Protestant Christianity (Chinese:基督敎新敎;pinyin:Jīdūjiào xīnjiào;lit. 'New teachings ofChristianity', in comparison to earlierRoman Catholicism) enteredChina in the early 19th century, taking root in a significant way during theQing dynasty. Some historians consider theTaiping Rebellion to have been influenced byProtestant teachings.[1] 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.[2] As of 2019, Fenggang Yang, a sociologist of religion at Purdue University, estimated that there are around 100 million Protestant Christians in China.[3] Other estimates place the number of Protestant Christians at around 40–60 million[4]
Much of this growth has occurred in informal networks referred to ashouse 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.[5] Members of such groups are now said to represent the "silent majority" of Chinese Christians and represent many diverse theological traditions.[6]
Protestant Christianity did not arrive in China untilRobert Morrison of theLondon Missionary Society began work in 1807 atMacau.
Under the "fundamental laws" of China, one section is titled "Wizards, Witches, and all Superstitions, prohibited." TheJiaqing Emperor in 1814 AD added a sixth clause in this section with reference to Christianity. It was modified in 1821 and printed in 1826 by theDaoguang 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 andbeys.[7]
The clause stated: "People of the Western Ocean, [Europeans or Portuguese,] should they propagate in the country the religion of heaven's Lord, [name given to Christianity by the Catholics,] or clandestinely print books, or collect congregations to be preached to, and thereby deceive many people, or should any Tartars [Manchus] or Chinese, in their turn, propagate the doctrines and clandestinely give names, (as in baptism,) inflaming and misleading many, if proved by authentic testimony, the head or leader shall be sentenced to immediate death by strangulations : he who propagates the religion, inflaming and deceiving the people, if the number be not large, and no names be given, shall be sentenced to strangulation after a period of imprisonment. Those who are merely hearers or followers of the doctrine, if they will not repent and recant, shall be transported to the Mohammedan cities (in Turkistan) and given to be slaves to the beys and other powerful Mohammedans who are able to coerce them. . . . All civil and military officers who may fail to detect Europeans clandestinely residing in the country within their jurisdiction, and propagating their religion, thereby deceiving the multitude, shall be delivered over to the Supreme Board and be subjected to a court of inquiry."
Some hoped that the Chinese government would discriminate between Protestantism and Catholicism, since the law was directed at Catholicism, but after Protestant missionaries in 1835–36 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.[8]
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 theUnited States after theAmerican Civil War and participation increased from Great Britain as well. Several thousand missionaries were working in all parts of China. The 1859Awakening inBritain and the example ofJ. Hudson Taylor (1832–1905) were influential.
By 1865 when Taylor'sChina Inland Mission began, 30 different Protestant groups were working in China.[9] 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.[10] Besides the London Missionary Society, and theAmerican Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, there were missionaries affiliated withBaptists,Southern Baptists,Presbyterians,Methodists,Episcopalians, andWesleyans. Most missionaries came fromEngland, the United States,Sweden,France,Germany,Switzerland, or theNetherlands.[9]
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.[9] 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 theChinese Republic.[11]
TheChinese Recorder and Missionary Journal, founded in Shanghai in 1869, was a prominent outlet for reporting on the mission enterprise and for controversy and discussion.[12]
The 1800s witnessed the expansion of Christianity beyond the isolated areas of theTreaty Ports by thousands of new missionaries who entered the interior of China. Westernmissionaries spread Christianity rapidly through the foreign-occupied coastal cities; theTaiping Rebellion was connected in its origins to the missionary activity.British and American denominations, such as theBritish Methodist Church, continued to send missionaries until they were prevented from doing so following the establishment of thePeople'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,[13] provided the first training for nurses, opened the first modern schools, worked to abolish practices such asfoot binding,[14] and improve treatment of maids. They launched charitable work and distributed food to the poor. They also opposed theopium trade[15] and brought treatment to many who were addicted. Some of the early leaders of theChinese Republic, such asSun Yat-sen, were converts to Christianity and were influenced by its teachings.[16]
Beginning in 1978, Deng Xiaoping relaxed policies on the Protestant churches.[17]: 174 In the 1980s, the number of Protestants in rural China increased rapidly.[17]: 174 The number of urban Protestants increased rapidly in the 1990s.[17]: 174
The ProtestantThree-Self Patriotic Movement andChina Christian Council have affiliations with government and follow the regulations imposed upon them. Three-Self Patriotic Movement by 2005 claimed to have 10–15 million worshippers, while the total number of Protestants, including unofficialhouse churches is calculated to be of 30 million members.[2]
Beginning in 2013, the government began a campaign of suppression targeting large Protestant and Catholic churches with steeples and crosses.[18] 2018 was marked by demolition of an Evangelical church boasting 50,000 members inLinfen,Shanxi.[19] In October 2025, the Chinese government arrested dozens ofZion Church members in Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, and other cities.[20]
TheChinese Union Version of the Bible, theChinese New Hymnal, theLord's Prayer as it is written in the Chinese Union Version and theApostles' Creed are usually used by most Protestant worshipers in present-day China.
The hymnalCanaan Hymns is one of the most successful underground Christian publications in China.[21] In addition to house churches, it is used inThree-Self Patriotic Movement churches.[22]
Starting in the early 19th century, many translation of theBible into Chinese were made by Protestants, Catholics and Orthodox Christians. An early translation was made by Britishmissionary andlinguistRobert Morrison (1782–1834). More than 300 million copies of the Bible inChinese have been published and disseminated since 1823 with active participation of theProtestantmissionaries from 1807 to 1953.[23]
Outside of the state-sanctionedThree-Self Church (三自教會), whose doctrines are in line withmainline Protestantism and have pro-government stances, what is intended as "Protestantism" (Jīdūjiào xīnjiào) in China. There are various dissident churches outside of the Three-Self Church. They primarily operate[1] in the form of the so-called "family churches" (家庭教會), "underground churches" (地下教會) or "underground heavens" (地下天國), small worship groups in family homes. These have generally been called "house churches" by Western Christian media. Family church networks are especially present in the provinces ofZhejiang andHenan. They have missionaries in other provinces and even abroad to neighboring states, such asTaiwan.[24]
There also includes a variety ofcults based on theBible teachings, such asEastern Lightning,Mentuhui,Beili Wang,The Shouters, theTotal Scope Church, theFangcheng Fellowship, theChina Gospel Fellowship and theMeeting Hall.[1] Many of these less mainstream groups have been labeled "heterodox teachings" (邪教;xiéjiào) and are suppressed by Chinese legal authorities.
Shangdi (literally "Highest Emperor") is the term used more commonly by Protestants to translate "God". The Catholic Church historically favoredTianzhu (literally "Lord of Heaven"), hence the Chinese name for Catholicism:Tianzhujiao.
mohammedan slaves to beys.
foreigners strangled or expelled.
Golden Lampstand Church
This article incorporates text fromLife among the Chinese: with characteristic sketches and incidents of missionary operations and prospects in China, by Robert Samuel Maclay, a publication from 1861, now in thepublic domain in the United States.{{cite book}}:ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)| Major religions in China |  | |
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