192 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. I42 



munism. Beginning in 1919 and 1920, it spread from East China to 

 West China, infiltrating the cities and villages and the schools of all 

 grades. Groups of young people would go about teaching, preaching, 

 and spreading the theories of communism, and influencing people of 

 all ages, but especially the youth. They challenged practically every- 

 thing that was old and asserted that communism had something better. 

 One saying was, "Society is all bad. We will destroy it and build a 

 new society." Capitalism was the exploitation of the common people, 

 and religion was the opium of the people. All religion was supersti- 

 tion and would disappear in the new scientific age. 



Not the least among the causes of change in every phase of Hfe 

 was Christianity. Its missionaries, churches, schools, and hospitals 

 were to be found in almost every important city. From these it 

 reached out into the villages and country through missionaries, schools, 

 and native evangelists, preaching, teaching, and spreading Christian 

 literature. It opposed some phases of ancestor worship, footbinding, 

 polytheism, image worship, the belief in yin-yang and fcngshui, the 

 use of charms and incantations, and many other practices, and pro- 

 moted modern education for both boys and girls, hospitals and medi- 

 cal schools, monotheism, and many new beliefs and practices. While 

 the aim was constructive, it is possible that greater success was 

 achieved in the destruction of the old than in the building up of the 

 new. 



In his book, "Religious Trends in Modern China," Prof. Wing- 

 tsit Chan (1953, pp. 217-230) emphasizes the importance of Chinese 

 intellectuals to the religion of modern China. They have practically 

 set the pattern and determined the direction of the development of 

 education, government, and religion. In recent decades they have 

 shown an increasing interest in religion and have profoundly influ- 

 enced the trend of religious events in China. An antireligious move- 

 ment began in the early days of the Republic, was intensified in 

 1917, and reached its climax in 1922. This was followed by a strong 

 anti-Christian movement, the most active years being from 1922 to 

 1927 (ibid., pp. 230-232). After 1927 the attitude of the intellectuals 

 became more affirmative, sympathetic, and constructive. This was 

 only one phase of what took place as a result of the renaissance among 

 Chinese intellectuals, but through students and scholars it had a tre- 

 mendous efifect on the Chinese people. Because of the strong anti- 

 Christian movement, many missionaries evacuated West China in 

 1926 and 1927. An important byproduct of this movement and of 

 these events was a growing skepticism and disbelief in the gods and 

 the religions of the Chinese. 



