Jesuit Mission and Submission: Qing Rulership and the Fate of Christianity in China, 1644–1735 by Litian Swen

Spanning the years from the Manchu invasion of China to the 1724 prohibition of Christianity by the Yongzhen emperor, this book explains the rise and decline of the missionary enterprise by focusing on the relationship between the Qing ruling class and European Jesuits. Rejecting Gernet’s cultural incompatibility model, Swen focuses on the Manchu institution of booi (household).¹ Consisting of masters, servants, and slaves, the Manchu household functioned as a state within a state after the conquest of China. The informal power structure and intimacy between master and bondservant/slave (booi aha) operated alongside and within the Chinese bureaucracy; even powerful ministers from booi status identified themselves first and foremost as nu cai (servant) to their masters, rather than as officials to their emperors. Elaborated during the early years of conquest to integrate war captives and surrendered Ming troops, the booi system was central to the creation of the...