Christianity and Sino-Mongolian studies : from historical aspects to new perspectives / edited by Verbiest Institute, K.U. Leuven.

Leuven : Ferdinand Verbiest Institute, K.U. Leuven, 2013.

156 pages : illustrations (black and white) ; 24 cm.

5 Chinese, 4 English contributions.

The signing of the Treaty of Nanjing in 1842 opened the doors of the Chinese empire and allowed missionaries to take up their tasks again. The Treaty of Huangpu, signed in 1844, and the Treaty of Beijing, signed in 1860, confirmed their presence and guaranteed their physical security. Nevertheless, the juridical application of these treaties on the huge territories beyond the Great Wall, known as Saiwai, remained an ambiguous and polemic issue for missionaries and Western Powers on the one hand, and Chinese authorities on the other hand, as they granted a special status to these territories. The already very specific character of Mongolian Studies becomes even more complex due to this foreign presence in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. In September 2007, the Verbiest Institute acquired Prof. Igor de Rachewiltz' personal library, which forms a unique collection of Mongolian studies by renowned Mongolists, in addition to its collection already present in the Scheut Memorial Library. On 28-29 July 2011, the Centre for Catholic Studies (Department of Cultural and Religious Studies, the Chinese University of Hong Kong) and the Ferdinand Verbiest Institute (KU Leuven, Belgium) organised a Roundtable Conference on Christianity and Sino-Mongolian studies at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. The conference had two goals: (1) to discover new directions of more in-depth research in exploring the intersecting fields of Christian church/mission history and Sino-Mongolian studies and (2) to present an overview of the present state of academic research into the historical background within the Sino-Mongolian area.

English; Chinese

July 20, 2015

Includes bibliographical references.