This dissertation attempts to understand and probe the Chen Yuan’s study of religions from the perspectives of his historical research, his cultural concern and their relationship with his Christian Faith. In order to explore the Characteristic in Chen Yuan’s study of religions, the author also compared his research with some modern approaches of western religious studies, especially compared with Phenomenology of religion.

Through the study on archives of London Missionary Society, and on related words of his friends, the author confirmed the Christian identity of Chen Yuan. The author attempted also to narrate his active roles in the Christian indigenous movement, and demonstrate how his faith was expressed in his religious works.

Because of his personal interest in historical studies, the historical approach became his main approach in Chen Yuan’s study of religions, and because of his Christian faith, he started in working with the history of Chinese Christianity. Later his research field was expanded to different religions. It was proved that history of religions is a basic part of religious studies whether in western or in eastern academia. And Chen Yuan was one of the earliest Chinese historians of religion who attempted systematic research on history of religions in China.

Chen Yuan’s research on religion had been greatly influenced by his Cultural concern. There were three distinctive ways of expressions in his cultural concern: In his Christian studies, it was reflected on his attempt of indigenization of Christianity in China: Christianity should be seen as a part in the history of Chinese Culture; In his studies of ancient religions, he argued for the assimilation of Chinese Culture to different foreign religions; and in his Buddhist and Daoism studies, he analyzed that religions could save and develop culture, and emphasized the life-force of Chinese Culture. All the three cultural concerns and their different expressions on the relationship between religions and Chinese Culture were responses to the social context. We should take into fully consideration on cultural concern when analyzing his study of religions.

Christian faith is also a key factor in analyzing Chen Yuan’s study of religion. In Christian studies, his Christian faith has allowed him to take up both an insider’s and an outsider’s view and even to be critical in attempting research on Christianity; Again, in the study of ancient religions, his Christian faith has allowed him to adopt more sympathy towards ancient religions, and he could treat other religions “equally” and “sympathetically”; And in Buddhist and Daoism studies, his personal religious experience had again given him a open mind and to respect other religions. In a word, the Christian faith adopted by Chen Yuan did not impede, on the contrary, it exerted more positive influences to his study of religions.

Comparing with the various dimensions of the phenomenology of religion, we can get an even better view regarding his approach on study of religions: His approach was mainly descriptive, historical and comparative; He treated religions equally, objectively, sympathetically, no matter it was his own faith, or other people’s faiths; Chen Yuan did not have the intention of developing an autonomous discipline of the study of religion, but he managed to establish the autonomy of “historical study of religion” as a branch of the discipline of history in China. Chen Yuan has also somehow started the study of “history of religions” as a branch of the discipline of religious studies in China, which he might not have the clear intention to do. -- [Abstract]

Global entanglements of a man who never traveled : a seventeenth-century Chinese Christian and his conflicted worlds / Dominic Sachsenmaier.
Includes bibliographical references and index.

Introduction: situating Zhu Zongyuan -- A local life and its global contexts -- A globalizing organization and Chinese Christian life -- A teaching shaped by constraints -- Of foreign learnings and Confucian ways -- European origins on trial -- Epilogue: the global standing of a man who never traveled.

Born into a low-level literati family in the port city of Ningbo, the seventeenth-century Chinese Christian convert Zhu Zongyuan likely never left his home province. Yet Zhu nonetheless led a remarkably globally connected life. His relations with the outside world, ranging from scholarly activities to involvement with globalizing Catholicism, put him in contact with a complex and contradictory set of foreign and domestic forces. In Global Entanglements of a Man Who Never Traveled, Dominic Sachsenmaier explores the mid-seventeenth-century world and the worldwide flows of ideas through the lens of Zhu's life, combining the local, regional, and global. Taking particular aspects of Zhu's multiple belongings as a starting point, Sachsenmaier analyzes the contexts that framed his worlds as he balanced a local life and his border-crossing faith. At the local level, the book pays attention to the intellectual, political, and social environments of late Ming and early Qing society, including Confucian learning and the Manchu conquest, questioning the role of ethnic and religious identities. At the global level, it considers how individuals like Zhu were situated within the history of organizations and power structures such as the Catholic Church and early modern empires amid larger transformations and encounters. A strikingly original work, this book is a major contribution to East Asian, transnational, and global history, with important implications for historical approaches and methodologies.

Local access dig.pdf. [Sachsenmaier-Global entanglements.pdf]
Also accessible online at JSTOR via Gleeson Library.

References:
Backer-Sommervogel II, column 1563, no. 8
Lust, J. Western books on China, 805
Cordier, H. Bibliotheca Sinica 2. éd., Vol. 2, Sp. 832
Copyright: Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin - Preußischer Kulturbesitz
Local access dig.pdf. [Couplet-Dame Chretienne Candide Hiu.pdf]
Online at Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin.

Contents: In preparation -- Being refined -- Back home -- Serving the Lord.

Back jacket: " At the age of 72, and after years of teaching, Julia Duan left China and returned to student life at Whitworth College, Spokane, Washington, and later at Moody Bible Institute. Her story was discovered by Linda Hunt, a writing professor at Whitworth, when she read Julia's description of her first night in the labor camp. Touched by this chapter in Julia's life, Linda sugggested she write her entire story. She prayed and ultimately agreed to let her life "be a spectacle to the world for God's glory." Since journals were not allowed in the labor camp, Julia set about writing her story from memory, first in English and then in Chinese. She squeezed writing time in between classes, studies, speaking engagements, and work. During the last four years, Julia has been an ambassador for the believers of China participating in conferences for Chinese Christians in various cities. Her stories challenged and inspired these believers, most of whom converted to Christ after coming to America."

Introduction / Carol Lee Hamrin and Stacey Bieler -- Rong Hong: visionary for a new China / Stacey Bieler -- Tang Guo'an: pioneering China's rights recovery movement / Carol Lee Hamrin -- Shi Meiyu: an "army of women" in medicine / Connie Shemo -- Fan Zimei: between tradition and modernity / Fuk-Tsang Ying -- Ding Shujing: the YWCA pathway for China's "new women" / Elizabeth A. Littell-Lamb -- Mei Yiqi: university president in wartime / Stacey Bieler -- Lin Qiaozhi: the steady pulse of a quiet faith / Guowei Wright -- Wei Zhuomin: bridging national culture and world values / Peter Tze Ming Ng -- Wu Yifang: abundant life in training women for service / Mary Jo Waelchli -- Yan Yangchu: reformer with a heart for the village / Stacey Bieler.

Rong Hong (Yung Wing) 容閎 – Tang Guo'an (Tong Kwoh On) 唐國安 – Tang Jiechen (Tong Kai-son) 唐介臣 – Shi Meiyu (Mary Stone) 石美玉 – Fan Zimei (T.M. Fan, Fan Yi) 范子美 (范禕) – Ding Shujing (Ting Shu Ching) 丁淑靜 – Mei Yiqi (Yi Chi Mei) 梅貽綺 – Lin Qiaozhi (Lim Kah T'i) 林巧稚 – Wei Zhuomin (Francis Wei) 韋卓民 – Wu Yifang 吳貽芳 – Yan Yangchu (Y.C. James Yen) 晏陽初.

Local access dig.pdf. [Standaert-Yang Tingyun.pdf]

Zhonghua xundao xianlie zhuan 中華殉道先烈傳 / zhubian Liu Yusheng 主編劉宇聲 ; zhixing bianji Ye Weimin 執行编輯葉衛民.

Errata slip inserted.
Includes bibliographical references (page 366).
Rev. 3rd ed. 民國78 [1989].