge and behavior -- Establishing faith in local society -- Institutionalization and indigenization -- Faith, gender, and a new female literacy in modern China -- Epilogue : Meeting the Du descendants -- Appendix : MEP missionaries and indigenous priests.

Local access dig.pdf. [Li Ji-God's little daughters.pdf]

The Manchu language Biblical translations by Louis Antoine de Poirot, SJ (1735–1813) : the Jesuit mission to the Manchus in the context of Qing imperial culture / Weimar, Gregor Marius

Available online through

SOAS University of London Research Repository

Abstract:

This thesis examines the editing and annotations of Louis Antoine de Poirot’s Manchu language translations of Biblical texts, produced in Qing China towards the end of his life (1735-1813). It addresses two central questions: Why did Poirot translate the historical books of the Bible into Manchu in this particular way at this time, and who was his target audience?

Our research demonstrates that Poirot’s work represents a unique and revolutionary endeavour in China’s Catholic missionary history. As the last Jesuit missionary in Beijing, Poirot created a carefully selected corpus of Biblical texts designated specifically for an elite Manchu readership – Catholic converts educated in Confucian values and Chinese literature. These texts were intended to enable this community to maintain their faith beyond the anticipated absence of Catholic clergy, giving readers unprecedented agency in catechetical instruction.

The thesis is structured into three parts. Part 1 establishes the historical context by examining five key actors: the central authority of the Catholic Church through the Propaganda Fide, the Jesuit mission strategy of “accommodation”, the Confucian Qing state with its increasingly restrictive policies towards Christianity, Poirot himself as translator and court official, and the resilient Manchu Catholic elite who formed his target audience. This analysis reveals that Poirot operated against explicit prohibitions from both the Catholic Church, which sought to prevent unauthorized translations and interpretations, and the Qing state, which forbade Christian instruction of Manchu subjects. Part 2 outlines Poirot's editorial approach and his extensive use of annotations, demonstrating his exceptional Manchu language abilities and his strategic choices. Part 3 provides detailed case studies proving these claims through structural and textual analysis.

Our research shows how Poirot accommodated his texts to a Confucian-educated elite by a variety of strategies: by emphasizing the importance of historical books and genealogies in order to argue for Christianity's legitimate lineage; by using traditional Chinese literary devices such as explicit and concise prefaces (daxu 大序 and xiaoxu 小序); and by incorporating comprehensive annotations with catechetical characteristics, including question-and-answer structures, direct exhortations to readers and encyclopaedic explanations of unfamiliar concepts.

The analysis demonstrates that Poirot's texts were deliberately crafted to appear legitimate within Confucian orthodoxy while simultaneously serving as comprehensive catechetical material. His annotations to texts like the Acts of the Apostles and the Lord's Prayer reveal clear instructional purposes, while his use of vertical lines and detailed explanations made foreign Biblical content accessible to Qing readers. Poirot's pastoral zeal to save souls proved stronger than legal prohibitions, as he prepared these Manchu elite converts to serve as future catechists capable of ministering to their community.

The present thesis provides the first comprehensive historical analysis of how these texts were presented, identifying their intended audience and practical application, thus illuminating a remarkable example of missionary accommodation and religious resilience in Qing China.