Spread of Christianity

Christianity spread to China in 635, where it was called Jingjiao (the Luminous Religion) by Chinese people. It swept across the country for over two hundred years before being banned by imperial rulers. During the Yuan Dynasty, Christianity (Jingjiao and Catholicism) was brought back to China but fell into oblivion after the Yuan Dynasty was overthrown. Such obscurity carried over until the 16th century when Portuguese missionaries arrived to preach in China. Towards the end of the Ming Dynasty, Italian missionaries Michele Ruggieri and Matteo Ricci settled in Guangdong to evangelize there. Ricci and his fellow evangelists hobnobbed with Confucian scholars and government officials represented by Xu Guangqi and Li Zhizao. They adapted interpretations of Catholicism to Confucianism, which created conduits for dialogue between the two cultures. Thus began a sweeping propagation of Catholicism in China. In 1807, Robert Morrison was sent by the London Missionary Society to preach in China. He was the first to translate and print the entire Bible in the Chinese language, convert Chinese people into missionaries, and bring in missionaries from the United States of America. His work facilitated the spread of Protestantism in the coastal areas of China.

The spread of Christianity not only brought Western religious beliefs, cultures, philosophy, science, and technology, but also kindled the "Westward Spread of Eastern Learning," fueling the Enlightenment in the 18th century with complementary Eastern wisdom and helping advance human civilization.

基督教傳播

基督教于635年開始傳入中國，當時被中國人稱為景教，經兩百余年的廣泛傳播后，一度被封建統治者禁止。元朝時期，基督教（景教和羅馬公教）再次傳入中國，但隨著元朝滅亡又轉入沉寂。直到16世紀，葡萄牙傳教士開始進入中國傳教。明代末期，意大利籍傳教士羅明堅（Michele Ruggieri）、利瑪竇（Matteo Ricci）來華傳教，定居廣東。利瑪竇等人與以徐光啟、李之藻等人為代表的儒家文人和士大夫廣泛結交，借助中國儒家經典對天主教進行再闡釋， 為不同文化之間的對話提供了有益契機，天主教由此在中國獲得廣泛傳播。1807年，英國倫敦教會派遣馬禮遜來華傳教，他翻譯并刻印了第一部完整的漢語版《圣經》，發展了華人傳教士并將美國傳教士引入中國，推動了基督新教在中國沿海地區傳播。

基督教在中國的傳播，不僅引介了西方宗教、人文思想、科學技術，還推動“東學西漸”，為18世紀啟蒙運動提供豐富思想資源，推進了人類文明發展進程。