基督教传播

基督教传播

基督教于635年开始传入中国，当时被中国人称为景教，经两百余年的广泛传播后，一度被封建统治者禁止。元朝时期，基督教（景教和罗马公教）再次传入中国，但随着元朝灭亡又转入沉寂。直到16世纪，葡萄牙传教士开始进入中国传教。明代末期，意大利籍传教士罗明坚（Michele Ruggieri）、利玛窦（Matteo Ricci）来华传教，定居广东。利玛窦等人与以徐光启、李之藻等人为代表的儒家文人和士大夫广泛结交，借助中国儒家经典对天主教进行再阐释， 为不同文化之间的对话提供了有益契机，天主教由此在中国获得广泛传播。1807年，英国伦敦教会派遣马礼逊来华传教，他翻译并刻印了第一部完整的汉语版《圣经》，发展了华人传教士并将美国传教士引入中国，推动了基督新教在中国沿海地区传播。

基督教在中国的传播，不仅引介了西方宗教、人文思想、科学技术，还推动“东学西渐”，为18世纪启蒙运动提供丰富思想资源，推进了人类文明发展进程。

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.