宣敎師、中國人信者と淸末華南鄕村社会

Abstract

After the Opium War, various Western Christian missionary groups sent vast numbers of missionaries into various regions throughout China. In the approximately one hundred year period immediately preceding and following the establishment of the New China, the missionaries left us a plethora of written letters and reports. It may be surmised that among these works are many that contain valuable information about the regions, but it would be difficult to argue that they have been suffciently considered as historical sources. This is due to the fact that they were written in various Western languages, but also that many were written in a cursive hand that is very difficult for Asian scholars to decipher. This article focuses on the Presbyterian Church of England, and in employing the letters of its missionaries examines both the social conditions in Chaozhou and Shantou and the problems within the church. The following points have been gleaned from the letters of the missionaries. Many of the converts at the time lived in poverty. Regional society could be classified into "the strong" and "the weak, " whom were continually oppressed by "the strong, " and the judgments of local magistrates were unfair. Additionally, around 1870 regional society was in tumult, and social unrest had increased. In a society replete with oppression, injustice, and instability, the foreign missionaries not only offered actual social protection but also preached the doctrine of righteousness and brotherly love. It is only natural that the oppressed would be attracted to the church and seek its protection. However, the people's view of the church was a far cry from the faith of the English Presbyterians. The missionaries felt it selfevident that the purity of the faith must be the first priority. They repeatedly criticized those people who clung to the church for worldly advantage. In this manner, the missionaries' position was fundamentally grounded in faith, while the Chinese converts were profoundly prescribed by the character of their own society, resulting in a nearly irreconcilable antagonism springing up within the church.