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Protestant Christianity (基督教新教 ''Jīdūjiào xīnjiào''; literally "New-Christianity", in comparison to earlier Roman Catholicism and Eastern Christianity) entered China in the early 19th century, taking root in a significant way during the Qing Dynasty. Some historians consider the Taiping Rebellion to have been influenced by Protestant teachings.〔Dr. G. Wright Doyle (2010). ''(How Dangerous are Chinese House Churches )''. A review of "Redeemed by Fire: The Rise of Popular Christianity in Modern China", a book of Lian Xi. Yale University Press, 2010. ISBN 978.0-300-12339-5.〕 Since the mid-20th century, there has been an increase in the number of Christian practitioners in China. According to a survey published in 2010 there are approximately 40 million Protestants in China.〔2010 Chinese Spiritual Life Survey conducted by Dr. Yang Fenggang, Purdue University’s Center on Religion and Chinese Society. Statistics published in: Katharina Wenzel-Teuber, David Strait. ''(People’s Republic of China: Religions and Churches Statistical Overview 2011 )''. Religions & Christianity in Today's China, Vol. II, 2012, No. 3, pp. 29-54, ISSN: 2192-9289.〕 Much of this growth has occurred in informal networks referred to as "house churches," the proliferation of which began in the 1950s when many Chinese Catholics and Protestants began to reject state-controlled structures purported to represent them.〔Goossaert, Vincent and David A. Palmer. ''The Religious Question in Modern China.'' Chicago: The University of Chicago Press (2011), pp. 380-387.〕 Members of such groups are now said to represent the "silent majority" of Chinese Christians and represent many diverse theological traditions.〔Hunter, Alan and Kim-Kwong Chan. ''Protestantism in Contemporary China.'' Cambridge: Cambridge University Press (1993), p. 178.〕 ==Early history== (詳細はProtestant Christianity did not arrive in China until Robert Morrison of the London Missionary Society began work in 1807 at Macau. Under the "fundamental laws" of China, one section is titled "Wizards, Witches, and all Superstitions, prohibited." The Jiaqing Emperor in 1814 A.D. added a sixth clause in this section with reference to Christianity. It was modified in 1821 and printed in 1826 by the Daoguang Emperor. It sentenced Europeans to death for spreading Christianity among Han Chinese and Manchus. Christians who would not repent their conversion were sent to Muslim cities in Xinjiang, to be given as slaves to Muslim leaders and beys.
Some hoped that the Chinese government would discriminate between Protestantism and Catholicism, since the law was directed at Catholicism, but after Protestant missionaries in 1835-6 gave Christian books to Chinese, the Daoguang Emperor demanded to know who were the "traitorous natives in "Canton who had supplied them with books." The foreign missionaries were strangled or expelled by the Chinese. In 1860 Protestant missions were confined to five coastal cities. By the end of the century, Western powers had forced the government to allow missionaries into the interior. During the second half of the century, increased numbers of missionaries entered the country. Scores of new missionary societies had been organized in the United States after the American Civil War and participation increased from Great Britain as well. Several thousand missionaries were working in all parts of China. The 1859 Awakening in Britain and the example of J. Hudson Taylor (1832–1905) were influential. By 1865 when Taylor's China Inland Mission began, 30 different Protestant groups were working in China.〔Spence (1991), p. 206〕 The diversity of denominations represented did not equate to more missionaries on the field. In the seven provinces in which Protestant missionaries had already been working, there were an estimated 204 million people with only 91 workers, while there were eleven other provinces in inland China with a population estimated at 197 million, for whom absolutely nothing had been attempted.〔Taylor (1865),〕 Besides the London Missionary Society, and the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, there were missionaries affiliated with Baptists, Southern Baptists, Presbyterians, Methodists, Episcopalians, and Wesleyans. Most missionaries came from England, the United States, Sweden, France, Germany, Switzerland, or the Netherlands.〔 In addition to the publication and distribution of Christian literature and Bibles, the Protestant Christian missionary movement in China furthered the dispersion of knowledge with other printed works of history and science. As the missionaries went to work among the Chinese, they established and developed schools and introduced the latest techniques in medicine.〔 The mission schools were viewed with some suspicion by the traditional Chinese teachers, but they differed from the norm by offering a basic education to poor Chinese, both boys and girls, who had no hope of learning at a school before the days of the Chinese Republic.〔Spence (1991), p. 208〕 The ''Chinese Recorder and Missionary Journal'', founded in Shanghai in 1869, was a prominent outlet for reporting on the mission enterprise and for controversy and discussion. 〔 "Introduction," Kathleen Lodwick. ''The Chinese Recorder Index: A Guide to Christian Missions in Asia, 1867-1941.'' (Wilmington, Delaware: Scholarly Resources, 1986). 2 vols.〕 The 1800s witnessed the expansion of Christianity beyond the isolated areas of the Treaty Ports by thousands of new missionaries who entered the interior of China. Western missionaries spread Christianity rapidly through the foreign-occupied coastal cities; the Taiping Rebellion was connected in its origins to the missionary activity. British and American denominations, such as the British Methodist Church, continued to send missionaries until they were prevented from doing so following the establishment of the People's Republic of China. Protestant missionaries played a significant role in introducing knowledge of China to the United States and the United States to China. Protestant Christians in China established the first clinics and hospitals,〔Gulick, (1975) pp. 561-562〕 provided the first training for nurses, opened the first modern schools, worked to abolish practices such as foot binding,〔Burgess, (1957) pp. 47〕 and improve treatment of maids. They launched charitable work and distributed food to the poor. They also opposed the opium trade〔Austin, (2007)〕 and brought treatment to many who were addicted. Some of the early leaders of the Chinese Republic, such as Sun Yat-sen, were converts to Christianity and were influenced by its teachings.〔Soong, (1997) p. 151-178〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Protestantism in China」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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