Lin Gao Qiming

Chapter 873 Hangzhou Church
The number of believers in the entire Hangzhou church is about 500.On average, Guo Jujing baptizes 200 people every year.He spoke of the difficulties and peculiarities of teaching here.It is believed that the most important thing to obtain the support of the gentry class is to preach in the Ming Dynasty.Because their influence is very extensive, not only can they protect the safety of the church, but the common people often regard them as benchmarks. Often when a local gentry is baptized, many people around them will be baptized.Many scholar-bureaucrat believers are baptized with their whole family, not only themselves and their family members, but also their servants are also baptized.

The baptism of a gentleman and a doctor firstly solved the problem of the church's funds and the housing of the missionary site.If there is no donation from the gentry believers, the poor believers will be unable to donate, and there will not be enough people to "gather sand into a tower".The church must rely on remittances from Macau to survive, and it is difficult to buy houses and land.

The Catholic Church in Hangzhou was supported by a group of Catholic gentry represented by Yang and Li. It was able to maintain a stable state in Hangzhou, and the missionary work was rarely disturbed, so it developed rapidly.

Propagating beliefs from Confucian scholars and scholar-bureaucrats was the missionary policy formulated by Matteo Ricci after he entered China.In Zhao Yingong's view, Matteo Ricci deserves to be the first person in Europe to understand China's social conditions—the Europeans before him, including Marco Polo who didn't know whether he had actually been to China, were just a group of curious hunters. .

However, Zhao Yingong believes that this policy is too "upper-class line", although many people from the poor class were baptized into the religion-many of them were "martyred" in the teaching case.The first martyr of Catholicism in China was the cake vendor in the "Nanjing Missionary Case".But on the whole, the Catholic Church lacked a social foundation in Daming and "floated on top".As a result, as soon as Yongzheng banned religion, the small number of Catholic beliefs in the country were quickly eliminated.

After the Second Crows, the ban on Christianity was lifted, and Protestantism came from behind in missionary work, which has a great relationship with their "civilianization" route.The new church opened hospitals and schools, adopted orphans, and organized various charities, all of which achieved extraordinary results.

But Zhao Yingong wouldn't say this to Guo Jujing—the "lower-level route" is the magic weapon of the Senate.Of course, Guo Jujing may not be ignorant of the disadvantages of the "upper route", but in the social environment at that time, taking the "upper route" was a last resort.Without the "prestige" of Britain and France after the Two Crows, the "lower-level route" of Protestantism may not necessarily work.

Although Guo Jujing is in Hangzhou, she is not obsessed with the news of the church.The Catholic Church in Macau sends messengers to various churches in mainland China every few months to deliver letters.Churches around the world will also deliver letters to those who send them back.Some letters bound for Europe were loaded in Macao.Although the letters have been on the road for many years, the church's connection has never been interrupted from the beginning to the end.Even in the Yongzheng and Qianlong dynasties when missionary affairs were completely stagnant, missionaries in Beijing were still able to maintain contact with churches in Macau and Europe.

The letter that Jesus would give to Guo Jujing, he read it carefully—this old missionary who has experienced many ups and downs has a thorough understanding of China's national conditions. He is well aware of the true identity of the Chinese from "Guangdong": they are the "Australians" whom the chairman placed high hopes on.

Guo Jujing was both surprised and delighted by the war between the Australians and Ming Dynasty in Qiongzhou and their spare no effort to promote the holy religion in Qiongzhou.His brothers, Lu Ruohua and others, have done pastoral work in Qiongzhou for three years, surpassing what they have achieved in 40 years of hard work.

He did not quite understand why Australians were interested in Jesuit and missionary affairs.Letters from Macau indicate that Australians do not come from a Catholic country, although there are a small number of Catholics among them.They can't even talk about any religious beliefs - the letter specifically stated their atheism, and the head of the Australian church in Lingao is obviously not a qualified clergyman.Obviously, they helped the church to preach in Qiongzhou not out of religious zeal, but out of some practical interests.

Now, this mysterious Australian appeared in front of his eyes, and he was very interested in what the purpose was.

Zhao Yingong did not shy away from his intentions for coming. There is no value in flickering or paradoxical words. The Jesuits' willingness to help the Senate is a manifestation of the strength of the Senate.As long as the Jesuits still intend to preach in Qiongzhou, Guo Jujing must help herself.

"You mean: use the strength of our Hangzhou church members to protect your business interests?" the Italian said after listening to his explanation quietly.

Zhao Yingong said: "Yes, you have been in Daming for many years, and you should understand the difficulties and interference I face as an outsider here to experience business. And you must know the influence of a gentleman in Daming society."

Guo Jujing nodded silently: "You are right."

"So I have to ask the Hangzhou church to help me." Zhao Yingong looked into the eyes of this dignified Italian old man.

"What kind of commercial project do you want to hold in Hangzhou?" Guo Jujing was very interested in this. He knew from the letters from Macau that Australians are a group of skilled craftsmen who can produce many novel and cheap products.

"There are many." Zhao Yingong said, "such as raw silk."

Guo Jujing didn't speak any more, just nodded slightly.The raw silk trade was an important source of income for the Society of Jesus in Macau.Before the trade with Japan was cut off, every year the Jesuits would buy "Nanjing silk" through merchants and resell it to Japan, earning huge profits.Of course the priest knows: the so-called Nanjing silk is actually the "Hu silk" from Zhejiang and Nanzhi.

It was no surprise to him that Australians came to Zhejiang to intervene in the production and trade of raw silk.They asked the church to use their influence to give them asylum, which is also expected-no matter how powerful the Australian warships and artillery are, they will not appear in the Yangtze River Estuary.

Of course, he must agree to the request of the Australians—this is not only an obligation as a member of the Jesuits, but also a requirement for spreading the gospel in China.

He made the sign of the cross and murmured, "Let God's will be done."

In the ensuing chat, Zhao Yingong brought up Sun Yuanhua—Guo Jujing highly praised Sun Yuanhua and believed that he would be the backbone of the Ming Church in the future—Li and Yang had passed away, Xu Guangqi was old, and only Sun Yuanhua was young and strong.He is already the governor of Denglei, and besides Xu Guangqi, he is the highest-ranking person among Chinese Christians.

Sun Yuanhua's home is in Jiaxing, not far from Hangzhou.He prepared a quiet and comfortable villa for the missionaries in Jiaxing.Guo Jujing used to avoid living and writing there for a period of time, and the two had a very good personal friendship.

Without much effort, he got Guo Jujing's promise to write a letter of introduction to Sun Yuanhua for them.Zhao Yingong asked to see Sun Yuanhua for a good reason-he wanted to sell arms to this local official who was most deeply immersed in Western military theory and technology at that time.

From Guo Jujing he got all the support he wanted.Therefore, when Zhao Yingong paid a visit to the main gentry believers of the Hangzhou Church, he received a warm reception.The patriarchs of both Li and Yang held family banquets for this "catechumen".

Zhao Yingong knew that relying on the letter of introduction from the Jesuits and the introduction of Guo Jujing, he could gain the trust of the main personnel of the Hangzhou Church.But the necessary human etiquette must also be fulfilled.Therefore, a large number of gifts have been prepared for a long time.

Considering that newly baptized believers and church organizations are always more fundamentalist, it is not suitable to gift too luxurious enjoyment objects, so as not to cause the other party's resentment.So the bulk of the gifts are religious books.Therefore, he asked the Jiangnan inspection team to bring a large box of religious books printed in Lingao in Chinese from Lingao when they set out.Most of these Chinese-language books are originally religious pamphlets compiled by the Catholic Three-Self in the old time and space, including commonly used books such as "Doctrine of Questions" and "Key Classics".This is like helping Christians who lack high-quality Chinese Catholic books.At the same time, he also donated 300 taels of silver to the church - using Delong's notes, and promised to ship plate glass to decorate the windows of the church.

He also presented a batch of simple and practical "Australian goods": matches, knives, windproof oil lamps with glass lampshades, etc. to the prominent figures in the church and ordinary believers respectively.In fact, these things have appeared in a small amount on the market recently, but because of the high price, most people dare not pay attention to them.

This gift really won the great favor of the church in Hangzhou.Guo Jujing didn't want to say it, but even ordinary believers were impressed by the generosity of this "catechumen" who came from afar.Zhao Yingong is quite modest in his speech, and from time to time he reveals the meaning of "admiring the holy religion".More and more won the favor of powerful figures in the church.

And the arrival of a new priest also caused a ripple in the peaceful church - everyone always prefers new things.On the first Sunday after Jin Lige arrived at the church in Hangzhou, he held a mass for everyone.Because I heard that there were new missionaries coming, many Catholics in Hangzhou came, and there were four to five hundred people in the small church.When Jin Lige was preaching, tears filled his eyes.Zhao Yingong felt that it was boring—but in order to win the favor of the local church, he still acted respectfully.

In the end, his action was a complete success. Although Zhao Yingong was not a believer, his status as a "catechumen" was recognized by the Church in Hangzhou.It was easy for him to get the support of some gentry in the church—especially the Li and Yang families.I have harvested several greeting cards and a letter of introduction from Guo Jujing to Sun Yuanhua.

(End of this chapter)