Out of the Ashes: Remembrance and Reconstruction in Catholic Shanxi, 1900-Present

Abstract

Summer 1900. When the Sino-Western conflicts of the Boxer Uprising had reached their climax in 1900, the Shanxi Confucian, Liu Dapeng, penned a vivid account of the turbulence around his studio. In his Casual Notes from within the Garden (Qianyuan suoji), Liu described the theatrical ceremonies at Jinci Temple, where Boxers summoned the gods to possess their bodies and render them invulnerable:

Suddenly they raised their gaze and then dropped to the ground as if they were in a sound sleep. Before long their hands and feet began to undulate. They stood erect and danced around with a fierce expression, their eyes shut so tightly they could not be opened. Then they made fists and claws with their hands, leaping and rushing around.¹

I would like to acknowledge with special gratitude the kind support of the National Endowment for the Humanities/American Council of Learned Societies, the Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation, Minzu University of China, and The Beijing Center. I also thank in particular Dr. Wu Yinghui at Minzu University, and Fr. Thierry Meynard, SJ, Fr. Roberto Ribeiro, SJ, and Fr. Jeremy Clarke, SJ, who have been most pleasant “office mates” at The Beijing Center. I also extend my gratitude to the archivists and staff at the archives and libraries consulted to complete this study, especially Fr. Pedro Gil, OFM, the generous and helpful archivist of the Roman Curia archives of the Order of Friars Minor, in Rome. All translations, unless otherwise noted, are my own.