NO. 2 FOLK RELIGION IN SOUTHWEST CHINA — GRAHAM 63 



worship service has been substituted for the many who are not able 

 to travel so far (ibid.; Mason, 1921, pp. 302-303), They give their 

 children a thorough moral and religious education, so that their chil- 

 dren almost never give up their faith. 



Mohammedanism in China has been much influenced by, and has 

 made many adjustments to, Chinese ideals and customs. In "The 

 Arabian Prophet," S. M. Zwemer says, "It is of deep interest to see 

 how the mass of traditions has been sifted, adjusted, and even de- 

 liberately falsified to fit in with Chinese ideas and ideals, an environ- 

 ment which has given the familiar story an entirely new aspect. Con- 

 fucianism has modified Islam in China." (Mason, 1921, p. ii.) 



Prof. Wing-tsit Chan, in "Religious Trends in Modern China," 

 has pointed out that in recent decades there have been some important 

 trends among the Mohammedans in China, namely, a tendency to- 

 ward liberalism, new attitudes toward the Koran, an intellectual awak- 

 ening, a new "law-seeking" movement, and closer identification with 

 Chinese national Hfe (Chan, 1953, pp. 188-216). It is difficult, how- 

 ever, to point out any important contribution that Mohammedanism 

 has made to the customs and culture of China. 



CHRISTIANITY 



The first Christians to enter China were the Nestorians. The 

 famous Nestorian tablet, which was erected in Hsi-an, Shensi, in 

 A. D. 781, and other documents assert that Christianity was first 

 brought to Ch'ang-an in A. D. 635. It prospered for a time under 

 the favor of the emperors, and later there were monasteries in Kansu, 

 farther east, and in Chengtu. In A. D. 845 its leaders, along with the 

 Buddhists, were officially ordered to renounce their faith. There is 

 evidence of the existence of Christianity in the empire during the 

 loth and nth centuries. Then we read of the spread of Christianity 

 during the 12th and 13th centuries, and its prosperity continued dur- 

 ing the 14th century. Marco Polo found Christians and Christian 

 leaders in different parts of the empire, for their monasteries existed 

 in Yunnan, in Szechwan, and in many other provinces. Nevertheless, 

 the Christians were comparatively few and of little influence, and 

 after the fall of the Yuan dynasty Nestorianism completely disap- 

 peared from China. 



Roman Catholicism first entered China during the Yuan dynasty. 

 In A. D. 1294 John of Montecorvino, a Franciscan, arrived in Pe- 

 king. Under the favor and patronage of the emperors, and with the 

 help of other missionaries, he established churches and baptized many 



