New and Enlarged Access to the History of Christianity in China

66 Journal of Chinese Religions New and Enlarged Access to the History of Christianity in China ROMAN MALEK Institute Monumenta Serica The research on the history of Christianity in China—thriving in the last thirty years— recently received new source and reference tools that enlarge our access to the history of this “foreign” religion in China significantly. Besides the Handbook of Christianity in China, Volume One: 635–1800, edited by Nicolas Standaert already ten years ago,1 new collections of Chinese Christian texts,2 and the Chinese Christian Texts Database,3 not under review here, we have now three further publications which will facilitate scholarly research on Christianity in China and Sino-Western cultural relations: Christianity in China: A Scholars’ Guide to Resources in the Libraries and Archives of the United States, Second Edition Edited by XIAOXIN WU. Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe, 2009. lxi, 797 pages. ISBN 978-1-56324-337-0. US$249.95, hardcover. 1 Leiden: Brill, 2001. 2 These collections are: (1) Yesuhui Luoma dang’anguan Ming Qing Tianzhujiao wenxian 耶穌會 羅馬檔案館明清天主教文獻 Chinese Christian Texts from the Roman Archives of the Society of Jesus [CCT ARSI]. Ed. by Nicolas Standaert and Adrian Dudink. 12 vols. (Taibei: Ricci Institute, 2002); (2) Xujiahui cangshulou Ming Qing Tianzhujiao wenxian 徐家匯藏書樓明清天主教文獻 Chinese Christian Texts from the Zikawei Library [CCT Zikawei]. Ed. by Nicolas Standaert, Adrian Dudink, Huang Yi-Long, and Chu Ping-Yi (Taibei: Fujen Catholic University, 1996), 5 vols.; (3) Faguo guojia tushuguan Ming Qing Tianzhujiao wenxian 法國國家圖書館明清天主教文獻 Chinese Christian Texts from the National Library of France. Textes chrétiens chinois de la Bibliothè̀que nationale de France [CCT BnF]. Ed. by Nicolas Standaert, Ad Dudink, and Nathalie Monnet (Taibei: Ricci Institute, 2009), 26 vols. 3 See CCT-Database: Ad Dudink and Nicolas Standaert, Chinese Christian Texts Database (http://www.arts.kuleuven.be/sinology/cct). As described on the website, the CCT-Database is a research database of primary and secondary sources concerning the cultural contacts between China and Europe in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries (from 1582 to ca. 1840). The cultural contacts comprise documents in various fields of cultural interaction: religion, philosophy, science, art, etc. The primary sources consist of ca. 1,050 Chinese texts documents dating from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. They include printed books, manuscripts, pamphlets, and maps. There are over 4,000 secondary sources, which are linked to the primary sources. Searches can be made in the whole database, or in the primary or secondary sources separately. Review Essays 67 Reference Guide to Christian Missionary Societies in China from the Sixteenth to the Twentieth Century R.G. TIEDEMANN. Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe, 2009. xviii, 338 pages. ISBN 978-0-7656-1808-5. US$128.95, hardcover. Handbook of Christianity in China. Volume Two: 1800-Present Edited by R.G. TIEDEMANN. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 2010. Handbook of Oriental Studies, Section Four: China, Volume 15/2. xxxviii, 1050 pages. ISBN 97890 -04-11430-2. €249.00, US$ 369.00, hardcover. (1) Christianity in China. A Scholars’ Guide to Resources in the Libraries and Archives of the United States is the revised and expanded second edition of the Guide produced by Archie R. Crouch, Steven Agoratus, Arthur Emerson, and Debra E. Soled and published 1989 (LVI + 709 pp.). (NB: one discovers the authors of the first edition are only mentioned on the title page and not on the cover of the second edition). The second edition, prepared by Xiaoxin Wu, the director of the Ricci Institute for Chinese-Western Cultural History at the University of San Francisco, contains updated (till ca. 2006) information on the primary and secondary sources on Christian mission and missionary activities preserved in the USA. The work has already in its first edition become an important tool for researching especially the American Christian missionary work in China. For the second edition about 60% of the entries have been updated, now also including information on mainland China, Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan, “making the content of the second edition more reflective of the interrelated missions in this much larger geographic scope” (p. xxxvi). Contact information (address, telephone, fax, email, and internet access) has also been updated and the indices have been revised (pp. 661797 ). The...