China and the Christian Impact: A Conflict of Cultures

By Jacques Gernet

Book Overview

Jacques Gernet's invigorating book turns the tables on traditional approaches to the history of Christianity in China, presenting a coherent analysis of the impact of Christianity in the seventeenth century from the Chinese point of view. The aim is to reveal what the Chinese said and wrote about the Jesuit missionaries and to ask a profound general question: to what extent do the reactions of the Chinese at the time of their first contacts with the 'doctrine of the Master of Heaven' reveal fundamental differences between Western and Chinese conceptions of the world? For the missionaries themselves, the Chinese were men like any other, but corrupted by superstition and unfortunate enough to have remained in ignorance of the Revelations. Professor Gernet shows, the missionaries, just like the Chinese literary elite, were the unconscious bearers of a whole civilisation. The problems they encountered were generated by different languages and logic and by very different visions of the world and of man.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0521313198
• ISBN13: 9780521313193
• Release Date: November 1985
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Length: 316 Pages
• Weight: 1.30 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 6.3" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

Fascinating record of prejudice and real humanity combined

Gerant is a master of Chinese history, and here he shows his capacity to juggle the perspectives of Chinese and European civilizations into a far richer picture. The history of interaction between Christianity and Chinese culture is surprising eventful, with influence flowing strongly in both directions. There is a lot of violence (for example the semi-Christian Taiping rebellion that burned down half of China), and also a good deal of mutual help. In one of my favorite passages, Gerant describes Jesuit missionary Matteo Ricci (1552-1610) preaching his faith to the Chinese court at a time when religious war was tearing Europe apart. But Ricci describes the political effect of Christianity as he felt sure it should be: "... on the whole and so far as one can see -- for I should not dare to exaggerate -- ever since 1,600 years ago, when our countries became Christian, in more than thirty kingdoms which adjoin one another, over more than 10,000 square li, there has not been a single change of dynasty, not a war, not the slightest dispute." (p. 110.) -author of Correcting Jesus