Zhang Yijing (1871-1931) and the search for a Chinese Christian identity

This thesis intends to provide a greater understanding of the attempts at contextualization of the Christian message by Chinese Christians at the beginning of the twentieth century by analysing the life and works of Zhang Yijing.
Chinese Christians’ various understandings of their identity are revealed in their different ways of contextualizing the Christian message. While most scholarly investigations into Chinese Protestantism of the first half of the twentieth century have so far been within its liberal wing, this thesis turns to a conservative figure. Zhang Yijing (张亦镜), was a very important, but more marginalized, character within the Confucian-trained Chinese Protestant elite. He had a conservative Baptist background.
By examining the published works of Zhang and contrasting him with several of his contemporaries, this thesis examines to what extent Zhang demonstrated that being Christian Chinese at this time was possible. To find out how Zhang reconciled his personal identity as a Christian and his social identity as a Chinese, this thesis traces the development of Zhang's Christian identity and analyses its interaction with the influences of Confucianism, nationalism, and ‘scientism’. The insights gained from the examination above may serve as a reference for the present.